CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

On behalf of all the greens staff, we would like to wish all our members, volunteers and management a very Happy Xmas and Safe New Year. May all your Handicaps come DOWN! See you all on the course in the New Year Greens staff

Ask most players on any golf course about Sand Bunker Maintenance and the answers will come thick and fast. Not enough maintenance carried out, The appearance needs looking after, Not enough Sand, Too much Sand, Bases aren't level, to much rubbish in them. And the list would go on, ask them what maintenance do they think gets carried out and the most likely answer is they rake them with a bunker rake and maybe do the edges every now and then but never enough. With this in mind here is an insight into one aspect of Bunker maintenance, the dreaded bunker edges as the staff refer to it with a groan. Every 4 weeks during the growing season and every 6 to 8 weeks at other times, all bunkers are edged, Trimmed, cleaned out and raked, a pretty simple sounding maintenance task unless you are aware of whats involved. It can take 4 staff up to 10 working hrs to complete, THAT'S 40 WORKING HOURS EVERY MONTH !  First up is to edge the bunker, getting a sharp clean cut edg

This week saw the last of the Bunker Lips being done before Xmas with the 12th having the rear lip completely refurbished and the base leveled. The end result is a much better bunker. All bunker edges will now be trimmed up and edged prior to Xmas. 12th Bunker before 12th Bunker before 12th Bunker after 12th Bunker after Other work started but not yet complete include improving the planted area near the practice Bunker, some serious trimming work which was badly overdue. We will be encouraging better grass growth in an area previously not irrigated and eventually refurbishing the Practice Bunker so the whole area will appeal more. View from Practice Bunker View from Practice green before View from Practice Bunker after View from Practice green after Wind blowing debris over the course is one of the most frustrating events to happen, with no equipment to clean up large areas of leaves blown over fairways besides our rough m

We are steadily making progress with renovating bunkers, so far minor adjustments have been made and the excess mounding caused by sand build up removed on the 2nd x 2, 5th, 8th, 11th and 14th sand bunkers. The picture below shows what we are trying to eliminate. Raised lip and worn edge Major bunker works are also complete on the 6th and 17th right side bunker, these works included reshaping the rear edge completely, levelling the base from a very steep rear to front slope and with the 17th increasing the width of what was a very small bunker, and impossible to rake with the bunker rake. 17th 6th  Both Bunkers have received positive comments and look, play and maintain allot better than before.  The 12th right side bunker is next on the list and will be the last before the Xmas / New Year period as we concentrate on other maintenance activities. Bunker works will then resume after New Year. In other news, the back 9 fairways were renovated last week, a decent result consid