August Update

Bunker Rake Placement



New Trim Deck Mower

Hello Members, Wow this year is going really fast, Pennant season over, Club Champs been and gone and now were gearing up for Spring and Renovation time. A big congratulations to the men's Division 1 Pennant Team for taking out the title and well done to all the Club Champions for 2012.

You may have noticed over the past couple of weeks that when we rake bunkers, we now place the rakes into the centre of the bunker parallel with the direction of play. This is a much neater way of leaving the rakes rather than having the handles hanging out all over the place.

I must thank all members for adhering to the blue lines which are out on the course at the moment. It has allowed us to control the flow of traffic around the course and reducing the impact on the wet area's.

It's been happy times here in the shed with the delivery of our shiny new Trim Deck Mower. This mower will be used to cut all tee surrounds and semi rough area's of the golf course. You can see by the picture above it's a wide mower which means the rough will be cut quicker each week especially in the Summer months when before we couldn't keep up with the cutting with our existing equipment.

On Tuesday the 4th September holes 10-18 will be closed until 11am to allow the staff to install an irrigation mainline from the right hand side of the 10th fairway to the 16th green. This is for staff SAFETY as we will be working just over the hill on the 10th fairway and you won't be able to see us and we certainly won't be able to see you!!!! The back 9 will be reopened at 11am in time for the Tuesday competition.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind all players the whole course will be closed on the 10th and 11th of September for greens renovations.

On behalf of the Golf  Maintenance Team I would like to thank our retiring manager Greg Rowden for all the support he has given us over the years and particular to myself during the short time we've known each other. All the best Greg and we will see you on the course!!

Happy Golfing

Mike

 It's Winter



Verti-Drain In Action



 Hello Members, The Winter has certainly arrived with a bang producing some good rainfall totals(142mm so far in June on the golf course) and strong winds which always means a lot of tree debris on the the course. We've managed to clean up well so far with no significant damage to our tree lines. With the onset of the wet weather it's important we all chip in to help preserve the course by avoiding wet area's with our buggies and adhere to the blue lines (which are now on the course )the best we can. You can see from the photo above we have been busy solid tyning our fairways to aid in the water infiltration. You can see how much water is being squeezed out of the turf surface.

Turf Nursery

Over the past couple of weeks we have been cleaning up the old turf nursery which sits alongside the 13th fairway ready for re-planting. This area has been out of action for a couple of years so it will be fantastic to have access to some turf for repairs and constuction and should limit the need to remove turf from out on the golf course.



New Retic Between 5th and 18th

Irrigation improvements to our semi-roughs are continuing. This will allow us to improve Kikyuy coverage in the roughs and improve fairway definition. It will also give us better grounding in controlling our Parramatta Grass population.


The Eliminator

 

The club has now purchased our own weed wiper machine called the Eliminator. This machine will allow us to wipe light rates of Glyphosate across the leaves of the Parramatta Grass. It should help us to significantly reduce the amount of PG amongst our Kikuyu roughs. We will start with the Par 3's and the holes where we've improved the irrigation system so far. Look for the semi roughs on these holes to grow a little more before we start spraying The higher the PG stands and the more leaf there is, the greater chance of success. We will only tackle the holes where the irrigation is adequate enough to establish Kikuyu through any bare area's which may arise from the use of this machine. We will do the remaining holes as we continue to improve the irrigation system through the roughs, as far as our water allocation allows.

Thanks for your time and I wish all players the best of luck throughout Pennant Season.

March Update

Hello Members, It's been a busy March with another Gosnells Open done and dusted. The course played really well for the tournament and the scores showed it was a tough weekend for golf despite perfect conditions. I was really pleased with the way the fairways responded to the lower cutting heights and increased mowing frequency which produced a much tighter playing surface for much of the summer. The introduction of the Trackair Corer for the fairways certainly helped with the water penetration into the root zone which allowed us to cut back the amount of water being pumped onto the fairways helping to firm them up, and making it easier on our mowing equipment and I'm sure making it an easier walk around the golf course.

The extra bonus of saving the amount of irrigation water going onto the golf course, coupled with a cooler summer has meant we've been able to put some water in the lake bordering the 9th and 18th holes which I'm sure you'll all agree has significantly improved the visual aspect of the course.

Back in February we had a working bee organised by Greens Chairman Craig Grant to help clean up the rough area's along side the 2nd hole. I would like to really thank those members who gave up their time to help out it was greatly appreciated.

It's been fantastic to see the response the clubs had to it's Monday golf promotion with many players visiting the course for the first time and giving us some really positive feed back. Let's hope some join the club.

On Monday 2nd April I would like to remind all players the golf course is closed all day for our Autumn greens renovations.

