A bit of an update on where we are at with what's been happening on the courses over the past month which has probably been the most hectic of my career.  All of the tree pile at 6R has now been mulched and will be trucked out next week.  Was there a mulch pile in the car park?  You wouldn't know now!!

Stump and hanger removal will start on Monday.  It has been estimated that the stump removal will take up to a month but as not many contractors have ever done this number of stumps in size and quantity, it's hard to know.  Holes will need to be closed or shortened while the contractors work to ensure their safety for the duration.  It has been estimated that some of the larger ones will take 3 - 4 hours to remove so it will be a slow process.  Once the contractors get up into the trees to remove the hangers they will also be able to identify potential risk trees going forward. 

In addition to the 96 trees that were totally uprooted in TCAlfred, there were many others severely damaged by falling trees near them or others just damaged structurally like the one that was split down the middle on 16R.

From a distance.

Close up.

 

The courses are incredibly wet and apart from Monday this week it has not been very good drying weather recently.  Another 10mm overnight into Friday just topped us up again.  We received 807mm of rain in March.  That's just over 32 inches.  It takes our total since November 1 to 2196mm or just shy of 88 inches.

12W fairway works area took the rain fairly well.  The area will need a couple of sand trenches put in to help move the water down the profile.  The bunker drainage needed a further upgrade this week after it was contaminated by some clay in the deluge.  The area was turfed on Monday March 3 in the middle of heavy rain and we were literally grading in front of the turf layers so some of the levels are now out a bit.  Given the rain we got later that week in TCAlfred I was amazed the turf didn't float away.  Since the area was turfed we have had 33 inches of rain in 32 days, so it’s had a fair workout!!

Irrigation install slowed again this week.  17R green and fairway are complete and some big pipe is going across 17R and rear 16R green to hook up to two mainlines there.  There is still some drainage repair required at the front of 18R tee but the high tides and water table has made it difficult this past week.  The pump station commissioning is imminent which is rather exciting as that will be when we get some really good flow rates happening.  Not that irrigation has been at the forefront of our thoughts this summer.

The West greens got a solid tine aeration yesterday to get some oxygen down to the roots and the River greens will be done during next Tuesdays closure. The River greens will also receive a sanding and granular fertiliser to try and promote some growth  Mowing heights on the River greens will then be lifted to try and get some cover going into winter as they are desperately thin given the lack of sunlight this summer due to the constant rain.

A big week of mulching down at 6R which will continue into next week and we got the main carpark back to being a carpark again and you wouldn't know what had happened there over the past three weeks.  6R is still being processed and will be moved off site next week and hopefully by then we will nearly be back to normal again.  Of course there is the small issue of the stumps and we are hoping that their removal will start in about two weeks time.  We will also be using contractors to move through the courses removing ''hangers'' that are broken branches still caught up in the trees.  The stumps will be very time consuming and depending on the hole they are working on we may need to close the hole to ensure everyone's safety.  We are hoping to get two contractors and as you could imagine any treelopper / contractor are a little busy at present.

6R mulchpile.

We have now had 780mm of rain in March alone which takes us to a total of 2,116mm since November 1.  Think about that for a minute, as that converts to just shy of 85 inches.  This was a report on ABC news this week and probably isn't the sort of press we are looking for -

The Tweed Shire Council was one of the worst-hit LGAs in the state, according to Superintendent Tanner.

About 640 millimetres of rain fell at the Tweed Heads Golf Club in the five days up to Monday, March 10, BOM senior climatologist Hugh McDowall said.

He said it was one of the exceptional totals, with the north coast recording an average of 200-400mm.

Having that much rain obviously means we are wet but also means a lot of cloud and dull light conditions, which isn't good for 328 Couchgrass which we have on the River greens.  There are a number of descriptions used within the trade for what happens to 328 under these conditions and they include ''leggy'', ''puffy'' and ''laid flat'' which is probably a good word for the River greens at the moment.  They are really open and thin which is not the way you want to enter winter so we are looking for an immediate improvement in the weather over the next month.

