It seems the rain just won't leave us alone with another 80+mm fall earlier in the week.  It was enough to virtually close the courses on Monday and Tuesday so we took the opportunity to give greens on both courses an aeration with some 6mm diameter solid tines.  With no play we also took the opportunity of leveling some areas around the new sprinklers on the greens.  I feel for the people down on the central coast who got smashed with the weather event but was relieved that we dodged that bullet for a change.

I have been following a long range forecaster for a while now and he has been quite accurate.  He is based on the Sunshine Coast and was spot on with the Hunter floods earlier in the year and with this weeks storm.  His next prediction is for a "weather event" on August 20 so will be watching that closely.  His prediction for 2026 is a bit alarming though as he is calling for widespread floods and that the recent floods have been "puddles" in comparison to what's coming.  Watch this space......

The Conference I attended in Sydney was a great success and once again autonomous machinery was very much at the forefront at the trade show.  A fully autonomous electric fairway mower certainly took my eye and it has been successfully used on golf courses in Europe for some time now.  The initial cost is substantial at nearly twice a traditional mower but the payback is potentially there.  Apparently a course in NZ has one on order so it will be an interesting watch. Nearly 1500 people visited the trade show over 2 days and it was a full house at nearly every educational session.

The irrigation installation hit a hurdle this week with a significant amount of rock encountered on both 1 and 10R.  The rock obviously cant be left in the trenches so it had to be trucked away and replacement material bought in.  It has delayed us somewhat but the light is at the end of the tunnel with just over two holes remaining.  There is still a lot of rectification works on trenches and low sprinklers to be done but at least the major works should be finished by the end of this month.

Some of the rock encountered.

More of the same.

 

Some more tree work next week between the two 18's with a couple of large badly damaged gums to come down as well as  a couple of dead trees.  Both 18's will play short on Monday and Tuesday to allow the works to be done and 10R closed for irrigation installation.