During April we will be installing some irrigation valves on the 2nd fairway as part of our ongoing program to improve the standards of our semi rough,so in the future we are better prepared for Parramatta Grass control.

Just one final note, I'm really concerned with the amount of bottle tops I'm finding on the golf course. They can be very damaging to our maintenance equipment so I ask all members to make sure they place bottle tops and rubbish in the bins provided. Thankyou.

Regards, Mike

New Retic

Good Afternoon,

As you can see from the photo's we've installed 2 new irrigation lines on the 12th hole semi roughs, this should allow us to create some better definition on the hole and clean up the many bare areas in the semi roughs.

As from Tuesday the 14th we will be coring green surrounds to help with the drainage as many of the surrounds are quite wet under foot at the moment, the harvested cores will be used in the roughs on the 12th hole.

I'm sure you've all seen the blue line from the 18th green upto the putting green, this is to guide players from the 18th green to the 1st tee. Please don't cross around the back of the 9th green for your own safety.

january update

Hi Members and welcome to the new year, it's been busy on the golf course with short working weeks and increased golfer numbers means were just keeping in front. You'll see from these photo's were currently addressing some drainage problems around the course, this area is between 5th green and 6th tee, it's a highly trafficked area which already had some drainpipe in but wasn't working effectively, we lengthened the pipe to get it away from the green and added a soak well which should really help.

The spare green alongside the 13th hole has had the bunkers cleaned up and the green is now ready for play.

A contractor from Lovegrove Turf Services will be here next Monday the 23rd to operate a root pruning machine alongside the fairways to trim tree roots which are invading the fairways. this is a major cause of many of the bare area's around the course. This machine was used last year with great success.

I've noticed that the green surrounds are starting to get quite wet under foot so in the next couple of weeks we will start to hollow core the surrounds to help with drainage and aeration around the greens. This job should have been done back in spring but due to machinery breakdowns and being short staffed it's been put off till now.

Regards, Mike

It's Christmas

On behalf of the groundstaff I'd like to wish all members and fellow staff at Gosnells Golf Club a very merry christmas and on a personal note I'd like to thank everyone for making me feel really welcome and part of the team.

I'm really happy with the way the fairways are responding to the renovations and extra cutting.I feel the ball is already rolling a little further and it must be making it an easier walk around the course. The next round of renovations are due to start in the first full working week of the new year.

You will all notice during your next round of golf that the right hand side of the the 10th hole(on top of the hill) has been topdressed quite heavy, this has been done to help level out he area and give the existing couch and kikuyu something to grow into. I anticipate this area will be GUR for the next few weeks and I ask if everyone could avoid walking through this area if possible.

In the new year you will see us install some new irrigation stations in the rough to help us create some greater definition of the fairways and better tackle the parramatta grass. This work will be carried out between February and June.

As you can see from the photo we've started doing some trails on different ways to tackle the parramatta grass. Lookout for the results around the 7th tee.

Stay Safe

Mike

Mike,s First Post

Hi Ladies and Gentleman, My name is Mike Healy and I started as the Golf Course Superintendent of Gosnells Golf Club a couple of weeks ago. I've been a greenkeeper for 21 years the last 17 as a Superintendent. I come to Gosnells having spent the last 12 years at Mandurah Country Club. I'm excited about the move here to Gosnells and believe I have a lot to offer the club with my vast experience in golf course maintenance.I'm a keen golfer but with a young family at home I find it hard to on the golf course as much as I'd like. I look forward to seeing you all on the golf course in the future.

Well enough about me what's happening on the golf course? Fairway renovations are progressing along quite slowly due to a number of machinery breakdowns and a staff shortage. All fairways have been vertimowed once so far and cutting heights have been reduced from 14mm to 9mm. We are currently running a trackair machine(manual corer) over the fairways, this is to help aerate the fairways and increase water infiltration rates into the rootzone. This should help us with our water management and I could see us doing it 3 or 4 times over the summer period. You'll see from the above photo that the fairways have an average of 90mm of thatch below the surface which we need to remove before we can expect firmer fairways and more ball roll. The second round of fairway verticutting will commence from Monday 5th December.

If you notice the white powdery patches on the greens over the next few days don't panic the greens don't have the measles, we are spot spraying a selective herbicide called Tupersan which helps us to control the couch and Kikuyu invasion on the bent grass surfaces. I am concerned with the level of poa annua in the greens and we have just started a trial with a new chemical called Nominee, so far we've just sprayed the chipping green so we can judge the results before we use it on the golf course.

That's enough from me for now, good luck to everyone during Festive Golf Week and I'll see you on the golf course.

Mike