Killara Golf Course Maintenance

2012-01-16T14:18:00.002+11:00

Member update – 16/1/2011

The wet weather just isn’t letting up!!! In the New Year we have received over 110mm (4 inches) with two rain event completely washing out bunkers on a Sunday afternoon to greet ground staff each Monday morning. Please see the before and after photos of the 16th greenside bunkers below to see how the heavy rain can damage these parts of the golf course. As a result of the washouts the silt washed off the faces mixes with the bunker sand which over time can create a real hard pan base which is starting to develop in some of our bunkers that continually washout.

19th green
The 19th green has been seeded and vegetatively propagated from cores however the storm last Sunday afternoon (7th January) which dumped 62mm of rain in around 1 hour washed a considerable area of the green away, we have since poisoned out the remaining areas of the green and will be regrading, levelling and seeding again later this week of next week depending on the weather for the rest of the week.

Ropes
With all the wet weather the course still gets soft and susceptible to damage from foot and vehicular damage. To try and combat this we installed some rope on the real wet areas and the areas that wear out considerably, even during summer. The ropes are there to help protect sensitive areas of the course.

4th and 14th Tee Resurfacing
This week we have started resurfacing both the 4th and 14th tees, both these tees are severely shaded and the turf suffers badly from this, if the weather is kind this week both tees will be completed by the end of the week. We will be using ‘Grand Prix’ couch grass which is the same turf we are using on the 5th ladies tee and the 8th championship tees which have seen to be performing well in our environment.

Collar Lowering
In the new year we will be started to lower some high collars that have gradually built up over time, we will be coring the first 2 foot of the collar with quite large cores as close and as deep as possible, removing the cores, watering and using a vibrating pedestrian roller to try and get the level down the green to minimise the step-up to the collar that is present in some of the greens. We will do this twice during the summer.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year period

Regards

Ryan Fury
Grounds Manager
ryan.fury@kgc.com.au

Workshop Activities

2011-08-25T09:27:00.002+10:00

Morning everyone,

We are in the process of getting ready for spring and one of the things we need to do is ensure the equipment is ready to go for the long cutting season ahead. Our Mechanic Rod Smart has been busy grinding the cylinders on the fairway mowers to ensure they will be cutting as best they can througbhout the summer. He did a relief grind which takes the back edge of the cylinder blade, creating less drag on the unit and allowing a better cut to be achieved throughout the summer, then he spin grinds them which gives the sharp front edge to the blade providing the scything action to cut the leaf..

Rod has been using the new Bernhard grinders now for the last two season and they have more then paid for themselves with the amount of cylinder grinding we have been doing over that time. With both our fairway mowers nearkly ten years old Rod does a fantastic job in keeping the equipoment in top shape.

I have attached some photos of the grinders in action below.

the fairway mower after grinding and cleaning

Close up of the grinded cylinder

Finished product

Rod relief grinding one of the cylinders

these processes ensure our equipment is up to providing the best possible cut on areas of the golf course for the summer.

Regards

Ryan

2011-08-16T09:14:00.004+10:00

Here are a couple of pictures from Kinloch on the shores of Lake Taupo.

Fantastic green compleex on the par 5 13th

The par 4 5th hole with plenty of bunkering down the LHS

NZ Trip

2011-08-16T08:35:00.005+10:00

Morning everyone,

Last week I was lucky enough to visit two of new zealands best golf courses. A group of superintendents from sydney and canberra visited Cape Kidnappers and Kinloch, both on the north island of NZ. They were two of the finest golf courses I have had the pleasure of visiting and playing, the scenary and conditions were second to none and all who went got an invaluable insight into both these facilities. Below are some photos from the trip of Cape Kidnappers.

The 15th Fairway at Kidnappers with the 100m drop right off the edge of the fairway

One of the par 3 cliff carry holes looking back to the tee

The LHS bunker on the 15th green @ kidnappers

Regards

Ryan

New Sand Bins

2011-06-22T08:04:00.005+10:00

Morning everyone,
The wet weather last week (almost 4 inches of rain) enable the course staff to build the below sand bins to go out on the course and replace the existing round concrete bins. they are made with the same material as the new 150m marker to try and keep all the accessories as uniform as possible. We have built four of these new bins and will continue to build them as the winter progresses.

9th tee

14th tee

we have also placed new bins on the 4th tee and between the 4th and 6th greens.

