Some unexpected rain last night. Had somewhere between 10 and 15 mm of rain at the course last night. Although had 33 mm at my place only a kilometre or so away and over 40 mm recorded in some areas of Weston Creek. Anyway, should be good for the course and add a little to the dams.
Greens to be renovated next week with a contractor coming in to verti-drain the greens (solid tines, no cores to be collected). Our boys will do the remainder of the work including scarifying, fertilizing and top dressing. This is the minor renovation and the green should be back in good condition within a couple of weeks.
Tees and short surrounds areas have been sprayed for summer grass which has been very noticeable this year with the periods of wet weather. These will be renovated also and reseeded as the summer grass will go dormant through the cooler months.
The paspalum on the shortly mowed areas is being spot sprayed by volunteers. This will need a follow-up in the next couple of weeks and then the paspalum will start to die off. This is done each summer once the plant has become active to keep the amount of paspalum in the fairway, tees and surrounds to a minimum. We will not be able to eradicate this completely as the weed is thick throughout the rough and surrounding areas.
We have also had a large filter installed on the intake to the main pump near the 18th tee. This will help stop sprinklers and valves becoming blocked that are irrigated from this pump and reduce the occurrence of valves getting stuck on which happens from time to time. This will also reduce the amount of time spent cleaning out valves and sprinklers that become blocked.
We are also trialling a bank of 6 new sprinklers on the 14th hole around 200 metres from the green. These sprinklers are gear driven and able to throw the full distance to the adjacent sprinklers which are spaced at around 20-22 metres apart. The current sprinklers are a knocker variety and in with the current set-up and conditions are able to throw around 17 metres.
