We finished with a total of 30mm from the various scuds of rain that came through but what a difference it makes.  The fairways are already well into recovery mode although once again there is no real rain to speak of in the forecast.  We are not as bad as some though with several Brisbane courses actually out of water completely and many down to hand watering greens only.  There was some respite for them with some good falls up there this week.

Finally some rain!!

And the heartbreaking flood in Townsville has caused massive damage to the golf course there with the pump shed being completely inundated therefore losing their pumps and the 2nd green being washed away.  The pictures I have seen are of a very "muddy flood"which is the worst as you have to get the sediment off the greens before it sets like concrete.  Water is on of the methods used but with no pumps their task is exceptionally difficult.  Heavy rain has battered the north all the way to Cairns and many golf courses are suffering badly.  Lets hope they can come out of it ok.

Not much apart from routine course maintenance this week at Cool Tweed with all turf areas really growing well.  Light winds on Friday meant we were able to really give the courses a good clean up and as of Friday afternoon they are looking very good.  It was really nice to receive the following email from an English couple who were out touring Australia recently;

Just wanted to say what fantastic condition both courses are in. The attention to detail is without equal in the courses we’ve played during our trip here in Australia this year. Even the cart path edges are immaculate!  They are both courses to be proud of.

Next week we will be scarifying the tees to try and thin them out with the burst of growth that the rain has bought on and carrying on with our normal routine of mow, mow and mow!!

So much for January 2019 and I hope that I never see one like it again.  Exactly 10mm of rain for the month and officially the driest January on record.  1966 was the next driest with 16.4mm recorded and 2003 was pretty dry with just 18.4mm recorded.  February 2003 followed up with 586mm so although we need some rain 586 might be a bit too much!!.  I also read somewhere that 20 of the hottest years on record for SE Qld have occurred in the past 22 years.  But I am sure the rains will come and at least this week there were some clouds that looked like some rain and we did have a couple of light sprinkles that gave an amazing rainbow on Wednesday morning.  But we need a lot of slow steady rain to bring the parched areas of the courses back to life.

No decent rain to go with it unfortunately

I have had a few members ask if the grass that is "dead" will recover.  In short it is not dead as most turfgrass species virtually go dormant when they are under such stress and recover rapidly once conditions are suitable.  

I have a consulting agronomist that I use for advice and was quite happy when we had a look at the growing medium in the West greens.  The slice below is from 4W green and you can see the roots well below 120mm which given the current conditions is very pleasing.  We took some soil samples this week as well and it will be interesting to compare them with some I will take after we get some decent rain which helps dilute the nasties and promote some good growth.  Given the poorish quality of our irrigation water it is expected that salt levels will be very high which should have a detrimental effect on the roots but these are doing very well.  When the greens were renovated in December a large amount of Gypsum was applied which is a very good way to negate the salt which is of great benefit now.    

The darker soil in the photo is the 100mm layer of amended sand that was put in to the new greens on top of the same material with no amendments.  One of the concerns I had was whether the roots would push past the amended sand but as you can see in the photo they are powering through.

And the end of an era of sorts with Len Korn retiring from duties today to return home to WA to be closer to family.....and probably give the championships a shake at his club Rockingham as well!!  Len joined our crew in 2006 and I don't recall him ever ringing on the morning of a work day to tell me he wouldn't be in.  Super reliable and a very productive mowing operator who will be missed.  Good luck in retirement Lenny.

The dry continues and there seems no end in the near future according to forecasts.  With no more rain in January we will have the driest January since records began way back in 1886.  At this stage we have had 8.6mm of rain since January 1 which is pretty much half of the 16.4mm that was recorded in January 1966.  With December 2018 delivering just 92mm it will be the sixth lowest December / January combined total as well.  And it will be only the sixth time that less than 40mm of rain has been recorded in January. So that's one of the reasons we are currently parched.

As I mentioned last week the irrigation system is operating at full capacity given our current supply volume and ability to pump out on to the courses.  1.2ML is pumped down each 24 hour period from the Banora Plant and that same quantity is pumped out on the courses each night.  Add to that the evaporation from the irrigation dam and we are gradually dropping behind.  We are not alone in the dry conditions with several other clubs reporting the same issues.  And speaking of other clubs, 2 other 36 hole courses in southern Qld pump out 3.5ML a night on to their courses.  Alas even if we could be supplied with that volume, our current system wouldn't be able to deliver that quantity to the courses.  The fact that we are largely a sand based course doesn't help either although that's certainly a positive for us in times of rain.  

A tree contractor will be working in the area between the Pro Shop and practice nets next Thursday and Friday.  We will be trimming some of the huge Fig limbs in the area so please take care and follow all signage and directions. 

Well the dry continues and the courses are really starting to show the effects.  We did get this dry last year so it's not something new, but with no rain in the forecast it doesn't look good.  At least last January we had 50mm of rain in the first week and then nothing until February / March delivered 520mm or 21 inches in old talk.  Hopefully some rain will come sooner than later.  The photo below shows 18R fairway on January 24 last year compared to today below it.  The drain line showing is a key sign of just how dry it is.

18R January 2018.

18R January 2019.

