week 51 2011 update

Just a quick rundown of the week 51 of jobs done after all the mowing...

Greens sprayed with wetting agent

Greens sprayed for grubs, redheaded cockchafer, cut worm and sod webworm

We did not verti-cut greens this week as they were under stress and close to the wilt point (40%)

Tidy up Tuesday hole were 5,6,7,8

Trenches filled on 3^rd 15^th

Turf areas on 7^th, 9^th, 15^th

Bunkers completed 4^th , 3^rd, and 17^th walking turfed and finished off, sand watered and settled in and raked

Oob on 4^th  done

Patches on 6^th green dug out soil put in levelled and turfed

Garden ladies piles picked up

Greens mower blades sharpened (backlapped)

Fairway unit backlapped

New bunker bike arrive Thursday morning

Turfed areas hand watered

Stick run done wed and Friday

And we tried our extra mow at 10.00 Thursday where we mowed the carriage ways (middles thus 90% of green and no circle cut) on the greens just before the comp – this acts as a roll or shine of the green and will cut only alittle but should get that extra half a foot on the stimpmeter.

Well that’s all for this week have a happy Christmas – we will be mowing the greens and rake the bunkers on saterday then in on Monday morning (not early…about 8.oo am) to mow and change holes if they need it….till next time keep swinging  pete

bunker update

The Bunker progress is coming along well with the final shaping and edge cutting and slopping done yesterday on the 4th and 3rd bunkers, all these have now had the drainage cut into and installed along with flushing out the pipe lines to the creeks.
The next process is the instillation of the bunker matting and pegging that down, this will be started today on the 4th bunkers just hope the rain stays away...

The new front 18th tee was opened up for the vets on Tuesday, this tee will have the white mens markers and in the future will also have the ladies black markers on it. till next time .. keep swinging... pete

week 49 update

If you have played golf over the last week or so you will have noticed the bunker rebuilding taking place on the 4th bunkers, we did hope to have the two on the 4th done by the weekend but with the rain it makes it impossible to put in the drainage trenches so halting the process, so late in the week the 3rd bunkers were also shelled out.
Today was a dry day so hopefully we can get into the 4th bunkers tomorrow. please note that there will be temporary greens in play if there is work happening in the bunkers but all greens will be in play for the weekends.
We continue to treat the bare areas on the fairways caused by the floods recently we put turf out on the 16th and 17th patches we were having trouble with. the left hand side of the 7th has lots of new shoots starting and once these grow and spread a little that whole area will knit in and become a good surface.
well till next time ...keep swinging  pete

Mid November wheres the rain?

Well its midway through November or Movember for those participating, and we are waiting for this rain, Yesterday we had to release some water out of our dams into the creek, as the pumps were loosing too much pressure in the lift of the water thus affecting the output and breakup at the sprinkler heads.
This week we have been doing allot of testing with the irrigation system and fixing many of the faults so there are some water patches out there where a sprinkler has stuck on over night, sorry about that, hopefully over the next few weeks we will get it all sorted.
The area on the right hand side of the 7th where the weeds were sprayed out has been cored, and had amendments added to the soil and the cores from some good areas rubbed into the bare areas, so this will see some good growth over the next 3 weeks. the next area we intend to tackle is the right hand side of the 8th. the areas we have already done on the 8th continue to grow in well with the first 2 areas fully grown in
The turfed areas on the fairways are now mostly down to fairway height and blended in very well in fact you can not pick the early areas done except after rain when going down the13th and thinking that there used to be a area that held water here once now it is just even fairway with good turf coverage.
We have coped allot of flack over the last 6t months about the way we turf.... but the key point is to remember that we are putting the turf on a sand base and this will compact around 30 to 40 % thus when the turf settles in and is mown down to the right height it will all blend in at the right levels, as is proof in the many areas around the course where we have turfed.
The greens are coming along well they are rolling true and with the verti-cutting they are running out better at the end of the putt, the speed is up to 9.2 feet and this will increase some more as we slow the growth rate down.
Thanks again to the guys who come out on Mondays at 1.00 pm to gives us a hand with doing the trenches, it is a great help to us, so if you read this and you can spare 1 hour on monday afternoon come along and meet the guys.  till next time .....keep swinging..pete

week 45 update

This week has been spent mowing and watering, with the dry weather the turf is in need of constant waterings.
we have been continuing with our turfing program with areas on the 3rd fairway near the green being done.

