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

Course Update

We are coming out of winter and gearing up for the course renovations. Renovations will begin the week beginning August 25th. We will be coring, scarifying, fertilizing, seeding and top dressing the back nine fairways this spring. Last spring the front nine were done. Some of the bad areas on the front nine fairways will also be renovated. In addition to this the greens, tees and green approns will also be renovated. Large hollow tines will be used on the greens and a heavy top dressing will be applied with fertilizer to kick start the growth of the greens.

Work on has continued on the areas between the 9th green and first tee. The path has been completed with drainage work to stop water collecting on the path and eroding it. The green tee has been completed with a bridge across the drain. The bunker has been cleaned out and the drainage point is clear for connection of the new drainage pipe. The bunker will be shortened slightly on the back end as there is an irrigation pipe running through the bunker. This will be covered with soil and the bunker shortened slightly. Some of the soil has been taken off the front mound so that the bunker will be more visible from the tee. Some low maintenance shrubs will be planted in the large bark area and a row of photinias will be planted in the long bark are between the paths.

Course Update

Winter has struck with cold windy conditions and 24 mm of rain in the last couple of days. Let's hope that is it for now as the course is saturated and many bunkers are now full of water. The boys have completed a great job on the bunker on the 8th which is now back in play. The turf around the bunker will remain GUR until it has knitted in well. Black lines have been put around the greens to indicate where carts can drive. Can you all ensure that you advise any playing partners to stay outside these lines as carts will cause damage especially in these wet conditions.
The next project is the bunker on the left of the 9th green and the surrounding area between the 1st tee and the bunker. Below is a run down of the work to be done.

9th green area proposal

Green Tee

• Build new green tee in the same spot as the existing temporary tee – existing tee to be moved towards the dam in the interim.

Path

• Extend existing path closer to the first tee to stop carts driving close to the green and damaging turf areas – this will extend along the side of the concrete path and join the path from the 18th to the white teeing area of the 1st tee. These paths to be timber edged and filled with granite. There will be around a 3 metre gap between this path and the concrete path which will be planted with photinias with mulch at the base between both paths.

Mounds

• Mounds to be constructed between the edge of the bunker and the tree line to stop water run-off from the first tee entering the bunker on the left of the green. This will be constructed so that water will be diverted in-front and behind the green. Allowing a mower width between the edge of the bunker and the start of the mounding. Mounding to be around 600 mm at the highest point blending into the surrounding turf areas so that it can be mown easily with the rough mower without scalping. Mound at the front of the bunker to be reduced in height by around 300 mm to increase visibility of the bunker.
• Area between the mound and the new path to be topped up with fill and grassed.

Bunker

• Bunker to be renovated with new drainage and sand. Lip to be raised on the green side at the back of the bunker. Base to be levelled so that ball rolls to the base of the bunker. Edges to be angled so that shot can be played near the back edge of the bunker which is currently too steep.