WINTER: Winter produced a mixture of all weather, we had 530 mm of rain, 14 frosts and minimal sunshine. The course held up well with minimal days of no carts or course closure.
GREENS: Currently the greens are quite firm and rolling well. We are still a bit on the thin side but the soil temperatures are still low, so once they pick up we will see the turf density improve which will give us better coverage and performance.
We still have a few bare areas on the greens from the spray damage in march. I'm just waiting for renovations which is end of October after the club matchplay where we can attack these areas and get the greens fully covered.
TEES: We are looking to put our first tee onto the same maintenance programme as our greens as this is part of our "shop window". We also have a couple of tees which struggle in general being the 5th and 9th, so I'm just looking to give them some attention and get them nice and healthy going into summer.
FAIRWAYS: As always our fairways are performing well. Over the winter months we kept them clean of poa and made good progress in removing the kikuyu.
We have some spring dead spot around on the fairways which have been more visible this year as our couch didn't really lose its green color. As we get into the drier warmer conditions this grows out. Spring dead spot is caused by high rainfall particularly in autumn. This is just visual and doesn't affect the actual playing surface so there isn't too much to really worry about Ill just keep on top of the renovations we carry out in summer and keep N and K levels up in late summer.
ROUGH: I've just completed my first rough spray. It took 5 weeks to get it all done due to weather conditions and staff levels available but the roughs looking tidy. Ill look to give it another spray over October to get any new or missed weeds.
UP COMING WORK: We are coming up to our busy period so we have plenty of work on. We are looking to tidy up some areas also on the course in particular some turfing in front of 11, turfing on the 8th tees and tidying up some patchy areas on the surrounds while we have favorable conditions.
We have renovation week from 29 October - 2 November incl, and then we get into the conversion of the 3rd fairway in November, so plenty on.
STAFF - Barry Cradock has joined the team as a Mechanic/Greenkeeper. Barry is a Master Auto Technician and is also part way through his level 3 Turf Management qualification. One more level and he will be a fully qualified greenkeeper. Barry's primary responsibility will be the ongoing maintenance of the machinery. We welcome Barry to the Club.
Chris Posa
Course Superintendent