A Summery Summer Summary!

As the warm weather draws to a close, its probably a good time to reflect on what has been happening over the last few months.

First up, its no big surprise that we have been pretty light in the rain department. While its been great for scheduling games of golf and taking advantage of balmy evenings for a few holes, its thrown up some challenges in the grass maintenance department.

Based on historic averages, we would have had nearly 400mm of rain by now

The lower than normal rainfall has placed additional pressure on irrigation. We experienced a period of approximately 3 weeks in March where the river level fell low enough to compromise how much water we could draw. The logical decision was made to focus the available water on greens and tees while fairways had to be left to fend for themselves for that time. While not ideal, we are very confident that the fairways will in fact end up stronger in the future due to them being forced into a period of stress. Grass that doesn't have to try too much (think lots of water and fertiliser) gets lazy. On the other hand, natural selection at play will mean the strongest plants will survive.

Early February and the fairways were playing great!

What has been hugely satisfying is how the greens have performed through the difficult summer.

The work that was carried out last summer consisting of deliberate moisture withholding, selected seeding, judicious use of specific growth regulators and a huge dose of hard work from the greenstaff, has resulted in much hardier grass swards. The final shove to finish the browntop conversion may have seemed a little ruthless and disruptive but has paid huge dividends now.

Read more about the process by clicking this link


What a difference in the putting green. The poor performing Poa Annua has been successfully transitioned to Browntop

Tournaments such as the North Island Under 19's in the middle of January would normally be stressful and a battle to manage the greens. This year, we were able to deliver firm fast and extremely smooth surfaces which handled the traffic with no issues. Likewise, the recently held Pairs Classic, we were able to produce smooth firm and fast surfaces worthy of a high profile club event.

Be sure to play this video with the sound up to hear how firm the greens were during the Under 19's event

Worth noting also is the Perrys Pro am played in the middle of February. During January and up to the tournament in February we only received 29mm of rain. In the past, this would have been a perfect storm of conditions leading to not just stressed and struggling greens but stressed and struggling greenkeepers as well. Instead, players arrived to to find greens that the NZPGA representative declared "As good as any greens they have ever played". Pretty high praise indeed!

Another really big positive to come from having a much more stress tolerant surface has been a significant reduction in agrichemical applications. Much like a person, times of sustained stress and pressure lead to a higher chance of becoming sick. The healthier the person though, the higher their ability to withstand stresses and rebound quicker. In the case of turf grass, one the surest signs of a plant that is struggling is fungal diseases. In years gone by, multiple fungicide applications have been employed to either cure disease issues or to in fact prevent them from occurring. For the period of May 2016 - Apr 2017, 9 fungicide applications were made. May 2017 - Apr 2018 required 8 fungicide applications. May 2018 - Apr 2019 however saw us only use 3 applications. Not only is this great news financially (fungicide can be frighteningly expensive!) but it is also hugely positive for the soil biology.



Golfer feedback was listened to and this season saw us implement cutting and rolling of the greens on Saturdays. As a major golfing day, it is great to be able to offer this higher level of service contributing to a better playing experience for our golfers. This practice will however only be carried out during the months where it is determined that grass growth is sufficient to warrant it. Winter months see growth slow down enough that we wont need to do both operations and we are also conscious of creating excessive wear though this period. A big thank you must go to the staff who in fact came up with the method and scheduling which enabled the rolling to be added in. One long time member suggested that the greens in the last 6 months have been consistently the best he has seen them in his entire time playing here!

Where to from here?

Good question!

The same strategies that have been so successful in improving the greens will be extended to other parts of the course. The surrounds in particular will receive some additional attention as the different management combined with the dryness has highlighted the areas  which will benefit from some remedial work. Time will be spent encouraging our desired grass species and supplementary seeding will be used where needed. Physical work consisting primarily of vertidraining will be used to relieve compaction and create seed beds. Golfer co-operation would certainly be a big help for us with this so if you see and area that has been worked on, please try to avoid it.

The greens themselves will become very much influenced by the weather conditions from now. As growth naturally declines in relation to colder temperatures, the ability of the turf to recover is reduced. This means that wear generated by day to day play will take longer to recover and there is to be expected a decline in the density of the grass sward. While all efforts will be taken to still provide the best possible playing surface, visually the greens may lack a lush appearance. Also too, frost will inevitably impact start times at some stage so please be patient when that happens.

The impact of frost is outlined in this blog post

Its been a great time for the course and the volume of positive feedback that has been received shows we are certainly heading down the right path with our decision making. The patience and understanding displayed by our members of the need to sometimes experience short term pain for the long term gain has been appreciated.

Being up early we get to see some stunning sights

Good Golfing

Regards
The Maintenance Team

Hamilton Golf Club

Comments

  1. Hey Grant, bloody good blog mate. Just catching up on them all now. Will have to catch up some time and talk grass. Cheers, Bryce.

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    Replies
    1. Hey Bryce, cheers for the feedback. Yes, we do need to catch up some time! you heading down this way at all?

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