(Above - Here is the sand and gypsum being rubbed into the core holes on the next section on the 8th fairway)

(  Second photo  -  is of the second patch done on the 8th and is 2 weeks after treatment note all the new growth)

also with the turfing we have been doing areas with the verti-drain using core tynes to hollow tyne an area then move the good turf plugs (cores) into the areas that are thin or bare then topdressing and feeding these areas and it comes up good. the main areas we are concentrating on with this method is the 7th and 8th the first areas on the 8th we did 5 weeks ago are nearly all covered in in these areas we have also added gypsum to the soil profile to help break up the sediment left by the flood waters.
We also got in a verti-cut on the greens with out bringing up too much sand and with a few more it will continue to smooth out the roll on the greens. till next time ..keep swinging...pete

Week 42 update

Well another week done, and dusted.
firstly a big thanks to the volunteers who have been coming out on Mondays at 1.00 pm to help with the irrigation trenches, this week we got 2 trailers out. this done all the12th fairway and the bad ones in the gully on the 10th.
thanks again guys for your efforts if you have a hour to spare come along and give a hand.
we had some clean up this week of drains and storm grates, we also put out turf on patches on the 1st the 2nd and 3rd.
bunker faces were all fixed up on Monday, and weed control in the bunkers throughout the week
the back 9 tees got verti-cut , and we continue to feed and treat the flood patches and we are seeing some good growth in these areas and these patches are getting less and less. and with the fertilizer and amendments the other fairways are thickening up and providing good turf for golf play.
next week we will get the verti-drain out and do some more areas.
till next time keep swinging....pete

verti-cut tees

This week we managed to find time after the storm clean up to verti-cut the front 9 tees. We plan to do the back 9 next week. this task soaks up allot of man hours as the tee has to be dry before we start then the tee top is verti-cut we usually  we go 2 ways, then a clean up mow comes along after the tee is verti-cut and this usually removes 2 or 3 catchers of thatch,
 The tees mower  then follows and gives the tee top a final cut .to do 9 holes with out any hold ups takes approx  4 hours so with 3 staff tied up thats a total of 12 manhours and the reason we do this is to remove thatch from the tee, the verti-cutting promotes lateral growth of the turf, it assists in leveling and thins out the sword of the turf which will provide long term a better tee surface.

First mow after Reno

Well we have set a new record with the first cut on the greens 7 days after renovation.
Today we got the rest of the bunkers faced and cleaned up, along with allot of the mowing done late this afternoon.
The greens continue to do well and with that first light cut going well, we will cut them again on Tuesday afternoon then let them rest for Wednesday then hopefully get to lower them a bit for Thursday.
please note at this stage we can only mow when the leaf is dry as any dew on the plant will cause the sand to stick to the rollers and sit on top of the plant. so this weekend they will not be mowed.
but the way they are coming back it wont take long to be good again.
This is why it is so important to have the turf growing fast coming into renovations as it cuts down the recovery time significantly .pete

The greens on Friday came up well after their rub in with the finishing mat.
The storm on Saturday has put a spanner in the works with most of today (Monday) taken up with repairing bunkers, picking up debris, and cleaning up storm damage and with more storms predicted for Thursday and Friday it looks like we will loose allot of time to this repair work this week. pete

Reno time again

Well without having the use of contractors this renovation it has been a testing time to get equipment together to do the renovations at all. a big thanks to all those who came to our aid in getting this together.
also thanks to the ground staff for coming in on the Sunday afternoon (giving up the footy grand final) to set up the machines and familiarize themselves with the operations of the equipment which had only just got here, thus giving us a good start on the Monday.
pictured here is the scarrifier and corer we used

just a quick one the 14th path way is starting to be built today, so a temporary green will be in place whilst there are workers working on and around the 14th green area.
also a reminder of our working bees for Mondays at 1.00 pm for 1 hour to help with the topping up of the irrigation trenches on the fairways..hope to see you there pete

Sand or Soil in trenches the great debate

Sand or Soil in trenches the great debate

This is always a tricky question and it often has to take into consideration a lot of scope like size of trench, depth of trench, time of year, soil moisture levels, quality of the soil to be used, cost, man hours available, equipment available and much more, since we have a few letters of complaint about the decision to use sand instead of soil I am putting forward the pros and cons sheet we used in deciding to go with sand:

    

            SOIL PROS-

·   Readily available stockpile so little cost to source product

·   Same soil that was originally in the ground

SOIL CONS

·  Contained a lot of stones

·  Very clumpy (not friable) thus hard to work with

·  Gets caught in top of trenches thus creating air pockets , which after rain can collapse leaving a trench that thought filled only quarter filled

·  Hidden safety hazard – in that the trench appears solid but is not.. potential duty of care problem for people who sink it to the trench thinking it to be full but is not

·  Rain or irrigation made very muddy and sticky also soft so mud everywhere, and again a hazard if you stood directly on trench

·  Heavy rain or irrigation  on sloped areas still some wash out as the fine particles went along with the water flow

· The wash off out of the trench to the low areas hard to clean up and made a boggy area where it pooled or settled

· Soil has less heat generation than sand (heat to help couch runners grow into trenches)

SAND PROS –

· Sand will fill trenches from the bottom up to  the top (thus leaving no air pockets)

· Easy to work with, easy to load, and shovel, also can use level lawns to achieve level surface

· No safety problems with a trench collapsing  as when stood on  if it looks filled and solid it is

· Can mix seed in with sand to help stabilize in trench for erosion prevention help

· Sand heats up well thus helping the couch in the fairways to grow into the trenches

· Sand is the preferred growing media for Couch thus will put a lot of root system into trenches (this is why the greens are made of sand not soil)

· A lot cleaner as in no mud tracks and no mud on shoes from walking on the sand

· If after rain some sand washes it is easy to pick up the wash and replace or can be rubbed in to the low area where it has settled and used as topdressing to fill in that hollow

· If irrigation pipe has leak or problem  at joiner or fitting it is much easier to dig up around it if there is sand instead of soil

SAND CONS –

· Costs to buy in

· Heavy rain will wash out trenches on slopping areas

These are the pros and cons that came out of a brain storming exercise with the ground staff and irrigation instillation crew and I think that any reasonable person reading the whole list could come to the same conclusion as we did and that sand is the way to go, accept that there will be some wash outs but after a few top-ups it will grow in fine.I hope this answers the questions to those that have written letters in ,  but take note that if the trenches were wider or not as deep then the pros and cons list could and would have looked different.

