With temperatures across the last two weeks hovering steadily above 35, the workers who maintain our beloved sporting facilities are doing it tough.
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The Wimmera’s inclination for inland hot stretches can threaten the health of sporting fields, and once things die off, they can be very hard to bring back to top condition.
Stawell golf club’s volunteer greens director Ian Sibson said the summer puts a serious strain on volunteers.
“It is very difficult,” Sibson said. “The hot spell we’ve got at the moment is sort of exceptional. We haven’t had a good break from it at all.
“During the really hot days I call for as many volunteers as I can to handwater greens.
“Every now and then you get some dry looking spots on the greens and if you leave them they can die and it's really hard to bring them back.
“We’ve done a hell of a lot of work. It’s pretty full on keeping them alive.”
Nhill Golf Course greens-keeper Shane Grover said the summer is always a testing period. Grover said sporting facilities with winter grass such as golf and bowls clubs were the most susceptible to serious damage.
“We’re struggling a bit no doubt about it – the fairways are no worries but the greens are struggling,” Grover said.
“We’ve got a few tricks up our sleeves like wetting agents to keep the moisture in them, but you still have to keep watering.
“We use a ridiculous amount of water during this period but we’re hanging in there.”
To combat the incessant summer heat, more and more bowls clubs in the region are turning to synthetic surfaces to ease the pressure on volunteers and resources.
Natimuk, Dimboola, Nhill, Kaniva, Edenhope and the Horsham Golf Club Bowls have all made or are making the transition. Sunnyside have also been given a grant to begin the process of switching to synthetic greens.
Horsham City have converted to two synthetic greens and two grass greens. The club’s greens director Ron Goudie said it was the best way to go considering the climate of the Wimmera.
“It’s absolutely marvelous,” he said. “The saving of water is enourmous and the amount of maintenance you have to do on the grass with chemicals and water is pretty much non-existent for us now.
“It’s taken the worry out of a lot of the work we used to have to do. It is really a consistent and wonderful thing.
“Our club has been a grass club since 1909 but I think it’s a very big advance to the synthetic.”