The wettest October since 2010 with 17 consecutive rain days which started 2 days after we started pouring concrete for 1500m square metres of cart path, and re-stabilising the bank of a tidal dam.  It hasn't been much fun!!  But to our staff and contractors credit we have got there and the results have been exceptional with limited damage.  The concreters poured 165 lineal metres of cart path on Thursday and finished in the dark in what was an amazing effort.  As members were driving in for the Club's AGM they were greeted by concrete trucks driving out which is a sight you don't often see that late in the day.  There is still quite a bit of repair work to be done and that will happen in what is a very busy upcoming month.

The River greens renovation will be completed next week after the scarifying and heavy de-thatching were done this week.  Rain on both Monday and Tuesday mornings had the greens a lot wetter and softer than we would like which affected the amount of material we could pull out but the end result is satisfactory.  

A busy November coming up with the  Topmaker for 4 and 10W fairway booked for November 9 and 10.  West greens renovation November 16, 17 and 19.  8W and 5R tee re-surface November 24 and 25 with turf going down on them November 30.

And this was the BoM's long range forecast back at the start of September for "the chance of exceeding median rainfall for October - December".  I think they got that one wrong for us!!?? 

It's always an ominous sign when the seagulls come in and preen themselves on 4/9W dam and they were in on Tuesday and stayed most of the week while 160mm of rain fell including a massive dump on Wednesday night.  I checked the radar when I woke up Thursday morning and saw that the airport had recorded 28mm so was fairly happy until I got to our rain gauge and poured out just over 80mm. And just when we had dried out.

Never a good sign, and they are still there 5pm Friday!!

The rain certainly disrupted the concrete pour at 9R with just 100m completed for the week.  Fortunately we got the very soft 1R done last week and will finish off 9R next week with some luck with the weather.  We started re-turfing the LHS of 1R at the 135m mark after re-shaping the area.  That is an area that is frequently inundated by high tides and we have had a grass known as Seashore Paspalum growing there as it can withstand such inundation.  Unfortunately you can't buy the grass commercially and we weren't able to save all the existing so we have relaid the area with alternate strips of common couch and Seashore which will quickly dominate the common couch strips.  So no it wasn't done for aesthetics but simply practical purposes.  We could only get 2 pallets of turf as unfortunately our turf supplier is located in Caboolture and the farm was nearly washed away with some huge rainfall numbers so we are hoping to get turf in for the front of 1R tee and the old bunker area this week.

Bright green is the Seashore.

And it's always nice to get some new machinery as we did this week with 3 of our workhorse tractors being replaced along with our intermediate / surrounds mower.  The 3 traded tractors were all well over 20 years old and our existing surrounds mower was 15 years old.  Some more new machines arrive next week and will be updated here then.

3 shiny newbies.

One of the busiest mowers we have in summer. 

Hopefully this weather will be behind us next week as we start the greens renovation work on the River course which has been split over 2 weeks this year.  4 of the past 5 years have been disrupted by rain and we really need a good run at them.  The first week will see the scarifying (tram lines) happening and the following week will be the coring.  After the scarifying the surface shouldn't be too bad as we don't put the sand out until after the coring.

A couple of milestones of sorts this week with the 10 year anniversary of the start of the West greens conversion to TifEagle, and I still sometimes refer to them as the "new" greens.  And this Blog passed 1 million page views which converts to an average of over 5,000 hits a month over its life.

An incredibly busy week on the courses with the installation started on the concrete paths on 1 and 9R.  A huge effort by the crew from Dallem Concrete Constructions to get 1R completed in the week and 9R prepped for concrete next week.  It was a frustrating week with the rain forecast changing almost hourly it seemed, and a dump of just shy of 20mm on Wednesday night.  But we got through and most importantly got the concrete trucks on and off the property without too much damage.  Working on the wettest hole on the property was always going to bring up some problems but I'm glad we are past it now.

The fairway bunker will be totally filled in as a cart path can't run in front of it and these works are scheduled for next week.

Please avoid driving or walking on the new path while it cures.

The pour on 1R begins with the ominous clouds overlooking.

 

Not easy getting concrete trucks to the softest place on the property.

 

The dam stabilisation works at 6R have also been completed in the week and have come up just as planned with a very good result.  The high flow from the tidal water will certainly test the structure out but in such a high flow environment it is the best potential solution.

Another day and night of strong gusty winds on Wednesday had leaf debris down across the courses but a great effort by the crew to get the main playing surfaces cleaned up for round 2 and 3 of the Club Champs this weekend.  

Some really strong gusty winds left a huge pile of leaves and tree debris around the courses with the recent dry conditions adding to the amount of leaf matter.  It was a daunting task facing the crew on Thursday morning but they went to work and cleared all playing surfaces and finished off the job on Friday morning.  The debris in most of the bunkers had to be hand raked up and some piles in the bunkers were a foot thick.  Another enormous effort by the team to restore the playability of the courses and the wind switched to a much softer northerly on Friday afternoon but the courses should stay clean for round 1 of the club championships.

Just some of the leaves being blown across 2R fairway.

There are some disturbing predictions of some major rainfall in the coming weeks including the one below that shows an accumulated total over 100mm for our region by October 18.  With the construction works starting next week let's hope they have it wrong.

