Your course & the wet weather

[JimBob]

Hi Guys,

Just wondering how your course is handling the big wet, if you are getting it?

I visited my home course today (Windsor CC, Sydney) to find it under so much water it isn't funny. Tees, Greens, Faiways all under water. We have 12 holes in play, many with temp greens.

Wasn't despearte enough to play.

Cheers
Jim

[3oneday]

The concern is how quickly it recovers, greens underwater is bad I've heard ! not to mention the sand that will have left the bunkers.

[mikezone13]

My course (Eastlake) is fine apart from 7 and 12 where bits of the fairway are below the water line, hence the flooding.

We're a sand based course so we drain instantly which is great. I played on saturday and the condition was pretty good considering all the rain we have and did have.

[Fishman Dan]

The water sits in the soil at Gordon, it will be slushy for a few weeks. We've had preferred lies forever so no effect there.

We have a couple of greens that get a film of water covering them in a downpour, but otherwise playable. Couple of bunkers fill up too, but drain effectively enough and it's so few that they don't impose a local rule for the day.

Being that there are a few hills and gullies, the course copes with water pretty well. Some investment in drainage and it would rarely (if ever) have to close, but that's not going to happen.

[Courty]

Considering we average over 5 metres of rain a year, we either get used to playing in very wet conditions, or we just don't play for 3-4 months of the year. If the greens staff keep the fairways & rough fairly short at this time of year, the rain gets a good chance to either run off or evaporate. If they don't, the water sits and the ground gets really boggy, which then turns to soup when they eventually do mow it. Luckily, the current mob realise all this & mow the course religiously regardless of the weather.
The biggest problem is the bunkers. The few that have steep sides end-up with those faces being washed down to the bottom, and all of the bunkers get compacted very quickly.

[jimandr]

With nothing better to do on Saturday, I went for a bit of a scenic golf course drive through the South West of Sydney.

My course, Camden Valley, is pretty good in wet weather, but they didn't play Friday or Saturday. They were playing on Sunday, so I suspect the worst is over. The major problem from this point on will be mowing the grass, particularly in low lying areas of the rough.

Camden Lakeside looked OK from the road, and I think they may have played there yesterday.

The 2nd dam you can see from the road at Macarthur Grange was overflowing across the 18th fairway on Saturday. Grunt will know more, but I suspect that has never happened in the 10 year history of the course. It had dropped by Sunday, and they were playing golf there.

Wallacia was closed, but it didn't look too bad from the road.

Glenmore was closed, and I didn't see any results in todays paper, so maybe they were still closed on Sunday.

Penrith was a sea of water on Saturday, and I was astonished to see Sunday results in todays paper. Maybe the water drains really well once the rain stops.

I had a good look at the results in todays paper from Sunday comps. It appears that the West and Southwest may have got more rain than the East. It appears all the eastern and northern courses were playing comps.

I'm not surprised about Windsor. You can tell from the fact that the greens are raised that the low part of the course must be a bit flood prone.

[3oneday]

Dunheved apparently received all the water from Camden and if you can picture it, the creek almost reached the 3rd green !!!

Not sure that would mean too much damage but I'm going out there hopefully Thursday for a gander

[Grunt]

Mac Grange was pretty well flooded. The 18th Fairway (now the 9th) had a rapids system running across it between the dams. On the 9th fairway (now the 18th) it was a running river across the entire fairway. With the flow of water I would have to say that the course would have been stripped of the small amount of topsoil they had left on the fairways. I am not surprised that it was open on Sunday as from what I have heard the course needs all the money it can get now to survive. It has been sold in the last month or so.

[AndyP]

Let it go, Grunt, let it go.

[Grunt]

I was only responding to Jim's post, as I actually saw the conditions there Sat morning

[TS]

I played at Long Reef on Sunday, the course is fine other than a bit of surface water in couple of the low area in the fairway.

[miro]

Ryde Parra was closed for most of last week. A real shame as we were hosting the NSW Amatuer Match play champs. They got through some early rounds but the qtrs/semis and final have all been rescheduled over the next month. The course must have been absolutely under water.

I played at Camden Lakeside last thursday. We were very lucky -storms all round us but no rain until we played 16 holes -then it chucked it down. The lakes were overflowing and the run off had created a couple of rivers on the 4th fairway. Other than that and a huge amount of wetness under foot it was in good condition.

[Jarro]

Nudgee was pretty wet today, but not as wet as i thought it'd be considering the amount of water we've had in the past week or so.

[swanny]

Geez it would be nice to have some rain down here

[Fishman Dan]

Just 2 more days of rain and the Singles Knockout gets postponed again - and I get to take my place

Qualified this year and itching to play some matchplay.

[Onny]

Played at Rum Corp on Sunday and the ground were a little wet but still quite playable.

Got through 9 holes (back 9) up at North Ryde after work today and the course handled the wet pretty well too. Some bunkers had puddles of water in it but overall, the course held out pretty well. Don't expect much run or spin from the ball, all my balls made huge divots on par 3s.

[Moe Norman]

Played Brooky today.

Doesn't handle rain well, and they should close the course when it is in that sort of condition.

[BrisVegas]

Played Brooky today.

Doesn't handle rain well, and they should close the course when it is in that sort of condition.

couldn't agree more. Clay is no substitute for sand.

[Andrew]

Newcastle GC has been fine with the rain, although the greens are a little soft at the moment.

[Jarro]

Newcastle GC has been fine with the rain, although the greens are a little soft at the moment.

Beautiful course that. I hope to get down there again sometime soon

[Andrew]

Beautiful course that. I hope to get down there again sometime soon

Stop trying to hide it. You love being treated mean. The meaner the better.

[Jarro]

I actually liked Newcastle more than Magenta ... but that's another story

[Grunt]

Might have been the Company Jarro

[Moe Norman]

couldn't agree more. Clay is no substitute for sand.

Vegas even warned me not to play, but when the shop said a few minor bits of work were being done, I didn't translate that to "every fairway cored and greens sanded"

[Grunt]

Not my home course, but Ashlar today was in pretty rough condition. It was only due to the fact the green keeping staff just could not cut it in recent days. It will be in awesome condition this weekend. Kikuyu grass got to love it, fairways were long but you could see how good they would be once cut.