Dear members
As I finish of this report the rain is tumbling down however January was a month that was dominated mostly by below average temperatures and dry conditions. It wasn’t until the heat wave of a few days ago that was thankfully followed up with our first significant rain of the summer that we saw conditions that are more typically for this time of year.  
Four consecutive days of high temperatures which ended with our first 40 degree day in a couple of years certainly gave us a stern test to which we thankfully got through relatively unscathed.

GREENS
The greens have continued to stay in a very healthy state with just a few instances of anthracnose disease appearing in some of our older green which is fairly typical for this time of year. The heavy compacted soil always makes it a challenge when the weather warms up as there is limited access to oxygen and water for the roots to thrive on. When the roots aren’t getting the desired doses of these elements then it exposes disease and stress to the plant, and this is magnified even more when extreme weather conditions are present. Preparation is key for when a hot spell is forecast so plenty of hand watering and a couple of preventative fungicide applications were done in the days leading up. 
As much as extreme heat promotes disease, so to does  wet and humid conditions and the rain and humidity that’s currently with us are conditions that disease loves to thrive in. The tricky part over the last few days has been the high winds which has made any form of preventative spraying impossible, so I now wait with a touch of anxiety to see how the greens cope with such significant amounts of rain expected to fall. 
On a slightly separate note I decided roughly two months ago to begin managing both the first and second greens differently to the rest of the course. With the knowledge that both these greens would no longer be in use as of February 1^st, it provided an opportunity to try a few things to see what impact it would have on the greens health. Its rare that you would ever get an opportunity such as this so I thought it was an opportunity worth taking.
 What this involved was to limit the maintenance on both of these greens through this period.   We have not performed any cultural practices (coring, verti cutting, dusting etc) on them since the beginning of September. We also limited fertiliser, fungicide and herbicide applications dramatically and ultimately starved the plant of all things necessary to maintain its health for the sole purpose to see what affect this would have. The added benefit was that it saved the club a few thousand dollars in the process.  Interestingly up until about two weeks ago both greens were still looking fairly healthy and playing quite well, however we hadn’t had any real extreme rain or heat to test the plants coping mechanisms. Once the extreme heat arrived last week it didn’t take long for both greens to start showing stress symptoms and it was quite interesting to see just how quickly both greens have deteriorated  in the past 7-10 days……. Certainly a good education tool for me moving forward and with the other greens looking and playing well it shows that what we are doing is working. 

TEES/SURROUNDS/FAIRWAYS
As mentioned above, with mostly cooler and dry conditions for the month this meant that the santa ana surfaces didn’t grow at their typical January rate which made managing grass growth much easier. We only cut fairways three times over the entire month which is unheard of for this time of year. 
With the lack of serious rain for a good five week stretch the cool season tees and surrounds have begun to show their typical signs of stress with a number of the tees especially now playing extremely firm and dry. Even some of the santa tees were beginning to show signs of stress which is an indication of how dry it had become, however this weeks rain will help significantly in this area. 

NEW HOLES
Finally the time has come for our new holes to open up and I can safely say that I’m both relieved and excited about getting them in play.
Unfortunately with grass growth being limited due to the weather conditions we probably didn’t see some of the bare areas fill in as much as I would have hoped, however overall Im very happy with how things are looking out there. 
Managing the full grow in of two new holes on top of maintaining the existing 18 holes with just two full time staff has been both a challenging and rewarding task. I’ll be the first to admit that its still not perfect out there, but with the resources we’ve been limited to I’m extremely proud of what we have been able to achieve. One of my biggest fears when taking on the job was how much the existing 18 may suffer as a result of the time needed to be spent on the new holes by staff to get them to a playable standard.  For me personally, I’ve spent close to 2000 hours on the new holes in the past 18 months which is a huge chunk of time taken away from the course in play. It’s a credit to our entire team including Ben, Rob and all the volunteers for how they have continued to present the existing 18 in such fantastic conditions week after week. 
Although both holes are not particularly long in length, some interesting and challenging design features will certainly make up for it. Both green complexes will prove to be the some of the toughest on the course and I personally can’t wait to get out and start playing on them on a regular basis. 
At this stage we only have four trees planted on the complex but rest assured we are still waiting on more to come. Covid has caused some complications with our tree supplier meaning a significant delay in receiving them. Im hopeful they will be planted some time before the end of February. 
The next month is a busy one regarding golf events, with two rounds of pennant, Club Championships and Leanne’s day all on the schedule. I hope you all have your games in good shape for what is a big month to come.

Ryan Hammond
DG&CC Course Superintendent.