Bunkers and Raking

One small change this year I hoped players appreciated was our attempt to introduce a different method to rake bunkers.

Smoothed Edges, Raked Bottom

I read about the "Australian Bunker" method this past winter and, as usual, ridiculed it but as more people began to posting on Twitter I began to warm up the idea.  We don't have buckets of bunkers but there is no doubt some are difficult to play out of.  Basically, by creating a smooth edge around the periphery all errand shots entering a bunker should roll to the bottom of the hazard.  A flatter lie should be an easier shot; or so they say (?).

The other reason for trying this style of bunker raking goes back to the "there isn't a business that can't find a 3 to 5% efficiency" quote I've mentioned before (GO HERE).  We've already cut down the number of days we rake bunkers.  For the past couple years now we've only hand raked half the bunkers each day and touched up the rest.   With this method we only smooth the edges where players have walked in and out, or if rain/irrigation has washed out a bunker face, or if an animal has walked along the edge otherwise we do nothing. The area we rake on the bottom is far less than before so it should take less time, unfortunately, that doesn't appear to be the case.  If you know my bunker raker you know that he is regimented and adapting to change is slow process.  He is definitely doing less so he should be quicker, however........

Mea Culpa......

What else can I say?  I haven't kept up with updating the blog and now any audience I may have gained have most likely given up.  With hindsight, I now know how stupid my staffing plan was for the 2015 season.  This isn't the time to go into it but spending my mornings operating 2 to 3 different pieces of mowing equipment on top of my regular duties has exhausted me and, frankly, made me bitchy!

A quick review of the little blurb that appears on the right hand side of the the blog page ("What's the Point?") reminded me of what I was trying to do and how I may have lost my way a bit.  Short updates with pictures not long winded over explanatory essays!  So let's try it again....

Lots to cover but this post will cover something you'll get to use.  I saw another superintendent post something on Twitter with some local weather information for his area and I asked where he was getting his data.  He directed me to a on-line source that sells weather stations for the backyard, meteorological weather mega-geeks.  So way back at the start of summer I bought a weather station but it took until August and help from KGC's I.T. guy, Bruce I., to get it working.  Go to Kimberley Golf Club Weather Station to see data from the weather station.  At the top is current weather and if you scroll down there is graphs and tables which give historical data for our weather station but, FYI, information is only available starting on August 16, 2015.

I know Kimberley is not that big but by looking at the info from the station before you come down you will get a feel for what the weather at the club is like.  Who cares?  Well in the very near future frost delays will be an issue again so instead of trying to get through to the golf shop in the morning to see if there is frost you will be able to look at the temperature a make an educated guess.  This time of year anything below -2 degrees will probably mean a delay.  Another FYI, the stations present location skews temps about 3 degrees warmer than it really is so if you see a temp of +1 it is more likely -2 ish.  I will still attempt to inform players of delays via my Twitter feed as well.  Twitter, another thing I have trouble keeping up with......