New tees mower

The club has recently purchased a second hand greens mower which is now in action cutting tees and short surrounds around the greens. This has improved the quality of cut of these surfaces and replaces the old greens mower that we were using for this job which was on its last legs. The mower is a Toro Greens mower and looks something like the one below:

Course Update

The greens are coming along well after the major renovation for the year. They were lightly top dressed again on the Monday of this week to fill in any of the remaining core holes and smooth the surface. They are currently being cut at 4 mm and will be back to the normal cutting height of 3.2 mm by next weekend. The course is playing pretty easy at the moment with the softer and slower greens and the harder fairways.

Some pruning and thinning of the Casuarinas beside the main dam on the left of the 18th has made maintenance mowing around these much easier. This also enables players to get a view of the dam and the green from the tee. Players will now have a better chance of seeing if their ball has entered the hazard and hence will be able to make a better judgement of the next course of action.

Rake placement in bunkers continues to be a problem with most players leaving rakes on the side of the bunker. Some of these are placed neatly up on the slope of the bunker and it appears that players don't know what to do. After raking the bunker the rake should be placed in the base of the bunker pointing in the direction of play. Below are a couple of photos of 'how not to' and 'how to' place the rakes in a bunker. The first photo is how I found the rake in a bunker on the 17th.

Wrong way

Right way

Greens Renovations - Why renovate greens?

Well, the greens renovations have now been completed. Judging from the scores from today's comp, they are running pretty well with plenty of good scores.

What was done. 

• Greens were scarified with scarifying units fitted to a greens mower. 
• Cored with approximately 15 mm tynes with cores removed from the green - slight hiccup with the main corer breaking down - a borrowed corer and a few extra hours by the boys and they were back on track
• Cores picked up using the sweeping machine - light roll to smooth out the surface
• Amendments added - fertilisers
• Sanding of the greens using the John Deere Gator with the top dresser on the back
• Sand allowed to dry out and then dragged in using a steel drag mat to behind the quad bike
• The greens will then be brushed in again over the next few days with a mat of artificial grass
• They will probably get there first mow after a week or so with the mowers height raised

Why renovate the greens??

Two main reasons are to reduce compaction and thatch build-up. It also enables us to get some amendments into the soil and to the root zone.

Compaction

The greens become compacted from foot traffic and machinery throughout the year and do not allow water and nutrients to effectively get to the root zone. You will notice that the greens would flood very quickly after a small amount of rain. This is due to the compaction of the greens over time. The surface of the greens will dry out more easily if the water cannot get down to the root zone. Coring the greens allows nutrients, oxygen and water to get down to the root zone while adding top dressing to assist with this process.

Thatch is a build-up of organic matter between the surface of the green and the soil. If this is allowed to build up the greens will become spongy, more susceptible to disease and reduce the water infiltration rate. Scarifying and coring help reduce this level of thatch when done regularly. We also groom the greens weekly during the growing season which also help reduce the thatch a little.

Below are some photos to show some of the work done.

Core holes in the 9th green

Top dressing the 18th green

Filling up the top dresser

Renovations next week

The course will be closed on Monday and Tuesday to allow the greens staff to perform the renovation of the greens and collars around the greens.

Week 1 of the Men's Champs

That is the first week of the Men's Championships over. The course held up pretty well and with the wind particularly on Sunday there were not many low scores. The greens were slightly slower than was planned as the green staff were only able to single cut the greens due to a break down of one of the greens mowers on Thursday. With the windy conditions though this was maybe not a bad thing. Ryan, who cut the greens both mornings would have been up super early starting at around 5 am each morning to keep ahead of the field on both 9s. The plan is to double cut each morning next weekend if we can get the second greens mower back in action.

