With the weather slowly warming up we are slowly seeing more members out on the course. Wednesday Twilight Golf is slowly picking up and a number of trade and special event days have been held. Our turf maintenance programs are now in full swing and with couch grass coming out of dormancy, groundstaff are busily putting the finishing touches to projects in readiness for the upcoming Club Championships, trade day bookings and course projects that will be undertaken towards the end of November into December.
One such project is the replacement of the right-hand side collar of the 17th. This section of the collar was degraded through traffic compaction, tree roots and couch grass encroachment. This section of collar has been excavated, soil profile replenished, and sod re-laid with Bent grass turf. The majority of the work was carried out by staff which was a fantastic effort by the guys to complete in a week.
This area will be GUR until the turf has taken root and we ask that if possible, please avoid walking over the new sod for the next fortnight to assist in the establishment of the new collar.
Whilst the 17th was closed to undertake the collar replacement, the pavers at the tee path were lifted and removed. This paved path will be replaced with a reinforced quarry sand path and the aim is to have works on this area completed over the next fortnight.
Our vegetation team of Monina and Ian “Henry” Lawson have been busy over the last fortnight, continuing their maintenance works of plantings put in over winter as well as clean up works through established vegetation. Henry has been focused around the “Wedding Lawn” area with hand weeding, raking up of Pine debris and removal of the weed Galenia.
Drought and salt tolerant, Galenia grows over and smothers existing vegetation by forming a thick dense mat. It invades coastal dunes, pastures, disturbed areas, lawns, roadsides and rocky outcrop vegetation. This weed is one that will be a real focus for control going forward for the maintenance of our vegetation areas.
Monina, in addition to her general maintenance work, has been working in areas of the course that have remnant vegetation, working on weed removal and the promotion of a self-seeding, self-sustaining area. One such area is right-hand side of the 12th Fairway. The area has been hand weeded to reveal several plant species native to our sand belt, including Lomandria spp, Common Everlasting and Spear Grasses to name a few. So if you are in this area looking for stray balls, we request that care be taken to avoid damaging these great examples of our native vegetation which we are trying to encourage.
Happy Golfing!
Tim Warren
Course Superintendent
Official Golf Club of the Adelaide Football Club and proud partners of Links2Golf.