WOW - just WOW!!  We needed some rain but that was ridiculous.  320mm fell in the 25 hours until 10am on Sunday December 28 with the bulk of it coming down in the 12 hours from 10pm.  There has been more rain on the courses in a 24 hour recording period with that June day in 2005 when an incredible 382mm was recorded followed by 228mm the next day so I am glad that didn't happen this time.  The rain gauge nearly overflowed and I haven't seen such a volume of water on the courses except in an actual flood event. We must have been very dry though as the courses sucked the moisture in and the drains worked overtime to get the courses playable for Monday with motorised buggies able to use the River course.  

The River course bunkers once again showed their superior design with 3 staff able to re-instate the bulk of them in 8 hours on Monday.  The West bunkers are another story and I doubt we will get much done to them this week so they may remain "out of play" for a while.

3 West green under water

Rain gauge nearly overflowing

 

The rain has certainly had its effect with good levels of growth across the courses.  Unfortunately most of the growth is in the roughs and consists of a variety of weeds, particularly Kikuyu.  A letter came in from an interested member recently commenting on the number of weeds present on the courses and part of my reply is that we have to work within the course maintenance budget and quite strict laws under the Pesticide Act and also EPA regulations not to mention what the label of the product says.  As such it is not possible to treat every square metre of the property so areas are priotorised and are treated accordingly starting with greens and unfortunately roughs are last on the list and often don't get treated.  That changed a little this week when a herbicide was applied to quite widespread areas of the courses with two goals in mind.  Firstly to eradicate some weeds but also to "burn" off some of the grass to help players find their golf ball and also to reduce mowing requirements which are stretched at the moment.  So for the next couple of weeks there will be a "burned" appearance in some rough areas and also the greens surrounds.

Herbicide burn showing on 14R roughs

The writer also made comment about the amount of couchgrass in the West greens which is under constant surveillance I can assure you.  There is however only one product registered to remove couchgrass from bentgrass safely and its effect is negligible.  This encroachment is not a new problem as can be seen from the Board minutes from 1980 when the then Superintendent Les Neuhaus was recommending using the same product we try and use today! 

 

13R green with sprinklers in place!!

13R green continues to develop and this coming Friday will be 5 weeks since planting and I couldn't be happier with the greens progress.  Some things never cease to amaze you though and last Sunday I turned the sprinklers on the green remotely from the shed when I first arrived and as I have been doing went for a drive out to check the green to discover 2 of the small sprinklers on the green had been stolen overnight and the hose was causing a minor washout on the green!! 

Quite a busy week on the courses with the dry and the heat continuing.  The River greens have bounced back from their renovation in the fastest time I have seen and are looking and putting very well.  The West greens are entering the "stress" time with heat and humidity on the rise.  Once again this week the constant north wind has made irrigation very difficult across the courses but they are both holding up extremely well under the circumstances.

13 River green continues to develop and is covering in nicely.  The green was mown 4 times this week and received the first of many upcoming sandings to start grooming the surface down to playing level.  The green has obviously had a large amount of water applied during establishment and whilst establishment has been good the water itself can present its own range of problems with the high salt content restricting the new turf.  The expected rainfall on the week end should see a great improvement in the health of turf and even faster growth.

First sanding on 13R green.

Nearly 5 tonne of fertiliser was put out on the West fairways this week so hopefully the predicted rain will arrive.  If not we will just have to keep the irrigation going at the level it has been at over the past several weeks to water the fertiliser in.  Actually the motorised buggies do a pretty good job of breaking it up and moving it into the thatch / soil layer anyway however we lose some of the long term capabilities of the fertiliser when this happens..  The fertilising is the reason there are so many wheel marks visible at the moment on West course fairways this week.

I had the opportunity to go down to Sydney to see the start of the Australian Open at The Australian GC and came away very impressed with the turf quality and attention to detail being shown in the course preparation including staff brushing sand away between groups so there was no sand outside the bunkers visible on TV.  An army of volunteers have joined the usual crew to prepare the course for the event and apart from having a good look at the course it was great to see Scott Gardiner playing live.  Although I think I need to stay away from him as he bogeyed the first two holes I watched on the Friday but he is still well placed going in to Saturday.

