Course News & Updates

19 July 2019

Well, winter has certainly made its presence felt over the last week or so, with drizzly, misty rain keeping everything damp.  It reminds me of when I was Superintendent at Mount Gambier Golf Club in the early 2000’s where the weather was like this for months on end, so reflecting on that, I think a week or so I can live with! 

Wet Weather Management

With the wet conditions it sees maintenance practices revolve around limiting the damage of excessive moisture.  You would’ve noticed if out this week more roping of areas around Tees and Green surrounds to manage traffic in these areas, these ropes aren’t put out to deliberately annoy our Cart and Gopher uses however we’re trying to protect these areas from getting compacted and turf thinning out. 

An element of the course that is showing the signs of “Winter Fatigue” is the Practice Putting and Short Game area.  The western end of this Green is especially worn, with the Green surface resembling more like a “Crumpet” than a putting surface with the amount of pitch marks present!

As a result of this, we are going to take the move to close this section of the Green for a fortnight from the 19^th of July to let it recover.  Bunker practice will still be undertaken from the western bunker where we will set up pins on the Green approach, however practice from the eastern side bunker will not be permitted.  Over this time, we will take the opportunity to aerate the Green and raise the cutting height to assist the green to recover from its “Crumpet like” state to something that resembles a putting surface!

This week saw us start solid tining greens to aid water movement through the green’s profiles.  This practice is undertaken over three consecutive weeks where 6 greens are completed.  The greens are aerated to a depth of 90mm with 6mm diameter solid tines, breaking subsurface compaction allowing water to penetrate and turf roots to grow deeper into the profile.  As well as aeration, a penetrant wetting agent has been applied this week to help draw moisture away from the surface and through the profiles below aiding in the drying out of our putting surfaces.

Bunker Renovations

Next week will see works carried out Revetting the bunkers on the 19^th Hole.  The turf for the Revetting works will be harvested from the front of the 1^st Tee.  The reasoning behind taking the turf from this area is twofold, firstly, the predominately Fescue turf will provide an ideal dense thatch product that will ensure a good quality Revetted finish and secondary, a part of the expansion of the Couch surround further down the carry way as once the sod is harvested Couch turf will be laid.  This work to harvest the Fescue turf will occur next Tuesday with all play that day commencing from the 10^th Tee.

Once the Revetting works are completed it will allow us to complete the re-surfacing of the 19^th Green collar to Bent from our nursery and within 4 weeks of this been completed, the 19^th Hole will be able to brought into play so other course works can continue without member disruption, such as the planned renovation of Bunkers. 

Root Pruning

With the slowing down of turf growth in winter it allows us to complete maintenance tasks outside of our normal programs, one such task is root pruning.  Our overstory tree stands are a fantastic feature of our course however they do have some drawbacks.  The Pine trees over summer compete with our turf surfaces for moisture especially along the edges of fairways where you would have seen over summer course staff running soaker hoses along the edges to keep moisture up to the turf.  By running the Root Pruner around each fairway, it cuts the trees surface roots that are affecting the turf surfaces moisture uptake.  As of this week all fairways have had the Root Pruner around them ensuring that come summer the moisture pressure on the edges of the fairway turf is eased.

Happy Golfing!

Tim Warren,
Course Superintendent.