Successful Renovations & Turf Patching
This week the golf course has been closed to perform fairway renovations and the patching of prominent bare areas.  The weather has been very kind to us yet again and our Course Superintendent, Peter Watts, is very happy with the way the program has run.  The program was successful and we will see some terrific results in the coming weeks.

Fairways
The week started with 15mm of rain on Monday night, but with a bit of re-scheduling, it was ultimately a good base for the rest of the week.  The fairways have all been cored and top-dressed with a sand/soil/fertilizer mix which is then rubbed in with heavy matting. 

The surfaces are a little “roughed up” but there is a scorecard preferred lie in place over the next two weeks to help players get a better lie.

The course staff will be dry-cutting the fairways early next week, so you may experience some mixed surfaces across this weekend as the top-dressing settles and the grass starts to grow through.  The fairways will be cut at 2mm higher than normal and then reduced with the 2nd and 3rd cuts in the days/weeks following.

There are some sandy/bare patches in the middle of some of the fairways which are just a product of the rises and dips in our fairways, but they will all come back as the grass grows.  Local rules regarding preferred lies and bare patches will be sufficient to help the players with these areas.

The sprinklers are being put back into place and will be on watering cycle for the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully some rain will fall this weekend, to help cover the entire course.

The areas where the large sand piles have been sitting over the past week, have all been smoothed out and are classed as GUR.  These areas will all return to grass in the coming weeks, even though they look a bit heavy with soil at the moment.

Bare Patches – New Turf
The patching program has also gone along very well.  Large sections along a majority of holes have been cut out, renovated and re-turfed.  This was a very large task and the last rolls of turf will be laid on Friday morning, ahead of the players, so no interruptions will be experienced.

We have used the larger Turf Maxi-rolls which allow for a better finish and a quicker return to play.  The newly turfed areas are all compulsory GUR for the coming week, and they have either white lines, stakes or drop zones associated with them to help players.  Please try not to walk or drive over the new turf, unless you have to, to retrieve your golf ball.

Other Works
While the course was closed, it was the perfect opportunity for the course staff to address some other areas, which are always hard to access when the course is full of golfers.

Tees
The teeing grounds have been scarified and fertilised.  This is usually done in October/November, but doing it at this time of year is also going to be just as successful.

Trees
A lot of dead trees and branches have been removed.  Members will also see a few selected trees missing or cut back from around the course to help with turf growth.  For example, the trees along the 8th tee have been significantly trimmed to allow sunlight onto the tee blocks.  The out-of-shape and significantly leaning tree that was overhanging the 3rd green and always dropped the hundreds of nuts onto the putting surface, has been removed.  Many others are in need of work, but we addressed the dangerous ones and the trees that gave ongoing problems to the course.

Clean-up
A couple of volunteers offered their time to do some much needed car-park and clubhouse cleanup.  We thank those members for their time.

We thank the members for their patience over the past few days as we took the course out of play.  The rewards will be felt in the coming weeks and creates a great base for turf growth, for the future.  Members are asked to read the local rules board outside the Pro Shop, before play, as daily conditions will change in the coming weeks.

We look forward to having many of you back on the course from Friday, restrictions permitting.