A couple of milestones of sorts this week with the 10 year anniversary of the start of the West greens conversion to TifEagle, and I still sometimes refer to them as the "new" greens.  And this Blog passed 1 million page views which converts to an average of over 5,000 hits a month over its life.

An incredibly busy week on the courses with the installation started on the concrete paths on 1 and 9R.  A huge effort by the crew from Dallem Concrete Constructions to get 1R completed in the week and 9R prepped for concrete next week.  It was a frustrating week with the rain forecast changing almost hourly it seemed, and a dump of just shy of 20mm on Wednesday night.  But we got through and most importantly got the concrete trucks on and off the property without too much damage.  Working on the wettest hole on the property was always going to bring up some problems but I'm glad we are past it now.

The fairway bunker will be totally filled in as a cart path can't run in front of it and these works are scheduled for next week.

Please avoid driving or walking on the new path while it cures.

The pour on 1R begins with the ominous clouds overlooking.

 

Not easy getting concrete trucks to the softest place on the property.

 

The dam stabilisation works at 6R have also been completed in the week and have come up just as planned with a very good result.  The high flow from the tidal water will certainly test the structure out but in such a high flow environment it is the best potential solution.

Another day and night of strong gusty winds on Wednesday had leaf debris down across the courses but a great effort by the crew to get the main playing surfaces cleaned up for round 2 and 3 of the Club Champs this weekend.  

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.  

Both courses have again been very wet over the past week with the West course still struggling to dry out.  I have heard some comments around "it's never been this wet before" and I would have to agree with that as far as ground conditions are concerned, however the YTD rainfall paints a different picture.  Generally when we get rain, we get heavy downpours that allow the water to runoff the surface similar to last weeks photo of 6R green last Friday morning.  The rain we have been getting on the other hand has just been constant light showers blowing in from the ocean with lots of moisture and very little drying potential.  I checked rainfall figures since 2020 and they are in the table below and tell an interesting tale, particularly comparing between 2024 and 2026 up to YTD July 20.  Although both years had a similar number of rain days there was 150mm more in 2024 and actually more "no carts" days compared to 2026.  

 

So despite being the wettest ground conditions I have seen here, actual rainfall totals are down.  We are certainly not alone with most clubs having cart restrictions and several not even allowing pull buggies and/or asking players walking to only do so on the paths.  Many have also been completely closed as well.  A few that have full course cart paths say that if you haven't got GPS carts that don't allow a cart to leave the path, players will still drive to wherever their ball is anyway.

One of the issues that we face at Cool Tweed when making a call on cart restrictions is 1 and 9R fairways.  Both these fairways are virtually at the water table in wet conditions and I would suggest if you went down today and dug a hole on 1R fairway just about anywhere, it would be full of water in a minute.  Draining these two fairways, especially 1R, is virtually impossible due to the depth of the water table.   So if we were to put a cart path in down the entire LHS of the fairway, which is the only safe route you can take, and players kept to the path, you would get off the path and step straight into water or mud, depending on just where you are on the fairway.  The only option for these two fairways would be to sandcap (raise the ground level) across the entire area by a minimum of 300mm or install a properly surveyed path that will allow carts to drive but won't fix the wetness.  

Another example of a cart path not really helping would be on 5R.  A path could easily be constructed down the RHS to link the two existing paths, but that doesn't fix the water lying in the middle of the fairway, some of which I have never seen on that fairway by the way.  So a combination of drainage and paths would be the best result and several methods / materials are being considered for any future path works and some trials to alternatives to concrete are to be trialled.  We are also looking at some fairway re-shaping to assist in water moving off some fairways which will start on 14 and 16W and is why we have the pile of sand adjacent to the carpark at 16W.  The contractors were booked to come in on March 9 to start that work but it started raining and hasn't stopped since.

So the weather plays a part too as concrete trucks aren't light and the ground needs to be firm for them to traverse a golf course as it needs to be for almost any type of golf course construction.  Most good contractors are booked out well in advance and it's not that easy to just get them to come on site when it suits us.  For example I am planning to do some serious renovation work on 4 and 10W fairways as a trial to see if we can move some water off the surface by removing some thatch.  The only time I could get the contractor is for November 9 and 10.  That's our window and if it happens to be raining and the ground is too soft to work then we miss out and will need to re-schedule.

