Not a very promising forecast once again with the word ''rain'' actually being used for Saturday so that might mean something more than we have been having.  I certainly got a chuckle this morning when the ABC news report had the piece below.  Maybe they don't consider the Sunshine Coast's 1.8 metres of rain since January 1 or our 1.4 metres to be meaningful!!!

Really?

 

The irrigation install continues with 4W completed last week and about 70% of 10W done this week.  10W proved to be hard work in some areas as there was a car wreckers situated on part of it at some stage in the past and some very heavy wet clay areas in other parts.  By mid next week 9 holes will have been completed which is great to see.  From 10W we move to 6R which will nearly be the biggest fairway of the job when sprinkler head count is taken into consideration.

Care for the golf courses is important at any time of the year but no moreso than the low growth winter months.  This is the time of year when sand bucket usage for re-filling divots on fairways is most important as a courtesy to your fellow players.  Not taking divots out of greens is also greatly appreciated with three chunks done this past week.  Pitch mark repair is also a must.  In the old Bentgrass days it was very important, and it is just as important with the Couch surfaces.  As with Bentgrass an unrepaired ball mark that has damaged the plant leaf provides the perfect host area for disease to invade.  It's a bit like an open wound on your body allows for the perfect site for infection to take hold.  The photo below is from 8W green this week where I doubt any ballmarks have been repaired this week and the damage just opens the turf up for disease to take hold.

Pretty sad to see.

 

Surely this weather pattern has to change soon??  It has just been relentless rain and the courses seem to be getting the brunt of it with not as much falling inland.  Or even at Gold Coast Airport, where they didn't record any rainfall in today's midday deluge that dumped 15mm on us.  We have now had 18mm since 9am this morning and the airport just 2mm.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week saw us drying out as per normal compared to last week when we just stayed soaked.  Yesterday and today certainly fixed that up and we are significantly wetter now than this time last week.  How that is possible is beyond me.  It seemed ridiculous to be walking across 4W fairway putting sprinkler location flags out in gumboots but thats what I was doing.

I even got that desperate on Thursday that I decided to put out a product on the West greens that doesn't have to be watered in but it can assist and often when I do that the rain doesn't come.  How wrong I was.  It did give us the opportunity to give our new spray rig a tryout they so that was encouraging and it performed perfectly.

Spray rig in action on 15W.

 

One of the areas that is always difficult to work on is up around the practice green area and short range due to the numbers of golfers up there all day every day.  One of the benefits of a write off Thursday was the opportunity to get the practice nets pressure cleaned and that came up a treat.  We often do maintenance in the nets on rainy days as that's about the only time we can get to them unhindered.

 

Surface looking good.

And speaking of practice we are looking to open both 9R green and the new target green for the June monthly Medal in a couple of weeks.  We do need some dry time to access the drain at the front of the practice green so hopefully that will happen.  There has been some minor wash on the target green but that won't hinder playability.

On the irrigation installation front it has been a dismal week with just some mainline work around 10W tee and 5R green being installed.  Hopefully the fine weather that is predicted next week eventuates and we can get some pipe in the ground.

On Monday next week we will have contractors onsite to fill in the first fairway bunker RHS 6R and the LHS fairway bunker as well.  The works are being completed prior to the irrigation going through the area and the areas won't be re-turfed until after the irrigation is installed in probably three weeks.

I am off for a bit of R&R from mid next week so will be back posting in a couple of weeks.  I'm looking forward to going home tonight to watch some of the USPGA golf.  I visited Valhalla two years after it opened and it was an amazing looking course with massive undulation off the fairways but dead flat fairways themselves which seemed really weird.  It has been rebuilt since then so will be interesting to see it again.  It will be interesting to see what the course maintenance crew of 140 can do with the course for the week.  That's right 140.

 

An updated ''tale of woe'' in the table below with our YTD rainfall figures and days of cart restrictions.  The actual volume of rainfall recently isn't so much the problem but it's the regularity of it.  I don't believe I have seen the courses stay this wet for this long, even after the floods they dried very quickly and carts were back on.  One of the issues we face at the moment is the low growth environment and the damage being caused even by pull buggies.  I recall a couple of years ago that Maroochy River GC on the Sunshine Coast actually banned pull carts due to the damage they were causing and right at the moment we aren't far behind that as per a couple of photos below.  Both 1 and 9R are the biggest issue with nowhere to send carts or walkers around the wet areas which stretch right across the fairways.

 

Damage from walkers across 9R fairway.

Probably worse damage across 1R fairway.

The vast majority of the property is too wet to get mowers on and hopefully that situation changes quickly as some of the fairways are as long as I have seen them, particularly 13W.

The irrigation installation continued despite the weather and at least they were working on one of the drier fairways @ 5R, although Thursday was nearly a ''lay day'' with no machinery able to get on to the fairway and that meant that 5R green didn't get done this week.  On Monday next week we are hosting the trainees Pro am and they need to play 18 full holes on a dry course so they will be playing the River course.  The irrigation install will move to 4W for the day and then back to 5R on Tuesday to complete the green.

 

A week of irrigation installation once again hampered by the weather with 4R finally being completed although we haven't been able to clean up as we normally do due to the wet conditions.  It was also a week that threw up a lot of issues as we were working adjacent to 3W toilet block where in there are two full on course irrigation control satellites meaning a lot of sprinkler control tubes in the area and I think we hit every one of them at some time this week.  And as we expected some were nowhere near where you would expect them to be.  For instance we hit a control line that comes from behind 3W tee in front of 4R ladies tee that controls a sprinkler on 3R green so it does a u turn somewhere.  But we got through the week and next week we move on to 5R.  Another short week though which it seems like we have had every week with Easter, Anzac Day the rain and now Qld labour day as most of the contractors are Qld based.

The weather certainly turned colder as well with the doonas well and truly on at night.  The turf is starting to slow down and I got this shot of 2W tee last Monday morning which shows just how much damage is caused by a days play.  You can plainly see the damage caused at each tee location for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  That is one of the reasons at this time of year we vary the tee placement so as to try and limit / spread the wear across the teeing surface.  And 2W is considered to be one of the more healthy tees.

2W tee wear patterns.

Thursday night saw the courses receive 32mm whereas most local falls were in single digits.  The West course in particular is incredibly wet and the water table is so high the water has nowhere to go.  Carts are very doubtful on the West course tomorrow but the website will be updated by 5.30am as usual.