Dave’s Diary

Well a new installment is well and truly due as life down the shed has been busy for us over the past couple of months and with the weather is beginning to heat up we are finally seeing some growth kicking in after what seemed to be a very wet and miserable latter half of the winter.

 

Greens Renovations

The greens have responded nicely to coring and with 6 weeks post aerification they are showing excellent signs of improvement after we battled with adequate coverage and consistency on a few of the greens during the colder months.  Prior to coring soil tests were conducted and though the soil PH was steady across the board the CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity) is quite low due to the soil make up of our greens particularly the older greens that have that heavy iron content from the old irrigation days. Having a low CEC indicates that although nutrients are present in the soil they aren’t necessarily being converted into a form that can be easily taken up by the plant and explains the lack of recovery after the South West open. The addition of humic acid to our fertiliser program will help improve our CEC along with 7-10 day foliar applications of both major nutrients and trace elements to give the turf the required amount needed.

 

9^th Green

The 9^th green will be back in play full time as of the 25^th of October, we did open it for the ladies semi finals of their club championships and the punchbowl for the men and after both occasions the green stood up really well. The only real concern at present is the surrounds as these are still a little underdone so at the moment they are marked as GUR so please use the drop zones if needed and please obey traffic lines to help us manage the new rye grass, once established the green surrounds will blend in nicely with the rest of the new clubhouse surrounds.

A big thank you must also go out to the handful of volunteers who fronted up on the Thursday in what could only be described as very average weather conditions to lend a hand in laying the surrounds. Luckily we were a little ahead of schedule and managed to lay the complete the green a day earlier to avoid the weather.

 

Kikuyu

After a couple of chemical applications we are starting to see some good results on our trial fairways 5,7,11,14. The combination of the chemicals MSMA and Glyphosate have had a good effect on the areas particularly on the fairway, the thicker areas in the rough have been a little slower due to the extra thickness of the patches but hopefully over the duration of the summer we can begin to thin these patches out. Kikuyu is a very resilient grass and we won’t win this battle over 1 summer, regular chemical applications are required however if we can reduce the size of the patches so they can become controllable in the future then we are half way there in winning the battle.

 

Parramatta Grass

When we get a spare moment we always try and drop a couple of guys back onto Parramatta spraying, at this stage we have had a good kill on the 8^th fairway/9^th tee and around the 11^th,12^th and 13^th fairways. A couple of members approached me during the winter and asked about assisting with Parramatta spraying and that time is now!! Ideally this summer I would love to make a big impact in removing the majority of the Parramatta so If any members have some spare time and are willing to adopt a hole/s then please get in contact, we will supply all the gear plus complimentary tea or coffee…. or beer/wine providing its after 8am as we do have standards.

If interested please contact me at either super@bunburygolfclub.com.au or 0418 940 227

 

Fairway Grooming

Once the Ladies Club Championships concludes we will begin our grooming program on our fairways. The fairways will receive a light verti cut to a depth of 6mm removing the old and decaying leaf matter (thatch). This year we will drop the height of cut down an additional 4mm as this will also help shave some extra grass off leaving the fairways fairly firm and giving the ball that extra bit of run off the tee. During the winter we resurrected an old tractor mounted coring machine and I have been itching to unleash it on our fairways for a test run with the 13^th fairway looking like our initial guniea pig. If all goes to plan we will begin using it a little more often over the summer months to open up dry areas and not to mention running over greens with a smaller pencil tine to achieve a good deep penetration through the profile and allow the roots to chase the moisture and nutrients.

 

I have heard a lot of good comments about the presentation of our par 3 fairways over the winter but as summer is now approaching we will start to look at transitioning out the rye grass, as the couch has begun choking out the rye it leaves us with a motely appearance and makes it look a little unsightly. Once these areas under go a verticut and heavy mow majority of the rye will die out and if needed a chemical application will be applied to help it on its way. With the positive feedback we have received on these holes we will once again oversow these fairways again in March ready for another busy golf season.

 

2018 International

After last summers trial with the Scotsman we have once again put the word out around the globe for a seasonal worker and with quite a bit of interest this year we have landed ourselves a Canadian for the upcoming Summer. Chad Fauchoux will be joining us from the start of December and will be with us up until the South West Open. Chad is an  Assistant Superintendent at Prince Albert Municipal Course in Saskatchewan and will be using this 6 months to get a tan and escape the winter before returning back home for their summer.

Chad is eager and excited to come over and gain some good experience and Im looking forward to him bringing his outside experience and knowledge to the team. Chad also plays to a 1 handicap so he has just upped the Ante in the inter shed series for the ultimate bragging rights… however due to staff morale internationals are unable to claim victory nor anyone else under a 20 handicap.

 

Bent Nursery

Please note that over the coming weeks the bottom half of the bent nursery will once again be reseeded for next years green. Once seeded the compulsory GUR signs will be displayed so please avoid walking through or playing off this area until the signs are removed

 

Upcoming projects

At this stage we are still finalizing dates but we are already looking at other major projects that will be completed over the next 6 months, these projects include:

 

• 1^st Tee rebuild and the area leading up to the road cross over
• 17^th Ladies tee rebuild.
• 12^th Green as part of the ongoing green replacement program

 

Upcoming Tasks

Fairway Grooming

Wetting Agent application to all fairways

Granular fertiliser application to fairways.

Clubhouse Fire hydrant installation on 10^th tee

Tee renovations – scarify, core topdress

Green approaches –  scarify topdress

Core 13^th fairway