It has been very pleasing to have a stable stretch of weather to present the courses well, and also advance our important winter turf conditioning and protection programs.
We are pleased to report that our important priority programs to delicately position the turf surfaces for the cooler months are progressing very well and on schedule.
- Nutrition and Turf Colorant applications to strengthen the turf sward and lengthen presentation levels. (April & May, in-progress).
- Preventative fungicide applications across all warm season grass areas of green surrounds, tees and fairways to control and prevent fungal pathogen incidence in the low growing seasons. (April & May – Completed).
A strong emphasis on a conditioning preparation is required here to ensure the plant health, protection and recovery potential extends as long as possible up and into the winter period. This intent will minimise the dormancy period length of the warm season grass areas of green surrounds, tees and fairways that shut down during the deep winter period (June – September).
Rainfall
April received an above average rainfall with a total 108mm recorded. 23mm of rain has been recorded for the month of May so far.
Golf Shop Putting Green
The re-seeding of the putting green continues to advance. The bentgrass seedlings germinated on day 9 as expected and is now at the early establishment or 4 weeks post seeding. We are now at a delicate stage where the green needs constant attention to watch for any disease that may impact the juvenile grass. Two applications of fungicide have been applied on the green in a prevention program targeting a turf disease called “pythium”, a disease that is extremely common in new bentgrass when young and can be rather devastating if left untreated. Nutrition is also being applied to assist the turf development.
The project stages are listed below and progress can be seen in the images below.
- Turf stripped
- Site laser levelled flat
- Fescue border installed
- Amendments applied
- Green seeded
- New seed germination
The green will be out of play for approximately a 16 week period (subject to favourable weather). All five other putting greens will remain in play. This green restoration upgrade aligns with our course policy guidelines along with our mantra of ‘Pure Excellence No Compromise’. This putting green is often the first experience a guest will encounter at PK and is arguably our most important premium green surface that needs to be consistently performing at its best. A low profile timber stake and rope barrier will remain in place to secure and protect the area until the green re-establishment is complete.
Green Collar Treatment Program
We have now completed two of our three programed applications to alleviate warm season grass (couch grass) encroachment into our greens collars.
The program will selectively control/contain the warm season grass without impacting the desired bent grass turf. The program will require three applications two weeks apart.
You can clearly see a strong highlighting of the target plant impact as expected. The tips of the target plant turn “bright white” before it slowly decays. See below photos of the current program effectively working and initial positive results appearing. Very encouraging results are presenting which is pleasing.
TURF PURITY PROGRAMS
Turf purity and health programs continue as key priorities at present.
One of our highest priority and focus program is our pre and post emergent control of Wintergrass (Poa annua) management within our warm season grass areas. This includes greens surrounds, tees and fairways. The first two of four monthly applications has been made across the property in the recent weeks/month with results likely to become noticeable in 4-6 weeks but fully understood post winter. Weed resistance to available products continues to be the greatest challenge with our programs on Wintergrass eradication and control. We continue working closely and diligently with global turf weed professors and experts to find a sustainable product solution that minimises or eliminates our targeted weed species to ultimately combat the challenge of resistance.
Creek Banks Treatment
As reported in our last update, we have completed one of two applications of selective herbicide applications on our creek banks. This program is targeted to suppress/remove all non desired weed and grass species. The photo below shows the unwanted grass species yellowing off which may look unsightly for a further few weeks until the final application is made and the target weed/grass species fully decays and dies off.
Removal of the target weeds will enable the creeks to be placed in a clean and aesthetically pleasing position heading into the cooler months.
Putting Green Pin Flags
Over the next fortnight we will begin a refurbishment of our current putting green pin flags. During this time, some of our putting greens might be without any pin flags. This will be for a short time only.
PESTICIDE STORAGE SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS
The storage of ALL pesticides have importantly now been contained in lockable cabinets. Access to the cabinets has been set up for the course leadership group only. This places further controls of the storage and management of dangerous goods and complies with the risk and compliance measures we desire and have identified as an improvement opportunity in our risk register.
RANGE TEE SYNTHETIC MAT USAGE RETURNS JUNE
We will soon revert to the use of synthetic mats for turf protection on the driving range tee from Monday 3 June. The annual management system of the tee provides members with six months use on a turf surface (December – May) and six months use on a synthetic surface (June – November) annually.
STAFF UPDATE
With the recent changes to our staff structure, our leadership group is currently undertaking annual performance, operational input improvement discussions and future goals setting reviews with all members of the course staff.
An internal process is also currently in place from our Course Manager to fill our vacant Course Foreman’s role. We are fortunate that we have quality candidates internally that are well suited to develop strongly in this leadership role and fit strategically in our longer-term succession planning strategy. This appointment will be made in the coming weeks and has been forecast within our 2024/2025 Operational Budget.
TIMBER AUDIT AND MAINTENANCE
Our annual timber audit and maintenance program is in progress prior to the onset of the wet winter months. The audit will identify any timber areas requiring repair or replacement and guide the maintenance program to ensure slip hazards on the timber areas are minimised.
Future Course Maintenance Programs
- Bunker Maintenance and Renovation program continuation (autumn, winter & spring).
- Annual Drainage program continuation. Target areas 9N fairway, 2S teeing complex and other selected smaller areas (timings to be confirmed).
- Vegetation maintenance programs that include slashing, burning, pruning, dead tree and woody weed removal in selected areas (in-progress).
- Planting program commencement – 30,000 native plants to be planted throughout autumn and winter once again (to commence from June).
Glenn Stuart
Director of Courses