Friday 13th June 2014.

I have been requested to publish stimpmeter readings on the blog for those members interested and shall do so once/week generally on a Friday. They shall also be displayed on the Local Rules board outside the Men's changerooms.

Readings are conducted on the same area of a designated green to achieve consistency with these readings from one week to the next. Obviously the goal in preparing putting surfaces is to make them as consistent as possible but this his very hard to achieve due to many factors that influence speed such as age, thatch levels, design contours etc.

Green speed this Friday are at 11'8" which fits into the medium to fast range.

Very Fast      13' - ^
Fast               12' - 13'
Med / Fast     11' - 12'
Medium         10' - 11'
Slow              9' - 10'
Very Slow      8' - 9'

Monday 9th June 2014.

By now most members would be aware of the damage to the 8th and 12th greens, 12th and 13th fairways and 8th tee that was caused by idiots in their car on Tuesday 28th May overnight.

Needless to say, staff were mortified when we realised what had happened to our course and we contacted Police to report the incident and have them attend the scene for forensic purposes.

Once this was completed we set to the task of repairing the damage.

We now finally find ourselves at the point where we have done what we can to repair the damage and now just await the grow-in of the new turf.

Both these greens are now fully in play with Local Rules applying for relief should your ball finish on an area of new turf. To hasten recovery we ask members avoid walking on new turf where possible.

Obviously these areas will play differently for some time but we shall continue to nurture these sites over the coming months. They will take some time to fully recover due to the time of year.

I thank my staff for their efforts over the past fortnight or so. They worked quickly to get the greens in particular back into play.

8th Green.

12th Green.

Early morning clean-up and repair of the greens surface.

Following the re-turfing and patching.

At grow-in stage today.

Friday 16th May 2014.

The course is almost prepared for the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the Club Championships this weekend.

Putting green speeds have increased a little this week with the drier weather conditions jumping from low 11's to 11'8".

Good luck to all those playing this weekend.

Monday 12th May 2014.

With the Club Championships commencing last weekend the team have been very busy preparing the course.
Part of this preparation has involved the leveling of our bunker bases in order to present bunkers the best we can for play over the coming weeks.

With some bunkers this has involved the use of our skid steer loader to move sand off the face where it accumulates after the playing of bunker shots and returning it to the base of the bunker to fill the uneven floor and return the bunker to a more level state.

Members can help reduce the incidence of downhill stances in bunkers by always pushing away the sand when raking and not dragging back to the bunker edge. All bunker rakes are double-sided to allow you to turn it over and force sand away then rake.

We know this practice takes a little more labour but it will be a positive step forward in helping produce the best possible playing conditions.

Moving sand around in bunker to level base.

Hand working sand to blend even.

Final raking with bunker machine.

Finished product. A firm (but not too firm) bunker with a level base.

Friday 28th March 2014.

This week we have upgraded the surface of the Practice 2 green (chipping green) on the south side of the clubhouse.

A week ago couch that had invaded the surface over an extended period of time was treated with a herbicide prior to removal to reduce the risk of re-infestation.

The entire surface including the treated zones was removed right back to the base construction sand and re-leveled in preparation for the new surface to be laid.

Extra soil on the perimeter of the green/collar area was removed to increase the size of the practice surface back to its original size before encroachment occurred.

A pre plant fertiliser was then applied, and then turf laid from our bentgrass nursery near the 5th hole. The surface was then watered and compacted and is now in the grow-in stage.

I am expecting the green to be out of play for approx 3-4 weeks.

Removal of old turf including couch infested areas.

Re-turfing of the practice green site.

Final watering and compaction.

Friday 21st March 2014.

Groundstaff had the unenviable this week of cleaning out our lower irrigation dam.

The automatic valve that allows water from the top dam to the lower dam was shut off and an irrigation programme set up overnight to lower the water level of this lower dam.

When we arrived for work in the morning the water level had subsided enough to allow staff to enter the dam and manually clean out the organic material (leaves, sticks etc) that had accumulated in the dam in particular at the eastern edge near the 15th green.

This work has presented the dam in much better condition especially in the shallow areas.

In the coming weeks we shall be conducting some repairs to the dam wall on the 14th (North) side as a section is tending to collapse towards the water.

Friday 7th March 2014.

Our putting surfaces are continuing to recover well from recent renovation.

Greens had a second application of sand this week and will continue to receive light applications on a regular basis over the coming weeks without effecting our ability to maintain the lower cutting heights.

We have just towards the end of this week lowered these cutting heights to our normal maintenance levels. We should see an increase in green speeds once the strong leaf growth, currently being experienced as a result of the renovation fertiliser, subsides somewhat and turf density improves.

Members are reminded to check the Local Rule Board periodically to make themselves aware of what Local Rules are current. As of Saturday 8th March 2014 there will no longer be a Preferred Lie ruling for the putting surfaces due to adequate recovery of our turf surfaces.

Local rules covering the cored/scarified areas of semi-roughs and green surrounds have also been deleted.

On a final note, we hope all members enjoy the golfing season ahead.