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Archive for the ‘Golf club’ Category

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Menyiram rumput

Posted by mynormas on October 16, 2011

Bagaimana patut kita menyiram rumput? Ada dua tiga sebab kita menyiram rumput.

  1. Kerana rumput memerlukan. Diantara tanda-tanda: tanah kering atau rumput layu: ini ertinya perlu siram.
  2. Kerana kita meletakkan bahan keatas rumput yang perlu di siram supaya ia meresap ke tanah. Contohnya baja, setengah jenis racun, bahan pelembab (wetting agent),  topdressing dan sebagainya.
  3. Kerana cuaca terlalu panas dan kita menyejukkan permukaan tanah untuk melindungi akar rerambut atau menurunkan suhu permukaan. Siraman ini dinamakan ‘syringing’ dan bukan bertujuan memberi rumput air; HANYA untuk menyejukkan permukaan. Ertinya siraman dua minit biasanya mencukupi. Untuk kawasan yang rumput di potong pendek, contohnya green di padang golf (3-6mm) kadang kadang syringing di lakukan hingga dua kali sehari (contohnya kul 11pagi dan 2 petang)

Jangan, jangan, jangan siram mengikut jadual. Contohnya setiap Isnin, Rabu dan Jumaat. Atau setiap hari pukul 4pagi. Jangan siram jika ia akan menyebabkan tanah lembab hingga ke malam: ini akan menyebabkan penyakit. Ertinya elakkan menyiram di kebanyakkan tempat selepas pukul 5 petang (ada tempat pukul 3petang pun dah tak boleh siram contohnya jika tempat yang teduh).

Amalkan siram di awal pagi. Ini memberi peluang tanah menyimpan air hingga ke tengahari di waktu ia paling memerlukan air. Menyiram di waktu petang; rumput mungkin kata “Aku dah nak mati kering baru kau nak siram!” dan juga akan menyebabkan tanah lembab hingga ke malam yang boleh menggalakkan kulat dan lumut.  Lagipun waktu pagi kurang angin yang menyebarkan air terlalu jauh/dekat (bergantung arah angin dan arah air).

Berapa lama nak siram? Siram jarang-jarang tapi lama-lama (Water irregularly but deeply). Ini akan menggalakkan akar tumbuh panjang mencari air. Siraman terlalu kerap akan memanjakan rumput. Pasal tu kita siram hanya bila rumput memerlukan, bukan ikut jadual. Biasanya saya siram 20 minit. Tapi awas, untuk kawasan yang terlalu curam atau tanah yang padat (air akan bertakung atau mengalir dan tidak masuk ke dalam tanah) saya mungkin akan menyiram 10minit x 2 ataupun 5minit x 4; tunggu hingga air meresap… dan ulang. Perkara ini perlukan pemerhatian dan pemahaman.  Lain tanah, lain siraman.

Sprinkler irrigation in a golf course

Sprinkler irrigation in a golf course.

Posted in Fields, Golf club, Landscape, Padang, Padang Golf, Rumput halaman rumah, Taman | Leave a Comment »

How many staff in a Malaysian golf course?

Posted by mynormas on October 11, 2011

I visited a golf course that was built in an oil palm plantation; for the second time yesterday. The golf course was started in 1917 as three holes, finished as 9 holes in 1929 and was completed as 18 holes only a few years ago.
But what fascinated me was that it had only 5 permanent workers to keep it going. I guess it had to do on how it was built. It was flat, it had few landscaping features and there were almost no slopes (whether drain, bunker, hill etc) there. They also had big trees that were planted far enough apart that machine can mow between them. And they had cowgrass on fairways and serangoon on the old 9.
The guy in charge believed in mechanization and I could see the big and relatively new machinery working on the golf course. And best of all? I’ve seen worse golf courses that had more than three times the number of staff this course had. When I praised him and his assistant (who attended to me in my second visit because the boss was sick) their immediate reaction was to say: I have dedicated staff.
We have a lot to learn from En. Azman and his team Carey Island Golf Club.

Posted in Golf club, Golf Course Superintendents, Padang, Padang Golf | Tagged: , | Leave a Comment »

Managing Malaysian lovegrass (C. aciculatus)

Posted by mynormas on September 15, 2011

Lets not kid ourselves, there are many Malaysian golf courses, football fields and tamans that are plagued by the lovegrass (presumably named because it loves our pants). I have seen golfers comments that hate a particular golf course because that golf course has a lot of lovegrass on its fairways.

Lets start a discussion – although from experience this ‘discussion’ will end up being a monologue – but lets discuss anyway. Lets clarify what is ‘lovegrass’. Its that type of plant that has seeds that sticks to pants or socks. The leaf are light green. It is sometimes called as ‘kemuncup’ in some places in Malaysia. In the U.S it is called as the pilipiliula or golden false beardgrass or false beardgrass (http://plants.usda.gov/java/profil

This field was cut about 5 days ago! But the amount of lovegrass now would make a pious man curse...

e?symbol=CHAC) and Mackie’s pest.

What ever it is called I am sure most of us agree that it is a pest.

The leaf and the plant per se is tolerable but it is the seeds and how they were made to propagate that gets most golfers, footballers, joggers (or their wife, mom or maid) worked up. They stick to the pants and socks with no regard to price, brand or label.

Why on earth Malaysians called it love grass is a mystery.

It is also a stubborn pest. The only effective selective pesticide I know that we can use against it is Facet (available in Malaysia). Of course you can use Round-up but that may fall into the ‘overkill’ territory.

It resists mowing with regular reel mower, no matter what brand or how many reels. I have had arguments with two golf course superintendents (actually, make that three but in the end that one guy bought a rotary mower though I suspect it could be because of the price)   who insisted to buy five-gang reel mowers even though their fairways are infested with lovegrass. Why? Because all the other golf courses use a five-gang how can I use a tractor mounted rotary mower?

I have pictures of this golf course with better stripes; but no tractor, so this will have to do. Not to mention that I'm late already. Just take my word that rotarys make stripes

Using Facet has its drawbacks, one of it (other than price) is that it affects cowgrass. I am currently helping a Superintendent testing a few rates of Facet to see which will not kill cowgrass permanently. Lets see what happens; I have my doubts because as I see it, there is just too much lovegrass on his fairways. In my opinion, he would be better off changing his old five-gangs with second-hand mini-tractors equipped with new rotary mowers and mow twice or thrice a week.

Newsflash: Facet kills lovegrass. But the broadleaf survives! Not the cowgrass. And those are RM240 Hush Puppies.

Of course, if your golf course, field, taman or lawn that was planted with Bermuda or Zoysia, by all means; spray it out. Unfortunately, if your bla bla bla was planted (or is now covered) with cowgrass or Serangoon then your options are limited: if not much or only a few areas are invaded by lovegrass – you still could do chemical control. Otherwise you may have to replant (though I would still advise you to use chemical first to ensure no seeds or roots are left behind to continue) or buy new rotary mowers. For lawn owners, you may need to buy your own cutters or adopt one of the foreigner-who-mows-house-lawns as ‘anak angkat’.

Plus, a certain brand of golf course machinery is now coming out with five-gang rotary mowers too so you don’t lose your prestige when talking to other peers at the networking dinner of the club/stadium/local council/dewan bandaraya. And don’t worry, rotary mowers can make stripes as well as reel mowers too.

Try it.

The lovegrass just springs back up behind the mower. But notice that the leaves are quite nice.

Posted in Fields, Golf club, Golf Course Superintendents, lovegrass, Padang, Padang Golf, Taman | 1 Comment »

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