And the weird weather continues with no real heat as yet and more light showers hanging around today.  I've been saying this since almost this time last year but we really need some heat and sunlight to get the turf moving.

Probably some of the busiest days of golf I have seen in my time here this last week with nearly 600 people booked to play today until the rain sent them scattering.  The social play has been on the River course and I don't think I have ever heard so many desperate shouts of ''fore'' resonating around the courses as this week.  There really are some people out there getting ambition and ability mixed up!!   It's pretty hard to get much work done with so many players so there was a lot of work on the sidelines this week with quite a bit of time spent at the treatment plant working on a dodgy pump. 

Off google maps earlier today...pretty accurate!!

 

Last Saturday morning was one for the annals with the drainage pit at the rear of 9R tee all but destroyed by a car.  We still haven't figured out what actually happened but there must be a vehicle somewhere with some serious damage.

?????

 

Please explain?

The forecast doesn't predict too much rain in the coming week so we will probably end up with the third wettest year on record with 2,825mm recorded thus far.  That sits behind 1999 with 2,874mm and 1906 with 3,193mm being the wettest ever.  Perhaps the most startling fact is that over the past three years we have recorded 2,735mm, 2,413mm and the 2,825mm this year for a three year running total of 7,973mm which is just shy of eight metres of rain.  That is the first time since records started in 1886 that there has been three consecutive years of more than 2,000mm and there has only been more than 2,000mm in two consecutive years a handful of times.  So we have certainly experienced something unique.

The general weather is still very cool for this time of year with the ''normal'' summer not quite here yet.  Yesterday was the summer solstice so you would think that we should really start to warm up now but we are way behind where we need to be for the turf.  The photo below shows 13R fairway collection area on the left side of the fairway and all the divots are still evident.  At this time of year you would expect much more rapid growth and very few divots showing.

Divots still evident @ 13R.

 

Having said all that about the lack of heat you generally don't see a Lace Monitor until it is really hot in the thick of summer but this two and a half metre giant was taking a stroll out the front of the maintenance shed today.

 

 

The greens on both courses got de-thatched this week and we went a little deeper than we normally would at this time of year following the less severe renovation that they received due to the weather.  This will be ongoing throughout summer as we try and stay on top of the organic matter build up.  The greens are mowed straight after and it is interesting to note the ''scalped'' effect that is noticeable on the 328 River greens compared to the TifEagle West greens with no apparent scalp.  328 is notorious for becoming puffy and therefore to scalping in these circumstances.

 

 

Not much to report from the courses this week with three very warm days in the middle that were a bit of a shock to the system.  We were able to get another sanding on to the West greens to help them level up after the renovation and they will probably need another as do the River greens which will hopefully happen next week.

We finished up with spot on 110mm of rain last week which was just what was needed and as I mentioned last week almost all of it soaked in which was really beneficial.  

I have mentioned bunker raking on here many a time and saw a couple this week that make you wonder why we bother raking or maintaining them at all.  Recently with the strong winds we have had to do a lot of blowing to get the leaves out as most bunkers are very good leaf collectors.  The blowing has reduced the frequency of raking but when you see this it makes you wonder why we do rake.  The top photo is 16W fairway bunker within an hour of being raked today and there is zero attempt to make any effort of repairing the footmarks.  The bottom one is of 8R greenside first thing in the morning so it has been wet down by overnight irrigation but you can still see the unrepaired footmarks where the legend played five shots and I assume got out on the fifth.  Perhaps the only consolation is that they didn't walk up the bunker face to get out.  Please leave the bunkers the way you would like to find them!!

Are these your footprints??

Maybe time for a bunker lesson?

Nearly 50mm of most welcome rainfall over the past two days and it was probably more than that as it was sideways most of the time with the strong gusty winds literally blowing it over the top of the rain gauge.  To have gone from being so wet to so dry in such a short time is pretty amazing and the ground just lapped up the rainfall.  The best part was that we got nearly 100% infiltration of the rain as there is hardly a puddle to be seen.

One of the issues that we had develop with the sudden drying out was the creation of some "dry patch" areas on greens on both courses.  Dry patch is a bit different to drought stress causing a green to dry out in general as it is more localised and caused by some of the sand in the soil profile becoming water repellent.   A couple of the greens on the River course dried out due to sprinkler failure but on the West greens it was more to do with the sand in the greens.  The series of photos below show an area of dry patch on 15W green and the associated soil moisture readings from the area.

The photos show the dry patch area at the top of the photo (slightly dis-coloured) and the arrow is pointing at the dry patch area and you can see two small holes where the moisture probe took a reading of 8.0 %  Less than 12 inches below you can see another two small holes where the moisture probe took a reading of 28.1%.

Dry patch at the top and the probe holes visible.

 

Bottom reading.

Top reading in the dry area.

 

The West greens have recovered extremely well and the rainfall has made them surge forward with some of the most growth I have seen from them.  Unfortunately that soft lush growth is just what the ducks want and they are having a field day on them at the moment and leaving their droppings behind which isn't ideal for putting.

And this is why I hate ducks!!

