Captains Qualifier week

Normally looking at the diary to see the words 'Captains qualifier' brings great joy as you know the golf season is getting underway. This year however, I had a look of disbelief, 'How can the weather patterns still be all over the place at the end of April'? I asked myself.

The temperatures have been great during the day but very low at night, holding back the growth. (See the image below which shows the temperatures for the week a head and you will see the night temps drop.) I really thought spring had started but we are still getting frosts (see photo from Sunday morning). The trees have only just started to bloom this week but this is a good sign. We know the optimum date for growth is always the 19th May and has been for many years but at least we are getting something.

This week our main aims were to work on the greens and improve smoothness, scarify fairways, carry out woodland work on the 14th so the new bunker can be seen better, bring in all winter ropes, cut the new bunker banks, drain the practice bunker, edge bunkers, compact the new bunkers, give the course it's first summer season cut, lower the greens height again and get the new and refurbished course furniture out for the Captains. All of these were achieved but more work is required to compact the bunkers a touch more before we open them up.

The greens were sarel rolled ( vented to 2 inches), deep Verti- cut, cut, top dressed using around 8 tonnes of dressing and brushed in. These were also ironed along with lowering the height of cut to help smooth the surfaces up ready for the weekend.

The fairways and for the first time the semi rough were scarified straight up and down and debris blown from these areas. This is labour intensive, it takes two guys 4 days to complete but it really will help the playing surfaces and now we can weed, feed, soil and seed them to improve the coverage.

The ropes and pins were removed from the course and the new bunkers got there first cut. Another interesting task was to water (flood) the new bunkers to help compact the new sand. This really did seem to work and will be done again.

We were able to cut the course and get the white markers out along with the rest of the refurbished markers, new hole cups (metal) and new flags that are brighter (easier to see) and fly better (to show wind direction).

Lastly, one funny thing that did happen this week was the run away trolley at the the 7th. This ended up ( power caddie, clubs and everything) in the ditch near the tee. I can hear you say that's not funny and it's not but while Kev our deputy was trying to fish the clubs out if the water the words 'a bear is coming for you Kev' were heard. Then like a flash the lady Captains dog 'Oscar' arrived trying to save Kev because he thought he was in trouble, this scaring the wits out if Kev. It was a comical moment (Please see photo below)!!