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

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

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 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