January Update

January has been a very wet month with around 140 mm at the Tuggeranong weather station. This is well above the average of around 50 mm. This has encouraged the rough to grow and help keep the course a little tougher (although the daily course ratings seem to be below the scratch rating for most comps).

This rain has encouraged the growth of a number of weeds across the course. In particular the summer grass and paspalum seem to be thriving. Below is a photo of the 14th tee showing a clump of paspalum mixed in with the summer grass. The wet weather has encouraged the summer grass this year. This grass will die off once the cold weather sets in and can be sprayed with a selective herbicide. As the grass is spread throughout the tees and fairways this would required a large amount of chemical and would be very costly.

The summer grass spreads quickly by sending runners across the surface and by spreading seed and it is a prolific seeder. Continual mowing will reduce the generation of seed and slow the spread of the grass a little.

The paspalum you can see from the photo forms a clump and can be spotted easily. Over the past few years we have been spot spraying the paspaulm from the fairways and the tees with good results. This is being done gain this year to reduce the amount in the short playing surfaces. This can be broad sprayed also but would be very costly. As you have probably noticed there is paspalum spread every where throughout the rough and we will never be able to eradicate it entirely.

This year's Greens and Grounds committee is Simon Miels, Cam Griggs (Superintendant), Rob Bendle, Rod Drayton, Elaine Wilson, Heather Millar and Les Giovinazzo. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to talk to any of the committee members or send us a line. You can comment at the bottom of any of these posts with suggestions for topics that might be useful for the members.

Also, spread the word about about the blog so we can get more members reading.

Below are a couple of links if you want find out more about these weeds.

Summer grass
Paspalum