Course Update – April

March has been and gone with some favourable weather producing good growing conditions out on the golf course. Although temperatures are still warm, we no longer experience those sustained maximum temperatures that cause that heat stress to the golf course. As we yet to receive any rain the dew in the mornings are helping with moisture retention and allows us to reduce our irrigation by up to nearly 40% in comparison to the Nov-Feb period.

 

 

Greens:

Greens are responding to the change in weather, greens were spiked 2 weeks ago using a 10mm solid tine to alleviate some compaction, release carbon dioxide build up in the profile and to aid in root development and penetration. Ideally a bigger coring tine would be more beneficial but using the smaller times more often is less invasive during a busy period of the year. Along with spiking 1 tonne of gypsum was applied over all 21 greens – gypsum aids in soil flocculation, flushing sodium and a good source of calcium which is often lacking in our soils. As a result greens have responded well with good growth and improved health and colour.

Patching of any bare and weak areas will continue over the next few weeks in the lead up to the Open. This is the perfect time of year to replacing and patching any turf. Any turf that is replaced in the spring/summer period hasn’t got a great success rate due to the extra care needed to nurse it through the summer months as root production in bent grass is more favourable with spring and autumn temperatures.

Greens 10 & 15 have recently been overseeded with bent seed into the existing profile, these greens were scarified and spiked to allow channels for the bent seed to sit and be protected during the early stages of germination; Germination generally takes 5-7 days.

All greens collars have also been oversowed with a blended seed mixture of fine fescue, rye and bent, this will help with winter colour, strength and resilience of turf in these high traffic areas. We are starting to see strong germination which is positive.

Applications of a new herbicide for poa control in greens will be trialed over the coming months. The chemical called Poa cure is new chemistry and is being used around Perth with the majority of the larger clubs starting to use it with great results. Our trials will be focused on our newer greens 1,2,4,6,8,9,12,13,16. As we get closer to conducting these trials more detailed information and application dates will be published prior to application.

 

Fairways

Pre emergent herbicides and a wetting agent have recently been applied to our fairways giving us a 6 month window of protection for a number of winter weeds.

This time of year we like to give the fairways a light little tickle with our scarifying heads to remove that “puffiness” out of the fairways and produce that nice tight lie. This year we have opted against it due to time constraints & staffing availability, so a growth regulator was applied to help combat that excessive growth conducive to these conditions.

 

Kikuyu Program

With the South West Open now scheduled for the start of May this opens up a good window directly after the event to continue on with our program. Our area of focus this autumn will be roughs, this will include the rough between tee and fairways along with fairway edge to tree line.

 

Staff

We recently farewelled our course 2IC in Michael Newman, Spud has been with the club for 12.5 years and decided to move on to be the facility manager at a local school.

Michael was very appreciative to the members who came down and help celebrated his time at the club. He is a very popular member within the team, and we wish him all the best for his exciting new role.

Both replacements for Spud and Mick (finished January) have now been found and we look forward to welcoming our new members of the team when they commence their employment on the 15th of April.

 

Upcoming major maintenance- April:

The month of April will primarily be focused on course prep in the lead up to the SWO. Prior to the open we have the men competing in their club championships and the ladies hosting their annual open day.

Outside of general maintenance we have the following key dates:

4th April: Core tee tops – 19mm solid tines. Pre emergent herbicide and granular fertiliser to follow.8th April: Core greens – 10mm hollow, gypsum and high K fertiliser to follow.

 

March Snapshot