Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I hope all of you are staying cool during this extreme heat we have had over these past months, and what has been recorded as one of the hottest July’s ever in Andalucia.
You can imagine how this effects the golf course. However, the course has held up reasonably well due to the hard work of our maintenance team. We are strictly controlling the water usage and only watering when and where needed. The Junta de Andalucia is carrying out inspections of all golf courses to make sure they are adhering to the rules/regulations they have put in place this summer due to the drought.
Due to the heat, we have experienced some dry patch issues on the green surfaces, but we have controlled this by hand watering the greens daily and applying a wetting agent application. This has helped all greens breathe more and not get scorched by the sun for 13 hours a day. We are still carrying out general processes to the greens i.e., Verti grooming, applying foliar feeds, solid tining, and hand cutting and rolling them three times per week. The two new Toro green mowers will be arriving here at the end of August, and just to warn you all, I will have these greens rolling fast for the wintertime!
All tee boxes have recovered well after our May hollow core works. We plan to do these works on the tees again before high season play begins in mid-September. This process allows the tee boxes to have more moisture in the bottom soil which encourages growth.
The fairways have been cut to 16mm; they were being cut at 14mm before. Hopefully, this makes it a little easier for you all to hit your hybrids and irons off of the fairways. I will continue to keep this length for the time being, and now, during summer, the fairways are being cut three times a week to control the seedheads and weeds.
We are continuing to sign up more members, and I believe this winter is going to be a busy one for all of us. We have introduced the new Clapphouse App which was launched on August 4th and members have already started to sign up to the club competitions via the app. I would like to thank Satu and the caddie masters for all their hard work and patience in explaining this to all the members. The new app will make it more convenient for you to register for weekly competitions and tournaments and will help tremendously with the organisation of the events. Booking tee times and purchasing range balls through the app is very easy as well.
Please do not forget to check the dates of the members events coming up this autumn, the first one being the club championship to be held over two days on September 25th and 27th. Signing up to this event will also be done through the Clapphouse app.
On a personal note, I will be playing more golf with the members this winter. So, expect an invitation from me once you all get back for a round of golf with me and lunch. But…you must give me some shots because I have not been playing much!
I hope to see you all very soon at the golf club.
