Wednesday 11th December 2013.

With a warming trend greens speeds have increased slightly in the last fortnight. When we took stimp readings at 8.30am this morning, greens speeds had increased in the past fortnight from 10'3" to 11'2".

Friday 6th December 2013.

We have recently had a few queries from members with concerns about some weaker areas on our putting surfaces, so I thought I would take this opportunity to explain what has occurred in regard to their maintenance in the lead up to the greens being cored in October and to this date.

• Friday September 20th all greens were fertilised with a nitrogen based fertiliser to encourage the bentgrass to grow prior to the planned renovation.
• Greens were renovated on Monday/Tuesday 14th and 15th October.
• A renovation fertilised was then applied to all green on Friday 18th October to help recover greens from coring. 
• A Calcium/Magnesium granulated product was applied to all greens on Tuesday 22nd October to correct a deficiency. This product is applied bi-monthly all year round.
• Wetting agent was applied on Monday 28th October to eliminate Hydrophobic sand applied during topdressing.
• Thursday 31st October was the first signs of possible Dreschlera disease outbreak due to the mechanical process of coring and topdressing causing leaf tissue damage.
• Friday 1st November a systemic broad spectrum fungicide was applied to all greens to help reduce infection.
• Tuesday 5th November we applied 2 more contact fungicides to also help with disease control and prevention.
• Thursday 7th November we made another application of a Nitrogen based fertiliser and some iron to help continue with recovery from renovation.
• Monday 11th November we made another application of topdressing sand to smooth putting surfaces.

In regard to disease management on our greens, we generally apply a turf fungicide every 28-30 days as this gives us good protection from disease pathogens that are evident in the warm, humid conditions that occur at this time of year. These fungicides stay active for this time and help secure us from re-infection.

We shall be monitoring the weak areas on some greens in the weeks to come and will re-apply nutrients and fungicides as we deem the need arises to continue the good health of our putting surfaces.

Friday 29th November 2013.

For members information greens are running at 10ft 3inches when a stimp reading was taken this morning. They are all recovering well and will be regularly groomed and dusted in coming months to quicken and smooth the putting surfaces.

Now renovation has been completed on fairways we will be completing our main fertiliser application for the season next week. This will stimulate some good growth over the coming months.

On a final note we would like to thank all members who were kind enough to donate to our MOVEMBER charity over the past month. Below is a photo of both the successful and the not so successful attempts.

Thanks again.

Friday 8th November.

All fairway renovation was completed this week ahead of schedule. All fairways 1-9 were cored with 25mm hollow tines to a depth of 6 inches and fairways 10-18 were heavily scarified. a significant amount of grass was removed from fairways 10-18 but these will recover quickly. Already the fairways completed early have new shoots and are recovering well.

Our putting surfaces are progressing well though we did get some leaf disease due to the mechanical processes that occur during the renovation procedure. This has been treated and is in recovery and good growth is occurring. Next week we shall make another light application of sand to help smooth putting surfaces.

I thank my staff for their efforts over the past 4 weeks. Their contribution has enabled us to be ahead of schedule through this renovation period.

Friday 25th October 2013.

Renovation programmes have progressed quickly in the last fortnight with renovation to greens, tees and fairways well and truly underway.

Greens have recovered quickly since renovation commenced last week and they are now being regularly mown and rolled. Mowing heights are coming down gradually as turf grows back through topdressing sand and normal maintenance heights of cut should be achievable by the latter half of next week. Once we have achieved this, we will be re-applying another amount of topdressing sand to further even up surfaces.

Tee renovation was completed in 3 days this week and this included both the coring and scarifying and clean up of all tees.

Fairway renovation has just commenced with the completed coring of the 5th fairway and the completed scarifying of the 8th, 11th, 15th and 18th fairways. It is expected that all fairway renovation will be completed by the middle of November but this will depend on play commitments and of course the weather.

While this renovation is underway, please be patient and take care when playing shots towards machinery operators.

Greens are recovering well from renovation.

Coring and scarifying of tees.

Coring of fairways.

Scarifying of fairways. The finished product on the 18th.

Monday 14th October 2013.

With good weather upon us we have been able to make a successful start to our greens renovation.
Greens on holes 10-17 have been completed today and we have made a start on the front nine just in case the forecast wet weather for tomorrow evening arrives earlier. The 18th green will not be completed due to it's planned re-surfacing in December.

In the days following we shall continue to water and brush topdressing to work it into core holes and will obviously apply renovation fertiliser for quick recovery.

Please have patience if these practices are being undertaken during your round.

Assistant Superintendent Ashley Howse coring our Practice 1 green.

Staff member Peter Ballarine brushing topdressing sand on the 15th green.

Tuesday 8th October 2013.

It feels like Spring is finally here with an increase in warmth, the sun rising earlier and our turf finally starting to kick into gear.

With this weather comes an increase in colour around the course with some pockets of untouched flora bursting to life.

