Welcome to the March edition of the green’s newsletter.
An update on the activities that have been completed, underway or planned to further improve & develop the course is detailed below:
1. Bunkers – To date 24 bunkers have been improved. There are only 3 greenside bunkers remaining. The 4 bunkers listed below have been completed during the month of March.
- RH, LH & back greenside bunkers on the 1st. RH greenside bunker on the 2nd.
Bunkers on the 14th & 15th which had previously been improved, were upgraded again due to unknown members lack of care in raking the bunkers correctly. This is extremely disappointing.
The club intends to re-do our bunker, divot & pitch mark repair videos with the view to run these on our inhouse monitors. Hopefully the members concerned will take note of the correct procedures.
2. Third tee box fence – The mesh has now been attached to the posts. Two trees on the LHS of the fairway & one on the RHS have been pruned together with the Pine tree behind the second green. One large gum on the RHS of the fairway has been removed. There is now ample room for all players to aim down the fairway rather than try & hit a high fade to the left or over the gum trees on the LHS. Ranford road should not come into play with the action completed.
3. Roots & Stumps – We hired a stump grinder for three days from 13 March and removed more than 200 stumps & or tree roots that protruded above the ground. Hole numbers 11,12,13,14,3,4,5,6,7 & half of the 8th have been completed. We intend to hire the stump grinder in the second half of the year to complete the remaining holes.
The benefit of removing the roots & stumps is threefold:
- Grass will now be able to grow in a number of these areas especially where the roots were removed from the fairways.
- We should save on mower blades, as these will no longer need to be replaced, due to hitting roots just above ground level.
- Aesthetically these areas will look much better in due course.
I would like to thank David Stepheson, Lawrie Bennett & Tom Arlidge for their assistance over these three days. It was certainly tiring work for us old buggers.
4. Greens Audit – As advised in the November 2022 newsletter, the author of the report indicated that a large number of trees need to be removed around our greens to reduce the amount of shade & give them a chance to dry out in winter. We have now reviewed this report further & the author identified around 25 trees to be removed. We believe we can removed most of these trees without comprising player safety. Due to the size of these trees, it may take up to 5 years to remove all trees. We shall commence removal during the 23/24 FY.
5. 14th hole – Greens has requested Jeff Lane from Living Turf provide a detailed plan & costings to renovate the entire 14th hole. Upon receipt of the plans we shall then determine whether to renovate the 14th hole as recommended or just renovate the green. Regardless of which action we undertake, we believe no action is likely to commence until Oct 2024. Members will be provided with a 3D view of the planned renovations.
6. Volunteers – The volunteers have completed or are in the process of completing the following tasks:
- Trimmed the undergrowth of all trees lining the 15th hole.
- Several bare areas around the 10 tee have also been patched.
- The area on the right of the 10th tee has come up a treat due to the work completed by Lawrie Bennett.
- All granite dust paths except the 8th have been edged. The 8th will be completed in early April.
- The volunteers will extend the granite dust path on the 4th to past the large gum tree on the RHS of the green. Grass has been removed from this area.
7. Fairways – Match has requested that a step cut be mowed between the edge of the fairway & the primary rough to provide more definition of the fairway. The step cut is being mowed at 20mm whilst the primary rough is mowed at 51mm. After the primary rough the grass will be permitted to grow slightly higher to penalise wayward drives.
8. Bare patches – A number of bare patches on the fairways are in the process of being repaired as advised below:
- Area in front of the 11th green.
- Bare patches on the LHS of the 17th green.
- Bare areas on the 5th tee box.
- Area in front of the first green.
- Other areas on the course will be repaired during the first week of April.
9. Gosnells Open – The plan for the Gosnells Open is to mow the tee boxes & fairways at 9mm with the greens cut & rolled at around 2.5mm depending on the weather.
10. Old course photo’s – The photo below, was taken from behind the second tee box in 1993. Of interest to note is that there are no trees or bushes on the RHS where there are now a pine tree and several gum trees & low shrubs. There is also grass directly behind the tee box where there are now many needle pines & several large gum trees.
By Terry Gale
Chairman of Greens
