| Round The Traps - 8th July 2021 |
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| G'day Wayne,
What is going on with the rain at this time of year? Long time locals know it normally rains for the Cairns Show public holiday weekend, but this is crazy! On the positive side, the course is staying very green and this bit of rain should keep the place looking good for a few more months yet during the irrigation install.
This weekend we are hosting the Mens FNQ Open for the 2nd consecutive year, but only the 2nd time in about 20 years. Numbers are slightly down at approx. 185 players, albeit a very good field. There is about 8 “plus” markers in the comp and the highest handicap is about 26. The event is a qualifier for the Isuzu Queensland Open and players also have the chance to win on Sunday an MG3 valued at $17,990 from Trinity MG. A big thanks to the Trinity Auto Group for their support of the event this weekend. I’d also like to thank the FNQGA Committee in letting our Club host the Championships again.
The Womens FNQ Open is also being held this weekend up at Mossman GC. Good luck to all players and especially the Cairns Crew who will undoubtedly represent us well.
Player numbers on course continue to be at all time high levels in recent weeks. The last few Mondays have seen between 150 – 170 players on course…on a MONDAY! This is the reason the staff and I have been strongly recommending pre-booking all games of golf, before arriving onsite. A few years ago, there were almost more staff cars in the carpark than players on a Monday, but this is certainly not the case now.
The Club will be receiving another batch of Lithium Golf Carts next week replacing the aging Forest Green carts that are getting a little tired. We have 20 coming in total (in 2 batches of 10) The Lithium carts are more energy efficient, 140kg lighter and quite frankly are just a smoother ride. We have stayed with the E-z-go RXV model as they have been great for our club over a long period of time.
The Mercedes-Benz City of Cairns nominations are now open. (see further down) and a huge thanks to Mercedes-Benz Cairns for their continued support of our Clubs largest Open event. As per last year, the Women’s 36 Hole 2-day event starts proceedings on Saturday 24th & Sunday 25th of July, with the Men’s Team Event on Wednesday 28th July, the Womens Team Event on Thursday 29th of July, followed by the Men’s 54 Hole 3-day comp on the Friday – Sunday.
I’m also happy to announce that Cairns GC will be hosting a PGA Legends Tour Event on Friday 27th of August. The Cairns Classic will be the first time in well over a decade that a PGA event has been held at CGC and a couple of years since a PGA event was played in FNQ. Peter Senior is already confirmed as playing in the event and we’ll have plenty of announcements and information coming in the next few weeks.
In the next fortnight, we’re planning to under bore the electrical cables across the 3rd and 4th fairways. By drilling underground, there will be minimal disturbance to the playing areas except for some access pits on the edges and between the 2 fairways. The Pump House is really taking shape and we’re just waiting on the steel beams to arrive so the roof can go on.
The sink hole in the carpark has well and truly settled down and once the weather clears, it will be patched with asphalt. I did some detective work so looked at some old aerial photos and it appears that a palm tree might have been the cause of the problem.
Hope to see you round the traps!
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If I had written this a week ago, I would have told you the course was in the best condition I have ever seen it. I’ll see the positive in the rain we got last week, as we were starting to dry out enough to water some tees and fairways again, but I definitely didn’t order the 120mm we received from Tuesday night through Thursday morning. Fortunately, due to our policy of maintaining the course as firm and dry as possible, we were able to handle the rain quite well and it will save us watering fairways for another couple of weeks.
This is a very unusual year in terms of rainfall, with it being more consistent than I have seen during my time living in Cairns. It has saved us a fair amount of manual irrigation which is great, but unfortunately it hasn’t stopped me needing to mow my home lawn!! The longest spell we have had without rain this year is only 13 days.
All in all though, the course is in great condition, particularly given the weather conditions. We are really continuing to gather momentum on our course team and we are ticking off new job’s day by day. Since I have last penned a RTT piece, some of the jobs we have been able to achieve are;
► Jonno has been busy repainting the fairway plaques and distance posts to the sides of the fairways. These have come up a treat and are another of our “1 percenter’s” that help lift the standard on course.
► Lachy has sprayed the broadleaf weeds around the bunker edges, as well as cleaned up a fair amount of carpet grass in the 3rd and 12th fairways (see photos below). As you may have seen, there is some damage/discolouration on the fairways, but the blue couch is already starting to bounce back.
► As a team, we have been able to carry out 2 greens dustings, as well as a light verticut to remove thatch last week. This is something that I have now put in place as a more regular event, with little impact on the daily play (aside from better greens of course).
► We have carried out a small amount of turfing on greens 8 and 11 to remove foreign grass.
► Our apprentices Jack and Arie, applied a granular calcium and complete fertiliser application to all our greens. Our new programmes have definitely helped in dealing with the ERI disease that pops its head up at this time of year. This is the least damage we have seen in the 4 years I have been here, which is very satisfying. We will continue to refine our programmes to ensure the greens are kept in optimum condition for as much of the year as possible. I would love to get to a stage where we go through our cooler months without any disease whatsoever.
► We have resprayed the 8th lake and this Tuesday, Arie, Jack and myself spent the day clearing out this area. We hired a small excavator to help drag the piles out and we ended up removing another 8 trailer loads of material from the lake. There are a few more dead, floating weeds still around the lake, but these will break down fairly rapidly now. From where we started 18 months ago, this lake looks significantly better and will only continue to improve. (see attached photos).
