April 2013

Summer is thankfully on its way out, meaning that we can start dedicating more time to course improvement projects that are practically impossible during the rush of summer.


One such project is the path program.


So far we have prepared and installed granite paths at the 6th (extending path below green), 7th (Extending path from tee’s to fairway and reshaping of surrounding rough), 15th (Path from tee to trees below green) and the 18th (significantly extended path below tee). We are pleased with the outcome and are now preparing the next phase

The second phase will be below the 7th green, above the bunker at the 8th green, down the treeline between the 14th and 18th holes and the final connection at the 15th green joining the granite to the concrete.

Weather permitting; the contractors are booked in to start work on the remaining granite paths on Monday, April 29th.

During April we have oversown our shaded tee’s with ryegrass to improve the grass coverage during winter. The tees done are the middle and front tees at 5, all the tees at 6, 8th, 9th, both tees at 10 and both tees at 14.

While doing this we have oversown 6th, 7th and 8th fairways, which also suffer from shade problems during winter. This was combined with a good application of fungicide on all the fairways to prevent diseases such as Winter Fuserium.

The championship tee at 11 has been completely re-levelled and returfed providing a smooth, true surface for play. It is currently growing in well and is much improved on its old condition. This will be open for play approximately in the middle of May.

 

The path at the 11th green has been widened to allow better two way traffic flow and new turf has been laid alongside it.

We are beginning the construction of a new, extended nursery at the 17th for greens quality turf to go along with our fairway/tee nursery. This will be used to replace damaged sections of greens from vandalism and the effects of winter, meaning less downtime and better quality greens.

We plan to begin the removal of Nutgrass, kikuyu and blue couch from the greens, providing a smoother, higher quality putting surface.

It is our aim to provide our members and visitors with the best possible playing surface and a memorable day of golfing and we believe that these projects will help us towards this goal.

-Course maintenance team

New turf coming into summer

It has been 12 months since we received the soil from Northbridge oval and the soil levy work started. Combined with the fairway irrigation and water availability from the dam, we have been able to push Northbridge GC in the direction that we all know it should go.

The 12^th fairway is a perfect example of this. It is amazing how much the new works have improved the fairway. The rough beneath the 13^th tee’s used to be a thin, bare area where no grass would grow, but now we have thick kikuyu growing strongly. What would have used to be considered a bad lie for a ball is now perfectly playable. It also makes the hole play longer as balls hitting the rough are stopped quickly by the thick grass. It now requires a more accurate shot on the fairway.

Still on the 12^th fairway, the removal of the temporary green has added a smoother area of turf cut at fairway height meaning that less balls will roll down the bank into the rough, or if unlucky, into the gully.

While possibly the most evidently different, we cannot forget about other works that have occurred around the course. At the 7^th, bare patches on the left of the fairway and below the 8^th tee banks have been fixed and are now well growing rough.

The removal of the ridge in front of the 9^th tee has also made an impressive difference, removing the rocky, dirt covered mounds and not only providing a better playing surface, but also allowing a view down the fairway from the tee.

Work has been completed on the right side of the 8^th fairway, green end of the 9^th, reshaping around the dam on the 13^th fairway and 11^th green and small patches throughout all the fairways having almost seamlessly blended in now

Earlier this month, we completed shaping and turfing the area on the left of the 14^th fairway, just below the 18^th green and the path down from the 18^th tee to fairway. On top of being aesthetically better, the new turf on the path will provide a much smoother ride on the golf carts. With the completion of these two sites, we have moved almost 3,500 cubic meters (roughly 5000 tonnes) of soil over the last 12 months.

There is no doubt, the soil from Northbridge Oval has been a blessing and the Soil levy projects a great success. We continue to see the course improving, making it a better place for members and social golfers to visit.

On behalf of myself, Brendan, Lance, and all the greens we would like to wish all members a great Christmas and New Year.

Malcolm Harris.

Soil Levy Works.

Completed 12th hole.

12 hole before work.

9th before work to reshape and repair.

