Coolangatta Tweed GC Course Maintenance

2012-03-07T18:09:00.000+11:00

I have had enough of talking about the weather for the moment but I certainly spare a thought for some of my colleagues and their golfers who have had their courses completely inundated several times over this summer. As my Dad used to say ; "From the time you're born, til you ride in the hearse.....Things are never so bad that they couldn't get worse". So I guess we should count our blessings that we have just been a bit soft under foot.

On another note and something that annoys me but at the end of the day isn't the worst thing that could happen is a problem we had with our CDA sprayer, which is the unit that applies amongst other products, the growth regulator to the fairways. One of the features of the machine is that it has a "shrouded boom" which means that spraying can take place in quite breezy conditions and is particularly necessary when using the "controlled droplet application" (CDA) method. The drawback is that you can't see the nozzles and can't tell if they are operating or not and on our recent application we had a problem with one of the nozzles meaning that a stream of product was coming out rather than spreading as per normal. This has resulted in a line burn which is only just evident now but will get worse in the coming week. Before we start applying, all nozzles are checked and in this case they were all working but the motor on one of them burnt out on the first fairway we sprayed that morning and all fairways sprayed after that have been affected. There is no long term damage, just the unsightly lines that will gradually appear.

CDA unit showing shrouded boom

Close up of the line burn

Double lines

This made me laugh

2012-02-28T14:25:00.001+11:00

2012-02-27T16:03:00.000+11:00

Just another 100mm (4 inches) of rain last week and there was probably more than that as the wind blew so hard overnight Friday that the rain could well have blown over the top of the rain gauge. I had reports of up to 160mm overnight Friday in Currumbin Valley so I am glad we missed that. The week ends rainfall takes us to 763mm (30 inches) for the year thus far so maintenance programs have been severely disrupted to say the least.

Once again this morning I looked at the days run sheet and wondered how we would catch up on the "to do list" that is growing every day. Once again with only 13 staff on board this morning it was a tough call on what had to miss out with the large majority of the West bunkers being washed out from the week end rain adding to the list. So please bear with us this week as we try and catch up with the huge back log of work (and growing rough) that is mounting on a daily basis.

There are a few jobs on the horizon in the coming weeks so hopefully the weather will behave and we can get these done. In no particular order the following works are scheduled for the next month;

Re - turf buggy path entries and exits.

Palm trees cleaned and in accordance with Club policy some Palms will be removed in the process.

The bunker at the left side of 3 River green to have a grass face installed. This bunker was used as a trial for a sand/soil mix that would resist balls plugging which worked to a certain degree but has now had significant wash out problems and the drains are now blocked.

Trees at the right side of 2 River green to be removed. A number of dead and dangerous trees will be removed at the same time including the Banksia at the left of 1 West green.

The 2 bunkers at the front and right side of 4 West green to be drained and re - sanded. This will involve the installation of some geofabric material to stop stones migrating to the surface.

Some of these works have been on the agenda for several weeks now and it will depend on machine / operator availability as to the order of completion. Watch this space for updates.

2012-02-13T15:08:00.002+11:00

58mm of rain in 45 minutes.....the radar shows it all!! With more to come.

Radar at 1.15 pm today

The golf course is located just under the "T" in Tweed Heads.

2012-02-10T17:21:00.000+11:00

Another week of catching up on the grass after the big wet. Just about everything is back to normal now except for the lake edges which are overdue for a trim. All bunkers on both courses have been trimmed and all water damage repaired. Two of my staff are on annual leave at the moment and as I started planning the week last Sunday I didn't think we would make it. Just to give you an idea of how works are allocated across the courses I will give you an insight in to planning last Monday for an example.

I had 15 staff available for the day which includes myself and clubhouse gardener Eric. The River bunker edges desperately needed trimming and the germination of weeds in the West bunkers meant they needed spraying. The longer the bunkers are left between trimming means the slower the job as there is obviously more grass to be trimmed. It is a labour intensive task and also much safer for the staff if they do this work with no fear of being hit by golfers, so hence they are generally done first thing in the morning in front of play. In addition to the bunker trimming, holes needed to be moved on both courses, greens, tees, fairways and roughs mown, fairways sprayed with growth regulator and the area on 6 River fairway prepared for the turf that was due to arrive at 8.00am. Leaves needed to be blown off the greens, tees and fairways prior to mowing, on course toilets cleaned, clubhouse carparks litter picked up and machines serviced by Mechanic Craig. To achieve the above about 32 staff would be needed to complete all the duties in front of play and with a 6.00am start on the West course and a 6.45am on the River course, obviously something had to give. Oh did someone mention bunkers being raked??!!

So the mornings run sheet looked something like this;

Ø Change holes 2 men

Ø Mow greens 3 men

Ø Trimming bunkers 4 men

Ø Clear debris from greens 1 man

Ø Apply fairway growth regulator 1 man

Ø Apply weed killer to bunkers 1 man

Ø Prepare area for turfing 1 man

Ø On course toilets/clubhouse 1 man

Ø Machinery maintenance 1 man

Total 15 men.

So a lot of the necessary jobs needed to be put on the “to do” list that seems to grow every day. The staff has a morning tea break at 9.00am for 30 minutes and after that we start again. So the run sheet for the rest of the day was;

Ø Blowing out and raking bunkers 6 men

Ø Mow rough 4 men

Ø Assist turf layers @ 6^th River 1 man

Ø Water new turf as it is laid 1 man

Ø Mow intermediate roughs 1 man

Ø Clubhouse surrounds maint. 1 man

Ø Machine maintenance 1 man

Total 15 men.

So that was Monday and you will note that there were no fairways or tees mown which again is a tribute to the growth regulator that is applied to them that in the highest growth season we have, they were able to grow for 3 days without the surface being compromised. On Tuesday morning we were able to get a lot more work done in front of play with a 7.00 am start on both courses, which is why this time in the mornings is so valuable and why I resist all attempts to bring tee times earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We need time on the course with no play in order to get the work done. We were able to get the River course bunkers trimmed on Monday this week which left the West for Thursday so Thursday was a very similar day to Monday….read hectic!

Goanna on 6 River

And you know it is hot when the Goanna (Lace Monitor) that lives around the 6 River fairway gets caught out during the day. I don’t really want to get close enough to find out if it is a he or a she but I have only ever seen it on the very hot days, of which Tuesday this week was one.

2012-02-03T16:59:00.001+11:00

A huge effort by your groundstaff this week in restoring the golf course after the wet. 90% of bunkers are now dry and have had washouts repaired. The last couple of days we have been blowing the debris out of the bunkers as well and just don't have the manpower to achieve all that and get them raked at the same time. They are fairly hard packed after the rain and the majority should be raked tomorrow. Just about all the rough has been mown this week after missing 10 days of mowing due to the rain which is a credit to the operators, one of whom is a 17 year old in his first week with us. At the start of the week I didn't think we had any chance of mowing it all but we got there. The fairways are showing the benefits of the growth regulator as I mentioned in my previous post. The photo below shows an area on 14 West fairway just past the road where the area wasn't sprayed last time. You can see the thatchiness of it and the scalping from the mowers. This is what all the fairways would be like without the growth regulator. 14 West is one of our Kikuyu / Blue Couch mix fairways and if you look closely at the photo you can see just how restricted the Kikuyu is in the sprayed area.

Growth regulator missed area 14 West

And you know there hasn't been a lot of play on the courses when weeds start growing in the divot soil bins!!

15 River tee soil bin

2012-01-29T09:22:00.004+11:00

Hopefully we won't be breaking the rainfall figure for January but we are very close The 450mm of rain we received from Monday evening to Saturday morning pushed our January total to 580mm which puts January 2012 down as the second wettest on record behind 1951 when 610mm fell and just in front of 2006 when there was 557mm. The average for January is 188mm and there have been few occasions when more than 400mm has fallen for the month.

I don't remember seeing so much water lying in such volumes around the courses after the main rainfall event has finished. But I guess we can count ourselves lucky that the river didn't break its banks by too much when you compare us to courses further up the coast such as The Glades and Colonial as the photos below show. So we can't really complain too much about the water still lying on the courses such as 4 River below. And spare a thought for Royal Pines and their new Superintendent Lincoln Coombes and staff who are trying to prepare the course for the Ladies Masters which is supposed to start this week.

Colonial GC

The Glades

4 River fairway pools of water

And trying to pull out a positive from the past week is difficult but the lack of play has the West course greens looking absolutely superb at the moment with almost all pitch marks recovered and the turf very healthy. If only we could keep them free of pitch marks!

I was very fortunate to have gotten the growth regulator applied to the fairways prior to the rain starting so their growth hasn't been too excessive. At this stage I doubt if I will try and mow fairways until Thursday which will be two weeks since they have been mown and with no more rain this week they should be back to their best by weeks end. Growth regulator is also applied to the bunker edges to reduce trimming and to keep the heavy mowers away from the edges. Unfortunately not all the bunkers got done but the difference on those that have been done is significant. The area to the right of the golf ball in the photo below has had growth regulator applied and the area to the left hasn't.

Bunker edge low growth

The latest

2012-01-25T17:59:00.001+11:00

Well the rain has stopped at last although there is a lot more forecast. It was quite eerie to tour the course this afternoon in the very still, quiet and humid conditions. There is a lot of standing water on the courses and with the height that the river is running at it will be some time before the water has a chance to subside. Another 56mm was recorded between 9am and 5pm with some of the heaviest rain I have seen since that horror day in June 2005 when we had 215mm between 9am and 12.30pm and virtually all of the Tweed area shut down. We have now had just less than 300mm in the past 48 hours. There are a few more shots from late this afternoon below including one of 9 River tee with more water on it at low tide than it had at high tide.

15 West green from the rear

6 River ladies tee

9 River tee on low tide!!

Wet Wet Wet

2012-01-25T12:16:00.000+11:00

Well what can you say? Living in the sub tropics you have to expect high rainfall but enough is enough. The courses received 25mm up until 9am on Tuesday and then 154mm until 9am this morning. Another 50mm has come down in the three hours since. Couple this with king tides and areas in the Tweed River catchment area with rainfall figures over 300mm and we may finish up suffering some inundation in the low lying areas of the courses. The 10.30 high tide this morning pushed the water over the levee bank road behind the 1st River green and is preventing water from draining off the courses. A couple of photos below and my favorite one of the greenside bunker on the 16th River fully playable with no wash or water ponding after 200mm in 24 hours....I just wish the West bunkers were this good!!

9 River tee as an island

Water over levee road on high tide

Rear 15 West green and half way house.
This is the same water level as the River.

Fully playable 16 River bunker after 200mm

2012-01-23T06:13:00.000+11:00

Well the weather certainly did play havoc with last weeks plans after over 4 inches of rain fell early in the week which prevented the tree removal from taking place. It has been re-scheduled for tomorrow so hopefuuly this lot of rain will clear in time. The first two bunkers on 6 River have been filled and the area has been prepared for turfing. Heavy rainfall where the turf comes from means that the turf will not arrive until next Monday.

The West greens certainly enjoyed the rain and a fertiliser application a week prior to the rain kicked in and I have not seen them grow to the extent they are at the moment. Unfortunately the humid wet weather also means disease which has affected the greens despite them being so healthy. The constant wind over the past few weeks has also disrupted the spraying programs and I have been unable to get a number of treatments that the greens require at this time of year. The wind has also severely disrupted the weed control program as well which will hopefully get back on track soon.

2012-01-15T09:06:00.002+11:00

The irrigation problems continued last Friday night with a "phase dropping out" from the main transformer near the half way west snack bar. This cut power to the pump shed and also the half way west. Fortunately it happened at 2.30am after the West greens had received about 80% of their irrigation cycle. The cloudy conditions on Saturday then helped make sure the West greens didn't suffer any heat stress during the day. It's weeks like this with the irrigation problems we have had that I wish I didn't have Bent greens in the sub tropics. And thanks to my electrician who was on site within half an hour of calling him at 5.30 am on Saturday morning, all power was restored by 8.30 am which meant that the beer would be cold at the half way west, oh and my pumps were operational again!!

Dangerous Banksia at 1 West

A fairly busy week coming up if the weather behaves although from the forecast that is doubtful. The Banksia tree on the left of 1 West green will be removed due to the poor health of the tree. We tried some remedial pruning about 9 months ago but the tree has continued to deteriorate to the point that it is now dangerous. The small group of trees to the right of 2 River green will also be removed. These trees were trimmed back a few years ago to allow more light and air movement to the busy traffic area that they impact. The result was excellent for the turf and in order for the turf to improve further it has been decided to now remove the trees. The first two bunkers on 6 River fairway will be filled in on Thursday and the area mounded and then re-turfed the following week.

And over the past few weeks we have had a flock of Black Cockatoos about the course. Every year they attack the Pine tree at the rear of 12 West green and the damage they inflict is really quite awesome. The strength they must have in their beaks is extraordinary when you look at what they do to the Pine cones. Fortunately they don't feed on golf greens like Corellas do as I would hate to see what they would do to a green surface.

Gnawed Pine cone under an untouched one.

2012-01-13T16:57:00.000+11:00

Further to the irrigation break, the irrigation system was nearly drained of water and took nearly 3 hours to re-prime. As part of the re-priming it is crucial to get as much air out of the system pipes as possible as the air can cause further damage to pipework and cause further breaks. To do this sprinklers are often activated but in the early stages we just plug in to selected valves and allow the air to be blown out this way. A few members queried why I had water running like this and I took a video which shows just how much air comes out and the recoil force that it has on the pipes.

Irrigation woes

2012-01-11T11:01:00.000+11:00

Well it wasn't quite the start that I wanted as I checked the flow meter in the pump shed this morning, on the dawn of potentially the hottest day of the summer, to find that it was pumping 3,760 litres a minute which is just about the maximum it can safely do. It should have been reading zero litres a minute so obviously something wasn't quite right! It was still quite dark but a quick run up the 2nd West fairway soon showed up the problem with more water from an irrigation blow out than I have ever seen before with three fairways under a considerable amount of water. The irrigation system had to be shut down as it wasn't possible to isolate the area and the repair was started.

It looks as if the pipe blew out fairly early in the night and so we have lost a lot of water which will impact what can be put out on the course over the coming week, and with no rainfall in the forecast that isn't an ideal situation. The amount of water lost will probably mean that fairways will not be watered for at least the next five days whilst the dam refills. The other issue was just how much of the irrigation cycle on the Bentgrass West greens had been effective overnight. Without knowing for sure and with no back up water available during the day the greens weren't mown this morning.

The repair has been effected but due to the massive amount of water drained from the system we will not be able to re - charge the lines until this evening as the considerable amount of air that has entered the system needs to be purged which can't be done during play.

The guilty pipe.

In the photo above you can see purple, green and blue tubes running along side the pipe. These are hydraulic control tube lines that control the operation of the sprinklers and these particular tubes were all the rage in the late 1970's and early 1980's as they were cheap but didn't have a very long lifespan. They have long been superceded in our system but their presence demonstrates the age of the installation meaning that the pipe has been there for well over thirty years!

Water backed back up to 12 West fairway

The actual break area. The water line can be seen in the
dew showing just how much water was there.

