November Greens Newsletter

The last of our major renovation programme for the 2023 calendar year has now been completed with full details below, together with some proposed plans over the coming months. I will also provide a breakdown of the Course levy funding for the 23/24 FY.

9^th green – The 9^th green is progressing well with all indications at the present time that we will be back playing on it by around Friday the 22^nd of December. The extremely warm and windy weather last week has pushed the opening back by one week. Currently, members are walking either in front of or behind the 9^th green to access the 1^st. This practice will cease effective from the re-opening of the 9^th on the 22^nd Dec.

Own a hole concept – Are we proud of our course? Do we look after our course like we look after our own homes? The one area we can improve on is repairing divots on the fairways and the par three tee boxes. It astonishes me that many members have a “I don’t care less attitude”. We would like to turn this course into one of the top 5 courses in the State and to do this, we require the assistance of all members. Please accept your responsibility to repair divots etc on the “Hole you own”. Hole details are as follows if you have forgotten “which hole you own”.

Allocation of holes has primarily been based on an alphabetical basis with details as follows:

Warm up range – The 100m and 150m markers have been installed, therefore hybrids are now permitted. The permission to use hybrids is along the same lines as irons. No hybrid or iron can be used if the member can reach the house at the rear of the warmup range. Woods are not permitted. Only range balls can be hit on the range as they have a compression of 80% of a normal golf ball.

6^th path – The 6^th renovation was completed on the 21 November when grass was laid. This will provide greater room for both push buggies and motorised carts to access the 7^th tee and reduce the wear and tear that has impacted this area for many years. We believe this area will be open to all golfers in approximately 5 weeks, around 22 Dec 2023. We ask golfers to adhere to the rules and walk around the 5^th tee box for access to the 7^th .Please take care to ensure that no-one is teeing off the 5^th tee.

Height of cut – The height of the fairway cut was dropped to 6.5mm straight after being renovated and has now been increased to 8mm. The greens are now being cut at a height of 3.5mm.

9^th Purple tee – The Purple tee on the 9^th has been grassed and should be available for use sometime in Jan 2024.

Volunteers – The volunteers completed the following tasks during November:

• Trimmed trees on both the LHS and RHS of the 1^st fairway.
• Removed a dead tree on the RHS of the first as per the tree audit report together with a melaleuca in the same area which has opened up the 8^th green to more sun.
• Removed and trimmed trees on the RHS of the 2^nd fairway and 8^th tee box.

Bare patches – Bare patches on the RHS of the 14th bunker have been repaired. There are further bare patches on the 12^th fairway approx 100m from the green that will be repaired over the coming weeks.

Cages – One cage has been repaired and I wish to thank Terry Smith and Roy Podesta for their time and effort in repairing this cage. Parts are still being sourced to repair the third cage.

Trees – Both the Tree and Greens audit completed in September 2022 identified many trees for removal due to either their location being too close to our greens or the trees being diseased or dead with further details below:

• There are still some 50 trees still to be removed as per these reports.
• The Captain, Course Super and myself identified the first and ninth fairways and first green as a good starting point to commence the major Tree and Green Audit project that requiresthe expertise of experienced tree loppers..
• There are some 7 large trees to be removed and around a dozen trees to be trimmed on the 1st.
• All trees with a T are to be trimmed whilst trees marked with an X are to be removed.
• The removal of several trees near the 8^th green and three large trees near the first green will open these greens for more sunlight during the winter months.
• The Green audit had indicated that more trees should be removed close to the 8^th green however we believe this is unrealistic as it would open the green to balls from the 1^st
• The tree lopper has advised that it will take 3 days to complete the trimming and removal. The first hole will be closed on Wednesday the 6^th of December so that most of the trimming is completed. The other two days will be a Tuesday and Wednesday in Jan 2024. Date to be confirmed when known. This is inconvenient for members but there are significant benefits for the long term of the 1^st
• The process to remove trees around greens will take many years to complete.
• The windy conditions experienced between mid to late November saw a number of large branches break and fall to the ground. These were located on the 2^nd near the pot bunker on the RHS of the fairway. On the 6^th near the so-called picnic area and on the 10^th between the 10^th and 11^th Several small trees were also blown over.

Cores – The 9^th & 14th fairways will be cored to assist with the following:

• Placing cores behind the 17^th
• The ground staff will also place cores in the yellow sanded areas on the fairways to encourage grass to grow in these areas more quickly.
• We will also place cores in the area from the gum tree behind the 6^th green to the path next to the ladies tee.

Course levy – For the 23/24 FY Greens have $113,521 to fund various activities with details as follows:

Note: The funds allocated for the 14^th green rebuild may be utilised to assist with the purchase of the land we are seeking to purchase from the WA Govt. Due to the time frame required to engage the contractors to build the 14^th green we have decided to push this back one year. The 17^th green will be reseeded in early Oct 2024 with the 14^th to be reconstructed in October 2025.