CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

There are plenty of well known benefits from coring and aeration, I have highlighted a few over the years but never did I believe one of those benefits was finding Irrigation Leaks !!! After coming across water bubbling to the surface from a core hole I initially thought the Corer had hit a shallow pipe, digging the area up expecting to discover a nice core hole in a pipe I was somewhat surprised to find the leak in question judging by the amount of oxidised iron, (much deeper than the core holes reached) must have been leaking for a considerable time. Water will flow along the least resistance, it was only the core hole that directed water to the surface. Ticking another box for the benefits of coring finding old pipe leaks!!! The fairways are progressing well from renovations, full recovery will take another week or so and stand in good health with the hotter part of summer approaching. Greens have also continued their strong response from the second of the mini renovati

The greens are making a strong recovery from the 2nd mini renovations, we commenced afternoon cuts at 4mm last Friday, which will continue this week. Morning cuts and lowering heights to our summer height will depend on sand pick up, likely to commence by next week at the latest. In the meantime players should expect the greens to be slower at least for the next week.    13 green 3 days after renovations.   The fairway renovations went exceedingly well, completing all fairways within the 3 days allocated with only minimal disruption to play. The benefits of coring will be very obvious through summer once the fairways have fully recovered. View of 18 Fairway after coring   In the short term after fairway coring dry areas will develop, there normally is an initial soil moisture drop with any work involving aeration, for us the combination of set speed pumps and a manual system means we could not water individual fairways as they were completed, ( we had to wait for all fai

A 13 hour day behind us today, we have completed the greens renovations and made a start Coring fairways making the most of the Course Closed Day. An indication of the size tine we are using for the fairways   In action on the fairways   One down 8 to go on the back 9. Meanwhile on the greens   Though we managed to complete 3 fairways today it is slow going, players should expect core deposits on fairways and equipment in use tomorrow. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your understanding. The mini greens renovations was completed without issue, we expect a positive result with the greens back in normal condition in 2 weeks.

Greens Renovations As mentioned HERE   the second mini greens renovations will commence Monday 8th December. The course will be closed for the day. We will be using the same process and tine size as we did for the October Renovations and expect similar outcomes with a turn around of 2 weeks to have the greens back to normal. This second renovations is important to complete the preparations for the greens heading into summer. Back 9 Fairway Renovations The back 9 fairway renovations have also been organised to commence on Monday 8th December, this will allow us time to get a head start before the competition on Tuesday hits off minimising the disruption to players. This year we will be hollow coring the Fairways instead of verti cutting. It is anticipated we will cover 3 to 4 fairways per day however as this is the first time the fairways have been hollow cored (plugs pulled to surface) I am expecting to "hit" (pun intended) a few snags, mainly tree roots, hopefully no

My thanks to the staff for their efforts in the lead up to and during the AVGU National Championship week, their commitment and dedication which saw them here ready to work at 4am every morning and then again after play till well into the night was made even more impressive, considering as a young inexperienced staff, it was their first taste of what it takes to prepare a golf course for a National Event.   To our many volunteers and the tremendous assistance given we could not have accomplished what we achieved without your help thank you.   Some Course Maintenance Facts Specific for the Event ·         Working bees attracted up to 18 volunteers on both major work days ·         Course staff of 4 were assisted with a few hours spent by regular volunteers. ·         Greens H.O.C   2.3mm double cut morning and single cut afternoon ·         Tees / Aprons cut 9mm double cut in lead up x 3 per week, daily during event. ·         Fairways 14mm Double cut

If we think we can't we won't If we think we can We will That has been my mantra to staff these past few weeks Some pics from the National Veterans preps.     I think we did!!

