June Course Report
Published on 28th June 2019 in Guests NewsThe course has enjoyed a good soak over the past month and a half with above average rainfall for the first time this year. 78.5mm fell in May, 8mm more than the average. This trend has continued with 33.8mm so far this month. This has allowed us to fill 2 out of our 3 storage dams.
The greens have been noticeably softer as a result of all the rain of late which is symptomatic of old greens with a build-up of organic matter.
14thGreen
The 14thgreen is continuing to progress well; the mowing height is now down to 5mm with the green getting cut three times a week. Now that the grass has established enough, it won’t wash out, we have set the sprinklers flush with the surface. We continue to apply a combination of slow release granular fertiliser as well as a soluble foliar fertiliser on a regular basis. This week the green has shown a few spots of winter fusarium so we have sprayed the green with a fungicide to control this. Work finishing off the bunkers and surrounds continues each week. We are currently on track for an August opening.
Greens
At the start of the month, we applied the fungicide Mancozeb to all greens as part of our preventative program for winter fusarium. We will follow this up this week with an application of Heritage Maxx as we have seen a few spots of fusarium in several greens. Earlier this month we applied our first application of penetrant wetting agent (Pervade) for the winter. This assists water penetration which we apply on a monthly basis until spring.
This week we verti drained and dusted the greens to relieve compaction, assist water penetration as well as dilute thatch accumulation and smooth the surface of the greens.
Fairways
Now that the fairways are going dormant, we won’t apply any more fertilizer on the fairways until spring as the plant won’t take up anything we apply.
With 3 days of potential frost forecast this weekend and into early next week, this will brown the fairways off and open up the window of opportunity for us to spray the Poa with light rates of Glyphosate in the coming weeks when the couch will completely shut down and the risk of the plant taking up the chemical is minimal.
Bunkers
We have done lots of work in the bunkers this month levelling floors and removing sand off faces.
Once we tick over into the new budget in July, we will start replacing sand in the bunkers identified in the bunker audit. The holes we will be working on this year will be 8, 12, 13, 15, 16.
Irrigation System
Last week we removed the foot valve from the 12thdam as it was not holding prime. I have ordered a new one which we will attach as soon as it arrives.
Roughs
In the coming month, I plan to spray the roughs on holes 2, 4, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17 where Parramatta grass has not been treated with the herbicide Taskforce. Similar to the fairways this will be sprayed when the couch goes dormant however Taskforce has a long residual in the soil unlike Roundup which has no residual and continues to be taken up by the roots for many months so by the time the couch is coming out of dormancy it will have an effect on the couch which will knock the roughs back significantly. As we have seen in previous years the common couch will come back but this will take several years to thicken up. We will seed these areas with Sheep & Hard fescue the following Autumn to establish a more desirable grass cover for the cooler months with the couch being the dominant grass in the summer months.
As well as this we will spray the roughs with a light rate of Roundup and broadleaf herbicide to control grass and broadleaf weeds.
Rainfall Total Average
January 8.9mm 43.2mm
February 15.5mm 46.9mm
March 16.1mm 44.9mm
April 18.2mm 63.2mm
May 78.5mm 70.5mm
June 33.8mm (as at 20th) 57.4mm
Total YTD 171mm
David Phillips
Course Superintendent
20 June 2019