CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Its been a while, sorry about that, with the break in and replacing the computer system along with what has been a busy few weeks made it difficult to update the Blog. The greens came back well from renovations and are now being cut at 3mm tho we did slow down the time frame due to the concerns from the renovations, (see earlier post). They are still a little off pace as we get some vigorous growth growing for recovery and for summer health, but will settle down from here on, quicken up as we start controlling the growth by spoon feeding rather than granular feeding of the greens.  There remains a few weak patches on the greens from the sand being left on at reno's for such a long period of time but are slowly knitting up and will be under close observation for disease or stress related problems. You may have noticed some bunker works being undertaken around the course, we are lowering the entry lips of the bunkers built up over the years from excess sand and also levelling bases...

Click.............Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Sorry Just me, cracking open a bottle of Jack's, putting the feet up and appreciating the fact the greens reno is finally done and dusted, ( excuse the pun).  We managed to get the sand on the greens from the past few rubbed in by midday after they dried under heavy skies, and then finished sanding the others, and finally rubbing them all in for a reasonable finish. It hasn't been the smoothest of Renovations but not the worst, with at first the Hire Top dresser not spreading the sand evenly and breaking down, then of course the rain, heavy clouded non drying skies, wet sand and a delay of 36hrs with sand on 8 greens before we could start rubbing in. My thanks, to our staff for putting in extra effort, our contractors for being flexible enough to allow us the extra day, and to those players today who turned up thinking reno's was complete and didn't mind playing the 9 holes which were open at the time, your understanding was apprecia...

Our fears were realised today when we had to stop Sanding the greens midway through. With forecast for rain and cloud hovering about it was decided to stop the Sanding as a precaution. We started early, with scattered cloud about but with forecast showing showers not till the afternoon, we were confident of getting the sand dried and rubbed in before the rain came. However with 97% humidity, cloud increasing and no wind at all, the sand was staying wet. Unfortunately, the sand already out has not dried 6hrs after putting out and we are stuck at the moment with sand over the greens as was to wet to rub in. Another effort will be made later this afternoon to get the sand in before rain makes the task impossible. We wait with baited breath, fingers crossed, and hope I won't have to explain the adverse effects if we leave the sand on to long..... Coring is complete, Sanding will take place at the earliest opportunity hopefully Tomorrow. Footnote  - Just back from th...

Yes its that time of year again, which all golfers just love...to hate.  For the many reasons we do this, click on this link Renovation Reasons .   Over the past week the renovation program kicked off with all Tees cored with our Ryan corer,amendments added, the ladies tees sanded and the greens verti cut yesterday. The Ryan in action Verti Units having the depths adjusted and prepared After the previous two glorious days we are keeping a nervous eye on the forecast for Sundays main green renovation day when we want, but don't necessarily get fine clear skies, a hint of rain could throw a huge spanner in the works so fingers crossed. Over the weekend, weather permitting, we will be Solid Coring, adding soil amendments, sanding, and of course rubbing the sand in. We are allowing a 4 week recovery period, (for the greens that is, not us) before they are back to normal playing conditions. Next week we will finish sanding the tees, from the...

It has been a pretty quiet 4 weeks as far as major works on the course are concerned. This is not to say the staff haven't been busy with the unseen work that is attended to. Broad leaf weed control from tree line to tree line including tees and surrounds has been undertaken as with some Poa control in surrounds and some of the shady tees where Poa annua ( winter grass) thrives. Staff have also been busy preparing for the irrigation season, with all sprinkler heads trimmed up and sprayed with growth regulators, with some 220 sprinkler heads and 280 turf valves on the back 9 it does take a bit of time to get around.  The front 9 auto retic was tested to make sure all is going well and sprinkler heads checked for proper operation, the back 9 greens and tees were tested after all our hard work through winter with the pipes and WOW what a difference, all 46 green turf valves working exceptionally well, the look on the staff's faces of the excitement of a kid in a jelly bean sho...

Waiting around supervising my sons 18th putting up with the bang bang they call music and thought bugger it I will update the blog while I have the chance haha. Before I do, these kids just don't know how to pace themselves, I use to look like this after an alnighter, but this kid took just 45mins !!!!! gotta laugh.    Anyway back on the job and the 11th retic pipe work were completed this past week along with the 12th tee. Instead of explaining I will let the pictures tell the story..... Main pipe underneath green pipe - not connected A t join in an unusual set up Re routing main pipe and attaching to green lines Cleaning pipes Iron discoloured water from cleaning After testing works were deemed succesful, we are very close to finishing the back 9 pipe improvements and look forward to the coming irrigation season with improve water flow to some critical areas.

Staff arrived to something we don't see too often first thing in the morning, during the week. Idiots broke into the cart shed and decided to use them as dodge cars, and also use the 18th green as their track                                                                                                              It was only superficial damage to the green but we still had some repair work to do . We were also tow truck drivers for the morning collecting the carts Something different turned into something old when two nights later they decided to come back and finish off the rest of the carts they didn't totally destroy the previous time. Again only superficial damage to the gre...