Weeds

2012-01-04T18:53:00.001+11:00

Our summer weed control program has now commenced following a drop in the wind that has seemed to be blowing for the past 3 months. As has happened before there will be quite a bit of browning off around both courses as expected and regrowth will be rapid. There will probably be a couple of applications required to get the result required. The West Course greens and green surrounds were the first areas treated earlier this week.

Now that the Public holiday period has ended we can get back to some normal course maintenance routines. The tees in particular are due for a fertilise which I have been holding off on so as not to have too much growth through the Christmas break. The fairways on both courses are certainly enjoying the warm weather and clean cut of the new mowers. I mentioned in a previous post about preparation times for greens and it is nice to get some more time to prepare the greens for play. 6.00 am tee times and players getting around in 3 hours or less doesn't give much time for us to work on the courses let alone the greens.

President Murray mentioned in his Christmas message that the first two fairway bunkers on the right side of the 6th River fairway are to be filled in. These works have been scheduled for Thursday January 19.

River greens

2011-12-24T17:06:00.001+11:00

There have been a lot of complimentary comments about the River greens lately which is a nice way to go in to Christmas. There are a number of factors involved but probably most importantly was the effort put in for the Greg Norman Foundation junior tournament in early December, particularly during the tournament. Time for preparation was available during tournament week due to a 5.30 am start for the staff and a 6.40 am 2 tee start for the players (who were also very slow) which gave us an hours break on the play. I invested 6 staff per morning on the River greens alone which when you consider I only had 13 staff that week was a large investment and one that I normally couldn't afford. It allowed me to get the greens double cut and double rolled each morning before play and the results were obvious as there is no doubt that the greens played as well as they have ever done for the tournament.

The preparation time is the critical factor as not only were the greens double cut but they were "slow" double cut. By this I mean that the machine travels at snails pace across the green which increases the clip rate and therefore quality of cut. Essentially the slower you mow the more times the blades strike the grass resulting in a finer and more even cut. This takes time and manpower and on a course as busy as ours can't always be done. We generally have to race to beat the play and the next few weeks are a perfect example with 6.00 am starts the norm with both courses heavily booked and the first groups generally playing in less than 3 hours. An old adage on bowling greens is the best greens have the greenkeepers heel marks in them as he digs in to try and slow the speed of the mower down to improve the cut.
The different renovation technique used this year was also a factor as the damage to the greens at the renovation was much less than normal which resulted in a faster recovery. Keeping the greens where they are at the moment, which is on the edge, is not sustainable on a year round basis as we need to have healthy grass cover to deal with our shade and player number issues.

The new fairway mowers arrived last week and have already got the fairways in great shape. There will be some initial scalping in some areas as the heads are slightly smaller than our old ones and therefore tend to dig in a bit in some of the uneven areas on the fairways. The new fairway shapes are starting to become well and truly evident and we now have a distinguishable fairway and the place looks like a golf course.

The burn heap has been mulched and some of the mulch has been transported up to the grassed area at the rear of the buggy shed where Members are free to help themselves. It was interesting as I re-read this that I referred to the tree pile as the burn heap. Its funny how names of things stick on golf courses. At Cool Tweed we have the burn heap that hasn't had anything burned (legally) for over 10 years. We also have the "junior putter" which is the grassed area out the front of the "old Pro Shop" that hasn't been used as a putting green for over 15 years that I know of and the old Pro Shop has been a buggy storage shed now for how long?

On behalf of my staff I take this opportunity to wish all Members and readers a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year. And a special thanks to those members who sent cards and Christmas goodies to my staff....it's great for staff morale. Thank you.

Fairways

2011-12-16T17:43:00.000+11:00

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that the fairway shapes would be sprayed out to indicate the mowing lines and slightly altered and the West course was done this week with a slightly stronger line appearing that has caused some comment. The actual shapes have not been formulated with any great strategy in mind but rather practicality. They have been bought in around drainage grates, tree roots and areas under trees where leaves and sticks are always falling which can damage the blades of our mowers and with the new fairway mowers arriving on Monday, I want to protect them as much as possible. They have also been reduced in some areas to allow for less mowing time. The actual reduction is really very minimal and will not really have an impact on the total area of the fairways to any great degree. Out of interest we have about 34 hectares of fairway area which is quite large when you consider that most 18 hole courses have about 14 hectares of mown fairway area.

Shaped around a messy tree on 1 West

Shaped around a drainage grate on 17 River

I could have made them this narrow!!
This is at a pro tourny in Korea a few years ago.

Weekly roundup

2011-12-09T16:37:00.001+11:00

The new Intermediate Mower has arrived and has been put to work with impressive initial results. The photo below shows it in action mowing around the 1st West tee and it has handled any mounds we have thrown at it with ease. There will be a period of settling in for some areas as the mower previously used on these areas was a "reel" type mower and the new one is a "rotary" type which will result in some minor scalping in a few areas. Also notice in the photo the tee board at the 1st tee with the days sponsors displayed for all to see. Just some more value for our valued sponsors.

New Toro 4700 in action

The new sand has been added to selected bunkers and we have had some positive feedback from a few players this week. The real test for the sand will be when it installed on the face of the bunkers and its ability to withstand ball impact. We used a backhoe to spread and compact the sand and also wheel rolled it with the bunker rake machines. The recent heavy rain will also help firm the sand up. It is interesting to see the amount of the sand that is splashed up on to the face of the bunkers with every shot played which is quite easy due to the different color.

Backhoe in RHS 9 West

Whilst on the rain we finished up with 140mm in 24 hours from lunchtime Wednesday, much of which was good soaking rain which is just what we needed rather than the 25mm that fell in 20 minutes the previous Thursday and rendered the course temporarily unplayable as the photo of 10 west green shows. The only worrying trend over the past 4 to 6 weeks is that the weather bureau has been spot on with their predictions! They forecast that heavy rain last week almost to the minute and were the same with the timing of this weeks. Unfortunately they are predicting rainfall for the next 3 days with a 95% chance on Saturday for up to 10mm then a 100% chance for Sunday with up to 25mm and a 95% chance for Monday with up to 25mm. Let's hope they have gotten it wrong.

10 West flooded

The West greens are showing good recovery and with some plugging out this week should be back to a full cover shortly. I mentioned a couple of posts back that a combination of events had caused significant stress and some turf loss. As things have settled it is apparent that the greens with the variety of Bentgrass "1019 / 1020" (greens 2,5,6,7,8,9,10,18 and the practice) were worst affected which has everyone scratching their heads as to why. The one positive is that we have certainly killed the Poa (wintergrass) which is good as due to its shallow root system it is very quick to die out under summer heat stress.

New Mowers

2011-11-30T16:46:00.001+11:00

Over the past few months I have been trialing a few different types of fairway mowers to replace our existing units and the decision has been made and they are now ordered. I have selected the Toro 7000 series machines and am looking forward to them arriving in the next week or so. The 7000 is a new series of fairway mower and we will be the first to get them in Australia. They are still quite a heavy mower compared with other units that are currently available as we need the extra strength to cope with the amount of tree debris that we get on the fairways. Most courses these days are going for what are known as "mid" or "lightweight" mowers that have much finer reels and blades. You will notice that the River course fairways have had new outlines marked on them and it is hoped that we can get some real de-lineation between the intermediate rough and fairway. The West course should be marked out next week.

At the same time as the fairway mowers we will also take delivery of a new intermediate rough mower. This mower is a rotary type and will be totally different from our existing unit which is a reel mower. One of the main advantages of the rotary type is its ability to mow seed head and mulch leaves. The new intermediate mower will also help with the fairway de-lineation.

Our existing fairway mowers have served us well for nearly 3,000 hours operation time and the intermediate mower with 3,700 hours but are now having frequent minor issues. In the world of golf course mowers, 2,000 hours is considered to be the equivalent of 100,000 klms on a car which is often when little things start going wrong so considering their hours they have performed very well.

And just on machine hours, our roughcutters have all now passed the 2,000 hour mark. The mowers are scheduled for replacement this time next year and will probably have at least 3,000 hours on the clock by then. This means that we will probably start to have some issues with them in the coming months as the wear and tear they suffer on a daily basis takes its toll. This is not the greatest situation when we are heading into the main growth season but I am sure we will get through. With regards to rough mowing, we never actually “finish” cutting rough, especially in the growth season. It takes about six days for the three machines to mow all the rough areas on the courses with no time lost. The new intermediate mower should help by also being used to mow some rough areas although it will have a canopy fitted to ensure it isn’t taken under trees which is where severe damage can result to the cutting heads.

Last Thursdays rainfall whilst most welcome on the golf courses meant the postponement of the tree trimming over the practice nets which has now been re-scheduled for Thursday December 1^st. These works will require the nets to be closed to all play to ensure both player and contractor safety. There will also be some buggy detours in place around the clubhouse.

I have had some comments about the number of leaves on fairways and in bunkers recently. Unfortunately this is the time of year for the courses to be messy, especially with the constant winds which have now been blowing from the north consistently virtually 24/7 for the past six weeks. The wind coupled with the dry conditions we have been experiencing causes the trees to shed their bark and the trees also shed their weaker leaves. Many of the bunkers on the courses are virtually “leaf collectors” and are full of leaves within an hour of being blown clean. We do have a dedicated “mulching” mower which operates virtually non stop in periods such as these and we also have a sweeper as well but it is very slow and needs constant emptying. I did a trial with it a few years ago and found that it took nearly 2½ hours to sweep the 4^th River fairway when it was covered with leaf litter. The mulcher on the other hand can clean the same fairway in less than 20 minutes. The rough areas are also full of leaves which makes finding balls difficult but we just can’t keep up with mowing / mulching them at this time of year.

On Thursday December 1^st we will be topping up the sand in a few bunkers on the courses. This sand has been used with apparent success at a number of south east Queensland clubs so it will be interesting to see it perform under our conditions. The sand is a different colour but will eventually bleach out to become whiter.

The fan at the 17^th West green will also be re-installed on December 1^st....A busy day with only 13 crew onsite!

Summer is nearly here

2011-11-27T09:50:00.001+11:00

Well the official start to summer anyway. The rain last week has really got the grass moving and just shows how inadequate our irrigation system really is. There is just no substitute for good soaking rainfall.

It was a bit disappointing to hear that bunkers were raised at the AGM last week only six weeks after the bunker symposium at which the numerous issues confronting us with bunkers were fully discussed. I am fully aware of the playability issues that players are faced with the bunkers but I obviously have a leaning towards maintenance. We will be trialling yet another sand in some of the bunkers in the coming weeks that is being used at several clubs in SE Queensland with some success.

And while we are talking about bunkers, I was lucky enough to spend a couple of days at the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne and was amazed at the amount of work that was put into the bunkers and the difference from when I was on the sandbelt many years ago. Royal has a crew of about 36 I think and there were 35 volunteers who came in for the week prior to and the week of the tournament. The way the bunkers were presented would have taken a crew of at least 15 on each day I would suggest. Whilst they did look absolutely perfect such presentation is just not sustainable for the average club....read Cool Tweed with a total staff in the peak of summer of 18. Below is a shot of the bunker I was standing next to on the 12th hole just before an errant shot from Bubba Watson shaved my head. It really does look superb and there is another shot of some of the crew preparing the bunkers.

LHS green bunker RM 12th

RM crew brushing the bunker faces

Further on bunkers and I am often reminded how good the bunkers in the sandbelt are and why our bunkers can't be like that. Well below is a photo of a bunker at RM and the effect 40mm of rain has on them. 40mm of rain on Cool Tweed River bunkers would not see any washout or evidence of water pooling. In RM's defence, it is unusual for them to get that volume of rain whereas for us it is a common occurrence. Just a reminder of how well the River bunkers take excessive rainfall is the photo below taken in October 2010 of the greenside bunker on 10 following 180mm of rain in 36 hours. Horses (or bunkers) for courses as the saying goes.

RM bunker washout

No wash at Cool Tweed River 10 after 180mm of rain

Manna from heaven!!

2011-11-24T09:40:00.000+11:00

35 mm of the best rain I have seen for a long time over the past 6 hours and more to come!!

Hopefully it will hold off for the Australian PGA at Coolum which is from all reports in the best condition ever. Well done to Dean Henderson and his crew up there, and the volunteers who have helped out as well.

A chain of events

2011-11-20T09:03:00.000+11:00

A combination of events has transpired to put the West greens under some pressure. The product that was applied to control the Poa annua in the greens which was highlighted in a photo a couple of posts ago has certainly been successful with an excellent result evident. However the constant north winds that have been blowing virtually 24 / 7 for the past three weeks has meant that the irrigation overnight is virtually a waste of time as the water loss from evaporation and windspray means little is actually making it to the ground. There has been a lot of hand watering happening to try and supplement the irrigation in addition to using water to blow the leaf debris off the greens. I had an "irrigation suitability test" done on the irrigation water recently and the result was "not desirable to be used for irrigation of turf"! The water has high concentrations of salts and chloride and is not conducive to promoting turf growth. However when that is the only water source you have, there is no choice. Soil temperatures in the greens is already hovering around 27 degrees and the water in the irrigation dam is sitting on 24 degrees which doesn't result in too much cooling. We also now have an algal bloom happening at the treatment works where the irrigation water is sourced and that is severely impacting the quantity of water available, dropping our supply to less than 30%. This combination of events means that the Bentgrass is struggling to recover where the Poa annua has been removed and with the weakened plant disease has been able to affect the turf sward. The irrigation water has never been of high enough quality for irrigation of turf but the only time it becomes an issue is in times of low rainfall as we are experiencing at the moment.

The fairways will also start to stress in some areas now as there is not enough water available for them to be irrigated in the short term, although the amount we can put on them is not enough to keep them healthy enough to combat the wear and tear of the motorised buggies at any time. Once again this is a result of the low rainfall and sandy soils. The recently turfed areas are yet to be mown down as that would put undue pressure on them so they will stay a lot longer than normal until the water situation changes or we get some rain. (The forecast for later this week sounds promising).

One of the other impacts the wind has is preventing us from spraying, especially weeds, so there is an abundance of weeds germinating around the courses, particularly in the bunkers. Although the way the bunkers act as "leaf collectors" its hard to see any sand let alone weeds!!

This coming Thursday, November 24th, we will be using a travel tower to do some pruning to the trees overhanging the practice nets adjacent to the putting greens. This will necessitate the closing of all the practice nets on Thursday. Access from the Pro Shop to the first tees will also be affected so I apologise in advance for any disruption that may be encountered in the immediate area.

PESTS

2011-11-09T18:19:00.000+11:00

Well at present we have two type of pests on the golf courses - a species of Corella that is nesting adjacent to 7 West fairway that make so much noise in the morning as they fly off for the days foraging. When they return in the afternoon they have taken to attacking the greens. It is quite amazing actually as they generally only attack the green when the flagstick is in the hole. They take a nibble at the flag then slide down the pole and feed on the hole itself. One theory is that they are sharpening their beak on the hard surface of the hole cup. We are lucky in one way that they only attack one green as their are many courses throughout Australia where multiple greens are nearly rotary hoed by these pests. The other type of pest we have is a species of golfer who has no respect for the golf course or those playing behind them. Pitch marks and divots out of greens are starting to re-appear and is very frustrating to say the least.

