CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

The fairway renovations were completed last Wednesday. They were verti cut in 2 directions, scroll cut twice and a huge amount of thatch removed. Over 150 cubic meters of material was removed, the fairways may look ordinary at the moment as warned, however a necessary job as explained previously. We expect a recovery time of 4 to 6 weeks. Fertilising was carried out today, sprinkler trimming and leveling irrigation line furrows will be undertaken during the remainder of this week.  Scarifying 1st Pass  Thatch removed  Cleaning up   1st scroll cut  Finished product 

With the fairway in great shape, I keep asking myself why oh why are you still planning on ripping them up and then having a long recovery period before they are back in the same condition ? The answer is the same, if it isn't done, I know through the remainder of summer it will be next to impossible to keep the fairways in the condition they are in now. Why is it that you ask ? The thatch layer I have referred to when talking of the greens renovations is the main culprit and target for the Fairway renovations. Wintergreen Couch is a phenomenal grower and thatches up naturally very quickly, under high maintenance regimes this is more so. Generally at around 15mm to even 20mm is acceptable, any higher and if nothing is done, trouble is just around the corner. Thatch as I have said before is the layer of dead and growing matter between the green leaf and soil, at 15mm or below in depth it is beneficial as it helps out compete weeds and helps retain soil moisture through warme...

Finally some decent falls, some good soaking rain 53mm in total fell on the course over 2 days alleviating some pressure with water use. The rain will save us some 6Mg of water possibly 10 if the cool weather persists. Something we haven't seen for a while..........Water views from the shed!!!!!!  The rain didn't stop us working, we took the opportunity to carry machine maintenance and sharpening of all cylinder mowers to keep the cut at the highest quality. As well as the machine maintenance and sharpening we also took the opportunity the finish fertilising all areas not already done so, from Green and Tees surrounds and Roughs to some Fairways. All part of the maintenance to get the course looking like this.   The course is in great shape at the moment, I would go so far to say it is peaking in condition and will do so for the next few weeks before we start the Front 9 Fairway renovations which will be disruptive to playing ...

In greenkeeping it can at times be difficult when dealing with factors outside your control, and there are many, so you concentrate on the factors that are. Its good for you, and good for staff moral when they can see the end result of all the hard work put in. That's the beauty of this trade, for all the work you put in and comes undone through outside influences, there are plenty more instances where you can see why you love the job. The greens have come back very quickly from Reno's, they are in healthy condition and looking great. They are being cut at 3mm with double cutting this week. They may still be a little off pace as strong growth continues from the fert applied over the reno period, this will subside as we lay off the Nitrogen component and return to our normal nutrient maintenance practices.     The tees are also in great condition after renovations, plenty of growth recovering wear areas. Anthony taking great pride in his strip...

At recent green committee meetings I have harped on about the lack of winter rainfall and the potential consequences we could experience as a result. In the main, I have focused on the added pressure, with a 4 week earlier start to irrigation than average, on our water allocation particularly towards the back end of the season. Combined with the earlier start we are also contending with the need to increase usage above that normally used as the dry weather continues through Spring. We are limiting usage where we can, carefully monitoring consumption and will balance the levels over the course of the irrigation season. The other consequence of this drier than average weather pattern, is the development of Hydrophobic soil conditions or water repellent soils, in basic terms a situation where a soil will not wet regardless of the amount of water applied. Generally we experience this problem at some point through the summer season, on all turf areas to varying degrees, West Australia...

Works to the 3rd green surrounds was completed this week despite loosing some time to repairing a main line break on the back 9 caused by tree roots. The offending tree roots and tree were removed.  Getting back to the 3rd, all work was carried out by staff, the turf was cut from the surrounds and set aside for laying later, sand from the 4th pit used to create the mounding and extra turf cut from the practice fairway to cover the area. The green will now have a 1m collar before sloping off rectifying the problem of balls being putt of the green with the sharp and sudden drop that was. The area will be G.U.R till establishment. In other news, the greens were given their first cut after Reno's last Monday at 6mm and have been cut everyday since, we will gradually lower the height over the next week and should be 4mm next weekend, 3mm the week after. The tees are recovering well from the renovations to them and both greens and tees should be in great condition ...

Hello Everyone, Today capped off a huge past 4 weeks for staff with completion of the tee and surrounds renovations with the top dressing of these areas. Prior to this we had the successful preparations for the Capel 3000 and the extra attention to detail given to the course for a major event with the course presented in great fashion. We then had a week where only Anthony and myself were on duty, before the greens renovation this past weekend and followed up this week with the coring of all the tees, bunker surrounds, walkways and the Practice tee and top lawn area. On top of this, the unusually dry warm weather through Winter has continued through September meaning an earlier than expected start to irrigation of the course. With the manual system on the back 9 still in operation, time had to be devoted to this critical part of course operations which wasn't expected when finalising the works program 6 months ago. During this month we have farwelled Geoff, who yo...