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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.