Another fantastic turnout of helpers through the past week, concentrating on picking up branches etc in the Bush area between holes, the odd whipper snipping around fixtures, finishing the refurbishment of the sand bucket stands and some more carpark and tree pruning work. Once again to many to name individually so a collective thank you to everyone who have came out to lend a hand over the past fortnight. It is fantastic as a staff to see so many members take pride in their course and willing to help out when required, as a small staff with a major event on the horizon, the added help is appreciated and allows us more time to concentrate on the overall conditioning of the Golf Course. I have no doubt the combined efforts of Staff and Volunteers will result in a sensational finished product as we peak the course in Condition over the coming weeks.    This week we continue increased grooming of the course, one priority task will be bunker edges to give a nice sharp appearance to

We had a healthy turn out of volunteers during the week, helping staff and regular helpers attend jobs around the course in preparations for the National Vets. Some of the work attended included   - Levelling / Adding sand to a total of 13 bunkers. - Clearing and tidying up around the bottom end car-park - Pruning trees along 18 Fairway - Refurbishing Sand Bucket Dispensers - Removal of Dead Banksias along 14 Rough.  - Edging paths and hard surface areas. - Entrance gardens Weeded and Tidied Without the help of these Volunteers we would have been struggling to complete or some instances commence any of the above work. To many to name, a huge thank you to all that came out and to those that will be out over the next few weeks. It is very appreciated and nothing more shows the pride you have in the club than coming out and lending a hand when needed. Again Thank you to all. With last weeks assault on the worst of the sand bunker downslopes, only a few minor tweaks remain

Tomorrow (Monday 20th) marks 14 days since the greens renovations and we will commence morning cuts at 3mm as all sand is now below the height of cut range. Normally we keep the cut at 3mm for the remainder of summer however with the National Vets Championships this year we will be chasing that extra bit of pace for the event and will be lowering the heights a little more closer to the event. A further mini tine and sanding will be completed after the Vets and Capel International to counteract any detrimental effects of "chasing the pace" as well as to ensure turf health through summer after only mini tinning at our scheduled renovations. With new turf laid on the 10th Ladies tee and Men's White tee last week we can finally put what has been a huge drain on our time to bed, with only 4 of us on course and many other maintenance tasks and course set up to attend we look forward to turning our full attention to gearing the course up for the upcoming Major events and catc

Greens renovations went very well despite the 19mm rain received the day before causing the applied sand and greens to be wetter than we would have liked. This had the effect of the core holes not opening fully till later in the afternoon when the greens warmed up and dried, after the sand had already been brushed in. End result some core holes are not filled completely. That said the use of the smaller diameter tines means this is less critical than when we use the larger 12mm ones and will cover by the end of the week but have the benefit of tiny channels created for water and air movement.   The greens have progressed well since renovation 4 days ago, we are cutting at 4mm in the afternoons. The reason for the afternoon cut is for the sand on the greens to be dry to avoid the mowers picking up wet sand and adversely affecting the quality of cut. Heights will be lowered by the end of next week to 3mm. We have also been very busy with the 10th tee complex, the Men's main tee

If ever we had any doubt regarding changing our greens renovations this year from Sunday to Monday, it was confirmed this morning we made the right decision by none other than Mother Nature herself . At this stage Greens renovations will proceed tomorrow with favourable weather conditions, we will need sunny skies to proceed with sanding to ensure the sand can dry to be brushed in. Fortunately as explained in a previous post we are only lightly renovating this year with much smaller tines requiring less sand to be applied.  

The last thing we wanted to see with a 5.30am start tomorrow for the Capel 3000........ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology Western Australia Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds for people in the South West, South Coastal and Great Southern forecast districts. Issued at 2:48 pm WST on Friday 26 September 2014. For people in parts of WA southwest of a line from Bunbury to Katanning to Bremer Bay. This includes people in, near or between the following towns: Bunbury, Busselton, Margaret River, Bridgetown, Katanning and Albany. Weather Situation The passage of a cold front during Saturday morning may cause DAMAGING WINDS to 100 kilometres per hour that could result in DAMAGE TO HOMES AND PROPERTY. DAMAGING WINDS are likely to develop about the Southwest Capes after 2am Saturday morning and extend to Bunbury and Bremer Bay by about 5am . Conditions will

The 10th tee complex construction stage is nearing completion, the path extension and filling of the ladies tee is all that is left for Jetline to complete. A huge thank you to Russell Lines and the boys from Jetline for all the sensational work they have done. The staff will be busy over the next week or so, extending irrigation lines, levelling the new tee areas to blend into the existing tee levels, cutting and laying turf between other course work primarily preparations for the Capel 3000 this weekend.  Our plan is to complete the Men's Main Tee Box and have the Ladies Tee backfilled to wall height to allow play from both tees for this weekend.  Next week we will complete the new section of the Ladies Tee Box and the following week the Mens White tee box. Green Renovations are only a little over a week away hopefully we have fine weather over the next few weeks to help us complete all these important works.    Finally a huge thank you to Graham Colton, Peter Dillo

