April Newsletter

Course renovations have now been completed and it is hoped that the issue with the state of the greens has been rectified and we can look forward to our high standard greens. Members are advised that daylight saving finishes on the 7^thApril 2019. Please adjust your clocks. Timesheets have been adjusted.

It has been brought to my attention that there is a safety issue regarding the course. The ditch between the 8^th and 9^th fairways has had further erosion causing this area to become very dangerous. It has been decided to make this area GUR until further notice, Members will be advised of any remedial action undertaken by the greens staff. Members are advised to keep out of this area.

The Mens and Juniors CCDGA pennants has been completed with none of our teams making the playoffs. I would like to thank all those members that represented the club with distinction.

The Ladies District Pennants is about to commence and I wish all those members all the success.

The representative season for the men’s commences again in May and August with the “Seniors’ pennants for the over 50’s and Super Seniors for the over 65’s. We will be fielding only one team in each of these competitions and nomination forms will be on the Club notice board in the Pro Shop very shortly.

When on the course members are reminded of the following:

• Please repair all divots on the greens
• Please take a sand bucket
• Please rake the bunkers and leave the rakes in the middle of the bunkers
• Please keep up with the group in front
• Please stick to the ready golf principles
• Please do not drive carts in area’s where they are prohibited. Please stay on the designated paths

CAPTAINS REPORT APRIL

March has been a busy month at Gosford. The Committee put a lot of work into St Patrick’s Joker Day and it proved to be a great success. We had a field of 100 and visitors from Breakers (22) and Shelly Beach.  Besides a short sprinkle of rain the weather was good, fortunate considering the torrential rain we’d had in the days leading up to the event. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day, the winning team was from Breakers and two Gosford teams were placed second and third. The raffle was well supported and we raised over $450 for our charity Central Coast Kids in Need.

As the greens at Gosford were renovated on Tuesday 26^th March, I organised a group booking at Kooindah Waters in their competition. The scores were average but the 36 ladies who played on the day had a good time.

Green ball day continued the St Patricks theme and was played on Thursday 28^th. There were 13 teams and the winners were Helen Potter, Bernie Kirkman and Cathy McGowen with a score of 120.

A big thank you to Helen Potter for organising and co-ordinating the Rookies programme. Tom and Kieran ran the coaching and we have six new lady golfers who are keen to practise and play as much as possible. Helen, Marianne and I have played an Ambrose format with them at the end of the field on two Thursdays to help them with the rules and golf etiquette.

Congratulations to the Ladies who entered the Toukley Classic which was played on the 11^th & 12^thMarch.     Narelle Fowler won her division on both days and was also the overall winner in division 4. Leonie Kelly also won the 2 day prize in her division and Kay Walker came 5^th in her division.

Pennants commences on Monday 1^st April. This year Gosford is in the Banksia Pool and Sharon Anderson will be the Captain. Thank you to those who have made themselves available to play and a special welcome to the new Pennants players, we wish the team luck.  Kieran ran a very worthwhile clinic on Friday the 22^nd where he focussed on bunkers, and chipping. The team will be announced on the Tuesday prior to each round.

Patrons Day which is sponsored by June Bowen is coming up on the 23^rd April, be sure to put your name down to play.

The 4BBB Knockout is coming up in May; Round 1 is on Thursday 2^nd May. We would like to see as many pairs as possible enter the event.

Open Day is on the 14^th of May and were hoping to fill the field (144) The flyer has gone out to other clubs and we look forward to a good response. I’ve notified our members of the details and suggested that you get names down promptly. Thanks to Sharon Anderson we have secured some sponsorship from Bendigo Bank. This will enable us to be generous with the prizes on the day. We will run the usual raffle and funds raised will go to the CCWGA Charity which is Rose Cottage.

The course is looking good after all the rain and hopefully the greens have recovered after the recent renovations. Some cooler weather in April and May will be most welcome.

Sheena Asken

Ladies Captain  

Superintendent’s Report – March 2019

Summary of works  

March has brought with it 266mm of rain across 11 days.

Since the start of January, we have had 433mm of rain compared to 225mm last year.

Last year our total rainfall was 844mm.

The weather plays a large role in what we do (some people need to remember that)

• March    (Average 77mm)
• April       (Average 130mm)

This large amount of rain is only ever good for filling up dams, which we didn’t need. What it did do was set us back a weeks. The endless pumping water out of bunkers, pushing up of the bunker faces and then the raking of the bunkers only for it to rain again and make us do it all again. The washing out of pathways, the washing out of freshly seeded areas on the greens has also been a problem.

The morning temperatures have stayed around the 20 degrees mark, meaning the disease and insect pressure is still around but not quite as high. Looks like another 4 weeks or so before the pressure completely eases. The extreme heat and high humidity seem a distant memory now.