So to the next part of the plan with the fairways now picking up the growth rate we would like some volunteers to help us out with topping up the trenches we plan to do this on Monday afternoons from 1.00pm to 2.00 pm if we can get 12 people to help the staff we will be able to get 2 crews going and will get it done over 4 weeks.

Hope this clears some thing up….. till next time keep swinging…pete 

week 33 2011 update

Well with the weather providing great days the turf is slowly starting to move, we continue to top up the trenches and we have also started to feed the fairways to help the growth along.

Our plan this growing season is to take advantage of the flood water which took out allot of the weeds in the fairways and this spring we will spray out the remainder of the weed so at the end of the growing season all the fairways will be similar to the 4th and 5th which were the fairways done first with the weed eradication.

We also have to address the issue of the sediment that remains just under the leaf surface so over the next few weeks we will be applying gypsum and other products that will help break down the sediment and help incorporate it into the soil profile. Along with our product applications we will also be verti-draining these areas.

Renovations this spring will be very important as the greens missed out on the February renovation. If you want to see what greens go like if you dont renovate take a look at the 12th and the practice putter the compaction effects show up very well on these two at he moment.

Unfortunantly the coring contractor we use is closing up his business, so we will have to fend for ourselves, which is going to be interesting as we don't have equipment to do this, so at the moment we are in the process of finding equipment we can either hire or loan. So this reno we will be starting late Sunday afternoon the 3rd of October.

The turfed areas are all taking well we have feed these up over the last two weeks and the root system is down about 7cm so we are getting closer to being able to play off these a light topdress and another 7cm of root growth should be right on the money so possible 3 weeks if all goes well.

so till next time ...keep swinging  pete

2nd bunker area turfed

Qpex this morning , with a 7.30 shotgun and having 550 square meters of turf to get down and roped off before hit off along with greens mowed, bunkers raked, all signs up betting hole and straight drive lines done...talk about cutting if fine.. but we got there...just.
The second hole now has the Right hand side bunker refurbished with new drainage and drains upgraded for better flow, and changed over the sand to a better quality sand, the Left hand side bunker has been totally redesigned and rebuilt with bunker matting throughout the whole bunker.
The turf will be let to grow so as to meander down among the rock wall, and this area has been marked out in orange with a drop zone at the front left side of the fairway. The bunker is in play but new turf a drop zone area.
The 18th tee continues to do well, it has started to send its roots down, and if the warm weather keeps up that will quicken the process, although we did have a light frost this morning, we will continue to asses this tee once the roots have settled it we will give it a light topdress and fill in the holes made by the deer walking on it. then once that firms up introduce play on it so possibly 6 weeks it all depends on the weather.
till next time .....keep swinging.. pete

mid july

Just a quick one today we have been very busy filling trenches and rebuilding the social mens18th tee. This has been levelled and made allot bigger, when back in play it will have the mens white markers and ladies black markers on the tee top.

The tee will take a while to put its roots down so hopefully we don't get any storms before then.

Today we are starting work on the 2nd green bunkers and waterway edge along the 2nd green pathway so for this week we have cut in a temporary green.

The irrigation pump stations are all back and online, we still have a few leaks out there to be fixed and a couple of teething problems and with the computer not online yet we have been manual watering which consists of me changing the banks every half hour throughout the night ...so if I have been crabby the last few weeks I appoligise as lack of sleep will do that to you.

It was great to get some rain (14mm) this weekend, not so good for golf though and luckily not enough to overflow the creek and wash the 18th tee away although it came close, and which is the reason we have left the small dam draining..... well the excavators have just turned up, better go and fix these bunkers up... till next time ..keep swinging.... pete

Verti - drain greens

Drastic problems call for drastic measures I've said it before and I will say it again. Our greens have a major issue of sediment just under the surface.

Well as Iv'e mentioned before in this blog (and talking to those interested) about the continuing problems of having the sediment layer still being present just under the surface of the turf  and thus giving grief to watering, fertilizing,and weed control.

We have decided that even though it is not a good time to be doing this we have to verti drain the greens.

Our  situation is that  the benefits out way the negatives. The we water just sits on top of the sediment and it is very hard to pulse water with the system not fully set up at the moment, so we have decided to
 verti-drain the greens with  8mm solid tynes and go down to 150mm then once we run the greens mower over them it is hardly noticeable. Now we can get the water and other products down to the root zone also the green is much softer. So far we have done 1,2,3,4,5,7,14,15,16 and plan to do the rest over the next week.


