Winter is nearly over and rainfall for the past 4 months has been solid with the months of May, June and July all receiving over 100mm of rain each, coupled with this not many massive downpours but lots of constant rain. Through this period though the course has bounced back quite quickly when we do get a few dry days grouped together and the drainage works completed before last winter are helping those areas.
The trench beside the 1st f/way was dug and root barrier installed to help f/way quality during the summer months. We will monitor the success of this and decide if other areas will need to be done also.
Staff have been kept busy cleaning up trees and debris over the last month with large trees coming down on the 3rd & 14th holes, the size of the stump and root ball on the 14th was massive but through many hours on the chainsaw and perseverance, we managed to get it cleaned up. Volunteers were as always a big help in cleaning up these areas and other smaller jobs such as trimming down the sides of the in and out roads.
Other odd jobs completed recently include the installation of drainage pits at the 14th tee path to stop the track washing out. We have installed a new radiator onto the diesel back-up pump at the 4th green as well as a new oil pressure gauge. Repairs have also been carried out to the back hoe bucket which was falling apart after many years of service. We have also started spraying broadleaf weeds around the course and trialling a new product which is a cheaper alternative, spraying some areas of Kikuyu grass has also begun.
Major works are underway with our irrigation pumps which are receiving an upgrade. These have included rebuilding the access bridge across the spillway which was replaced with pipes and soil, installation of a new foot valve and a new shut off valve on the inlet side of the pumps. The pump shed itself has been removed including the concrete slab which was no easy task as parts of the slab through the middle was 400mm thick. A new shed and concrete slab will be installed ready for the new pumps. All our efforts are going into finishing this quickly to make sure they are ready to go for when the irrigation system is needed for the summer months.
Lastly, this month we have had an arborist in to do some trimming of branches with the previous works at the 9th tee completed, he also cut the top out of the large tree on the left of the 9th f/way which had been observed to be moving around in high winds and had broken a few of its roots. The large branch coming off the tree at back of the 12th green hanging out over the green was also removed and at the 14th hole another large branch coming out from the right hand side was trimmed back.
Derek Wills
Course Superintendent
