September 2023
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 on the horizon and of course Keith and Judy still Forking, it can only mean one thing, Spring has sprung !
Unlike the past 2 years where cooler, overcast conditions extended all the way through November / December which effected growth rates and even forced us to delay our warm season turf renovations to as late as December, this year seems to be tracking to a return to normal seasonal transition. We are certainly starting to see some growth on the course, more so than the past few years at this point so hopefully the trend can continue.
The past month or so, is also the time off year a number of herbicide applications are being applied for various weeds, from clearing up Poa (Winter grass), Guildford grass and general broadleaf weeds to pre emergent’s for Summer Grass, it keeps us busy with multiple applications and precautions taken for not only turf safety as some products applied to couch grass can damage our bent grass greens and can be easily tracked by traffic ( players and staff) from one area to another, but also for staff and player safety as well. It is for this reason strict adherence to course closures opening and closing times and 9 hole closures MUST be followed, not only for your own benefit but for the turf as well.
Two impacts from these applications are a further deterioration in fairway definitions, already difficult to see as a result of no winter growth becoming almost impossible to distinguish and some transient discolouration of desirable turf. Good news is both are only temporary and will bounce back as soon as conditions allow.
Irrigation maintenance is now in full swing with a number of sprinklers being attended to in preparations for the irrigation season, this year we have a great deal more to address from iron related issues, of which we are prioritising over other areas of work at the moment. We have made a significant dent on the priority list (severe impact to operation) over the past week with a few more issues to get through in the coming week before we can return to a more casual rolling maintenance between other critical course work. Always busy with something to attend!
Our tree root pruning has been temporarily postponed till irrigation maintenance is complete, however we did complete 13th fairway and made initial progress on 6 to add to the list completed.
With Spring on the mind a number of major works are also fast approaching, Greens renovations commence 9th October there will be a 3 day course closure during which, all greens will be cored, sanded as will all greens aprons / approaches, selected back 9 fairways also cored. Should the weather be kind and work to plan, Tee tops will also be renovated or at least a start made. Tee top renovations are less disruptive to play so we can perform this work outside of the renovation closure period, as mentioned earlier hopefully spring weather keeps tracking as it is and we won’t need to delay this work till later in the season.
Fairway dethatching will commence Monday 6th November with more information closer to the date.
Other work upcoming include the practice tee re-surface which will commence after the on course renovation is complete, the 10th greenside bunker refurbishment and more work to the 5th black tee. More information will be provided as we get closer to commencement.
In the meantime for this month, we are about to crank up the 1%ers to get the course into shape for our next major event the Capel 3000, there’s plenty of Bush to cut, bunkers to trim, tee boxes to tidy and greens to roll to keep us occupied till renovations.
No rest for the wicked, I am sure a few members think we are, after encountering the Greenkeepers Revenge !!
Finally a shout out to our amazing volunteers for the fantastic path works they continue to do, the latest being the 3rd path extension, in between their usual range ball collection, tree removal and burn heap management, thank you to all involved.
Till next time
Happy Hooking
