More rain

As I sit and write this on Friday afternoon, it is raining quite steadily and the forecast is not looking to good either. The weather bureau is predicting 100-150mm of rain overnight and into the morning, which doesn't bode well for the final round of the Bobby Locke medal.

The rain coming today is quite a shame as the course was looking really good after a busy weeks work, the bunkers were all dry and raked, the rough is cut and the fairways were, as usual, excellent. We had a little bit of rain earlier in the week, but it came at a good time as I was on the verge of irrigating anyway.

We have moved the old bunker sand from the 11th flight area this week and spread it across some flight areas and path run offs, this should make traveling on a cart a bit smoother, and over time, look much better as well. Although the course will probably be wet, I hope everyone enjoys their game on the weekend.

Happy Golfing,
Stewart Poole

Wednesday Storms

After a good 10 days of sunlight and drying weather, we were hit with a very nasty storm. I was fortunate enough to be out playing in the Wednesday comp this week when at about 3.30pm a massive storm swept over most of Brisbane. Within 20 mins we received 37mm, (an inch and a half) the rain was as heavy as I have seen any where. The water was flowing across the road on the first and level was about a foot above the dam the whole way across to the main dam.

The majority of the course handled the rain very well, although the bunkers were again trashed, many full of water and the majority were washed out. although this is good to settle the new sand, it is a massive amount of work for the groundstaff. All of the bunker bar 2 are back in play, so the weekend should be as per normal.

Happy Golfing
Stewart Poole

Finally a respite from the poor weather, over the week of rain we had just short of 300mm or a foot in the old money. This being considered, the course as of today is in very good shape. The entire course has been cut, and in some cases, several times, all of the bunkers are in play and there is very little water laying around.

The committee decided to allow motorised carts on the course on Wednesday, and I can say it was quite a success, there was not damage and very little in the way of wheel marks anywhere. This weekend carts are allowed through the course, but hopefully everybody will still use common sense and stay away from any wet or boggy areas.

Those of you that played last weekend and Wednesday will also be happy to know the greens are back to a more decent speed this week. The growth of the grass plays a very big part in green speed, normally we will take 1-2 catcher loads of grass off the 18 holes, last week at its peak we were taking 9-10 catchers loads. As you can imagine, this will slow the greens dramatically. As of Friday, we are back very close to where we want to be.

Good Golfing,

Stewart Poole