February Course Report
Published on 28th February 2018 in Course News, Guests News, Latest News
Greens
The greens continue to receive monthly fertilizer, growth regulator, dusting, wetting agent and insecticide applications. The greens have shown some signs of disease in the past 4 weeks. Monthly fungicide applications are being applied to keep this in check.
Fairways
With more good rain in January our challenge this season has been keeping on top of the mowing as opposed to keeping dry areas alive in previous summers. Since the last good rain event at the end of January the course is starting to dry out a little now with no rain since but with our current water storage levels we will have enough water to get us to the end of the watering season.
Scalping issues still remain a challenge. The Verti-cutting heads were ordered 2 weeks ago but they will still be at least a few weeks until we take possession of them which is getting quite late in the season to start dethatching areas aggressively. When we do take possession, we will experiment on the nursery before we move on to the course proper and only do a light dethatching this year. Monthly application of growth regulator continues to be applied.
Bunkers
We are in the process of whipper snipping the bunkers at the moment. Spraying weeds and levelling of floors continues as time allows.
Tees & surrounds
Over the past month we have progressively returfed any bare areas on tees and surrounds that have struggled through summer. These areas were all high traffic areas that had little couch grass left and the Poa annua was not able to stand up to the stressful conditions. These areas will all be seeded with fine fescue in Autumn as part of our two-grass policy on tees and surrounds.
Machinery
This month we have placed an order for a new fairway mower with additional Verti-cutting heads. I expect to take possession of the both purchases sometime in March.
Water
After two good rain events in January this has helped keep the course in good condition throughout. Usually at this time of year I am doing daily checks of the long-range forecast and calculating our water storage to make sure we manage to get through to the end of summer without running out. Our water storage currently sits at 30ML which has dropped 10Ml since this time last month. With 6 weeks left until the irrigation season winds right down we will have enough water to get us to that point.
Rainfall Total Average
December 111mm 59.7mm
January 56.5mm 43.3mm
February 0mm (as at 14th) 46.9mm
David Phillips
Course Superintendent
28 February 2018