Course Report – December

Works are continuing on the 8^th hole as we now transition into the grow in phase of the project. The hole will remained closed for a little longer as we wait for the roughs surrounding the fairway to grow in a little more . We can place a temporary green on the fairway but this will impact on these areas at a time where it is crucial to keep daily moisture up and traffic well away to ensure good healthy germination and growth.

 

The old limestone path from the 7^th green through to 8 used to look a little sad but another concrete path has been installed by Australind Premix, a big thanks goes out to Ed King and the team at Jetline who have come on board and kindly donated their time to install the kerbing. Traffic mesh has been installed at both ends of the path to cope with compaction and wear and once the turf has grown up through the mesh we will look at opening it up for use.

The green itself hasn’t really changed, we were able to push the green out a little in the back left but removing and leveling the hump that used to run along the greenside edge of the bunker has given the illusion that the green is a lot bigger. Removing a couple of tree’s from the back of the green to allow some much needed sunlight and air movement has definitely given it a feel of having a lot more room down there. Over the next week or 2 we will start to see some movement in growth through the roughs and green surrounds which will give the hole a really nice contrast in definition.

 

The greens out on the course are gaining momentum and are starting to come along with scarring starting to cover back over, the focus will be on patching any area’s out that have been slow to cover over and keeping sand up to encourage the bent to grow back into these area’s. As expected, some poa has come back / still remains but it is a slow and tedious task as we attempt to reduce the populations. Apart from a few greens, the majority of the greens are healthy and are starting to come along nicely.

 

Last week we finally took delivery of our two new lithium powered greens mowers. The mowers have zero noise emissions meaning we can cut greens in the quickest possible order with no restrictions and although the mowers are whisper quiet they unfortunately happen to be bright orange so you may no longer hear us but you can well and truly see us!

 

Until the next instalment…As always,  Still plenty happening out on the golf course to keep us busy over the festive period and hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas.

 

Dave Brennan

Golf Course Superintendent