A wet way to end the week with 30mm overnight followed up by another 10mm during the day.  It was a bit disappointing to get the rain in one way as the irrigation system was in full swing this past week with our supply almost back to normal.  For the first time with the new irrigation system, we were running at full capacity of the pumps and virtually all sprinklers were being operated.  One of the many features of the new system is the reduction in our watering window which is the time it takes for a full cycle to run overnight.  Our old system was actually incapable of completing a full cycle overnight whereas the new system can do it in just 5 hours.

The River tees got a renovation this week that consisted of a circle scarify and hollowtine aeration and the cores were then rubbed back into the surface effectively topdressing the tee.  The tees will bounce back very quickly and it is an ideal preparation for them going into winter.  The West course tees will be done next week.

We had a demonstration of a GPS guided boom spray unit this week and although I have seen them before, it was pretty impressive to say the least.  You need to map out the areas that you want to spray and then once this area is selected you merely drive across the area and the booms will turn on and off as required so that only the mapped area gets sprayed.  This results in substantially less product being used which results in significant savings.  It does however come with a significant initial cost.  There is no doubt that autonomous mowers and sprayers will be the way of the future with quite a few variations already available, and indeed, in use on courses in Australia.  Watch this space.....

GPS guided sprayer with the receiver arrowed on top.

 

I mentioned last week that our mechanic Mitch is moving on and we have been lucky enough to find a replacement with help from Mitch so we will only be a week without someone in the workshop.  Our youngest apprentice also resigned this week after just completing his first year.  He was a very good worker but just didn't think greenkeeping was for him long term.

February 28 is a date that will linger for some time as it was our biggest ever flood in 2022.  From memory there were 8 greens fully submerged and another 13 partially under compared to a "normal" flood where 2 greens get some water on them.  450mm of rain in just over 48 hours on already saturated ground plus some monumental falls upstream was the trigger for our flood.  As I write today, there is a severe thunderstorm cell happening near Lismore with up to 175mm of rain in some parts today.  It must be stirring some bad memories for the people down there.

1R green on the morning of March 1, 2022.  The high water level was about 2 feet over the green.