CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Had to do a quick re think with this post, I had planned to use a few photo's from my phone of all things Spring, hopefully not a sign of things to come but the phone is at the shop under warranty repair and so are the photo's............. Spring has sprung and I wish I could say the work has too, but in reality the staff have been hard at it all winter in one of the busiest yet, with the unprecedented storm damage back in June and being 1 staff down for the whole period, it is basically just a continuation from last summer. The next 6 to 8  weeks are set to be even crazier with renovations, ( greens tees and front 9 fairways), the chipping green construction, 16th mound construction just to name a few on top of normal course work which includes increased mowing frequencies now the grass is starting to grow, and the irrigation side of things. Actually in some sick and weird way I am looking forward to it!!! During this time, as many know I do the blog in my own time, ...

There is a bounce in the tone, a skip to the step, for the first time in nearly 6 weeks we managed to accomplish other work besides cleaning up debris from the storm. HALLELUJAH!!!! you here me yell!!!!!!!!!!!!! WE started being constructive rather than cleaning up the destruction, well it depends on how you look at it I guess, some might think we were being destructive!  Despite only 2 of us on for half the week we made progress on a few of the original plans we had for winter. The gardens near the site of the proposed practice chipping green and bunker were finally removed in preparations for construction to commence as soon as the donated equipment becomes available.                                               Some destruction before the ...

Hello and welcome to this weeks news.   During the week Kubota in conjunction with Bunbury Machinery held its annual Kubota Roadshow, usually I send the staff along with myself to view and test drive the equipment. This year they came to us, we were asked to provide the venue for this years event and we were more than willing to assist. The staff enjoyed testing out the latest mowers on offer, actually they were like kids on an amusement ride at your local store, I thought they were going to throw a tantrum when I told them they had to "get off".    I believe in the fact the staff must use any equipment we purchase so they should be given the opportunity to test the equipment themselves and provide any feedback positive or otherwise, at the very least I find it gives them a sense of ownership and they are more likely to look after the equipment in the long run. A side note to concerned members at this point, no we are not purchasing equipment at this stage, Andy ...

Welcome to the weekly review for the week ending 29/6 and time is of the essence. Not allot to tell this week, which does not mean there wasn't allot of work carried out. The staff split our time 3 ways this week between Course set up, ( Greens mow, hole changing, bunkers etc) Routine course maintenance, (Fairway mowing ..yes that’s right we managed to cut fairways for the first time since the storm...and other routine maintenance that usually gets done on certain weeks/ days) and commencing the detail clean up in the bush / rough areas. By detail I mean a walk-through of the roughs picking up any remaining branches and sticks, filling in stump holes etc and finally running the Kubota slasher through for the final tidy up.   Now I ask you to keep in mind there is only 3 staff at present and only 1 Kubota Slasher, we have some 20Ha to cover for the bush / rough area so it will take time to get around the whole course and we must split our time between the 3 ways above. Time...

Back to the normal weekly updates, the storm cleanup still looms large on the list of the weekly duties. This week was slow going for the remainder of the cleanup, with Anthony at TAFE just Dean and myself on and with the course now open for play half our time is dedicated to course setup so some time is therefor taken away from the cleanup duties. Having said that, little evidence remains of the destructive storm, the damage it caused or the massive cleanup that was undertaken besides a few smouldering logs, some fair size mountains of debris ready for disposal and the odd branch about the place. We managed to finish picking up all the small debris heaps over the course, removed a few more dangerous limbs, rehabilitated some of the worst effected areas, and we even mowed tees for the weekend, a first for the last 2 weeks. Repair work to the mindless act of vandalism on the 11th was commenced  and we will see how that handy work comes out. (I did intend to take some pictures...

Due to the public holiday last Monday, this week was a short week, and a disruptive one due to the rain, 91mm of rain over the last 10 days restricted the type of work carried out. Clean up work included debris removal, 2 felled trees, Bunker repair (washouts etc). This was carried out on top of the usual course set up and we still managed to get through some extra over due works as well. These works included, repair of the 15th wear area, turfing the final section of the 17th green bank modifications, finishing the 16th tee path area and some equipment servicing when the rain was just to heavy for outside work to continue. Considering we are still operating with 3 staff, not a bad effort, a very productive week despite the short disruptive week. Some before and after pics...... 15th wear area 15th repaired 17th green bank before works 17th green bank as it is now 16th tee during wall construction 16th tee now This past week was also the a...