Once all greens are done we will do the tees.

We had our first light frost this morning , if the fosts get heavier we won't be able to mow or due off the greens as if done it will kill off that area and we will have no way of getting it back untill spring.

The top photo is the verti-drain on the 5th green and the bottom photo is of the 4th green just before we ran the greens mower over the surface to smooth it out.

We are also continuing to fill the trenches and turf the bad areas, we will be doing allot of testing of sprinklers and programming so I apologise in advance if a sprinkler pops up near you, we will endeavor to do most of this work early in the mornings so as not to affect play.

Well till next time keep swinging...pete

Turfed Areas

You will have buy now noticed some turfed areas on the 13th fairway right hand side and this morning we did some on the right hand side of 17th fairway and a little near the 18th tee. We are going to attempt to do 2 pallets of turf at the beginning of the week. This will cover up and repair some of the larger areas where the trench fill was piled up.

The irrigation system is all installed on the new section, we are now upgrading the old system so all the course is the same once this is done we can go around and check each sprinkler and level it and start watering.

Until the upgrade is finished we will not be able to water fairways or greens. We will manually water if required.

We also are continuing to fill in the trenches and by mixing in the seed is helping a lot by not getting too much wash after rain.

Most of the end of this week will be spent on the golf expo areas and get them tidied up.

 till next time ...keep swinging  pete

rain rain go away

Well I can't remember the last time we didn't get some rain during a week. and boy has it made things tough, with the sediment from the floods just under the leaf surface it doesn't take much to make things slippery.

The Irrigation installation is virtually complete, with testing and leveling still ongoing, the trenches have had sand and seed mix put into them and we still have many to do, along with re topping up where they have sunk this will be ongoing to spring but we are making progress .

The irrigation pump station is up and running , with the last pump in and getting repaired at this time so all four pumps are in as new condition.

There is only the upgrade to the old system to be done and we can then connect it up to the TORO site pro controller thus giving us more efficient watering and saving allot of hours from moving hoses.

The Verti-drain machine has been out when conditions allow us to use it and time available so far we have done the 7th, 8th, 9th, 13th, 15th, 17th,18th, the 15th has had its bare patches verti-drained and sanded and seeded and is coming back well, this week we ran the vert-drain through the water holding hollows on the 13th to help them drain.

We plan for next week to get into a few more bunkers and expose the drain and flush the sediment out so they can work( this is only a temporary fix) as we did on the left hand side of the 4th a few weeks ago we hope to get the 1st 13th and 4th right hand side done.

Well thats about it for today till next time keep swinging pete

Week 18 update

Well the mornings are starting to cool down, with the couple of short weeks we have mainly been trying to get all the mowing done.

The irrigation is being put in on the 3rd fairway and is to be finished off next week this will complete the system proper then we have to adjust the sprinklers and get stuck into filling the trenches.

The original system will receive a upgrade over the next few weeks so that the whole course is on the latest Toro Site Pro system.

The 15th fairway has been verti-drained and all greens have been feed to get them ready for the cooler weather, as some of you know we have been very short staffed over the last few months and it is good to welcome our newest team member Terrance who started at the end of last week and is fitting in well, so if you see a new face say hi and remember he is still learning the ropes.

We had a visit from the sports minister during the week, it was interesting seeing his perspective as from his last visit to now we were standing near the 15th green and he turned and said "its amazing whenI was standing in this exact same spot just after the floods there wasn't much green anywhere and you were seriously contemplation the loss of three greens including this one (15th ) look at it now. I find that interesting from some one who has seen the area just after the flood and not seen it again to now and how he picks up the improvements and that when we see things every day we don't notice as much.

Well to next time keep swinging.....pete

Week 16 update

The Verti-Drain out and in action last week.

We have been doing areas of solid tyneing with the verti-drain over the last few weeks it is a slow process but so far so good we have done areas on the 15th,17th,18th,and 8th and 9th fairways. We will get it out again after easter and all the short weeks are over as this does soak up allot of man-hours.

The bunker on the 3rd left hand side has had a drainage inspection and it is as we thought all the sediment has filled the drainage line so we flushed it out and got it draining for the short term but we will have to get in and totally re-instate the whole drainage system in the next few months.

We have seeded the irrigation trenched on the tees and re top-dressed a lot of these, and the trenches on the fairway have also had allot of topping up done on them as well. We plan to over-sow with seed all the trenches over the next month or so.

The weeds in the greens have been sprayed, and you will notice them starting to wither away, we have also started to feed the greens up and get them ready to go into winter a bit stronger.

The drainage for the 6th green has been cleared in the creek, every time this creek area flows it covers up the drainage for the bunkers and green so we cleared it with a excavator and gave it some area to run into.
There is a tree down behind the 15th green it is too wet in there to get at the moment so it will be removed next week once the ground has dried out abit. till next time keep swinging.....pete

Mounds between 8th and 9th

                                                     Trees On the Mounds


After advice from council and industry arbourists we have taken out the remaining dead trees as they are not going to come back.