Regards

Ryan

New 150m Posts

2011-06-06T08:57:00.003+10:00

Belwo are some photos of the 150m posts we made last week during the wet weather and course closure, they are 90mm*90mm hardwood posts cut to length with brass 150 screwed into the front, they are in the same holes as the old posts with a new sleeve inserted into the ground to allow the post to be removed when the roughs are mown.

Course Ropes

2011-06-06T08:10:00.004+10:00

Morning everyone,
It is that time of the year when the course is very sensitive with wet soil conditions and a distinct lack of sunlight on the fairways and some greens and tees. we have now got rope up on all the sensative area to help protect them for the winter months, over the past 2 winters this has helped considerably in preventing turf loss on the fairways and this winter should be no different. It would help everyone out if all buggies and carts are taken around these ropes, I know it can be a bit difficult but the course will benefit, only 12 weeks until spring!!

Regards

Ryan

Nursery Update

2011-06-06T07:45:00.003+10:00

Nursery Trial Update

The nursery green is now down to 5mm HOC and is covering over very well, there are a few different varieties starting to stand out, however as I have mentioned earlier this differences will be more evident in the coming months as the green matures. The important things we will be testing for as the green matues includes drought tolerance, heat and cold hardiness, disease resistance and overall playablity. The green will be open for play soon and I would encourage everyone to have a putt on the green and use it as a normal green would be used.

I have attached some pictures for you to check out.

Regards

Ryan

Trials

2011-05-30T11:43:00.002+10:00

Morning everyone,

The trial work continues on the practice fairway with the bentgrass trial knitting up well, we are cutting it @ 6mm and will have it down to closer to 4mm HOC later this week, there are some different varieties already starting to show some promise and overall the green has good coverage. We havent been pushing this green to hard and @ 13 weeks old now could easily been in play if pushed, one distinct advantage of the newer varieties of bentgrass is their fast establishment, we will keep everyone updated and include a few pics as the green advances.

We also established a couchgrass / Zoysia trial to see how they fair in almost full shade on the northern side of the spare 19th hole. the couchgrasses used where santa anna, windsor green and grand prix, and all are starting to struggle now with the distinct lask of sunshine however the zoysia is still looking strong, although a little slow to cover over the seams from turfing. It will be interesting to see how the zoysia performs over the full winter and next growing season up against the more traditional couch varieties.

Regards
Ryan

Nursery Trials

2011-03-01T13:35:00.003+11:00

Afternoon everyone,

We have finally been able to source all the different bent grass varieties for use in our bentgrass greens trial to determine the best bent grass variety to use at Killara in the future. we are trialling 8 different varieties of bent grass, one bent grass mix and two bent / fescue mixes, these grasses and mixes are below:

Bentgrasses

Mackensie
007
Declaration
G-2
Dominant extreme
L-93
T-1
Tyee

Mixes

Killara mix - Dominant extreme - 20%, Fescue mix - 10%, Tyee - 35%, Mackensie - 35%
Woodsy mix - Dominant Extreme - 25%, G2 - 25%, Tyee - 30%, Fescue mix - 20%
Ryans mix - Tyee - 40%, Mackensie - 40%, Dominant Extreme - 20%

The trial is using a randomized plot design with 3 replications off all varieties exept T-1,Tyee and Dominanat extreme which has 4 replications. All the above grasses are being trialed as a collar grass with one replication each as a collar. The other varieties being trialed as a collar include sea-isle paspalum, ryegrass and couch grass. please note a growth mat was used for the first 7 days to ensure a good germination of the seed.

After testing for everything from germination rates and times, density, colour, vogour, thatch production, speed, Poa resistance, drought, heat and disease tolerance we will given an insight into which of the new bent grasses will work best in our local environment.

Please see some pictures below of the seeding and the plots 5 days post seeding.

Plots 5 Days after seeding

Plots 5 days after seeding

Rolling in the seed with the bunker bike ensure good seed / soil contact

Seeding using shaker bottles

seed pressed into the sand after bunker bike

We will endeavor to keep you all updated as this trial proceeds

Regards

Ryan

Irrigation Repairs

2011-01-18T14:21:00.002+11:00

Over the past few months we have been experiencing alot of difficulties with our irrigation control system, the electrical component of the control system has been working inconsistantly and on several times failing completely. after alot of trouble shooting we have identified an area of the main communication cable to the bradfield paddock lossing voltage to earth between the maintenance facility and the first satelitte box behind the 8th green.

