First Hit of the Year

Welcome to the very first instalment of the Maintenance Blog for 2023 ! 
On behalf of the greenstaff we wish all our members, staff and patrons a safe and happy New Year, bringing new beginnings, new hope drives find the fairways and your putts the cup ! 
As I write this, the first round field of our first major event of the year is making its way around our beautiful course. 
It is always a challenge to get the course into shape benefitting a major event and no more so than on the back of a 3 and 4 day week respectively due to the Xmas and New Year Public Holidays.  
with early tee times, it was a 4am start for the greenstaff
No dinner by candlelight, it was bunkers by floodlights
And once we could see

The challenge compounded by the increasing winds we experience at this time of year, blowing debris through the course with 35km hr winds being relentless the last few days. 
Connor with the back pac blower cleaning out bunkers this morning 
Ben with the proforce clearing greens and surrounds.

My thanks to the staff for  meeting the challenge head on, their determination, passion and pride they take in their work and desire to showcase the course at its finest despite the elements is appreciated. 

Our preparations for this event started way back in October, with nutritional and water management playing key roles in making sure all turf surfaces were prepared to ensure they could tolerate the increased maintenance demands of low cutting heights, increased clip frequency and environmental stresses that were to be placed on them the closer we got to the Open. 

With the public holidays directly in the weeks leading to the event grooming preparations commenced prior to Xmas with bunker edging one task prepared in advance.
It is one of those tasks with crisp sharp edges that makes the course pop. 
The Taliban invaded our bunkers - no, just the boys in their edging protection.

in process 

finished product.

Wasnt all serious, for the whole holiday period, after completion  and prior to Xmas I shouted the boys to putt putt pizza and beers
 to thank them for their efforts through the year and more so, a wind down before the hard graft begins with 2 weeks to the open. 

It wouldn't be Christmas period with some irrigation dramas, this year no different between Open preps dealing with with some bad wire spice connection 
requiring re wiring and a couple faulty Decoders.

After the Open we will return to standard maintenance procedures, attend to some more retic related issues and maintenance, while I also provide some extra training for our 2 young apprentices over the next 2 weeks.
Then it will be all hands back on deck and full throttle for preparations for our next major event, The Summer Cup.

So till next time 
Happy Hooking.

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