"Here comes the rain again" is the title of a song that pretty much sums up the past 6 months at Coolie Tweed and today was no exception.  20mm overnight and then a further 6mm in the scuds that keep coming our way during the day, which doesn't sound much, but in our current situation it certainly is.  Our rainfall total since November 1 is 2,404mm which converts to just over 96 inches.  The courses are just saturated.

We were able to get some fertiliser out on greens on both courses earlier this week and got some advantage out of the last warm days we will probably get as we head into winter.  Mowing heights on the River greens have already been lifted and this is to help the plant survive the low light conditions of winter and also for the shaded greens to try and keep as much leaf as possible on them.  The tees will get fertilised (weather permitting) on Monday and the mowing height will be lifted for the winter which is routine practice for this time of year, again in an attempt to hold some cover.

The irrigation install was interrupted by the public holiday on Monday then the rain so after a really good Tuesday / Wednesday they hit a wall and so are still on 13R and will finish that early next week before moving to 12R.   The vast majority of the PE pipe joins are welded and that can't be done in the rain which with our past months doesn't help.  Hopefully one day we will get to use the system!!??

Autumn / winter is Poa annua germination time so we have started trialing some products for control.  It has been so wet that some of the Poa plants from last year have survived and are still evident at the moment so they were the areas treated this week. 

A fairly reasonable week weather wise after a very wet weekend and then in came the rain again on Friday.  It doesn't take much to wet us up with the water table sitting so high.

On the irrigation front, 14R is nearly finished after a washout on Friday.  There will be no work on the Queensland Public Holiday on Monday and they will finish 14R off on Tuesday before moving to 13R. 

We were able to get some sand on 12W fairway turf on Thursday so the rain was quite welcome for that and also for some fertiliser that got put out on selected tees to try and juice them up for winter.  The cold temperatures today (it was under 20 degrees in the compound this morning for the first time this year) will really start to slow the turf right down so every little bit of growth helps.

A couple of "innovations" of sorts, one of which I certainly don't want to become common here and the other needs never to appear in Australia.

Not sure who decided putting a nail through a plastic tee to extend its life was a good idea but the mower certainly didn't appreciate it.  The size of some "soft" spikes and tees in general are bad enough but this was something else!!

Even has a spiral effect to help get it in the ground I guess!!

 

The nail won!!  A big chunk out of the middle of the bedknife.

The second innovation is the latest "golf car" to hit courses in the USA.  Apparently they are very common, particularly down in Florida.  Please not here!!

I guess it is air conditioned!!

 

I know I have talked about this before but one of the things a golfer can do on the course is to rake a bunker properly out of respect of your fellow players and also the staff who prep them for play, which with the amount of rain and washouts we have been getting has been an arduous task to say the least.  Two great examples below following the Members comp this past Wednesday.  They don't even require a caption with the top one on 10R greenside and the bottom one 13W greenside.  Almost all the damage on 10 was the work of one person.

 

Certainly not the forecast we were looking for for the upcoming long weekend especially after it was updated at 11.30 this morning with a 95% chance of more than 100mm.  Let's hope they got that completely wrong!! 

We were finally able to get some sand slits into 12W fairway which I have been trying to get done since TCAlfred.  The trenches we dug for the slits were only 300mm deep but had groundwater in the bottom of them such is the level of the water table at the moment.

The River greens have responded  well to the fertiliser application they received and certainly enjoyed the bright warm sunny conditions over the Easter weekend.  They now have an acceptable cover of grass going into winter which is a relief after the way they looked 2 weeks ago.  The West greens are also looking good moving into winter although I would have liked to get a sanding on them today but the forecast took that away.

The irrigation install is moving along and 14R should get finished next week and we then move on to 13R.  Two small parts are delaying the pump shed commissioning which should now happen in May.  We will be using the existing power supply from the old shed in the short term until a new switchboard can be installed.

TCAlfred recovery continues with stump and hanger removal ongoing.  The contractors will be off site next week and back the following and I expect all recovery works to be completed by Friday May 23.  The stump removal has been very impressive and within a few months you will barely be able to tell there was ever a tree there which given the size of the stumps is very impressive.

Probably the biggest stump @ RHS 2W tee.

 

Gawn!!

   

Finally a relatively dry week although the forecast doesn't look good.  At least there has been some sun and the River greens have responded well following a solid tine aeration and sanding earlier in the week.  All bunkers on both courses are finally in play now, awaiting the coming rain!!

