Certainly not the week that was planned that's for sure.  Coordinating the hook up of the new power supply to energise the new pump set has been a long running saga and we had to plan 6 weeks ahead to shut down the power.  This was the week that was chosen and who knew that it would be the driest and warmest week for some time.  In fact we haven't had a drier first half of a month since last September.  The power was supposed to be off for 48 hours but there was a dead short on one of the phases and so the power couldn't be activated.  Lots of finger pointing and it was the supply companies problem in the end which took nearly 24 hours to establish!!

Things were looking grim on Thursday afternoon and it was thought that we not have any power for the weekend which means no irrigation water.  A 100kVA generator was bought in and connected to the pump controls that meant we were at 20% capacity on Thursday night allowing greens and tees irrigation only.  Fortunately the supply company were able to attend today and we are now back fully powered and ready for a big nights irrigation.  A big callout to our electricians who went above and beyond to solve the issue and keep us operational.  They work at a large number of golf clubs in SE Queensland and understand the needs of turf.

Not really what we wanted to see come Friday.

Generator to the rescue.

The issue we had 2 weeks ago with the growth regulator application has caused a slight burn on the fairways that has been exacerbated by no irrigation water being available this week.  It will grow out and some of the weed control last week has caused some discoloration as well.  Nothing to worry about and they will grow out in no time.  The growth on the River greens is at a level I don't recall at this time of year and we actually applied some growth regulator to them this morning which is definitely a first for September.

A busy couple of weeks coming up with ladies and vets champs followed by the club champs.  Hopefully the weather holds and we get the chance for the courses to shine.  I am off for some leave so the Blog will take a break until later in October.  Till then......good golfing. 

A pretty uneventful week with low staff numbers due to some leave being taken restricting what we could do.  The River greens were fertilised on Tuesday and we got a slight burn as expected from foot and buggy wheel traffic.  Not too much of a concern as it will grow out as has happened on the West greens.  The colour response on the greens from the fertiliser application is clearly evident as is the surge in growth that has happened, particularly with the warmer sunny days.  Quite a bit of weed control across the courses with some spot spraying which is highlighted by the dye that is added to the brew and Kikuyu and Blue Couch has been selectively sprayed in fairways so there should be some gradual dis-colouration happening over the coming weeks.

Footprinting evident.

The dry conditions have meant a pretty big irrigation cycle going out last night which was the biggest we have done since the new system has been completed.  It ran like clockwork and it will take us some time to get up to speed with scheduling and program development.  Being able to operate the whole system from either phone, tablet or home computer is a dream.  Even though it was a windy night coverage looked excellent.  Unfortunately the treatment works where we source our irrigation water had an issue over the past week which has severely limited our supply but we are back up and running now.

Some tree work coming up next week with some trimming on a number of holes to help open up some play lines.  Depending on the day we might play a few holes short to ensure safety of the operator and staff.  The fairways will get a liquid fertiliser application and further weed control will be applied. 

The Walker Cup golf event was on last weekend and it gave an incredible peak at one of the most exclusive courses in the world, Cypress Point.  There were fairly severe restrictions (club imposed I believe) on what could be shown which was a shame as it's an incredible site that last held a PGA tournament in 1990, for reasons I won't go into here. One of the things that I noticed was that there was no "mowing stripes" visible apart from the greens.  It amazes me how some golfers associate quality with striping when most of the best courses in the world don't do it.  I was lucky enough to play Cypress way back in 1988 and there were certainly no stripes then nor at neighbouring Pebble Beach but the quality of design and turf were certainly there.   Not sure if you can read the following but they are some pretty rigid "suggestions" which I would suggest are pretty well enforced!!

Suggestions?

 

A dry week at long last and a bit of a lift in air temperature finally has us drying out.  We are considered to be a "dry" course so I would hate to see some of the heavier courses and how they would have coped with the rainfall that we have received.  Year to date we have had 2230mm and 3236mm since October 1 last year. 

The West greens were fertilised this week with a granular product that has a slow release effect on the turf so there shouldn't be a surge of growth.  The River greens will receive the same next Tuesday during the course closure.  The fence at the rear of 11R tee was replaced this week and is a sturdy looking structure indeed offering great protection from 1R tee. 

Some of the more common types of Couchgrass and Kikuyu have started to develop some seedhead which is very normal for this time of year.  The seedhead is very difficult to mow off and the growth regulator we use controls it and also prevents it from forming.  An application of the product started last Sunday but we have had some major issues with it coagulating and therefore blocking nozzles.  We may get some stripy results and lines due to the mis-application.

The CDA in action on 18R.

We sprayed the fairways with our usual machine which is the big yellow dome type sprayer that we have used for nearly 25 years shown above.  It uses a spraying process called CDA which is the abbreviation of Controlled Droplet Application.  The spray mixture is delivered as a fine mist and that is why it is shielded from the wind under the dome.  The total spray application volume is only 22 litres per hectare which is ultra low and we get a much better result at this rate with the growth regulator than normal high volume spray rigs.  The cause of the problem with the product is currently under investigation but it has been a frustrating week.