I went around each morning and had a look at the bunkers before play and still noticed most of the rakes had been placed on the edge/slopes of the bunkers. Can players please place the rakes back in the flat of the bunker so that it can't trap a players ball on the slope of the bunker. Can we all work in educating our playing partners each week to put the rakes back in the flat of the bunker. (This is one of my pet hates if you hadn't noticed)

The Thursday crew have continued the pruning of low branches. They have started on the 1st, 10th and 2nd holes. This helps in maintenance enabling the mowers to get around the base of the trees more easily and helps speed up play with less looking for balls. This also helps with the health of the trees and opens up the areas beneath to encourage grass growth. The group will focus on the couple of groups of Casuarinas along the edge of the dam on the 18th hole. These have become large and block the view of the dam. They are also difficult to mow around. The low branches on these will be pruned and the groups thinned out a little to make mowing around then much easier and enable some view of the dam. You will have also noticed that a number of trees on the right of the 6th down to the dam have been pruned and some trees removed so that you can see the dam from the tee and see balls going into the water.

The hazard margin behind the 6th green has been brought in to the edge of the track and a drop zone placed on the bank at the back of the green. The drop zone can be used if you need to take a penalty drop from the hazard or you can play the ball as it lies without grounding your club if in the hazard.

Course Update

We are now at the height of the growing season and the greens staff and volunteers are flat out try to keep the grass to a playable level all over the course. We are now cutting greens 6 times a week and grooming 3-4 times per week. The greens will be double cut with the groomers down both mornings of the men's club championships as they were for the Spring Classic. A turf growth regulator (Primo) is being applied to the greens to regulate the vertical growth and encourage lateral growth of the grass. This should also help reduce the growth of the greens throughout the day and provide a more consistent surface for all players. The regular grooming of the greens also help reduce the seed on the Poa Annua which is prevalent in our greens. Cam is also going to start spraying the greens a chemical to reduce the presence of the Poa and suppress the seed head which is unsightly this time of head. It will be difficult to eliminate the Poa all together as it is spread throughout the fairways and rough and continually gets walked onto the greens spreading the seed.

Fairways and tees are now being mown 2-3 times per week which is using considerable labour and putting more hours on our machinery. Cam is also planning on spraying the fairways and tees with Primo to reduce the vertical growth and reduce the frequency of mowing required.

The rough: We are currently cutting a first cut of the rough at around 37 mm and one mowers width which is around 1.5 metres. The next level of rough is cut at around 60 mm using the Lastec trail behind mower. This mower is being used to cut out to the tree line on all holes and with the 7 floating heads you should have noticed a more even an better finish to the rough. This mower is set to cut slightly shorter than the Wide Area Mower (Large Toro Rough mower) which is set at around 67 mm. You should therefore notice the second cut of rough is slightly shorter than the same time last year. The Wide Area mower is then used to cut rough outside of the tree line around the fairways.

Mowing in full swing

With Spring now upon us the mowing frequency has been stepped up. We are now mowing fairways and tees twice a week and greens nearly every day. The greens are not mown on Sundays unless there is a special event on. The groomers are being used each week now to help thin the grass and smooth the surface. This will help produce a truer roll and therefore increase the speed as the ball will not bounce around as much. Groomers are small vertical blades that slice a small amount grass and thatch from the green. These are attached to the greens mowers and are lowered when the greens are groomed.

The greens were also dusted on Monday to help smooth out some of the pitch marks and other small imperfections. This should help the smooth the surface and provide a truer roll also.

The bunkers are now being raked twice a week, at the beginning and then again at the end of the week. This has improved the quality of the bunkers over the last few weeks. There is some heavy rain forecast, so we might end up with a number of bunkers being flooded for the weekend, not great timing if it eventuates.

On bunkers, you may have noticed that many of the rake handles have a sticker on them indicating that the rake should be placed back in the flat of the bunker when you have finished raking. You are now able to rake the bunker before you play your shot as long as you don't improve your lie. This should make it easier to grab the rake and rake your footprints as to walk to your ball. The rake must be placed back in the flat of the bunker with the head facing the direction of play. Don't put them on the side of the bunker so that they trap someone's ball on the slope of the bunker.

Greens

With the onset of the warmer weather we have started getting some growth in the greens. The greens have had a fertilised with liquid and granular fertiliser over the last couple of weeks to promote growth. The mower blades have been lowered to 3.2 mm down from the 3.5 mm over the winter months. The greens are now also being groomed on a regular basis which helps smooth out the surface providing a truer roll. The greens will also be dusted (light top dress) this week which will help fill in any small holes/dents and again help provide a smoother surface.

