Welcome to course Update for February, and what a roller
coaster the past 4 weeks have been !!!
We were extremely happy with the course, particularly how
the turf surfaces handled the extreme heat through most of the 4 week period
and how it was responding to increased maintenance to prepare the course to peak
in condition for the Summer Cup, in fact we couldn’t have been any happier with
the way the course was tracking, I was about to prepare the blog update with
how much better the turf surfaces and greens handled the summer period over
that of when I first arrived here years ago !
Then on Friday 31st January, we experienced a
major main line pipe rupture, under the extended car park area. The location of
the break and a butterfly isolation valve failing meant we could not isolate
the pipe from the system meaning no water to the course. Of course this coincided with a few 38 degree
days !!
As thrust block installation required at least 24
hrs ( normally 48) to cure it was disappointing
to see our hard work go backwards somewhat.
First my thanks to Ben who worked alongside me for the 16
hrs it took to dig, pipe and source and collect fittings, and install along
with thrust block concreting as quick as we could. Also many thanks to Mick
Lines for bringing the excavator on short notice, we would not have been able
to get through the carpark surface without it!
The Actual rupture was 6m section of cracked pipe through
a 90 degree elbow, due to the nature of the crack a great deal of debris and
sand was sucked into the system, despite flushing as much as could over 2 to 3
hour period there remains a fair about through the system which is impacting
VIH sprinkler operations as well as some fairway P220 main valves. These are
being attended to as they occur, taking up a great deal of time and impacting
surface conditions as there is a few days delay between issues occurring and
becoming evident.
I am pleased to see the turf areas respond quickly to recovery
measures, there will remain a few areas of weak spots namely the fwy margins
and a couple of greens which had sprinkler issues immediately after the break
which did not become apparent until injury occurred. These areas are under
increased recovery practices. In all no major permanent turf loss was suffered
so all in all a good outcome.
Plans are underway to replace some of the butterfly
valves with gate valves to give a better seal and isolation of parts of the course.
Moving on despite the above we had very positive feedback
from the 160 odd ladies playing in the Summer Cup and the course came back as
good as it could for the event.
Immediately after the Summer Cup we needled tined and
lightly sanded the greens as part of our new program mentioned last month, once
again minor disruption to the surface for 2 days before returning to normal is
to be expected.
In the lead up to our main greens renovations in March ( 10th and 11th) we will be applying products for the control
of Saltine and other grassy weeds. This will course discolouration of Saltine
specially the large patches we have in a few greens and may also cause the bent
to look unthrifty and dry, this is normal and no cause for alarm, recovery of
which will occur through the renovation period.
Basically over the next 3 weeks or so, the greens may not
look their best but will play the same.
We will also be plugging out small areas of couch grass.
Summer rolls on, we have our normal summer maintenance
programs to continue, extra irrigation maintenance as mentioned, a few events
to prep for and pre renovation preparations to keep us extremely busy over the next
4 weeks.
Till next time
Happy Hooking
