The comments that are being received about the condition of the courses are very satisfying and a lot of the credit goes to my staff who have done a great job again over the summer.  The irrigation system is operating at its full potential and considering the age of some of the piping and sprinklers it does an incredible job although barely a day goes by without some repair work being required.  There are some dry areas on some of the fairways but these are generally related to the condition of the soil profile in the area.

The West greens are really under pressure now although the shorter daylight hours of recent times do help them.  The lack of rain as highlighted in last weeks post has not helped the situation with the greens needing to survive virtually solely on the treated irrigation water.  Whilst this water is a godsend it is not without its problems with high salt levels that are usually diluted or flushed away from the root zone by the normally regular summer rains.  That hasn't been the case this year and the greens are showing the effects with a very poor root structure and depth.  That is fairly usual for this time of year as Bentgrass roots start dying when the soil temperature reaches 25 degrees.  On 17 West green today the surface temperature was 33 degrees and the soil temperature 31.  The ambient temperature will stay at around 22 degrees over night and the irrigation water that will be applied is sitting at about 27 degrees meaning that there will be no significant cooling of the surface or root zone. This has been the case since early December so it is easy to see why the greens are stressed.  At the moment most of the roots are sitting in the thatch layer in the top inch or so of the surface and that is why the greens are so soft at the moment as the roots can only draw water close to the surface.  Bring on some cooler autumn weather and dare I say it some rain.

The dry summer unfortunately claimed a local victim by forcing Club Banora to close 9 holes.  It is never good when you hear of any sporting venue having such luck with staff losing their jobs and players there favourite pastime.  Interesting figures out of the USA this week that one golf course is closing every two weeks with most being public facilities.  The other interesting figure is that there are the same number of private clubs now as there was in 1929.

And on a lighter note under the heading "only in America";

A game called foot golf, which combines soccer (or football, as it's known outside of the U.S.) and golf, is growing to 39 courses in the U.S. this spring. Foot golf courses are adjacent to traditional, existing golf courses so that 18, 21-inch-wide holes can be played in about the same time as a traditional nine-hole round of golf.

What will they think of next??

Well it has certainly been a dry summer but when I discovered that it was actually the driest summer season on record for the Tweed Heads site I was amazed.  There was only a couple of falls above 10mm but rain was recorded on 29 of the 90 days which is why I was so surprised.  It was however a nice change from the last two years when we received 1005mm and 891 mm respectively but was just a little bit too much of one extreme to the other.  The dry conditions don't allow the grass to grow in the rough though, particularly the broadleaf Carpetgrass that normally "swallows" the ball so there have been fewer lost balls which means happier players!!.

The driest summers at Tweed Heads in millimetres

Year 2013/14                                                

Dec 13           28.6   

Jan 14            65.0

Feb 14           45.8
Total           139.4

Year 1938/39             

Dec 38             8.3

Jan 39            75.2

Feb 39           57.4

Total            140.9

Year 1918/19         

Dec 18           35.1

Jan 19            19.8
Feb 19            99.6
TOTAL         154.5

Year 1901/02         

Dec 01           13.9

Jan 02            82.7

Feb 02            66.6
TOTAL         163.2

And what is it about morons when they get in a golf cart?

6 River bunker

It must have been a hot week with a Goanna sighted out and about on 6 river earlier this week.  A pity he couldn't have chased our friends in the buggy away!

Goanna on 6 River

A very teasing week with 18mm of rain falling that included a very nice fall of 12mm on Monday night.  It was really just annoying and adds to the humidity and the pressure on the West course bentgrass greens.  At this stage they are still holding well but there is still some heat and humidity to come so mowing heights will stay up to help them survive the rest of summer.