Receiving the 3,000 cubic meters of soil from the recent Northbridge oval upgrade has been fantastic. Since December we have been super busy transporting the soil, spreading, shaping and turfing it.

9th after remodeling work.

The area of fairway at the front of the 12th fairway was a particularly difficult site to fix up, having to deal with the redirection of large amounts of overland runoff and a maze of water holding rock shelves. This job alone would have cost $55,ooo with approx $40,000 being for soil.I am quite pleased with the results.

Allan doing some lovely turfing.

The other areas that have been repaired / returfed are the right side of the 1st fairway, the left and right roughs of the 7th hole, the right side of the 8th rough, the left and right sides of the 9th as well as the big area (1800m2) in front of the 9th tee.

We are finishing off all work returfing areas on the 12th hole, right and left sides of the rough before moving to the left of the 14th fairway.

Turfing patches in Fairways.

The practice of oversowing fairways with rye grass had until 5 years ago been a regular maintenance procedure at Northbridge. We were doing this for about 10 years. It looked great from May through September however it became increasingly difficult to transition the rye in the Kikuyu in spring / early summer. The decision was made to discontinue this practice.

A legacy of this oversowing has been many patches appeared in fairways and roughs of thin, weak Kikuyu with clumps of rye grass scattered in the bare patch. After chemically removing the rye, these patches persisted. The Kikuyu was very weak, riddled with fungal disease (Helmo) and exhibiting symptoms of mite damage. After re turfing many of these patches the new turf struggled to stay healthy, showing the same symptoms as the turf it replaced. Even after digging out the soil to a 300mm depth and replacing with new soil the Kikuyu turf was still struggling. This was making us look stupid, indeed it was a perplexing problem. After several attempts of re turfing with Kikuyu, I tried using Santa Anna couch. This worked perfectly with the couch having no problems at all.

One of the consultants who visits most of the golf courses in Sydney sees this interaction between ryegrass and Kikuyu in random patches regularly. There is sufficient anecdotal evidence to suggest there is an allelopathic effect from rye grass toxins effecting the Kikuyu. My assistant Brendan Brown who is currently doing his Masters degree at Sydney Uni suggested to Dr Peter Martin that he could do his research project on identifying the cause of this problem. Dr Martin felt this was more of a PhD project in respect to the amount of work required.

Anyway, I know some of the members have questioned why a grass other than Kikuyu is being used in the fairways. I hope this helps to answer the question.

Greens rennovations November 8th

Today we airated the greens with our vertidrain machine. We used 10mm hollow tines at 25mm spacings. A composted organic amendment and calcium amendment were applied followed by sand topdressing.

7,8 &9 FAIRWAY IRRIGATION. Octber 12th 2010

We have now completed the installation of irrigation on the 7th, 8th & 9th fairways with everything working perfectly. We have 7 fairways left to go before the whole course will be automatically watered with our own water supply. There is nothing like progress.

We have finished planting 1200 native tube stock around the main dam. We have been busy with fertilizing all the fairways and roughs, spraying out all the broadleaf weeds, onion grass and rouge rye grass clumps, applying pre emergent herbicide to control summergrass and crabgrass and wetting agent to the fairways. We are putting out our first application of primo for the season this week. We have had some useful rain at the right time and the course is looking in good shape for the club championships and the pro am later next month.

New path at 6th tee.

A new path has been installed at the 6th ladies tee. The gold granite path looks great and will make access for both carts and buggies a lot smoother.

We had 8 days with no significant rain, I was able to cut fairways yesterday (except for 2,3 & 4 which are still too wet) We also got some spraying of the Kikuyu in the tees & collars on holes 2,3 & 4 done on Friday and Monday. It was dry enough yesterday to recommence transporting mulch to the gardens around the dam. Unfortunately today it is raining again, looks like we will get another 15 - 25mm. This has been a very long, wet winter. All my staff were saying this morning how much they were looking forward to the spring and some warmer weather to dry the place out. I think it is really stating to get to everyone.