The Cut - The AGCSA's E-newsletter - 5 Mar '10

 

Welcome to this edition of The Cut, the AGCSA’s weekly e-newsletter. In this week’s instalment we touch base with Paul McLean at Royal Pines Resort which is hosting the 2010 ANZ Ladies Masters as well as update Simon Bourne’s progress in the week following his accident. Enjoy the read…

**Please note: The AGCSA office will be closed this coming Monday (8 March) due to the Labour Day public holiday in Victoria. The office will re-open 8am Tuesday 9 March.**

Early Bird registration, AGCSA Awards deadlines loom

Now that we have hit March, the AGCSA wishes to remind all members and the turf industry that the Early Bird registration rate cut-off for this year’s 26th Australian Turfgrass Conference and Trade Exhibition is just three weeks away!

The Early Bird rate - $770  for AGCSA/TGAA/STA members and $990 for non-members – will finish on Friday 26 March.  Electronic submissions will close at 5pm that day and postal registrations must be post stamped to be eligible for the discounted rate. Please note that you only need to be registered for the conference prior to 26 March to receive the Early Bird rate. Payment only needs to be received four weeks prior to the conference. Don’t miss this opportunity to register at this low price, as Early Bird registration has been available since the start of January and no extensions will be given!

As well as the Early Bird cut-off, the deadline for nominations for the 2010 AGCSA Awards is looming. There are only four more weeks to lodge applications for this year’s awards with the AGCSA accepting nominations for the Excellence in Golf Course Management Award (supported by John Deere) and Claude Crockford Environmental Award (supported by Syngenta).  Please take the time to download forms and nominate for these prestigious awards.

Click here to register online for the 26th Australian Turfgrass Conference.

Click here to download a registration form for the 26th Australian Turfgrass Conference.

Click here to download the conference education session timetable.

Royal Pines crew under the pump for Ladies Masters

Pumping bunkers for 14 hours isn’t exactly the sort of job you want to be doing a day out from the opening round of a major tournament, but for Royal Pines Resort superintendent Paul McLean (pictured) and his crew it was literally all hands to the pump ahead of the 2010 ANZ Ladies Masters which teed off yesterday. Following falls of 83mm and 53mm on Monday and Tuesday, all 70-plus bunkers on the Gold Coast course resembled swimming pools come Wednesday with tournament organisers calling off the Pro-Am.

McLean is certainly no stranger to extreme weather affecting his course come tournament time. In his first Ladies Masters three years ago he resorted to sending out an SOS via SMS to fellow Gold Coast superintendents after the course copped a deluge in the days leading up to the event. As if expecting something similar this year, McLean’s fellow supers were calling him this time round to see if they could pitch in after heavy falls earlier in the week. The likes of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads, Sanctuary Cove, The Glades, Hope Island, Gainsborough Greens and Brisbane golf clubs all lent assistance and the first round teed off without a hitch.

“The support of the local guys has been tremendous and I really can’t thank them enough,” says McLean. “Pumping bunkers isn’t what you want to be doing just hours ahead of the first round, but the water table is so high at the moment. We’ve had about 200mm in the past 10 days and the place is at saturation point. Fortunately we had some drier conditions yesterday which meant we were able to cut fairways fully for the first time last night. Hopefully it’ll dry out a little more today and the place will be looking good for when the TV cameras are turned on tomorrow.”

For the past two weeks McLean has had the greens at 2.5mm and for the tournament is double cutting and double rolling. Greens were running at 10.2 for the first round and after yesterday’s drier weather the greens were stimping in the high 10s ahead of the second round. Not surprisingly with the low mowing heights, plenty of precipitation and humidity up around the 80 per cent mark, disease issues have been foremost on McLean’s mind. After getting on top of the likes of rhizoctonia/curvularia/pythium in the lead-up to the event, this week’s conditions have seen some disease flare up again and McLean will be out again tonight spraying a couple of greens, most notably the tournament 13th green (4th).  The AGCSA wishes Paul and his team all the best for the remainder of the tournament.

Simon Bourne update

As reported in last week’s edition of The Cut, Cottesloe Golf Club superintendent Simon Bourne suffered a severe head and neck injury while on a recent holiday in Bali. Simon has shattered his C7 and T1 vertebrae and in recent weeks has undergone two operations at Royal Perth Hospital to reposition his vertebrae and give the spinal cord a steady environment for rehabilitation. His spinal cord has been stretched and dislocated and he currently has no feeling from his chest down. Simon is expected to be relocated shortly to a specialist spinal unit at Shenton Park to begin rehab.

Despite the extent of his injury Simon is remaining upbeat and wife Marina and daughters Alexandra and Georgia are receiving amazing support from family, friends and members of the WA turf community. A blog website has now been set up for Simon where you can send messages of support and keep a track of his recovery. It also contains information about a fundraising event planned for Simon which will be held tonight (Friday 5 March) at the Floreat Athena Football Club (41 Britannia Rd, Mount Hawthorn).

Leech honoured at Queensland Golf Industry Awards

Noosa Springs Country Club superintendent and AGCSA member Wayde Leech (pictured) has received the GCSAQ Superintendents Environmental Award at this week’s Queensland Golf Industry Awards. Leech was one of three recipients of awards presented by the GCSAQ on Tuesday night, with Jesse Zervos (Coolangatta & Tweed Heads GC) collecting the Superintendents Turf Apprentice of the Year Award and Brian Dale (Brisbane North Institute of TAFE) receiving the Superintendents Industry Recognition Award.  The Sunshine Coast’s Headland Golf Club, home to AGCSA superintendent member Ben Tilley, collected the coveted Golf Club of the Year Award.

Formerly superintendent at Rich River and Gold Creek, Leech has been at Noosa Springs firstly as construction supervisor and for the past 11 years as course superintendent. Noosa Springs is a resort/residential development along the shore of Lake Weyba within the Noosa Heads district.  Due to the location of Noosa Springs and the very environmentally aware community that is Noosa, Wayde has endeavoured to take a sensitive and environmentally sustainable attitude to all aspects of the course construction and ongoing maintenance and development. The AGCSA congratulates Wayde, Jesse and Brian on their awards. (Profiles of each appear in Peter Lonergan’s GCSAQ report in the latest edition of Australian Turfgrass Management Journal).