Friday, March 25, 2011

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

Monday, March 14, 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 15th and 17th 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

Monday, March 7, 2011

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