Afternoon sun over the 18th green and Clubhouse Photo: David Brand
COURSE & MAINTENANCE It was an uncertain start to the year with the arrival of COVID-19. Pleasingly, we were able to adapt our maintenance practices in order to keep the course to the highlevel expected by our Members throughout the restriction periods. Our team was split into two, to adhere to capacity restrictions and to ensure the continuity of course maintenance, with teams working every second day for twelve-hour shifts on a fourteen-day roster.
proven it to be a viable alternative which will enable us to retain this key feature of the golf course and make maintenance and upkeep a more sustainable prospect. Our greens were renovated in September with the assistance of external contractors, and the annual fairway and tee renovations were undertaken in-house in early December. Agronomic benefits to our turf surfaces have meant that they have withstood the pressures of extra rounds due to the COVIDinduced golf boom.
This changing landscape gave us the opportunity to engage Ryan Van Der Veen, who has extensive experience around the world with golf course design and construction. With Ryan’s assistance, our team renovated approximately twenty bunkers, lowering the access points to improve Member access in and out of bunkers. This work has been well received and gave us a chance to address an ongoing issue for many of our Members.
Other key projects this year have been: • continual work to upgrade the front entrance • path works and carry works at the 11th hole • riparian works at the 8th and 18th holes to clean water hazard edges • tree works at the 6th, 7th and 19th holes • ASR auditing and a tender to formulate future works plans • irrigation system redesign
Over the course of the year, we experimented on the short game practice area using artificial turf as an alternative to natural revetting for bunkers. The results thus far have
During the year we undertook planning for future course works and course enhancement projects. The course enhancement project is being driven by the need to replace
our ageing irrigation system. In this year alone, more than $30,000 in labour for repairs and maintenance, as well as approximately $40,000 for parts and repairs, has been spent on our irrigation system. Improvements in irrigation will have multiple benefits on reducing our current water usage, savings on electricity for pumping and a reduction in maintenance of the rough and out-of-play areas through targeted irrigation. Around 800 native plants were planted this season with most plantings successful and will be enhanced with further ongoing plantings. This included a National Tree Day event, with volunteers and staff planting an area between the 9th and 10th holes. These plantings are part of a biodiversity corridor between the 9th and 11th holes with plants establishing well. Our Club was among twentyfive clubs in Australia chosen to participate in a one-year Golf Course Sustainability Project. Other clubs on the list include Royal Sydney, Bonnie Doon and Metropolitan. The project is run in conjunction with the Australian Sports Turf Managers’ Association (ASTMA) and the GEO Foundation,
2020/21 Annual Report
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