A great finish to the USPGA last week with an incredible effort from the grounds crew to keep the course playable despite the weather interruptions.  They do get a huge number of volunteers to assist (which is an effort in itself to manage the numbers) but the playability of the course was superb given the conditions.  Although Jason Day finishing pin high on the 550yd par 5 last with 2 x 2 irons on a rain softened course may hint toward the ball traveling a bit too far!!  

There has been a very good seed strike on the temporary greens on the back 9 West and the plan is to let them grow then mow them back down slowly.  The finished putting surface should be very good, especially if we can stop the ducks grazing on them!!  The greens have been oversown with a mix of Bentgrass and a grass called Poa trivialis which is the most common turf type used for oversowing Couchgrass greens.  Both these cool season species are expected to die out once the warm weather really arrives around Christmas and there should be a smooth transition as the Couch underneath emerges.

The weather certainly took a turn for the worse this week but fortunately we didn't get the volume of rain that fell further south with many areas receiving 250mm+ which is too much.  What we did get virtually closed the courses on Thursday then had buggies off the West course on Friday.  When I see damage like this it really makes you wonder why I worry so much about the decision on keeping buggies off.  Maybe they need to be off until both courses are bone dry again?

Frustrating damage on 5R....Idiots.

And I saw the following photo on a Twitter feed that I follow.  Could you imagine that happening in this day and age??

Single file please!!

 

The great weather continues and I don't think I have seen the fairways growing like this at this time of year before.  The weather last Saturday in particular was extraordinary with the weather station in the maintenance compound recording 32 degrees.  Compare that to the weather that southern Australia experienced and you are very glad you live up here.  Football matches were called off due to players suffering from hypothermia and golf almost impossible to play with sleet and snow falling.  The photo below is from The National GC south of Melbourne.

Too cold for golf??

I had a couple of comments this week about why the West greens are being done when they are so good  with which I agree right at the moment but when you cast your mind back to the problems they experience in summer the changeover is well overdue.  I was also asked about how good they were last Saturday in the heat and that they didn't seem to suffer which is easily explained by the soil temperatures.  With the colder overnight temperatures the soil doesn't get the chance to heat up which happens in summer when the roots are literally cooked.  The works will only be quite short term pain for long term gain for the Club.

And it was nice to see another club post a photo of unrepaired pitch marks on a green which I did a few years ago to prove that we are not alone with the problem.  The photo below is from Glenelg GC in Adelaide and there are 700 balls on the green sitting on poorly repaired pitch marks.  They actually didn't get all the marks covered in time before play started coming through!!

700 pitch marks!!

Back to work and was greeted by some lovely winter weather and the courses in great condition thanks to the efforts of my Assistant Simon and crew.  About the closest I came to a golf course over the past three weeks was a putt putt course in Lithuania!!

The temporary greens on the back 9 West will be oversown on next Monday weather permitting.  This has always been the plan but had to be delayed until the effect of a pre- emergent herbicide has hopefully dissipated enough to allow the seed to germinate.  The areas will be roped off so as to keep cart and foot traffic off them to allow for the seed to strike.

A very busy couple of months of golf ahead so it will be nice if the weather continues, particularly the lack of wind which keeps the courses clean and allows staff hours to be deployed elsewhere.  We will be doing some root pruning next Thursday with a machine that was used a few years back that causes little or no damage to the surface but slices through the roots.  A couple of courses in Melbourne have done their entire course with great results. 

And a couple of photos below that need no explanation but makes you wonder why signs are put out on golf courses.  I do know one course that covered their bunkers with wire to protect them and several courses do the same thing to protect the back tee areas from unauthorised play.

Putt putt in Lithuania!!

 

Here's hoping the forecast for Sunday is wrong but they have been constant with the prediction all week so it looks like battening down the hatches once again. 

A very sad day this week with the passing of Club Patron Bill Garbett.  His contribution to the golf courses over his membership was nothing short of amazing and a truer gentleman I doubt I have met.  His passion for the Tuesday morning volunteer crew of Dad's Army knew no bounds and the number of hours he volunteered to the Club and course was simply amazing.  Vale Bill.

I am on leave for a month from today with next week being spent at the Australian Turfgrass conference and Show in Melbourne so there will be a break from posting for a month. 

I saw the following which certainly gave me a chuckle;

A golf course owner has said a neighbouring venue spent £120,000 on a health and safety course redesign because balls were found on a nearby block of flats’ roof – only to discover later that birds thinking they were eggs had deposited the balls. They weren’t actually hit by golfers!!

The transformation of the courses this week is nothing short of amazing and a testament to dedication and hard work performed by the ground staff.  Dad's Army and a couple of volunteers also did a great job "stick picking" on Tuesday.  To give an idea of the staff numbers that were on course this week;  Monday, Tuesday and Thursday there were 10, Wednesday 8 and Friday 9.  That's the same as some 18 hole courses on the Gold Coast and the resultant Coolie Tweed courses are an absolute credit to them.

The courses have just about been cleared of all the debris and a large percentage of bunkers restored.  The Friday comp was lucky today as I didn't think we would get all the bunkers prepared and raked in play in front of them so left all bunkers as GUR.  The bunkers finished up all getting done in front of the comp which again was a great effort by the staff.  A couple of West course bunkers were virtually destroyed and have been rebuilt and had fresh sand added with a few more to be done.

There has been some widespread damage to golf courses right down the east coast and we can be thankful that the river doesn't really do any bad damage when it breaks its banks and we don't really have much inundation.  The salt factor of the water certainly has an effect as can be seen on 1 and 9 River fairways and the short range.  The volume of water that can be shifted off the courses via the drainage network is also something that still astounds me even after so many chaotic weather events.

Wow thank heavens that's over.  I emptied the rain gauge at 5pm on Saturday afternoon and tipped out 92mm from 9am that followed the 98mm that I tipped out on Saturday morning.  The gauge had actually overflowed overnight Saturday and there was 238mm in it to give us a grand total of 330mm for the 24 hours till 9am Sunday and 427mm since it started raining on Friday afternoon.  Add the 24mm we had on Wednesday and Thursday and we total 451mm for the week!!  That's 18 inches of rain!!

At this stage the courses will both be closed on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday with an assessment made at lunchtime Tuesday regarding the rest of the week.

The river level is lower than I expected with it only just breaching the levee bank on this mornings high tide which is a positive but there is an enormous amount of water that needs to drain off the courses. There is a huge amount of debris strewn across the courses that will take time to clear as well but there are no complete trees down which is remarkable to say the least.  Probably only a dozen branches will require a chainsaw.

Some photos below to give you an idea of how much water is out there.

An eerie sunrise on the river.

The normally bone dry 1 West

 

7 River

11 River

High water mark on 1 River green

Ladies 6 River tee

Let's hope the weather forecast is a little off and we escape the worst of what is supposedly coming.  A few minor irrigation issues this week that were quickly overshadowed by preparations for the deluge that is on its way.  All drains were trimmed and cleaned out to try and have them working at capacity and dams that can be lowered were also done.  We had 12mm of rain in a heavy shower on Wednesday night followed by 10mm on Thursday night before the rain came in on Friday afternoon.  The courses are very dry and it will take some time for the water to soak in but what we have had so far has been most welcome.  

This type of prolonged wet weather provides the perfect situation for disease to attack the greens, particularly the West greens so hopefully they are in a state of health that will resist the conditions.

A few new signs have been placed on the courses with respect to the recycled water that we have used for some 35 years to irrigate the golf courses.  The club is in the final stages of re signing the supply agreement with Tweed Council and the signage is one of many conditions we need to meet to satisfy the regulators.