Back on Deck

Things have been a bit quiet of late on the blog thanks to me dropping a 50+kg bookcase on my foot and 10 days off work. The stitches are out now but am still hobbling around a bit. I'm sure all agree that the course looks great - maybe the guys don't need me at all?? We'll get back into some regular updates next week including some nice pieces written by Michael Wolveridge on the design philosophy and background of some of our holes at Sea Temple. Until then, good luck to all the participants on Sunday in the Neighbourhood Centre Charity Day.

Herbicide Spraying

With the clear and calm mornings we've been having of late, we are taking advantage by boom spraying the golf course for weeds. The front 9 rough was completed this morning, with the back 9 rough to be sprayed tomorrow morning. This will cause the rough to go off colour which is temporary, and should be back to normal in around a week.

Greens Renovations

The greens are recovering well following the work on Monday. We have been cutting them the past 2 days at 3.5mm and will continue to do so through the weekend. Once the remainder of the sand is incorporated into the surface, we will lower the height to 3mm again which should be by next weekend. It might not sound like much, but after 20 years in the industry I'm still amazed at what a difference 1mm in cutting height makes.

Greens Renovations

Greens renovations: two words which golfers don't enjoy too much. Our growth levels mean we need to remove excess organic matter from the greens which renovations provide. The end result are better greens, for your enjoyment. We don't go out in the heat and humidity and work hard on the greens for us, we do it for you.

So today, we commence our greens renovations. The poor weather of late last week resulted in a change of procedures for today as we did not know what the weather had in store for us. So the procedure today will be as follows:

- Verticut the greens: We will be using verti-cutting heads in the greens mowers instead of the walk behind unit and verti-cutting the greens to a depth of around -5mm. Verti-cutting means vertical mowing, straight down. After one pass we will assess the results and determine whether we make a second pass. By using the heads on the greens mowers, it will mean we will get across the greens fast.

- Clean up cut: Once we finish verti-cutting, we mow the green to standard height which currently is 3mm.

- Aerate: Very important. Aeration provides a number of benefits for a golf green such as increasing the oxygen levels in the soil; encouraging deeper root systems; reducing compaction; improving water infiltration through the profile; and so on. This is where our major change is. We were initially going to use a hollow tyne and remove plugs from the green. To clean them up they need to be dry. But due to the rain last week we were concerned that if we remove plugs and could not get them dry then we would have made alot of mess on the putting surfaces which takes longer to get back to good condition. Therefore, we have switched coring tynes to solid tynes, which still provide the above benefits, but also don't leave any mess as we are not pulling material out.

- Topdress: The greens will receive a light topdress to promote surface smoothness.

As we are using our ride on mowers for the verti-cutting we will get over the greens faster. Therefore, we probably will not stop after 9 holes today (front) as originally expected. We do not know what the weather will bring so we will no doubt press on as the day progresses. Please check with the pro-shop to our current status if you are intending on playing.

Wet Conditions

Another 35mm recorded yesterday and overnight. Surprisingly it is has not created any damage to the course (like bunker washouts). There is standing water on fairways 10, 12, 16, 17 & 18 and these holes will be cart path only. The remainder are fine to drive on, but obviously you need to watch for the typical wet areas on a hole, such as around 9 green and any low areas on fairways or rough. Also, if you observe any other golfers not adhering to the rules of the day can you please inform the pro-shop as we unfortunately do not have a marshall at the course.

Overnight Rainfall

A total of 7mm of rain to 5.00am this morning, so the course is in relatively good condition. The forecast is for a chance of moderate falls to rain periods today, easing early tomorrow. Carts today will be as normal for the front 9, with the 90 degree rule in place for the back 9, primarily on our problem holes 10, 12, 16, 18. If the rain intensifies during the morning then we will reassess later in the day.

Pre-emerging

As we live in a tropical climate, our soil temperatures are warmer than many other golf courses which results in not only increased growth but also increased weed pressure. Every 8 weeks, we apply what is known as a pre-emergent herbicide to almost the entire golf course and we will be finishing the golf course today. Once applied the herbicide creates a film in the top of the soil so that when a weed seed germinates and comes in contact with this film, it adsorbs the herbicide and is killed before it becomes visible - hence the term 'pre-emergent'. Given our 5 days of winter this year, we started our pre-emerging in August instead of typically September. We will continue this programme now right though to around April/May.