► The new 18th tee has been spiked and topdressed and is now in play on a permanent basis. The tee was still a little soft after the heavy rain, but another couple of topdressings going forward will alleviate this. As often happens with any construction, the subbase had been heavily compacted (more so due to the rain we received during construction) and the topdressing and spiking going forward will alleviate this.
► Yuka has been busy cleaning up around tree bases. The difference is really noticeable across the course and not only looks aesthetically pleasing, but also reduces time spent looking for golf balls.
► We have new installed tee posts/signs on holes 2 and 15 to match the others. Thanks so much to Chris Dunn who made these posts for us. We also have one on for the 18th, but the actual signage is on order and should be with us shortly.
► Marcus has edged all the paths and these have come up nicely for this weekend event.
As I mentioned earlier, our team continues to progress forward and we are now in a much better position to carry out day to day maintenance without “putting out fires”. When I first arrived here 4 years ago, I felt like a rat on a wheel. We simply didn’t have the labour to carry out many of these little jobs such as the extra dusting and verticutting on greens, the pruning around tree bases, the spraying for weeds in the fairways etc. It is so satisfying to now be in the position we are, where we can dedicate more time to the little things that really make a big difference. This will only continue to improve moving forward.
One other thing that really stood out to me this month, was the amount of Carpet Grass and Paspalum that has emerged in the fairways over the past 6 months. As I eluded to in an earlier edition of RTT, these particular weeds thrive in high moisture environments, while the blue couch enjoys the drier conditions. This puts us at a significant disadvantage trying to maintain clean fairways throughout the year, not only due to the moisture in the profile, but also trying to time herbicide applications around the weather.
Having said all that, once our major events for this year are over, we will be boom spraying as many fairways as possible to eradicate these weeds. This is the best chance we have had to take a run at this during my tenure and I am excited about where I believe we can get to by the end of the year. Once the irrigation system is installed, it will allow us to keep the turf in better health year-round and minimise emerging weeds that pop up in bare areas after the dry.
Good luck for all those playing in the FNQ Champs and the City of Cairns a couple of weeks later. I sincerely hope we will have a longer spell of dry weather at some point in the near future!
  The 8th lake in early 2020 vs July 2021. The height of the weeds were close to 1m tall when we started!
Before and afters of Yuka’s tree clearing on the 13th
Initial damage on 3rd fairway from carpet grass treatment
 
Recovery 4 weeks after treatment with blue couch emerging in the centres, as well as pushing in from the sides.
Kind regards,
Tim Hoskinson
(Course Superintendent) |
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| Round 2 of the BDO Sunday Superleague went off with a bang! The ‘rolling’ 2 tee start saw 139 players take to the course. There were some great scores for the day and the winners certainly had to work for their prizes Please see the link for the results & don’t forget to pop into the Golf Shop to collect your prizes. |
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Round 3 of the BDO Superleague isn’t until the 15th of August, so you will have plenty of time to get your group together for another ‘rolling’ start. It’s a great day to bring out any non-members that have a valid GA as competition fees are just $20 and all players are ‘members for the day’, with members pricings on carts etc.
This year we have 5 rounds and to be eligible to win the overall prizes you must play 3 of the 5 rounds. Make sure you get a group together and book online or via the Golf Shop.
As we transition towards the Golf Genius system, we remind you that both the Men’s FNQ Championship & City of Cairns weekends will be booked through the automated system. Our staff are quickly learning their way around the glitches and are a great resource if you are having any issues getting yourself booked in. |
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Whist you may have missed out on the early bird shirt for the Mercedes Benz City of Cairns, don’t forget to get your entries in via the Golf Genius website for both the Women’s 2 Day Championship and Men’s 3 Day Championship.
The Wednesday Mens and Thursday Womens team events will both be booked as normal via the Golf Shop or online portal. Both of these events will be $25 and 12pm shotgun starts.
It was great to see the driving range, golf course & putting green were packed out with juniors last Monday & Tuesday. Shane, with help from Luke & Anton, passed on invaluable wisdom to our young-up-and-coming junior members as well as some well-deserved snacks, games and chit chats.
The juniors will be in full golf mode this school holidays with the Greg Norman Junior Masters qualifying round being held at Half Moon Bay on the 8th and Cairns Golf Club on the 9th of July.
The club also has fitting equipment from all the leading brands along with Trackman Radar technology so fittings can be done on most days of the week. For more information or to book a fit please call the Golf Shop on 4037 6777.
Remember every dollar you spend at the club goes to making a better facility for all members to enjoy.
Whilst we are in the drier part of the year & heading into tournament season, we want to ensure that the course is looking its absolute best. We ask that you please:
► Fill in all divots with sand (not with grass)
► Repair all pitch marks
► Rake all bunkers (now that we can again)
Once again, please ensure that you are making bookings for your rounds of golf. We are having completely packed out tee sheets & many disappointed players coming in to find out that they can’t get a tee time for another few hours. Not only is it disappointing for you as the player, but it creates additional stress for the staff that just want to get you out on course.
Happy Golfing!
Anton & the Golf Shop Team |
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100s Board:
07/07/2021
#19 – Kojak, Ron, Ian & Glenn |
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10th – 11th July
Mens FNQ Open Championship
14th – 20th July
Weekly Sponsor
23rd July
IQA Golf Day
Please call Golf Shop for availability
24th July – 25th July
City of Cairns Womens 36 Hole Event
28th July
City of Cairns Mens Team Event
12pm Shotgun start
29th July
City of Cairns Womens Team Event
12pm Shotgun start
30th July – 1st August
City of Cairns Mens 54 Hole Event
21st – 22nd & 28th – 29th August
Club Championships |
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