 

The Aus Open is on in Melbourne and given the winter and spring that they have experienced down there the condition of the courses is an absolute credit to the Supers and their crews.  The wettest October on record for both and although they are called "sand belt" even 25mm of rain can wreak havoc and from what I have seen the bunkers at both courses have been restored several times after washing away in the rain over the past two months.  How they grow the quality of couch fairways that they produce down there astounds me even though I spent fifteen years at Victoria and oversaw the conversion from cool season Poa fairways to warm season Couch.  The 1981 Open was played on Poa fairways and if the tournament was held a week later the fairways would have been dead as the Poa had melted out with a couple of high temperature days.  In those days virtually no one played at Victoria over summer as the fairways were virtually devoid of grass until the couchgrass started to cover over in very late summer.  There was no such thing as fairway irrigation and indeed for the first five years I was there only the greens were watered which was commonplace for most of the sandbelt clubs back in the day.  Oh and for the 1981 Open we had a crew of just nine compared to nudging fifty for this year!!

The West greens renovation went off really well this week with nice dry sunny weather which resulted in the perfect renovation conditions.  The greens actually kicked along a bit last weekend with the warmer temperatures but I still didn't consider them healthy enough to work them really hard.  They received a double de-thatching which compares to a quadruple scarify and double de-thatch last year so surface disruption was at a minimum. They were then hollow tine aerated which means a core is removed and then the cores were rubbed back in to the surface.  The remaining dry thatchy remnants were then blown off before amended sand was applied to fill the holes.  The sand is amended with gypsum and organic humate.  A 12:10:11 (NPK) granular fertiliser with additional magnesium was then applied to all greens.  On Tuesday afternoon about all you could see was sand but already today the turf leaves are pushing back through.

Some of the ''chaff'' extracted from the West greens.

 

I mentioned last week about the sudden dry snap and it being severe enough for drainage lines to start showing.  Well that continued this week with many more showing up including two that I have never seen before.  A herringbone drainage system has ''appeared'' on 16W fairway and the rising sewer main from the clubhouse has shown up on 9W fairway together with a drainage line from the front of the maintenance shed.  I don't think the drainage lines on 16W work as that was our wettest section of fairway this year!!

 

Herringbone drainage @ 16W.

Sewer main at the top and drainage line below.

If the weather co-operates next week we will be lifting some turf on the edge of River greens 3 and 12 where the collar has built up and is now preventing water from running off the green causing water to pool and injure the turf.  They are only quite minor adjustments but very necessary.  I say ''if the weather co-operates'' as there is a fair bit of rain in the forecast and to be honest we could do with a good drop!! 

And just like that we are back to full nearly full irrigation across both courses.  It seems like two years since we have had irrigation going out at this level and it seems weird to see the dry patch areas around the courses.  Even the drain lines are showing up in some areas which is also weird to see.  It's certainly a bit different from trying to keep them clear and draining that's for sure.

Drain line evident on 18R.

 

The difference in the River greens recovery from renovation with the warmth of the past week is most welcome with some good solid growth helping them fill in quite nicely and the benefit of the various amendments that were applied to them now most evident.  We were able to get another sanding on to them on Thursday this week which helps level the surface out as we lower the mowing height.

 

Rubbing the sand in on 11R.

The West greens renovation is planned to go ahead next Monday and for the first time in a very long time there is no rain in the forecast.  It will still be a less agreesive renovation with the greens still weakened from the lack of sunlight this year.  We had planned a couple of fertiliser applications for them this week but they couldn't happen due to the windy conditions.  We were able to get the greens collars scarified which is a great head start and we also got the tees on both courses aerated.  

It was good to get away for a break but the weather in WA was appalling with rain every day and a couple of single digit temperature days.  At least it improved a little here but still nowhere near November temperatures yet.

Those low temperatures still have the River greens recovering very slowly from their renovation.  I have spoken to several clubs around SE Queensland and they are all in the same boat after such a tough time with the weather since the floods and near record playing numbers causing plenty of wear and therefore stress on the plant.  We were able to get another sanding out on Tuesday and are planning to repeat the dose again next Tuesday which will help level the surface up while the mowing height is coming back down.  

The West greens renovation is scheduled for next Monday week and like the River greens it will be a much lighter than normal reno.  TifEagle doesn't really like heavy thatch removal so in their current state of health once again we will concentrate on aeration via core removal.  The soil tests for the West greens are much better than the River but there will still be some amendments added and they will be incorporated in the sand that is applied as a top dressing. 

Finally got to clean most of the courses up today with a break in the wind that has been relentless with leaf debris strewn across the courses making mowing and raking difficult.  And we had probably the most difficult irrigation repair we have encountered this week with a pipe splitting in two places at the same time.  What made it so bad was that it was almost wrapped around the Norfolk Pine at the back of 13R green.  Hand digging was not an option although the irrigation team tried for a while.  Fortunately our backhoe operator Pete McConnell came to the rescue and helped us out.  Then the fun came with the first section of pipe being what is known as ''rural poly'' and the next section a low density type of poly pipe that we have never encountered before and that fittings were not available.  A bit of ''engineering'' to make up some fittings and hopefully we have got it right.  The pipe doesn't appear on any of the rather scratchy plans we have and would probably date from more than fifty years ago.

The ''trench'' at 13R green!!  And digging it below!!