Back to some golf and congratulations to Ryan Fox on his win in The Open last week, he really seems to be a down to earth fellow.  And a seriously fast player too!!.  What amazed me was that there were 3 individual scores of 8 under par 62 through the tournament and only -10 won it!!  Surely some sort of record? 

The wet re-appeared this week and although not high figures of rainfall it certainly has us sodden again although at least we are open to play while many others are closed completely.  The torrential downpour we got at 8am this morning literally flooded the entire course which was a shame as prior to that we were actually not too bad - on the River course at least.  The photo below is of 6R green this morning during the downpour.  No green could cope with that level of rain and the green is doing exactly what the design calls for with the water sheeting off the green.

6R green Friday morning.

 

The rain was well and truly predicted and in preparation we had our big slicer out on some of the wettest fairways and also had our pedestrian aerators doing some solid tining on fairways to try and help move some water off the surface, but to no avail.  The photo below shows 5R fairway on Friday morning with the slice lines clearly visible in amongst the puddles of water.

Still wet on 5R.

At least with The Open on at the moment readers can still get a bit of a golf fix although the Aussies haven't started well.  It's really interesting that a completely new hole has been added to the course for this years event.  It's not totally unheard of as Kingston Heath in Melbourne generally always use their 19th hole in tournament play.  Birkdale has had some serious modifications over the years and this Youtube vid gives a great description of what has been done and why.  It's certainly a very different looking golf course when it's green like it is in the vid.

https://youtu.be/cOr2PfLiwp0?si=45nyexkLtZZMrlrH   

Some very welcome dry weather this week and the courses are finally drying out.  4, 10 and 11W fairways are still a bog and I can't recall them ever being this wet for so long before.  Please follow the signage on these holes and avoid driving on the fairways.

A fairly quiet week elsewhere on the courses with low staff numbers due to sickness and annual leave which was probably a good week to occur as we slowly dried out.  At last carts were back on and player numbers increased but it seems many have forgotten some basic course etiquette.  It wouldn't matter how many staff we had to maintain the courses we couldn't keep up with presenting a surface when players treat the courses like below.  These photos all taken on Thursday morning following Wednesday's midweek members comp.

10R greenside Thursday am.

 

14R greenside Thursday am.

11R fairway divots.

As the old saying goes "leave the golf course the way you would like to find it"!!

One of the poorest areas on the courses in recent years has always been the cart path entries and exits.  We had a plan to re-turf some of these last summer but the constant rain kept washing us out and we didn't get to any of them.  This week we trialed a product that mixes with sand giving it excellent structure and firmness but not allowing it to become compacted which is the main cause of turf loss on these areas.  It is only a very small trial at the front of 16R tees and given the low growth period we are in it may be hard to truly assess the success of the procedure, but it looks very promising.  One to watch.

The "mixed" sand on the left.

  

The tale of wet continues and the courses, particularly the West, just aren't drying out.  I have actually been wondering if we have been doing something wrong as some of these wet / boggy areas have never been like it before.  I attended the annual Turf Conference in Melbourne last week and was almost relieved to hear that golf courses anywhere from Coffs Harbour to Hervey Bay are as wet as they have ever been, despite lower YTD rainfall figures. Comments such as "never seen some of these areas this wet before" and 10mm of rain feels like 100mm" were pretty common and echo my thoughts.  And we are considered to be a dry course in comparison to many others.

LHS 4W fairway near 135m marker.

Cart tracks near 135m marker 10W fairway.

Hand pulled buggy damage LHS 11W fairway.

 

The photos above were all taken on Thursday afternoon and these areas are the main reason carts have been off the West course this week.  The photo below was taken last Sunday morning after Saturdays hand pulled buggy traffic on 13W fairway.

13W fairway.

 

We got greens on both courses "needle tine aerated" this week with a 6mm diameter tine which causes little or no surface disruption but allows for some much needed oxygen exchange and allows the surface to breathe.  The tees were also done but with a 12.5mm tine which again causes little surface disruption but allows for the air exchange and will hopefully help the tees dry out a bit.

