The dry season has continued over the last fortnight with the ‘added bonus’ of some icy mornings. The resultant frost patches have seen the Couch grass on tees and fairways lose colour and become a paler green. As the Couch is put further into dormancy, divot recovery time will increase and any imperfections will become more noticeable. The vibrant colour of our Winter Grass populations has made them more prominent against the dormant couch, over the next fortnight we will begin treatment of these populations with a post-emergent herbicide.
The slowdown of growth has enabled us to carry out some maintenance on the 13th hole; last Thursday and Friday we closed the hole with golfers playing the 19th hole instead. During this time, we were able to work unimpeded to re-turf the fairway renovation trial, rebuild the collapsed edge of the left-hand fairway bunker and replace turf damaged by disease on the green.
Last week we had the pleasure of hosting two work experience students from Immanuel College. Bailey and Eammon were great workers and a credit to the school, 
we just hope the early starts didn’t put them off a career in turf management. The boys were certainly a great help to Monina who is currently undertaking a fill replanting project at the entrance of the Club. Monina’s work over the next month will see a continuation of the tidy up at the James Melrose entrance and the removal of dead plants, pruning and fill planting to the vegetation beds between the 18th and clubhouse.
Happy Golfing!
Tim Warren
Course Superintendent
Official Golf Club of the Adelaide Football Club and proud partners of Links2Golf.