After the floods it looked like we were going to loose 80 to 90 percent of the trees in the mounds, I then got advice that allot of these trees will come back if we give them some time and used our irrigation system to irrigate thus putting water up onto the leaves, so this is what we have been doing and it has worked very well as most trees came back with new growth and are recovering well. So in the end we actually only lost around 7 percent of the trees we have also cut back the grasses around the edges and some of these are going well others will have to be replanted out this winter.

So this is the reason that we left the trees in the mounds, to give them every opportunity to recover and so by not jumping in too early we have saved 40 to 60 trees that otherwise would have been removed unnecessarily.

week 13 update 2011

Well another week gone, this week we have put all our efforts into getting the bunkers back into a reasonable condition, and the course ready for monthly medals and pennants.

The problem with the bunkers is that the silt and sediment from the flood waters is still in the bottoms of the bunkers and mixed in with the sand, also it has clogged up the drainage pipes in the sumps under the bunkers thus every time it rains or even if we water too heavy the sediment comes to the top and clogs it all up. We have been scraping the mud off the top of the surface when ever we have time possible, but it is a long slow process and it is impossible to get it all.

This week we got all the greens sprayed for weeds, fertilized and rolling well for this weekend, I just hope the rain stays away.

This week we also took delivery of a verti-drain machine, it will be out next week doing the fairways that were worst affected and Ill do a separate blog next week on it. A special thanks to the fellows for putting substantial funds to purchase this piece of equipment it is a important piece of equipment that we now are able to utilize and as time goes buy I'm sure you'll notice areas improve because of the availability and flexibility of owning you own equipment. Thanks again for the funds being made available.

The irrigation installation is going along well, and this week a lot of time was put into topping up the trenches, next week will also continue on filling the sunken areas up. The areas left to irrigate are 14th fairway in the gully, all the 15th, 16th tee, 17th fairway, 2nd fairway and green and 3rd tee and half the fairway.

Well today is a bit sad in that Harley is finishing up after  nearly 4 years on the groundstaff  (Harley is going to give concreting a go as it is allot more wages than greenkeeping, )  all the best cob hope all goes well.

The council works department is still doing the sewage line replacement near the 7th tee and will possible be another two weeks.

Well that is about it for this week, keep well and keep swinging... pete

week 12 2011 update

12 Week into the year already, time fly's when your having fun,
This week we have done allot of tidying up with sand in the trenches around the greens, stick runs, fertilising the bare areas on the fairways, and weeds in the greens sprayed
The council are doing works on the sewage line between the 5th fairway and 7th tee this area has been fenced off and has security guards patrolling the area around the clock. so when hitting off the 5th tee it will pay to aim a little more to the right. the works will take about 3 weeks to complete depending upon the weather.
The greens continue to improve the root depth is now steady at 15cm and it looks like we mightn't get much more going into winter as the night time temperature cools down.
Irrigation works is going along well with the 10th,11th,12th,13th,16th all completed , the 14th has only a couple of banks to complete it and that leaves the 15th and 17th holes to do and early next week we will go over and fill in all the trenches where they have sunk
till next time keep swinging pete

Australian Turfgrass Flood Edition 2011

news letter article march 2011

The following is a email to the Queensland superintendents newsletter on update

HI Mark

    Well here at McLeod Country Golf Club things are starting to get back on track, not back to normal yet as I think that wont be to next spring

All greens are back in play and looking ok, the 15^th and 17^th are a little behind the others(as these were under water for three to four more days than the others) but still ok to play on, we have been putting a lot of effort into getting  the root system back to a good length,, as before the floods they were around 27cm in length, and after the flood they went back to 3cm to 4cm and were looking very sad, withered and brittle, so that was our main aim, to get the root system back on track along with applying products that would force any salt and sediment  left behind, through the growing media, thus far all is going well the root system is back up to 12 to 15 cm in length and they look healthy with plenty of root hairs visible.

The tees and fairways still have several bare areas on them, but the turf is coming back strong and hopefully the weather can hang in there to keep the growth rate going so as these will fill in before it turns cold, but some over-sowing will have to take place when the temp drops.

The biggest problem we face is player safety, as when it rains or we water the area it turns slippery, so any slopes become a problem, especially if you have elderly players like on vets day so it is a juggling act to play or not to play, but apart from that all is well.

I would  like to take tis opportunity to thank all those who rang or called in or emailed to see how we were and if there was anything you could do to help, this is what got us through… those first few days, so thanks again to all for the support … the main thing I learnt from all this is, that when faced with a massive problem and the situation has the potential to overwhelm not only you but your staff and even club, is not to look at the problem as a whole, it comes back to a saying  from a mate who is in the army… Q how do you eat a whale ? A mouthful by mouthful and its that saying that resonated with me at the peak of the flood. So with that in mind  each day we just chose two tasks that we thought were the most important, and got them done and anything else achieved on that day was a bonus, that night we would all meet as a team and go over what we did for the day  thus seeing that the  main aim was achieved and go through all the extras we did, we then choose the next 2 tasks for the next day and so on. In that way you felt positive as you achieved your goals  each day as the two most important tasks were done and a lot of bonus work done and as a result you weren’t thinking of the bigger picture as much but in fact were getting amazing results with a good positive and supportive team.