We also pulled our big tractor mounted slicer out and trialed it on some fairway areas to see if it would assist in drying them up but with the damage caused at this time of year with little potential recovery, we judged it not worth the effort given the time it takes.  When some of the really boggy areas such as those above on 4, 10 and 11W fairways dry out some more, we will definitely be trying it again on those smaller areas.  

Slicer in action RHS 9W fairway.

 

Another year of the Mick Fanning Charity Golf Day and they really are blessed with the weather.  I have been dreading the week given how wet we have been and then we have a rare run of dry weather then a mid June day reaching into the mid 20's.  There are still quite a few areas that haven't dried on the fairways but for the most part the courses were in outstanding condition.  The size of the build for a one day event is extraordinary to say the least and logistically we were so lucky to have dried out enough.  This time last week would have been a different story.

The latest trend for activation's is to fit out a container then transport it to site.  Works well in a hardstand carpark or similar but not so much on a sodden golf course!  A couple of locations had to be changed such as Yeti who were originally allocated 9R but were moved to 16R where there is at least some handstand to get them there.  The sheer size of the containers mean a Franna crane truck or side loading semi trailer is required to put them in place.

"Yeti" being maneuvered into position.

 

"Balter's" bar being dropped on 18R fairway.

A look inside "Fatboy Bikes" container.

It is a logistical nightmare on many fronts and we needed to find somewhere for 4 semi trailers, including one oversize, to park and unload on Wednesday.  The cart shed carpark was the only choice to ensure the trucks had somewhere to park and unload safely so apologies to players trying to get a park for golf on Wednesday.

Just two of the trucks on Wednesday.

And some of the infrastructure required.

  

The nightmare on the courses continues with constant rain most of the week wetting both courses again.  We just can't get a chance to dry out even though the actual rainfall figures aren't that dramatic.  We are getting to the stage of needing to treat the tees for disease which I think I recall having to do once before in my entire career.  We are not alone with most courses in SE Qld affected and some actually closing.  Below is the latest long range forecast from the BoM so hopefully they get that highlighted first line right??

 The long-range forecast for July to September shows:
•    Rainfall is likely to be below average across parts of southern and eastern Australia.
•    Daytime temperatures are likely to be above average south of the tropics.
•    Overnight temperatures are likely to be above average for much of Australia.

Really not very much to report given the weather this week and next week all efforts move toward the Club hosting the Mick Fanning charity golf day on Friday.  A reminder that the course and practice facilities are closed on Thursday and Friday next week as we prepare to host the biggest one day golf event in Australia.

The US Open is to be played at Shinnecock Hills next week and it's extraordinary how much the course has morphed over the years.  I was lucky enough to play it in the early 90's when it was still fairly heavily treed and the difference to look at it now is amazing.  It is an all cool-season grass golf course and the greens are predominantly Poa annua and it is an extremely sandy (and windy) site so the greens dry out naturally very easily.  It is also extremely undulating and a very hard walk, especially if there is any heat about which is a big chance next week.  Shinnecock is where Phil Mickleson famously hit a moving ball that was going to get away from him in the 2018 US Open.  This is a good YouTube video that gives a recent update on the maintenance at the Club and also gives a good look at some of the undulations.

 

Seven days without rain has been a very welcome change although there are still some areas that are yet to dry out on the courses.  4 and 10W still have boggy areas on them and I can't recall that happening previously after such a dry run.  The general rule of thumb is that the West is about a day and a half behind the River course in drying out.  Some cooler overnight temperatures have really snapped the greens back with a loss of colour and growth.  We were able to get what maybe the final de-thatching of the season done on the West greens this week which really leveled the surface up nicely.

Whilst out on the West greens the number of unrepaired pitch marks was glaring and a blight on the putting surface. It is well documented that an unrepaired pitchmark takes weeks to recover whereas a properly repaired one can be instant.  The one in the photo below was one of about a dozen on 14W green and the arrows indicate the area that has been scalped by the mowers.  At this time of year that will be there for six weeks. 

 

We continued on with some more tree works this week opening up the playing corridor on 4W.  Unfortunately further tree work will be put on hold for a few weeks as we have some major amounts of golf coming up over the next month.  A week of shotguns next week followed by the Fanning charity golf day and then the senior matchplay.  Let's hope the rain stays away so we can get them all in.  And please remember to fix your pitchmarks!!