We have had quite a run of quite major irrigation problems of late and today was no exception with a big repair required on 1 River fairway right in the drive zone.  We knew it was going to be a dangerous spot and unfortunately our Irrigation Tech was struck in the head but fortunately no damage was sustained.  It never ceases to amaze me though when the next two players came through and were laughing about it.  We accept that the job is one where being hit by a golf ball is always a possibility but I can assure you that it is no laughing matter.  We rigged up a temporary fence and parked a tractor in front of the boys working on the repair to protect them and they finished the job in somewhat safer conditions.

Temporary protection for the staff

Due to the prolonged wet conditions earlier this year the irrigation system was not in use for probably the longest period since the new control and pump system was installed over ten years ago.  We have then gone into a sustained irrigation period of some four months and I suppose that the aging system just can't cope with the continued use.  One of the most important aspects after a repair is to re-pressurise the sysytem very slowly to prevent further pipe damage from water hammer and air locks.

Well another year is coming to a close and the warm summer weather is certainly upon us with the heat and humidity on the rise.  The worst part of the holiday period for me is the short weeks at a time when the grass is growing its hardest and there is a lot of play which means it is difficult to keep up with the mowing.  So apologies in advance for the lack of mowing and in particular the roughs.

Not a lot has been happening on the courses of late apart from routine maintenance but we did get the tree debris pile adjacent to 6 River mulched recently.  Some of the mulch has been relocated to the area at the rear of the buggy shed and is available free of charge to members.  So please help yourself.  The video below gives an idea of just what the tub grinder can achieve and the mulch is quite high quality. 

I also was lucky enough to get a game in the Pro am at Coolum for the Australian PGA a couple of weeks ago.  Obviously the changes to the resort amongst all the other shenanigans going on up there took most of the press but behind the scenes of the tournament is a well oiled PGA machine that runs the day to day mechanics of what is a very big undertaking.  In my last post I mentioned Scott Gardiner and this time I take my hat off to former CTH Trainee Pro Broc Greenhalgh who is currently the Executive Officer for the Queensland division of the PGA.  I have reason to deal with Broc in a number of areas within Queensland Golf and you couldn't find a more professional person and the way he conducts himself across the board is an absolute credit to him.  And I don't just say that because he got me a spot in the Pro am ahead of his old boss Russ Davis!!

But back to the golf course at Coolum and I also salute host Super Dean Henderson and his crew for the job they did in presenting the courses in what could only be described as less than ideal circumstances which I won't delve in to here.  Every Superintendent I have spoken to has, to a man, been amazed at the quality of the turf presented by Dean under the restrictions he was placed under.

So back to the shenanigans and the video below shows Jeff the dinosaur roaring which from all reports was turned down considerably from the noise level he can emit.  There are also a couple of shots of some of the controversial on course signage as well.

"JFK" sign on the 9 tee

USA flag tribute on 9 fairway

 And at the other end of the tournament spectrum is the news that Merion GC, the host of  the 2013 US Open has instigated the use of mats to play from 8 months out from the tournament to protect the fairways.  They are only in use on fairways where balls collect in a landing area but it does seem a bit of overkill especially when the course is closed from early December to April for winter  It is not a new idea as many courses in Great Britain use mats during winter to reduce damage to their fairways.  Whereas at The Lakes for the Australian Open this year the club held their normal Monthly Medal on the Saturday prior and a large Corporate day for Volvo on the Sunday.  Adam Scott asked one of the groundstaff why there were so many divots and when did you close for the tournament.  He couldn't believe it when he was told "last night" and then commented how good the course was considering!   And lastly on the mats there is the famous story of an elderly lady member who was given a mat to protect the course at the start of her round and when she arrived at her ball in the middle of the fairway she promptly dropped the mat on the ground, stood on it and hit her ball!! 

Well I think that's enough for 2012 and I would like to wish all of my Blog followers a safe and enjoyable festive season and New Year and good golfing.

A very unexpected but overwhelmingly welcome 50mm of rain this morning that will do the courses the world of good after another prolonged dry spell.  The fairways in particular were in desperate need of the rain as once again the fairway irrigation system couldn’t compete with the wind over the past couple of weeks and with the main priority being the greens the water supply levels were starting to be stretched.

I was lucky enough to be at The Lakes GC yesterday and caught up with Cool Tweeds own Scott Gardiner.  I have known a lot of touring pros over the years and none could be as down to earth and courteous as Scott.  I watched him until the 11^th and must have been some sort of curse as his game improved on the back nine to card a 76 which he followed with a 71 today.  The Lakes itself has had many major revamps over the years but the latest is no doubt the most severe and one that has polarised opinion amongst the players.  I will sit on the fence for this one and offer the following course information courtesy of Australian Superintendents Association journalist Brett Robinson;

THE SUPERINTENDENT  Anthony Mills aged 35.