Hope the farmers get it and we miss out??

Work is scheduled to begin on Monday on the installation of concrete cart paths on holes 1 and 9R and the dam bank stabilisation works at 6R.  This is our most tidal dam and we are trying a slightly different method to the traditional rockwall that that will hopefully handle the tidal movement better.  The photo below shows what the finished product should look like with the existing rockwall rebuilt and some rock placed behind it and capped with shot rock.  It has worked on other tidal dams but 6R has some severe water movement.  We will also want some fine weather as over a third of the property drains out through this dam so we don't want any outflow happening.

 

 

It's nice to get back to some decent weather on the Tweed and the turf around the courses is certainly responding.  An application of some growth regulator to control seedhead formation on the fairways caused a slight burn so all fairways on both courses were fertilised this week.  The new irrigation system swung into action to water the fertiliser in and what a dream it was.  Exact application in a very small watering window overnight for a great result which only gets better with time.  The greens also got a light fertiliser application this week and have also responded with a little bit of growth.  

We continue our fight against resistant Poa annua plants and have now got some results from some resistance tests that were carried out on our behalf.  10 products were trialed in a lab environment and double rates were applied twice over a 2 week period.  Double rates were used as we have already tried all these products at normal rate.  Only one product was effective and two other had moderate success.  Unfortunately the successful product is too risky to use on greens so a search continues for a solution to our greens issue , which fortunately is limited to only a couple of greens.  With the recent dry conditions a lot of the Poa in fairways is dying out so hopefully we can stay dry.

We are gearing up for the course works that are scheduled to commence on Monday October 12.  Concrete cart paths are to be installed on 1 and 9R and the dam embankment on the RHS 6R green is to be restored.  The paths are scheduled to take 10 working days and the rockwall 7 days.  All 3 holes will be closed throughout to ensure the safety of all contractors and staff.  As players will be walking / driving down the holes please be mindful of the workers and follow any signage.

I mentioned a couple of posts back that we had some international greenkeepers coming out to join us.  Unfortunately one of the Scottish lads has returned home after arriving and an Englishman has decided not to come despite having the necessary visas.  One of our Scots will start next Tuesday and hails from the highly rated Gullane Golf Club and anyone that knows where Gullane is will realise that you couldn't get two more different golf courses than us and them!!  He has had an induction and loves the climate and course environment so we look forward to his start next week.  Two other Italian greenkeepers that are currently working in Switzerland are also planning to come and have applied for the necessary visas but the visas are taking up to 3 months to process at the moment so hopefully they get theirs through fast.   

One last post before I go on leave to update readers on some upcoming works.     

Following Board approval a contractor has been engaged to install concrete cart paths on 1 and 9R.  Both paths are to be routed down the LHS as you play the hole.  

The rockwall revetment on the dam at RHS 6R green will be re-built by other contractors.  Both these projects are scheduled to start on Monday October 12.  There will be some disruption to play as holes will need to be closed / modified to ensure safety of the contractors and our staff.  The weather needs to play a helping hand in both these significant projects.

We also have a "topmaker" machine booked for early November.  This machine literally shaves off the top of the fairway thereby removing the thatch layer.  We are hoping to get both the second half of 4 and 10W fairways done where they are wet so as to hopefully give them a chance to dry out in rain events in the future.

The River greens renovation in late October will be split over two weeks to allow us to do a major renovation.  The first Monday / Tuesday (Oct 26 & 27) will see the greens scarified and then mown back down to normal height so they should play alright.  The second Monday / Tuesday (Nov 2 & 3) will see the coring and sanding of the greens where there is some of the surface disruption traditionally associated with green renovation.  The greens are very weak after such a dull winter due to the constant cloud cover associated with the rain.  We have also not been able to renovate them properly 4 of the last 5 years due to poor weather so they are desperate for a good renovation.

One of my peers in Sydney dropped me a line after lasts weeks post regarding bunkers not being raked.  That Club has instituted a discipline code and the penalty for not raking a bunker and correctly returning the rake to its position is a one week suspension!!  That would be one way the cut down the player numbers here!!

Today's Pro am has been run and won and hopefully all the players enjoyed the course.  Last years event was held after a prolonged wet period as well and the course had just dried out as it has this year.  This is probably the driest the course has been for several months which was handy timing for the Pro's.  No players broke par in the morning field last year as a strong wind blew that then calmed down to a light breeze for the afternoon field where -8 took the winners cheque.  Today's perfect weather had a dozen or more beat par in the morning and all up around 28 beat par for the day.  Three players tied for the win at -5 and one of them started his round with a double bogey and another with a bogey so a great comeback from them.

Most of this week was spent prepping for the Pro am with pretty low staff numbers.  There are two on annual leave which is the time of year to have it and then two others have been off sick.  The Facebook ads for staff the other week secured us a very good young casual 3 days a week and three others turned down positions after or just prior to induction day.  I have however been able to secure 3 international qualified greenkeepers for the summer season with a fourth one pending so we can't wait for them to arrive.  It's always nice to have an accent amongst the crew and if they are anything like our past few international visitors we will be very well placed.

And speaking of annual leave it's my turn for a few weeks off so there will not be any Blog posts for most of September.  Hopefully the course dries out completely for my return and it will be in the very capable hands of Assistant Simon.