Dear members,
March was an extremely dry period with only 7mm of rain falling on the course during the entire month and 13mm total from February 14th. The combination of dry weather and large comp/green fee numbers has kept the staff on their toes and the course has seen a number of areas struggling due to the above mentioned challenges.
As I write this (April 2nd) we have just received over 60mm in a 24-hour period which was certainly welcome rain and should do a great job of freshening up the course as we head into the heart of Autumn. With the intense heat more than likely now gone for the season we can now switch our focus to getting the course ready for the winter period that’s on the horizon.
GREENS
As is normally the case for early April the greens are in desperate need for renovations to assist with root growth, drainage improvements and overall turf health. After a long spell of dry weather the greens (particularly our older ones) have become more susceptible to disease issues and have become extremely hydrophobic due to their compacted nature and high thatch levels. This hasn’t been helped by the inability to dust greens due to our sand spreader now being out of action for two months while we’ve waited for parts to fix a number of issues with the machine. Adding sand to our greens is such a vital component to removing thatch which aids greatly in improving drainage, surface firmness and smoothing out the surface.
In what has been a rough five to six weeks for our machinery, our spray unit has also been out of action as we waited on parts to replace a leak in the pump which has limited our ability to spray fungicides and wetting agents to help assist with the above mentioned challenges.
By not being able to perform these tasks its resulted in the greens not draining efficiently creating a wetter/softer surface and ultimately making them more prone to disease attacks which has been evident.
In excellent news the board have approved the purchase of a new top dress/sand spreader which has been a much needed piece of equipment for some time. Our current spreader is now 25 years old and well past its used by date with a large number of repairs and costs associated with keeping it operational over the past two to three years. Having it out of action for the past two months was the final straw and we look forward to having a new fully operational spreader to help assist in keeping our course in great shape.
Although it has been a challenging past six weeks for a number of reasons the greens have continued to perform to a very acceptable standard and the feedback has continued to be very positive during this time.
Greens renovations are scheduled for Monday 8th April which will take two days to complete provided the weather is on our side. With a large number of major golfing events taking place in March and April its been difficult to find a suitable time to undertake renovations this year. Ive decided to change things up slightly with the use of a solid tine instead of a hollow tine and a slightly smaller width size to help speed up the recovery process so these major events aren’t affected too badly by renovated greens. By having the ability to use our own machines we can now make up for this by doing smaller renovations through the winter to help assist with the overall greens health.
FAIRWAYS/TEES/SURROUNDS
Our santa ana surfaces are in as good a shape as you can ask for with how dry conditions have been and this has been confirmed continuously by visiting players raving about how good our fairways are compared to other courses in surrounding areas. When you consider that we have no irrigation in our fairways its quite impressive how well these surfaces continue to perform through such harsh conditions.
Our cool season areas are coping fairly well to this point and the few areas that were affected badly by disease back in February are now on the mend.
We will plan to go out with a granular fertiliser on our tees and surrounds sometime in April to prepare them for the winter conditions ahead.
CART PATHS AND DRAINAGE
Stage one of our cart paths and drainage works have been completed for this season and I hope all would agree that these improvements will be hugely positive for our course.
With the eventual goal being to have carts on course 365 days a year there are still a number of areas where paths and drainage needs to go to make this possible, however I feel what we were able to achieve this summer should see the playability in winter improve greatly and Im excited to see the results it brings.
One of the few downsides to new drainage is the wash outs that occur due to rainfall and this has been evident over the past 24 hours. With over 4km of new drainage this has resulted in many areas washing out and we will do our best over the next few weeks to fill these areas in. Please be mindful that this is a time consuming job and likely to be an ongoing challenge anytime we see large of heavy rainfall so please take care when driving/walking through these areas. Only when the grass fills in over the trenches (likely another 12 months away) will this nuisance be no longer a problem.
Ryan Hammond
DG&CC Course Superintendent.
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