Hello to everyone,

September is gone and I must say that I can’t feel the temperatures rising much during the day, we still have low soil temperatures and we await better weather for optimum growth.

September was a month of fixing areas on the course that was still affected by the rains we had over the last couple of months. We seeded various areas on the course but I am not 100% happy with the germination we have had, this is due to the low temperatures we have been experiencing.

I am pleased though with the recovery of the greens after the hollowtining and the rest of the programs are falling in place for the preparations for summer.

We are busy slicing all the fairways to break the top crust of the soil to help with water and air infiltration, also this will help getting the fertiliser that we are planning to put down on Monday down to the root zone for maximum results. Alongside is Bhongo using the slicer.

We also sprayed fungicide on all the fairways in September due to an outbreak of Anthracnose Disease. You will see the yellowing of the Winter grass on the fairways, this is the result of the Anthracnose attacking the Poa grass. Hopefully with the fertiliser we are putting down on Monday combined with the fungicide we sprayed we will have the course looking its best in no time.


On the left is the picture of the 1st green with some dots on the green. This is part of our trials to combat Poa Annua grass on the greens. I know it looks a bit out of place at the moment but it will recover. The first 4 greens were done to start of with and to monitor before we do the rest.

Our maintenance team also assisted with the cleaning of the gardens that you see as you are coming into town. It made a big difference and I am sure that visitors and residence could see the effort going into making St Francis looking great.