Golf Things That Gladden The Heart

We have a new course manager John (he was at the club a few years ago as the deputy).

I was chatting to the club manager about the bunkers and found out that John thinks our bunker rakes are a big part of the problem and is going to change them. Something I had suggested to the committee over 2 years ago.
 
Played in our pit golf day yesterday. A PP had 5 points on the back nine when stood on the 18th. A par five all to score off the reds. He got his first ever eagle a 3 for 5 for 10 points.
 
We put air conditioning in as part of our clubhouse refurbishment carried out last year…and of course - what a waste of money - some would have thought…well these big beautiful boxes - oh yes…so nice.
 
jim8flog said:
We have a new course manager John (he was at the club a few years ago as the deputy).

I was chatting to the club manager about the bunkers and found out that John thinks our bunker rakes are a big part of the problem and is going to change them. Something I had suggested to the committee over 2 years ago.
Click to expand...
What problems are caused by the rakes…intrigued…
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
What problems are caused by the rakes…intrigued…
Click to expand...
The new rakes we started using a few years back are made from plastic with hollow tube with short tines that are only about 1 to 1.5 inches long. Put in the hands of the average golfer all they do is scratch the surface and do not break up compacted sand.

I understand they will be replaced with rakes that have much longer tines.

Our old rakes were the same type as most gardeners would use and we never had as bad a compaction problem as we have had for the past few years.
 
We had our golf clubs 50th anniversary comp yesterday. Winning score was 45 points! The "thing that gladdens the heart" is that it is someone we all know who played a brilliant round vs a guest turning up on a dodgy handicap

Also, our lowest handicapper shot 4 under for 40 points, plus winning 3 other prizes for nearest the pins and his team came second. Nice to see a low capper (off scratch) do well and he's a lovely bloke so I'm really pleased for him.
 
jim8flog said:
The new rakes we started using a few years back are made from plastic with hollow tube with short tines that are only about 1 to 1.5 inches long. Put in the hands of the average golfer all they do is scratch the surface and do not break up compacted sand.

I understand they will be replaced with rakes that have much longer tines.

Our old rakes were the same type as most gardeners would use and we never had as bad a compaction problem as we have had for the past few years.
Click to expand...
As most golfers just rake with one hand as they back out of the bunker, I can’t see longer times making any difference to the lower levels of sand
 
Neilds said:
As most golfers just rake with one hand as they back out of the bunker, I can’t see longer times making any difference to the lower levels of sand
Click to expand...
Therein lies another problem identified by the head course manager and myself. Most bunkers end of with all the sand at the edge of the bunker instead of in the middle because players drag the sand to the edge rather than pushing it back to the middle. I wonder how many players moan about condition of bunkers and do nothing about it as part of their own actions.

Where I play the course management schedule only has bunker raking on 2 days of the week so players cannot expect the green staff to do it.
 
jim8flog said:
Therein lies another problem identified by the head course manager and myself. Most bunkers end of with all the sand at the edge of the bunker instead of in the middle because players drag the sand to the edge rather than pushing it back to the middle. I wonder how many players moan about condition of bunkers and do nothing about it as part of their own actions.

Where I play the course management schedule only has bunker raking on 2 days of the week so players cannot expect the green staff to do it.
Click to expand...
Something we are encouraged to do is to push the sand towards the middle of the bunker as we rake, rake back first if necessary then push sand back into the middle of the bunker as they are designed so that that is where balls will generally roll to.
 
Just had some grips delivered today.

Gladdening Moment 1: I only placed my order yesterday lunchtime....so delivery today was utterly unexpected, as I hadnt realised that Royal Mail were now doing Sunday parcel deliveries.

Gladdening Moment 2: Usually when a parcel is delivered and the driver takes a photo, it is just of the parcel with a bit of identifying background/floor/doorstep. As the parcel was handed over and the pic taken I gave a big smile and a cry of "cheese" not expecting to be in the picture at all. Didnt realise the driver was taking a wide angle picture...

Screenshot 2025-06-22 142238.png
 
nickjdavis said:
Just had some grips delivered today.

Gladdening Moment 1: I only placed my order yesterday lunchtime....so delivery today was utterly unexpected, as I hadnt realised that Royal Mail were now doing Sunday parcel deliveries.

Gladdening Moment 2: Usually when a parcel is delivered and the driver takes a photo, it is just of the parcel with a bit of identifying background/floor/doorstep. As the parcel was handed over and the pic taken I gave a big smile and a cry of "cheese" not expecting to be in the picture at all. Didnt realise the driver was taking a wide angle picture...

View attachment 58534
Click to expand...
They're not supposed to get faces in the picture, that's why it's usually just the parcel you see.
 
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