The irrigation system is struggling to keep up and is operating at full capacity on a nightly basis.  One of the big issues we have is the varied soil conditions with many virtually water repellent sands in many areas of the courses.  The photo below shows an area adjacent to a sprinkler on 1W fairway that you would swear isn't working.  But rest assured it is as are all the sprays in similar situations.  What makes it even more interesting is that the fairway sprinklers are 2 speed and the area to the side of the fairways where most of the dryness is occurring is where the sprinkler turns slowest.  However with no overlap from other sprinklers there is just not enough water that can be put out in the current weather conditions and with our pumping capabilities.

There are products known as wetting agents that we use on the greens to assist in maintaining some moisture content in the soil profile but we just don't have enough water to help them stay activated for long enough on fairways and hence have stopped using them.  Not to mention their cost and the logistics of spraying them out in amongst all our other spray programs and the trials we have done on the fairways to date have been largely inconclusive.

The sprinkler is working!!

 

Well the week flew by with a bit of everything thrown in which is one of the reasons it is such an interesting and varied job.  You have to be prepared to fly by the seat of your pants as they say with something different appearing around every corner.

 

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday afforded the opportunity to get some growth regulator out on the fairways which is only three weeks since the last application compared to the normal four weeks that we get such is the growth patterns at the moment.  Most of the courses are under control at the moment although we are drying very quickly and in desperate need of some good rainfall.  It has been a great summer holiday season thus far weatherwise but a couple of days soft rainfall would be most welcome!!

 

About 7.15pm Wednesday evening I get a call from the club that "there is a busted pipe on 1 West and there's water everywhere".  Keep in mind that about two weeks ago I got a call with the same line and upon coming in found nothing.  I also once received a call that there is water going everywhere at 7 River tee and upon inspection found that the bubbler was stuck on.  Anyway so I came in on Wednesday to find a 6 inch mainline had given way and indeed there was water everywhere.  The system had to be shutdown and the repair effected the next morning.  It did mean however that we lost a nights watering which if it had happened with Bentgrass greens could have been disastrous.

 

The sinkhole from the pipe blowout on 1W.

 

Repairing a 6 inch mainline wasn't really the start to Thursday that we wanted as we had booked a mobile crane to assist us install a new support structure on the jetty at the water treatment plant that holds our pumps as the existing was badly rusting away and in danger of breaking away.  So we made it to the plant in time and what at first looked to be a very difficult job fortunately became quite easy although it has caused some sleepless nights worrying about how we were going to do it.  But the job was a success and we only lost six hours pumping time. 

 

The Franna onsite supporting the pier.

Out with the old support beam.

In with the new support.

 

 Then on Thursday at about 6pm I get a call that there is a fire that can be seen from 9 West green.  I had only just left which made me a bit suspicious as that's where I drive past as I leave the course.  But sure enough i could see the smoke from over near Bunnings and got back to let the fire brigade in to put out the small grass fire on the fenceline at LHS 5 River.  A timely reminder to extinguish cigarette butts I would suggest in this dry period.

 

Fire LHS 5R.

 

 

So that was just some of what happened in the week just gone.  Hopefully next week brings the much needed rainfall although the forecast doesn't look good.  

A rather unexpected 8mm of rain on Thursday morning was quite welcome with the courses once again drying out and the irrigation struggling to keep up.  We pump around 1.2 megalitres of water down to our storage dam every 24 hours and that is what we then put out on the courses at full irrigation which is where we are now.  At least it hasn't been windy of late which allows the sprinklers to operate to the maximum capacity.  With over 32 hectares of fairways it is a big area to get covered compared with most courses averaging about 11 - 13 hectares per 18 holes.

Speaking of rainfall we recorded just 1317mm in 2018 which is well down on our average of over 1700mm and actually makes 2018 one of 20 or so driest years since recordings were started for this location in 1886.  We record the rainfall for the weather bureau and are officially station number 058056 and known as Tweed Heads.  As a matter of interest the driest year was 688mm way back in 1902 and the wettest was in 1906 with 3193mm.  In more recent times my first year here in 1999 came in at 2,874mm and the recent lowest was 2007 with 1,293mm.

Repair on 2R

And not the most enjoyable New Years Eve for us with two fairly substantial irrigation repairs required with one being right in the drive zone on 2R fairway and the other right in front of 8R tee.  Unfortunately with what is known as a single row irrigation system almost all our sprinklers and pipe are located in the middle of fairways and have to be repaired ASAP.  Another great job by the irrigation techs had the system humming again that night.

We started some tree root removal this week and will be trying to get as much done as possible in the coming months to try and get recovery on the areas prior to winter.  It will be a long slow project that will probably be like a lot of jobs we do which means it will be done "forever"!!

Root removal on 16R tee

We finished up with just over 30mm of rain over last week end and the impact on the courses is clearly evident with the fairways jumping back to life aided by the even moisture and recent fertilisation.  Even with growth regulators applied we are still having trouble controlling the growth which is in one way a nice problem to have.  The rain was a very good soaking variety with hardly a drop not making its way into the soil profile.

It also had a great effect on the renovated West greens and they really started to put some growth on, more than I have ever seen on TifEagle and they were quickly cut back down to normal mowing height and are filling in very quickly.  The photo below shows the rear of the now 3 year old 17W green after the first mowing post renovation.

Rear 17W green

With last weeks rain and more in the forecast we will be looking at doing our best to keep up with the grass growth over the remaining summer and particularly through the hopefully very busy golfing period coming up over the next two weeks. 

Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year to all my followers.