Well these are just my thoughts  if you want to keep up with what we are up to at McLeod check out my blog  at http://mcleodsuperintendent.blogspot.com/

Thanks again Peter Daly

Start of week 10

Well its week 10 already, we got through open day with no rain and ladies have there interclub today and all holes are open so over all not too bad.

These last few weeks we have been concentrating on keeping the turf growing as fast as possible as we really want to get the muddy patches to grow in before the growing season stops. Our biggest problem is that every time we get any rain it just gets very slippery, and this then becomes a safety problem for machinery and carts.
and we have had several slips in the most unlikely places, so it will be good to get to the situation where the turf has grown over and this is no longer a problem.

We got a verti-cut in on the greens last week, and hope to get one in today as well, we will have to be on top of our game this winter as with the flood and salt water effects  on the turf we were unable to scarrify the greens this February renovation, thus while we can  verti-cut with the right conditions we will take every opportunity to get away with it now because  in early spring the turf will be very tight and stressed similar to a plant that is pot bound. thus the more we verti-cut now the more thatch we take out, to hopefully get us through to our major renovation in October.

The other major problem we face is the weeds in the green, and here is the dilemma, the root system is still recovering and not even back to its appropriate length and health , winter and cooler nights are fast approaching which naturally cause the root system to retreat to a fair degree and if we apply spray to control the weeds it has a root pruning effect on the turf and can the turf cope with this added stress and recover quickly enough to be able to go into winter in good shape.... that is the million dollar question or as Shakespeare would put it "to spray or not to spray"

So the safest option is to spot spray the bigger weeds and with the colder weather most on the weeds will disappear as they overwinter, and we will get them coming out in spring.

Well to next time keep swinging  Pete

Week 7 update

Well what a week
A big Thank You to the volunteers who come out on Monday to help us in the bunkers, thanks guys it was a huge effort  taking out a total of 15 trailer loads of mud, in the heat was a massive effort. Then during the week we cleaned up some more and added sand to some and overall we managed to get all bunkers in play by Saturday for open day.
Also a big shout out to all the vets who came out on thursday to do a general clean up, that too was a big effort and helped to get all the debris finally under control.
We had all 18 greens in play for Saturday and managed to get allot of mowing done as well. The major problem is that with the dew in the morning that has become very difficult to find enough time where the sediment is not sticky and clogging up the rollers and cylinders of the mowers.
well that is about it just a quick one, thanks for your patience and with the growth of the turf it is growing in very quickly and more areas are getting back to a good standard.   till next time .. keep swinging  pete

remember this ?

Well it doesn't seem that long ago when we had this water all around, allot has happened between now and then, today we opened back up the 7th green and the 15th should be right for next week then 17th the following week , the turf is coming back nicely on the fairways, but great care must be taken if and when these bare areas get wet as it turns real slippery very quickly.
Today we pushed off the last of the mud on the 15th fairway, and began fertilizing the couch to help quicken the speed of recovery.
The root system in the greens before the flood was around 25 cms deep after the water cleared ( 2 - 5 days) the effects on the plant were obvious in the root system degenerated back to only 2 to 3 cms and all the healthy white root hairs non existent.but after extensive applications of potassium, calcium, auxinone and chemical treatment to ball the clay partials and force them down through the profile we are seeing great success.Now the root system of the turf  is bouncing back with healthy and strong growth and starting to get some length ( about 7 cms) there is still along wat to go but we are heading in the right direction.
The greens Renovation will be altered so as to not stress the plant out thus we wont be scarifying this reno but we will have to verti-cut more often, we will be verti-draining the greens on Monday the 14th with a long thin solid tyne this will alleviate  compaction and have very little disruption to the turfs surface.
Just a quick note about temporary greens - we do not mow these regularly in fact we mow these as little as possible as after a few mows the little turf that is there at the start will no longer be there after a couple of mows  and turn to the surface back to dirt these are temporary greens and put in to use to enable some more holes to be played if these were not used we would still only have a few holes to play instead of 17 as is now the case and id say 17 is better than 7 .....just a thought.
well to next time keep swinging.....and thanks for the photos (Trev thoroughbred) pete

link to other clubs flood reports

here is the latest link to our association web site for how other clubs are going and a link to some photos of golf courses in the area ....pete
http://www.agcsa.com.au/news/2011/jan/queensland_flood_update_%E2%80%93_tuesday_25_january

Week 4 2011 update

Well for being only week 4 in the year we have packed in more than I thought possible in several months.

The flood clean up is going along ahead of schedule as of this morning we have opened up the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th, 7th (temp green), 8th, and 9th.

These holes being open will be dependent upon the weather. If it rains the 2nd and 3rd will be a safety issue as the mud will get slippery again, thus no play on these hole if that happens.

The temporary greens on 7th,14th and 17th are ....well....challenging but it lets up get up 17 holes the 7th green should be ok to use late next week but 15 and 17 are a good 2 to 4 weeks away.

Hopefully by the end of today we will have one pump up and running to supply water to the irrigation system thus enabling us to get some water on to the greens which are getting pretty dry with this hot weather.

I have also just organised for some more bunker sand and possibly next week or early the week after we will hold another working bee to spread the sand out in the bunkers.

