CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

The last time I left off we were about to commence Fairway Scarifying for the first time in many years and doing so in house with demo equipment for the first time. I am please to advised on the whole, the program and demo equipment was a resounding success.  We managed to complete all 18 holes within 4 days, with all outcomes exceeding expectations and to add to the success without any major interruption to competition play and only slight inconveniences to social play which were managed exceptionally by the golf shop staff.   Due to the success I recommended to the board to proceed with the purchase of the Scarifier unit of which was accepted. The Board should be acknowledged for their support and commitment to providing the necessary equipment to meet player expectation of standards.  The addition of the equipment will no doubt take the fairway grooming to a new level, less thatch better water penetration, healthier turf and promotion of new growth all leadin

Welcome to another instalment of the Course Maintenance Blog, I will try and slow down the typing, because we have been going at a cracking pace on the course over the past 6 weeks that would leave the Cup hopefuls in our wake.   The Finish line is in sight for a number of projects undertaken over the last month and looking forward to holding back the reigns( ok no more cup puns) to give time to consolidate the previous work performed.  My thanks to Ben for his tireless efforts, with a great many extra hours worked, my staff who have also worked extra hours and of course both of our major works could not have been completed without the wonderful help of our ever present volunteers. This should never go unnoticed, coming from a metro golf course background, where volunteers were scarce to say the least; I am forever appreciative for the help these members give. Forget the profit and loss sheet for a moment or the condition of the course/ facilities, the true strength of a NFP club l

For the first time in 4 years we had a clear run through our Spring Greens Renovation period with the weather, after the past 4 years of rain interruptions I was starting to think I was cursed and as today is Voice referendum day, I think it appropriate to thank Wuluwaid and Bunbulama for turning off the taps this time round ! Please let that be the end of rain affected renovations.   Thanks to my fantastic staff who tirelessly put in some very long hours and hard work over the closure period we not only managed to successfully complete the full greens renovation program of verti cutting, coring and sanding, we also completed all Green Approaches to the same program and Tees renovation which were dethatched using a pedestrian verti mower over some 1 Ha of tee area, along with coring and sanding. This outstanding result with the amount of work required could not be completed without the course closure, the help of our wonderful volunteers cleaning up cores and of cours

  The past 4 weeks have been busy to say the least, a pattern of which will only get busier as we head through Spring renovation period and Summer, as mentioned last month we are looking forward to a spring that is looking like a normal one this year.   Retic maintenance commenced this past 4 weeks with a considerable number of issues to attend, both as preventative maintenance and some remedial works as well, all this between course preparations for major events we have or are about to host, the Ladies 4s championships, Mens 4s championships and Mixed 4s Championships, we have hosted the Drummond 54 hole classic and of course to wrap the month the Capel 3000. All of these events require extra maintenance from the obvious grooming with the 1%ers attended to, and not so obvious nutritional, pest and turf stress programs kicking into gear through to behind the scenes work such cutting heights and sharpening of cylinders to meet the expectation for conditions of these events. Its not

 Thank you to all our members who supported this years Greenkeepers Revenge Day, a full field, and a packed clubhouse afterwards still scratching their heads how on earth they survived !!     A   fantastic fun day had by all, especially the apprentices!!     Played in good spirit, we hope to have reinforced the importance of course care in a fun way, and even if you took just one course care tip away to implement in future rounds, then everyone will benefit. Congratulations to all the days winners, none more so than Keith and Judy Simmons for being announced joint winners of the “2023 Pitch Forker”   award for outstanding course care through the year, proving that strong couples not only play together, they fork together!  We look forward to seeing everyone back out on the course trying to beat the obstacles set by your friendly Greenkeeper next year !   With the Greenkeepers Revenge run and won, the Roos mating,   Peppi trees flowering , the Capel 3000

  Welcome to the final winter update installment, spring is fast approaching so lets get cracking –  As we head into the back end of winter, the course in general has held up well, certainly we have some wet areas and thin growth in various areas tee to green, this is an expected experience through the colder / wetter months of winter particularly in high wear areas and as always we are noting problem areas with the view of developing plans to address moving forward. Through Winter it is critically important cart uses observe directional signs, stay well clear of greens and wet areas and if possible drive further away from high traffic areas than otherwise would. The more cart users adhere to these simple requests, the higher chance of limiting adverse effects near greens and important turf areas while also reducing the requirements of putting ropes up and other barriers.   We have been forced to install more ropes to preserve and force variation to cart driving habits, specifi

Carrying on from where I left off last time and covering the winter period continues........  Speaking of winter cover, Poa (winter grass) loves this time of year as you will have noticed.   Winter Grass is such an adaptable weed to various conditions and far more adaptable than bent grass to cold, wet, sealed surface conditions which limits air and water movement into and through the soil profile that winter conditions provide, Bent Grass growth next to non existent at this time of year and with hundreds of different bio-types, some more susceptible to product applications that others   management of this weed in greens is extremely difficult.   Late autumn / Early winter when the Bent was still growing enough we did needle tine greens to improve air and water filtration further into winter than normally would expect, this worked a treat for the first half of winter. However as we move further past the mid point of winter, the cold conditions contract the soil sealing the su

 A little more time has elapsed than I anticipated since my last update ( a bit of an understatement) , I apologise for this, it is an area where regardless how pressed for time I am, I need to improve as I believe it is important to continue lines of communications from Course Maintenance to Members and the reason I first started this way back when!.   Given the time- frame I will surmise the past few months over a three installments and then I plan to commit to finding the time, somehow, to update at least monthly even if just a short snapshot.   Once again my apologies. So let’s get stuck into it Despite the slow growing winter period, the so called off season, ( do we actually have one anymore), has been very busy, We have held a number of our major events, not least the Pro-Am, Capel Cup, Ladies Invitational and a few Vet events, all requiring additional time and preparations to take the course to a standard befitting these events.   We received very positive feedback

Before I update green renovation outcomes I would like to thank the many Volunteers who arrived to pick up and level cores. To many to name individually, and at risk of missing anyone person, all as important as each other, a massive thankyou from the greenstaff !!! It's the same bunch of blokes that put their hand up each and every time they are needed and without which, the club would be all the more poorer for it, figuratively and literally. I would also like to thank my fantastic staff, especially my 2IC Ben for working extra hours over the 2 1/2 days, some 30hrs at fast pace, to get everything done. Thankyou ! I was very pleased with our processes during renovations which have lead to a very clean finish, probably the cleanest finish of renovations I've been involved in 35 years.  As a result of that, the initial expected recovery time, due to the amount of pre renovation works we carried out of 4 to 6 weeks has been reduced by near half that time, anticipating maximum 4 w

I hope this post finds all our members happy and healthy, green renovations are on the way and we all know how our members just love this time of year, happy days ahead !😁 When I last left off, I was bemoaning the frustrating period we went through planning work which eventually was forced to be postponed due the tractor being out of action, we were sweating bricks as we got closer to renovations without the tractor as we use it to load up our native sand for renovations, we need at least week to do this prior to renovations so all sand is ready to go and no delays are experienced.  Thankfully the tractor is back in operation and we have commenced stockpiling sand in preparations just in the knick of time.    Green renovations commence Sunday afternoon 12th March, from 2.30pm and continues through Tuesday 14th. The front 9 holes will close on a progressive basis from 2.30pm Sunday, full course closure Monday and Tuesday.  During the renovation closure all greens will be c