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.