The tale of wet continues and the courses, particularly the West, just aren't drying out.  I have actually been wondering if we have been doing something wrong as some of these wet / boggy areas have never been like it before.  I attended the annual Turf Conference in Melbourne last week and was almost relieved to hear that golf courses anywhere from Coffs Harbour to Hervey Bay are as wet as they have ever been, despite lower YTD rainfall figures. Comments such as "never seen some of these areas this wet before" and 10mm of rain feels like 100mm" were pretty common and echo my thoughts.  And we are considered to be a dry course in comparison to many others.

LHS 4W fairway near 135m marker.

Cart tracks near 135m marker 10W fairway.

Hand pulled buggy damage LHS 11W fairway.

 

The photos above were all taken on Thursday afternoon and these areas are the main reason carts have been off the West course this week.  The photo below was taken last Sunday morning after Saturdays hand pulled buggy traffic on 13W fairway.

13W fairway.

 

We got greens on both courses "needle tine aerated" this week with a 6mm diameter tine which causes little or no surface disruption but allows for some much needed oxygen exchange and allows the surface to breathe.  The tees were also done but with a 12.5mm tine which again causes little surface disruption but allows for the air exchange and will hopefully help the tees dry out a bit.

We also pulled our big tractor mounted slicer out and trialed it on some fairway areas to see if it would assist in drying them up but with the damage caused at this time of year with little potential recovery, we judged it not worth the effort given the time it takes.  When some of the really boggy areas such as those above on 4, 10 and 11W fairways dry out some more, we will definitely be trying it again on those smaller areas.  

Slicer in action RHS 9W fairway.