The River course greens were de-thatched and sanded this week.  The de-thatching helps remove thatch as the name implies and the units we use also remove a lot of dead leaf material from the surface as well.  They are effectively slicing blades spaced at 10mm and for this regular type of operation are set level with the surface and the weight of the unit makes it just contact the grass.  The machines go up and back on the same line to ensure consistency.  It is not a major surface disruption but is labour intensive to try and ensure we finish in front of play.  The greens were then sanded to assist in levelling the surface and they are putting quite nicely at the moment.

De thatching head

A calm week wind wise allowed a lot of weed control to take place.  Foreign couchgrass in most of the West greens has been sprayed and a green dye is used to help identify the areas sprayed.  Spraying has also taken place on greens surrounds on both courses and selected fairways and these areas will burn off to a brown color then green up gradually over the coming weeks.  Other fairways were spot sprayed using knapsacks.

A very hot week has just passed with the rain so close but just never eventuating.  On Monday morning the radar looked very promising with good size falls in Brisbane and heading south.  The fertiliser spreaders were readied and loaded and out they went.  Unfortunately the rain didn't make it past Southport so I had to rely on irrigation to water it in. 

Speaking of irrigation, the courses are irrigated with treated effluent water from Tweed Shire Councils Banora Point treatment plant in Greenway Drive over past Bunnings and 1.4 megalitres are being pumped down daily and then pumped out on the courses each night.  We are very fortunate to have such a high quality water with the Council having just spent $35 million on an upgrade of the plant.  This link has some more information about the plant; http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Item/269  When you hear of some south east Queensland courses having to truck water in to water greens only we are indeed very fortunate. 

And it must be hot because it generally needs to be to catch a glimpse of the Lace Monitors (aka Goannas) that inhabit the course.  The one below looks like the baby of the 2 metre one that rushed past me near 13 River tee and scared the heavens out of me before it scampered up a tree!

Lace Monitor near 13 River tee

And the heat and humidity of the past weeks and what will be coming in the near future certainly puts a strain on the West Course greens.  The greens are bentgrass and it is known as a cool season variety which means it is very out of place in a sub tropical climate and at this time of year goes under quite a deal of stress and a lot of its problems are accentuated.  Particularly the foreign grass invasion and particularly the foreign couchgrass.  This is not a new problem and below are some excerpts from CTH Board minutes from as long ago as 1980 which also include discussions about replacing the greens.  There is only one product registered to control the invading couchgrass and I use that quite extensively however it is unable to fully control all the different varieties so it really just acts as a suppressant for us.  Hand weeding is carried out continually in an effort to pull the runners but with the resources available I just can't keep up.  The blue and mullumbimby couch and carpetgrass that also invade are either hand weeded or spot sprayed.  The product that is available to control these pests can have quite a detrimental effect on the bentgrass particularly at this time of year when they are under so much climatic stress.  One needs to tread very carefully with application of any products to the greens including water and fertiliser.  Some of the long term members will well remember the annual problems that occurred with the greens  and it was not uncommon for there to be several temporary greens each summer and large areas of extensive turf loss.  That was before my time I might say!  The bentgrass greens do take a lot of work but when the weather cools they provide an excellent putting surface.

  

A very busy week just gone with tees on both courses being renovated.  As posted last week they haven't been done for two years and needed it desperately.  The process consisted of a deep scarify, hollow tyne with 16mm diameter holes and then the resultant cores rubbed back in to the surface which effectively topdresses and fertilises them.  It is a very labour intensive operation as the scarifying takes quite a bit of time and the resultant material needs to be removed.  As you can see in the photo below about 4 cubic metres of material was removed from 6 tee West alone.  The cores then have to be dry to be rubbed back in and then cleaned off.  A final mow finishes the task.  Full recovery should be about 3 weeks but the playing surface is fine as is.

15 West tee being aerated

Load of material removed from 6 west tee.

There are lots of problems that can arise including all the markers and sprinklers being hit by the machines but by indicating their locations you can avoid any nasty surprises.  However it's the hidden problems that can cause some worries such as tree roots and with so many tree adjacent to tees they are full of roots and most are quite near the surface.  The photo below shows where the aerating machine punched through a root and took out a core which obviously blocks the core and doesn't do much for the machine either.

