Welcome to the Course Maintenence Blog for Blackwood Golf Club

This is the first of what will be a series of regular posts that will cover what happens out on the golf course. The aim is to help members understand why we do the things we do and what goes into preparing the course for play.

In the space of the last week we have gone from the hottest start to August on record to more typical winter conditions when we received 26.5mm of rain on Thursday, bringing us back to normality with a bump!. The rainfall we receive is recorded from the rain gauge located at the maintenance sheds and temperature and humidity data from a weather station located at Scott Creek. The following table is a summary of the weather for July here at Blackwood

	July 2011	July 2010	BGC average
Rainfall	125.5 mm	63.5 mm	130.5 mm
Year to Date	523.5 mm	420.5 mm	494.5 mm
No. of rain days	11	12	-
Average Temp.	13.3°C	13.3°C	-
Average Humidity	77.3%	85.2%	-

The weather pattern for July meant that for the time of year the course is exceptionally firm and dry. The bulk of months rain (102.5mm) fell in the first ten days. This was then followed up by lengthy cold, dry spells which helped to dry the course out. Friday 22nd also produced the heaviest frost seen for many years.