12th December 2014

Notice to Members & Guests

Dear Members & Guests,

Recently Thurgoona Country Club Resort Management and the Board of Liverpool Catholic Club gave approval for the Golf Course Maintenance department to undertake works for the conversion of our fairways from common couch to Santa Ana couch. Santa Ana is a hybrid couch that has a more aggressive growth pattern, it has a finer leaf and shorter dormancy period providing us with a better quality grass.

This week has seen the initial stage occur with the Contractor coming in to complete the line planting.  The line planting involves cutting grooves into the surface allowing the Santa Ana sprigs to be dropped into these spaces.  After this rolling of the surface occurs to ensure that the sprigs make good contact with the soil.

There will be some excess of sprigs that will be left on the surface but the important area is the contact of the sprigs to the sub surface which enables the growth to occur.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken there will be some remedial work required to repair some areas around the green surrounds.

Irrigation will be running regularly to ensure adequate moisture in the sub surface is maintained allowing for root development to occur.  Irrigation will run both day and night during the initial 2 -4 week period and then will be reduced over time.

Holes: 1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17             10:30 – 1:00pm

            3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 14, 16, 18                   12:30 – 2:30pm

During the initial stages areas may become quite wet including bunkers and at times extra growth and clippings may be prevalent in other areas of the course.

Fertiliser applications to promote root growth will be undertaken regularly over the coming months to assist with the overall process.

To enable the best possible establishment of the Santa Ana in the initial 2 – 4 weeks a reduced maintenance schedule of the areas line planted will occur.

The area of key importance for golfers is cart traffic.  ALL carts must remain off the line planted areas for a minimum of 8 weeks or until notified by Management.  Compliance of this is critical as without this the establishment of the Santa Ana will be heavily impacted and damage to the root development will occur from carts.

Thank you for your assistance.

Regards Dean Lewis

Golf Course Superintendent