I have had enough of talking about the weather for the moment but I certainly spare a thought for some of my colleagues and their golfers who have had their courses completely inundated several times over this summer.  As my Dad used to say ; "From the time you're born, til you ride in the hearse.....Things are never so bad that they couldn't get worse".  So I guess we should count our blessings that we have just been a bit soft under foot.

On another note and something that annoys me but at the end of the day isn't the worst thing that could happen is a problem we had with our CDA sprayer, which is the unit that applies amongst other products, the growth regulator to the fairways.  One of the features of the machine is that it has a "shrouded boom" which means that spraying can take place in quite breezy conditions and is particularly necessary when using the "controlled droplet application" (CDA) method.  The drawback is that you can't see the nozzles and can't tell if they are operating or not and on our recent application we had a problem with one of the nozzles meaning that a stream of product was coming out rather than spreading as per normal.  This has resulted in a line burn which is only just evident now but will get worse in the coming week.  Before we start applying, all nozzles are checked and in this case they were all working but the motor on one of them burnt out on the first fairway we sprayed that morning and all fairways sprayed after that have been affected.  There is no long term damage, just the unsightly lines that will gradually appear.

CDA unit showing shrouded boom

Close up of the line burn

Double lines

This made me laugh

Just another 100mm (4 inches) of rain last week and there was probably more than that as the wind blew so hard overnight Friday that the rain could well have blown over the top of the rain gauge.  I had reports of up to 160mm overnight Friday in Currumbin Valley so I am glad we missed that.  The week ends rainfall takes us to 763mm (30 inches) for the year thus far so maintenance programs have been severely disrupted to say the least. 

Once again this morning I looked at the days run sheet and wondered how we would catch up on the "to do list" that is growing every day.  Once again with only 13 staff on board this morning it was a tough call on what had to miss out with the large majority of the West bunkers being washed out from the week end rain adding to the list.  So please bear with us this week as we try and catch up with the huge back log of work (and growing rough) that is mounting on a daily basis.

There are a few jobs on the horizon in the coming weeks so hopefully the weather will behave and we can get these done.  In no particular order the following works are scheduled for the next month;

Re - turf buggy path entries and exits.

Palm trees cleaned and in accordance with Club policy some Palms will be removed in the process.

The bunker at the left side of 3 River green to have a grass face installed.  This bunker was used as a trial for a sand/soil mix that would resist balls plugging which worked to a certain degree but has now had significant wash out problems and the drains are now blocked.

Trees at the right side of 2 River green to be removed.  A number of dead and dangerous trees will be removed at the same time including the Banksia at the left of 1 West green.

The 2 bunkers at the front and right side of 4 West green to be drained and re - sanded.  This will involve the installation of some geofabric material to stop stones migrating to the surface.

Some of these works have been on the agenda for several weeks now and it will depend on machine / operator availability as to the order of completion.  Watch this space for updates.

58mm of rain in 45 minutes.....the radar shows it all!!  With more to come.




Radar at 1.15 pm today

   The golf course is located just under the "T" in Tweed Heads.

Another week of catching up on the grass after the big wet.  Just about everything is back to normal now except for the lake edges which are overdue for a trim.  All bunkers on both courses have been trimmed and all water damage repaired.  Two of my staff are on annual leave at the moment and as I started planning the week last Sunday I didn't think we would make it.  Just to give you an idea of how works are allocated across the courses I will give you an insight in to planning last Monday for an example. 

I had 15 staff available for the day which includes myself and clubhouse gardener Eric.  The River bunker edges desperately needed trimming and the germination of weeds in the West bunkers meant they needed spraying.  The longer the bunkers are left between trimming means the slower the job as there is obviously more grass to be trimmed.  It is a labour intensive task and also much safer for the staff if they do this work with no fear of being hit by golfers, so hence they are generally done first thing in the morning in front of play.  In addition to the bunker trimming, holes needed to be moved on both courses, greens, tees, fairways and roughs mown, fairways sprayed with growth regulator and the area on 6 River fairway prepared for the turf that was due to arrive at 8.00am.  Leaves needed to be blown off the greens, tees and fairways prior to mowing, on course toilets cleaned, clubhouse carparks litter picked up and machines serviced by Mechanic Craig.  To achieve the above about 32 staff would be needed to complete all the duties in front of play and with a 6.00am start on the West course and a 6.45am on the River course, obviously something had to give.  Oh did someone mention bunkers being raked??!!

