October 23 Renovation Month !!

 The past 4 weeks have been busy to say the least, a pattern of which will only get busier as we head through Spring renovation period and Summer, as mentioned last month we are looking forward to a spring that is looking like a normal one this year.

 Retic maintenance commenced this past 4 weeks with a considerable number of issues to attend, both as preventative maintenance and some remedial works as well, all this between course preparations for major events we have or are about to host, the Ladies 4s championships, Mens 4s championships and Mixed 4s Championships, we have hosted the Drummond 54 hole classic and of course to wrap the month the Capel 3000. All of these events require extra maintenance from the obvious grooming with the 1%ers attended to, and not so obvious nutritional, pest and turf stress programs kicking into gear through to behind the scenes work such cutting heights and sharpening of cylinders to meet the expectation for conditions of these events.

Its not simply a matter of extra mowing, a great deal of unsighted lead up work which conditions the turf and various playing areas to enable  us to get the turf to sustain the higher intensity level. 

My thanks and appreciation to our volunteers who continue to turn up when required as they did prior the 3000 to finish off the 3rd path and complete some course clean up work and of course my fantastic staff who always show so much passion and pride in their work, thank you.

 Renovations 


 

There will be a slight change to our normal renovation schedule that you have been accustomed to the past few years. We are demonstrating a Fairway vertimower this year with a view to purchase and this is set for November.

 The main change, we will not be scalping down and coring fairways during the October greens renovation period this year,  this work will take place when  verti mowing  fairways the  week commencing the 6th November, with coring the following week if required.

During competition times no closure will be required as we will be working around these times, however there will be 9 hole closures and individual hole closures outside of competition times, please observe these closures, the program of which will be advised closer to commencement.

  October Greens renovation period 9th thru 11th October

 During the 3 day October closure we will be fully renovating all greens as normal, however instead of fairways we will be fully renovating all Green Approaches / Aprons including coring and sanding. We will also make a start on dethatching tees, coring tees and sanding them to make use of full closure period. Basically we are switching out Fairways and replacing with Tee and Apron renovations.

Tee renovations will continue the following week with no impact to play.

Of course as always Mother Nature will be the determining factor in how far we progress so some changes maybe required.

 Practice Tee Renovations  –

Once our Greens, Tee and Green approach renovations are complete we plan to commence the Practice Tee refurbishment, penciled in for a start Monday October 23rd, this includes -

·         Excavating the existing tee area lowering the levels at the front section.

·         Adding root zone mix and amendments, rotary hoeing in.

·         Installing new irrigation and take off points from the main

·         Cutting and laying the turf we have been preparing on the course for this purpose.

We are only able to work on the tee Mondays and Fridays with minimal hours on other days as other course works and competition requirements demand our time, so work will be conducted over a few weeks.

Range closure for Monday and Friday is required between 8am and 1pm other times will be listed on the golf shop window.

 

If we thought the past 4 weeks was busy, the next 4 is a whole lot more, plenty of renovation work to get through, hard work and long hours, and to tell you the truth, we’re looking forward to it, cant wait to rip in, because we know the benefits we achieve from this work and the end result is quality surfaces ready for the stresses of Summer, of which without of which the greens would rapidly spiral downwards in quality, renovations, one of the best parts of sports turf management, though not so much for players over the next couple of weeks, we acknowledge this, and aim to get the greens back as quick as possible, we appreciate your understanding during this important turf renovation period. 

Till Next Time 

Happy Hooking 

 

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