Unfortunately with this warming trend it becomes necessary to renovate our turf surfaces in preparation for the stressful months ahead.
This will commence with greens renovation on Monday 14th and Tuesday 15th October. Because of this only 1 nine will be available for play on each day.
Greens will be quick to recover before the high temperatures arrive.

Tuesday 24th September 2013.

Though we should be experiencing some Spring weather, we are still receiving significant rainfall. This month has been our wettest for the year with a total of 176.5mm falling up to the 24th of this month.

Last month we received 168.5mm of rain to take our year to date tally to 706mm which has already passed last years annual total of 698mm.

Though we are finding soil temperatures are increasing I think we still have some rainfall to come.

Friday 6th September 2013
Warming trend is being appreciated by staff and members alike.

Staff have been busy over the past month with our focus on the planning of herbicide spray programmes around weather conditions and competition play.

We recently completed some wintergrass spraying on fairways and this was followed by the application of another herbicide to control broadleaf and bindii weeds.

As the change of seasons is almost upon us, we have this week completed our crabgrass/summergrass prevention programme to all fairways and green surrounds.

Once we hit next month our focus will turn to the commencement of our course renovation period.

Green speed readings taken this morning at 8.00am sees the greens a little slower than recent running at 10'9". This is a side affect of a little more growth with the slight increase in soil temperatures.

Monday 12th August 2013.

Members are reminded to take care of their golf course.
The photo below was taken this Monday morning on the 10th fairway. Obviously someone playing, I imagine late yesterday, has little or no respect for our course !!

Disappointing to say the least.

Monday 8th July 2013

Groundstaff have been greeted by a heavy frost this morning. This has delayed our programmed work on the course today. Tomorrow forecast suggests another cold morning though the remainder of the week suggests we will finally get some more rain.

An frosty 18th fairway.

The 9th hole.

Friday 5th July 2013

Friday 5th July 2013.

Work was completed this week on the construction of a small spare green on the left-hand side of the 6th hole. This site was shaped, irrigated and seeded and will develop over the coming 4 months should it be required over the summer period if another green reconstruction is undertaken. Shade cloth has been placed over the seeded site to protect the seed from disruption and also to help maintain some degree of soil warmth that will help seedling development.

Other work undertaken this week was the planting of numerous Kangaroo Paw (Anigozanthus menglesii and flavidus) specimens in some areas that are not touched by maintenance equipment. The club emblem has reduced in number over the past years due to mowing and the pressure to thin out rough and keep play moving and it is important that we at least maintain pockets of this native plant.

Minimum temperatures have been consistently low this week with 3 or 4 frosts occurring throughout the week. As a result a lot of couch areas have had some frost damage causing discolouration of the plant leaf mostly on the longer semi rough grass.

Members may have noticed that the BLUE traffic line has recently been re-introduced for the winter period. Please make sure all motorised cart traffic stays OUTSIDE these lines to protect the play areas. I have witnessed some blatant disregard of this rule. I also witnessed a member that when approaching a hooped area between a bunker and green found it easier to walk his buggy around the hoops onto the green and through some surface water that had accumulated on the green. PLEASE THINK and PRESERVE your course. These procedures are put in place for your and your fellow members benefit.

 

New spare green on 6th hole.

New seeding of bentgrass nursery developing well.

Thursday 27th June 2013.

I have had numerous queries lately relating to how the tee marker and hole cyclic system works, so I thought I would take time to explain.

Both the tee markers and hole locations are broken up into 6 cyclic positions. The tee positions rotate along the tees from the front of the tees to the back and then returning to the front again and cycling through. This means for example, if the cyclic position for the day is position 1 the tee markers on the first tee will be on the front of the first tee. When arriving at the second tee, the number 1 position will be slightly further back from the front of the 2nd tee, and so on along the following tees until it returns back to the front of the tees. There are instances however on some of the wider tees where the cyclic markers will not only go up and down the length of tee but also go from one side of the tee to the other.

  1st tee                                    2nd tee                                     3rd tee
6 5 4 3 2 1                            5 4 3 2 1 6                                4 3 2 1 6 5
Direction of play from left to right of page.

The hole position for any given day also relates to the tee marker position. Generally speaking a forward half tee position on any tee means the hole position  on the green of the same hole for that day will be in the back half of the green. This is done so as to keep the course a similar length on any given day.

There are exceptions to this rule. For argument sake when the course is played off the BLUE full distance plate for some stroke events or when it is necessary for turf management reasons or weather conditions not to have the hole in the cyclic position due for that day. All these decisions are made early in the day after the course playing condition is evaluated.

Friday 21st June 2013

This week our focus has shifted onto tree and shrub planting. Over the coming months we will be planting numerous trees that we have developed in our tree nursery over the past 12 months as well as some seedlings that we only recently acquired.

We have included various species of tree that we have had success with in the past, as well as others that are endemic to the local area and who's numbers are diminishing around the golf course.

