April Course Report, Written by Ryan Hammond

Dear members,

For the most part April saw plenty of beautiful Autumn days but when it rained it most certainly poured. We had a total of 147mm for the month which is well over average but the majority (120mm) fell in just the first week meaning that as we currently stand the course has had a few weeks to recover and is still in good shape from a dryness perspective.

GREENS
Green renovations took place on the 8th of April with the use of 12mm solid tines and the addition of just over 30 ton of sand. With a slightly smaller tine size being used than we normally opt for (12mm v 16mm) the recovery process has been quicker and three weeks on the greens our now back to normal. We don’t plan to take this route at renovations every time moving forward as the bigger holes and more sand you get into the profile the better, but with so many major events taking place over the past 5-6 weeks it was the best way to ensure the greens performed to a high standard by minimising the recovery time.
With the addition of the air injection machine returning in late May to help break up the compacted clay surface we should see our greens continue to perform to a fantastic standard throughout the winter period.
Our 2nd and 3rd greens continue to cause their challenges with large amounts of moss appearing on the surface. There’s a number of reasons for why this is but the biggest culprit is the greens inability to hold onto nutrients due to the way they have been constructed. This means we have to apply significantly higher amounts of fertiliser to keep them healthy while at the same time applying more water during summer than the other greens due to their higher water infiltration rate. Unfortunately high fertilising and high watering equates to perfect conditions for moss to grow and its my hope that over the next two to three years these greens will settle down and be able to be managed similar to our other greens. For now though we have been applying regular herbicides applications to these greens to try eradicate the moss which does leave it turning an unsightly black color. These herbicides also have a slightly negative impact on the turfs health which will likely make them appear visually worse than normal for the next three to four weeks. This is the challenge with moss in golf greens as no products exists that kills it without negatively impacting the healthy turf around it.

TEES/SURROUNDS/FAIRWAYS
The santa ana surfaces have packed up for the season with the last cut on these surfaces occurring back on the 11th of April. Over the next few months we will spasmodically cut these surfaces to clean them up visually and remove any winter grass but for the most mart they will be untouched until September. Although the couch grass has halted in growth we still find ourselves with a lovely dense surface to play from and this will continue for as long as the weather is favourable.
The cool season surfaces received some granular fertiliser on the 26th of April to help strengthen them up for the upcoming winter period and are currently in really good shape. Because these grass types continue to grow in the cooler months its important to keep feeding them for improved health whereas the warm season grasses go into dormancy requiring no nutrition during this period.

JASON SPRANGE RESIGNATION
Unfortunately I have to report that Jason who was our 1st year apprentice resigned earlier in the month. Jason is returning to his old plumbing trade where in his own words “got an offer I couldn’t refuse”. Jason was a highly skilled and motivated employee and does leave a big hole in our team that we are hopeful to try and fill in the near future.

Ryan Hammond
DG&CC Course Superintendent