Well that is about all, we have plenty of mowing and still cleaning up debris as well as treating the greens and tees to flush the salt and sediment through the growing profile whilst also adding chemicals to encourage root growth as the turf recovers from recent events...but so far so good with the turf health coming along nicely, and once the 15th and 17th catch up we will start to lower the heights and get the surface back to where it should be.

 Thanks again to all the help and kind words of encouragement please support the club in any way possible it all helps and is much appreciated by all.  so till next time ...keep swinging  pete

course update 21st Jan

Well things are moving along well with our flood damaged areas. A special point to make again is that we can not rush bringing back into play flood and salt damaged greens. For the fact that it now looks like we will be able to save the greens to then open them up to play to early and totally destroy patches on them is not acceptable.

The working bee was very successful and we will be having a few more down the track when the areas that need work are safe to work on. At the moment the ground is so slippery it is too dangerous to walk or work in some areas.

Ill go hole by hole to update where we are at as of today

1st - tee is good and is able to be mowed
        fairway cleaned of debris but too wet and slippery to mow
        green cleaned up and is being mowed
2nd - tee is good and being mowed
         fairway to wet to walk on , started to remove mud from worst areas ( 2 weeks out )
        green cleared of mud and washed down turf very fragile and no play on surface for 2 weeks
3rd - tee cleared of mud and washed down turf very fragile possible need over sowing out for 4 weeks
         fairway very dangerous and out of play until further notice as per duty of care issues. mud started to be pushed off where we can get bunker bike into
        green cleared of mud and washed down turf very fragile ( 2 weeks out)
4th - tee cleared but not able to be mowed as equipment impossible to get to area to mow (1-2 weeks)
        fairway very wet too wet to mow or walk and is a safety concern until dried out and mown (1-2 weeks)
        green mud brushed off and washed down turf and had a light cut and is still about 1 to 2 weeks away from play
5th - tee cleared from debris and light mud, not mowed as cannot get equipment to area to mow 1 week away
        fairway growing well still very wet and not able to be mowed at this stage will need to be nipped then lowered and equipment not able to access area (1-2 weeks from play)
        Green mud broomed off and had a light mow turf under stress and greens mower not able to access this side of the course (1 - 3 weeks)
6th - tee cleared but not mown as not able to get mowers to area to mow (1 to 2 weeks)
        fairway OK but not able to be mowed as access to available
       green mud broomed off and had a light mow turf under stress and greens mower not able to access this area (2-3 weeks )
7th - tee OK but not mowed as no access to this area to get mowers to
      fairway very wet and slippery and a safety hazard some area to have mud pushed off when we can get bunker bikes on to the area (3 to 4 weeks out)
      green mud pushed off and hosed down green area very slippery and green under stress (3 to 4 weeks out)
8th - tee men's OK ladies not OK will need a new top as this tee was qld blue and is dead. not mowed (men's 1-2 weeks ladies 5+ weeks)
         fairway safety hazard still very wet and slippery well need some mud pushed off when machinery can get on to it then mowing (3-4 weeks)
         green mud pushed off broomed and under a little stress (1-2 weeks)
9th - tees OK but not mowed as to dangerous to attempt as slippage towards creek, and access to tee not available as too wet (1-2 weeks)
       fairway very wet not possible to mow to dried out ( 1-2 weeks away)
      green mud broomed off and had light mow under a little stress (1 to 2 weeks out)
10th - tee fine and being mowed
          fairway some mowed and rest needs to be dried out
          green fine
11th - tee fine
          fairway a little wet most has been mown
          green mud broomed off and being mowed is ok
12th - tee to be mowed next week
          fairway  has been mowed and ok
          green fine
13th - tee fine
          fairway alittle wet some mown
          green ok
14th - tee ok
          fairway top half good and mowed in gully mud to be pushed of  gully is hazardous to walking and machinery too slippery to work mud off to side ( 2-3 weeks gully out )
         green mud of green but still to be pushed off surrounds green under light stress (1-2 weeks)
15th - tee mud pushed off and tee hosed down still under much stress (3 to 4 weeks out)
          fairway duty of care hazardous area alot is still unsafe to work safe areas have had mud pushed off and is very slippery to walk on (3 to 4 weeks out)
          green mud pushed off 3 times , hosed off but under immense stress (4 to 5 weeks out)
16th  - tee mud pushed off and hosed down turf under great stress (3 to 4 weeks out)
           fairway ok
           green ok
17th - tee ok
          fairway very wet some areas around green been pushed off still more to go (3 to 4 weeks out)
          green mud pushed off twice and hosed down turf under immense stress (4 to 5 weeks out)
18th - tee mud pushed off and hosed down turf under great stress (3 to 4 weeks out)
          fairway very wet to wet for equipment to get on (1-2 weeks)
          green mud broomed off and had light mow green ok

So there is the current position of the course please note that the groundstaff have been putting in a huge effort into getting the course open to play, and going above and beyond the call of duty.It is a unfortunate situation where in alot of instances we cant use volunteers as it is too dangerous or with operating machinery not holding a ticket along with the fact that alot of places are simply inaccessible.I believe that alot has been achieved in 7 days.

