Unmown areas on the course

We  are trialling a few areas on the course of unmown rough to try and achieve a bit more definition and character. These areas will have minimal irrigation and hopefully grow into wispy, sparse rough that doesn't cause problems with lost golf balls. With our tight layout we have to be careful where we place these areas and also be mindful of the wear from traffic that could occur.

With the drier weather that we have had the last couple of months these areas are starting to show and develop. Below are some photos of some areas.

Irrigation season

It is the time of year when the irrigation system gets fired up checking the operation of the sprinklers, controllers, pumps & pipework in readiness for the summer watering.  The system gets a bit of use this time of year washing in wetting agent and as usual we have had a few teething problems with  cable issues, pipe leaks, etc. It didn't take long to find our first pipe leak for the season.

Our first pipe leak for the season in 80mm pipe

The sprinklers working on the 18th fairway

Course Update

It has been two weeks since the greens were renovated and full recovery isn't far away. The growth is still quite slow but I don't want to push it along too much and encourage the Poa annua at the expense of the Browntop bentgrass.

We have taken the opportunity to put out wetting agent on the greens, tees and areas on fairways that tend to dry out too much during summer. We have used 50/90 wetting agent which is a long term product that will give us a 90 day effective time frame before another application is made.

I will be taking moisture readings on all greens this week and it will be interesting to see if the wetting agent has had an effect on evening out the moisture profile.

We have also slightly lowered the cutting height of the fairway mower for the spring growth and the fairways are starting to look nice. We still have some more areas that need treatment with wetting agent and we will be spraying all fairways shortly for weed control.

Greens Renovation

Spring greens renovation has been completed on all greens the last two days. We have changed the process slightly because of the earlier time and cooler weather conditions. Because the browntop bent is still growing slowly we have used 12 mm solid tynes at 50mm centres, 150mm deep. We followed up with a Perruzo scarifier set approximately 10mm deep to remove some thatch. Following that we topdressed with turf sand, brushed it in then rolled the greens to smooth the surface.
We will be using our old cutting units for the first couple of cuts because of the sand on the greens. We don't want to damage the good cutting units.
The members should expect full recovery of the greens in a couple of weeks.
The photos below show the process.

Vertidrain

Perruzo scarifier

Topdressing

Brushing in

Finished result

Soil moisture meter

We have just purchased a Fieldscout100 tdr soil moisture meter to measure the actual soil moisture content in our turf areas. The meter has 2 probes that are inserted into the soil and an electrical signal is converted into  a percentage of soil moisture content.
This meter will help us manage the moisture content in the greens more accurately than ever before and avoid overwatering that can occur when you rely on a visual judgement to make a decision to water or not.
This device measures water content in the soil in a volumetric percentage and we know that browntop survives and flourishes in quite dry conditions. We have to still maintain a good playing surface that doesn't crust or go too hard so we are aiming at a moisture content in the range of 15-20% VWC. This range should encourage good browntop growth and stress out the Poa annua giving us more even putting surfaces.
We have just done the first measurements on each green( 9 samples each green) and have found some interesting results. We now have hard data on where the dry and wet areas are and can adjust the irrigation to suit. Overall I feel that the greens are in good shape and with this tool to use going into summer we will have more consistent running greens

New bunker back of no. 3 green

The new bunker that has been built behind the 3rd green is now in play. There is still a section of the surround that is still GUR while the seed is establishing.
Previously this area was the site of a large Macrocarpa that had been causing lots of problems to both the 3rd & 15th greens. Because it was situated so close to both greens, tree roots invaded both greens causing drought stress especially late winter/early spring before consistent irrigation took place. Any rain that we did get rarely reached the turf surface because of the dense canopy and overhanging branches.The tree also shed a lot of debris in windy conditions and increasingly impacted on the quality & maintenance of the green. The decision to remove the tree did take a while to eventuate but I'm sure the results from it's removal will start to show quite soon.
It took some time to get the entire root ball out of the ground to be able to build the bunker in that position.

Macrocarpa back 3rd green

New bunker back 3rd green

A lot of root pruning to get the stump out

The finished  bunker

Fairway venting

With such a wet winter the fairways have been struggling to drain well and the earthworms have been loving it. We have had a little dry spell and we have taken the opportunity to vertidrain the tees, surrounds and fairways. We have used 18 mm solid tynes at 150mm depth with a 5 degree kick to shatter the soil and hopefully remove surface water when it does rain again.

As usual we take great care to stake sprinklers, QC valves and valve boxes but we often have cause for concern for the underground wiring and irrigation pipework. When it was installed many years ago, the cable was mole ploughed at a depth of 75-100mm over quite a large part of the golf course. Over the time I have been at Avondale Golf Club we have found out about these areas when we have vertidrained and have had power issues with the system. Since then we have used a cable locator to trace the cable around the course and ascertain the depth at regular intervals. We have this information drawn on a map of the course for future reference. Over the years we have replaced quite a few of the worst areas of cable that have caused us problems. With  the new areas of trenched cable at a depth of 350-400mm these should be good for many years.

As it turns out we don't always miss these shallow areas!

Another problem we encountered when vertidraining was hitting this 100mm mainline. This pipe was hit quite a few years ago when we first started vertidraining fairways. No one at the club told me many years ago this area of fairway was lowered, or that they left the pipework in its original position!