Hi from the Marbella Golf Maintenance Team.
First of all, I would like to thank all the Marbella Golf team : Mike Munden , General Manager ; Sandra Lama, administrator ; the marshalling staff, caddymaster, the executive committee, Pacific Golf headquarters in San Francisco, our members and especially my greenkeeping staff, above all my crew forman Pepe, for their dedication and united effort to bring Marbella Golf Club back to a very high standard. A golf club is a living organism.
We still have a lot of work to do, but let me explain you some of the improvements that we are working on:
Greens Program:
In the last couple of months Marbella Golf has developed and instituted a comprehensive greens maintenance program. Due to our popularity with the golfers last Fall, we put off the necessary hollow coring of the greens until very late. Because it was done so late in the year, we had to work very hard to get the greens back into shape by implementing a comprehensive feeding and fertilizing program, combined with an application of Bio Rain, a growth accelerator, the greens are now in the best shape of recent years. The members and guests are enjoying the lightning fast speeds and the trueness of the lines.
Bunkers Program:
In association with the greens program, we have literally attacked the bunkers with labour intensive cultivating of the sand (dolomite) to re-establish the fluffy sand aspect of the bunkers, especially greenside bunkers. This program, combined with the introduction of new bunker maintenance equipment such as the Toro Sand-Pro and a new bunker cleaning machine that sifts the stones and olive pits from the sand, leaving extremely clean and playable bunkers. In addition, several of the bunkers have been reformed according to modern day bunker specifications with new shaping and drainage, and the re-addition of the originally specified sand into selected bunkers. You will notice they are very white compared to the other bunkers but will take on the sandy colour over time.
New Men’s and Pro’s 18th Tees:
As part of the continuing investment by the ownership of Marbella Golf and Country Club, a significant amount of money is being spent around the course and one of the more noticeable improvements, as you stand on one of our two sea view terraces, are the new 18th hole men’s and pro tees. The principal tee construction is completed at this time and we are applying finishing touches to the surrounding areas, including the relocation of olive trees to provide definition to the extended 18th fairway. The placement of the new tees adds 100 metres to the pro distance and 50 metres to the standard men’s tee making this an outstanding finishing hole in the Robert Trent Jones, Sr. Tradition. We expect to open the tees for play by mid-March, 2012.
Water Features:
Water features are an integral part of the design of Marbella Golf and Country Club and we are happy to report that all of the cascades, greensides of #3 and #6 and tee side of #17 with the stream feeding the lake, will be operational by the end of the 1st week of February, 2012.
New Maintenance Equipment:
As another part of the continuing investment by the ownership, we have received just under 300,000€ of new maintenance equipment in our effort to bring the course up to the level of quality expected of Marbella Golf and Country Club. The equipment ranges from mowers of differing applications to work trucks and sprayer. All of this equipment has made a tremendous impact to the appearance of the golf course and we invite all of you to come and visit us to see for yourself.
Click on the pictures to view SlideShow
I look forward to sharing my skills gained in over 400 golf clubs and 50 PGA Tour sites on the European and US PGA Tours on 4 continents with all segments of the club to be the very best that we can be.
Un saludo a todos,
Michael Rogers
Director of Golf Course Operations
Marbella Golf & Country Club
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