Thursday 9th January 2014.

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS !!

We have experienced some problems with our #2 groundwater bore this week.

It became apparent that this bore that was constructed in 2009 was not producing the amount of water it should and therefore our recharge rate had dropped off significantly.

This bore column and pump has been removed by Bore expert and club member Matt Ferguson for further assessment.

Unfortunately because of this we will have to modify our irrigation programmes to accommodate the reduced recharge rate and this may mean we will experience drying of some sections of the course.

Our putting surfaces will not be allowed to suffer with this rescheduling.

All things going to plan, we should return to normal scheduling early next week.

Monday 6th January 2014.

Groundstaff will be working on the removal of invading couchgrass into our putting surfaces over the coming weeks.

This will be a slow process with care needed to remove all couch and make sure that replacement turf from our bentgrass nursery is properly installed to give it the best chance of survival.

The couchgrass can sometimes be imported into the green site at time of construction or has been known to send runners from the surrounds areas several metres away to get to the putting surface site.

Putting surface with couch invasion occurring in the foreground.

Care is taken in removing the invaded area and to also remove stolons from below the turf surface.

Once the contaminated turf is removed a clean bentgrass plug from the nursery is its replacement.

We have also been working on the improvement of our teeing areas in the past few weeks. This has involved the leveling of the tee tops with a rotary deck mower. This removes all the unevenness and firms up the tees. Though some areas become scalped in this process, they regrow quickly and help to maintain a flat firm teeing area. This practice will continue over the next few weeks.

Rotary deck mowing unit in use.

Thursday 2nd January 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL !!

Today we took the opportunity to give our putting surfaces a heavy grooming.

This practice thins out the density of the turf surface, removing some unwanted dead plant material and some of the course leaf growth that occurs from time to time.

The result should be smoother and more consistent putting green performance and has the other benefits of encouraging new shoots and aerating the crown area of the plant somewhat.

Some visible side affects will occur for a few days but these will disappear quickly.

Mower with grooming heads attached completing grooming.

Groomed grass is picked up in catchers but excess grass must be removed with blower unit.

After grooming and the surface has been blown down, the green is cut and ready for play.

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.