At the start of February, we had a large task to repair all the damage from the fertiliser burn and from a tough January. We were able to take some turf from the spare green / nursery but this green had been hurt as well. We ended up putting out approximately 30kg of PENN A4 bent seed. The 5^th and 17^th greens were completely over sown while all other greens had seed added where needed.

Once the patching had finished, we started on hand spraying all the creeping Oxalis out of the greens. We sprayed out 32 litres of water mixed with the right chemical, which equalled to 1500m2 or 3 greens the size of the 2^nd green. Creeping Oxalis is a difficult to control weed that spreads easy and quickly.

We then went around all the greens to hand spray out Mullumbimby Couch. Mullumbimby Couch excels in moist soils and humid conditions and is also very difficult to control in Bent / Poa greens.

We then started spraying out the couch and kikuyu that had encroached into the greens. All 3 spray jobs involved me walking around with a hand-held spray pack, walking over every centimetre of the greens a number of times. Very time consuming but worth it.

The Corellas are in full swing, damaging most greens a number of times per day. Nothing seems to work. Last week I was repairing the back of the 3^rd green, I turn around and the Corellas were damaging the front of the green.

We have started the repair work needed to the spare green.

We have cut out the back of the green and will replace it with the cores taken from the green’s renovation next week. The areas that need further work will be seeded.

Works undertaken during March

Greens

• Verti-drained greens once this month to relieve compaction and to help in the aid of fighting disease and summer decline, as well as allowing water to penetrate the surface. We use 8mm tines which go 100mm deep.
• Coring of greens, 12mm hollow tine which goes 100mm deep.
• Applications of herbicide targeting Creeping Oxalis.
• Applications of herbicide targeting Mullumbimby Couch.
• Application of herbicide targeting Couch in Bent grass.
• Applications of insecticide targeting Nematodes. 2 application were put out this month.
• Applications of fungicide targeting Pythium prevention. 2 applications were put out.
• Applications of fungicide targeting Anthracnose and dollar spot prevention. 2 applications were put out.
• Applications of kelp products to aid in root development and disease resistance. 2 applications were put out 3 weeks apart.
• Applications of wetting agent to aid in water penetration, to dry thatch layer and help roots to search for deeper moisture. Applications applied every 2 weeks.
• Applications of gypsum applied directly to the plant, every 2 weeks.
• Application of soluble fertiliser to aid plant health, every 3 weeks.
• Application of soil conditioner.
• Application of Magnesium.
• Application of insecticide.
• Greens are currently getting cut at 4mm, 4 times a week (most weeks during summer)
• Holes get changed 5 times a week.

Surrounds

• Surrounds are cut twice a week at 15mm.
•  Apron cut around the green is at 6mm and done once a week.
• Surrounds were sprayed with insecticide.
• Green side sprinklers trimmed

Tees

• Tees cut twice a week at 15mm
• Application of liquid kelp fertiliser applied once a month
• Application of wetting agent applied once a month
• Tee sprinklers trimmed
• Tee markers moved everyday

Fairways

• Fairways cut once a week at 18mm.
• Fairway sprinklers trimmed

Bunkers

• All bunkers were edged and the grass edges were sprayed with a growth retardant.
• All bunkers are raked fully 3 times a week and on Saturdays all foot prints are raked out by hand.

Rough

• Rough cut when needed.
• Try and cut around Tees and Greens once a week.

Irrigation / Dams

• Dam water tested once a month for Salt / Sodium levels. 2^nd dam clear, 15^th dam clear
• 2^nd    dam full
• 15^th   dam  full

Other

• Pathway repairs –  8 Tonne of road base was put out to repair pot holes around the course

F-TROOP – APRIL 2019

During the month of March we had mixed weather including a deluge of rain, hot weather and a few nice days which was not at all what we expected of Autumn.

We have had a good average of workers each week considering we have had some away on holidays, golf trips or otherwise indisposed.  We even had nine volunteers who worked through a rainy morning.

We have taken care of a lot of tree maintenance, as well as rubbish pick up around the course preparation of firewood.

Hedges have been maintained, gardens weeded as much as possible, paths & tees raked and cleaned, bush toilets cleaned, and in-house club maintenance jobs.

Repair work to paths, maintenance to course furniture, tidy up of 1st & 10th tees, Wedding Garden, BBQ Garden and practice nets.

Firewood sales have commenced with early orders coming in already for this winter.  Get your orders in early to avoid disappointment.

Volunteers meet every Monday morning at 6.45 – 7.00am at the sheds. Morning tea is provided by the club 10.15am.

If you have time to volunteer for F-Troop work please contact:

Peter Martin:  0437 325 207

Jan Martin:  0400 430 088