CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

In the 4 years I have been here at Capel, I have never had to turn the pumps on to water anything during winter. Normally from the first decent rains in May / June through to September / October the pumps remain idle as the combination of colder temperatures and regular rainfall (winter is our wet season) mean evaporation is very low and generally there is enough soil moisture between regular rain / shower events not to have to worry about watering. This week was a first, we fired up the pumps to give the greens a light handwater, no sprinklers, just a nice controlled amount by handwatering to deliver some moisture to the root zone of the bent grass.   We were forced into this unprecedented step by the lack of rainfall this month, only 48mm of rain so far compared to the average of 148mm, in fact we are heading for our driest July on record. Rain is predicted for next Tuesday and Wednesday, but it was just a little to long away to wait for. Now before I go on, in ca...

Just a quick note to let you know some wet and wild weather has been forecast for the southwest over the next week, with a severe weather warning issued, starting today a low pressure system is moving along the coast bringing strong winds and heavy rain with possible thunderstorms, prediction of 50mm rain in 24hrs are possible and if the forecast is correct could mean up to 100mm of rain over the next 4 days. Should this eventuate course conditions will be effected and maintenance activities will be restricted, greens will be slower, bunker washouts GUR and please if you brave the conditions between the severe weather (if they eventuate) use some common sense for course care, stay out of wet areas keep carts away from heavy traffic areas and greens etc. More importantly take care and be safe, if at home on the roads or the course.  FESA alerts and warning click here Aus Gov Bureau of Meteorology severe weather warning  click here

It has been a week since the high temperatures forced some alterations to our normal routines with extra precautions being taken with the greens, there are some thin areas and weak patches caused from the last grooming a few weeks ago, but in general they are holding up well. I have no doubt that if we hadn't implemented the changes we would have been looking at a number of lost areas and once again I congratulate the members for their understanding of what we are trying to achieve, or should I say avoid. This week Temperatures are forecast to be cooler around the lower 30's except for Tues and Wednesday where once again the mercury is set to climb to 38. It appears wind will be our main enemy this week particularly in the early part. With the ladies major event of the year, The Summer Cup fast approaching, we will be focusing on slowly laying the foundations to peak the greens for the 2 day event while guarding them against the heat stress referred to in the last post. It wil...

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...