Course Update

I played today and noted that the fairways and greens are coming along well after the renovations. The back 9 greens were lightly top dressed on Tuesday to help fill the remaining core holes and the front 9 will be done in the next couple of days. The growth on the green is excellent and they are thickening up well. The greens are currently being cut at 4 mm down from 5 mm straight after the renovation. Next week the cutting heights will be lowered to the normal growing season height of 3.2 mm.

After the renovation the front 9 fairways have thickened up well with most of the bare areas now covered with grass. With the rain and warm weather the growth is significant and mowing fairways twice per week is barely enough to keep on top of things. The fairways are back to being mowed at 14 mm which is down from the 18 mm that they were mowed at straight after the renovation. Cam is considering spraying the fairways with a growth retardant to slow the growth a little. This is common practice on the greens during the growing season when the greens can grow significantly throughout the day.

With just over 80 mm of rain recorded over a few days early last week the 2 main dams are now at capacity. This rain has also given the course a good soak and helped kick the growth of the rough along. The rough is just started to thicken up and is now proving some penalty when missing the fairway. I have noticed that the scores are now starting to come down and we need the thicker rough to help provide some defence for the course. The rain has also compacted the old bunkers (un-renovated) and significant work will be done on the bunkers in the next week to get them into reasonable condition before the spring classic.

Please send through any questions or ideas that you may have about what you would like me to cover in future posts.

Renovations nearly complete

The bulk of the renovations are now complete with the front nine fairways, tees, green surrounds, aprons and this week the greens all renovated. These areas have all been cored, scarified, fertilised and top dressed with the tees, fairways and aprons also being seeded with rye grass. With the warm weather at the moment these areas should only take a few weeks to recover so that the course is in top shape for the Spring Classic and the Club Championships. The boys have put in quite a few extra hours in the past couple of weeks to get the job done. Below I have included a few photos so you can see what has been going on. You can click on the images to get a larger view.

3rd fairway after coring and scarifying

Borrowed corer in action on the 6th fairway

Again heading up towards the 6th tee

Cores on the 6th fairway

5th fairway after topdressing, sprinklers on in the background

9th fairway after topdressing

9th green showing the core sapcing

More 9th green

And again

Course renovations in full swing

The course renovations are now in full swing. The tees, greens collars and aprons have now all been cored, scarified, fertilised, seeded and top dressed. The greens staff have now started on the fairways. We plan to renovate the front 9 fairways now and look at the back 9 in Autumn or Spring next year depending and our financial situation. The process is similar to the tees and surrounds where the fairway is cored and scarified and then the bulk of the cores are blown off to the edges of the fairway using a blower where they can be dispersed by a rough cutter. The fairways will then be fertilized and seeded with Rye grass seed and finally top dressed. The top dressing is quite a large project and we do not have the machinery to complete this job and it will be therefore carried out by a contractor. The top dressing with the be rubbed into the holes and grass profile as much as possible with the front 9 back in play for Saturday's comp. Over the next couple of weeks we will also be irrigating the fairways, tees and surrounds to help the seed germinate. There therefore may be a need to irrigate during the day for a short period to keep the soil moist and promote germination.

Then next week we will be renovating the greens. This is the major greens renovation where we use large hollow tines to get as much top dressing into the soil profile as possible. The greens will be therefore slow and sandy for the next few weeks and enable us to get them back into top shape before the Spring Classic and then the club championships. Keep on swinging!!!!

PS. Don't forget to fix your pitch marks on the renovated greens as they will be softer after renovation and prone to pitch marks.

More bunker work

The bunker on the 14th hole has now been completed and is in play. The turf around the bunker is still GUR as this area had been re-turfed when finalising the bunker shape. The same process as usual was used on this bunker with the removal of all the old sand and drainage lines. This bunker was then widened by around 2 metres with about 30 cm of this taken off the face to reduce the slope to the green and help the sand hold on the face of the bunker. A small lip was created on the green side to reduce the amount of surface run off from rain and the sprinkler system. The back lip of the bunker was also raised to improve the visibility of the bunker from the fairway. Once the shaping and clean out was complete new drainage lines were cut into the floor and the new drainage lines installed. Bunker mat then installed on the steep faces of the bunker and shade cloth over the drainage lines. Nearly done, new sand, turf replace around the edges and trench to take water away from the bunker filled and it is all complete.

We will now start on the bunker on the left of the 8th hole. The floor of this will be raised to enable easier access for the bunker rake. The bulk of the tongue on the fairway side will be removed to enlarged the bunker and allow for easier and more effective raking. The front lip will be raised also to improve visibility from the fairway.

We are also looking for a volunteer out there that might be interested in raking the bunkers on Monday or Tuesday each week before the Tuesday and Wednesday comps. Bill Miller has been doing this for quite a while and is now not able to. The bunkers had improved significantly with 2 rakes per week and we are keen to continue this practice to provide better playing conditions for all. This could be done by one person or a group on a rotational basis. If you are interested please contact myself, Cam or Warren. Cam will provide all the training and advise needed. You can also speak to Bill if you would like to know more.

14th bunker with mat in place on the face of the bunker

Erosion around dams

As many of you may have seen in emails from the club we are embarking on a process of growing or in some cases re-growing grasses around the edges of our dams to reduce erosion. The grasses will help stabilise the the soil and provide a barrier to reduce the flow of water into the dams after heavy rain. In the past we had mowed a lot of this grass to the edge of the dam so that golfers could find their ball more easily. If you look at the banks around the dam at the 5th you will notice that there is a thick barrier of grass in many places which has helped reduce erosion and hence there is very little erosion around this dam.

The carp in the main dam may also be contributing to the erosion as they look to feed into the softer soil around the edges of the dam when the dam is near full. We will also be looking to reduce the numbers of these significantly and are exploring the best way to achieve this. Below is a map of the dam showing areas that grasses will be re-grown. Click on the map to expand the image.