It was extremely hot the week before the Summer Cup. Considering the hot conditions, the course held up well. Congratulations to all winners of this prestigious event.
I formally want to announce that Mark Watts has joined the Greens committee. Mark has been a member of Gosnells for 12 years and spent the past 2 years on Match. Mark has extensive knowledge in the maintenance of buildings, gardens and sporting grounds at Scotch College which has some of the best playing surfaces in WA. Mark will be a valuable member to the Greens.
An update on the course activities is detailed below:
- New Course Machinery – A new Boom sprayer is expected to be received sometime late March to replace the old boom sprayer which has seen better days.
- Bunkers – We levelled and widened all greenside bunkers this time last year and the same process will commence shortly as several bunkers have developed low points which balls roll into. Members, please be aware that walking out of a Bunker dragging the rake in one hand behind you is not the correct way to rake a bunker. Please take the time to rake the bunker with both hands on the rake to ensure you leave an even surface in the bunker. Sand should be moved back towards the middle of the bunker. Talking about bunkers, the efforts of someone raking the 7th bunker during the summer cup left a lot to be desired. Refer picture attached. The mound was approximately 12cm in height and 15cm in width. How someone could leave the bunker in that condition is mind blowing. The footprints behind the mound are mine as I took several photos of this disgusting effort. Greens would like to request that members check that their playing partners rake bunkers correctly. There is a widespread issue with this at our club and we all need to take ownership and stamp this out.
- Pitch Marks and divots – Did you know that a correctly repaired pitch mark repaired in the first 5 – 10 minutes will fully recover within 24 hours. A poorly repaired pitch mark can take up to 4 weeks to recover. An unrepaired pitch mark will take at least 2 months and longer to repair itself. During this time, it is an entry point for weeds and disease to enter our green surface, whilst causing the green to be bumpy and the ball to roll offline. The same principle applies to divots on fairways. A divot repaired correctly by knocking in the sides or replacing the divot if sufficient roots and sand are still attached, may take between 1 – 2 months to recover, whilst an unrepaired divot will take somewhere between 3 – 4 months. As you can see we must repair our pitch marks and divots correctly to ensure our course remains in pristine condition. Members, please take pride in repairing pitch marks and divots.
- Trees – Five trees were removed near the first & eight greens as part of the Greens audit report which identified these trees as impinging upon the growth and sunlight during winter. Several trees on the LHS of the first fairway were also trimmed. We have agreed to remove limbs hanging over our neighbour’s property at the warmup range’s end. This will be completed late Feb / early March with the range closed for the day.
- Volunteers – The volunteers continue to mulch the tree limbs behind the 10th green as well as remove and mulch several limbs that had fallen over the past month. In addition, all paths have been edged.
- Tee boxes and fairways – Pockets of spotted spurge have broken out in various areas on the course such as the 6th and 9th tee boxes. This weed has been sprayed. Root removal areas on the 1st & 2nd fairways which were patched with yellow sand have been replaced with turf to speed up recovery of these areas.
- 12th green – Patches of winter grass have appeared on the 12th . Spraying to remove the winter grass will commence in late April when weather conditions are more favourable.
- General maintenance January – The following was completed during January:
- Tee boxes sprayed for kikuyu and summer grass.
- There were fortnightly dressings on all greens.
- Areas around trees were sprayed together with Bunker spraying.
- Falling limbs -There have been extremely windy conditions experienced during January which caused a large number of branches to fall. Most members do not see the results as these limbs are removed before play commencing. Refer photo below of the limb that fell on the back tee of the 16th on Wednesday the 10th The volunteers removed this limb before the Ladies reached this tee box.