The renovation of the greens will occur directly after the men's club championships. This involves coring, application of fertilisers and a heavy top dress.

The greens are now being mowed on Saturday mornings (if there is no frost) with the increased growth.

Course Update

The pipe from the river to the dam at the 5th is now in place. Testing has been carried out to check the flow rates and the results are better than expected. We are now waiting on the transformer to be put in place and connected to finish phase 1 of the project.

The grasses on the mound on the 11th hole have been removed as they were suspected to be a weed that seeds prolifically. We plan on planting some small shrubs on this mound so that it still encourages players to hit to the right. This will still provide a bit of a hazard but should help speed up play as time is sometimes spent looking for balls in the grasses. Other similar grasses on the course will also be removed.

The area under the tunnel to the 3rd tee is being cleaned up as the new drainage work seems to have fixed the problem of water continually laying on the path. The garden beds around the 10th white tee have been removed as they were unsightly and hard to maintain. The banks will be grassed SO that they can be maintained more easily and look more attractive.

Renovation begins

An important time for the course is the renovation period. To keep the surfaces in good condition they need to be renovated regularly.
The tees have just been cored, fertilised and top dressed. This will help promote new growth as we head into spring. A number of areas on fairways have also been renovated such as the 12th, 14th and 15th. These areas have been marked as GUR and golfers may take relief outside of the marked area.
The greens will be renovated immediately after the men's club championships.

Work on Bunkers

In the last few weeks considerable work has been carried out is being carried out on a number of the bunkers. Work has been completed on the bunker on the front right of 13. This bunker drained poorly, was too small to rake with the bunker rake and was difficult to get in and out of. The work carried out on this bunker included:

• Removal of existing contaminated sand
• Enlarging the bunker slightly so the bunker rake can get in and out easily
• Raising the base level of the bunker to enable easier access
• Raising of the turf on the green side to prevent water run-off
• Installation of new drainage using MegaFlo drainage pipe
• Installation of bunker mat on the faces to reduce contamination of the sand
• New sand added
• Turf relaid around the edges

The boys have done a great job on this bunker and with some heavy rain since this work has been completed the bunker has drained magnificently.

Work clearing the drainage lines on the back left bunker on 13 was also carried out enabling this bunker to drain more quickly.

Work being carried out on bunker front right of 13

MegaFlo drainage pipe

MegaFlo drainage pipe is flat with a covering that prevent sand and silt entering the pipe. This can be laid flat on the base of the bunker in a shallow trench eliminating the need to use a trencher to cut drainage lines. There is also no need to use any gravel which can contaminate the sand over time.

Work is now being carried out on the 2 bunkers on the first as they both drained poorly and needed some re-shaping. I will provide a further update on these when completed.

Pipeline Update

The pipe is now in the ground and all the trenching work has been completed. For those of you that have played in the last few weeks you would have noticed the trenching work through the path to the 5th tee. The pipe goes under the path and behind the blue men's 5th tee and enters the dam beside the tee. Water will be pumped from the river into this dam when needed and then initially to the top dam near the clubhouse through existing pipes and the pump at the 5th dam. I will add some photos and further information to the Pipeline page in the coming days.

Ice Scrapers

One of the ice scrapers

Two ice scrapers have been created and placed beside the 1st and 10th greens for players to scrape the ice from their shoes before walking onto the green. We are currently trialling these to see if they are effective and will create more if successful. They will be placed beside the green in frosty conditions and then players can move them out of play when the frost clears. Please add some feedback with your view if you have one.

Divots on greens

Recently we handed out pitch mark repairers and instructions on how to repair a pitch mark correctly so that we could help keep the greens in good condition.

It now amazes me to see a number of divots taken out of the greens near the hole by golfers. This is unacceptable and I encourage players in groups where this has happened to notify the player of this behaviour as it is damaging the course for all other golfers. Please have some respect for your fellow golfers and the course and take out your frustration some other way.

