I am pleased to present the May 2023 Green’s newsletter for members information.
1.Bunkers – The LHS greenside bunker on the 3rd & RHS fairway bunker on the 1st have both been repaired to return the edge to the original position. The tongue on the first has been removed enabling the bunker to be widened & levelled.
The two RHS fairway bunkers around 50m from the green on the 13th have been amalgamated into one large bunker. This will enable easier access for members & bunker raking for the ground staff.
Two photos of the 9th LH greenside bunker are below. These photos were taken on Saturday the 6th May. The photos reflect the poor effort of members attempts to rake the bunker. This is simply not good enough. When the bunkers are wet, more care must be taken. Firstly, you need to use two hands to rake the bunker. Holding onto your sand wedge & raking with one hand will not suffice. Secondly you need to ensure that there are no mounds remaining. Mounds must be smoothed out. Thirdly sand is to be pushed back towards the bottom of the bunker. Not left near the edge of the bunker..
I witnessed three members attempt to rake wet bunkers with one hand on Tuesday the 23rd May whilst holding onto their sand wedge. One member’s effort was just adequate, however the other two were second rate. I showed them the correct way to rake the bunkers using both hands. Hopefully they will now pass on their knowledge to their playing partners.
2. Bare areas on Fairways – Members will see that a large number of bare areas on the fairways have been returfed / replaced recently. To date bare areas on the following holes have been returfed:
2..1 3rd
2..2 5th
2..3 7th
2..4 8th
2..5 9th
2..6 10th
2..7 11th
2..8 12th
2..9 13th
2..10 18th
Additional areas will be returfed during the winter months. Although recovery will be slow at this time of year, these areas will be ready for spring growth. This is another step forward in the continued improvement of our wonderful golf course. We should be extremely proud of the efforts of our ground staff in their continued efforts to improve the quality of our course.
Additional sprinklers have also been installed in the rough on the RHS of the 3rd near the woodchip area, on the RHS of the 10th approximately halfway up the hill & on the RHS of the 17th near the bunker where we rotary hoed the parramatta grass. This will assist with better grass coverage in due course.
3. Volunteers – The volunteers continue to improve the course by completing the following tasks:
4.1 Trimmed and removed a number of small gum trees along the RHS of the 16th hole, up to the corner.
4.2 Trimmed a number of Melaleuca’s on the LHS of the 16th fairway.
4.3 Removed a number of dead banksia’s on the LHS of the 16th fairway as per the Tree audit report.
4.4 Trimmed all trees along the 17th path.
4.5 Trimmed the Melaleuca behind the 17th green.
4.6 Trimmed the Melaleuca’s on the LHS of the 3rd green.
4. Greens & Fairways –
4.1 The height of the greens & fairways have been lifted to 3mm & 10mm respectively for the winter months.
4.2. There will be times during winter when the greens may not be mowed due to the amount of rain that has fallen or is currently falling or due to the amount of water on the greens. It is not good practice to mow the greens when they are extremely wet & soft underfoot.
5. Tee signs – The club has purchased 9 new signs with 7 installed to date. The remaining tee signs will be purchased & installed during the 23/24 FY. These are a great advertising opportunity for members who operate some form of retail business.
6. 6th Cart path – A cart path is to be constructed between the maintenance shed & the existing grassed area behind the LH greenside bunker. The first step will be to remove the melaleucas near the 7th path to open up this area to enable the new path to marry up with the 7th path. This project is expected to commence in early July.
7. Warm up range – All members are to use the Astro turf for their warm-up. No member is permitted to hit off the grassed area in front of or behind the Astro turf. The only members who have access to or authorization to use the grassed area are our teaching professionals when they conduct lessons. Please abide by this directive.
It is highly unlikely that there will be a newsletter for the month of June, as the author will be in England watching the first Ashes test.
Report by
Terry Gale
Chairman of Greens