Unrepaired pitch mark

A divot out of 13 West green

Repaired Corella damage on 7 West green

Best laid plans

2011-11-05T09:14:00.000+11:00

Well not everything finishes up the way you want it to and this week was an example of that. The turf arrived for the tees on Monday but some of it had "cooked" on the way down here from Caboolture and had to be replaced. This puts us a couple of days behind which although not sounding much delays the first mowing for the turf and therefore opening for play. The photo of the 11th River tee shows the affected turf removed from the tee surface but with some of the "cooked" turf still in place on the rear bank of the tee. These cooked areas sometimes recover but can take weeks which is a timeframe we can't afford on the playing surface.

The River greens are still in their recovery mode from their renovation and the method of hollow tining used this year has caused some severe wheelmarking on the greens that whilst unsightly, doesn't affect ball roll. The greens are growing very fast and that has an obvious effect on the playing surface with the broader longer leaf evident. The greens will have another sanding at some stage next week depending on the play and weather. They are still at least two to three weeks away from settling back down again. At the recent course information session I was asked about the speed of the greens and explained that due to the extensive shade issues, and severe movement in the greens that we can't afford to mow to low otherwise we will lose grass cover. Everyone, myself included, likes fast greens but I would rather be putting on grass than dirt.

On the positive side you will notice a number of patches of yellow grass on the West greens which is where a new product for the control of Poa annua or wintergrass has been applied with quite outstanding results. If you look closely you can see the bentgrass emerging through the patches. The six to eight week conversion process is slow enough for the surface to not be affected which would normally happen with most other control products. There is not enough time available to go in to the merits or otherwise of Poa annua in greens but most certainly in our situation the shallow rooted Poa is the last thing we want in the greens leading in to summer as it's the first grass type to die in the warmer weather.

11 River tee turf

16 River green wheel marking

Poa annua dying in 5 West green

The week that was

2011-10-30T10:24:00.001+11:00

Well the week kicked off last Sunday following the Men's Foursomes Championships with the River greens renovations starting with the greens scarifying. 8 greens were finished on Sunday afternoon which was a great effort. On Monday we started hollow tyning the greens and this time used a "mini tyne" which was 7mm in diameter compared to the normal 16mm tyne. This meant a smaller hole but more of them as can be seen in the video. The material was left on the green then rubbed in to the surface which left the "stubble" to be blown off. Fertiliser and amendments were then added and only a handful of greens required sanding to fill the aeration holes. It is hoped that this method which is quicker than the normal method will allow for a much faster recovery time. If the weather had stayed fine on Friday the greens would have received their first mowing then as they need to be dry to mow the first time. The weather also has to be on our side when doing the renovation this way as you need fine sunny and windy conditions to dry the cores out enough to allow them to be rubbed in.

Cores being rubbed in to the greens surface

"Stubble" left on green

Blowing stubble off the green

We were able to then take advantage of the weather conditions to get the tees on the River course hollow tyne aerated and rubbed back in using a similar method to the greens but with the 16mm tynes. A hint of some rain on the way on Tuesday allowed 6 tonne of fertiliser to be applied to all the River course fairways which wasn't actually planned but if rainfall is on the way then you take advantage of it.

Next on the agenda was some work on the 8th River fairway drain. The 900mm pipe that connects the dam and the river has had several areas of subsidence over the years. About ten years ago we excavated and exposed the pipe and placed some material on it to prevent the subsidence which worked quite well until the material disintegrated after contacting the salt water and needless to say this material is no longer recommended for this purpose. The pipe was exposed and two causes of the subsidence emerged which was the separation of the pipes and the exposure of the pipe lifting hole, which both allowed sand to enter the pipe and erode the surface. The pipe was fully excavated and a geotextile fabric was wrapped around it then crushed rock placed over the top of this. Another fabric was then placed over the rock and the hole back filled ready for re-turfing. By blocking off the escape points for the sand it is hoped that the surface will hold. If it doesn't then the pipe will need to be replaced at a great expense.

Excavation begins

Pipe separation

Lifting hole exposed

Cloth covering holes with crushed rock on top

Fabric in place over crushed rock and sand over the top

The rocks at the headwall of the dam at 6 River were then also replaced with much larger rocks and a far more suitable construction method to deal with the tidal movement of the water. Concrete was poured behind the rocks for added strength and smaller rocks embedded in to the concrete that over time will color up the same as the rocks so as to blend in.

Headwall reconstruction

Large rocks in place. Note the tidal water flowing in.

Small rocks embedded in concrete

Then it was over to the 11th River tee to excavate the rear portion of the tee where tree roots had appeared on the surface. The picture below was the first load removed from the middle of the surface of the men's back tee blocks.

Tree roots from 11 River tee

On Friday the oversown tees were lifted in readiness for turfing on Monday. It takes a day to prep these areas and the reason they are prepared on Friday is to allow the turf to be laid on Monday which means that by the following week end the turf will have taken root and not require any supplementary watering which saves on labour costs. The tees will be back in full play within 3 weeks. The material lifted from the tees has been used to cover exposed tree root in rough areas and although the finished surface is initially quite rough it does settle down and is far better than playing from amongst tree roots.

So that was my week in conjunction with maintaining and preparing the playing surfaces elsewhere on the course in the high winds and rainfall that occurred later in the week. Just another seven days in the life of a Golf Course Superintendent !!

Interesting finish

2011-10-21T18:34:00.000+11:00

Well it wasn't quite the finish to Friday that I was looking for when I had to help escort 2 fire trucks out of the dead end they found themselves in near 8 River fairway and then back around and out of the course!! They were apparently chasing a fire in the Ukerebagh Nature Reserve alongside the course and were told to get there through the golf course. I don't think any of them had any idea what a green, tee or fairway was so I think it was fortunate I was still here!!

Busy times

2011-10-19T13:54:00.001+11:00

The winds have been very cold the last few days but things are hotting up on the courses with quite a bit of work planned. Following is a bit of a summary and as usual it is all subject to agreeable weather.

The short practice fairway will be cored on Thursday October 20 which might cause some minor disruption to play. We apologise in advance.
River greens renovation will take place in earnest on Monday October 24 but we will be out on Sunday following the Mens Foursomes Championships to get a head start. Works will include, scarifying, coring, fertlising and sanding. The greens collars on the River course will be scarified tomorrow as there is not enough time to complete this next week.
Fairway aeration was going to continue as I wanted to cover the fairways twice but the fairway aerating unit virtually fell apart on the last fairway yesterday. The unit was purchased in 1975 so it has certainly done its time.
Tees aeration / coring on both courses will take place shortly. The cores that are removed will be rubbed back in to the surface which has two main benefits. Firstly they will act as a top dressing and the soil is quite rich in nutrients so there will be a fertiliser effect as well. There may be a few temporary tees or tees playing a bit different to normal as we need to let the cores dry out before rubbing them back in and not have players walking over them.
Works on 8 River fairway drainage pipe and 6 River dam rockwall to take place commencing Monday October 24. The 900mm pipe that links from 6 River dam to the Tweed River across 8 River fairway has a number of quite obvious sinkholes affecting it. It is proposed to expose a small section of pipe to determine whether or not it can be successfully repaired in - situ. The headwall at 6 River dam will have some remedial works done to repair damage from tidal movement in conjunction.
Oversown tees are to be lifted Friday October 28 and re turfed Monday October 31. This is an annual task and the tees are back in play within two weeks rather than waiting for the oversown grasses to die out and the couchgrass recover. This year we will include the rear half of 11 River tee in order to remove tree roots followed by backfilling and re-turfing.
17 West green fan to be re-installed in early November.
Tree debris pile adjacent to 6 River fairway to be mulched next week.

Bunker Symposium

2011-10-19T13:30:00.000+11:00

Firstly thank you to those Members who came along to the Bunker Symposium last Monday. The name "symposium" was given to the meeting and I checked the dictionary to check the correct meaning which I am glad to say was correct, being: "a formal meeting held for the discussion of a subject, during which individual speakers may make presentations". I actually might have preferred another meaning being: "a drinking party in ancient Greece, usually with music and philosophical conversation". Well I don't know if there was much philosophy spoken but after talking for an hour and a half I certainly needed a drink!

I trust I was able to explain some of the issues that we face with the bunkering on the golf courses. One of the reasons I have the Course information sessions is to be able to cover the topics in detail as what I said on Monday night would take pages to explain in writing which I doubt many people would read. The following is a response to a member who was unable to attend the session but emailed some of his concerns to me.

In a nutshell the River bunkers are much more functional than the West bunkers due to their ability to handle excessive rainfall. One example I used on Monday, was last Saturday morning when we received 20mm of rain in the morning and no one played. As soon as the rain cleared there was a full field out on both courses. The River course bunkers would have been fully playable whereas the large majority of the west course bunkers would have been full of water. The hard packed fairway bunkers on the West course would have virtually all been full and bordering unplayable. This after just 20mm of rain.

I mentioned at the meeting that the number one criteria for bunkers in a climate such as ours is drainage. The volume and regularity of rain that we receive dictates this. Other courses on the Gold Coast / Brisbane simply just take their bunkers out of play, sometimes for weeks at a time after a serious rainfall event. We have had numerous golfing events virtually every year on the River course that have been able to go ahead following excessive rainfall with bunkers fully in play whereas the West course bunkers would have been unplayable.

The West bunkers do have sand added to the play areas on a regular basis but when the faces are washed out by rainfall the soil and silt (read rubbish) that is washed to the floor of the bunker then mixes with the sand to give the firmer type of surface. Unfortunately this surface is then not able to drain and the bunker fills with water.

Anything up to 100 man hours are often required to re-instate the West bunkers following a rainfall event that washes them out. The River course bunkers on the other hand are able to be raked as per normal immediately following the same rainfall event.

I haven’t actually done a spread sheet /analysis on the matter but looking at labour input and the cost of sand, we would spend just as much on bunker maintenance as we do on greens maintenance on the West course alone. I shudder to think what the ratio would be if the bunkers on both courses were as dysfunctional (from a maintenance point if view) as the West course bunkers are now.

The seemingly most unpopular bunkers are the fairway bunkers on 6 River and 7 West. These bunkers actually have the same type and depth of sand as most of the greenside bunkers on the River course but as they have less irrigation landing in them they are always drier than the greensides.

There were a number of issues raised at the meeting on Monday night and they will be considered by the Golf Management Committee. Grass faces and potentially removing some bunkers was canvassed for example. The pros and cons of either of these options were also raised. It is not an issue that we don’t care about, indeed bunkers are constantly discussed and different trials using sand and other potential solutions are assessed continually.

I realise that the explanation above doesn’t make the bunkers any more playable for you, but as I said, in our climate drainage must come first if you want to have numerous high faced large bunkers. I trust that this very short summary of what was talked about on Monday night helps explain some of the aspects that affect bunker presentation on the courses.

Fairway aerating

2011-10-11T11:27:00.000+11:00

"Tracaire" aerator in operation

The fairway aerating has commenced for this season. This operation helps to reduce some of the compaction caused by the huge numbers of golf carts that use the courses on a daily basis. It is quite an old machine that we use and whilst not perfect it does a reasonable job fairly quickly and penetrates up to 150mm. If weather, play and manpower permits the fairways will be covered twice in the coming weeks. The River course has nearly been completed for the first time already. The damage to the fairway surface from the machine doesn't interfere with play too much and is repaired by the fairway mower going over the fairway. This will result in some scalping of some areas and can only be done once the surface is dry to prevent the build up of dirt on the rollers. The local rule concerning relief from "aeration holes" should be used to if your lie is affected.

Aeration hole close up

BUNKERS

2011-09-28T13:55:00.001+10:00

I once worked with a groundsman whose sole job at that course was bunker maintenance and on a course with over 100 bunkers on 18 holes he had his work cut out. At the end of every day he would come into the lunchroom and say "I'm bonkers about bunkers" and whilst that was a long time ago, the same expression is probably used with some much more colorful language these days by golfers. Bunkers are one of the most controversial subjects at almost all golf clubs these days and in many cases cause more angst and argument than any other area of the golf course, including the putting greens themselves. Too hard, too soft, too deep, too shallow, too wet, too dry and too many!!

So with this in mind the next Course Information Session will take the form of a “Bunker Symposium”. This is your opportunity to come along and ask me any questions you would like regarding the bunkers at Coolangatta Tweed and hear about some of the strategies and trials that have been undertaken on our bunkers over the past several years. You may be surprised to know that we spend nearly as much on maintaining the bunkers on the courses as we do the greens and all this for a hazard as far as the rules of golf are concerned.

And of course if you have any burning questions regarding the maintenance of other areas of our courses I will be happy to answer them at the meeting.

The Bunker Symposium will be held at the Course Maintenance Shed in Davey Street Tweed Heads South at 4.00pm DST on Monday October 17^th.

All members are welcome to attend.

De Thatching greens

2011-09-20T12:39:00.000+10:00

The warmer weather has started the River greens growing and they received a de-thatching this morning. The units we use attach to our existing greens mowers and are adjustable in their depth to about minus 5 mm. At this time of year our units are set at level with the green surface which means the weight of the unit penetrates the surface just enough to remove a lot of dead material and cuts some of the stolons to encourage some new growth. Three machines are needed to stay in front of the play and the greens are double covered "up and back" in the same line. The greens are then mown to pick up the clippings that are left on the surface leaving a very good surface behind. This is an operation that we will be doing at least fortnightly throughout the growing season and we will also sand the greens in conjunction with this operation on some occasions. The other benefit of this operation is the smoothing out of the greens surface by reducing the leaf coverage and therefore the friction between the ball and the leaves which results in a smoother faster surface.

Close up of de-thatching unit

Units in action on 16 River green

Close up of green surface after de-thatching

And the warm weather brings out some of our wild life as well. This rather sleepy carpet snake was enjoying the sun on 11 River fairway yesterday. It provides golfers with a timely reminder to be aware of snakes on the courses although they generally don't want contact with humans so they are rarely seen.

Carpet snake out enjoying the warmth

Seeing the light

2011-09-12T17:23:00.000+10:00

Anyone who has been on the Golf Management Committee at Cool Tweed would have heard me talk about the need for light for grass to grow. The USGA Green Section have a saying that "If your grass isn't getting 8 hours sunlight a day....then why isn't it?". The 9th West green is already showing marked improvement since the removal of the trees at the rear of the green and has now highlighted the next two greens that are badly affected by shade being 3 and 5 on the West course. On the River course on the other hand, it is interesting to note the improvement on the 12th River green which is probably one of the most shaded greens I have ever seen. But as the sun climbs higher in to the sky the green is gradually getting more and more sun, especially in the morning which helps lift the soil temperature and dry the surface. The top photo below shows the 12th River at 8 am in early July in the depth of winter and the one underneath shows the green at 8am this morning with considerable sunlight across the back of the green. If you look at the health of the green at the moment, the area in full sun at 8am is recovering very well. It is almost a line of 8am sunlight area being healthy and non sunlight area still struggling.

12 River green early July

12 River green mid September

The West greens have recovered a little slower than expected from their renovation although given the weather we experienced during and immediately after, it is to be expected. The greens are at the stage now of needing a final sanding to help level and smooth the surface out. Weather permitting this should happen tomorrow morning. It is timely to remember that although the greens are not at their best the need for pitchmarks to be repaired still remains and players assistance in this matter will be most appreciated. At the end of the day you are really only helping yourself by improving the surface and allowing my staff to work on other areas of the course instead of repairing pitchmarks before mowing in the mornings.

