COURSE SUPERINTENDENT S REPORT 24 th July 218 21 st August 218 July rainfall 218 2mm Same time last year June 1mm Number of rain days 1 YTD 218 19.3 YTD 217 442.4mm 35 325 3 275 25 225 2 175 15 125 1 75 5 25 J F M A M J J A S O N D rainfall 216 mm total 888mm rainfall 217 mm total 556.5mm rainfall 218 mm total
24 23 22 21 2 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 1 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 16.1 22.7 14.7 23.4 18.4 17.8 6.5 8.1 4.6 11.2 5.3 4.5 4.5 7.2 9.4 8.2 2.8 2.4 2.9 2.4 3.1 13.8 22 16 18 12.4 13 1.3.2.5 J F M A M J J A S O N D Output Meg/L 216 Output Meg/L 217 Output Meg/L 218 GREENS Cutting height 3. (mm) Greens are rolled frequently which helps produce quick greens. Added to this limited watering and they are able to remain fast and hard with minimal effort. Calcium applications are made fortnightly to help them get through this stressful period. A fertiliser was added pre renovations to promote some growth and allow for speedier recovery. Biological soil programs continue and are based off our philosophy of healthy soil equals healthy plant. If the soil is not in balance then it doesn t matter what you throw at the plant, it will always struggle. A wetting agent was applied to allow water deeper infiltration through the profile. This will ultimately encourage deeper roots, less disease as pooling water on the surface is eliminated, and firmer surfaces as water is not sitting on the top layer of turf. We are just waiting for renovations at the moment. Once renovations are over, we will be in full programs for spring and summer.
3 rd /9 th GREENS Another 5 plugs were placed in the RHS of the 3 rd green. At this stage we are only concerned that this part of both greens is thin. This part out of all the areas received the most cores yet is still the worst. I believe it was early damage pre covers from the ducks. It would be recommended that the greens be open on the Friday 31 st of August. This area which would be only 4 meters from the edge of the RHS be a free relief if landed on. Covers might remain on this area weather dependant, but I believe the green is large enough to be able to have this in place and open it up. Some GUR will be in place on the couch but once the weather warms up we are expecting these areas to get smaller. The new procore was used to solid tine the green to allow deeper roots and better oxygen exchange. GREENS COLLARS Collars 6mm Collars are left at the moment as no growth on them has allowed us to look to other areas. GREEN SURROUNDS Cutting height 14mm Green surrounds also have been spot sprayed for flat weeds and for paspalum. They were only cut once this month. TEES Cutting height 1mm Tees also were painted for colour and to draw in as much warmth as they can. Tees are cut once a week to clean them up. The driving range tee continues to get hammered. These are the divots across the front from one weekend only. Some divots sit 1m away from the teeing area which suggests that good sized divots are removed. The tee has been seeded and top dressed again to allow some areas for later championships in the coming months.
FAIRWAYS Cutting height 14mm Fairways received another colourant application with some nitrogen. Frosts and windy days dried them out considerably more than any other winter in the last 5 years. ROUGHS Cutting height 4mm Roughs aren t moving, frost damaged. Spot spraying for paspalum and flat weeds is continuing and will go throughout the winter months. COURSE WORKS The ponds on the 2 nd and 4 th were cleaned out with silt and the water transferred from the large 4 th dam across. These ponds would need some 4 inches of rain to fill them up and with that not in the distant forecast, it was decided to visually make these better, we would need to fill up ourselves. As you can see on the right, grass had taken over the pond as it was never full throughout the year. Trees on the middle island on the 4 th dam were also removed to aid in possible removal of the drop zone. Tree planting for areas of future residential boundaries also continues. This will help aid in some protection, with some 5 trees planted.
NEW MACHINERY PURCHASES We have had 2 new major purchases this year and a few smaller items. A new fairway unit joins the fleet and is the same as last years purchase. We also now have a procore to carry out all our renovations and solid spiking on greens,tees and surrounds. The smaller items includes an edging unit that can do our paths in a third of the time, and some machinery mechanical software that will make scheduleing servicing and parts ordering state of the art. We thank the board and Tony at Wests for the approval of these items. Dean Hopper Course Superintendent