Spring has Sprung


Had to do a quick re think with this post, I had planned to use a few photo's from my phone of all things Spring, hopefully not a sign of things to come but the phone is at the shop under warranty repair and so are the photo's.............

Spring has sprung and I wish I could say the work has too, but in reality the staff have been hard at it all winter in one of the busiest yet, with the unprecedented storm damage back in June and being 1 staff down for the whole period, it is basically just a continuation from last summer.
The next 6 to 8  weeks are set to be even crazier with renovations, ( greens tees and front 9 fairways), the chipping green construction, 16th mound construction just to name a few on top of normal course work which includes increased mowing frequencies now the grass is starting to grow, and the irrigation side of things. Actually in some sick and weird way I am looking forward to it!!!
During this time, as many know I do the blog in my own time, with increased odd hours being spent on the course and balancing that with family I can’t guarantee the blog will be updated regularly though I will try as best I can.
Last week we finally managed to get on the course to spray all the broadleaf weeds ending a frustrating 4 week period waiting for suitable weather conditions for spraying on days we could spray with no competitions. We look at a number factors before we spray, temperature, humidity, wind speed etc and whether those conditions are suitable, we also take into account the products,  the products used needed at least 4 hours of dry weather after application, 4 hours of dry weather, plus the time it takes to load up and spray, we needed the crystal ball to look 8 hours into the future, over the weeks prior to last week, on available spray days, the weather was threatening, the forecast models predicting rain within  that time and dry conditions could not be guaranteed, so delays were the norm.....then as you would expect no rain would come, we growl and get on with it,  it is better safe than sorry.
Just another quick point, we sprayed the fairways and roughs with different products, the fairways for broadleaf weeds and the roughs for those weeds plus areas of Guildford grass, the product used for the roughs is much slower acting so there will be a difference in the sprayed areas for a limited time, giving the impression we sprayed some areas and not others.

We also finished the practice bunker, added peat to the base of the chipping green and rotary hoed in, fenced the area to keep the roos out and settled the area ready for the sand load up. We are aiming to have the green ready for seeding by the end of the month, and just a reminder it is taking a while, we are still 1 staff down and the course takes priority, we are working on the chipper as time permits.
We started preparations for the upcoming Capel 3000, bush mowing which will continue over the next week or so, bunker edging will be carried out this week as well and we also intend on grooming (light verti cut) the greens to have them nice and slick for the 3000. That should just leave us with course conditioning in the week leading up to the event.

Lastly a quick update on the miracle 4000 riders, they are in the home stretch crossing the NSW / SA border last Friday. Amazing they have not had a rest day and they are still standing. Hopefully the same can be said for the staff after the next couple of months are finished.

Till next time keep swinging.

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