Yet another short week with Anzac Day but at least the turf growth has slowed so not too much impact on the courses.  The wind has finally died down so a fairly big clean up on Friday in amongst the hordes of play has the courses looking and playing really well.  More fertiliser out this week and some more plant protectant products to get the turf as healthy as possible for the upcoming winter.  The constant showers over the past week and some good temperatures has the turf still just moving along.

One of the never ending issues all golf greens have whether they are bent grass or warm season couchgrass, is encroachment from other grasses in the collars. We are fortunate in someways here that we have 328 on the River course that is quite an open sward and allows encroaching grasses to move through them quite easily whereas the TifEagle on the West course is a much tighter sward and makes it a lot more difficult for the foreign grass to encroach. This is a very good demonstration of one of TifEagles strengths.  Most of the encroachment is via stolons, that is they move above ground, but occasionally, you get a rhizome and they move underground and then just pop up as per the photo at the rear of the 10WG.  Rhizomes are the ones that will cause us the most grief, as there is a runner going all the way back to the edge of the green in this instance, and could pop up again anywhere along that route.  Anyone who has hand weeded a garden bed to remove couch or kikuyu will know all about rhizomes.

Rhizome ''popping'' ten inches from green edge.

 

The burst of warm weather last weekend probably gave us the last growth surge we will get on the tees and fairways which is really welcome.  Overnight temperatures have started to drop which means soil temperatures are also dropping and the Poa annua (wintergrass) has started to germinate.  By the looks of it we are unfortunately going to have a bumper year and the fight has well and truly started.  I have mentioned before about the resistance issues that have developed over the past few years and we seem to be getting worse.   The photo below shows some germination on 18R tee even though a pre emergent product was applied.

18R tee Poa

It’s not a localised problem for us as the issue is common place across Australia and indeed the world. The upcoming turf conference in Adelaide has a number of presentations on weed control and then a full day forum on Poa annua resistanca that will be packed to the rafters Hopefully there will be some time for some open discussion on the day to allow for some solutions that some courses have been able to come up with discussed.  

A couple of tournaments with lots of money on offer for pros on either side of the world this past week. The LIV tournament in Adelaide at the Grange is supposedly a sellout with Australian golf tragics desperate to see some of the worlds best golfers play for the massive prizemoney.  The tournament has also been a bonus for other local Adelaide clubs with their timesheets full with the huge influx of visitors and they are cashing in by charging premium green fees. Last week’s tournament at Harbour Town in South Carolina on the PGA Tour was worth $20 million, which is really quite mind blowing and the tournament at Harbour Town always brings back some good memories for one of our staff members Luke, who interned there while he participated in what is known as the Ohio Program. This is a program that places young greenkeepers from all over the world at some of the top courses in the USA for up to two years. Australians are highly sought after for their well known work ethic and it certainly isn't a holiday with most courses requiring their crew to work up to and over eighty hours a week which was certainly the case at Harbour Town. Luke worked there for eighteen months just after completing his apprenticeship @ Gailes GC and participated in two of the annual Tour events.  Luke joined us in 2017 from Brookwater where he was a construction foreman on their greens construction project and was heavily involved here in the front nine TifEagle conversion on the West course.  He has also filled the role as Superintendent at Arundel Hills and also at Araluen golf resort in Perth, so he has a very broad and diverse background in golf course management, which is of great benefit to us on course.  His cousin also happens to be Australian pro Rod Pampling although the golfing ability doesn't seem to run in the family!!

Thirty tonne of bunker sand was added to select bunkers this past week with the bulk being on the West course to start with and more will be added over the coming weeks to top them up.  The sand meets the specification for bunker sand and is also mixed with ''brickies loam'' of all things to give it further stability.  Almost all courses in SE Queensland use the sand for their bunkers and a course in Sydney a few years ago trucked it down there when their bunkers were rebuilt.

A short week after Easter and some perfect weather has the turf on the courses still trying to grow.  The greens on the West course have all but stopped and the River aren't far behind them as we enter the long winter period.  As I mentioned last week we are better prepared turf wise for this winter but seeing the volume of play this week I have serious doubts we will get through without significant wear.

Some clearing took place this week at the rear of 5R tee that should allow a lot more light and air reach the playing surface and hopefully aid in maintaining a grass surface.  All tees got a fertilise this week to try and eek out some last minute growth and will probably get some more next week weather permitting.

The Masters has come and gone again and some pretty good golf was played on the as usual pristine golf course.  One interesting scoring fact to come out of the week was that Jordan Spieth made twenty one birdies for the week and Rahm made nineteen with an eagle but Spieth finished four behind.  He must be kicking himself.  And one of my favourite Masters photos from 1966 and this round was the first time that the two legends had ever played with each other.  I doubt some modern day players would make contact with the ball with a driver head that big!!

 

A very enjoyable and relaxing break from the courses and as always it was good to come back to the courses in great shape thanks to the efforts of Assistant Simon and the crew.  The change in the weather has been dramatic over the past three weeks with daylight hours really shrinking which has a significant effect on turfgrass and its rate of growth.  Soil temperatures are still up so that's a help but sunshine and lots of it is what we need.  Compared to last year we are way in front of where we were at, particularly considering we were in the midst of recovering from the second flood and preparing for the ladies NSW Open tournament at the same time.

