Course Update – March

Summer might be officially over but there is still no end in sight for some much-needed rainfall. We have been able to back off our irrigation to an extent, but the recent blustery conditions are proving difficult to keep adequate moisture levels up in places.

 

In the past few weeks, we have unfortunately had the resignation of our trusty 2IC in Michael “Spud” Newman. Spud is sitting on top of the leaderboard as the longest serving employee at BGC – 12.5 years to be exact and it will be massive hole to fill not only for the club but for the way of life down the shed. As part of the self-titled “festival of Michael”, we will be hosting a BBQ down the shed on Wednesday the 27^th of March from 4.30pm – everyone is welcome.

 

Out on the golf course it continues to be busy at this time of year with the club hosting many events. Its hard to get onto the course to perform any major maintenance so we are in a bit of a holding pattern at the moment with mowing and regular course prep. We had recently finished off a series of applications for Kikuyu in our fairways and have now turned our attention to tee’s. Further chemical applications to fairways & roughs will take place in latter part of May.

 

Monday the 25^th of March we are scheduled to punch some holes into greens, this will be our last chance to get some much needed oxygen down into the profile prior to the Men’s club championships and South West Open. As part of that procedure is an application of gypsum to not only boost calcium levels in the soil but to also release any salts and bicarbonates that have built up within the profile. Although our irrigation water in fairly clean from a salt point of view the natural salts and bicarbonates still build up in and impact turf health and quality – what the best natural flushing agent on the market?? Rain…

 

Here is a snapshot of the month of February from the data we have collected.