Course News & Updates, the Final Update for 2018

With this, the final Course News update for this year, I’d like to thank Committee, Staff and Members for making my time since beginning in May such a great experience. The club has been nothing but welcoming, supportive and has provided many great experiences working in the great “office” which is our course.

As ground staff, we’ve taken many positive steps in recent weeks to set the course up for the summer ahead.  Fairways have recovered well from the scarifying, with follow up fertiliser applications and favourable weather doing its part to see full recovery by the end on the month. Greens received a 6mm Hollow tine the week we scarified fairways to assist in the movement of irrigation, harmful bicarbonates and accumulated sodium which left unchecked, has the potential to make summer management of the Bentgrass quite challenging.

Recently we lost a valued member of our staff, Sam Raschella, which is a huge loss for us. Sam made a great contribution whilst with us over the last three years with his forward thinking, and questioning nature certainly keeping us on our toes! We wish Sam well for his future endeavours and hopefully we’ll continue to see his face around the club.

You may have seen some new faces about the place over the last few weeks, with two new staff members joining our team.  Dan O’Sullivan commenced with us at the start of November, coming over from Adelaide Shores or the “Pat.”  Dan has over 8 years’ experience as a Greenkeeper and has fitted seamlessly into the day to day activity of Glenelg.

Sophie Warren started with us as a summer casual to assist our Vegetation Officer, Monina, carrying out her maintenance work over the next two months leading up to the Queen Sirikit Cup.  This is Sophie’s first “real” job and so far, she hasn’t been too put off by the early morning starts and is really enjoying the experience that working here at Glenelg with Monina is providing.

Club Captain, Bevan Roberts and I met recently with a representative group to discuss the issue of Bunker access for our members.  This is an issue that the Committee and I have at the forefront of our ongoing Bunker management plans, both short and long term, for the sustainability from a management point and member playability.  In the short-term sand will be added to bunkers which over time have become deeper as well as addressing walk in points.  Long term, the committee over the next 12 months will be assessing all aspects of our Bunkering with the view of formulating a long-term maintenance strategy.  This week saw alterations made to the bunker front of the 10^th Green, with the access improved by lowering the grass tongue and the base of the bunker raised which will improve the access into and, out of quite significantly.

Finally, the irrigation upgrade on the Practice Fairway is all but complete with final testing carried out this week with irrigation cycles being run each morning to observe operations.  Remaining work is the tidying up of the trenches and removal of debris from excavated soil.  We are very excited at the prospect of now running the system through its paces over the summer months to evaluate the benefits that the installation will bring to the club long term. 

The next stage of the Practice Fairway upgrade is the extension of the hitting bays and the construction of a level turf practice tee in front of the hitting bay which will commence next month.

Hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas and enjoy the time with family and friends.

Happy Golfing!

Tim Warren,
Course Superintendent.