CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Welcome to another update of the maintenance Blog. Following on from the last instalment, the tees are making a very good recovery from renovations, justifying the decision to postpone the work till warmer conditions could hasten the recovery process. Getting a headstart at 4.30am with alot of work to get through, met with a nice sunrise. and no we don't start at 4.30am so players can also arrive, the course opens at 6.45am the early starts are critical for staff to attend certain duties without worry of players of which we contend with for the rest of the day. Tees were scarified and cleaned off  one tee picked up 17 more double tees to go. Cut down to 5mm with the old walk behind  Solid cored   and sanded  Some tees like the 10th great wall of Capel can't be sanded with the spreader. So it was synchronised sanding  The sand was rubbed in, all tees fertilised ready for recovery. 2 weeks later 

Pull up a chair, grab a coffee and enjoy the latest instalment of the maintenance Blog. During the week I sacrificed the mid morning coffee on one of the warmer days to share some chlorophyll with the locals  now that is sorted .... We have finally started seeing an increase in growth rates from our warm seasons turf areas, (Tees, Fairways and 1st cut Rough) after what has been a very mild spring and particularly cooler November with below average temperatures and overcast conditions. Our warm season turf requires at least 8 hours of direct sunlight and temperatures of 25 degree plus for healthy growth. Temperature and Light intensity play a critical role in photosynthesis in order to produce enough energy to grow and recover from normal wear.  The turf hasn't had the climatic conditions to provide the energy to do so. In the field, the mild conditions have held back recovery growth from winter wear from player traffic on our tees,  a