Normal empty tine on left and tree root core on right!

I didn't get a chance to photograph the scarifiers in operation but they are a pedestrian version with a 400mm (16 inch) cutting width.  We have 2 of the machines and they are a "Graden GS04" model and are Australian made.  They were developed by an engineering company in Melbourne called Graden Engineering which takes its name from founder Graham Dryden.  Graham was repairing a local councils machine and commented that he could make a better one and so he did.  The machine has been so successful that many Superintendents in America actually now say they are going to "Graden the greens" instead of scarifying. 

The BLOG is back

Well after a twelve month hiatus the BLOG IS BACK!!  Thank you to those members who have asked about the whereabouts of the blog and for your interest in it and I am glad to be able to once again provide you with an insight in to what we do on the course maintenance team.  
Well nothing much has really changed over the twelve months on the courses with the following selection for your viewing.........

               Bunkers still unraked....

Lucky he didn't stand on the rake!!

               Divots out of greens....

5 West green this time

           
               Fairways used for practice.....

At least they attempted to use sand!!

               
                      Pitchmarks on 2 West green from the above practice.....

2 West pitch marks

 
                Bunker machine breaks down IN the bunker.....

Bunker rake breakdown in the bunker

               Wild weather for a change.....

A bunker wash

               A dry summer.....

8 West dam as low as I've seen it this week

               Invasive tree roots.....

Sample of roots 4 inches under 17 River green surface

         

               Coots about to graze on 7 West green.....

Here they come!!

              Morons driving cars on greens.....

10 West green - damage could have been a lot worse though

               Irrigation problems - this time an electrical fault.....

This caused $20,000 damage to the irrigation controllers

               But some good things did happen.....

Great to see a green frog but when he appeared from behind the
spray controller on the tractor i was a little startled!

               
                   And on a personal note I finally got to see St Andrews.....

Unfortunately way too cold for me to play

As I perused my photos of the past twelve months I realised that I don't take many photos of the good things that happen or the good results that are achieved on the courses but my crew have been heartened by the many complimentary comments about the playing conditions over the past year.

But moving forward the next few months will see a flurry of work on the courses to get them ready for winter.  All tees on both courses will be renovated which will include a heavy scarify followed by a hollow tyne and fertilise.  The tees haven't been renovated for 2 years and desperately need it.  Selected fairways will be fertilised to ensure a good cover of grass entering winter as will many of the shaded weaker turf areas.

Unless something extraordinary happens I aim to post weekly which will generally be on a Friday afternoon / evening.  If there is anything you would like me to explain for you or you have a burning question that needs answering then please add a comment to the blog or email me at the address that is on the club website under "about us / corporate".

 



What was achieved by my crew in 4 days this week was simply amazing.  Only 14 crew (compared with 19 at the same time last year) and with the help of 3 of the best machine operators - Trevor, Chicka and Peter Mc - I have ever seen and a battalion of member volunteers on Wednesday you would barely know anything had happened.

Number one pile of what was taken off the course

Number two pile.

 

 

The pile of "towed off trees"

 

 

1 and 9 River on Tuesday morning

1 and 9 River Friday afternoon

Burnt leaves

                                       

You may notice some brown leaves developing on some of the trees in the coming days.  They are not dying but rather suffering from a salt burn from the water that was in the wind that was lashing in from the ocean.

But a very sobering end to the week with the news that Bundaberg GC Course Super Sean Stuchbery and family have lost everything in the flood up there.  After the hike in premiums following the 2011 flood (which Sean’s house escaped) and the low wages of a regional Superintendent, coupled with the costs of raising a young family, Sean was unfortunately not insured.  Sure puts life into perspective when you look at what we went through here.

Well I have just clocked up 64 hours on site since Monday so I think I’ve earned a beer.