Course Update – Wednesday, 26 February 2025
Course Update – Wednesday, 26 February 2025
The Greens on 19, 20 & 21 are progressing well. You will notice a few weeds pop their heads up on these through the growing stage, this is not an issue and will start to decrease with more frequent mowing and at lower heights. They received their first cut last week at 6mm, followed by a generous top-dress, and will receive another mow this week.
The 20th Green that was covered with a grow mat has been uncovered, the results not too dissimilar to how 19 Green tracked the week before. The grow mats certainly have their advantages through the cooler months, but what they can create is a perfect environment for algae and disease to grow through the warmer months, and this was prevalent on 20 when we exposed it for the first time after 2 weeks of being covered. It was good to see the difference between 20 & 21, through the same time period with and without the mat.
Greens on course are playing nicely, stimping over 10ft on average day to day, which is a great place to be. Very pleased with coverage across all greens, which we are continuing to topdress weekly with additional sand being added to some weaker performing perimeters such as the Chipping Green, Putting Green and Hole 1.
You may have noticed some greens run a little quicker towards the end of last week as we were dealing with some irrigation communication drama. They were still able to be irrigated manually, but just not through the morning with the rest of the Greens, which can be problematic for consistent ball roll between greens.
The Green Surrounds received a slight Verti-Cut last Monday, to try remove some unwanted thatch and grain that can be challenging to play on. We would hope to do this on a regular basis when time allows to eliminate as much of the thatch build up as possible. We will be doing the Tees next week, which are well overdue for a scratch up, and it will be beneficial to get them down whilst we are still in the growing season. The Tees were hit with a selective herbicide to eliminate those pesty weeds, and we saw reasonable results. The Wintergreen (Couch) can take a slight hit with these applications, but bounce back fairly quickly. The same application was made to Green Surrounds, to eradicate the Crows Foot that is never ending in this climate, which you can see the effect it takes on the old Zoysia Collars that remain.
We are still in a reasonable spot with our bunkers, and we are doing our best to get in them regularly to ensure sand is back in the playing zones and away from the walk-ins. Bunker matting has been cut out in many bunkers over the last few weeks, and will continue to be targeted going forward. The drainage issue on the Fairway Bunker on 16 hasn’t been resolved at this stage, as we are still unaware of the point to which the bunker drains too. Further investigation will follow, but it is likely that we trench a completely new trench and put new PVC pipework in to allow it to drain effectively. If all else fails, we might just fill the bunker in and let grass grow over it.
Hole 2 has recently been a target for tree lifting, and presents a much nicer image from the Tee now that you can see through the bushland on the right side of the fairway. We will continue to work through some of these denser areas on course to allow a better outlook and also speed up pace of play with some of the more frequent landing zones getting a face-lift.
We have been down our rough mowers for the better part of two weeks, and thankfully haven’t received an excessive amount of rain, only 80mm since the 16th of January. But the course has still presented fairly well considering. The Herbicide applications to the rough are helping retard the growth to a point that is manageable, and isn’t causing too much discolouration.
We also said goodbye to one of our casual workers who was with us for 6 months from Hong Kong. You would have seen Luke out on the cause spraying vegetation areas and keeping our unsightly weeds at bay for the last 6 months. We wish Luke all the best, as they have moved down to Melbourne for study.
