Overdue Update

I apologise for not updating the blog over the past 2 weeks and more so not updating about renovations. As I have mentioned in previous posts we are in the midst of a very busy maintenance period and to top it off I have been spending a considerable amount of my own time completing risk assessments. Anyone who has ever been involved with the process knows it can be a lengthy process. I digress and move on with the update.
Green Renovations

Went very smoothly and the greens are coming back in great condition. We gave them the first cut on Wednesday afternoon, we were so impressed we will be lowering the heights for the Friday afternoon cut. This weekend will be the worst as far as pace and smoothness for ball roll  is concerned as we are at a higher height of cut and only mowing afternoons so not to pick up wet sand as we mow. Next week we will further lower the heights and commence morning mows.

Practice Chipper
The root zone sand as been loaded levelled and we are watering to help settle, before adding amendments. Anthony is at TAFE this week and next so I am leaving the amendments till he returns for his experience before we seed.
16th Mound / Sandbunker
 One less bunker to worry about !!!!
 
Improvement works to the 16th surrounds commenced this week, as you know 2 mounds are being constructed, the 1st replacing the short right side bunker and the 2nd to the right of the green. This work will greatly improve the wear problem experienced around the right side green. We will also be rotary hoeing the non mound area.

The first step was to fill the bunker, we have started mounding that section, and again with only the tractor to use it will take some time to get the amount of sand we need for the height of the mound. Having said that we should have the mound close to finish and the turf cut for the mound laid back down by Friday afternoon.
The next step will be rotary hoeing the existing walkway area, raising the levels slightly and chaffing the area (explained below).

Once that is complete we will start mounding the 2nd mound.
Front 9 Fairway Renovations
If we are not busy enough the front 9 Fairway renovations will start on Monday, verti cutting, cleaning up and scrolling fairways will be hopefully completed by Wednesday afternoon. We will beusing some of the material from the verti cutting to chaff the 16th walkway and chipping green banks.  

Chaffing is another method to establish couch grass, the material from verti cutting is kept moist and basically top dressed over bare ground before being lightly rotary hoed in, rolled and watered. We will hopefully have a nice coverage 6 weeks later.

 A long Post but your now up-to-date, oh and fairway irrigation has started, so if you are tired after reading all this imagine how we are doing. We still managed to fit a BBQ in to officially welcome Ben to the staff and congratulate Anthony before he attended his last TAFE block. Of course the tradition continued for the new staff initiation, cooking the onions as Ben found out.

Popular posts from this blog

November 2023

Image
Welcome to another instalment of the Course Maintenance Blog, I will try and slow down the typing, because we have been going at a cracking pace on the course over the past 6 weeks that would leave the Cup hopefuls in our wake.   The Finish line is in sight for a number of projects undertaken over the last month and looking forward to holding back the reigns( ok no more cup puns) to give time to consolidate the previous work performed.  My thanks to Ben for his tireless efforts, with a great many extra hours worked, my staff who have also worked extra hours and of course both of our major works could not have been completed without the wonderful help of our ever present volunteers. This should never go unnoticed, coming from a metro golf course background, where volunteers were scarce to say the least; I am forever appreciative for the help these members give. Forget the profit and loss sheet for a moment or the condition of the course/ facilities, the true strength of a NFP club l
Read more

Saltene and Couch Grass

Image
I thought I would talk about this subject instead of what has been run of the mill course work updates lately, nothing like a bit of variety to keep it fresh... It is this time of year (summer if you didn't know better) the couch and saltene in the greens become more visible and start to out compete the bent grass. If you have been good students and followed the turf 101's on this blog you would know Bent is a cool season grass preferring cooler temps, Couch and Saltene both warm season grasses preferring hotter temps for optimum growth. So what happens when the two compete against each other year round ?   During the cooler months,  April through October the Bent grass out competes the Couch and Saltene, the Couch and Saltene are still there just not as pronounced as during the warmer months, thanks to their vigorous rhizomes even tho the bent has control of the top, the couch and saltene are waiting to pounce when warmer temps arrive due to their extensive rhizome syste
Read more

Hydraulic Oil Leak

Image
Over the weekend we had a Hydraulic Oil leak under the mower when mowing greens, unfortunately as it was pre-dawn mowing with a heavy dew, the operator only detected it when the sun came up after he was halfway through.   Of 13 greens mowed, 8 are effected of which 4 are cause for the most concern. Wishful thinking, I am wondering, and will find out soon enough, with the greens renovations only just completed whether the vigorous growth we have encourage to recover from Reno's and the higher cut we were mowing at will lessen the impact and we may be able to cut out most of it....Experience tells me IT IS wishful thinking. With this type of oil leak, it isn't so much the oil but the temperature of the oil that causes most of the damage, instantly killing the grass it contacts. We have applied Activated Charcoal, and a dilute detergent to deactivate and dilute the oil, there isn't much more we can do I am afraid.  We have sanded the 15th to see if that helps, unfo
Read more