CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

On behalf of all the greens staff, we would like to wish all our members, volunteers and management a very Happy Xmas and Safe New Year. May all your Handicaps come DOWN! See you all on the course in the New Year Greens staff

Ask most players on any golf course about Sand Bunker Maintenance and the answers will come thick and fast. Not enough maintenance carried out, The appearance needs looking after, Not enough Sand, Too much Sand, Bases aren't level, to much rubbish in them. And the list would go on, ask them what maintenance do they think gets carried out and the most likely answer is they rake them with a bunker rake and maybe do the edges every now and then but never enough. With this in mind here is an insight into one aspect of Bunker maintenance, the dreaded bunker edges as the staff refer to it with a groan. Every 4 weeks during the growing season and every 6 to 8 weeks at other times, all bunkers are edged, Trimmed, cleaned out and raked, a pretty simple sounding maintenance task unless you are aware of whats involved. It can take 4 staff up to 10 working hrs to complete, THAT'S 40 WORKING HOURS EVERY MONTH !  First up is to edge the bunker, getting a sharp clean cut edg...

This week saw the last of the Bunker Lips being done before Xmas with the 12th having the rear lip completely refurbished and the base leveled. The end result is a much better bunker. All bunker edges will now be trimmed up and edged prior to Xmas. 12th Bunker before 12th Bunker before 12th Bunker after 12th Bunker after Other work started but not yet complete include improving the planted area near the practice Bunker, some serious trimming work which was badly overdue. We will be encouraging better grass growth in an area previously not irrigated and eventually refurbishing the Practice Bunker so the whole area will appeal more. View from Practice Bunker View from Practice green before View from Practice Bunker after View from Practice green after Wind blowing debris over the course is one of the most frustrating events to happen, with no equipment to clean up large areas of leaves blown over fairways besides our rough m...

We are steadily making progress with renovating bunkers, so far minor adjustments have been made and the excess mounding caused by sand build up removed on the 2nd x 2, 5th, 8th, 11th and 14th sand bunkers. The picture below shows what we are trying to eliminate. Raised lip and worn edge Major bunker works are also complete on the 6th and 17th right side bunker, these works included reshaping the rear edge completely, levelling the base from a very steep rear to front slope and with the 17th increasing the width of what was a very small bunker, and impossible to rake with the bunker rake. 17th 6th  Both Bunkers have received positive comments and look, play and maintain allot better than before.  The 12th right side bunker is next on the list and will be the last before the Xmas / New Year period as we concentrate on other maintenance activities. Bunker works will then resume after New Year. In other news, the back 9 fairways were renovated last week, a decent resu...

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...