So the mornings run sheet looked something like this;

Ø      Change holes                                    2 men

Ø      Mow greens                                       3 men

Ø      Trimming bunkers                             4 men

Ø      Clear debris from greens                 1 man

Ø      Apply fairway growth regulator        1 man

Ø      Apply weed killer to bunkers            1 man

Ø      Prepare area for turfing                    1 man

Ø      On course toilets/clubhouse             1 man

Ø      Machinery maintenance                    1 man

Total                            15 men.

So a lot of the necessary jobs needed to be put on the “to do” list that seems to grow every day.  The staff has a morning tea break at 9.00am for 30 minutes and after that we start again.  So the run sheet for the rest of the day was;

Ø      Blowing out and raking bunkers      6 men

Ø      Mow rough                                         4 men

Ø      Assist turf layers @ 6^th River           1 man

Ø      Water new turf as it is laid                1 man

Ø      Mow intermediate roughs                1 man

Ø      Clubhouse surrounds maint.            1 man

Ø      Machine maintenance                      1 man

                              Total                            15 men.

So that was Monday and you will note that there were no fairways or tees mown which again is a tribute to the growth regulator that is applied to them that in the highest growth season we have, they were able to grow for 3 days without the surface being compromised.  On Tuesday morning we were able to get a lot more work done in front of play with a 7.00 am start on both courses, which is why this time in the mornings is so valuable and why I resist all attempts to bring tee times earlier on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  We need time on the course with no play in order to get the work done.  We were able to get the River course bunkers trimmed on Monday this week which left the West for Thursday so Thursday was a very similar day to Monday….read hectic!

Goanna on 6 River

And you know it is hot when the Goanna (Lace Monitor) that lives around the 6 River fairway gets caught out during the day.  I don’t really want to get close enough to find out if it is a he or a she but I have only ever seen it on the very hot days, of which Tuesday this week was one.

A huge effort by your groundstaff this week in restoring the golf course after the wet.  90% of bunkers are now dry and have had washouts repaired.  The last couple of days we have been blowing the debris out of the bunkers as well and just don't have the manpower to achieve all that and get them raked at the same time.  They are fairly hard packed after the rain and the majority should be raked tomorrow.  Just about all the rough has been mown this week after missing 10 days of mowing due to the rain which is a credit to the operators, one of whom is a 17 year old in his first week with us.  At the start of the week I didn't think we had any chance of mowing it all but we got there.  The fairways are showing the benefits of the growth regulator as I mentioned in my previous post.  The photo below shows an area on 14 West fairway just past the road where the area wasn't sprayed last time.  You can see the thatchiness of it and the scalping from the mowers.  This is what all the fairways would be like without the growth regulator.  14 West is one of our Kikuyu / Blue Couch mix fairways and if you look closely at the photo you can see just how restricted the Kikuyu is in the sprayed area.

Growth regulator missed area 14 West

And you know there hasn't been a lot of play on the courses when weeds start growing in the divot soil bins!!

15 River tee soil bin

Hopefully we won't be breaking the rainfall figure for January but we are very close   The 450mm of rain we received from Monday evening to Saturday morning pushed our January total to 580mm which puts January 2012 down as the second wettest on record behind 1951 when 610mm fell and just in front of 2006 when there was 557mm.  The average for January is 188mm and there have been few occasions when more than 400mm has fallen for the month.                                 

I don't remember seeing so much water lying in such volumes around the courses after the main rainfall event has finished.  But I guess we can count ourselves lucky that the river didn't break its banks by too much when you compare us to courses further up the coast such as The Glades and Colonial as the photos below show.  So we can't really complain too much about the water still lying on the courses such as 4 River below.   And spare a thought for Royal Pines and their new Superintendent Lincoln Coombes and staff who are trying to prepare the course for the Ladies Masters which is supposed to start this week.  

Colonial GC

 

The Glades

4 River fairway pools of water

And trying to pull out a positive from the past week is difficult but the lack of play has the West course greens looking absolutely superb at the moment with almost all pitch marks recovered and the turf very healthy.  If only we could keep them free of pitch marks!

I was very fortunate to have gotten the growth regulator applied to the fairways prior to the rain starting so their growth hasn't been too excessive.  At this stage I doubt if I will try and mow fairways until Thursday which will be two weeks since they have been mown and with no more rain this week they should be back to their best by weeks end.  Growth regulator is also applied to the bunker edges to reduce trimming and to keep the heavy mowers away from the edges.  Unfortunately not all the bunkers got done but the difference on those that have been done is significant.  The area to the right of the golf ball in the photo below has had growth regulator applied and the area to the left hasn't. 

Bunker edge low growth