Our dry start to winter has continued, with 1mm of rain recorded at the club since the previous last significant fall on the 29th May. We have been carrying out some hand watering around the edges of the greens and in traffic areas, as well as putting some water in the bunkers, which are unusually ‘fluffy’ at the moment due to the lack of moisture in them. We would normally expect to see these types of conditions in August in the period between winter rains and spring irrigation. There certainly hasn’t been enough rain as yet to test the newly installed drainage in the East course!
The one thing we haven’t been short of is frosty mornings, with quite a number of cold starts seeing some crisp conditions on course, which has seen all area’s not being treated with pigments lose quite a lot of colour.
However, we are using this to our advantage by carrying out applications to control any poa and other annual grass weeds through the roughs at a time when we know that minimal damage will be done to the preferred couch varieties. The attached photo of the 11th East demonstrates the results we are seeing in the roughs.
The ground staff have wrapped up another successful collar replacement, with work complete on the 8th West seeing both courses in play as full courses for the next week or so. Early in July we will be taking the 14th West out of play for a fortnight to carry out collar resodding, some irrigation alterations around the surrounds and sodding and over seeding of the traffic area under the pine on the left of the green.
In the meantime, exposed aggregate concrete paths to match those on the East course will proceed next week, with both the 8th tee path and the path from 1st green exit to the 2nd tee to be concreted on Tuesday following preparation works on Monday. There will be alternate traffic routes through these areas for the majority of next week, and we would ask that members adhere to the directions put in place to avoid the works that will be occurring.
We have taken delivery of the equipment required to install the new irrigation satellite on the 9th West, continuing our program of upgrades to the West course irrigation system. The satellite will be situated in the trees between the 7th and 9th holes, and installation will involve trenching the length of the fairway to install wiring to all of the valve boxes that will control the sprinklers. We will also be looking to re design some approach laterals in front of the 9th green to improve our coverage in this area while we are working on the hole.
At this stage it is likely that this work will be carried out later in July after the completion of the collar replacement on the 14th West, although we may begin to run some of the wiring in trenches prior to this if time allows.
Richard James
Course Superintendent