THE CREW Assistant superintendent: Stephen Mallyon (recently joined The Lakes from Roseville GC).  Normal staff numbers (non-tournament): 17. Tournament staff numbers: 51 total (average of 40 per shift). 

THE COURSE

Configuration: 18 holes, 6290m par 72 (playing approx 150m shorter).

Maintained fine turf area: 32 hectares (greens total 2ha).

Bunkers: 81 + significant sandy waste areas.

Irrigation system: Toro 850 Series sprinklers controlled by a Toro SitePro Decoder system.

THE TURF, THE CUT

Greens: Penn A4 creeping bentgrass (3mm height of cut, double cut mornings)

Projected tournament stimpmeter readings: 10’5”-11’ (10’8” before second round)

Surrounds: Kikuyu and fescue (10mm, morning cut)

Tees: Santa ana couchgrass (10mm, morning cut)

Fairways: Kikuyu (10mm, morning cut)

Roughs: Kikuyu and Fescue (100mm)

Scott honing his putting just prior to the first round.

Well summer has certainly arrived with the temperatures rising and the courses drying out faster than the last few weeks.  At least the past couple of weeks have been relatively calm at night to allow for some effective irrigation on the fairways in particular.

Players will start to notice some discolouration from some weed control measures that have been carried out recently.  The foreign couchgrass in the West greens has been treated with greens 3, 9 and 12 having an alternative method used following some successful trials over the past 3 years.  It does cause some more discolouring but does seem to be more successful.  And the surrounds of the West greens have received their first treatment for the eradication of summer weeds, particularly Kikuyu which left un checked can take over very quickly providing a spongy surface to play off and to.

Finally some rainfall with in excess of 60mm falling over the past 36 hours and most of it has been the nice soaking variety which is just what I ordered!!  I was finally able to turn off the transfer pump at the treatment works yesterday for only the second time in 86 days meaning that the 15h.p. pump has operated 24 / 7 for 84 out of the last 86 days.  This got me thinking about where we would be without this water source.  I don't know for sure but from what I can gather we were the first golf club in Australia to start using recycled water as an irrigation source and as I mentioned a few posts ago, whilst the quality isn't perfect it is a life source for the courses and no doubt over the years the grasses have adapted to the deficiencies of the water 

We have a contract with the council to pump up to 2 million litres per day and the pump delivers about 1.3 million each 24 hour period.  The water is delivered to the courses via a six inch PVC pipeline that runs under the Harvey Norman complex in Machinery Drive.  When the pipe was installed in the 80's there was never a thought that anyone would ever build on those swamp lands!  However that is where the pipe runs and I am very mindful not to try and pump too much and put the pipe under strain and possibly cause a break because without it we have no irrigation water.  You can imagine the cost involved in laying a new pipe the full length of Machinery Drive across the highway and down Soorley Street.

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With the club's less than ideal trading performance over the past 12 months due to the rainfall we experienced earlier this year and the general economic downturn, I have been asked to try and reign in costs where possible.  To achieve this there are a number of small projects around the courses that have been put on hold and almost all capital expenditure on machinery has been delayed.  The proposed West greens conversion has also been postponed. This obviously got me thinking about ways to reduce expenditure and basically for me it is about "bums on seats".  The more staff you have the more resources are used across the board which has made such reductions fairly easy over the past couple of months when there has been little growth and I have been able to operate relatively comfortably with a much reduced crew.  With the rain and summer heat on the way this becomes much more difficult with the surge in grass growth and added workload so there will be some areas of the courses that will start to show the effects of these reductions and this will mainly be in the rough and bunker maintenance areas.

We have three out-front rough cutters that have to mow approximately 40 hectares of grass in an operation that never stops once the warm weather arrives.  These mowers are also used to blow leaves off fairways and tees which on a windy site such as ours is also a huge workload.  It is not uncommon for all 3 to be blowing leaves off until 9.30 am and then mowing rough for the next 5 hours.  These machines are all approaching 3,000 hours usage which is well past their prime (they are generally traded at 2,400 hours) and I am expecting a lot of downtime this coming season so apologies in advance for the long rough that we will be experiencing.

We also have 166 bunkers across the courses that cover an area of 2.8 hectares (the greens cover only 2.2 hectares) and they take up a lot of maintenance time, particularly when you look at the way players treat them.  The edging, raking, sand relocation and leaf removal in the bunkers is a massive workload and once again this is an area where maintenance has and will continue to be reduced to lower costs.  But then again they are a hazard after all.

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Whist doing my fuel usage figures for October I got to thinking about some of the costs we incur that are absolutely necessary and are probably never thought of by players.  For the month of October our main machines used the following diesel fuel;

v     Greens mowers – 436 litres

v     Fairway mowers – 448 litres

v     Rough mowers – 1080 litres

At an average cost of $1.50 per litre that equates to a monthly fuel bill of nearly $3,000 for these machines in a low growth and usage time so you can imagine the fuel bill in the peak of summer.

