Bunker renovation and St Patricks

Last week was a very strange week, especially the weather. We had all the seasons rolled into one. In one day we had frost, sun, rain, wind, snow and hail!

The main aim of the week from a greenkeeping point of view was to carry out our bunker renovations. This would not include the new bunkers ( that are a few weeks away from being ready) but all the others. Some of the old bunkers needed to be pumped out because they don't have drainage or a least drainage that function correctly. These bunkers will be replaced during our next phase of works with new drainage added.
We edged the bunkers back just slightly using edging irons (old school), this process does take longer but it gives us a great start to a season and makes it easier to maintain. We also hand dug the edges out and removed the small shelves that were appearing in some of the bunkers. These were not major like the ones we dug out with the digger a few weeks but just subtle little bumps that would stop the ball from returning down the bank.
Next we checked the sand levels and topped the sand up in the bunkers that required it. The bunkers were then compacted and raked ready for play.

At the end of the week we managed to get the greens, aprons, tees and fairways cut as they had dried off enough meaning we could get the course ready for the St Patricks day golf. Unfortunately mother nature wanted to test us yet again bringing heavy rain (13mm) over night and more in the morning. We doubled our normal weekend staff numbers on Saturday and managed to get the course open, we did have some target greens but at least we were able to play and enjoy the great day. I think the weather played right into the hands of the Irish and they ended up winning by 1038 points to the Rest Of the Worlds 1025!!

My next blog will be about course Maintenance week. Lets hope the weather holds off...