Bunker work on the 4th

Green staff have begun work on renovating the bunkers on the 4th hole the back bunker clean out has begun. As with many bunkers these do not drain well and the back bunker is difficult to get the bunker rake out of after being raked. The base of this bunker will be raised slightly to enable better access to the bunker rake and then re-drained and new sand added. The small slope on the green side will also be lessened to enable it to me mown more effectively as this slope is now too abrupt. Green staff will move onto renovating the 2 bunkers on the 8th hole after the 4th hole is complete. Photos of the work done so far are below.

We have had some comment recently about the relocation of the 17th tee. The main reason for doing this is to provide greater variety in distance on our par 3 holes on the course. We currently have 3 very long par 3s that many players are hitting a hybrid or wood into many occasions. The hole is to be shortened so that it is slightly longer than the 4th hole so that most players can hit in a mid to long iron. The reason for the placement behind the ladies tee is so that the bunker on the right comes more into play allowing for more pin placements behind the bunkers as is the case for the ladies. The front of the ladies tee will also be expanded to incorporate the teeing area for the green tees. There is more information about the tee in the January postings.

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.