CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Waiting around supervising my sons 18th putting up with the bang bang they call music and thought bugger it I will update the blog while I have the chance haha. Before I do, these kids just don't know how to pace themselves, I use to look like this after an alnighter, but this kid took just 45mins !!!!! gotta laugh.    Anyway back on the job and the 11th retic pipe work were completed this past week along with the 12th tee. Instead of explaining I will let the pictures tell the story..... Main pipe underneath green pipe - not connected A t join in an unusual set up Re routing main pipe and attaching to green lines Cleaning pipes Iron discoloured water from cleaning After testing works were deemed succesful, we are very close to finishing the back 9 pipe improvements and look forward to the coming irrigation season with improve water flow to some critical areas.

Was a pretty wild end to the week over the past few days with over 60mm of rain and wind gusts up 90km/hr recorded on course.  4 trees needed removing after the wind brought them down and plenty of bunker wash outs to repair as well. one of the trees Wanted to put a pic of the bunker wash outs but was to busy to take one ! It made life a little difficult cleaning up and repairing washouts with also trying to complete the 10th green pipe works whilst Anthony is at TAFE and another staff off sick leaving only 2 of us for the majority of the week. By Friday afternoon all work was completed, tho with the winds persisting small debris across the course will not make it the tidiest it has been over the weekend. Now for the 10th green pipes. Following in the tradition of locating pipes, scratching the head and asking why would ya ? aka the 12th green 16th tee masterpieces the 10th green didn't let us down. We found the right side 50mm fwy main was capped and n...

With the 12th green completed and a spare day I thought we would get another problem area (the mens 16th tee) out of the way. Expecting it to be a pretty simple job of digging a few inspection points, cutting some pipe and cleaning them to be all that was required........................................ THEN WE SAW THIS MASTERPIECE........  The 25mm pipe from this connection near the ladies 16th tee extended all the way to the Mens 16th tee, needless to say it was blocked with very hard Iron build up that could not be cleaned out.  Then we discovered the crowning glory of the pipe work, after the 30m of this 25mm pipe it was connected to 40mm pipe on the tee and then back to 25mm pipe heading towards the 15th green, again the 25mm pipe blocked. There went the simple 1 day job and we started trenching to replace the 25mm pipe with 40mm. Rain interrupted work and as such we will be endeavoring to finish this work before the comp tomorrow. Whilst uncovering this ...

With low pressure when watering this green (only 3 to 4 of 5 turf valves at any time) this green was another on our hit list of critical areas to improve water flow. We expected to come across blocked pipes as the reason why the low flow rates were extremely low.  This was not meant to be, what we did find was - Of 2 potential 50mm main supply lines only 1 was connected.   The non connected 50mm main line continued from the 12th Fairway, past the 50mm green pipes and continued under the green without tapping into the green pipes. Don't worry I was scratching my head as well! The connected 50mm main along side the 12th green from the 14th (which didn't exist according to plans) could have been enough if it wasn't for a section of 32mm pipe including a 32mm shut off valve smack in the middle of this 50mm main supplying the green. Yes that's right, on either side of the 32mm pipe was 50mm pipe. To compound the problem iron build up within the 32mm section re...

The pot holes appeared on the 13th this week, yes another problem area we are fixing prior to the irrigation season. Once again inspection points were dug out the pipes cut to give us a look at what was happening down there. One section of 40mm pipe was totally blocked from a 50mm tee connection, 10m of the pipe was replaced with new 50mm pipe and the rest of the existing pipe from the fairway to the 13th cleaned by probing and water pressure. Inspection and access points for cleaning The offending tee connection The pipe  Due to the blocked pipe water was being drawn from the 12th fairway and green area through the connecting pipe, it is expected now the water will flow the way the pipework was planned in the first place i.e. to the 12th fairway and green, not away!!!! Next week we will start work on the pipe around the 12th green cleaning out any iron build up, then it will be on to the 15th tee, 10th and 11th greens, 16th tee and finally the big one....the 1...

Players would have noticed a few "pot holes" down the 14th this week, this was for inspection purposes of the old pipe in this area. Water flow has been an issue for a number of years down 14 towards the tee and including the 15th green and tho we await the installation of the new system on the back 9, this could be a couple of summers away, with this in mind rectifying the problem is critical to allow for proper irrigation of this area and more importantly the 15th green. After inspection of the pipes (see pics below) it was decided replacing the pipes rather than cleaning out was more cost effective option. 50mm pipe with Iron build up 50mm blocked pipe 25mm pipe  We will be replacing the pipe from the main at the Fairway to the 14th tee and then adding a supply line to the 15th green. This work will be carried out next week. Future areas we are looking at doing in winter are 13th and 16th with similar problems. The Cal Clear unit installed is designe...