It is encouraging to see the 7 day forecast of mid teen lows and highs in the mid 20's which will really get the grass moving. Not far from fertliser time and aeration for the fairways methinks.

The things we do

2011-09-07T16:25:00.002+10:00

It's all in a days work for us but it is sometimes interesting the jobs we have to do. Removing a Carpet Snake from the 14th River tee last week and another one sunning itself in front of the 11th River tee today in the glorious spring weather. Then the call came out for us to remove a pigeon that had found its way into the Kids Club in the clubhouse and had resisted all previous removal attempts. But alas it is back to some normality with the grass starting to move about the place with the warmth and the mowers are starting to crank up.

You may have noticed the numerous tree stumps that have been cut down and flagged in readiness for removal tomorrow. It is a long hard day for the operator and we use a bobcat to remove the woodchips and replace them with a sand/grass mix that has the resultant holes covered over in no time.

Tree stump flagged and ready.

Pumps service

2011-08-31T11:24:00.000+10:00

Our irrigation pumps received their major annual service earlier this week which might be just in time for the warm weather as we also had our first sighting of a carpet snake out soaking up some rays on the course as well!! Last nights summer like thunderstorm may also be a pointer to a change in the weather.

The existing pump station located adjacent to the mens 17th River tee was installed in November 2000 and has barely missed a beat since. The pump station is a Grundfos unit and is made up of 2 x 32kw pumps and 4 x 64 kw pumps. They are controlled by a "variable frequency drive" unit which allows the motors to only run at a level that supplies water flow at a pre determined pressure meaning less power usage and less water hammer in the pipelines. The pumps react to the flow demand and cut in and out depending on that demand. The two smaller pumps that do the bulk of the work maintaining pressure have just over 18,000 hours usage and the four larger pumps have around 5,000 hours each. The pumps are capable of producing 95 litres per second but I normally run them at about 70 litres a second. A normal irrigation cycle where all irrigated areas are covered in summer uses about 1.5 million litres of water and the flow meter on the pump station has recorded 1,521,867,098 litres of flow since installation!! Year to date 2011 the pumps have delvered a meagre 65 million litres of water to the courses.

Inside the pump shed

When you take into account the amount of rainfall we receive on the courses there is a lot of water passing through the place and last nights thunderstorm added another 68 mm to the total. That brings our August 2011 total to 277mm which makes it the second wettest August behind 1908 with the bulk of the rain recorded in the past 11 days. The only other years when more than 200mm of rain was recorded were 1899, 1958 and 2007 with the August average being 68mm.

The West greens will get their first cut this afternoon while it is dry and player numbers are down. The River greens will get a light de-thatching tomorrow to help remove some dead plant material and a light sanding to fill in the pitch marks and level out the surface, now that they have started growing again.

It's over

2011-08-28T07:52:00.000+10:00

Yes the much maligned West greens renovations have now been completed. It is always a difficult task to complete the greens in the day and a half we normally have but 6 inches of rain made it impossible. Fortunately Thursday cleared and with the co-operation of the Vets in allowing a medley comp to take place on the River course we were able to complete the works which is virtually impossible if you have any amount of play. So thankfully a frustrating week for the course staff and golfers alike comes to an end. At this stage the greens should receive their first mowing on this coming Thursday afternoon. The greens have to be dry to allow the mowing otherwise a huge amount of sand gets picked up and affects the quality of cut.

I have often said to people that August is reliably the driest month of the year here with September a close second but this year certainly disproved that theory. A check of the rainfall figures sees August 2011 the wettest since since 1958 and you need to go back to 1908 before that so hopefully it will be a long time until we experience those conditions again.

Interesting to note that one of the long range weather forecasters works on cycles of the moon and 18.5 years is one cycle so 2 is naturally 37 and 2011 is 37 years after 1974 for the floods in Brisbane. Hopefully we are done with the flood events for 2011!

West course greens renovations

2011-08-24T16:35:00.001+10:00

How quickly the weather can change and cause havoc with the best laid plans. The scud rain showers that started on Saturday afternoon that blew away the wedding I was attending on the 10 River ladies tee also developed and blew in 50kmh average winds and at last count 152 mm of rain or a touch over 6 inches in the old terms. The effect on the greens renovations has been disastrous with about the only positive being the excellent performance of our new aerating machines.

Removing the cores from the greens and then fertilising and sanding requires dry conditions, particularly the sanding as it needs to be smoothed into the surface. I didn't even attempt to sand any greens on Monday, and on Tuesday I tried but the rain was so torrential at times that the sand was literally washed off the surface. Wednesday cleared slightly although there were still just light showers that still delayed the smoothing process although it cleared long enough for the process to occur. The greens still need more sand applied as the goal is to fill all the core holes with the fresh sand and fertiliser mix. One of the main problems we will experience in the coming weeks is the tyre marking that will show up in the greens due to the soft ground conditions but this will gradually disappear over time.

Apologies for the course not being available as scheduled although the past few days have not been very pleasant or conducive to golf and the forecast is equally unpleasant.

And just so you can see one of our new aerators in action I shot a short video of it in action on the 9th West green, whilst it was still sunny!!

West greens

2011-08-19T16:52:00.000+10:00

The West greens renovation got off to a trial run today with the 16th West green having a strip done as a test. This year we have a new aerating / coring machine in use and we needed to try it out on a green to make sure it did exactly what we require and not find out on Sunday afternoon that we need to make some adjustments. The machine worked exceptionally well and will reduce our time coring which allows more time for the other required works. The new machine signals an end to an era of coring on Coolie Tweed as we have employed a contractor to assist us for the last 25 years and have used an Australian developed machine known as a "Coremaster". Brett Micklewright was the contractor and as a former CTH greenkeeper Brett was an outstanding person to have assisting us through the hectic time of renovation. Brett has wound back his business and that was one of the reasons we purchased a new machine Here's hoping the weather is nice and fine for us on Monday and Tuesday.

And just on another topic and on the other side of the world, I follow the blog of Gordon McKie, the Course Manager at The Old Course at St Andrews, with whom I toured around the USA a few years ago. This week Gordon reported; "Over the last week we have seen pretty bad conditions here in St Andrews with excessive rainfall which has caused some major flooding on the course. We have had in excess of 60mm of rain since the weekend and as you will see from my picture the Swilcan Burn is nearing overflowing. High tides are predicted for this afternoon and the possibility of the burn bursting its banks is a worry, so we have started to sand bag the front of the 1st green to protect that area." That's right just 60mm of rain to cause major flooding! It just goes to show how different golf courses are in different parts of the world and that it is nigh on impossible to compare golf courses across the globe with any reliability.

Greens renovation

2011-08-12T17:00:00.002+10:00

Yes that time is upon us again with the West greens scheduled for Monday August 22. In the lead up to the renovation the greens need to be softened a little bit to allow the coring machine to penetrate to the required depth and some fertiliser applied to ensure that the greens are healthy and will grow through the sanding quickly.

In the lead up to the renovation I do some soil testing to see just how the greens have fared over the past 12 months and also to see if any extra amendments to the soil profile are required.

You may have noticed some small holes on West greens 5,13 and 17 over the past few weeks as shown in the photo below. Around 25 such plugs are taken from the all over the green to a depth of 100mm and sent to a laboratory for analysis. In total the sample weighs about 500 grams which is only a small representative sample of the green given that on a 500 square metre green there is around 45 tonne of sand in the top 100 mm. The same three greens are sampled each year and I now have a long term record for these greens for comparison. The greens were selected as the 5th is representative of the newer greens, the 13th because it represents the older greens and 17 because it is the bogey green!

Soil test hole

The results this year were quite pleasing in that the samples are all very similar and there is no need for anything extra to be added to the greens. The actual report for 5 and 17 West is below and you can see that most nutrients are in the "desired" level and that all the key elements are within the ideal range. It is particularly pleasing as the samples were collected on August 2nd which means that there had been no rainfall for some time and the only irrigation the greens had received was from our normal water source. This means that the greens were about as "bad" as they could be as rainfall has a flushing effect that "cleans" the soil profile of contaminants.

Soil test result 5 West green

Soil test result 17th West

The greens will be hollow tine aerated using 16mm tines, then have fertiliser and a soil amendment added prior to being sanded. We will sneak in a start on the Sunday afternoon and then most of the work should be completed on the Monday given fine weather with the course closed to play again on the Tuesday following the ladies to allow us do the final touch ups. Please bear with us through this necessary operation.

2011 PGA

2011-08-10T16:51:00.000+10:00

This week sees the USPGA Championship get played at Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) in Atlanta, Georgia. The tournament will certainly be remembered fo many reasons and the weather could be a big talking point to start with. I have a friend at Peachtree GC in Atlanta, with whom I played AAC with way back in 1988, and he tells me that the daytime temperature has not dropped below 90 degF since April although they are predicting high 80's for the week end. Hot and humid will be the conditions and this is one of the reasons that very few Majors have ever been played in the south of the US during summer. The weather has always been one of the reasons but the turf was the other. There was an old rule of thumb that Majors had to be played on Bentgrass greens (although Augusta had Couch greens up until the early 1980's) and Bentgrass in the south of the US is a bit like Bentgrass at Coolie Tweed....dam hard to keep alive in summer!! Almost all Clubs in Atlanta with Bentgrass greens employ fans to assist in cooling the greens and creating air movement as we do on the 17th West. Most greens in the Atlanta area are Bentgrass but at AAC they will be putting on "Champion" which is one of the ultradwarf varieties we trialled in the nursery green a few years back. Two very hot, humid summers in succession has seen a number of Clubs move away from Bentgrass to Couch greens and the success of the greens at AAC will only encourage more to move. I am not too sure how the Champion handles the winter conditions because when I played there in February 1988 the course was closed till 10 am while we waited for the frost to thaw!

But on to the course itself and the Club is a strictly Members only course with 36 holes and a 9 hole par 3 course and a staff of 65 with 50 volunteers coming in for tournament week. In addition to the Champion turf on the greens which will be mown at 2.6mm (CTH West greens are currently 3mm) the fairways are a variety of Zoysia and will be mown at 9mm which is very tight (CTH 15mm) and the Couchgrass roughs will be at about 60mm. Just out of interest, a variety of Zoysia was planted in the rough at the Glades GC when it was first grassed. The course will play at 7,467 yards (6,827 m) and includes two par 4's over 460 metres and the par 3 17th at 190 metres with a full water carry.

Observations

2011-08-05T12:31:00.000+10:00

I have referred to the need for keeping the mowing height on the greens a little higher in times of stress and that particularly applies to the River greens at the moment. The photo below is an excellent demonstration of the result of a higher height of cut, albeit quite small. The photo is of the 12th River green and the green line that is evident is where the coring machine overlapped a little during last years renovation. This resulted in a slight depression in the green that is not noticeable when you putt but allows the grass to have a fraction more leaf resulting in the green line.

12 River green.

And another observation this week is on14 River fairway where the trenchline that was put in for some irrigation works has shown the benefit of root pruning. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the result below is chalk and cheese with the turf on the left of the line not having to compete with tree roots for nutrition and water. The root pruning machine I highlighted here a few weeks ago has all of a sudden taken a leap up the capital expenditure wish list!

14 River fairway

Hydraulic spill

2011-07-29T12:19:00.000+10:00

I am still holding out hope that the hydraulic spill on the 17th West green will still recover without needing patching which will be good. With the West greens renovation coming up in 3 weeks the area should recover fully. There are some other brown patches on the 17th West green and they are from the application of a product to control Wintergrass. There were only isolated patches in the green so rather than spraying the entire green I opted to just spot apply. The Bentgrass takes a bit of a burn but should grow out without any problems.

Wintergrass spot sprayed

Recovering oil spill 17 West

Over the past few weeks we have been lifting some turf in the low run-off areas of some of the West greens and re-shaping them to allow the water to shed off the green in times of heavy rain. Most of these areas have built up over time with the constant movement of water and soil /sand debris over them and have thus far prevented water from getting off the green. Once again after the renovation you will barely know we have been there.

Tree root pruning

2011-07-26T17:59:00.000+10:00

I had a demonstration last week of a root pruning machine and we used it along the left side of the 4^th River fairway which is one of our worst for root invasion. Impressed is the mildest response I could give as the machine did everything that the sales rep said it would which is quite a rare occurrence these days! The machine has two blades about 300mm apart that slice even the biggest roots very cleanly which means that there is less chance of disease entering the severed root and affecting the tree. It slices down to 290mm which will pick up all the roots we would require and there is virtually no surface disruption. Any root pruning I have done previously has been with a trencher that means a lot of cleanup and potential damage to the root system. The rule of thumb with tree roots is that they will extend out the height of the tree from the trees dripline in search of water and nutrients which means that our greens, tees and fairways are literally root infested and turf health is obviously affected. I would expect that the fact that the root is cut in two places that there will be no regrowth and therefore the roots that are exposed in fairways will eventually disintegrate. At this stage I am hoping a contractor buys a machine so I can hire it and do some further investigation but I am sure we will see a chalk and cheese situation on the 4^th fairway. Watch this space and the left side of the fairway!

The machine in action

The finished result

Some "victims"

Ground surface root

Green speed

2011-07-23T19:54:00.003+10:00

Probably the most talked about topic on a golf course and definitely bordering on the most controversial. Everyone wants fast greens but it can’t always be delivered 12 months of the year, particularly in our climate and with the player numbers we put through. The Stimpmeter is a device that measures green speed and until recent green firmness devices, was the only definitive measurement available for putting greens. No other measurement was available and the quality or otherwise of greens was in the eye of the beholder, or the person holding the putter as it were. I have now been a Superintendent for 25 years and it has always been the case that the players who score well are the ones who think the greens are spot on and those that score poorly think that the greens are no good. But I digress. The Stimpmeter is a much maligned piece of equipment that was introduced by the USGA after a fellow by the name of Ed Stimpson had developed it to be able to quantify greens on a golf course. It was intended to assist in attaining consistency throughout a golf courses greens and allow Superintendents the opportunity to vary the maintenance of their greens to try and achieve consistency. Unfortunately it has become a real pain as golfers hear of the ridiculous target speed of 14 feet for the recent US Open for example, and want that for their own course. I have played greens that I have personally measured at 13 feet and believe me for the average golfer they are almost unplayable. Put that sort of speed on our River greens with their undulations and they would be unplayable. The following is taken from the “Stimpmeter Instruction Booklet”;

“Stimpmeter Readings on American golf courses generally range from 7 feet to 12 feet, depending on many factors (e.g. Slope, Contours, Green Size, Grasses, Weather, Budgets etc.). Experience shows that trying to keep the speed above 10 feet on a consistent basis usually causes difficult-to-manage turf problems and is not recommended.”

The effect of wind and slope is most important when considering your target speeds and that is evidenced by The Open Championship wanting speeds of 10 feet for the entire week and if you looked at the greens at Royal St Georges last week, they ran quite well.

Be all that as it may, I decided to measure the greens this morning (which is something I do fairly regularly for my own information) and to publicise the figures here. The most important aspect of using the Stimpmeter is to take your recordings on a flat section of green which is not an easy task on either of our courses. So the numbers from this morning were the 10th West green which was running at 11 feet exactly and the 4th River Green which was at 9 feet 4 inches. There was too much play elsewhere to get any other readings but as I said finding a flat area is a real challenge at Cool Tweed anyway. For example it would be absolutely impossible to get a reading on West greens 2, 3, 9, 11, 12, 13, 16,or 18 and on River greens 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 or 18 due to the slopes.

