CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

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

The top 5 reasons a green keeper knows it's bloody hot ........ 5) - The irrigation pressure light comes on, the irrigation shuts down and all because of a melted contact switch ! 4) - The greenstaff request separate break times...  !! 3) - Drenched in sweat..... Skin feels like it's burning at 50 degrees........Only problem is he is the shed fixing the irrigation controller and its 11pm at NIGHT!!! 2) - He turns the cold water tap on, only to have to wait 10 minutes so he doesn't burn himself ! And the number 1 reason a Green keeper knows it's bloody hot is............................................ 1) - He starts to sweat when he is Hand Watering !!!!!!!!!! ha ha Sorry just the lighter side of some shed banter when conditions are pushing you to the limit. I will update the serious stuff tomorrow after taking a couple of pics.

 On course temperatures between 38 degrees and 41 degrees have been recorded over the last few days and the predictions are it is set to continue over the next week, please read and encourage your fellow members to take note of a few important points at this time. If your playing over the next week or so while temperatures are nudging towards 40 degrees, (first I would say you are certainly dedicated to your game), seriously tho you may notice a few precautions being taken with the greens during the heat we don't usually do at other times, to protect against loss of turf through heat stress. Some measures that may impact your round that you may come across that you don't normally and the reasons for them are below - Syringing greens during the day, between 1.30pm and 4pm - ( a very light handwater to cool the greens down during the hottest part of the day) Reason - If the bent grass gets to hot under these conditions the plant can basically shut down restricting the normal

Most members would be aware during the last half of summer we are trialling a monthly dust in program with the objective to increase green speed while still cutting at our increased summer cutting heights and to keep the greens in healthy condition.  Today we have completed the first of the "dust ins", and will be evaluating the results over the next few months. We will be monitoring green speeds and comparing results to speeds when only mowing and double cutting is used and then again to when we "Groom"the greens, ( a light verti cut). Turf health will be monitored with general appearance of the surface, visible stress signals and root growth measured. I plan to post these results on the blog as well as update the course committee as we progress. During summer there are a number of stresses placed on the green's bent grass, being a cool season grass,( IE it favours growth in spring and autumn), heat and moisture stress are prime concerns  along with increase

I have been asked a few times this week, what has happened to the back 9 fairways, basically how did they get from something like this ........                            To This.......                                                                                                            before Xmas after Xmas                                   With the manual water system on the back 9, no watering of Fairways could occur over the extended Xmas period and combined with the length of time it takes to complete a full cycle of manual watering it means some areas go for 6 to 7 days without irrigation so dry patch areas of brown grass occur naturally as a response.  It is a time where the benefits of the automatic irrigation system on the front 9 are very obvious, with the front 9 still in great condition. The other main reason the fairways have browned off considerably is the from the use of a post emergent herbicide used to control Crab grass. With pre emergent herbicides havin