Well after a monumental two weeks we made it and I can't believe what has been achieved in that time.  Players tomorrow will find the courses in pristine condition, with all but a few pockets of rough not mown.  The only downside is the 200+ stumps that are out there!!  There's still grinding of the green waste that was stockpiled over near 6R to go and that will continue for a few days then it's the stump removal to come.

It couldn't have been achieved without the efforts of CTHGC grounds crew and the awesome contractors who all pulled together and worked in sync as a great team.  To Graham Dewitt and his awesome team from GDE Tree Services, Chicka and Trevor King and Pete McConnell, a heartfelt thanks from me for coming to our aid when you could well have gone anywhere else following TCAlfred.  Thanks also to the great group of volunteers early this week and to the members for putting up with just 9 holes while we went about the works.  Also thanks to the Club Board and Management for their support.

And while it doesn't quite match the lyrics of Jackson Browne's ''The load out"" song, it seemed an appropriate thought as Graham's crew packed their gear up to head on home to Brisbane and beyond after spending two weeks of their lives at Coolie Tweed.

The load out - packed up and heading home.  Thanks again!!

 

Another half a dozen trees have ''popped'' meaning their root ball has been exposed which quite possibly happened in yesterdays gusty southerly change.  To be honest I thought some more trees would have come down in that wind but there were no more on the ground this morning.  I did an audit of stumps today with our main tree contractor and there were 192 so we will top 200 comfortably.  

We are progressing very well and thanks to the member volunteers the West course will tidy up very quickly.  We just have to pick up the literally 100's of piles they left for us which is a huge bonus so thanks again.

Just one of the piles from the vollies!!

The carpark is certainly getting full and we started transporting the mulch off property today and did a little grinding of the massive amount of green waste and logs that have come off the courses.  It's been a great team effort between our staff and the contractors and there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. 

First load of mulch being loaded.

 

If you had told me last Saturday that there would be 9 holes open for play tomorrow I would have laughed out loud.  

The effort by the crew and contractors this week has been nothing short of extraordinary.

I just hope players appreciate that when they play this weekend.

 

Let's not forget that this is where we were 4 days ago with over 100 huge trees on the ground.

Just 4 days ago.

 

Another good day and the goal of opening the front nine River on Saturday will be achieved.  1 and 9R are still very wet but you wouldn't know anything else happened on the rest of the holes.  We have no irrigation water which I am hoping will be resolved tomorrow.  If we don't resolve the issue and have no water over the weekend, then we will not be mowing greens to save that stress on the plant.  But at least you will be playing some golf.

We built a temporary road across the start of 16W fairway so the heavy machinery can access the course.  Depending on what it looks like after we have finished, we may even leave it there as this is a much used access point to the courses.

Not quite the M1 but it will work.

Another issue that has happened with the trees is that some of them have ''popped'' meaning they have started to fall and their roots have come out of the ground.  This means they are unsafe and need removal.  That means a further 25 trees thus far, so at this stage we are approaching 150 trees down.  And none of them are small.  The top photo shows the root of this one exposed and also the slant of the tree and the bottom photo shows a close up of the tear in the root  

The slant of the tree and raised root are evident.

The arrowed area above.

 

 

Another productive day on the Alfred clean up with some safety issues being addressed in addition to the continued clean up.  The group of trees on RHS 2W tee that came down were caught up in neighbouring trees some 5 - 10 metres off the ground, which is a serious safety hazard.  There are a number of these around the courses and several of those were dropped to ground level today.  The photo below shows the group of trees before and then a short video of them crashing safely to the ground.

RHS 2W tee caught up.

 

Coming down.

Down.

At the start of the week our goal was to get the front nine of the River course in play by the end of the week and we will achieve that by Friday night which has been a monumental effort by the crew and our contractors, who have simply all gone above and beyond.  Not so sure of a timeline for the back nine River though, as 15, 16 and 18R have some of the biggest material on the ground of the whole property.  As previously mentioned due to the weight of the machines they need to be on a hardstand surface and there's precious little hardstand anywhere on the back nine River.