General News

•  Welcome back to the New Year, hopefully filled with some 'golfing excellence' for all members.  Some recent winning scores indicate that the play is as hot as the weather. 

• Congratulations to the Mixed Pennant Team on a positive start to their season. 

• Again, many thanks to those members involved in keeping the birds off our greens each day.  Your efforts are really appreciated. 

• We have had a great deal of hot, dry and difficult months for the course.  Hopefully the rain last week (and due this week) will help Justin and his team get some more grass growth on our parched fairways. 

• Upcoming events:  Qualifying for the Men's Match Play Championships commences this Saturday.  Qualifying is over 2 Rounds;  (This Saturday's Medal and the Stroke Event on February 1st).  The top 16 scratch scores in each grade will qualify for the Knockout Match Play component, to be played in the weeks after. 

• If anyone is available to do some bird 'watching' in the mornings, please contact Gary Hunt. The corellas are a problem in the mornings as well. 

• A reminder - you can take line of sight relief from corella damage on the greens whilst putting.
  

Mixed Pennant Report 

Sunday 5th January - Against Bardwell Valley @Camden 

The Metropolitan Mixed Pennant Season commenced on Sunday 5th January. Camden being in Division 7 with our opponents this year of Bardwell Valley, Bexley and Lynwood.   

Firstly, a huge welcome to our new team members Gary, Corrina & Kendell Hunt, Nathan Rego and Matthew Ferreira, and welcome back to our returning members, Shelley Chapman, Bill & Candice Bell, Chris Pettitt, Bernadette & Duane Johnston, Ken & Pam Dilucchio, Maria Thorn & Jason Morton.  

Our first match was a home game against Bardwell Valley with a great win, with 2 matches going to the 18th.  Results as follows: 

• Gary Hunt & Candice Bell - Won 4/3 

• Mathew Ferreira & Pam Dilucchio - Lost 2 

• Down Nathan Rego & Kendell Hunt - Won 6/4 

• Ken Dilucchio & Bernadette Johnston - Won 8/6 

• Bill Bell & Chris Pettitt - Won 2 up 

• Duane Johnston & Maria Thorn - Lost 3/2 (Reserves)

Sunday 12th January - Against Lynwood @Lynwood 

Second week in we were feeling somewhat confident with the big win the week prior, and also knowing Lynwood lost at home in the first round, but that confidence was quickly put to bed.
Lynwood were out to fight, and fight they did.  Camden managed to get 2 wins out of the 6, but Lynwood this week proved too strong.  All games however did get to the 16th hole, some the 17th, and the last game went the whole hog, which is always nice - to not have any one sided matches. 

Following are the days results: 

• Matt Ferreira & Bernadette Johnston - Loss 3/2 

• Gary & Corrina Hunt - Won 3/2 

• Nathan Rego & Kendell Hunt - Loss 2/1 

• Duane Johnston & Candice Bell - Loss 3/2 

• William Bell & Chris Pettit - Won 3/2 

• Jason Morton & Shelley Chapman - Loss 1 Down (Reserves)

Superintendent's Report

A happy New Year and best wishes to all members for 2020!  It has certainly been an intense summer to this point, with hopefully some welcome relief on the horizon, in the form of precipitation.  It was a very busy time for the golf course over the holiday period with lots of rounds of golf being played.  For the most part, the course has handled all the traffic quite well. 

Greens are doing nicely in the hot and dry conditions.  For the summer months we mow the greens slightly higher than our typical height of cut to assist with climatic stress along with giving the greens regular water to ensure survival.  We are regularly checking the moisture levels in greens so irrigation and hand watering that is applied is done so to a consistent level without over watering.  During the summer months the greens will always be a touch slower and softer than the rest of the year because of the nurturing that is required to ensure survival.   

Dam levels have been monitored very closely for several months now, along with that I have been projecting irrigation outputs both short term and long term.  In early December I made the decision to stop irrigating the fairways to be certain that we would have enough water for the greens to get through.  Greens are, and always will be the priority.  Tees have only been getting minimal water from that point also.  A granular fertiliser was put out on Monday on the tees to give them a little kick along.  Fingers crossed that we get the forecasted rain over the coming week.  Fairways have had an application of wetting agent and soluble fertiliser in the days before to ensure we maximise the benefit of the rain that may fall and, in the weeks after, we will return to having a nice surface to play off once again.  Prefer lies will remain in play for the foreseeable future.  We have also been trying to manage the cart traffic the best we can to help the wear and tear on fairways and approaches.   

The corellas continue to give us grief with the damage they have been doing.  I'd like to acknowledge and thank the volunteers that go out on the course each evening.  Without this the damage could be far worse and more widespread. We have been trying several different things to change their habits.  I also encourage golfers to chase them off greens if they see them while out playing.