Week commencing 30th May.

This week was a very varied one. Monday's job was to add sand into the bunkers on the Allander course. I did this with Heather and Gordon. Over time, some sand will inevitably leave the bunkers from hitting shots, sand on shoes, sand being blown out and some sand being washed away through rain. The process of adding sand is as follows: we loaded up the tractor trailer with a few tonnes of sand and then emptied the appropriate amount into the bunkers. We then shovelled the sand evenly throughout the bunker. We then smooth out the sand using the rake to ensure areas are not deeper than others. Then we do a funny looking shuffle dance and heel in the sand to compact it and make sure it beds well ensuring that it’s not too loose. Once we have done that it is raked again and then we keel again and do a final rake.

On Tuesday I was raking the bunkers on both courses in the morning and then filling in divots on the Hilton in the afternoon. At this time of year, the divot mixture is a mixture of divot sand which is greyer in colour than bunker sand and grass seeds. You drop about a handful of the mixture into the divot and then drag the sole of your shoe over it to smooth it out. Lastly, once all the divots have been filled you would use the switching pole to switch over the divots, this ensures that the divot sand is level with the ground and so when we cut the tees the sand won't blunt the blades.

I had a different task to do for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday. One job that gets done every year is to touch up the tee signs. These get weather beaten over the year with the constant rain and sun (mostly rain). This week I have been sanding the wooden surroundings on the signs with sand paper to get any loose paint and marks off which will give a good base for varnish to be applied. ( see picture below).

On Friday morning I changed the bins and raked the bunkers, then in the afternoon I changed the holes on the Allander and the putting greens beside the clubhouse. I could feel a notable difference to previous weeks doing this job in that the ground was a lot harder due to the dry weather. You may have noticed that we are having to water the greens in this dry weather to ensure that they do not dry up and start to burn.

Both courses are looking great just now as is the clubhouse surroundings with the hanging baskets and flower beds being filled thanks to a few of the members giving of their time.