Course Managers Update - Around the Greens in August

Yet another dry month with just 4.2mm of rain falling in July, 93mm below average. We experienced seven frosts, two of them very heavy. We’ve also had four days over 24 degrees and an average max temp of 19.7 degrees.

The Greens are in great shape although several suffered slight burn from the heavy frost on the 15^thand 16^thof July. The lack of rain is affecting the hydrophobicity of the soil, making it difficult at times to get water into the profile. This is most noticeable on 17, 10 and 7, as well as any areas affected by tree roots.

Greens renovations are under way:

We core & Scrape

We shovel and shovel and shovel some more!

On the 16^th and 17^thAugust we will complete the coring and sanding of the greens in readiness for play on Saturday and Sunday.

The Tees are suffering from frost burn as well as the dry weather. Our Par 3 tees have copped a beating more than the others with such high volumes of golfers. We will continue to “halve” the tees or shorten up holes when placing markers to spread the wear. A heavy tee renovation will be carried out in November, with regular feeding as they come out of dormancy.

Pigment was applied to some fairways to assist with presentation, this has made a huge difference when compared to the colour of green surrounds or rough where the pigment wasn’t applied. 

Turfing Ground Pearl patches has continued over the last month with the front 9 being completed. Another Ground Pearl trial is taking place on the 17^thfairway, not trying to control the insect, more attempting to change the soil composition to accommodate Kikuyu re-growth/recovery.

Bunkers have remained fairly trouble free. We’ve spent three days blowing sand from grass faces to try to prolong the life of turf in these areas. Bunkers on the 10^th, 1^stand 3^rdhave been slightly modified to prevent golf balls stopping under a grass lip, a small sand face was created in each of these bunkers.

An electrical fault was discovered in the irrigation on the 10^thgreen. New wires were installed and the system is operating at 98%, with just the 7^thtee requiring attention. Wiring faults have been our biggest irrigation problem over the last few months.

The new path on the 5^thhas been completed and traffic from this path will now be directed more into the right-hand side rough rather than into the fairway, reducing the risk of wear/bare areas leading onto the fairway.

We are in the process of replacing tee ropes with white chains. These chains have movable “gaps” to spread wear in high traffic areas. We ask that ALL golfers use these gaps to assist in the process.