Course Super Update

Course Report

The golf course is slowly waking up after winter, with the inconsistencies in the weather making recovery a lot slower than what we generally expect at this time of year.

The greens have come back fairly well after their one and only major renovation for the year. Fortnightly applications of nematicides have seen an increase in root growth and turf density and this will be an ongoing cycle over the summer period. To date one application of paclobutrazol has been been applied to the greens at a high rate to limit the growth of poa, when applied at high rates it does have an adverse effect on the poa and the plant yellowing off is evident at present.

Over the coming weeks we will look towards implementing our poa management plan with low doseage applications of the herbicide nominee. We dabbled with this chemical back in 2018 and had great results – in fact we probably had too good a result in which the poa checked out quickly leaving the putting surfaces extremely bumpy with bare patches where the poa once was. This time we will look towards a more drawn out approach, low rates over a longer period of time in an attempt to gradually transition the poa out and allow for the bent to cover back over with hopefully minimal surface disturbance.

There is currently another chemical new to the market by the name of poa cure. This chemical is proven particularly in greens with a lower poa percentage and could be an option for our newer greens in years to come – although the chemical comes with a hefty price tag of around $24k for 1 year’s treatment. Pinjarra have currently gone down this route and although they are having success with the chemical they are also paying the price of the poa transitioning out too quickly leaving the greens bumpy and scarred. I will be keeping an eye on their progress in particular the amount of poa that comes back again next winter.

Over the coming weeks we plan on taking soil tests on various greens from an independent agronomist along with conducting a trial on the new 13^th green with the inclusion of vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (VAM) directly after the planting of the green. The VAM attaches to the roots of the plant and helps with uptake of nutrients and water but also acts as a biological control against soil borne pathogens for example disease and nematodes.

The tee’s are probably still the hardest hit with the inconsistencies of the weather. A recent scarify and heavy core have breathed some life back into them but they still look a little worse for wear. As the tees are heavily affected by shade through the winter months they usually take a little longer to get going but we have no real long term concerns and they will bounce back beautifully when we start seeing those consistent temperatures. Recent kikuyu spraying has made the tees appear a little rough around the edges but we are starting to see clean strains of couch move back over – again recovery will speed up over the course of summer.

As part of the kikuyu program the select fairways all received 3 applications of herbicide with great results coming from it. Fairways 1,5,6,7,8,9,11,14,15,16,18 and half of 17 along with all tees had been sprayed at a total cost of $12,500. To date its been 7 weeks since our last fairway application and have just started to see evidence of kikuyu coming back in particular on holes 9&11 where we had the thicker patches of Kikuyu. To keep on top of it we will look at spot spraying these areas out over course of the summer.

Our attention will now turn to treating green surrounds, we are probably a little bit behind on where I wanted to be at but with weather, play commitments and staff all having an impact on not being able to get out and spray when we need to.  I’m hoping the “3 week lull” in our schedule between finishing the 13^th green and Christmas will be a good time to get back on track.

The new maintenance facility is nearly completed, myself and the team are very appreciative to the club and to the volunteers who put a lot of time and energy into this project.  We are nearly ready to move in but we want to complete a few more little things on our end and will hopefully be in before Christmas. We will probably look at hosting the shed opening at some point in January.

With the Kody Batt leaving us we have been a man down. At the moment that leaves us with Myself and Michael as the only qualified staff members, Ryan as a 2^nd year mature aged apprentice and our part timers in Mick 4 days per week, Chris 2 days and Shane 1 day.  I feel that with the amount of golf being played, members expectations, and ongoing machinery maintenance we are probably 2-3 staff members short of where we need to be. Ideally, we would look towards hiring another good apprentice – someone who has a passion for golf and or turf and the possibility of putting on a full time mechanic with the option they are used out on the course when needed. At present with the amount of play its very difficult for us to plan projects around regular maintenance but with additional staff we will be capable of doing both.

Overall we are tracking fairly well heading into the busy time of year for us, Once we start seeing good growth back out on the course we are looking forward to seeing a huge difference in the cleanliness of our surfaces from the kikuyu eradication and other foreign grasses. In the meantime the 13^th green project will keep us busy over the next couple of weeks and after that we will fall back into maintenance mode before ramping things up again towards the Australia Day weekend.

Dave Brennan

Course Superintendent.