Course Update – September 2026
Why were renovations more intensive this year?
This year we made the decision to be slightly more aggressive with our renovation programme. While this does mean a little more disruption and a longer recovery period, it allows us to achieve more below the surface rather than simply focusing on how the greens look immediately after renovations.
The work helps us remove and dilute unwanted organic matter, introduce fresh sand into the soil profile, relieve compaction and create better movement of air and water through the rootzone.
Over the next 6–12 months, the benefits we are aiming for are firmer and more consistent greens, improved drainage, stronger root development and healthier turf that is better equipped to handle heat, disease, rainfall and the large amount of golf our greens receive.
Our goal isn't to renovate greens simply for the sake of doing it. We are using testing and results to guide how much work is required and where we need to focus our efforts.
NZ Sports Turf advises that greens can require an eight-week recovery window following coring before they are considered fully recovered. We are currently only two weeks into that period. We appreciate that our members are accustomed to enjoying greens of a very high standard, so the difference during this recovery phase is naturally noticeable. Over the coming weeks, the greens will continue to improve as the turf recovers and the benefits of the renovation work begin to emerge.
While the short-term disruption can be frustrating, this work is an investment in the long-term health and performance of our greens.
Spring Spraying Programme
Our spring spraying applications will begin shortly. These will mainly involve herbicide applications for weed control and to help improve the purity of our desired turf species across the golf course.
This spring we will be targeting a number of maintained areas, with a particular focus on our roughs.
One of the grasses we are trying to reduce is ratstail. This is a tough, coarse and clumpy grass that has historically established in some of the drier areas of the course where we had little or no irrigation.
With the installation of our new irrigation system, some of these areas are now receiving regular water. This gives us an opportunity to improve the quality of the turf in these areas and gradually shift the grass population towards the more desirable species we want across the golf course.
One downside of these herbicide applications is the temporary bleaching effect they can have on the turf. Members may remember seeing this during our trials last spring. Some treated grasses can turn very pale or white following application. While it can look quite dramatic, this is an expected part of the process, and the desirable turf will grow out of the bleaching over time.
As the unwanted ratstail and other grasses die out, we may also see some small bare areas appear. This is expected, particularly where there has been a large clump of undesirable grass. These areas will be overseeded where required and, with the benefit of our new irrigation system, we should be able to establish desirable grasses back into these areas much more successfully.
This won't be an overnight change. Improving the grass species across the golf course is a long-term process, but these applications are another step towards producing a more consistent and higher-quality turf cover throughout the course.
Ben Simons
Course Superintendent
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