CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

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.