50mm of rainfall in one event, followed up by another 8mm the next day, I have finally got some sleep without worrying about when it is going to rain.
We were able to have the aerators at the treatment plant replaced, a big job and a long day for Darren supervising plumbers with confined space requirements and a 6 metre drop to the bottom. The attached photos show one of the plumbers down replacing the aerators and also some of the older removed ones. The aerators are similar to in a fish tank and evenly send air throughout the tanks, some were completely split others still intact but aerator holes enlarged.
Greens have jumped out of the ground with growth from the rainfall. We have cut them twice with walk behinds to hopefully firm them up with the heavier rear rollers helping even out the surface and also reduce the foliage on the plant. An application of growth regulator and fungicide was made last week based on the rainfall coming (actually based on the ants moving to be honest), the growth regulator if not applied would mean we would be bailing hay so to speak.
· A number of flagsticks are showing damage from golfers using their ball retrievers on the end of the putter to remove their golf balls without removing the flagstick, a product of the new flagstick rule. If I could ask members to pull the flagstick out first before retrieving please.
Tee-tops are also showing some good growth with the fertilizer kicking in as well as the rain helping promote growth. The winter grass (Poa annua) has showed its head on the tee tops with the cooler weather and will be a good buffer throughout winter as couch slows down but play does not.
· The pathway on the 12th hole held up well with just some wash on the edges and top, we will look to take some of the water flow away earlier to stop it building up momentum, but generally happy, apart from the rumour we are increasing the wasteland back towards the tee that is why we moved pathway. We could not do it if we wanted to because of the underground pipes and wires.
· We are re-turfing the ends of the pathways on 11, 12, 13, 14 and some smaller areas on 12th, 13th and 17th now we have some rainfall and hope to have most completed by the end of next week.
Fairways have held on well with the limited water we could apply prior to the rain.
We have fertilized them this week to get the last out of the couch and also to help the winter grass emerge. The two-grass policy of couch and winter grass is a bit old school now days but I still think in the middle of winter hitting off grass is better than thin couch or even mud.
Bunkers were edged, mowed and sprayed last week with the boys doing a great job to complete amongst the play we are having. Three staff on whipper snippers for 8.5 hours then two on fly mowing and blower for another 5 shows why bunkers (hazards) take up more man hours than most other jobs and that does not include raking and spraying on top of that.
· The new bunker on the 18th had an intercept drain put above it and it worked a treat with minimal run off into it, unlike the 14th fairway bunker that looked like an earthquake had opened up a chasm in it was that deep. We will look to add a couple of extra drains to reduce the volume of water there.
Roughs have not grown much in the last month and Kikuyu looks dead in some areas from lack of water. With the blowing of leaves and debris off the fairways into the rough we will need to mow the roughs to mulch up material so it does not blow back on fairways again.
· Clean up of fallen branches continues as time allows and seems to be a never ending job.
Proposed Work
· Finish off turf work pathways
· Pathway topping
· Wetland work start and finish spray work on reeds, result very promising
· Continued kikuyu removal
Rob Bradley
Course Superintendent CGC