I once heard a saying (obviously from a Superintendent) that "It's about time we put the GREEN back in to greenspeed". Amen!!

It was nice yesterday when a fellow Gold Coast Superintendent played at Cool Tweed and complimented the quality of the River greens for this time of year and said that he would gladly swap them for his.

The Open

2011-07-20T15:32:00.002+10:00

I have had a few members ask me about the dark green rings that were evident on most greens at Royal St Georges during The Open Championship and can report that they were a disease known as "Fairy Ring". It is a very common disease of turf and is especially prevalent on sandy soils with low nutrient levels and on the dry side, which perfectly describes the conditions at Royal St Georges. There is no known control for them other than lifting your fertiliser input which means more growth which is something you don't want at tournament time. We get them occasionally at CTH and I generally fertilise to remove them but then the ducks like the lush growth which creates another problem with the resultant droppings. They don't always end up forming a ring however and are found in all sorts of situations, especially forests and have 3 main types. The first is one that produces a rush of lush growth such as at The Open, one that has a dead ring of grass and one with a ring containing mushrooms. I was interested at The Open that they had several hole locations very close to infected areas which would mean a difference in the turf surface, although there didn't seem to be any effect on the roll of the ball.

And just on The Open, wouldn't you have loved to have placed the bet on the ticket below!!!

Hmmm if only this was mine and I had bet $20!!

2011-07-15T17:31:00.002+10:00

A lot of tree work carried out this week by outside contractors including the removal of about half of the stumps that we have on the courses. The 9^th West green has also been opened up and you can expect to see a very fast and obvious improvement in the quality of turf on this green. Over the past 2 to 3 years it has been under performing and under constant stress at all times of the year. The view from the 9^th fairway now gives the impression that the greenside bunkers on 4 River are actually part of the 9^th West bunker complex.

Following on from last weeks post about the River greens and the weather that has just arrived, read cloudy, cold and rainy, is the very reason that the greens need to be protected. A lot of the players in the Championships last week were disappointed with the slow speed of the greens but at least they were consistent and fully grassed. It was interesting to note this week that with the West greens running very hard and fast only 4 players bettered their handicap in the Wednesday comp and only 7 Vets in the Thursday Vets Comp….so perhaps not everyone can handle fast greens?? In the 3^rd round of the Championships only 15 % of the field broke their handicap so it wasn’t too easy out there anyway.

The Open Championship is underway and it’s amazing to see the aerials of the course and see just how much land is there. It’s also amazing that the fact that Royal St Georges is a male only Club as is Muirfield, and yet there is none of the outcry that Augusta National has been enduring over the past few years. It is common to take your dog with you when you play many courses in the British Isles and I read once that Royal St Georges had a sign on the 1^st tee that read “No dogs or women allowed”!!

Well I hope the weather forecast is wrong as we have had 12mm of rain so far and it has already dampened the courses which were in great condition given the weeks weather and amount of play this week. Good luck to all the Club Championship competitors and to our mechanic Craig Plowman who takes an 8 shot lead in to the final round in A Reserve.

The River greens

2011-07-08T18:04:00.001+10:00

With the Club Championships on the River course this week end I have had a number of Members ask if the greens will be fast. Unfortunately at this time of year with Couch greens the answer is no. The River greens are under a lot of stress at this time of year from overuse in a low growth time and more importantly shade. Shade is probably the most critical factor and there are seven River greens with substantial shade problems. This means that the maintenance of all the River greens at this time of year is predominantly based around the needs of those shaded greens. Greens such as 7,8 and 10 for example have no shade issues and could be mown much lower and pushed to the limit with not to many problems. Greens such as 5, 12 and 13 on the other hand would literally fall over if their mowing height was dropped at this time of year. My main goal at this time of year is attempting to maintain a healthy cover of grass over all the greens and a consistent speed. If I could be guaranteed that the weather would continue fine and sunny as it has been this week then I may take a chance and push them but it would only take a few dull cloudy days for that to backfire. I would much rather have Members playing on fully grassed greens in 6 weeks time rather than dirt or temporary greens.

On the West course on the other hand, this is the time of year that I can push the greens and allow them to dry out and mow quite low. Their time of stress is obviously summer time when the heat is on.

I took some photos of the 12^th River green on Tuesday this week to demonstrate just how much shade it has. Indeed the back 4 to 5 metres of the green received virtually no sunlight at all during the day.

12 River @ 10.00am

12 River @ midday

12 River @ 2.00pm

They say a picture paints a thousand words and although they are not great pictures they clearly demonstrate the shade issues the 12th has to deal with.

The course however will play very well after the staff had a big day of blowing and mulching debris on the River course today. Hopefully there will be no wind overnight or tomorrow and the players will be greeted with very clean conditions on both courses tomorrow.

And the sight that no Superintendent wants to see.....a dreaded hydraulic oil spill on the 17th West green. It happened on Thursday morning and hopefully we may not lose too much turf. The area to the right of the main spill (which is the darkest colour) was only sprayed and the machine was only mowing its first green for the morning and it was very cold so hopefully the oil wasn't too hot.

Hydraulic oil spill on 17 West green.

Wet fairways

2011-07-04T15:58:00.000+10:00

Verti drain in action on 10 west fairway

A beautiful winters day today but still a few fairways very wet. The verti drain aerator which is a deep penetration aerator was out in force today to try and help some of the wettest fairways get some air and start drying out. It is a very slow machine but hopefully will have some positive effect on the condition of the fairways. We also did a few areas adjacent to the shaded buggy paths while we were out there.

Over the rainbow

2011-07-01T14:42:00.000+10:00

A rainbow over 18 West green

Well I am well and truly over the rainbows no matter how beautiful they may be. Preparations for the Club Championships were progressing quite nicely until Tuesday evening when 25mm of rain was dumped on the courses. Thursday night followed up with another 13mm which has both courses saturated. The worst part of it from my perspective is the effect on the greens. This is the time of year when the West greens are at their best and they were firming up perfectly in readiness for Round one to provide a hard and fast surface. Unfortunately that won't be the case but the greens should still putt well. This morning there were persistent showers that prevented us from mowing three greens and we were unable to roll. I am hoping that the greens dry sufficiently for us to get the rollers out tomorrow morning. Good luck to all the players in all grades.

I still can't respond to Roy Gamma's comments on pitchmarks so I will post the reply below that I sent to Roy direct;

Thanks for your comment Roy.

The West greens do have unusually large pitchmarks which I put down to the Bentgrass being grown in the sub tropics. The Glades and Arundel both have Bentgrass greens and suffer the same issues and damage from pitchmarks. There is no doubt that the Bentgrass is weaker when grown up here and certainly prone to more damage than down south.

As you say the desired result is to have as much grass visible on the surface and nicely flattened out which is best achieved using the correct tool and using a twisting motion to move the grass in to the middle of the depression. To help achieve this I would prefer that the “divot” was replaced.

When I started playing golf my Dad told me that every time your ball lands on a green it will cause some damage that will need to be repaired and that if you take the time and use the correct tool an excellent repair can be made. They don’t have to be perfect but an unrepaired mark that is mown over will take 4 – 6 weeks to recover against a few days for a repaired mark.

We have handed out complimentary repairers previously but found it had no impact on repairs. It may be worth another try so I will raise it with the Greens Committee.

New Shed

2011-06-24T16:56:00.001+10:00

Works have continued on the new additions to our course maintenance area. The main compound has been concreted this week which required our machinery to be stored adjacent to the 9th West fairway for the past week. The concrete itself will be a huge improvement replacing the potholed jigsaw puzzle of bitumen that was there previously. To be honest it is a miracle that someone has not had a nasty fall in one of the numerous potholes that regularly appeared. Walking on the new concrete is akin to the feeling you get with a new set of tyres on your car. The drainage of the main compound has also been improved and a sediment pond has been installed adjacent to the 9th West fairway. The footings for the new shed have also been poured. Expenditure on maintenance areas is always a tough one for golf clubs as the players don't physically see anything for their money but in my opinion (obviously biased) the maintenance area is critical as it is the engine room for the golf course. By this I mean it is where the groundstaff start and finish their days and if it is not conducive to inspiring them to enjoy their workplace then the course can only suffer.

Concrete pump in action

Main compound area concreted

Further to our pitchmark problem and today following the Men of League golf day I had my staff repair pitchmarks. On the 4th West green they repaired 6 totally untouched marks. I inspected the green again less than 2 hours later after members had gone through on their Friday afternoon practice and repaired 16 totally untouched pitchmarks. So tomorrow the West course bunkers won't be raked rather that staff member will be repairing pitchmarks.

Thank you to Roy Gamma for making a comment on the last blog item. Unfortunately for some reason I can't add a response so I will work on that over the week end.

Pitchmarks

2011-06-20T17:42:00.003+10:00

Pitchmarks are a problem that just won't go away. This morning I had 3 staff hand repair pitchmarks on the West greens for 3 hours.....that's 9 man hours!! The problem seems to be getting worse at the moment and to ensure we can get the best putting surface possible this hand repair by the groundstaff will be an ongoing procedure. The photo below shows 450 totally or poorly repaired pitchmarks on the front portion of the 8th West green alone.

8th West greens pitchmarks

To assist in levelling the greens back up I will be taking advantage of the beautiful weather we are having at the moment and sanding the West greens on Tuesday. Disruption to play will be minimal. I will also get some fertiliser on the tees to try and get some last minute growth before winter really sets in and River course Men's tees 5, 6 and 16 will also be oversown to get a grass cover for the rest of the winter.

The ground has dried out enough now and the Palm trees will be trimmed up this coming Thursday. As mentioned previously there will be some selective removal of some of the Palms to assist in reducing the continually rising cost of their maintenance.

I attended the 27th Australain Turfgrass Conference last week in Adelaide and thought that some of our cool mornings would have me prepared. How wrong could I be! Our Championships were played on the Monday morning with an 8 am shotgun and I kept all the warm clothes on for the entire round. We were fortunate enough to play Kooyonga and the course was in fantastic condition. I will write some more about the US Open golf and the conditions later but suffice to say Kooyonga's greens were rock hard and running at at least 12 feet on a stimpmeter and looked great in comparison to the dis-coloured / pushed to the limit greens at Congressional.

The Conference was a great success and I was scheduled to deliver 2 presentations which meant for a nerve wracking build up in anticipation of presenting in front of my peers. This turned to complete horror when the ash cloud prevented another speaker from Sydney making the trip and he kindly suggested that I could take his place which I did and therefore spoke 4 times. A great experience all the same.

Maintenance shed

2011-06-11T08:49:00.001+10:00

Over the coming weeks you may see and hear some construction activity at our maintenance shed next to 9 West fairway. We are building an additional shed that will allow for much needed extra machine storage area and will include a parts rinse bay. We will also be installing a new fuel storage and dispensing system as our current one is an underground tank that has been in the ground for 25 years and was 20 years old when it was installed. Underground storage tanks are coming under increased government regulation to the point that it will soon be extremely difficult to retain them. Not to mention the potential impact on the environment from leaks. The new tank is a "Convault" brand and is an above ground configuration that is fully self contained and has a 4 hour fire rating. The Convault system is the safest method of storing flammable and combustible liquids above ground available. The unit is also Australian made and will store 3,000 litres of unleaded fuel and 5,000 litres of diesel. .

111th US Open

2011-06-09T15:56:00.001+10:00

The upcoming US Open Championship is to be played at Congressional Country Club which is situated in Bethesda, Maryland just out of Washington DC. It will be played on the Blue course which was closed in 2009 for a rebuilding program of the greens. The Blue course is a 7,278 yard par 72 for Members with a slope rating of 142!! For the Open it will be played as a 7,574 yard par 71. The summer in the USA last year was so severe that the Blue course was closed to play for 2 weeks in order to preserve the greens. Following are some interesting facts about the course preparation with Coolie Tweed details in brackets.
GREENS;
Grass Type: Greens were rebuilt in 2009 to USGA Guidelines for Putting Green Construction (as were the re-constructed River greens) and established with a blend of Penn A-1 and A-4 creeping bentgrass. (We have Penn G2 in the 17^th West green and some Penn A1 in the greens nursery.)
Mowing Height: 2.5 mm (We mow at about 3mm at the lowest.)
Mowing Height for collars and approaches: 8 mm (We mow at 11mm)
Target Stimpmeter Reading: 14-14.5 feet (Our greens would be unplayable at that speed!!)

Irrigation Practices: Only hand-watering on the greens. The goal is to achieve firmness without compromising the health of the grass. Soil moisture levels are constantly monitored with hand-held testers and in-ground sensors. Fairways and tees are irrigated on an as-needed basis. Wetting agents have been applied due to sand topdressing of both fairways and tees. The goal is to achieve even wetting when irrigation is applied.
TEES
Grass Type: Penncross creeping bentgrass
Mowing Height: 9 mm (We mow at 11mm.)

FAIRWAYS
Width: Ranges from 16 to 32 metres, averaging 23 metres wide in the primary landing zones.
Grass Type: Predominantly Penncross creeping bentgrass along with other varieties interseeded over the years.
Mowing Height: 9 mm (We mow at 15mm.)
ROUGHS
Grass Type:
intermediate rough – primarily perennial ryegrass
primary rough – predominantly turf-type tall fescue.
On each side of the fairway, a 1.8 metre wide swath of intermediate rough running the length of each hole will be mown at 22 mm. The same mowing height is used for the bunker tie-ins.

On greens with a primary rough, the mowing height is 75 mm. (A golf ball has a diameter of 42.67 mm.)
For the sixth consecutive year, the USGA will use graduated primary rough. This setup creates a tougher and more challenging recovery shot for those who hit their drives farther off-line.
The first cut of primary rough is 5 metres wide and mowed between 70 – 80 mm,

depending on the length of the hole.
The second cut of rough is mowed to 100 mm, depending on the turf growth rate. This height extends to and beyond the gallery rope lines.
BUNKERS:
Maintenance: New sand has been added to all bunkers. All 96 bunkers are hand-raked.
MAINTENANCE CREW:
Congressional C.C. crew size: 55 for 36 holes. (We have a maximum in peak summer of 18.)Number of mechanics on staff during the Open: 3
Number of volunteers: 120. (We have Dads Army on Tuesday mornings.)Most volunteers are experienced golf course superintendents and assistant superintendents who volunteer their time for the week.
Where the volunteers are housed: Nearby in housing at American University.
How the maintenance crew and volunteers are fed: Breakfast, lunch and dinner is prepared by the Congressional C.C. chef for the entire maintenance staff and volunteers.
Typical hours worked during the championship: Morning shift 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. Afternoon shift 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Staff is on the property throughout the day in case of rain.
Miscellaneous Maintenance Points:
Amount of extra equipment on hand: Six walking greens mowers, four walking collar mowers, eight turf rollers, four walking tee mowers, 19 five-gang fairway mowers, (we have two five gang mowers) three rotary rough units with 9-foot cutting width, two rotary rough units with 6-foot cutting width, one reel rough unit with 6-foot cutting width, two mechanical bunker rakes, 22 maintenance carts and 36 squeegees.
Typical mowing schedule during the championship: All principal in-play areas will be mown every day. Greens, tees and fairways are mown twice a day.
Soil moisture: Monitored by in-ground soil sensors and hand-held soil moisture meters. The greens are also equipped with an underground water evacuation system, meaning they drain well.
Soil Firmness: The firmness of the greens will be measured each day (morning and evening) using the USGA TruFirm system to monitor soil firmness. A relative range has been pre-determined for each green to gauge the receptiveness of the green in holding an approach shot.

