Course Update – June

The South West Open is complete for another year, the lead up to this event has been the most challenging to date with staff turnover, dry conditions leading up to the event then the week of the event throw in some illness and not to mention a fairly heavy drop of rain on the Thursday. It’s a credit to our team who got stuck in and had the course playable by 10am on the Friday – In my time here I have never seen so much water and debris out on the course. Thanks also goes out to our team of volunteers who showed up on the Thursday morning and hung around in what can only be described as some pretty average conditions to put up all the signage around the golf course.  Feedback from the weekend was very positive and a credit to everyone involved.

 

 

Poa Treatment

We recently met with Nadeem Zreikat from Colin Cambell Chemicals in regards to using poa cure on some of our greens. We are looking at commencing the first application in the week starting June 17^th with a follow up application due 4 weeks later from the 15^th July. From there we will then reassess on the progress and will determine if we shorten application intervals or increase chemical rate. To begin with we will look to go out with a chemical rate of 18ml/100m²

To begin with not all greens will be treated, Our priority greens will be our newer pure distinction greens; 1,2,4,6,8,9,12,13,16, top putter. Greens with minimal poa and thicker swards of bent for example 7, 17 will be considered depending on cost of application.

What to expect? The slow nature of this chemical will see a gradual decline in the poa, yellowing may become evident 7-10 days after the initial application. This will also be weather dependent, the colder it is the slower the chemical works which is ideal as we want to slowly melt out the poa.  With the slow process of this program we shouldn’t see much surface disturbance like we did with the nominee at the start of summer where the poa just gave way and we were left with bare areas. As the program goes on our greens will look motley in places as the poa in the greens yellows off. The positive thing with this is that while the poa is under chemical control we can increase our nitrogen levels to encourage the lateral growth of the bent.

 

Application Rate & Cost

In total we have 1.2ha of greens including practice greens, to commence we will look to treat 0.5ha of greens which will include holes; 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,12,13,16,17 & top practice along with spraying collars. Our target rate for the first 2 applications will be at 18ml/100m2 (1.8L/ha) which equates to 900ml of Poa cure per application.

4 applications are required to see out the full program – this may reduce in time and dependent on results, but to begin with we will factor in a total of 4 applications at the full 1.8L/ha rate.

Staff

We have unfortunately farewelled one of our newer members of the team.  Alfie Brookes had only joined us 3 weeks prior to the open and regretfully handed in his notice to finish up the Sunday of the tournament. With Alfie being on a working holiday visa his former company came back to him offering a FIFO gig with ridiculous renumeration and an offer he simply couldn’t refuse. We will look to replace Alfie in due time.

 

Machinery

To date everything is operational, we still utilise our contractor to come in when needed to conduct regular servicing and any major repairs that are needed. Over the next few weeks, we will start replacing the bottom blades on both greens mowers and fairway mowers – this will be done in house by both Dane & Ryan.

 

Turf Nursery

Works have started on a new turf nursery in the area bounded by our driveway, 1^st green and shed (see photo). This nursery will service our tee’s & fairway grasses. Installation of this nursery will save considerable money when we undertake greens & tee replacement programs; for example on the 8^th we ordered in 750m2 of turf at a cost of $6020 for the bunker, tee and path surrounds. Previously we had an area at the back of the range we use but the area isn’t big enough to cater for any mid- large scale projects. Harvesting the turf also leaves ruts making it difficult for range ball collection and the added stress on range equipment.

 

Predominantly the nursery will consist of wintergreen (fairways) and santa ana (tee tops) along with some trial areas of seashore paspalum (saltine), a fine leaf zoysia which is taking off in the US and Asia along with an ultrafine tiff variety which is commonly used on greens throughout the world.

 

The nursery project will be an ongoing job over the winter months with planting scheduled to take place in Sept/Oct with an anticipated harvesting date from Dec/Jan onwards.

Screen planting with shrubs around the border has already taken place and with the addition of irrigation for the nursery will help with quicker establishment. 

As we start going into the winter months it’s a chance for us to catch up on areas that we don’t get a chance to do during the hectic part of the growing season. We have earmarked small projects out on the course and areas within the shed that we will turn our attention to. Staff will also use this time to use up some of their annual leave accrual as we don’t really get that opportunity in the warmer months. Generally the course is in reasonable condition heading into winter – poa aside our surfaces are healthy and fairly good.