CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

So begins another year, it seems to come around quicker as you get older ! On behalf of the course staff we truly hope the new brings you joy on the course, happiness with your scores and laughter in the club ! For those members who are unwell or caring for a loved one that is, our heartfelt wishes are with you, and with all family like clubs if anything we can do, don’t hesitate to ask.   As we finish up preparations for our first main event of the 2025, the Capel Junior Open it is pleasing to look around the course and see what we have achieved, we can only hope the wind stays down and doesn’t start howling this afternoon with screaming Easterlies as it has been the past 4 weeks. It is always challenging to set the course up for this event, the public holidays, and general Xmas / New Year “spirits” have us at skeleton staff for a good week or 2 and then have just one full week in which to prepare for the event. Constant strong Easterlies as always make matters all the m...

 Welcome to the last of the blog updates for 2024. It has been another busy period to catch up on, and again for most of it we have been at least 1 staff down due to leave or other commitments.  I would like to thank Ben for taking charge for 3 weeks whilst I was on leave and to the boys for getting on with what they know is expected. During my leave there was a number of important events including fours champs and the MMMM charity day, the feedback regarding the course presentation from participants was exceptional, so once again My thanks to the staff and particular Ben for achieving these very high standards. Unfortunately, limited availability of the equipment required to commence works on the 1 st and 16 th bunkers has forced us to postpone till when the equipment does become available, this is totally out of our hands so ask for some patience. In the meantime, we have revisited options for 16 bunker and in the process of looking at alternative measures, we will kee...

 Two and half weeks since the end of renovations and I could not be happier with the result and recovery of the greens and fairways.  Remarkably we are back at normal cutting heights, though the greens will be slower as the extra nutrients applied and desire for promoting root growth over the next 4 weeks before the stresses of summer hit, take priority.   Through the renovation period despite some minor interruptions with showers (5mm) during the sanding process I am please to say all our pre renovation plans have been met and exceeded.  With Connor at TAFE and Dean limited hours, my thanks to Ben and Jack for getting stuck in and working some long hours to complete our goals.   Also many thanks to the volunteers organised by John for picking up the cores without of which would severely impact how much we could achieve.    Greens  All greens were hallow cored 3 x 3 to 6 inch depth Amendments applied  Sanded  Wetter and l...

Unbelievable its already that favourite time of year for golfers and greenkeepers alike, October Renovations, ok maybe more for greenkeepers, time has flown by.  First of all my Apologies for the lack of an August and September update, a combination of TAFE commitments for our 2 apprentices’ and Leave arrangements with all staff have taking annual leave of varying lengths including myself has meant we have been at 75% capacity, at times 50% since August with no weeks being at full staffing levels during this time.  This will continue through to the end of November which does impact the amount of tasks we can attend to on any given day. Throw in a few unplanned interruptions, felled tree branches going through irrigation pipes, snapped fanbelts, the odd idiot in carts doing doughies in the wet, among others and the fun starts, never a dull moment !    The frequency, timing and amount of rain through the back end of winter / early spring has also meant a condensed w...

Welcome to the July Course Update, hopefully your staying warm and dry between rounds whether that be on course or in the club !   Rain patterns continue to dump large amounts of rain in short periods, the most recent 25mm in 35 minutes, causing further washouts and course repair from water damage. Attending these issues takes priority over any planned maintenance works so each event does impact our planned maintenance programs, delays in most aspects of winter maintenance is occurring. To date over 400mm has fallen since May.   With the continued heavy rain impacting bunkers it is likely we will sand replenish towards the end of the rain season. At this time we will be introducing a new product to trial, applying on bunker faces to assist in sand binding and hopefully limiting the extent of washouts in future.   The main planned Bunker renovations have now been postponed till spring, the delay caused by storm damage clean up now running into...

 My apologies for the June update coming a couple of weeks late,   been a little busy.......  The tail of two months   The last few months I have covered water issues or the lack there of, celebrated the arrival of rain last month and now, for the first 21 days of June have been repairing water damaged caused by two extreme rain events spaced 5 days apart.  By no means complaining about the drop, we needed it badly and a whole more, but if someone can arrange for it to fall steadily over a number of days rather than a couple of hours,   we’d be eternally grateful   !!  Saturday night 1 st June, prior to the 2 nd round of the Capel Cup,   100mm fell in 2 hours,   the extreme amount of rain in a very short window caused significant water damage through the course and made life interesting Sunday morning before the 2 nd round commenced, attempting to get surfaces back into a playable condition. Every single bunker had severe wa...