Yet another frustrating week with the weather again impacting work programs and golf.  At least it dried out enough for us to get a mow on some West fairways but there are still several that are still too wet to mow.  The volume of rain this week hasn't been much but the ground just isn't drying out.  At least we were lucky on Wednesday that the 80 - 100mm that fell near Ballina and was tracking north didn't make it here.  The 7mm we did get did enough damage though and the forecast next week looks bleak and it won't take much to top the courses up.

Poa annua (wintergrass) has started to germinate again and several trials with varying products and methods are under way.  As reported here previously most of the Poa we have on the courses is now resistant to most control options.  This is not only a problem for us here at CTH but is a problem Australia and worldwide.  Most treatments will have a deleterious effect on the roots of the desired grasses so in the greens case we need to tread very carefully, particularly approaching winter..  The constant wet of the past few weeks provides the perfect environment for the Poa to germinate.  And speaking of winter we got a fair blast of what's to come this morning with 12 degrees registered in the compound.  It was certainly a chilly start on the mowers and a few of the boys went searching for their gloves.

Cold crisp start to the day overlooking the Tweed River.

Elsewhere on the courses and we are in good shape heading into winter, despite the rain, with an excellent coverage of grass on tees and fairways.  It is always interesting when carts are restricted to see the immediate improvement in the fairways.  A large majority of players have followed the signage on 1 and 9 River fairways and kept their carts off the fairways and the improvement in the turf is amazing.  Pity two of the early groups on the West course ignored the request to stay off 16W fairway.  I bet they would be straight into the bar if the sign read "free beer today"!!  

Not quite staying off the fairway??