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