CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Spotted this on an American Super's site, had to laugh.To view a larger version click on the pic

Ever wondered what we get up to in the last week before one of our major events ? Here's a look at this weeks work list. Some good planning meant all the bunker edges, sprays and other time consuming work were all complete last week, leaving just the conditioning of the course this week. Remembering we still need to do manual water shifts on the back 9. Monday   Start B9 water shifts plus hoses and checks x 4 day Move Holes / Markers Mow Greens Foliar Fert Greens Spot water Mow Tees and Aprons Backlapp Tees Mower Mow F9 Fwys WB back putter Bin Run Start Rough laps mow Water B9 Greens Tuesday Cont B9 water shifts plus hoses Mow Greens x 2 no lap Bunker Faces Bunker Rake Rough laps cont Backlapp / check H.O.C Fairway Mower Weed Front Entrance gardens remove agapanthus stalks Edge all path edges Whipper all wall ends, signs and banks Paint spare Hole Cups Water B9 Tees Wednesday Move Holes / Markers Mow Greens x 1 Lap Mow Tees / Aprons Mow B9 Fwys, top lawn and Practice tee / Fwy R

This week we have managed to complete all our base maintenance and course preparations for the Capel Classic as planned. This has included fertilising Tees and Fairways, spoonfeeding the greens as discussed previously, bunker edges trimmed and edged, Mowers backlapped (sharpened) and also some post emergent control of crab grass in the greens on top of our normal maintenance practices and back 9 manual irrigation. Freshly Edged Bunker   I might have made a judgement error in spraying out the crab grass before the Classic with the crab grass now turning black as the chemical starts to work, leaving an unsightly appearance on some greens, but with the greens renovations the week after the classic I wanted to get on top of this weed before it goes to seed causing more dramas in future. A dying Crab grass In an effort to clean the appearance up we will be grooming the greens tomorrow, this time not so much for speed or to thin the Bent rather to thin the crab grass and "mask&quo

180 ladies can't be wrong.........can they ? We have had some fantastic feedback about the course conditioning for the Summer Cup, by all means a very successful preparation for this event. Just goes to show only a green keeper can please and satisfy this many women at once. ha ha So where do we go from here, we only have 3 weeks before the next club major event, the 2 day Capel Classic sponsored by Scott Park Homes, our goals for this event are the same as for the Cup, to present the course in the most positive fashion possible with a focus on turf quality and conditioning, and once again peaking the greens to run true and smooth with a little extra pace. We are going to do this by backing off the greens a touch for the next week or so, not much, not even 1/2 mm, (it is amazing what just a slight increase in height can do to turf health in a short space of time), before ramping them up again for the Classic. A decision to verti cut or lightly groom will be made by the end of the

On Thursday we took delivery of our new greensmower as part of our equipment turnover program, the new mower from John Deere is similar to our existing greens mower, (which now will cut tees and the tee mower traded), but has revamped cutting heads which will save time and labour when making adjustments to the quality of cut and height of cut. The older cutting heads required adjustments to 12 locations for height of cut and another 12 for quality of cut, a very time consuming task done regularly and was very open to user mistake by over adjustment, the new heads only require adjustment to 3 locations and all but eliminates user mistakes. What this means for us, is less down time of machine and staff and better, more precise adjustments, what this means to you, our members is better conditions both through more accurate adjustments and more on course time for staff instead of in the shed adjusting the mower. We are lucky to have a supportive membership and management that recognise p

The new flags are out, the cups are painted and the course striped up                                                                                                                                                                     It must be time for the Associates major event of the year and the first major event of the year for the club, yes the 2 day Summer Cup has arrived! The past 4 weeks have been all about peaking the course in condition for this event with a focus on surface quality from Tees and Fwys to Bunkers and Greens and has involved allot of hard work and extra hours, specially with making sure the back 9 Fairways didn't suffer with our manual system of turf valves and extra time and effort spent using hoses to irrigate the gaps of no coverage, my thanks to all the staff for their incredible hard work over the past few weeks, in particular this week to get the course the way it is looking and playing at the moment. The course as it stands tonight at 9pm after doi

I have been meaning to update the blog on a few issues over the past week and a half but have been incredibly busy with the preps for the Summer Cup and the extra work load that creates as well as still taking the heat precautions and extra labor hours that involves, my apologies and will now try to bring everything up to date. To save one very long post where you look, yawn and skip it, I might try to do a few smaller ones instead....Key word is TRY.  Dust In Program Initial results from the dust in program are inconclusive at the moment due to the intervention we were forced to make during the extreme heat period we had of temps on course ranging 38 to 42 degrees, and they are still around the 35 mark,  those interventions do cause the greens to be slower, with this in mind, whilst I have some results in, I prefer to wait another month before detailing them. Stimp meter testing  I would like to take this opportunity to reinforce the message given by previous supers, including my