Garden beds cleaned up

The Thursday crew continue to do a great job cleaning up around the club house and nearby greens. They have done a lot of pruning of low branches and raking up debris from under trees. The latest is the clean-up of the large garden beside the path to the 10th tee. A massive amount of pruning and thinning of the trees and shrubs has taken place opening the area up significantly helping present the course and surrounds for members and guests.

Garden beside the path to the 10th tee

Bridge to 10th tee

The bridge to the 10th tee has been replaced with new sleepers and lowered a little to enable a smooth crossing.  A large amount of concrete was also placed under each end of the bridge where water had eroded under the concrete. Green staff have also removed the unsightly garden bed behind the tee and will also remove the small bed immediately beside the tee.

Path fixed

Major work is being done on the path on the other side of the tunnel to the 3rd hole. There has been water seeping onto the path for a long time with water laying on the path when there has not been rain for a period of time. Significant drainage and much larger sumps have been installed to capture any water that seeps down the slopes onto the path. This should clean this area up and make access much easier. I have included some images below of the work being done.

Course update

The course has recovered well from the big wet a few weeks ago. The bulk of the course has dried out with only the patch across the 15th fairway and a couple of small wet spots near the 1st and 16th greens. Some damage was caused to a number of the greens with water sitting on them for a period of time. These areas have been scarified, seeded and lightly top dressed to encourage some new growth.

The fairways, tees and green surrounds are in the process of being spot sprayed to kill the clumps of paspalum that have developed. This is an ongoing process that we need to do each summer to keep the paspalum at bay on our closely mown areas.

The immediate rough is now down to a manageable level and with the cool weather closing in should be able to be maintained more easily.

Fairway marking - you will have noticed an few lines around the margins of some of the fairways and a few areas of rough mown short to be maintained as fairway. We are re-aligning a number of the fairways as some have become wider than needed over years of mowing and to keep the fairways within the irrigated areas.

Rain

After a reasonably dry period the green staff were able to get the course in good condition for the Pro-Am. However a couple of days after the event we received over 250 mm of rain over a week. This has cause considerable damage to paths and bunkers again. It seems a never ending job for the staff to get these in reasonable and safe condition. The course is still sodden and the fairways and many areas of rough have not been able to be cut in the past week. Hopefully I will be able to get some photos of the flooding to post on the site soon.

Green maintenance

The greens have experience a lot of growth recently due to the rain and ideal growing temperatures. Here is a bit of a run down on the weekly program for the greens which is also dependant on the weather (rain mainly).

• Mowed 6 days a week at 3.2 mm (usually not mowed on Sunday)
• Groomed on Thursday and Friday each week whilst mowing - the groomers are attached to the front of the greens mower reels and slice the grass slightly to remove a bit of the grass thickness - this encourages growth and helps smooth the greens
• Light top dressing - this was done a couple of weeks ago to help reduce thatch, smooth out the greens and increase firmness slightly - we will look at doing this again in the next couple of weeks

Hopefully we don't get too much rain overnight so that we can let the greens dry out a little - this will help increase the speed of the greens and reduce the size of pitch marks. Pitch marks are a major issue causing balls to bump around and thus slowing the green down. Light topdressing will help fill these pitch marks. Can players also be vigilant in fixing any pitch mark they notice on the greens as this will help keep the greens smoother for everyone.

Fixing paths and bunkers

In the last few weeks the green staff have been fixing a number of the ends of paths. This is to stop the gravel from the paths continually washing onto the start of the fairways. Some couch grass has been acquired and this is being used to turf some of these areas. Paths that have been attended to so far are the 16th, 7th, 8th and 4th. A number of others will also be fixed where gravel washing onto the start of the fairway is an issue.

The paths and bunkers have taken a beating over the last couple of weeks with 2 solid downpours of around 40 mm each which have washed out paths and turned bunkers into swimming pools. The amount of time spent attending to the paths and bunkers has been huge over the last couple of months with a number of large downpours over the Christmas period. Looks like there is more rain on the way tonight. Let's hope it isn't too much.

Path on the 7th