We have run a temporary cable attached to the dam and boundary fences and this has resulted in eliminating some of the issues we where having with the system. On Monday of this week we had a trenching machine in to run a new trench for this cable as you can see from the photos below. This will be in and the trench filled by the end of the week.

Trench joining the satelitte box at the rear of the 8th green

Trench running through the trees on the RHS of the 8th hole

Regards

Ryan

Fiducian Australian Masters PGA

2010-11-19T10:31:00.002+11:00

Morning everyone,
It has been a while since I have updated the blog, sorry about that, we have been really busy here at Killara getting the course back into shape after winter with alot of collars getting returfed and the spring fertilising / renovating the different parts of the golf course. Last week Killara hosted the 2010 Fiducian Australian Masters PGA event which was a big deal for the club and is probably the biggest event the club has held here in the past.

The preparions went really well with only a few hickups along the way, the main one being a massive storm that hit the course on the night before the tournament started with 20mm of rain falling in about 20 minutes washing out all the bunkers and leaving rivers and dams accross many tees, greens and fairways, all the staff worked extremmely hard to have all the water sqeeugied off the course and all the bunkers repaired before play got underway from both tees at 7.30am the next morning.

I have attached a few photos for you to have a look at below

Regards
Ryan

Steve double cutting the 8th green on day 2

The 3rd fairway after the strom on Wednesday afternoon

Members helping out with divoting on the 6th fairway

The first hole looking back down the fairway on day 1

The 3rd fairway on the friday afternoon

3rd Green Reclaiming

2010-08-09T12:30:00.003+10:00

Hi everyone,

The 3rd green works have now been completed and everyone is happy with the results, the boys did a great job preparing and laying the new turf. We have gained approximately 100m2 of putting area but more importantly the increase in size and the lowering of the RHS collar has doubled the number of pin placements available which will spread the wear around considerably.

Some important things for golfers in the upcoming few months. Firstly, it is important to minimise traffic over the new turf, please keep all unnecessary traffic off the grass until it has a chance to mature further, this includes wheeling all buggies completely around the RHS bunker and keeping away from the edge of the bunker. Secondly, when the bunker returns to play please do not walk up the face to exit the bunker, exit the bunker at the rear as this will collapse the edge.

I have attached some photos of the works for you below.

Nick doing some hand work on the surface prep.

The putting surface ready for turf

The rear of the bunker reshaped to remove the uneven tongue and improve mower access

Laying turf, turf cut from the nursery green

The final product with green extended right and left

This new turf will need approximately 6-8 weeks to mature properly, we will be topdressing and rolling the new turf several times to help smooth and firm it up for normal play, the rest of the green will remain open during this time.

Regards

Ryan

3rd green works

2010-07-29T13:28:00.002+10:00

Hi everyone,

Next monday we will be commencing works on the 3rd green to reclaim some of the surrounds and tranfer the kikuyu back to bentgrass putting surface. Over the years this green has got gradually smaller to be now less then 200m2 which by modern standards is tiny and obviously limits the amount of pin placements and minimises the greens ability to combat traffic and the problems associated with it.

We will be doing the following to the green and the surrounds over the next week

Strip the turf of the RHS collar, part of the LHS collar and part of the rear collar
Reshape the RHS bunker and lower the RHS collar to allow this area to become pinable.
reshape the LHS and returf
returf the rear collar

We will be doing all the work in house and using the turf from the nursery green, which will be used as a bentgrass trial green with over 9 varieties and combinations of bent grass are to be trialed.

The work will be completed in one week, weather permitted and the turf should be grown in enough over the next 5-6 weeks to allow play on it. The green will be open for play during this time.

I will keep the blog updated throughout the process.

Regards

Ryan

Frost Damage

2010-07-15T13:53:00.003+10:00

Afternoon everyone,

We are finally seeing some finer days with some sunshine and stonger westerly winds to help dry the course out!! We suffered some bad frost damage two weeks ago which is just starting to grow out now. We have alot of rope out on the course at them moment to help protect the sensitive fairways from damage thanks to the shade and high moisture levels in our heavy clay soils. below are some photos of the frost damage on the 10th fairway and the shady green surround on the 14th greens showing the blackening of the turf leaf 2 days after the frost.

14th green surrounds

10th fairway buggy marks

We only need to protect the shady fairways for a further 5-6 weeks until the spring will bring some warmer 22-23 degree days to get some growth going.