Congressional CC

Tree works

2011-06-02T15:10:00.001+10:00

The cooler winter months provide the opportunity for us to catch up on some tree maintenance and that program has started this week. Over the next couple of months we will be trimming any dead, low and / or dangerous branches as well as removing a few dead trees around the courses. A cherry picker will also be utilised and the palm trees will receive their annual trimming when the ground dries out enough for us to get larger machines around the courses. The removal of the trees at the rear of the 9th West green is also still on the agenda and is also awaiting some drier weather conditions.

The fan is still in place at the 17th West green primarily because we need to use a forklift to move it and it is too wet at the moment to even attempt that. The fan should only be required from early November through March for the green and I would prefer to have it stored under cover and out of the weather so that will take place as soon as possible.

Motorised buggy usage in the continuing wet conditions is causing some turf damage, particularly at the entry and exit points to the concrete paths, especially on those points that are shade affected. To help alleviate this problem some fine "cracker dust" will be used to fill some of the potholes that have appeared. This is a last resort as the chance for damage to the mowers is increased but obviously needs to be done.

Those of you who have driven the famed 17 Mile Drive at Monterey in California which affords some great views of both the ocean and famous golf courses will be dismayed to know that the 3 green course in the front yard of the house around the corner from Cypress Point has been demolished. This followed a ruling by the coastal commission that the course was not in compliance with the original zoning. This ruling came 18 years after the house and course had been built!

And the pilot of the light plane that had an emergency landing at Woolongong GC yesterday obviously didn't check with the Pro Shop first.....motorised buggies were off due to the wet conditions!!

Back already

2011-05-30T17:07:00.000+10:00

Unfortunately that was the fastest four weeks of my life and I am now back on deck. A big thank you to my Assistant Simon and the crew for their endeavours over what must have been a frustrating time with the constant rainfall.

Most of the West greens were verti drain aerated again today to help the water move through the profile and add some more air as detailed in previous posts and will be finished tomorrow. This will be the last chance to get on the greens with a busy golfing month ahead that includes both the Ladies and Men's Club Championships. With the lack of growth at this time of year it is difficult to do too much with the courses and it is even more important for players to respect the golf courses and assist by using sand buckets and repairing pitch marks on the greens.

We were lucky enough to spend some time in Spain on our holiday and were in the country for the untimely death of Seve Ballesteros. Despite Seve fighting a brain tumour for a few years I just assumed that one of the greatest fighters on the golf course would also win his battle off the golf course. There was a great deal of coverage for the legendary player and it's amazing to think he was just 22 when he won the 79 Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes where he played that amazing shot from the carpark at the 16th to make birdie. Vale Seve.

Winning the 79 Open

Holidays

2011-04-29T16:22:00.000+10:00

Well at this stage of the day with a thunderstorm happening and very heavy rain I am quite happy to be going on 4 weeks annual leave starting in about 2 minutes. About the only good thing I have seen in the rain this week has been a couple of beautiful rainbows. So I will close out on that and return to the course and the blog in 4 weeks.

Bueno adiós y el golf bueno..... (Good bye and good golfing...just practising my Spanish!!)

A Frustrating Week

2011-04-29T05:36:00.000+10:00

An incredibly frustrating week now coming to an end. The rain has been nothing but an annoyance particularly over the past two days with regular "scuds" ripping in off the ocean and topping us up. The courses are very wet, in particular the West course with areas I have never seen hold water before absolutely sodden. Motorised buggies have been off the West course over the past two days and unfortunately I had to keep them off the River course for the Members Comp today as well. There is now a lot of wheel track damage occurring on too many of the River fairways and with the weather cooling and growth slowing, I had no alternative. We are now approaching 9 inches of rain for April on top off nearly 12 inches in March. Indeed since March 1st, I have recorded rain on 41 of the 60 days.

Grass!!

2011-04-23T10:40:00.001+10:00

The greens on both courses have responded well to some recent fertiliser and aeration and are really growing some grass. The West greens have had no fertiliser applied but the deep aeration they received got some much needed air to the roots and you would think they were different greens from what they looked like this time last week. The greens were mown this morning and the grass catchers needed emptying every two greens compared with the average of 9 to 12 greens. The downside is the ducks and the droppings they leave behind. If the weather is suitable a bird repellent will be applied to the greens tomorrow morning.

The River greens were fertilised last week in an attempt to take advantage of the last warmth of the season and they have responded accordingly. It is very important that the River greens are in the best condition possible heading in to winter. As the West greens don't like the hot soil temperatures of summer the River greens don't cope well with the cooler soil conditions and shorter daylight hours of winter. The photo below shows the root system from a plug on the 10th River green showing the roots "out the bottom of the hole changer" which is a very nice situation meaning that we have 7+ inches of roots which is excellent. Shade is also a major influence on the River greens with greens 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15 and 16 affected. This means that all maintenance practices are shaped around ensuring the best growing conditions possible for these greens.

Plug from 10 River green

Wet Wet Wet

2011-04-20T05:46:00.000+10:00

It seems to be a common theme here! Another 90mm of rain has fallen in the past couple of days. Once again Coolangatta airport has received less than us which is a trap for you if you check that site for a guide on rainfall as the airport has only received 68 mm in the same period. The showers only seem to just make land as they sweep in off the ocean. This is the best place to get a better guide on our rainfall at the Club as it is measured at Barneys Point. http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/flood/northcoast.shtml

The West greens verti drain went ahead as scheduled and this rain is actually doing the greens the world of good as it can help flush the soil profile out and also with no play the greens get a break from the wear and tear which they desperately needed after the summer.

Cool nights at last

2011-04-15T17:20:00.003+10:00

A little nicer on the weather front this week and it has now cooled down sufficiently to be able to aerate the West greens. Unless the weather turns particularly foul the greens will be verti drain aerated commencing this coming Sunday afternoon and completed on Monday. We will try and avoid any interference with the Members comp. on Monday but there will no doubt be some. The verti drain is a tractor mounted aerating machine capable of penetrating up to 12 inches with both hollow tynes, which remove a core of soil, or solid tynes which literally spike the profile leaving a hole on the surface. In the case of the West greens I will be looking for about 8½ inches with a solid tyne. There are a few reasons why the greens are done;

Primarily to relieve compaction. The greens haven't been "opened" up since August last year and are severely compacted at present. This is evidenced by even a light shower of rain causing water to pool on the surface.
Allows air to get to the roots and gives the roots a channel in which to grow.
Allows for some fertliser to get to where the roots need it.

The reason the greens haven't been done until now is that they dry out very quickly once opened so the cooler weather we are experiencing now is the perfect time. It is also necessary to leave the greens open to allow for the air exchange and the greens will only be rolled following the aeration. The other reason for this is that the verti drain softens the surface and if the mowers went over the greens too soon we would have severe wheel marking which can take months to grow out. The disruption to play once the machine has finished is minimal and the photo below shows what to expect on Monday

Trial run on nursery green today

A decision has been made to remove some trees (including several declared environmental pest Cadaghi trees) at the rear of the 9^th West green. The trees are interfering with the maintenance of turf on the green by causing too much shade, tree root invasion and dropping of leaf and seed pod debris. The trees are also having a serious impact on the playability of the bunkers on the 4^th River green and also by dropping debris on the 4^th River green itself.

It is expected that the increase in sunlight and air movement will greatly improve the turf quality on the 9^th West green which has been slowly deteriorating over the past few years.

The Board will assess the result on adjacent turf areas, particularly the 9^th West green, in consideration of further tree removal where the turf growth is being severely impacted elsewhere on the courses.

The effect of shade on the health of turf is plain to see in many areas on the courses, particularly near buggy paths and most certainly on selected greens and tees and is the reason several tees on both courses were oversown this week. Tree roots also cause problems and the photo below clearly shows how much effect tree roots have on turf growth and health. It is a photo of the RHS of 14 River fairway where a trench was dug for some irrigation and the subsequent green up and turf improvement on the fairway side of the trench is significant.

Tree roots trenched out

Back to earth

2011-04-10T10:53:00.001+10:00

Well back to Coolie Tweed anyway. These are some photos below from my whirlwind visit to Barnbougle Dunes and The Lost Farm which just in case you haven't heard of them are two courses on the NE coast of Tasmania that are literally taking the golfing world by storm. I only had two play days there thanks to some unannounced flight changes (thanks Jetstar) but they are two rounds of golf I will never forget. I had played the Dunes before but this was my first visit to The Lost Farm and it lived up to all expectations. The weather was absolutely perfect and on the Thursday there was not a breath of wind which our host Superintendent said that he had never seen before. There are many golf websites that will have much better photos than mine so I will leave my collage at these photos. Interesting to note that both courses have a local rule -"If your ball ends up in a footprint in a bunker, you are entitled to place your ball at the nearest point of relief no nearer the hole without penalty" - which could be handy at Cool Tweed given the state the bunkers are left in by some of our players.

Track to Dunes no. 5

Dunes green no.10

View from Dunes no. 10

Dunes no. 13 par 3

View from Dunes toward The Lost Farm

The Lost Farm no. 8 green

The drive from Lost Farm no. 5....over the dune!!

Lost Farm no. 14, 251 mtr par 4

So back to reality and if the weather holds this week the shaded tees on both courses will be oversown with a Ryegrass / Creeping Red Fescue seed mix. The remaining tees will be verti drain aerated which is an aeration that penetrates up to about 10 inches which allows for some air movement and gas exchange. At this stage the West greens will be aerated in the same manner next week with a smaller diameter tyne and reduced depth of about 8 inches.

Hopefully we have seen the end of the rain and the courses get a chance to dry out a little bit which they badly need. We have had nearly 6 inches (150mm) of rain in the past 13 days with some rainfall recorded on every day. But we should count our blessings when you hear that Cairns Golf Club has had 3 and a half metres of rain and a cyclone since October and it is still falling out of the sky up there.

The Masters

2011-04-05T16:57:00.004+10:00

Well I guess it wouldn't be a golf course blog if the US Masters didn't get a mention. Even though I am much more excited about spending 3 days at Barnbougle and The Lost Farm down in Tassie this week. Let's hope the weather holds.....and my body!!

But it is in Augusta Georgia that all the golfing world concentrates at this time of year. A couple of really interesting links below with the excellent flyover in the first one that can actually give some appreciation of the contour changes on the course which always amazes first time visitors. It also give you a peek at the admission prices!! The other astonishing thing is the number of trees that have been planted when you compare it to the old photo of the course below. At least they have been wise and not planted too many trees close to greens.

http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/masters11/news/story?id=6289311

ANGC as it once was.

This link gives a fascinating look at the changes and the reasons behind them over the years.

http://www.golfdigest.com/golf-courses/georgia/augusta-changes

And if you want to play in The Masters then these are the qualifying criteria;

1. Masters Tournament Champions (Lifetime)
2. US Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
3. British Open Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
4. PGA Champions (Honorary, non-competing after 5 years)
5. Winners of The Players Championship (Three years)
6. Current US Amateur Champion (6-A) (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year) and the runner-up (6-B ) to the current US Amateur Champion
7. Current British Amateur Champion (Honorary, non-competing after 1 year)
8. Current Asian Amateur Champion
9. Current US Amateur Public Links Champion
10. Current US Mid-Amateur Champion
11. The first 16 players, including ties, in the previous year's Masters Tournament
12. The first 8 players, including ties, in the previous year's US Open Championship
13. The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year's British Open Championship
14. The first 4 players, including ties, in the previous year's PGA Championship
15. The 30 leaders on the Final Official PGA Tour Money List for the previous calendar year
16. Winners of PGA Tour events that award a full-point allocation for the season-ending Tour Championship, from previous Masters to current Masters
17. Those qualifying for the previous year's season-ending Tour Championship
18. The 50 leaders on the Final Official World Golf Ranking for the previous calendar year
19. The 50 leaders on the Official World Golf Ranking published during the week prior to the current Masters

Motorised Buggies

2011-03-30T14:07:00.000+11:00

Motorised Buggies were taken off the West Course today due to the rainfall we had received and were also off the River Course later in the morning after the continuing rainfall. The call to take buggies off is one that I don't particularly enjoy although I am generally in the best position to judge as I am generally on the course by 5 am most mornings and know where to look for the correct decision to be made. I have about 6 reference points on various holes on each course that I look at with respect to how much water is on the course and what damage could be expected. The number of fairways in total that could be affected is also a consideration as quite often on the River Course for example, the 1st and 9th may be quite wet but the rest is quite playable. Obviously the forecast is considered but when you take todays forecast of "showers with possible thunder" resulting in quite heavy rain for most of the morning, the forecast isn't always right. The time of year and the turfs ability to recover is also a factor.

On the front page of the Club website there is a listing called "Motorised Buggies Status". This area will be updated when buggy restrictions are imposed or lifted. It will normally be updated by 5.30am on the day of the notice to try and give Members the most notice possible to organise their day.

Obviously a lot of Members access the Weather Radar loop to assess the situation and look at the rainfall for Coolangatta Airport as an indication of what the course may have had. This is not always an accurate way to do it and today was a perfect example. To find a better indication follow this link http://www.bom.gov.au/nsw/flood/northcoast.shtml The small dots on the page indicate automatic weather stations in the north east of NSW and if you hover over the dots the information for that location comes up. In the far north east corner is a dot representing the Barneys Point location which is only 1.9 kilometres away from the course and gives a much more accurate reading of what's happening at the golf course. For example these are the rainfall figures for this morning;

Barneys Point Golf Club Airport

7.00 am (NSW) 35mm 32mm 11mm

8.00 am (NSW) 47mm 39mm 15mm

9.00 am (NSW) 51mm 44mm 19mm

As I have mentioned before there is a significant difference in the rainfall we receive compared to the airport as demonstrated today. As a matter of interest last year we recorded 2,280mm compared to the airports 2,048mm and in the deluge that was 1999 we recorded 2,873mm and the airport "just" 2,378mm.

Todays rainfall once again also illustrated the difference in the capacity of the courses to handle the rain with all River greens and re-constructed bunkers fully playable throughout the rain whereas the West greens were unplayable and virtually all bunkers full of water with some having severe wash outs.

Practice green

2011-03-24T09:26:00.002+11:00

As mentioned last week the Bentgrass practice green is under an enormous amount of stress from its location and traffic wear and tear and it has got to the stage now that the green is now closed to all play. This late burst of hot summer type temperatures and humidity hasn't helped and I could see no alternative to closing the green. As a greenkeeper there is nothing worse than watching one of your greens slowly going backwards and this has been the case with the practice green over the past few weeks. The green is in desperate need of a renovation but the temperatures are still way too high to allow this just yet.

The West greens in general are struggling with this recent weather and the 120mm of rain we received last week end wasn't much help. As soon as the weather cools, the West greens will be deep tyne aerated to allow some much needed air to get to the root zone.