Scott playing from 18 bunker Friday

Using a broom to brush sand away from the surface between groups

The week didn't start that well though with an irrigation mainline blowing out in the middle of the LHS bunker on 13W green.  The green and associated mounding was obviously built after the mainline was installed and the repair hole finished up being 8 feet deep and a 2.7 metre section of pipe needed to be replaced.  Fortunately a couple of the sub contractors were able to come in and assist as the entire irrigation system needed to be shut down and with Bent greens any more than 24 hours without water in this climate can be life threatening for the turf.  This is one of the bunkers proposed to be filled in the Course Improvement Plan works that are scheduled for early next year so it will be filled as soon as the ground is dry enough to work on.

The hole at 13W

The cover is off 13R green (which wasn't all that easy in the howling wind!) and the strike and growth for the first two weeks is outstanding.  Runners are just starting to move and full cover should be achieved ahead of time.

13R cover coming off

Excellent root establishment at 13R

13R 2 weeks after planting

 

Well the decoy Hawk at 5W green has certainly worked.  The Corella's don't even go on the ground which they had been doing and feeding on the fairways before they would attack the green so it's been a great success.

Another great success this week was the River greens renovations.  The dry weather made the job a lot easier than the last couple of years when there have been a few showers about.    The greens were actually mown on Thursday afternoon which I have never done before so interference to play will be minimal.  They will be sanded again early next week for the final level finish to be attained.

13R green is establishing well and the cover will be removed on this coming Monday.  The task is then to achieve a full cover of grass and get the mowing height down as quickly as possible.  The water can now be backed off a little as the roots are starting to establish.

All River fairways were fertilised on Tuesday in the hope that we were going to get some rain that was forecast for that night.  Quite unusually we missed the rain which was unfortunate but the irrigation has been a reasonable substitute.  The fairways are already greening and were a bit longer over the week end due to not being mown following the fertiliser application.  The buggy traffic the next morning caused some burn on the leaf of the grass which explains the visible wheel marks on some fairways.

Wheel marks from fertiliser burn 1R fairway.

Construction of 13 River green has been completed and the green was planted on Friday morning.  The task now is to keep the water up during the establishment phase which is quite a task in the wind especially on such an exposed area such as 13R.  If all goes well in the establishment the green should be back in play in 12 weeks.  The green was stolonised which is using vegetative (or pieces of grass) material rather than solid turf.  The big advantage is that a layer of thatch is not introduced to the surface from day 1.

Close up of planted stolons.

Planted green and stolons tracked in with machine wheels.

The renovation of the River greens will commence as planned on Sunday afternoon so hopefully the little bit of forecast rain will hold off until we have completed them.

The past week has seen some bird damage to some of the West greens in particular 5 and 7.  We have had this damage before from the Corella's but normally just removing the flag stick just on dusk for some reason keeps them away.  They seem to enjoy pecking at the flag then sliding down and then attacking the hole and the rest of the green.  This year though they have been active despite the flag stick being removed.  On Friday night I placed a decoy Hawk on 5W green and an Owl on 7W green and there was no damage.  In fact their numbers were far less so I hope the ploy continues to work.

 

Damaged areas on 5W with sand fill.

 

 

 

The "Hawk" on 5W who won the first battle!!

A very busy week on the courses and a great effort by the groundstaff in getting the 360 tonne of sand that was delivered all spread out in the bunkers.  The skillof our back hoe contractor Peter McConnell continues to astound with virtually no sign of his large machine having been on the courses.  It is a difficult job working in amongst the play and we thank the players for your co-operation.  I think the Melbourne Cup day field appreciated the 30 odd bunkers that were out of play for the day!!

All is in readiness for the works at 13 River green commencing on Monday.  The temporary green is still a bit immature due to the short grow in time and the front of the temporary is 278 metres from the mens back tee.   It is situated in a bit of a funnel and judging by the number of players who have landed on it during preparation it won't be too hard to get on!  The first loads of sand have started arriving and has been stockpiled at the rear of 1 River green.  The sand for the top 100mm of the green will arrive on Monday and this sand has had a range of organic amendments added to make the growing profile "old" so that the green should match the others quite quickly as well as aiding in the establishment of the turf.

First load of sand for 13R green

The courses received 7.6mm of the most welcome rain I can recall in the storm on Thursday night and that has at least settled the dust somewhat.  I had been pumping out a large amount of water this week and was starting to drop behind our supply so the rain was just what the meteorologist ordered!!