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. 

 

 

Another pretty good drying week and it's got to the point that some irrigation on some fairways and traffic areas would be warranted but alas the forecast isn't too bright with rain predicted through to Wednesday next week.  The greens on both courses have had some irrigation applied this week to prevent dryness but also to wash in some product. It's generally pretty normal to get some of what rain is predicted over so many days although further south looks worse than us.  We are hoping we can get to the Pro am in relatively dry conditions next Friday because the courses are still in great condition.

It's been an interesting week for weather forecasters (of the amateur variety) with some saying a very big wet spell is on the way and / or we are in for a very severe storm season.  The BoM still seem to be hanging their hat on ElNino so it's a waiting game ahead. 

I had a chat with a member earlier this week and he was commenting on a 36 hole course in another State that seemed to have better conditioning than us.  I suggested that I doubt they would put through half the players we do which makes presentation so much easier.  Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday there were just shy of 1600 names on the timesheets and this weekend we have over 1400, and that is with a full course shotgun on Sunday with only 84 players. Obviously not all the players booked on the timesheets play 18 holes but you quote those figures to other Club's and they simply don't believe you.  

And I am fairly certain what happened in the photo below wouldn't happen at that club either.  A CoolTweed member was out this afternoon and a young child with him was running through the greenside bunker at 15R smashing his way around the bunker.  I counted 20 divots in the bunker and the rake was deftly jumped over.  Not sure what the other bunkers on the River course look like where they had been??

Just some of the 20 "shots"??

 

20mm of rain last weekend was about the last thing we needed as we had almost dried out.  4, 10 and 11W fairways are still a concern with the way they are staying so soft.  They have never been like this before and apart from the obvious constant rain, there is no real apparent reason.  Having said that, they do have the worst "soil" profile of the entire property which we experienced first hand during the irrigation install.  The rest of the courses are behaving as they would after rain but these fairways just won't dry out.  A good forecast / weather over the week end and we will get the aerators back on them early next week, although the deep slicing recently carried out has had little to no effect on them.  At least we are sneaking up on 11 hours of daylight which doesn't do any harm. 

The vets week of golf again bought some glorious weather out with several days in the mid 20's.  All the forecasts and weather talk of late is about the dry conditions that are on the way with the onset of the El Nino event, but to be honest I am more than happy with the current seven day forecast with no rain in it.  It has been a very tough winter with the constant leaf wetness causing a lot of disease pressure, not only in greens but across all closely mown surfaces.  A fellow Northern Rivers club have had such a bad outbreak of disease in their fairways that they have had to treat it twice now which is something that you just don't budget for.

The volume of play during the week of golf impacts just what we can get done on the courses and quite a bit of time this week was actually allocated to some maintenance at the Club's highway properties.  The coming weeks will see a concentration of maintenance on the West course in preparation for the Club's pro am in two weeks.  

I had to re-educate myself on the programming of the irrigation system this week which was a nice problem to have.  We put some fertiliser out on the tees on Thursday and also greens on both courses received some plant protection and fertiliser as well this week.  A little water to wash them in and activate the products was just what was needed.

The temperatures this week were quite pleasant albeit with a cold breeze.  We are now virtually in August so average temperatures would be a bit higher but nearing mid 20's in July is more than suitable for us.  There is actually a hint of growth in the main play areas which is a plus for this time of year and the greens are putting a little bit of leaf on which is also a plus.

Most of the courses have finally dried out but 4 and 10W are still very soft, much softer than usual, which still has me stumped as to why.  We were able to get all but a small area on 10W mown this week which will allow a bit more air access to help the surface dry out without the grass canopy interfering.  There was a bit of wheelmarking but the benefit of reducing the canopy far outweighs the tyre tracks.

We have made a start on lifting some of the new sprinkler surrounds that have settled since installation and this will be ongoing over the next few weeks.  We will wait till we have enough done to make re-turfing viable so they are indicated with a small flag at the moment and are marked GUR. 

The Veterans week of golf starts next Monday and hopefully they are blessed with the perfect weather that they normally get as we could do with continuing dry conditions.  It always makes it hard for us to get much done with the volume of play on the courses and also the timing with 4 x 7am shotgun starts.  Good luck to the players and thanks to the volunteers who help get the vast number of players around the courses.