As we finally seem to be coming out of an unseasonably wet Autumn and settling into Winter it’s the perfect time for our maintenance team to move their focus from maintenance and finally get into some exciting projects around the course.
3rd & 4th Tee Gardens
You would have noticed the big changes around the 3rd and 4th tee gardens. The area had become an overgrown mess of weed species as well as becoming a dumping area for some locals, so after correspondence from the Council regarding overhanging branches blocking traffic lights action had to be taken. Our horticulturalist, Andrew, identified the desirable plants in the area and swiftly removed everything else and with a bit more cleaning we hope to soon make the area a feature once again.
Tree Lopping
Over the coming weeks we will have tree loppers in to do a few big jobs on course. Large branches overhanging the 11th tee and 9th fairway will be removed along with several trees on the left-hand side of the 13th fairway to open the hole up for different ball flight paths into the green.
Fairway Slicing
We have been taking advantage of the softer conditions this week to slice our fairways. This will improve water and air movement into the soil to help dry the surface out for a healthier turf and better playing surfaces.
We plan to do this several times during this season, so you’ll likely notice the marks a few more times yet.
Bunker Works
After a long delay due to the unseasonal wet weather, we will finally be able to move the soil stockpiles around the course and kick off our bunker filling project. The bunkers that will be affected are the left-hand side fairway bunker on the 10th, the right-hand side fairway bunker on the 6th, and the far-right fairway bunker on the 4th. They will be filled with clean fill, mounded and/or shaped appropriately, and turfed.
Drainage Works
We will be replacing old, collapsed, root filled drainage lines across the 9th and 18th carries and between the 8th and 9th fairways where we’ve had drainage issues for a long time. At the same time, we’ll be investigating and solving the drainage issues in the greenside bunkers on the 8th.
From Superintendent’s Luke Nowlan and Dan Spary.