There's a green under there somewhere!

12th green - 11.00am Thursday!

As you can see, Wednesday night and Thursday this week saw us receive 50mm of welcome rainfall which caused more than a few problems for staff trying to work out on the course. Wednesday was also an exceptionally windy day which brought down a large amount of debris across the course. We have spent the majority of our time today cleaning the course prior to the weekend. The photo below shows the turf tidy clearing the 2nd fairway of pine needles.

Staff have also spent time today pumping water out of some of the bunkers which hold water to help to dry them out as quickly as possible.

Over the past two weeks greens and fairways have received an application of iron to promote colour, boost leaf strength and disease resistance as we head further into winter. A second application of gypsum was also applied to selected fairways prior to the rainfall; and time has also been spent removing a significant number of tree roots from pathways.

A Wet Couple of Weeks

Happy looking visitor to the course this week

The last week of April saw us receive 41mm of rain to bring the monthly average to a more respectable level. This has been followed up with 26mm for the start of May to give us a total of 77mm over the last seventeen days, hence the title of this post.

	April 2012	April 2011	average
Rainfall	44.5 mm	21 mm	54.4 mm
Year to Date	192 mm	195.5 mm	140.2 mm
No. of rain days	6	6	-
Average Temp.	22.1°C	20.8°C	-
Average Humidity	61.6%	68.5%	-

An application of 7 tonne/Ha of gypsum has been applied to all fairways. Gypsum improves and maintains the health and hardwearing properties of all turfs. it improves soil structure and it supplies calcium and sulphur, both essential plant nutrients. This has been applied as part of our ongoing maintenance strategy to help to reduce the amount of worm casts on fairways. Earthworm casting on the surface of fairways is rapidly becoming one of the most challenging management issues for golf course superintendents across the country; as there are no registered products specifically labelled for earthworm control in turf available in Australia.

Trial of a product to suppress the formation of dew

Greens have received an application of fungicide to control some areas of disease that were present. Greens and tees have also received an application of liquid fertiliser to boost nutrient levels as we head into winter.

Another good spot to leave a bunker rake!