DCC Golf Course Superintendent's Blog
by Willie Botes
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:20:00 +0000
Its amazing how mother nature can make a golf course superintendent go from hero to zero in no time ! November we had a flood at DCC and the course was unplayable for a week and only dried out after 2 weeks of pumping and moving water of the course. January arrives and we have 10% of our normal rainfall in January with our water supply to the course down by 80% and the golf course drying out quikly...
Hole 1 at DCC on the 3rd of January 2012
Hole 1 at DCC on the 23rd of January 2012
The front holes 1-8 are build on old sand dunes and drains very well so these holes where the first to start burning due to the heat. The rest of the golf course is mainly build on a clay soil structure and retains more water keeping it green for longer.
Our water supply to the golf course comes from a well point that was taken out by the flood and we are awaiting the last few parts to arrive to get it back and running as it all had to be imported. For now we need to hope and pray for rain as the golf course it taking strain with hardly enough water for tee's and greens.
Thu, 29 Dec 2011 09:13:00 +0000
As most of you are aware we had a flood on the course less then a month ago and we have been cleaning up and getting the course right to where is was and even better in some areas.
Some areas the earth was so saturated that the water was not going anywhere and we had to move it by hand as it was to little to pump.
In less then a week of pumping 24/7 we got the course dry and in a playable condition.
9th Fairway almost back to normal after some cultural practises
16th fairway looking reasonable good again.
We have had some fairways and rough areas get invested by crickets and have sprayed to get rid of them.
We are in a process of spraying out any foreign grasses and weed on the course so please bare with us in areas where the native grasses are growing back and it looks a bit bare.
We have been busy with a tree program cutting and shaping trees and the coastal bush so that mowers and players can move freely under and around them.
Thu, 01 Dec 2011 06:05:00 +0000
When it rains it pours !!! There is no more truer saying then that... Over November we have 300mm (12inches) of rain so the course has been very saturated so much that we have started to see water standing in area where it normally drains away naturally. Its been a very wet month for us to start with and then on Sunday night the heavens opened up and dropped 125mm (5inches) in about 3 hours flooding all the bunkers and leaving water standing on every fairway. Durban Country club sits between Morningside town that's on a hill and the see, so all off the water passes through a culvit next to the 16th into the river that runs to the see. This was to much water for our culvit and it over flowed onto the course leaving the Driving range, 16th and 9th fairway under +- 1m (40inches) of water !!!
16th Fairway Sunday Morning...
16th Fairway Monday Morning...
9th Fairway
Water level on the driving range as seen on the trees...
3rd Fairway
14th Fairway
All the bunkers got flooded and needs to be repaired....
Pumping the water of the fairways with every pump we can lay our hand on.
Pumping 320 cubic liters per hour 24/7
After 3 days of pumping there is hope !
This rain puts us on 428mm for November...
The course should be open for play Friday and there will be a local rule in place for fairway 16 and 9. Cart will only be aloud one the fairways have dried out. Please bear with us.
Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:33:00 +0000
Rain rain rain.... we had 2inches (50mm) during last week, But Friday night and Saturday the heavens opened up and we got 4inches (106mm) that flooded the greens and left water standing on all the greens and fairways
5th green and fairway
9th green
Road to halfway
16th fairway
On Sunday the greens where dry and playable and ready for you golfers. The bunkers had to be pumped to get the dry and they where done by mid morning today Monday.
Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:49:00 +0000
The last week we have removed 6 Non indigenous (exotic umdoni) trees surrounding the 10th green. These trees where removed as they where non indigenous and where causing the green to struggle due to the amounts of shade they cast for long periods of time during the day.
The tree stump where grind away to 30cm/ 12 inches under the ground for us to fill the holes with a growing medium and grow new grass over the old stumps.
Here is a video of the stump grinder going to work with a tree stump.
Thu, 03 Nov 2011 09:44:00 +0000
As many of you are aware, the 4th green sits in a very low laying area in the shape of a bowl. This green has been a problem green when it comes to heavy rain as it flood quickly due to the fact that is lying in a dip and the green subsoil system is mainly clay so it does not drain. Water gets to stand on it for long periods of time causing the grass to struggle and algae growth to occur which results to plant death.
This has caused problems before especially through the rainy season and we had to take action by installing a drain. We started the day after the Suncoust classic and only took 3 days to complete. Take in consideration installing a drain in an existing green is a very delicate process as you need to make sure you don't damage the rest of the green
We started by striping the lawn nicely so that we can put it back in the order it was taken off.
This is a profile pic of the growing medium on the 4th green. 6 Months ago we drilled holes in the green with a big drill that was 20cm wide and replaced the growing medium to help with the draining. You can clearly see the layering and clay in the green on the left and the right is the new growing medium.
All the old growing medium was removed and the levels where done with a laser leveler tool. The drain runs with a 5% fall from back to front and drops 30cm over the length of the green.
We installed a 110mm perforated drain pipe in the green.
The pipe was then covered with 7mm gravel stone and covered with bidim to stop sand going into to stone or pipe.
The new growing medium filled the rest of the trench and it was compacted and ready for lawn.
Here you can see the drain working as we flood the area to compact before we re sod.
Sodding all done and green to be rolled and opened the next day !
Green opened the next day !
Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:38:00 +0000
Yet another sucessfull Suncoast classic held at Durban Country Club. Congrats to
Darren Fichardt who has been dominant throughout the week and shot a final-round 68 to win the Suncoast Classic by six strokes on Saturday.
Fichardt took his 12th Sunshine Tour victory after closing the R500,000 event at 13-under-par, six shots clear of runner-up
Ulrich van den Berg. Also congrats to
Alex Haindl,
Allan Versfeld and
Warren Abery, who shared third at six-under-par
See you boys again next year !
Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:09:00 +0000
As you guys are aware we hollow tinned the greens a few weeks ago and this is a video to explain it in layman's terms what it does and why its necessary.
Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:54:00 +0000
Summer is here and the heat is coming !!! Wetting agents are surfactants.They act by modifying the surface tension between water and another surface, like leaf blades or soil particles.
A wetting agent is a product used in golf course management to increases the ability of water to penetrate soils. It decreases the surface tension of soil particles making it easier for water to infiltrate and spread through the soil profile. It makes water more efficient.
We use wetting agents on both courses to improve the effectiveness of nightly irrigation. In periods of stress, the improved water effectiveness helps us combat dry spots when we hand water. It also helps roots get the water they need to keep the grass plant alive.
We have started treating greens with wetting agent over the last few weeks in preparation for the summer heat.
