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.