A very busy month with it all happening, Club champs have been run and won over two weekends with great playing conditions, congratulations to all winners in all grades. Irrigation is up in 4/5 manually only, which at the moment is very time consuming as I can only run say 3 valves at a time for pressure and water distribution. I'm in at 5am to beat the golfers as much as possible, so please be patient if there are a few sprinklers on at any given time, I water greens and tees early so to not inhibit golfers putting or teeing off.
Following Sundays last round of the clubbies we had a month before the Darwin open so we went in with needle solid tines, verticut (dethatch) and then dusted (a light sanding) this keeps the putting surface firm encourages deep roots and a true putting surface, a carbon based fertiliser applied and a wetting agent also. I can now back off the heavy watering's and gain some green speed for the upcoming major events, I was very happy with the roll and speed over the clubbies, so its plant health for now and bit more speed in the coming week.
I have finally had some success with the hybrid crows foot creeping into the putting surface with spot spraying with a herbicide called tribute, following up in 10 days knocked it over happy days. My focus now is to eradicate the nutgrass in fairways and surrounds, one spray has been applied a week ago and a follow up due now, as always crows foot up here is ongoing. Just received a new greens roller so that's 2 in the fleet also a new spray unit is on its way in the next week or so.
The old irrigation system is still a constant juggling act with areas too dry and some too wet and also incorporating the new into the old is a challenge, with cutting through existing pipe work getting the new work in and having it operable without losing turf but we will all benefit down the track.
Greens recovery is coming along after the rare ERI disease and has a healthy
200 mm white root system after root stimulant program, as seen in photos below.
Happy golfing!
Damon Quigley Course Superintendent DGC
