Week 31 & 32
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 projects, clearing restricted flow pipes in front of the 15th tee in similar works to the 18th, inspection pits dug, pipes cut and flushed using high pressure water fed through the pipe by hose, drained and then re-joining pipes and backfilling to complete the job.
Soft Iron build up on the right Cleared pipe on the left.
We will continue our winter projects next week, levelling the three 2nd greenside bunkers ( sorry not filling them in just levelling the bases) and replenishing sand between normal course set up and maintenance. These bunkers may be G.U.R for the week (optional) if as expected the sand remains soft after consolidating.
Finally as your Course Superintendent I am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve the product we deliver, whether that be through changing work practices, updating equipment trialling new products and the like.
One area we have been looking at improving is the removal of debris from main playing areas, a practice we complete regularly although not very efficiently with the use of the out-front mower to remove debris from play areas, with the out-front it can take up to a week to clear the main play areas and even then not fully removing all we would like. Should a wind event occur before a major event we have no chance of clearing the course for presentation in time.
For this purpose we trialled a demo Pro Force blower this past week to asses its effectiveness in assisting us improve the course appearance for our members.
A short video in action
For Additional video click on the link http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pro+force+blower+video&docid=608039284844201116&mid=FF631918184B9DA2F779FF631918184B9DA2F779&view=detail&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=FF631918184B9DA2F779FF631918184B9DA2F779
From our trial week we estimate we could cover the course in as little as 4 hours, much more effective and quicker than present practices.
We will continue to asses this as a cost effective means to deliver on our goals of constantly improving the course and presentation for our members.
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 projects, clearing restricted flow pipes in front of the 15th tee in similar works to the 18th, inspection pits dug, pipes cut and flushed using high pressure water fed through the pipe by hose, drained and then re-joining pipes and backfilling to complete the job.
Soft Iron build up on the right Cleared pipe on the left.
We will continue our winter projects next week, levelling the three 2nd greenside bunkers ( sorry not filling them in just levelling the bases) and replenishing sand between normal course set up and maintenance. These bunkers may be G.U.R for the week (optional) if as expected the sand remains soft after consolidating.
Finally as your Course Superintendent I am constantly on the lookout for ways to improve the product we deliver, whether that be through changing work practices, updating equipment trialling new products and the like.
One area we have been looking at improving is the removal of debris from main playing areas, a practice we complete regularly although not very efficiently with the use of the out-front mower to remove debris from play areas, with the out-front it can take up to a week to clear the main play areas and even then not fully removing all we would like. Should a wind event occur before a major event we have no chance of clearing the course for presentation in time.
For this purpose we trialled a demo Pro Force blower this past week to asses its effectiveness in assisting us improve the course appearance for our members.
A short video in action
For Additional video click on the link http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=pro+force+blower+video&docid=608039284844201116&mid=FF631918184B9DA2F779FF631918184B9DA2F779&view=detail&FORM=VIRE1#view=detail&mid=FF631918184B9DA2F779FF631918184B9DA2F779
From our trial week we estimate we could cover the course in as little as 4 hours, much more effective and quicker than present practices.
We will continue to asses this as a cost effective means to deliver on our goals of constantly improving the course and presentation for our members.
