Course Update – Wednesday, 3 July 2025

A busy few weeks out on the Golf Course as we wrapped up a wonderful display of golf from the Club Championship participants. Congratulations to all the winners.

We are in the midst of winter now, and the turf is certainly feeling it. Growth rates on all surfaces have slowed, which for now, allows us to tick off a few items on our project list.

The Greens on 11, 12 & 13 are in good shape, they have a nice green tinge to them, a small presence of algae on the surface as the days don’t allow the surface to dry quickly, but all in all we are happy with the strike of these three Greens and their process considering the cooler temperatures. 19, 20 & 21 are being monitored closely, as they are still in their infancy and have become dormant, recovery is slow. We have backed off the mowing on these Greens to allow more time for them to recuperate with the amount of traffic they receive. We have also been at work spraying out some encroachment in the perimeters, which we will then plug after it’s died off.

We’ve spent some time working on the 12^th hole, clearing the drop off on the left as you venture down the hill. We found a drainage outlet filled with rock that we have improved and filled to make it safer to descend the slope. We are also beginning to dig some new trenches on the 12^th Fairway to improve the drainage. We are finding that a lot of the sub surface drainage that was put in place on course has been destroyed or damaged during the latest irrigation install. Now that we have our own trenching unit, we can add drainage where we see fit and allow water to permeate through the turf surface, which will in turn dry the course out quicker after any rain events.

On course at the moment;

• Greens are hanging in there for this time of year. Coverage is pretty good with a few weak areas that we will keep nursing along. Speeds consistently above 10.5ft on the Stimp, getting up to 12 after a cut and roll. Moisture levels are also optimum on almost all greens, 19, 20 & 21 a little low (to be expected from new Greens) and 6 is high. Volumetric Water Content (VWC) is what we measure to determine the volume of water to total volume of soil. Most of the Greens on course were sitting just over 20% VWC which is great.
• Tees and Fairways are still holding good colour after our foliar applications, and most areas are dry enough that playing conditions are good. Areas such as 19 & 21 Surrounds are holding plenty of moisture (mostly due to the drainage damage we believe) after being watered regularly during the Greens grow in period.
• Bunkers are shaping up nicely, we’re seeing lots of sand get moved in popular bunkers, and we are trying to improve them every time we rake them.
• We will be getting stuck into our landscape areas again in the coming weeks as we receive a new machine (Ventrac) that will take care of the thicker and denser vegetation that our regular mowers can’t get to. Areas such as the left of 10, 19 & 18 should be tidied up fairly quickly and back open for play.
• The Greens have also had some aeration, with our Air2g2 machine punching oxygen down into the rootzones. We will look to solid tine the Greens in the next couple of weeks which will assist with our dusting program to alleviate compaction, dilute organic matter & thatch build up as well as move oxygen through the soil profile.
• The Volunteers had another successful outing on the 10^th Hole, clearing more overgrown trees and shrubs to allow us to effectively maintain it going forward. We appreciate all the efforts and time being put into the monthly volunteer group.

The next few weeks should see us complete works on the 11^th Tee, which we are extending to allow for more teeing space. Then, complete some bunker work on the 12^th Hole, as well as ensuring the steep bank behind the fairway bunker is safe and ready for play.

The new greens are close to getting their first mow, and are being fertilised weekly with a granular to encourage as much growth as possible, after a mow we will look to top-dress and once they firm up enough, we will then begin foliar applications.