Encroachment 5

2011-03-18T18:04:00.000+11:00

I have had a few comments about the foreign grasses that are appearing in the West course greens which I did mention a couple of posts ago. It is a perennial problem at this time of year when the Bent greens are at their weakest after a long hard summer and the invading grasses are at their healthiest and therefore more prominent. This is particularly the case with the encroaching Couchgrass which is at its worst at this time. Its a bit like "groundhog day" as this problem is raised at this time every year and a quick perusal of old Course Committee minutes demonstrates this. I actually have a copy of minutes from 1980 (March 1980 by coincidence) that mention the encroachment of Couchgrass and even contains a recommendation to convert all greens to 328!! In years gone by the method used at CTHGC was to fumigate and either re-turf or re-sow the entire green and this would require a temporary green to be in play for anywhere up to 16 weeks. Fumigation is not available now so either a total kill spraying program or re-construction would need to take place, meaning even a longer period of interruption to play. I have adopted a containment strategy on the West greens as there is no one product that can selectively remove Couchgrass, in particular, from Bent greens without causing damage. As mentioned a couple of posts ago the Bent greens are under enough stress and the addition of weed control products would only put more pressure on them. A lot of encroachment information was covered in posts last year and you can quite easily refer back to them for more information.

And whilst speaking of Bentgrass under stress there is no other green at Cool Tweed under more stress than the Bentgrass practice green, especially now that the fan at the 17th West seems to have had the desired result. The practice green has a total area of just 225 sq metres with only 182 of that available to be cupped, which is probably about 15% of what it should be. The green is in an incredibly tough position with the massive trees to the south competing for air, moisture and nutrients and preventing air circulation. The retaining wall also reflects an enormous amount of light and heat and then you have the volume of traffic that the green is subjected to. We are regularly quizzed on why there are only two holes on the green and the reason is simply wear and tear. Each hole location has a severe wear area around it of 16 sq metres (4 x 4 square if you like). That means that there are a total of twelve possible hole locations on the green and the holes are moved every second day meaning every sixth day we need to go back to a worn area. The amount of wear that the green receives does vary, but last Sunday for some reason, the green was nearly worn out around the holes and as of today has still not recovered, which reduces even further our positions available for cupping.

Wider view of wear from last Sunday

Close up view

Growth Regulator

2011-03-12T09:07:00.001+11:00

We use a growth regulator during the summer months particularly on the fairways but also on greens on both courses. The fairways are treated monthly from about September thru to April. Indeed they are just receiving the final application for this year. The growth regulator has a number of benefits such as;

Eliminating seedhead.
Reducing vertical turf growth by approximately 60% whilst using plant energy and resources to encourage side shoots and particularly the root system.
Fines the leaf of the turf plant down which results in an improved surface and a smoother ball roll on the greens.
Reduces clippings meaning a much cleaner mowing job.
Reduces mowing frequency. We can get away with as little as two mowings per week on the fairways.
Reduced mowing frequency means less fuel used and with diesel fuel on the rise the savings are considerable.
Assists in keeping thatch under control.
Improved colour.

The photos below show a strip that was missed and the resultant effect on the surface and the appearance of the turf.

Missed strip on 18th River fairway

Close up of missed area scalped and unsightly

The product is also used on greens and although the difference is not as pronounced on the surface as on the fairways, it is an integral part of greenkeeping, especially on the Couch River greens. On the Bentgrass West greens the product assists in keeping Wintergrass (Poa annua) under contol as well as assisting root growth. The photo below shows the effect that the product has on Bentgrass roots with the turf plug at the top of the photo treated and the bottom untreated.

Effect of growth regulator on Bentgrass roots

The tees have responded well to the recent fertiliser and have a great cover of grass heading towards winter. The downside of this is the Wood Ducks feeding on the lush turf and the resultant droppings. This is one of the reasons I try not to overfeed the golf course because as soon as there is any juicy turf available the ducks are straight on to it and as they are one of the most prolific spreaders of weed seeds, we then create another problem for ourselves with weed eradication.

Wood Ducks feeding on 13 west tee

Another week

2011-03-05T08:58:00.001+11:00

Well the weather just held out for the work that was planned this week but as is so often the case not everything went to plan. The removal of tree roots on 11 and 16 River tees would have been a major job once some initial excavation took place and it is too late in the season for that type of work so they have been put on the spring "to do" list. The drainage pits on the 6th River dam went in quite nicely though they took a lot more time than I had planned which then delayed other works planned for the day. The pits got a nice workout on Thursday night with 45mm of rain falling in quite a hurry with no wash evident. Time ran out to be able to investigate the sink holes on the 8th River fairway but we have already repaired some other sink holes there and pretty much know what to expect and may finish up having to replace the entire pipe. Another for the "to do" list! We did get some tree trimming done on the chute at the 13th River tee and the tee will be turfed on Monday along with the buggy path run off at the 9th River tee which gets badly affected by tidal waters which we are hoping to have diverted away from this area with a small bund.

9th River tee

The weather towards the end of the week wasn't conducive to photography so hopefully I will get a chance to take some photos so as to be able to report on the growth regulator as promised last week.

The River greens have been fertilised again and should show some strong growth in the next few weeks and the tees were also fertilised just in time to take advantage of the rain on Thursday night so they should also show some good growth in readiness for the onset of winter.

There has been a virtual explosion in the spread of "Mullumbimby Couchgrass" in the West greens and in particular the practice green. Two treatments have had nil effect so far and further treatment is planned. Successful treatment can take up to two weeks and you can't afford to panic and put too much product on the Bent greens at this time of year....they are under enough stress already. "Mullum" Couch is a member of the Sedge family of plants and is a particularly difficult weed to control.

"Mullum" Couchgrass

Next week

2011-02-25T15:20:00.001+11:00

The post last week mentioned the use of a growth regulator on the fairways in particular and a few members have asked me about it so I will try and get some photos next week and do a report on the growth regulator then.

I am certainly thankful that the growth regulator is out there at the moment as I have had a sudden departure of staff over the past 2 weeks and with the call from management to curb costs wherever possible, and particularly on payroll, my crew is running very thin. Firstly our visiting Course Super from Denmark, Martin left after working for 3 months, then a new Greenkeeper from Royal Canberra who had only worked 1 week decided Lakelands was a better spot to work. One of my casuals Mitch, son of Lindy in the Clubhouse, has returned to Uni and has dropped back to just one day per week and finally Kel, who is one of my Greenkeepers had his appendix out and will be off work for at least six weeks. So virtually four men down in the space of two weeks and it is a credit to the rest of the crew that you would barely know out on the courses due to their great efforts.

Next week will see a little flurry of pre winter works as follows;

Installation of some drainage pits at the 6th River dam to prevent the bank washing away.
Investigate the state of the drainage pipe across 8 River fairway and attempt to repair the two major sinkholes there.
Remove the Melaleuca over the top of the seat at the 17th River tee which is considered extremely dangerous and unstable.
Trim some dangerous trees that are overhanging our boundary adjacent to the high rise.
If time permits there will be a few other on course tree trimming jobs carried out.
Remove some dangerous surface roots on the 11th and 16th River tees and prepare them for turfing.

Let's hope the weather holds out so we can get these jobs finished on time.

The River greens have responded well to the lift in height and fertiliser program and have just about covered in the shade affected areas. 12 River green is now being hand mown at a higher height than the other River greens and apart from the front right corner which will require re-turfing is also covering well. I now feel a lot more confident approaching winter but would still like plenty of fine sunny days but only about 25 degrees would be nice!.

The West greens have handled the mixed bag that summer has thrown at them quite well and in particular the heat and humidity of the past four weeks. 17 West green has also done well and the fan has been worth its weight in gold these past two weeks in particular with some extremely hot, still and humid nights and mornings.

UFO

2011-02-17T16:27:00.003+11:00

No it's not a UFO in fact it doesn't even fly but it does look a bit weird and we get plenty of strange looks when we are out operating it. It is in fact called an Enviromist Spraydome Turf Sprayer. It uses controlled droplet application (CDA) as its method of delivering the spray solution. CDA is a super fine mist spray that has been used in agriculture, nursery and viticulture for some time and has now made its way to turf.

The CDA unit in action

There are many benefits of CDA application and it is a machine that I think every Club should have. The way we have the unit configured means that it applies 22 litres of water per hectare as it applies the various products we use. That is compared to our conventional sprayers that apply anything from 200 to 800 litres per hectare and in our case normally 317 litres per hectare. When you consider that we have 36 hectares of fairways at Cool Tweed it equates to a huge water saving. This week some growth regulator was applied to the fairways and 30 hectares of fairways were treated meaning that 660 litres of water was used in the operation as against 9,510 if our normal spray carts were used. You then figure in that the growth regulator is sprayed monthly from September through April equating to a required water volume of 5,280 used with the CDA method against 76,080 for the normal spray carts.

The speed at which the machine can apply product is also a huge advantage as we can usually get 7 hectares sprayed in front of play and off the courses by 9.30am versus 4 hectares in the same time with our other sprayers. The unit is also shrouded and very low to the ground which means that wind has almost no effect on the spray droplet distribution which is a great advantage on such a windy site as Cool Tweed. All in all a very good piece of machinery that is being used for more and more applications on other areas of the golf courses.

Hot

2011-02-06T08:51:00.002+11:00

Who was it that was complaining about the cool rainy conditions?? It has certainly turned around now with the heat right up there with humidity to match. The good news is that the River greens have responded and are now well on the way to the full grass cover I was talking about in the last post. The greens will be lightly de-thatched this Tuesday then fertilised and sanded and then not mown until probably Saturday. The 12th River green is still well behind where it should be so it will receive light aeration in addition to the above. The mowing height on the 12th will also be lifted to allow the green to become as healthy as possible for the winter.

The West greens although horrendously affected by pitchmarks also have an excellent cover for this time of year. The tees on both courses were fertilised last week and have also responded well to both the recent heat and fertiliser.

And you know it's dry when the drainage lines start showing up on fairways as can be seen in the photo below of the 18th River fairway.

It would be nice to get some rain but not too much so as to spoil the course preparations for the Ladies Masters at Royal Pines this week. Over the past couple of years they have had a terrible run with rain in the lead up to the event. Good luck to Cool Tweed Member Paul McLean who is the Course Super at Royal Pines and his staff.

February 1

2011-02-01T15:35:00.000+11:00

Doesn't time fly by with February already upon us. The monumental job of cleaning up Brisbane's flood effected golf courses continues with helpers coming from as far away as Peninsula GC in Melbourne. McLeod GC already have some holes open as does Wolston Park. Both Brisbane and Indooroopilly had their courses playable over last weekend with a few shortened holes in play. On our own patch here at Cool Tweed I don't think I have seen the course better for this time of year although the River greens are still a bit behind where I would like them to be.

The weather over the past two weeks has returned to a traditional summer with hot sunny humid conditions that has helped the River greens in particular move towards a full grass cover. As I mentioned a couple of posts ago it is imperative that the River greens enter winter with a full cover of grass so they can deal with the shade issues that restrict growth and wear from our heavy play. With Cyclone Yasi bearing down on the Queensland coast meaning potential rainfall for us and our long term local forecast of more rain, meaning cloudy conditions, I have this week opted to slightly lift the mowing height on the River greens to encourage the last chance at optimum growth conditions. There has also been some re-turfing of some of the worst areas that have not recovered from last years shade on greens 4 and 13. The greens will be fertilised this coming Thursday, weather permitting, and will then possibly be de-thatched depending on the weather and will definitely be sanded in the coming weeks, most likely next Tuesday following the Ladies competition. If I can attain a full recovery of the turf surface the height may be lowered back next month. We are certainly not alone with our greens being behind where they should be for this time of year with every SE Qld Superintendent I talk to experiencing the same and all the Course Blogs from the local area mentioning the same.

The West greens have not enjoyed the return to traditional summer temperatures but are in great condition for this time of year with the dis-coloration from the foreign Couch control a bit unsightly. The high soil temperatures we are currently experiencing literally shaves the root structure of the Bentgrass meaning that the greens need to be kept moist to survive. This in turn means that pitchmarks are at their worst and that is clearly evidenced when you walk on any west course green. Please, please, please help the turf by repairing your pitchmark as every un-repaired pitchmark is a potential site for disease infection. This is the type of weather that the fan at the 17th West green was installed for to help the green cope with and appears to be working with the green in the best condition it has been in at this time of the year for some time.

Flood photos

2011-01-27T09:34:00.000+11:00

This is an excellent link to some photos of some of the Brisbane Golf Clubs affected by the floods. http://www.flickr.com/photos/agcsa

Indooroopilly GC

2011-01-23T07:19:00.001+11:00

Its hard to imagine that this is Indooroopilly GC. I will let the photos do the talking.

Clearing silt from a fairway

Silt covered fairway

Clubhouse

Nearmap.com is an Australian website that has some astounding photos of the floods. Click on this link for an aerial of Indooroopilly GC with Brisbane GC just to the south. You can move the page around and zoom in as well. If you knew where to look there is a creek next to Brisbane GC that has 3 full size semi trailers in it!!

http://www.nearmap.com/?q=13.1.11%20I'Pilly%20GC@-27.518015,152.997837&ll=-27.513638,152.998309&z=15&t=k&nmd=20110113

2011-01-21T15:07:00.000+11:00

Its hard to fathom the damage and loss of life caused by the floods in south east Queensland. When I was an apprentice I worked at Latrobe GC in Melbourne on the Yarra River and experienced several floods there including once on Good Friday when I had to go out and bring in the tee markers, flags and anything else I could salvage. I actually saw where the water first broke the levee bank and within 2 hours the whole course was flooded. The speed and power of that water is something that still lives with me today, so I have great sympathy for the poor people affected by the recent events.

Golf clubs in Brisbane have certainly not been immune from the carnage and as I mentioned last week, courses are so often built in flood plains and/or low lying areas and this is certainly the case in Brisbane. Some Clubs have been without power until as recently as today and the entire clubhouse and golf course is shut down which will have a terrible impact on these Clubs. On the positive side, in amongst all the volunteers helping out has been literally hundreds of Members helping out their stricken Clubs with well co-ordinated working bees. The Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association have been following the floods and the effects on golf courses closely and these are a couple of links to articles with some of the grim news;

http://www.agcsa.com.au/news/2011/jan/qld_turfies_begin_tortuous_cleanup_after_floods

http://www.agcsa.com.au/news/2011/jan/queensland_flood_update_thursday_20_january

At Coolie Tweed, the courses are still holding water in some areas which is absolutely amazing. Another 19 mm last night had many of the pools of water re-form on the fairways and roughs although the majority of the playing surfaces are fine. The major downside to all this rain and associated cloud cover is the lack of light intensity for the Couchgrass to grow in. The River greens are currently really struggling to maintain a cover. Areas where we lose turf from shade in winter (rear 4, 12 and 13) have still not recovered and will probably require re-turfing. The general health of the greens for this time of year is poor and although they might be putting well now, my concern is having enough grass to sustain us through winter. If the weather doesn't improve I may need to give them a minor renovation in early February to kick them on.

The tees are also not as healthy as they should be for this time of year and a minor renovation might be needed to help stimulate some growth on them as well. Once again the surface right at the moment is OK but it is about having enough grass to get through winter that is my main priority.

16 West fairway waterlogged area

Some areas on the fairways have now been waterlogged for some time and several small depressions and hollows have been holding water as well. This has resulted in what is known in turf management as a "scald" injury. At this stage it is hoped that we will get recovery and most of the areas are to the edge of fairways. The main exception is the 16th West fairway which has damage in the middle of the fairway and may require re-turfing.