Members would have noticed that a section of garden near the 1st tee has been cleaned out recently. Old plants that were in poor condition were removed, the area treated for weed and foreign grass invasion and is now being planted out with kangaroo paws and other hardy, low maintenance plants. One of our Groundstaff, Irishmen Colm Quinn, has a deft touch when it comes to this subject and he is working his magic.

Groundstaff member Colm Quinn planting out the 1st tee garden.

Friday 17th May.

This week was a much better week, weather wise leading into this weekends 2nd and 3rd rounds of the Club Championships.

Putting surfaces have quickened somewhat with the fine weather over the past few days apart from light falls late yesterday, but this only amounted to 2mm of rain.

Green speed has quickened from 10'2" early last week to 11'5" this morning and with only a small amount of rain forecast over the next couple of days, I am expecting this pace to be maintained over the next couple of days.

Good luck to all with your golf this weekend.

Thursday 9th May 2013

Strong winds and rain yesterday afternoon and overnights have caused some fallen limbs around the course in particular to 2 large Jarrah trees. Most of the other damage is small branches and limbs blowing onto the turf areas.

We have spent the morning blowing this material off the fairways and surrounds to be cleaned up but with the weather forecast rough for the next couple of days I imagine we will need to do this again.

We received 18.5 mm of rain over Tuesday night and another 17.5mm last night. Less than ideal conditions to prepare for the Club Championships on the weekend but we shall prepare the course to the best of our ability.

Tuesday 7th May 2013

It's fair to say I'm a little anxious about what tonights change in weather is going to bring.

All I can see for the next 3 days is wind and rain. A less than ideal preparation for the Club Championships starting on Saturday.

I will keep members posted on the impact on the club and course.

Monday 22nd April 2013.

Work commenced this week on the replacement of the final 2 sawdust tee paths on the course.

Both the 3rd and 6th tee paths were dug out and paved this week with final touches to be completed over the next fortnight.

This sees the end of the ugly washaways that occurred through the winter months, the continual need to top up pathways and needless to say no more sawdust in you socks!

A offshoot of the 12th tee path to srevice traffic for the ladies is also planned.

 

3rd Tee Path.

 

 

6th Tee Path.

 

 

 

Wednesday 10th April 2013.

Recently some work was completed on the approach to the 7th green. Members may have noticed for some time a wet area developing near the bunkers even through the hot months.

This water was accumulating in the very thick thatch/mat layer under the turf and this required physical removal as no amount of surface coring would have given us a satisfactory result.

This area was dug out, new sand incorporated and returfed.

 

 

There was a significant amount of organic matter under turf layer and this was impeding free drainage through to the underlying sand. This photo shows the thickness of this layer.

 

 

MONDAY 11TH MARCH 2013.

Work continued this week on the leveling of bunker bases. With the majority of bunkers edged and trimmed over the past couple of weeks, we have turned our attention to leveling of the bases with our skid steer loader.

We shall continue on this path and should have them all completed by mid April.

 

 

 

 

Friday 15th February 2013.

Just a reminder to all members that greens with be renovated on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th February. Only 9 holes will be available for play on these days while this is being undertaken.

This renovation will take about 3 weeks to recover fully without disturbing too much of the golfing season.

Tuesday 12th February 2013.

A new filter for our irrigation system was installed in late January. This was necessary due to the failure of our existing filter that had served us for some 18 years.

Parts for this filter were unobtainable due to its age and the fact that this particular model had been dsicontinued some time ago.

The filter is a very important part of our irrigation system, removing all foreign debris from irrigation water before it enters the mainline system. If this was to enter the system, it would have a detrimental effect on our irrigation valves and rotors.

The filter selected has the capacity to operate with greater water flows than we currently operate at allowing us to use it for many years and will be an efficient component of our system should we complete an upgrade to our pump station in the future.

 

 

 

 

Friday 25th January 2013

The 8th green and surroundings are growing in well though we have had some issues with a case of Pythium disease recently. This has come about due to the moist conditions required to establish the turf and the high humidity we have had on occasions over the past couple of months. This disease has since been treated and turf is recovering well.

Insects have also proven to be destructive with an invasion of Argentine Stem Weevil causing some damage to new shoots but a management programme has commenced for this pest and this will bring them under control.

Neither of these pests will cause long term damage to the green with a sound control programme.

We are continuing regular mowing and rolling of the green while gradually lowering our mowing heights. Regular topdressings are being made to help protect new growth and the crown of the plant and these will continue for the next couple of months.

Bunkers have been prepared for play with the importing of bunker sand and turf on the surrounds is establishing itself well.

It is anticipated that we will be opening the green for play on Wednesday 6th February not withstanding any further issues.

Monday 7th January 2013.

The 8th green and its surroundings are developing well and, like the rest of the golf course, has come through the hot spell over the Xmas and New Year period very well.

Regular mowing of the green and more recently a topdressing have had a good affect on toughening up the surface and preparing it for the rigours of play.

Further topdressings will be made to the green before it is open for play which, everything being well, could be early February but this will depend on its progress over the next 3 weeks.