We would all like things moved along as quickly as  possible but the fact remains that if forced to move along quicker than what we are  currently doing, it will put those areas under stress at risk of dying back and undoing all the good we have done so far, resulting in areas having to be rebuilt at greater cost and longer time out of action.

Pete

flood update tuesday

lots of people are asking how other courses are going ...so here is a link to our association page with updated info on the Brisbane golf clubs and how they are fairing  follow the link http://www.agcsa.com.au/news/2011/jan/qld_turfies_begin_tortuous_cleanup_after_floods

a special thanks to all the volunteers and members who showed up today, we had 75 plus, it was great to see and in half a day saved us about a weeks worth of work thanks again to everybody involved ..pete

flood update monday night

Well another big day today, and more mud pushed off , these last few days have been similar and you forget what day it is,
The main point to this blog today is to let everyone know that we intend to have a working bee tomorrow, thats Tuesday 18th at 8.00 am, registration will be at the club house, (so if every member brings themselves along with 5 friends that would knock it over pretty quick) The main jobs needing attention are a debris cleaned up and placed in piles so we can mow with out dodging chairs, tables, and logs. and also the thin skim of dried mud scraped out of the bunkers and placed out of the bunker to be picked up, so if you have a garden leaf rake and some old shoes come along.
  As to the course we have now got all the greens clear of the thick mud, we still have to wash down the 7th, 3rd, 15th and 17th greens.
we have mowed most areas where we can get the mowers with out getting bogged, and we want to get as much mowed before we get any rain as this will make it slippery again.
special thanks to all the other golf courses,company reps, consultants and friends calling in with offers of help and their best wished as allot of these guys are in a similar situation to us.
to Michael thanks for all the support (and taking our lunch orders ) to all of us on the course its been a real life saver just when we needed it thanks ....
well see you all tomorrow bright and early.....pete

flood update sunday night

Well the last several days have been a hard slog,emotional,physicaly and mentally draining, special thanks to the boys (ground staff) for coming in and doing 12 hour days trying to save the greens, as you have seen from the news and media the mud is everywhere, we still have to get to the 17th green, but the way thing are at the moment its looking like the 2nd and 15th greens might not survive and the 17th now being covered in mud and salt water for 6 days in not looking good, with only 6 staff we have been concentrating on trying to save the greens and as yet only a few tees have been attended to, as we just dont have the manpower to do the lot.
Tomorrow we will attempt to get the mud off the 17th green and also 18th and 15th tees
removing the mud just takes so much time, the 14th which is our smallest green took over 6 hours to get the mud off then 5 or more hours to wash it down.
The course is still very wet and slippery and just getting around has been very trying... hopefully the ground will be ok to collect and pile up debris on Tuesday so if you have any spare time feel free to come and help at 10.00 am.
The bunkers have to be scrapped out and dry mud collected , and mud removed off several fairways.
Another major problem is we don't have electricity which hampers repairs and maintenance of equipment
The pump stations went completely under so we have no way of getting water to any part of the course in the foreseeable future, with the temperature rising and some hot days coming  the greens that came out of the flood ok now will need water and normal maintenance (fertilising, spraying ect.) which is going to be a struggle to provide.
The greens once having the mud removed and the surface washed down after a few days rest will need to be flushes and chemicals added to assist in the flushing of salt out of the root zone. this will require some wizardry,a miracle, extremely good luck or good management or a combination of all to achieve
Needless to say there will be no golf this week and im not sure when some holes will be available to play.
well that is where we are at till next time take care...pete

Flood update

At the height of the flood waters the only parts of the course above water were the clubhouse, machinery shed and the 12th,10th 13th and 16th greens. we managed to get all we could to the highest ground around the 13th green and machinery shed and thankfully they stayed dry.
many residence would have seen us out late on Tuesday night doing this.
To all the locals who had and have flood water through your places our thoughts are with you and we wish you all the best in the clean up effort and if there is anything we can do to help just sing out.
Today with the water receding the 18th and 1st green became accessible to clean up, and we have removed debris and mud from these surfaces, we will attend each green as soon as it becomes accessible.
Our task once the top foot or so (root zone) dries out, is to replace the potassium levels in the plant as these are extremely low after the plant has been submerged under water for more than a 6 to 12 hour period the plant actually expels this element as part of a survival mechanism thus it is critical that we get this back into the plant structure so the turf can function properly and take any wear and fight off disease and fungi which is about with these conditions
please be patient as we get the plant back to a healthy state as looks can be deceiving, in that if play or stress of any kind is placed on the turf before it is ready to handle it will be disastrous.
We are very lucky in that we keep and hold our turfs health as a priority and our thatch removal strategy has placed us in a good position to get the course back into play as quickly as possible.
the heights of cut will be high 5.5mm to start of and very slowly lowered over the next few weeks so as to not place the plant under any undue stress again this will be a slow process as the mowers have to be kept extremely sharp so as to not rip the leaf and lots of time put into height adjustment and sharpening of bedknives to achieve the results we want.
well that is all for today tomorrow brings new challenges .....till next time keep swinging pete