The past four weeks has seen some incredibly dry and warm weather with only 7mm of rain falling since the 14th of January and at my count eleven days over 33 degrees in that time frame.
\nAs I write this report (Wednesday 12th February) there is some good rain forecast over the coming days and I\u2019m certainly hopeful that the forecast comes to fruition. The golf course has continued to hold up extremely well through such adverse conditions and as we head into the later half of summer I feel we have now gotten through the really challenging period of the year and things should start to ease moving forward.<\/p>\n
GREENS<\/strong> Immediately following the ladies club championships next Tuesday we will give the greens an 8mm solid tine and dusting to help relieve some compaction and get some air back into the root zone after a period that has not only been dry but seen more golfers on our course than we have ever seen before.<\/p>\n FAIRWAYS\/TEES\/SURROUNDS<\/strong> Our cool season grass areas are battling away as best they can but particularly those affected by shade and tree issues are showing signs of the summer stress. 17th Hole<\/strong> The past four weeks has seen some incredibly dry and warm weather with only 7mm of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":3280,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,7,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-members","category-membership-level","category-members-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nI cant stress enough how valuable some of our recent purchases (pro core and top dress machine) have been in allowing us to keep the greens in such great shape through a period where in years gone by we would have seen some real challenges with the current weather we have had. When you also include the added stress of having more golfers on course than we have ever encountered and the greens really have handled these challenges tremendously. The increase in cultural practices we have been able to undertake has been the driving force in why our greens have withstood these conditions without any serious disease or dry patch issues which simply wouldn\u2019t have been the case in years gone by. The other benefit of being able to maintain our greens in a far more professional manner is the reduction of fungicides we have had to use which is not only better for the plant and environment but also great for the bank balance.<\/p>\n
\nEvery year I continue to be amazed at how well our Santa Ana fairways \u201chang on\u201d through the summer considering we don\u2019t have irrigation in these areas. Many of our surrounding courses are now looking and playing extremely hard and dry yet you could easily be mistaken for believing our fairways are watered every night due to how good they continue to perform and visually appear.<\/p>\n
\nEvery year we continue to make inroads on converting these areas to Santa Ana turf so they can manage the summer months more easily and in time it\u2019s my hope we will have all tees and surrounds complete.<\/p>\n
\nThe back half of the 17th tee was relaid with Santa Ana approx 4 weeks ago and following the completion of championships we will begin to tee off from this newly grassed area.
\nWe will then convert the rest of the tee to Santa Ana within the next two weeks with the hope that by the end of March we will have the entire tee back in play.
\nThe new green is now starting to take shape\u00a0 and for those that have observed the area over the past week it\u2019s now very visible what the new green complex will look like.
\nI personally think it looks fantastic and will be a significant improvement on the original green we had.
\nI expect that most of the earth works will be completed by Friday the 14th February and by the end of next week we should have most of the drainage and irrigation installed. Once those aspects are completed we should begin to see the turf laid on the areas surrounding the green which will give the entire area a much different look and perspective.
\nFrom there the green base will be installed which will include a 200mm gravel layer underneath 300mm of sand and once that has been shaped to spec the seed for the green will be applied.
\nAs Ive reiterated numerous times we are relying on contractors and weather for these steps to take place so giving specific timelines would be foolish. It\u2019s my hope that by mid March all contractor works will be completed which will then just leave the grass establishment to take place.
\nThis process is very different to establishing grass in your back yard as not only does the plant need to be healthy and fit for putting standards, but it needs to have the root depth, strength and turgidity to be able to handle being cut at 3mm in height 5 days a week while having hundreds of people walk over it on a weekly basis\u2026.. and that takes time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"