Dear Members
 
It’s now almost four weeks since we last played a game of golf and I’m sure like me you are all very keen to get out for a game soon. Things certainly have not slowed down on the course during this period as it’s offered a rare opportunity to undertake a number of jobs that typically need to be managed around golfers, while also allowing us to undergo some capital works that would normally cause disruption to play that now will not.

GREENS
The greens have recovered extremely well from renovations back on March 23^rd and the current situation has allowed us to keep the cutting height much higher than normal to help with health and recovery. Over the coming weeks we will begin to lower the height in preparation for what will hopefully be a May 11^th return to the game. Not having hundreds of golfers each week walking over the grass has certainly had positive effects over the entire course, but the greens have easily seen the greatest benefit from the reduced traffic.

FAIRWAYS/TEES/SURROUNDS
Over the past few weeks we have applied a number of herbicides targeting winter grass, paspalum, broadleaf weeds and kikuyu . With a cooler than normal summer that consisted of large amounts of rain, we are currently seeing a much higher rate of winter grass impeding into our couch surfaces than normal.. Although we did spray a pre-emergent herbicide to try and eradicate this issue is hasn’t stopped the “poa” from appearing. Along with spraying a post emergent herbicide to try and eradicate this issue, we will also endeavour to continue on with a number of other herbicide application over the coming weeks while no golfers are present. Its my hope that by the time golfers are back playing that the majority of our more toxic chemical applications will be complete for the winter period.
With conditions cooling off it has allowed us to back off the quantity of how often we cut these areas. This has seen our couch fairways being untouched now for over three weeks.

BUNKERS
An exciting development that has transpired over the past few weeks has been to complete the remaining bunkers that were yet to be reconstructed.  This project had been budgeted for and it was my hope that we would begin it in early spring of this year. With no golfers playing it provided us with a wonderful opportunity to get these bunkers completed with no disruption to play, so it was decided to bring the project forward.  As of today the 5^th, 14^th and 15^th bunkers are almost complete (pictured) with some adjustments to their shape and size on top of improved drainage.
The 5^th was originally intended to be an extension of the existing bunker, however upon digging the new shape we came across some drainage issues which forced us to change our plans slightly. The end result was to add a new pot bunker that protects the front left of the green on top of the existing bunker. This has in my view improved the hole both tactically and aesthetically.
Along with the 5^th, the 14^th  bunker face has been tapered off to make both the golfers shot and maintenance more manageable. We also removed the tongue from the 14^th bunker which has made the base much larger for the ball to collect in.  The back bunker on 14 has been removed completely with a more natural fall from the back of the green being created.  The 15^th fairway bunker has had little changed to its shape and won’t appear greatly different from its original design.
All the renovated bunkers have been added with adequate drainage pipe, gravel layer and bunker matting to ensure the clay soil does not contaminate the sand.
Once play begins on our two new holes this will see all of our bunkers on the course re - constructed within the last three years. Since originally our bunkers were the height of most complaints from members, I think we would all agree that this has been a tremendous improvement to our course. 

NEW HOLES
With weather cooling down we wont be seeing much more growth on the fairways, tees and surrounds on our new holes for the next few months. Once we get through winter the plan moving forward will be to get the fairways and surrounds top dressed with sand by the end of September to help the grass grow and spread into the bare areas. If we can get that approved then I will be confident in having over 90% coverage on those areas by Christmas.
The greens continue to improve and we have spent much of the last month top dressing these greens to help with smoothing out the playing surface and minimise organic matter build up.
Over the next month we will begin to start planting some trees which will be sure to give the new holes a much different look moving forward. As the area of the two new holes is quite congested, their will be a need to plant a few larger trees in certain areas for protective reasons. Both the amount of trees planted and their position will be important to ensure that the trees wont have a negative impact on the grasses ability to grow. With the sun travelling in the northern part of the sky, any large trees planted between the two new holes will cause significant amounts of shade over the new 3rd hole. Couch grass in particularly needs large amounts of sunlight to grow well, so for this reason large tress will be kept to a minimum and be strategically placed to limit important areas being covered by shade. 

As you can see there's plenty happening while you've all been away and we cant wait to have you all back playing some golf hopefully in the near future.
Have a great weekend and stay safe..
Ryan Hammond
Course Superintendent