Regards
Ryan

2010-07-02T06:39:00.005+10:00

Afternoon everyone,
I have recently returned from Tasmania where I went on a self funded study tour with several other Golf Course Superintendents to Barbougle Dunes on the north coast of tassie. We played golf on the course and had a guided tour of the new course which is opening in October this year. The course itself is a fantastic test of golf on an amazing peice of land. Although loosing several balls in the very long and think marram grass rough it was an amazing experience I would suggest any lover of golf should do at least once. The grasses used there are completely different to here in Sydney ,they use fescue grasses throughout the golf course with the greens being 4 different varieties of fescue. The greens are cut at 5mm and although being cut quite high they are very hard and fast. I have attached some photos for you to have a look at below

Veiw of the new course growing in

one of the beach front holes

Undulating green on the back nine

Sunrise over the 18th green

Playing out of the greenside pot for fun at the very drivable par 4 4th hole

Regards

Ryan

2010 Turf Conference

2010-06-30T16:02:00.002+10:00

Afternoon everyone,

It has been a while since my last post, sorry about that, I have just returned from one weeks annual leave and also attended the recent annual turf management conference on the gold Coast where the temperatures where considerably warmer then the current weather in Sydney!!! where we have experienced two days with very large frosts over the golf course.

The 2010 Turf Conference had several excellent international speakers including the Course Manager at Turnberry Links in Scotland who gave an insight into his experiences preparing for several open championship at Turnberry and St Andrews and various other experiences in his career. Other speaker included local superintendents and industry specialists and Dr Thom Nikoli from Michigan State University who specialises and greenspeed and roller use research. His presentation and involvement on a green speed open forum with Australian superintendents provided some interesting theories with the use of rollers and determining the best green speed for individual clubs, he stated a very good case for using the rollers more then what most australian superintendents currently do and this information is something that we could definately use here at Killara.

The Annual golf championships were held at the Glades GC on the Gold Coast, which boasts the most northern bent grass greens in Australia, unfortunatley my 28 points wasnt enough to win the stableford, I think having 7 wipes had somethiing to do with that!!! 32 points won the day as the course was set up very difficult for his fellow superintendents.

Regards
Ryan

Greens Renovations

2010-05-15T18:36:00.005+10:00

Hi everyone,

With the bi-annual greens renovations completed last week I thought I would give everyone an insight into what we do to the greens. Many members experience the aftermath of the renovations with sandy, bumpy and slow greens.

It is a major undertaking for the entire golf course maintenance crew with the entire team working until dark on both closed days to complete the process. We start out two weeks prior to the closing days with a slow release fertiliser applied to all the greens to enable a faster, stronger recovery from the processes. during the spring we would scarify the greens first, however during the Autumn renovation this process isn't undertaken.

We start by hollow coring the greens with 5/8 inch hollow tynes to a depth of 75mm with a 50mm * 50 mm spacing, these cores are picked up of the green.

Once the cores have been removed the excess is blown from the green and collar with back pack blowers and the greens are topdressed and left to dry, unfortunately for this renovation we received sand that was very wet and required us to spread it out over the 9th carpark to dry and was still wetter then we wanted, this meant it took a little longer to dry when applied to the greens and we had to go a little heavier to avoid the topdresser blocking up.

Once the sand is dry it is rubbed in to place it down into the profile down the core hole, this is done by towing a metal dragmat across and around the green until all the holes are filled.

When all the holes are filled the excess sand needs to be blown off the green and collars into the surrounds using the turbine blowers which are used on the fairways and tees, and also backpack blowers.

The final process for each green is to blow the excess sand out of the sprinkler heads and the edge of the green, change the hole, rake the greenside bunkers, fertilise and water in the sand and fertiliser.

As you can see the renovation process is a major undertaking by the course staff for the ongoing benefit and health of the greens, it is essential for our old Poa greens that this process is done, it increases air / water movement into the profile and increases root depth and density which is essential for the greens to survive the high stress levels, heat,humidity and drought placed on them during the summer months

Turf works

2010-05-04T07:15:00.008+10:00

Morning everyone,
You may have notice alot of turfwork has occured around the golf course in the past month. We have done this for a number of reasons, however the primary reason was to standardise the turf species used throughtout the golf course, to have kikuyu fairways and surrounds and couch tees. other areas have been done such as the LHS of the 15th rough whihc had topsoil spread over what was very bony ground and turfed to improve the look of this area that was always hard to grow grass on.

The areas that have been completed are:

1st tee - removed Kikuyu and replaced with couch.