Elsewhere on the course and the West greens have had encroaching Couchgrass treated and will be subject to some dis-coloration in the next few weeks as will the greens surrounds on both courses. The tees are being handweeded to avoid any more undue stress on the plant from spray applications.

The big wet

2011-01-12T13:38:00.000+11:00

Firstly my thoughts are with all those in the south east of Queensland literally fighting for their lives and trying to salvage their belongings. Being a little wet under foot as we are pales into insignificance when you see some of the footage to come from the torrential rains and subsequent flooding. Unfortunately as golf courses are so often built in flood plains and/or low lying areas, the damage to golf courses will be some of the last we will see as the water clears.

At Coolie Tweed I have now recorded 665mm (just shy of 27 inches) of rain since the start of December with only nine days when there was no rain recorded. To say that we are wet is an understatement although we have been lucky that so far upstream on the Tweed River hasn't had the volumes of rain that west of Brisbane have. The course had dried out reasonably late yesterday but then a mere 6mm overnight had us wetter today than yesterday which I haven't seen happen before here. I actually started verti-draining (deep aerating) through some of the puddles yesterday to try and get the water off the surface but to no avail, which amazed me. The ground is that sodden that it can't take any more.

Verti draining through puddles

Rain

2011-01-07T16:46:00.000+11:00

Well it just continues to fall and the downpour on Wednesday night was extraordinary to say the least. I recorded 105mm at the course and Coolangatta airport 110mm with their records showing that 100mm of that fell in just two hours between 9.30 and 11.30pm. I was quite amazed at the lack of damage to the bunkers although once again it demonstrated just how good the re-constructed River course bunkers are with only two of them not being fully playable today. The combination of some high tides and the volume of water coming down the Tweed River saw the highest levels I have seen today considering it hadn't rained much for 24 hours. Buggy drivers had to wade through 6 inches of water at the 9th River tee as the water pushed in. The downside of such a high water table and tide levels is the delay in the courses drying out with the West course absolutely saturated at the moment.

1st River "creek" at high tide today

Whilst we are a little wet, spare a thought for golfers in the UK and even the USA where courses are being blanketed with snow as the photos below show.

Royal Dornoch

TPC Valencia just out from Los Angeles

The end is here!

2010-12-31T17:34:00.000+11:00

Well let's hope it's the end of the rain. It has certainly been the hot topic of the past week in particular and I signed off this morning on 469mm of rain for December, 312 of which fell from the 23rd to the 28th. December 2010 comes in as the second wettest on record for this location behind 1955 with 487mm, which is a bit of a concern as that was the lead up to the "1956 flood" which was the second worst for the Tweed area behind 1954. Interestingly only 1970 with 462mm, 1983 with 440mm and 1943 with exactly 300mm are other years where more than 300mm of rain was recorded in December for this location since 1886, which illustrates just how unusual this month has been. 2010's total rainfall of 2,280mm has it placed 10th for annual volume since 1886 and well up on the location average of 1685mm.

The fan at the 17th West green didn't like the rain as some moisture found its way to a control switch and caused a circuit breaker to trip out. It is back in full operation now in time for the next month which is normally crunch time for the green. Looking at the quality and quantity of grass cover at the moment the mind boggles as to why it is such a problem child.

The other West greens have experienced some disease which is only natural given the intense moisture that has been about and that outbreak is now hopefully in check. The River greens have "puffed up" with the ideal growing conditions of late and are proving difficult to maintain a level mown surface with the amount of growth they are experiencing, although the putting surface is still good.. A light de-thatching next week should help the surface level out somewhat.

With the short working weeks and huge volume of play it is impossible for us to keep up with mowing all the rough given the exponential growth at present. At this time of year there is no such thing as finishing mowing rough so please bear with us through the coming weeks.

The end is nigh

2010-12-24T14:40:00.002+11:00

The end of year is approaching and the visiting golfers are about to descend upon us (if the weather holds out) once again. Earlier this week we had a visitor of a different kind, that being a Wallaby. Unfortunately I couldn't get my camera focused quickly enough so only got a long range shot. We have seen it twice this week so hopefully I will get a photo next time.

5th West dam 27/12 09

I don't think the weather warrants mentioning with everyone well and truly over the rain. It is an amazing contrast to last year when there was no rain recorded from November 24th to December 19th which followed a particularly dry spell. This year rain has been recorded on 20 out of 24 days in December. At least the on course dams are enjoying the rain as evidenced in the photos. My records show that last year I pumped water down from the treatment plant for irrigation for 3 months straight 24/7 up until December 27th. This year I can barely remember pumping any down at all!

5th West dam 24/12/10

"Submarine" 8th West dam

Whist I am talking about dams the "submarine" that has appeared in the 8th west dam is actually a float that supports the pump that circulates water through the adjacent dams. The pump was previously on a frame on the floor of the dam but had continual problems sucking in debris so now that it is suspended in the water we should have trouble free operation.

And dam the person in the first group who left this pitchmark on the 17th West green this morning.

17th West green after one group today

And on a more pleasant note thank you to the Member who dropped off a case of beer and a Christmas card for the groundstaff yesterday. You have no idea what a small gesture like that does for staff morale. Thank you and I trust all Members have a safe and merry Christmas, with lots of dry weather golf!!

2010-12-18T13:26:00.000+11:00

It's been a long week hosting the Greg Norman Junior Masters but a successful one, particularly for the senior boys winner Cameron Smith who shot an amazing four round total of 24 under par. I guess you have to feel sorry for the runner up who shot 17 under as that would normally win comfortably. The story of the young fellow who aced the 17th River two days in a row was quite amazing too. Most years we have some issues with the weather and this year was no exception with the final day seeing the final groups bought in off the course due to lightning. The weather radar on the final day was looking rather grim so I rang Murwillumbah GC Super Brian Cox to see what it was like there and if there was any lightning. He responded that there was no lightning and that it was very black but it would probably blow away around the mountain like the day before. Five minutes later he rang back with "starting to rain a little bit", then five minutes later "raining a lot with a bit of lightning", then five minutes later "lightning every 20 seconds", then five minutes later "hailing now". Needless to say my advice to halt play was heeded and the players got in just in time. 15 mm of rain fell in about 10 minutes and play resumed after the storm cell had passed. News filtered through later that day of the golfer who was struck by lightning and killed at Hawks Nest GC, which was an unfortunate reminder of the danger of being on a golf course during an electrical storm.

The humidity of the past couple of weeks has caught up with the West greens with quite a bit of disease present despite applications of preventative treatments. The good news is that the 17th West green has withstood this outbreak thus far so here's hoping that the fan is doing its job and it gets through the heat of summer unscathed. At least we have missed the rain for a change with only 118 mm being recorded over the first 18 days of December with only 3 days having no rain recorded. Southport has recorded 186mm and Horton Park on the Sunshine Coast a massive 326mm.

Next week will see some trenching on both courses to replace some irrigation control tube lines. Trenching will take place on 1 and 10 West and 13 and 14 River. The 16th West will also have some trenching to allow for the installation for an additional fairway sprinkler. Growth retardants will also be applied to the fairways to slow them down to allow for the four day Christmas break and onslaught of play that follows.

2010-12-14T17:58:00.000+11:00

It's been a hectic time since my last post and I now wish I had gone to my families Christmas party in Melbourne last weekend and avoided spending 25 hours on the courses on Saturday and Sunday! Things started badly on Saturday morning at 4.30 am when my irrigation pump flow meter was reading 5090 litres per minute, when full irrigation cycle load is only 3,700 litres per minute. This meant either a malfunction of the meter (wishful thinking) or a big pipe break. Unfortunately it was the latter and a six inch mainline had blown apart next to the 1st West fairway. Hand digging was impossible due to the roots so our backhoe contractor Pete McConnell came to the rescue and excavated the hole for us. The best part of 6 metres of mainline was replaced by myself with the assistance of our irrigation man Dave Luxton, who already had 52 hours down on his timesheet before another 6 hours were added on Saturday afternoon. One of the critical things to be careful of after losing virtually all the water out of our irrigation pipe network is to regenerate the system very slowly and expel as much air out as possible. To do this I need to operate some sprinklers which would have looked quite odd on Saturday evening after it had rained most of the day. It all ended well and the system is now back in full operation waiting for the rain to end.

Tree roots in the trench

The guilty section of pipe

You sometimes wonder what makes people tick when you see something like the photo below. Some idiot had emptied the wheelie bin at the half way house on the entry road this morning which cost me two men for 20 minutes cleaning it up when they would have been far more productive on the golf courses somewhere!

Entry road 5.30 am this morning

Week ending December 10

2010-12-10T17:00:00.001+11:00

A few of tees on the courses have suffered a burn from the recent herbicide application which is most unusual. The tees were sprayed at the same time as other areas and as mentioned earlier you would normally expect a superficial burn but the tees are far worse. The tees are always under a degree of stress with the amount of wear they receive and this is most likely the cause. Turf is no different from any living thing in that if it is weakened in any area it is more prone to other problems manifesting themselves. Fortunately only a small number of tees were sprayed and therefore affected by the burn.

Spray burn at rear 2nd West tee

The Greg Norman junior tournament is nearly upon us again and the Renay Appleby day was played today. A 17 year old girl from Malaysia shot an impressive 5 under 68 in windy and warm conditions to win the girls event and the boys could only manage an even par round for their best score. There was a straight drive on the 16th River today and I extended the line a little this morning with the north wind blowing but didn't figure on one of the girls bombing a straight 250 metre drive past the end of the line nearly equal to the Fig trees.!

Next week will see us starting earlier in the morning to prepare the River course in front of the juniors 2 tee start. About two and a half hours is about all the time we get on the River course each day next week so we need to make the most of it.

Lucky so far

2010-12-08T12:10:00.000+11:00

Well so far so good with the rainfall as we have missed most of the worst of it. Reports of ten plus inches at some locations further up the Gold Coast although mainly inland. We have had just under 3 inches since last Wednesday with constant "scuds" coming through which can be a bit annoying for the staff as no sooner do they get their rain gear on, the sun is back out to bake them. A few Gold Coast courses are currently closed due to flooding and many have their bunkers out of play due to washouts and flooding.

One thing the rain and humidity is creating is grass growth and plenty of it. The fertiliser on the fairways has also now well and truly kicked in and a growth regulator has been applied to them. The growth regulator slows down the growth by at least half and also prevents seed head from developing on the Couchgrass which helps with aesthetics and cuts down the frequency with which mowing is required. With 33 hectares of fairways and two mowers we are doing our best to keep up.

The Greg Norman tournament next week also affects what we can do on the courses as we can only mow on the River course in front of the field and then come back over to the West course. At least the week leading into Christmas is normally a bit quieter on the golfing front so we have a good opportunity to catch up then. A four day break over Christmas will also affect how much mowing we can get done.

We are finding it hard to keep up with the roughs and that will probably only get worse. The roughs are the areas that receive most complaints at this time of year and with the growth rate we are experiencing we can only mow all the rough on both courses once in a week if we don't have any machine downtime. So in a word be prepared for some searching for balls if you hit it in the rough in the coming weeks.

Summer's here?

2010-12-01T17:50:00.004+11:00

Well the humidity might be, but the hot sun certainly hasn't arrived consistently yet, although the couple of hot days we have had are certainly a reminder of what is to come. The constant wind of the past few weeks has seriously interrupted our spraying programs and the wet weather and humidity has seen a huge germination of weeds throughout the courses. Most of these areas have been treated this week resulting in the brownish appearance of many areas, particularly the greens surrounds. This is just a superficial burn and will grow out naturally in a few days. I have actually had to resort to some hand removal of some weeds to try and keep on top of them.

The River greens have also had a large number of weeds appear but the wind has thus far prevented me from getting them treated. I am hoping for good conditions tomorrow or Friday to get them sprayed in time for the Greg Norman tournament. It is possible to use pre-emergent products on the greens to prevent weeds germinating but they generally have an adverse effect on root growth, so I generally steer clear of them.

I submitted the rainfall figures for November today and we had just 64mm which was a nice change from the 480mm in October. It was recorded over 15 days though which has meant a lot of annoying rain for golfers and groundstaff alike.

The 8mm we received last night certainly wasn't annoying as it washed in the fertiliser that was put out on 8 of the West course fairways yesterday. More fairways were fertilised on the West course today and as I write this there looks like some rain on the way from the north that will arrive just after the golfers finish for the day.

I am looking forward to the Course Information Session tomorrow at the Course Maintenance shed in Davey Street at 4.30pm DST, and hope to see a lot of interested Members there.

2010-11-26T18:03:00.000+11:00

It's truly amazing just how many leaves trees can produce and then let the wind blow them all over the golf courses! Surely there can't be anymore left up there to blow down. The wind has finally started to moderate and it is a credit to my staff the way they persisted with the blowing and clearing leaves and sticks from the main playing areas. It can be frustrating sometimes when you are literally up against the wind but they did a great job under the circumstances. It may seem a waste of time to players to be doing so much clearing in the windy conditions but the more sunlight we can get to the turf the better and the better the enjoyment of the game.

The fan at the 17th West green has had its final tweakings and has now been permanently mounted on some scaffolding and prettied up with some shade cloth. There are still lots of people asking about it so it will definitely be a topic of conversation at next Thursdays course information session. The fan produces air flow of 35 kmh 2 metres from it and I have recorded flow of up to 7 kmh at the front of the green. It may seem strange for it to be operating in the windy conditions but it is important for the air movement to continue whenever there is a drop in wind velocity.

Final resting place

We are slowly but surely updating our rubbish bin / ball washer / NTP card holders. They do take quite a bit of time to assemble and are being done as time allows our Head Mechanic Craig Plowman. They look quite smart with the stainless steel post a great improvement over the old timber.

Very nice addition

The Yagi antenna that was mentioned in an earlier post has operated faultlessly and three other locations will now have them installed over the coming weeks. With the temperatures rising it is crucial that the irrigation control system is operating at its best.

GRRRRRRR

2010-11-22T10:52:00.001+11:00

One of the more annoying things that can happen to a golf course is when morons decide to drive their car on the course, and in particular the greens. I have seen worse damage and the green is still basically playable but it is most annoying. The sad part is that when you look at where the tyre marks lead, i.e. straight between the bunkers, it is obvious that the driver was well acquainted with the golf course.
Add to this damage the six divots that have been taken out of the greens over the weekend and you can tell their are some angry people on the courses. Having the "pleasure" of watching some of the attempted golf swings out there, they may be better to harness their anger, invest in some lessons and improve their game......and leave the golf course alone!!

11 River green

Encroachment 4

2010-11-19T17:48:00.000+11:00

The West greens were treated today with a product that helps control and prevent Couchgrass from flourishing in the greens. As I have mentioned before there is no sure fire method of completely removing the foreign Couchgrass and the best we can hope for is containment. There is a stain on the greens from the application that should wash in and/or grow out over a couple of days. In contrast to the new product I have trialled on other greens that has resulted in quite a distinct dis-colouration, this stain is not permanent.

Staining on sprayed areas

The pump that re-circulates water through the dams at 7 / 8 West has broken down and is currently being assessed for repair. The water in these dams is very salty/muddy and there is an abundance of aquatic weed and mussels of all things that make the life of a pump in this situation difficult to say the least.