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I have mentioned before about tournament preparations and the lengths that some courses go to in preparing their course for a week of golf including huge amounts of machinery and an influx of volunteer labour, but this week I think I found something that tops the lot and makes me quite envious.  At Sentosa GC in Singapore the greens “rolling crew” for the Barclays Singapore Open numbered more than the total number of staff on our 36 holes last Friday!!  And with the size of those rollers no wonder the greens were running at over 12 feet on the stimpmeter!!



Sentosa's greens rolling crew!!



A busy time with a lot achieved on the courses this past week and a number of contractors were used to achieve a variety of tasks.  The week didn't start well though when a golf cart ran over a pipe on 14 River causing an impressive water spout 15 metres in the air but that was dwarfed by the 40 metre one in Melbourne the following day.  Monday had our tree contractors onsite and trees at the rear of 13, 14 and 15 West tees were removed.  This operation will allow a lot more sunlight on to these tees and allow for more air movement resulting in improved growth conditions for the turf and therefore a much better playing surface.

Water spout on 14 River!!

Monday also saw 80 tonne of bunker sand added to selected River course bunkers to top them up.  It really is amazing just how much sand is removed from the bunkers by the constant play and wind.  Virtually every time a shot is played out of a bunker a hand full of sand is moved and with 200+ players a day and many taking 3 or 4 attempts to extract themselves you can imagine just how much is moved.  The front right bunker on 12 River is a classic example of sand removal and over the years the amount of sand thrown up on to the green has made the front portion of the green very droughty.  Add to this the tree roots, shade and traffic and it is easy to see why the grass won't grow there.  This was the next task as we removed some sand, added some blended sand and readied the area for re-turfing.

The rest of the week had the following activity;

v     Oversown tees lifted in preparation for re-turfing and the material was then spread over tree roots on the right side driving area on 2 West.

v     The drain at the front of 1 River green that is subject to tidal inundation was turfed with a salt water resistant grass.

v     Surface tree roots in fairways removed.

v     Several dead trees removed and tree stumps ground out.

v     The small rockwall at 3 West tee was removed to allow space for our machinery to turn at the rear of the tee and allow the grass to grow on the back tee.

v     A couple of buggy path entries and exits have been prepared for turfing and will also have some of the plastic grids installed that have proven quite successful recently.

Rotting tree removed from rear 3 West tee.

And all this in amongst trying to keep the courses clear in the extremely windy conditions.  The wind has also caused problems with the irrigation as the sprinklers are virtually rendered useless in these conditions.  Early morning players would have seen us putting as much water out as possible on to the fairways in the calmer morning weather to try and keep them going and most greens require supplementary hand water.  It's times like this when I wish I had more staff to try and keep up with all we have to do.  When I started here in 1999 I had 19 bodies in the lunchroom available for work in the middle of winter.  Over the coming 3 weeks I will drop as low as 9 staff on some days and a high of 13 so I trust players will realise that we can't get everything done.

The River greens have recovered very well from their renovation and are back down to their normal mowing height already which is nearly record time.  15 River green is still struggling from the effects of winter shade and as yet the temperatures haven't really got high enough for the turf to bounce back.

A fairly hectic couple of weeks with the River green renovations a priority.  The wind has also presented its challenges and has again severely affected irrigation and spraying applications.  80 kmh gusts last Tuesday were about the strongest I have experienced on the courses, especially when it blew like that all day.  The crew have done a great job in cleaning up the debris and if the northerly hadn't blown today the courses would have been picture perfect.

The renovations went well with the same method used as last year with a smaller tine being used meaning less disruption as less sand needs to be applied.  The biggest problem at the moment is the quality of water that is being applied as sodium levels in the water are about 300 parts per million being applied to turf that you want to grow which isn't the ideal scenario.  Following a light scarify at minus 3mm the greens were hollow tine aerated with 6mm tines and then the cores were rubbed back into the green and the remaining "chaff" blown off the surface.  Amendments and fertiliser were then spread and a light dressing of sand applied.  At renovation time there always seems to be something go wrong and this year it was the top dressers turn.  It was working perfectly in testing the Friday before then had a number of issues arise on the Monday without a grain of sand being spread.

The topdresser in pieces.

A busy couple of weeks ahead starting Monday morning with the following works planned;

• Tree removal at West tees 13, 14 and 15 to allow more sunlight to reach the teeing surface.
• Surface tree root removal on fairways.  There is a local rule governing relief from the subsequent damage.
• Remaining tree stumps will be mulched.
• Select bunkers, generally on the River course will have 80 cubic metres of sand added to them where required. 
• The oversown tees will be lifted next Friday in readiness for turfing on the following Monday.

There is a lot of planning and co ordination that goes into the organisation of these works but for once I won't mind at all if they are disrupted by some rain.  The dryness has continued and the level in the lakes has dropped dramatically, so much so that the pump that is used to circulate water in the trio of dams at 7 / 8 West had to be pulled up as it was in danger of sucking mud.