Wembley Pitch - FA Cup semi final preparations

This is how they do it in preparations for the FA Cup.

Recent General Course Inprovements

With growing season slowing down we have had the opportunity to get to a few extra projects on the golf course to improve not the playability but the aesthetics of the course.

The wood cladding the 18th tee box have been rotting away and needed replacing..

Here you can see how its rotten away...

The wall was stripped cleaned and prepared for the new wood to be installed.

The front was fixed and redone entirely

The new pine that is treated and got a guarantee for 30 years installed and stained.

We have rebuild all the water fountains on the course with a new basin and a tap system. The pressure problems has been solve and now our members can enjoy nice cold tap water on the course.

With the new and bigger cart fleet we have installed new and more traffic stakes to manage the cart traffic on the course better. 

We have new tee marker ready that you will see out on the course after Club champs weekend .

Cyclone Irina hit Durban...

As most of you are aware we had a flood in the last week of November 2011 where the 16th , 9th and 15th fairways where a meter (36inches) under water for a week before we could pump it off. January arrived and we had 9mm rain for the first 2 months of the year with temperatures averaging 32C + (95F) and the course dried out tremendously being build on sand dunes. Then...

Cyclone Irina hits Durban and drops 230mm (9inches) of rain in 12 hours, flooding the the course again !

16th Fairway

9th Fairway

Driving Range

I took the TLB and made a trench through the road running next to the 16th fairway and installed a drain , draining excess water standing on the fairway in case the ever happens again.

It took us 4 days to pump all the water ,clean the course , fix all the bunkers and cut up and remove the 13 trees that wnet down in the storm. 

Hero to Zero !

Its amazing how mother nature can make a golf course superintendent go from hero to zero in no time ! November we had a flood at DCC and the course was unplayable for a week and only dried out after 2 weeks of pumping and moving water of the course. January arrives and we have 10% of our normal rainfall in January with our water supply to the course down by 80% and the golf course drying out quikly...

Hole 1 at DCC on the 3rd of January 2012 

Hole 1 at DCC on the 23rd of January 2012

The front holes 1-8 are build on old sand dunes and drains very well so these holes where the first to start burning due to the heat. The rest of the golf course is mainly build on a clay soil structure and retains more water keeping it green for longer.

Our water supply to the golf course comes from a well point that was taken out by the flood and we are awaiting the last few parts to arrive to get it back and running as it all had to be imported. For now we need to hope and pray for rain as the golf course it taking strain with hardly enough water for tee's and greens.