Drainage - back of 10th green

An area at the back of the 10th green/surround is being drained as it is constantly wet after rain and watering of the green. An area of turf has been removed on the green and the surround and sub-surface drainage will be installed with the area. This will then drain along the trench through the bank to a sump on the outer side of the bank. A large amount of thatch had built up not allowing the water to drain into the soil. With the drainage and new soil and turf this area should be improve drastically.

Over the winter we will be focussing on continuing our bunker renovation program starting with the bunkers on the 4th and 8th holes. We have also started dumping some fill in the area where the new 17th tee is to be built. A number of the paths will also get some attention over the coming months.

Bunker work

As part of our bunker plan we had identified 2 bunkers that could be filled in to reduce maintenance and where they added little strategic value to the hole. These 2 bunkers are the first of the 3 fairway bunkers on the 3rd hole. This bunker has been filled and levelled to form part of a mound that it was cut into. Once settled this will be seeded and returned to rough grass. The back left bunker on the 18th green is also being filled in and the area will return to a grassed bank. This area is irrigated and will be grassed to rough length from around 4-5 metres from the edge of the green to help stop stray balls from rolling too far from the green.

Over winter we will be also renovating a number of bunkers with shaping, drainage and new sand. There will be more on what is planned over the next few weeks. Below are photos of work being done on the bunker on the 18th.

Pipeline and pump operational

Pipeline Handover. Historic Event. Last Tuesday (5 March) the Works committee fired up the river pump and tested it before the official handover. Now it's ready to see us through the next drought. Pictured holding the return pipe at the 5th dam is Ron Shepherd, Ray Miller, Fred MacDonald, Warren James and Vince Patulney.

(Text and photos from the Murrumbidgee Facebook page)

Course update

The boys have been busily getting the course in ship shape for the open this weekend. The bunkers have all now been line trimmed and weeds on faces sprayed. We have also installed some new tines on the bunker rake that are able to rake the sand a little deeper. With the new tines and the dry weather the bunkers are now in pretty good shape.

Some of the paths have been repaired filling in the pot holes and topping up the granite where needed. The spot spraying of the paspalum has now ceased with the onset of some cold morning. We will do this again next summer of tees, fairways and greens surrounds to try and keep this weed at bay. The paspalum will now go into dormancy and be hardly noticeable over the colder months.

Some areas on greens surrounds and fairways have been renovated lightly of the last few weeks and some seed has been put down. You will notice some of this seed germinating already especially around the greens. These areas are currently GUR as noted on the local rules board on the pro shop wall.

The greens have now been groomed for the past week or so and are no running a bit quicker. Groomers are small scarifier blades on the greens mowers that stand the grass up and groom some grass out of the surface. The groomers help thin the grass and smooth the surface slightly creating a smoother roll. The groomers will be lifted for the mowing on the weekend and the greens will be double cut both mornings. The water has now be cut back with the cooler weather with only hand watering of the greens where needed before the weekend.

Pitch marks are becoming an issue again and now with limited growth on the greens poorly repaired or pitch marks not repair at all will take a long time to recover. For those of you that read this can you spread the word about how to fix a pitch mark correctly and try to fix at least 2 each green. If we all did this there would be no pitch marks at all.

We have now had the new mower for mowing the first cut of rough around fairways, greens surrounds and tee surrounds for around a month and you hopefully will have notice an improvement in these surfaces with a more even cut and little to now scalping of the banks. The mower is currently cutting  at around 32 mm.

Garden bed revamped

The garden bed behind the white tee on the 7th hole has been revamped will the weeds and stray plants removed. This area has been mulched with 3 deciduous trees planted that should provide some shade when mature and reduce the maintenance of this area.

The Thursday volunteer group stocks are dwindling with a few regulars turning up. If you would like to volunteer some time to help out on the course there are regular groups on Tuesday and Thursday each week or provide some help sitting on a mower for a few hours. Contact myself, Cam or Warren if you are interested in helping out.

A couple of the boys hard at it last Thursday

The Casuarinas behind the 9th tee are getting to a height where they are starting to provide a wind break to the dam and tee. These were propagated many years ago from seeds collected on the course. I have spoken to Alwyn and he is not sure what variety they are but from observations over the last 10 years they appear to be a low/slow growing variety. You will notice that there are 2 distinct plants in the rows. One has a redish colour and the other has masses of seeds. These are apparently the male and the female variety of the plant. With the prevailing wind coming from the NW these were planted to provide a wind break to the dam to help reduce evaporation from the surface of the dam.