MARCH 2024

It is hard to believe we are in Autumn already with green renovations about to start, this Summer Season has absolutely flown by, though there were times it felt it was never going to end !! Temperatures are still summer highs, but there is that chill to the air of a morning. 

 My apologies for not completing the February edition, more irrigation dramas, on course work demands, and a slight internet then computer issues rounded it off to conspire against my best intentions. We faced our fair share of challenges this summer irrigation season but I am very pleased with the course coming out of summer, my thanks to the staff, volunteers and Directors support over the past few months to assist in continuing to produce quality surfaces despite the challenges faced. It is a team effort so thank you team. 

 As I have alluded to, our irrigation issues haven’t ended with the back 9 bore pump motor, no sooner were we recovered from the lack of irrigation in the early stages of summer prior Christmas, a main line fuse and associated wiring completely burnt out on the front electrical box. Of course it occurred during the 40 odd degree days and on a weekend making call outs extremely difficult. My Thanks to VDW electrical who were on site to get us back in operation as quick as possible.                                          Not long after, our irrigation computer froze, meaning all automated irrigation programs were impacted. We were on night duty manually opening valves to irrigate the course for a few days (nights) to ensure our turf surfaces didn’t go backwards during late summer. 

Both issues have now been rectified and as my wife believes all things run in 3’s, touch wood hopefully our dramatic irrigation issues are all behind us. A positive from the dramas we have a new pump motor on the back 9, a new pump on order to replace the old during winter, updated computer and irrigation software and lastly, electrical checks on the front 9 pump indicate all is working well.                       During the upcoming winter season further checks will be carried on the front 9 bore, our cal clear units will be evaluated for efficiency as we have noticed an increase in iron issues in our sprinkler heads and we will look at further upgrading our irrigation software to future proof running issues. 

 Back to the present with greens renovations about to start, as Easter is on the early cycle, hence the Easter Cup is closer to our standard renovation period, we are carrying out a lighter renovations than we normally would. Greens will be solid cored to a shallower depth requiring less sand to give us some chance of having the greens 80 to 100% recovered by the Easter event. Had we continued with our normal renovation program we would have next to no chance of having the greens back to a maximum 70% recovered. As I train my apprentices “you need to be flexible and open to doing things a little different at times to achieve best outcomes...young padwans”. 

 As a result of the lighter main renovation, we will be following up with a mini renovation after Easter, this will consist of using needle tines to a deeper depth and a light sanding after, surface disruption will be minimal with a 7 day turnaround expected and a likely date of April 15 for the second of the light “renos”. 

 I’ve been asked why we wouldn’t just change renovations dates till after Easter, and the answer is simple, we have a full event schedule through April and May with nowhere near enough recovery time for a standard renovation recovery between events. 

During the renovation closure, all Greens will be solid cored as will green approaches for drainage, all greens sanded and as with selected approaches. We will also be lightly verti mowing front 9 fairways and selected back 9 fwys as time permits as we only have the one small tractor that operates the Corer, sander and verti mower. Some green surrounds will be verti cut, seeded with cool season grass and sanded for winter cover. 

We have a full on schedule and a great deal of work to get through. Other work includes commencing end of season Mullumbimby Couch spot spraying in fairways, some patches will be evident till late season recovery and next month temperature dependent we will be commencing a trial of couch control product in our greens, I will include more information on this and some things to expect once we have finalised the program and are confident temperatures are within the ranges required for effective treatment. 

Till Next Time Happy Hooking

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