CAPEL GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

With one staff down due to leave we capped off a very busy week by completing the fertiliser application to all fairways, some minor repair work to the12th and Chipping greens and the removal of a dangerous tree on number 7 thanks to the diligence of our Intermediates Captain Dal for spotting the huge crack at the base of the tree and dangerous lean.   I am expecting some leaf burn in the fairways caused by carts / traffic over the fertilised areas; Mainly the back 9 with the manual irrigation system even under best case scenarios still takes up to 10 hrs to wash in, (irrigate), the fairways only, with constant sprinkler shifts using the bikes which increases the risk of burn tracks and some areas where irrigation coverage is less than desirable requiring water with hoses after the initial irrigation has completed its cycle. The tracks will only be temporary growing out in a week or two. The front 9 fairways are not likely to have any major burn tracks due to the s...

  The greens continue their strong recovery from renovations, earlier this week we commenced morning cuts and as of today the heights lowered to 4mm, despite these significant benchmarks on the road to recovery being met, greens will remain on the slow side for a few weeks yet, it can be very easy to forget with the greens recovering so well from renovations that it has only been 12 days meaning they are well ahead of expected recovery rates.   On a less than positive note, obviously one player wasn’t as impressed with the renovation recovery as the rest of us.....   I don’t believe for a minute it could possibly be a playing member, likely a Green fee player, I certainly hope so, either way  Enough said  The treated Couch and Saltine encroached areas are slowly filling in and like the renovation response, I am very pleased with the treatment result at this stage. In these areas it will take longer to recover and be less appealing t...

The greens have made fantastic progress since renovation.  Though it has only been 5 days, we gave them their first cut this afternoon. Whilst the height is 5mm, allot higher than our standard cut, it is a significant point in the renovation recovery process,   as from here they only improve with each cut with the initial vertical recovery growth clipped which encourages lateral growth also encouraging the turf surface to form a tighter knit that only comes with regular mowing. The greens will still remain slow for a few weeks yet and the treated couch saltine and crab grass areas will be slower to recover than other areas which can be seen in the picture and will give some of the greens a patchy appearance depending on the amount of these weeds controlled until full recovery is achieved.                           ...

Well, Autumn renovations are over for another 12 months and despite being very aggressive with the scarifying / verti cutting more so in the couch encroached areas    the greens have came out of renovations very clean leading me to consider the possibility we may be cutting by the end of the week.   That said Players should still expect the greens to be slow and Bumpy for the next 3 weeks as the greens are rested for recovery with higher cutting heights, this also protects the cutting equipment from abrasive sand wear. The Couch and Saltine areas have been treated, these areas will be slower to recover than other areas within the greens, and we may need to apply a follow application for saltine patches in a few weeks once the greens have recovered sufficiently to tolerate control measures. The New section of the practice putting green will be closed for a few weeks, the area of this green is still immature being only 18 months old and needs that li...

Its hard to believe our Autumn Greens renovations are a little over a week away  alt hough we are not expecting a sudden drop to Autumn like temperatures we do hope temperatures moderate to at least below 30 unlike the past week with temperatures of 30+ up to 35. We can’t control the weather and we are locked in to carry out renovations the first weekend after the Labour Day long weekend due to play commitments, it maybe slightly earlier than desired as the heat does bring challenges for renovations but it also has its benefits in that the greens are normally fully recovered with full cover of turf prior to the cooler weather germination of Poa annua (Winter Grass). To leave the greens later than desired would be more of a concern as it leaves the greens susceptible to Poa invasion through a thinner turf canopy during favourable germination times for this weed, restricts both pre and post emergent control measures and less likely the greens may only partially recov...

It has been some time since I updated the blog, the Summer peak season with extra time spent with manual irrigation along with increased mowing and course preparations and other time consuming summer maintenance tasks leaves little time for anything else. As with every other summer with a small staff of 4, choices are made, priorities set and maintenance routines adjusted to suit, if we worked in utopia we would have more than enough staff and equipment to complete every task requiring attention every week and still have more time available, alas we do not work in utopia we are governed by budgets, wages and time restraints as such choices based on priority of what should be and what cant be attended are made every day. As you can guess, updating the blog is the first to go, maybe it shouldn’t be, it is one of the few means for communication the members from the course staff, one I do feel is important however at the end of the day I am pretty s...

There are plenty of well known benefits from coring and aeration, I have highlighted a few over the years but never did I believe one of those benefits was finding Irrigation Leaks !!! After coming across water bubbling to the surface from a core hole I initially thought the Corer had hit a shallow pipe, digging the area up expecting to discover a nice core hole in a pipe I was somewhat surprised to find the leak in question judging by the amount of oxidised iron, (much deeper than the core holes reached) must have been leaking for a considerable time. Water will flow along the least resistance, it was only the core hole that directed water to the surface. Ticking another box for the benefits of coring finding old pipe leaks!!! The fairways are progressing well from renovations, full recovery will take another week or so and stand in good health with the hotter part of summer approaching. Greens have also continued their strong response from th...