A week of irrigation issues that cost us 70 man hours doing the repairs which is a huge drain on already tight staffing numbers.  It started last Saturday morning with a blowout on 12R fairway and is actually still ongoing with issues at the short range still not fully resolved.  As part of the repair last Saturday we had to re-prime the system due to the volume of water lost which means blowing the air out of as many sprinkler locations as possible.  I was doing just that when I noticed one of the greenside bunkers on 12R and a player had made no attempt to repair his shot area.  That was within the first six groups of the Monthly Medal so you can't always blame the social players!!

 

Not the best way to start a Saturday.

Wasn't a social player.

 

A lot of work is also being put into keeping the bunkers playable.  Their natural form of being a depression means they are virtually leaf collectors and with the constant winds and the trees shedding bark they are particularly bad at this time of year.  For this mornings competition preps there were five staff members blowing, raking and then mulching the debris on the outside of the bunker.  So nearly 40% of available staff worked the bunkers for the first four hours this morning.

 

Leaves out of LHS 4R to allow raking.

Mulching the leaves before they blow back in.

LHS 5W the day after being completely overhauled and cleaned.

On top of the wind it doesn't help when anywhere up to 600 players are on the courses most days and lots of those have no idea about raking a bunker or indeed playing a shot, or in most cases - shots.  With that amount of play there is an incredible amount of sand moved in the bunkers every day which adds even further to the workload and to be frank we would need a staff of fifty to keep up with bunker maintenance to make them perfect.  But they are a hazard the same as a dam is where you lose a shot every time you go in one yet bunkers get all the press!!  The photo below is one I've used before but if even half that amount of sand is moved every time a shot gets played in a bunker its easy to see why the sand depths vary so much.

Sand wedge or shovel?