August Statistics

	August 2012	August 2011	average
Rainfall	106.5 mm	102.5 mm	112.6 mm
Year to Date	738 mm	626 mm	607.3 mm
No. of rain days	16	12	-
Average Temp.	13.5°C	15.9°C	-
Average Humidity	75.6%	73.9%	-

Another steady month of rainfall which has meant that this winter has been the wettest since 2004, with all three months recording in excess of 100mm to give us a combined total of 421mm (@17 inches). That is a significant amount of rainfall, even by Adelaide hills standards! We are also well above the year to date average and considering the amount of rainfall that we have had in the last three months the course has held up fairly well, with only a few areas starting to show signs of winter wear. On a positive note, the main dam is now at full capacity and overflowing steadily.

  

A large proportion of staff time over the past month has been spent clearing the predominately noxious and invasive weed species (Pittosporum, Cypress and Radiata pines, Lucerne and Olive) from around the 15th tee to prepare the area prior to the construction of the new tee once the course starts to dry out over the coming weeks. The new mounding alongside the 6th tee has been shaped in preparation for couch sodding, which will take place in conjunction with the rebuilding of the tee.

 Storm damage - 24th August

Demolition work!

 Obviously too far to go to get the rake!

A steady month of rainfall following on from a very wet June has meant that the course is now starting to become very wet and boggy in all of the usual places. The upside of this is that the main dam is now at the point where it will start to overflow after the next significant rain fall event. Despite the inclement weather the greens are still reasonably firm, true and quick; and are in a healthy condition with minimal disease present.

	July 2012	July 2011	average
Rainfall	106.5 mm	125.5 mm	130.7 mm
Year to Date	631.5 mm	523.5 mm	494.6 mm
No. of rain days	20	11	-
Average Temp.	12.5°C	13.3°C	-
Average Humidity	78.8%	73.3%	-

The following pictures are of the demolition of the old 6th tee drinks shed, now that the shed has been removed this coming spring will see the tee squared off at the back, levelled and have new brick edging the same as at the 3rd and 9th tees.

Drainage work and more rain

5th fairway - 11.00am Tuesday after 9.5mm rain in 40 minutes

Over the past two weeks staff have been busy with two drainage projects that will see a significant improvement in the areas targeted. The first project undertaken was the wet area between the righthand side of the 4th green and the boundary fence. This high traffic area has been a problem area for a number of years, and having now installed new drainage lines I can fully understand why. As some of you would be aware, predominatley here at Blackwood we have a heavy clay subsoil covered with an average of @150 -200mm of topsoil, this was certainly not the case in this area, because upon investigation it was found that we had only @50mm of topsoil over the heavily compacted clay.

New drainage lines - 4th surround

The second project carried out was the draining of the 10th greenside bunker. The works needed to carry the project were undertaken in the following stages -

• Old sand removed
• Re-grade base of bunker
• Dig out drainage lines (herringbone system)
• Install Geofabric liner to base of bunker
• Install drains (100mm slotted ag-drain/stone/shade cloth)
• Add sand/shellgrit mix
• Consolidate base and shape/pack faces

 New drainage lines

Liner and trenchlines covered with stone

 

 Sand/shellgrit mix being added

 The finished article!

Lots and lots of rain

New 15th green water feature

The past two months have seen the course receive well above average rainfall, which has led to the soil reaching field capacity and, as a consequence, the course becoming very wet and boggy. As previously mentioned, we had a relatively dry start to May, with the rainfall we received spread fairly evenly until we recorded 86mm for the last eight days of the month. This was then followed by a significantly wetter than average June (wettest since 1996), where to date we have recorded 200.5mm, 167mm of which has fallen in the last sixteen days.

 

This last sustained period of rainfall caused a large amount of washout damage and substantial flooding to the majority of the bunkers; the decision was made to temporarily declare all of the bunkers on the course GUR for fairness to play and to allow staff the necessary time to carry out essential repair work. Staff have spent a total of @60 hours over the past week to return the bunkers to a playable condition

 

13th fairway bunker

On a positive note, all of the drains throughout the course are now flowing steadily, with the masterlines discharging into the smaller 15th dam, which is now full and overflowing into the main 15th dam. The level of the main dam has risen dramatically over the last two weeks and I anticipate that it will be full before too much longer.

View form the clubhouse roof on Wednesday (note the blue sky!)

 

Tournament Preparation - US Open Style

As things have been fairly quiet on the course, apart from the cold and rain, over the past two weeks, I thought I'd share some information and photos about this weekend’s US Open at The Olympic Club. In addition to the championship Lake course, the club also has the 18-hole Ocean course along with the 9-hole, par-3 Cliffs course. This will be the 5th time that The Olympic Club has hosted the US Open, and all of the greens on the Lake course were re-built between November 2008 and June 2009 in preparation for this year’s tournament. There is a full time course maintenance crew of 50 staff, which will be assisted by 100 golf course superintendents, assistants and greenkeepers from 16 countries who volunteer for the duration of the tournament.

First Day of Winter

	May 2012	May 2011	average
Rainfall	123 mm	109 mm	100.5 mm
Year to Date	315 mm	304.5 mm	240.8 mm
No. of rain days	16	12	-
Average Temp.	15.7°C	15.7°C	-
Average Humidity	74.8%	74.3%	-

Last weeks rainfall total ended up at 83.5mm after we received a further 28.5mm overnight on Friday. As you can see this took us well over the average for the month of May and well above the year to date average.This also meant that all of the time we spent pumping water out of bunkers during the day on Friday was all for nothing as it was all back again on Saturday morning.

Bunker grading - extreme style!

The past week has seen us edge all of the bunkers prior to this weekends Pennant matches. The two fairway bunkers on the left-hand side of the 13th fairway have also had a facelift with a significant amount of grading work undertaken to move sand back to the high side of the bunkers. Greens have had an application of fungicide to control some small areas of disease which were present.

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.