On the TCAlfred clean up, the last load of mulch left the property this afternoon which is the end of that monumental task.  I will get a tonnage figure of what was taken away at some stage but it's huge to say the least.  We are still finding some trees that have ''popped'' such as the one pictured below which was one of three on 5W.  We are also finding a few more dead trees as we go and are removing them when possible.  The stump removal started this week and possibly moved a little faster than expected and the hanger removal is also in progress.  The leftover chips and logs from the stump grinding will be left stacked until there is enough for us to economically collect them.

Another root popped out.

 

We are also stockpiling some green waste down near Halfway West and there will be some more added early next week with the the woodchipper coming on site next Thursday to clean it up.  We are using that area as it has excellent access for the truck and chipper.

The last truck being loaded down next to 6R.

The tower reaching up for the hangers.

That's him just in case you can't see him.

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.

A really good day today with an incredible amount of material moved and mulched.  Two of the biggest trees to come down to the RHS 4W tee were among those done today.  Due to the weight of the machines they have to stay on hardstand areas and we ferry the trees to them for processing through the wood chippers.  We are also carting some material away when it is quicker to dump the material.  We have created 3 new dumping areas, one of which is in the main carpark and this material will be mulched after we finish on the courses.

The carpark traffic flow will be altered to allow us enough room to use the area as a dump site so please take care and follow signage when driving through the carpark.  There will be tippers of all sizes accessing the area so please also take care when they are in the area.

Two of the biggest to come down gone.

 

We do still have a golf course to maintain even though it's not being prepped for play.  Some of the crew got back to some greenkeeping today and that will continue over the coming days with the crew split between storm clean up and course maintenance.  It took 4 crew most of the day to get the greens clear of debris post TC Alfred and ready for their first mow for a week tomorrow.

All greens on both courses blown off today.

 

We only had 3 contractors on site today working on the tree program which was pretty good given life has barely returned to normal following TC Alfred.  It will vary day to day depending on prior commitments that they have had which sometimes have been booked for months. We are lucky to have such loyal companies that come to us first when we need them, as you could imagine there is a lot of work out there. Tomorrow we should move a lot faster with 6 contractors onsite but it is going to be a very, very long road, taken day by day.

The photo below shows the tree that was uprooted but leaning against other trees on RHS 3W, which was removed today.  This particular type of removal is slow and painstaking and potentially dangerous.  One contractor group concentrated on these today and removed 5 of them.  The other contractors worked on LHS 9W in front of our maintenance facility so we have access to the courses.

 

Uprooted but dangling.

 

RHS 3W down.

Given how wet the courses are following the rainfall associated with Alfred, they probably would have been closed for a week due to the flooding and it is now difficult to get the required heavy machinery around the courses.  The first goal we have is to try and get the front nine of the River course cleared and playable ASAP.

Just a quick update as I'm a little busy at the moment. 

The photos really don't do the tree damage justice.  There are now nearly 100 trees uprooted.  There are probably another 100 with crown damage which will most likely need removal and at least 50 that have started to lean and the root ball is exposed so they are going to come down at some stage so will need to be removed.  And that's without doing a proper assessment tree by tree which will be needed.

The first contractors were on site yesterday and others are arriving today to start the mammoth clean up.  214mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am Monday hasn't helped and there will be a lot of turf damage as we complete the clean up.  We have now had 632mm since it started raining last Wednesday.  The river has come over but that was only just on this mornings high tide.  The internal flooding remains as the water just has nowhere to go.

11R fairway Monday morning.

1 & 9R fairways Monday morning.

 

 

Once again I trust all blog followers have survived TC Alfred.  The system was certainly erratic with the distribution of damage but our local community seems to have been some of the worst hit.  I was speaking with Murwillumbah Course Super Brian Cox this morning and he said they barely have a branch down, but are within 30cms of flooding.  Luck of the draw I guess.

Out on the golf courses and the only positive is that all infrastructure is still in place at the moment.  The clubhouse, buggy shed, 1/2 ways, Pro Shop and our maintenance shed are all in tact and seemingly secured.

The same can't be said for the courses.  A further 50 trees were uprooted overnight adding to yesterday's 40.  Yes you read that right.  And I am not talking small trees either.

There is still a lot of internal water on the courses that can't drain off and the river was still well below breaking its banks this morning.  But to be honest the water is the least of our concerns.  How we are going to move these trees is a mind boggling problem given the sheer scale of the task.

The first contractor will be onsite Sunday morning to clear Davey Street so we can access our shed and then look at the Clubhouse access road.

 

LHS 9W near sand bins.

RHS 3W green fell toward 4R fway.

Another "hanger" RHS 3W.

Rear 1W green.

RHS 18R was down yesterday but this shows the enormous size of it.

RHS 16W tee near entry road.

Fr LHS 11W tee.

LHS 13W fway just past access track.

RHS 9W fway looking toward 4W tee.