Course Report – Wednesday, 11 June 2025
June started off with a bang as we received what could be our last reasonable downpour of “wet season” totalling 27mm in a couple of days. Since then, it’s been nothing but good drying weather, plenty of sunshine, and very windy for this time of year. It has also brought upon us a few shivering cold mornings, as it has been getting into the single digits when the maintenance crew is kicking off for the day. Bring on winter.
That last slight rain event has kept the course holding its colour nicely, but certainly kept the ground moist in some areas. A few spots still soggy underfoot but most playing surfaces (bar a few Green surrounds) are beginning to firm up again.
Greens 11, 12 & 13 are underway in their grow in, albeit slow, the stolons have rooted in and there is a slight green tinge on the surface which is encouraging. The hard work begins now, as the cooler temperatures really limit growth and the days being short limit sunlight. So, we won’t see the green tinge spread very quickly. We will keep up the nutrition to those greens, currently on a weekly granular program, until coverage allows us to foliar feed them to further push them along. The 13th Tee is quite similar, the batter that was turfed has knitted in really quickly, but the stolons on the Tee top are taking that little longer to root in.
- Course Greens are playing well, consistently above 10ft on the Stimp, closer to 11ft after a Mow and a Roll, which we have been doing for the Club Championship Rounds. The wind, along with the dusting, can create some slippery Greens at this time of the year, so we are monitoring Green speed closely.
- A few areas on, and around the Greens that are struggling with wear will also be pushed along over the next couple of months so that coverage is optimal. Small white stakes with green tops will be used in areas that we would appreciate pedestrians and carts to avoid traversing across, to ensure the highest care is taken getting those areas healthy again.
- Playing surfaces are presenting well after multiple mows, there is a bit of thatch present in our surfaces, which isn’t a bad thing heading into winter, as it gives us a buffer for the traffic the course receives, especially after the conditions as of late.
- Rough is beginning to get back under control, and we are finding out that some areas are still far too wet for machines to travel across (See image of back of 7 Green)
- Bunkers and paths continue to get edged regularly, and garden beds are being maintained constantly, with plenty of work being put in to open certain areas up by lifting low hanging branches and overgrown shrubs.
- With the weather on the improve, our best efforts are now going to be put into improving the playability out of bunkers that have been neglected over the summer. Every effort is being made to get the bunkers in an order for play a few times a week. It takes roughly 30-40 minutes, per bunker, to ensure sand is moved into all the correct zones using our bunker bike, roughly 40 hours to complete all the bunkers on course. A time-consuming process!
- Turf works for 4 and 6 will be completed by the end of this week, as we were ever so slightly short of turf for the 4th path re-work. We will also look to get some additional turf to turf some of the sprinkler heads that have been lifted around the Greens, which will then tidy the Green complexes up on 21, and the current out of play Greens.
A friendly reminder to be vigilant out on course with the wind speed picking up in the coming months, as we have already seen multiple large branches fall from our lovely Eucalyptus trees out on course. Given the amount of rainfall we have had, trees can often remain damp and weak coming out of the wet season, meaning high wind speeds can cause cracks and branches to fall out of nowhere. The maintenance team is keeping a close eye on dead branches that are potential falling hazards, and we will continue to tidy up overgrown/fallen limbs over winter.
The next few weeks should see the crew get stuck in to course presentation for the Club Champ finals, as well as begin some project work on the out of play holes, some more drainage work and finally some path repair work out on course.
Stay safe out there, enjoy the sunshine.
Alex Blakey
Assistant Course Superintendent
The Brisbane Golf Club