The green staff put up a $1000 hole in one prize and a $500 Birdie for a short time on the 3rd hole this week.  No one claimed the prize maybe due to the tree obstructing the hole ! Once we cleared the tree that came down in the latest front to pass through our cash went back in our pockets. Thankfully no major damage to the putting surface with only a few pitch marks, nothing were are not use to repairing. Now that I have your attention, Greens renovations are fast approaching and this year d ue to the National Vets in November , (only 4 weeks from our schedules renovations), our normal Greens Renovations will be split into two “mini” less vigorous Renovations in order to have the greens back in play and to speed for this event whilst still gaining the important health benefits from aeration and sanding. Our October renovations normally consist of using 12 to 14mm solid or hallow tines and usually takes up to 4 to 6 weeks for full recovery and not to the speed we are chasing

Pretty quiet on course over the last week with only run of the mill news and nothing of any real significance to report. Looking ahead the same can be said. We are concentrating our efforts on removing fallen Branches,  highlighting tree roots and low branches in the Bush prior to the first Bush cut of the season a process we go through for the safety of the operators and protect the equipment. Bush mowing has commenced and normally takes 2 weeks to complete. We are also spraying Glyphosate around fixtures and areas we cant manoeuvre the out front mower.  We will be running at 75% staff levels over the next 3 weeks with leave and TAFE absence, so when I say its quiet on course I guess it isn't really we are still being kept extremely busy! The green staff sponsor day is this coming Thursday, get your pitch repairers ready, your divot repair technique polished but most of all we hope all enjoy the competition sponsored by the greenstaff.

The recent weather has been nothing short of spectacular, the golfing gods providing perfect conditions for the ladies championships and all our other events, so many consecutive days of blue sunny skies we were forced to irrigate some greens during the week, a rare occasion during the winter months. With the ladies championships played on Monday and Wednesday for the 2 weeks it has been pretty quiet on course as far as our major winter works goes, some increased grooming practices to have the course in condition as would be expected for the championships our priority. Once the championships were underway we focused on off "course work" so not to disrupt play, machine maintenance was one key area, but the main focus was on removing dead trees near our sand pit for safety reasons during times when operating equipment in the area, another task was cleaning around the 12th tee during breaks in play. With the championships over on Wednesday we resumed our winter work project

After a delayed start to our planed winter projects we have managed to complete a couple of the big time consuming tasks this week. We installed the first stage drain line for the 11th surrounds, with a capture pit at the front of the green, we will be using a  hired trencher for the deeper work to extend the drain line away from play at a later time when we can put the trencher to a full days work in other areas as well to make full use of the available hire time. As the front of the green is much lower than the surrounding area we need to dig the trench a lot deeper to achieve the minimum 1:100 fall required for effective draining.. The one project I was pleased to mark off was the 18 fairway irrigation lines, with the flow rate severely reduced through these pipes it was one of the more urgent projects to attend before the irrigation season. A time consuming task as we first had to locate pipes, (no mean feat with plans not entirely accurate), locate the potential problem a

This week we managed to make a start on our winter works to do list, after losing just the one day to course clean up from the latest front and also the WA golf Junior event held on Wednesday. Remedial drainage work to the approach on 15 green and side of 14 green was completed this week, the front of 15 green has been consistently wet through winter over the years and also at times during the irrigation season, causing poor quality turf in the area. During the week we installed a mini herringbone drain pattern with 80mm slotted Ag pipe and a natural soak well to alleviate the problem. Herringbone Drain line After digging  and discovering a 2 inch layer of Blue metal dust (road base) creating an impervious layer that prevents water draining freely under the whole area, and an heavily iron oxidised (irrigation water) upper soil profile from slow drainage, I am less confident the drain line in itself will be enough to solve the issue, though it will improve the situation presently