Just an update on what's happening around your course.
Cart Paths
It is not too late to put your name on a plaque and help the Club extend the cart paths around the course. Your donation of $200 will be matched by the Club. The plaques will be on hole six and will continue on to hole seven. So now is the time to put your name down. The path on six will start soon so to ensure you don't miss out please email Michael at manager@mackaygolf.com.au today.
Around the Course
The new nursery is looking good for future use around the course. This nursery will give us a great source of good clean new Bermuda 328 grass for all future greens and repair work.
Current Works Under Way
- Levelling of the 17th tee to enlarge the ladies tee area
- Bunker works completed on holes 4 and 7
- Clean up completed of the dumping area over next to the Turf Farm
- The continuation of battering the bank and clean up around the dam on hole 15 and 13
- Starting on the 13th the removal of the putting surfaces on holes 3 and 11 will commence, closely followed by the fairway and tee on 11. The designs for this work will be put up in the club house next week for everyone to see what the finished product will look like.
Reminder of where we are at and where we are going with the course and the master plan for our future.
Greens Report 2019/2020
- Our initial consultant was Dr Brett Morris and in March 2019 he recommended to consider a future capital works programme which would result in the resurfacing of the greens to ensure an even mono-sand surface. He advised that his suspicions were the greens were not draining correctly due to the sand not built to USGA profiles.
- With the advice given to the committee, and after a member consultation period, the Club decided to start the green resurfacing program within a time frame to be completed. The full reasons are in the reports from David Burrup which have been shared via the App and emails with all members over the last few years.
- The Major issues in our greens are sub-surface conditions causing incorrect growing medium and allowing disease to thrive. Also there are inconsistencies in the putting surface, i.e. more than one type of grass growing.
- The sub-surface issues in our greens have led us to the monthly chemical, solid tining and sanding programs given to us from the soil agronomist experts in conjunction with David Burrup. We have followed these programs over the last twelve months to return the greens to the best possible quality but this is only a band aid fix and will allow us to maintain them while the resurfacing program is completed. This program will change slightly over the next year due to the success of the work we have done following our programs set out by soil specialists.
- When it comes to the new greens, the top 20-30cm is being removed and new clean sand put in place which can take around two to three years before they soften up.
- When it comes to bunkers, they are being fixed all the time and will always be one of our biggest expenditures in our climate with our rainfall. We are continually removing bunkers as we go with grass facing to lower maintenance costs. We have also chosen to do most of this work at the same time as the green resurfacing to avoid too much GUR or areas out of play during these works.
- Yes the front entrance to most of our greens are holding water and this is mostly due to the soil type and lack of drainage in these areas. This will be addressed on the 3rd and 11th greens this year and you will see extra drainage and works in these areas.
I will take this opportunity to thank everyone for being patient while we continue to repair and improve our greens from the issues we were suffering just over twelve months ago. While the three new greens resurfaced last year are coming along well they will continue to improve over the next year. These greens have only been in use for nine months. While the rest of the greens look very good, and are playing very nicely, the work we have put in over the last year i.e. XXL coring, the continued monthly aeration and sanding with chemicals and fertiliser, has helped us maintain them at this standard.
The current monthly coring program has been pushed out to three monthly. The greens staff will monitor this to ensure we don't let any of the previous issues come back and also to stay on top of any new problems. We always have to remember this work is a band aid fix at a cost. It is to allow us to have quality greens while we continue to resurface the greens, remove the top 300mm and all the many different types of grasses growing on these putting surfaces while returning them to a clean smooth Bermuda 328 surface. David Burrup's design will alter our putting surface to take our greens and course to the next level with many more pin positions and challenges available to us.
Please understand that the best interests of members and the future of the Club have been considered at all times by the Board when it comes to our course and these works need to happen while we can afford this expense.
Again I need to thank Graham McClelland for the excavator, Rod Allan for the dump truck and Dad's Army and all the volunteers around the course. Without them we would not have the great course we play on every week. These people continue to save the Club a very large amount of money with their hard work and generous donation of their time.
Regards
Shane Page
Greens Director
