2023 ISPS HANDA AUSTRALIAN OPEN: 30 NOV-3 DEC
THE AUSTRALIAN AND THE LAKES - COURSE UPDATES 

The Australian Golf Club assistant superintendent Marlon Johnston and The Lakes Golf Club assistant Jackson Nicholls continue their 2023 ISPS Handa Australian Open course updates as the tournament countdown continues...

TREE AND LANDSCAPE MANAGEMENT A KEY FOCUS TO ENHANCING PLAYING CORRIDORS AT THE AUSTRALIAN 

The focus for our members and guests is to play their way through the property on the turf surfaces, with the bordering landscaped and native areas play a major role in enhancing these playing corridors. Our focus has been to improve these playing corridors, improve areas of turf that lack sufficient sunlight and to enhance areas of vegetation that have been overpopulated or suffer from undesired species. The golf club has also invested in a tree spade to relocate trees and shrubs to more desirable locations.

The improvement strategy we have implemented aligns with several aspects for member play and maintenance and has included:

• The removal of limbs and crown lifting different pockets of trees to allow member and maintenance access;
• Removal of noxious weed species;
• Relocation of species that aren’t in the ideal location;
• Relocation of species that have been subject to overpopulation;
• The removal of species that detract from the original design of the golf course and its intended playing corridors; and
• Implementation of a maintenance schedule for all landscaped and native areas.

In June we began a bunker renovation project that allowed us to look at the playing corridor and the shots it offered in its current state. Our focus was drawn to necessary vegetation management as we had each hole closed for the renovation of the bunkers. The result of the maintenance and vegetation management that took place on each hole has restored original playing corridors and perhaps created a different thought process for shots that may or may not have always been available.

In coming editions of The Cut, we will share some further insight into our bunker renovation project, some infrastructure upgrades and our tournament preparation.

Marlon Johnston, assistant superintendent, The Australian GC

LAKES CREW CONTINUE PREPS AMID CLUB CHAMPS 

It has been another busy week at The Lakes Golf Club, with club championships ongoing and two separate corporate groups on Monday and Thursday. Despite the golf, the team has done an outstanding job to complete numerous tasks over the week.

Kikuyu encroachment into bentgrass has been a key focus of the team throughout the past 3-4 months. The team has been plugging kikuyu through this period, with the goal to re-establish the bentgrass collars. This process is ongoing and will be continued next autumn.

All green/surround sprinkler heads and QCV’s were raised through winter. This process was also undertaken on fairways and tees, with the team recently finishing up the last few sprinklers. Green edges were also lowered on 6, 8 and 11. The aim of this project was to restore the front of these greens to their original shape, thus allowing water to flow off the front of the green.

Activities over the past week have included:

• Greens received an application of nematicide. This will be followed up with another application in a fortnight’s time. We are really happy with the bentgrass health leading into our light renovation scheduled for 23 October.
• Fairways were sprayed with growth regulator and fertiliser. We are currently cutting fairways twice a week. Our PGR program on the kikuyu surfaces has been tightened to ensure the kikuyu does not bounce out of regulation.
• Bunker surrounds have been snipped (pictured below) and weeded. This was then followed by an application of wetting agent and soil conditioner (pictured above). We have now started the process of shaping and levelling bunkers.
• High traffic and newly-turfed areas received an NPK granular fertiliser. These areas also had their second application of nematicde.

Jackson Nicholls, assistant superintendent, The Lakes GC

CLICK HERE to view all updates posted so far.