Much of the same!

Another 24mm of rain this week has seen the monthly total climb to 71mm and our year to date total up to 196mm. The strong winds over the weekend also brought down one tree located at the rear of the 5th green (pictured above) and numerous branches around the course. This seems like a drop in the ocean compared to Headland Golf Club (pictured below), located at Buderim on the Sunshine Coast, who received 296mm of rain in yesterday's deluge taking their year to date total to 1470mm.

Casual water!

Bonanza Bore and Bird Box Repairs

This week saw us go from Summer to Winter in the blink of an eye. Last weekends warm weather continued through to Wednesday lunchtime giving us a high temperature of 34 degrees before the heavens opened and dumped 41mm of much needed rain (plus some pretty spectacular thunder and lightening) on the course. Friday then saw us receive another 5.5mm to give us a total of 46.5 for the week, not bad considering we had only received 0.5mm for the first 14 days of the month!

Contractors removing the Bonanza Bore

The Bonanza bore, which is located under the nursery at the maintenance sheds, stopped working at the end of last week and had to be lifted to determine the fault, fortunately it turned out to be a dead short in the power cable and not a problem with the pump or motor. The cable has been replaced and the bore is now operational again.

Geoff Couch working on the bird boxes 

A big thank you to Geoff and Ian who volunteered their time to re-secure and repair the numerous bird boxes located around the course last week. About half of the boxes can be reached from an extension ladder, but there are number of the boxes positioned at such a height that means that it is safer to carry out the repairs using a cherry picker. 

Play it as it lies! Interesting lie between the 5th and 6th fairways.



The End of Summer?

	February 2012	February 2011	average
Rainfall	42.5 mm	54.5 mm	21.8 mm
Year to Date	68 mm	75 mm	46.9 mm
No. of rain days	5	5	-
Average Temp.	28.5°C	28.6°C	-
Average Humidity	54.6%	58.8%	-

Summer was brought to a close with 16mm of welcome rainfall on the last day of February which significantly boosted the monthly total to a more acceptable figure. We have had our first major irrigation leak of the summer - the 10th fairway mainline - which has now been repaired. Compared to previous years when we have had numerous leaks, this says a lot about the way the new pump system is helping us to manage the older parts of the irrigation system.

Greens and tees have received an application of a balanced granular fertiliser which will help to maintain plant health and vigour over the coming weeks. Greens have received an application of a fungicide to control some small areas of disease that were present. Tees have been cored and will be overseeded and sanded at the beginning of next week to aid with their recovery.

I was fortunate to be able to attend a South Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association (SAGCSA) meeting at the Adelaide Oval just prior to the Redbacks victorious Ryobi one day final where Curator Damian Hough gave a very interesting and informative presentation on his pitch preparation, the oval re-development and the new drop-in wickets which are being prepared.

If you look closely you will see a clubhouse and a golf course in there somewhere!