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