One of the goals heading in to winter is to have as much healthy grass as possible across both courses to cope with the ''no growth'' period that we are about to enter.  The volume of play we are now getting combined with the increase in cart traffic is really putting the turf under stress.  Last year was probably the weakest turf conditions we have had heading in to winter and it really showed towards the end of winter with the courses virtually worn out.  This year should be a lot better with all turf in a very healthy state at the moment although the shaded areas will still have their usual struggle.  To assist even further and to encourage as much late growth as possible we were able to get five tonne of fertiliser out across the courses last Monday and Tuesday which has caused some leaf tip burn in a few places but that will grow out.  The fertiliser is a slow release type meaning that we will get nutrient release for up to eight weeks under normal conditions which is just what is needed.  

But it doesn't matter how healthy the turf is when golfers decide to do this right in the middle of the fairway.  It has been happening a bit just recently and not only the fairway gets damaged but also the pitch marks aren't repaired on the greens either so there's a double whammy effect.  

At least they tried to use some sand?

 

A really good productive week on the courses with some quieter player days on course which allows us to get a lot of work done uninterrupted.  Tuesday gave the opportunity to spot spray weeds in all fairways with a boom spray and both courses were completed which I don't recall ever being able to do that in a day.  Kikuyu and Blue Couch were the two main targets and a follow up spray will be required.  There will be a bit of yellowing appearing in the treated areas as the weeds die off.

We also continued some knapsack spot spraying on fairways predominantly targeting Crowsfoot, although just about any rogue weed was spotted.  The boys doing this have done a great job over the summer controlling the array of weeds that have appeared following the last years first flood which was a ''dirty'' one.  The fairways are as clean as I can remember them being.

Crowsfoot on the way out.

We have been having issues with water flow from the irrigation system to the short range and practice greens area for a while and it has gotten worse to the point we need to start digging up.  Unfortunately where we need to dig is just at the bottom of the River practice green right in the middle of the path.  The work is planned for Monday so please bear with us while we get it done.

Couldn't pick a busier spot.

The blog will take a break for a few weeks while I have some leave so will be back soon.

I'm not sure if it's an anniversary that you really want to celebrate but this week does mark the twelve month mark since the worst flood we have experienced on course.  In some ways it seems longer than a year but it is remarkable how resilient the course and turf are, not to mention the staff and contractors who put the place back together again.  The week certainly brings back some bad memories and things that I hope I never witness here again.  The cows were a bit of amusement though I must say and I will never forget the farmers daughter who said she would bring her horse in to round them up to which my reply was ''not gonna happen''!!

The things you see on 2W fairway.

Definitely don't want to see this ever again.

 

A bit of a comparison below of rainfall figures from last year to current and they are numbers that we don't want to see again either.

We were able to get the mini renovation of the River greens completed this week and they have come back quite well.  It just shows how incredibly different the surface is on them compared to the West considering they each received the same treatment.  To be fair the River greens are approaching twenty five years of age so have a much higher thatch level.

 

The grass is really growing quickly now and I haven't seen this sort of growth for at least three years so much so that I have used more of the growth regulator so far this year than in any other year.  The fairways normally require treatment every four weeks but we are back to three this year.  It's interesting because I personally don't think it has been that hot this summer but it has certainly been way more sunny than the cloudy and wet past two.

The week got off to a great start when we were able to get West greens mini renovation completed on Monday afternoon and Tuesday. The Greens received a deeper than normal de-thatch followed by 100mm deep solid tine aeration, and then a sanding.  It was just what they needed to allow for some good air exchange and levelling with the River greens receiving the same treatment next week.  The video below shows the perfect ball roll immediately after the sand was rubbed in and the rain late in the week just topped them off.

The River fairways had four tonne of fertiliser applied to them on Thursday morning in front of the rain so at least the rain was good for something.  Unfortunately the Vets were playing an ambrose event and we couldn't get them all done in front of play so 2, 13 and 18 will have to wait which is a shame as it would be nice for them to all be on the same timeframe.

And speaking of rain we picked up 68mm for the week which was very much needed and apart from Friday didn't really ineterfere wit golf to any degree. 

One of the very necessary jobs that we do that players don't get to see is the machinery maintenance that goes on in the shed.  Craig Plowman is our mechanic and does an extraordinary job almost single handedly keeping our fleet operational.  We are lucky to have a fairly modern fleet but the range of servicing and repair work is quite extensive and ranges from hydraulics, auto electrics, diesel and petrol engines, not to mention cylinder mowers that need to be set to mow greens at 3mm.  To assist in the greens mower set up we have a grinder that helps sharpen the cylinders after new bedknives (baseplates) are fitted as they were this week to the West mowers.  That takes Craig and an assistant a total of 16 man hours to remove and replace the bedknives and grind them.

 

Our reel grinder and a greensmower head.