An interesting week weather wise

2nd fairway mid-morning Friday

The contrast in the weather this week has been quite incredible. Tuesday saw us reach a high of 27.5°C which came as a bit of a shock to the system. This was then followed up by 59mm of rain over the next three days and a high of 12.9°C on Friday. The rainfall has not only been great for the course in general terms, but also has had the added bonus of accelerating the recovery of the greens after last week's renovations. I am extremely pleased with the speed of their recovery and also the fact that we were able to achieve this with minimal disruption and inconvenience to the membership.

3rd surround mid-morning Friday

Finally to the member, who in a fit of temper during Wednesday's competition, took the divot shown in the photo below from alongside the hole on the 2nd green, this is not acceptable golfing etiquette and I hope that you are proud of yourself!



Divot - 2nd green

Coring Week

16th Green after sanding

Greens renovations took place as scheduled this week, with the weather and machinery breakdowns having a slight impact on the overall timing of the operation. Greens were scarified on Monday to a depth of 25mm, they were then cored to 100mm over the next two days. Due to the 16.5mm of rain we received overnight on Monday sanding of greens took slightly longer than normal. The majority of greens were sanded on Monday/Tuesday with the last four greens completed in front of the field on Wednesday, with some greens then receiving a top-up of additional sand on Thursday morning (a total of @70 tonne of sand is used throughout the renovation process). The sand on the greens has been worked into the core holes using a rotary brush and dragmats and are on schedule to receive their first cut early next week..

Fallen limb - 13th Ladies tee

The strong winds of last weekend also saw numerous branches brought down around the course with the largest falling across the Ladies 13th tee on Sunday night.

Irrigation System Upgrade

The new pump station being transported to the pumpshed

This week saw the club start on the first stage of the irrigation system upgrade. A new packaged pump station incorporating multi-stage variable speed pumps has been installed in the pumpshed. These new pumps will reduce the strain on the existing system and extend the serviceable life during the installation of the new system.

New plantings at the rear of the 5th tee

You may have noticed the temporary shade cloth screen at the rear of the 5th tee, this has been put in place while the new plantings of the hedging plant Syzygium australe - Hinterland Gold establish and grow to an acceptable height to provide a permanent screen from the road.

Don't forget that next week is coring week. Weather permitting, the front nine greens are being cored and sanded on Monday and the back nine greens on Tuesday. All greens are also being scarified as part of the process, with this operation being carried out by a contractor throughout the day on Monday. While every effort will be made to keep disruption of play to a minimum on the in-play back nine greens, your co-operation will be required to help this operation run as smooth as possible and this may be a good opportunity for you to consider using your Club Advantage card.

Spring Tees Renovation

The first family of Black Ducks this Spring

This week all tees have been cored using 19mm hollow tines to a depth of 75mm to remove some of the thatch that has built up since the autumn renovation. Thatch in turf is defined as
an accumulation of living and dead organic matter that occurs between the green vegetation and soil surface. Thatch development is a natural process and is composed primarily of turfgrass stems and roots. Hollow tine aeration (aka coring) is the physical removal of unwanted organic matter from the upper portion of the rootzone; this process also relieves soil compaction and increases air and water movement into the soil.

The majority of tees have also been overseeded and sanded, with four tees still to be completed at the start of next week to finish the renovation process. Greens have received an application of a biologically enhanced organic fertiliser, prior to the start of renovations, to promote active growth to aid with the recovery process.

 

Goodbye to Winter

Another dry week has seen us bring Winter to a close by actually having to run two reduced irrigation cycles on greens and tees. Overnight we have used the water in the irrigation holding tank on the course so as to empty the tank to allow for it to be cleaned by contractors. This has involved the removal of the sludge build-up from the base of the tank(@250mm), pressure washing of the walls and flushing of the tank with clean water.

As you can see from the table below we have had a much drier and warmer August than last year and it will be interesting to see if we continue this trend throughout the coming Spring.

	August 2011	August 2010	average
Rainfall	102.5 mm	181 mm	112.5 mm
Year to Date	626 mm	601.5 mm	607 mm
No. of rain days	12	21	-
Average Temp.	15.9°C	12.5°C	-
Average Humidity	73.9%	82.4%	-