10th rough RHS - reshaped the exit of the maintenance path to redirect storm water away from the shady area of the 10th fairway.

12th green and 13th tee surrounds - removed areas of kikuyu and replaced with couch to keep this area uniformly couch grass

15th championship tee - removed hedge, tree and small stonewall, and replaced with couch to improve the access and growing conditions for the tee.

15th rough LHS - topsoil was spread over this bony ground and kikuyu laid to improve the eusthetics in this area.

17th green surrounds - removed patches of Couch and replaced with kikuyu to kept this area uniformly kikuyu. We have also installed some synthetic turf on the high traffic area of the walk off and remediated the pathway back to its original width, the bunker was also reshaped to allow easier access for both the golfers and maintenance staff.

These areas have been marked GUR and two drop zones are in place on the 17th green surround, please take care on these new areas for a few weeks while the turf settles in.

Regards
Ryan

Pathway Entry / Exit Points

2010-04-22T09:30:00.005+10:00

The pathway entry and exit points are the highest wearing areas of the golf course. Over the past few years different methods have been used to reduce this wear including plastic turf cells and crumbed rubber, neither of these have been successful with the high levels of traffic eventually wearing the turf out creating bare and slippery areas that become quite dangerous for the golfers to negotiate.

The past week we have installed some new synthetic turf, the same product that is used to build gridiron stadiums in Northern USA areas. this has been installed on the 2nd tee entry, 18th tee exit and the 15th green exit pathways, please see the photos below of the installation on the 2nd tee entry point.

Old soil removed with the excavator to a depth of 150mm

Road base used to fill and compacted with plate compactor

Synthetic turf is stapled and a sand / rubber mix added

Sand / rubber is broomed into the surface 3-4 times

Finished product which blends in well with the kukyu rough.

Hopefully this new turf will hold up to the heavy traffic in these areas.

Regards

Ryan Fury

New Maintenance Facility

2010-04-06T11:15:00.004+10:00

After posting some photos of the old maintenance facility I though it would be nice for everyone to see the new facility, it is first class and one that the membership should be very proud of.
Ryan

2010-04-03T21:13:00.002+11:00

Members,

Summer is now coming to an end, the cooler weather nights are now with us. For the next 2-3 months we will be protecting the golf course to get through the winter without to much damage, primarily on tees and fairways with the heavy shade issues the club has it is important that we minimise the incidence of winter fusarium on the kikuyu fairways.

We will be following last years program which includes removing the dew of the fairways with a large hose filled with water, preventatively spraying fungicides to minimise the incidence of the disease (3 applications) to the shady sides of fairways, 2 applications of biological stimulants and once winter sets in we will be roping of the sensitive areas on the shady sides of the fairways. It would be very beneficial to the turf if all pull buggies and golf carts are kept of these areas.

Thanks and I hope everyone gets to enjoy the course over the next few months with some great autumn weather.

Regards
Ryan

2010-04-03T20:42:00.001+11:00

I thought I would post some photos of the old Maintenance facility
now that the new facility is up and running. The new facility is far
more efficient and provides the staff with first class facilities, one of
the best in the country.

Enjoy
Ryan

Pathway Photos

2009-12-10T12:39:00.003+11:00

Please see the photos below of the new pathway works on the 14th and 18th tee complexes.

Regards

Ryan

Tee reconstruction works

2009-12-10T11:59:00.003+11:00

The new tees on the 14th, 18th and 3rd tees are progressing well with the pathways being poured as we speak, we are installing these pathways in house, which will result in a massive saving for the club, the work is done being done by course mechanic Rod Smart and greenkeeper Nick Gudgin, both are doing a great job. Please see below some photos of the new works.

Regards

Ryan

Greens recovering

2009-11-23T09:43:00.003+11:00

Morning everyone,
The greens are recovering very well from the renovations which took place last Monday and Tuesday, the greens were scarified @ -5mm once, tyned with 5/8 inch tynes, top dressed and fertilised. All the core holes were filled with sand thanks to the turbine blowers which are used to blow the dry sand into the holes and remove any sand from the green surface, which helps to promote a faster recovery from these processes.

It was a very hot day on Monday, therefore the staff had to work fast to rub in and blow the sand off before the heat created by the sand started to burn the turf. The course staff did a great job on both Monday and Tuesday with the guys here to 6pm both days.

We will cut the greens everyday now and they will be back down to playing height by the end of the week, with all the core holes fully recovered in approximately 7-10 days time.

Regards
Ryan