Dams full

With the recent rain the course has received a much needed drink and both main dams are now full. Good rain in the past couple of weeks had helped, but with around 40 mm at the course on Saturday afternoon and evening we should have enough water to get us through the summer months. The pump was to be installed in the river in early January if we didn't recive signicicant rainfall. We will now be able to wait until our dam levels reach the point where we need to consider installing the pump.

Fairway margins - you may have noticed some blue lines on the margins of some of the fairways. These blue line represent the suggested mowing lines for the fairways. This is done each year to re-align the fairways and align them with the guidelines. These are:

• Average width of around 25 metres – allowing for some narrower areas and wider areas depending on the hole and the distance from the tee (landing zones) 
• Keep the fairways on the flat areas that had been designated as fairway – allow first rough cut on the flat area also 
• Avoid bare areas caused by trees and tree roots 
• Emphasise shape of hole encouraging players to play a certain line especially on holes that have a dogleg

These guidelines have been developed using material from previous reports including the Goodfellow report (2007) and in consultation with the course superintendant. With the current sprinkler system the most effective watering occurs within the head to head sprinkler area. Our fairway sprinklers are rated at effective range of 16.5 metres and currently the average spacing is around 20 metres. Therefore relying on sprinkler irrigation alone we can only maintain good quality grass to around the 20-25 metre range.

There are areas on slopes that we have struggled to grow grass in the past and the fairways have been shaped around these areas to avoid bare areas on fairways. An example of this is the tongue on the left of the 3rd holes in the medium driving area. The quality of this grass has improved over the last couple of years with renovation and we are now going to trial cutting some of this back to fairway along with part of the tongue on the right closer to the tee. There are other areas where we have marked to lengthen or widen the fairway to correspond to the fairway sprinkler irrigated area. We have also marked the right of the 2nd fairway further left to slow balls down running towards the ponds. These are some examples of the marking that has been performed in the last few weeks.

Overflow near ladies 9th tee submerged

Course update

Well that raps up the Snooze Club Championships for another year. The course held up pretty well with few players breaking their handicap and the course providing a good test of golf. The greens were a bit quicker being double cut each morning and the rough a bit of a penalty. The scratch rating for the blue course is 74 and the daily ratings for the four days were 73, 74, 74 and 75.

Now that the championships are over what does the maintenance program look like. The greens will now going back to being cut 5 times per week. The greens are normally mowed on Saturday (single cut) and not Sunday unless there is a special event. We are also now not mowing the greens on Thursday and they are rolled with our light weight roller. This helps smooth the surface and increase the roll without having to mow. The greens were dusted (light top dress) between the the weekends of the championships and we will continue this once per month in the growing season. This helps with smoothing the surface and increases firmness slightly.

The growth of the rough should slow now with the drier and warmer weather we are starting to experince. The cut of rough to the tree line is done weekly and if we don't get any significant rain only the watered areas will remain as thick. This should make it a little easier to play when off the fairway. PS. If you are having trouble hitting it out of the rough, you could try a lesson from Matt to see if you can straighten up your drives. You could also try hitting a 7 iron from the rough and not expect to be able to hit your 3 wood from anywhere on the course.

For those avid readers I have included a link to an article about green firmness. I thought it was a good read.

Firmness First

Club Championships approaching

Club Championships start this weekend with preparations at full steam. We lost Tuesday due to rain with around 32 mm falling over a couple of days on the course. This has given the course a good soak and topped up the dams again. This rain will get the rough growing rapidly and will take days to get on top of it. The large area mower will be going constantly over the next 2 weeks to keep on top of the rough.

So what else has been going on:

The bunker on the 9th has been completed and is now in play. The recent rain has drained through the sand immediately providing a good playing surface. Some work still needs to be done around the surrounds of the bunker and this area is still GUR with a drop area at the front of the green.

The greens - these have been cut down to normal playing height of 3 mm for a couple of weeks now. The groomers are being used each week to help smooth the surface and they are being rolled on Thursdays to help smooth the surface also. The greens will be double cut each morning of the champs and should provide a good roll. Cam is also looking to dust the greens early next week depending on the weather conditions. Primo has also been applied to the greens and fairways to reduce the vertical growth of the grass and help provide a better surface all day.

The fairways have also been sprayed with a herbicide to kill the broad leaf weeds and will be mown twice more this week to provide a good playing surface.

With the rain a number of the bunkers filled with water. These have been now pumped out and with some further drainage and drying weather should be in reasonable condition for the weekend, Let's hope we don't get any further substantial rain.

Renovations nearly completed

The remainder of the tees, green aprons and some of the bad patches on the front nine fairways remain to be renovated. This will be completed this week and with some warm weather and water the grass should start jumping out of the ground.

This year we have renovated the back nine fairways. These were scarified, verti-drained with thick solid tines, seeded and top dressed. Cam plans on fertilizing these in the next couple of weeks once the seed has germinated.

Once renovations are completed the boys will start back on the work on the left of the 9th green. The bunker should be completed and back in play before the spring classic. The bunker has been shortened slightly as there was irrigation pipe running through the back of the bunker. The mound at the front of the bunker has been lowered also to improve visibility from the tee.

9th green after scarifying and coring

9th green after top dressing

18th fairway being verti-drained

Top dressing the greens

Why top dress the greens after scarifying and coring? 
The purpose of this process is to remove thatch and organic matter and introduce new soil to the soil profile assisting in drainage through the surface.

How much top dressing should you put on?
You should only put on enough top dressing to fill the core holes and smooth the surface, this should be able to be brushed into the canopy with no top dressing remaining on the surface.

Here is an interesting article about top dressing from the North Carolina State University.
Refining Your Putting Green Topdressing Program
by Dr. Rich Cooper, Dept. of Crop Science, NC State University