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.