GuernseySport
Waves...
and an almost full time mechanic, Geoff Duquemin, who works thirty hours a week and has been part of the team for six years.” “I call in extra labour as required during the growing season, just to keep up with rough cutting, which takes up to forty hours a week, and tees and fairway divoting, to which twenty-four hours are allocated. I also take in a student from a French horticultural/agricultural college for between four to eight weeks each year.”
Drainage
“With the course being below the high water mark, flooding is a problem and drainage essential. There are a network of ditches - douits, pronounced ‘dwee’ in the local patois - that criss-cross the fairways. These carry the water, that enters through the boundaries at around twenty different places, to one outlet that runs under the coast road through a three foot pipe to the beach.” “This pipe has a non return valve
halfway through that closes when the tide rises - there is over ten metres height difference from the highest and lowest tides - and the inward pressure of the sea
is higher than the outward pressure of the water in the drainage ditch.” “The non return on a high tide can
keep the gate closed for up to six hours and, with two tides a day, this is always a problem during winter months. This can become a problem when high tides and rain cause the ditches to fill and, on occasions flow over the fairways. We have been known to row a boat across six fairways without touching dry land.” “To help control the flooding, a pump is positioned near the beach that lifts water from the main ditch to the beach up a ten inch suction pipe to the pump ten feet above. The water is then pushed along a further sixty feet, and up another five feet, to the coast road drains where it then passes under the road to an outlet just above high tide mark to the beach.” “During the past winter the pump ran
from late November to early January, non-stop, pumping 2,000,000 gallons a day, using around four litres of fuel per hour - thank God for red diesel. The pump can be manually controlled or put on a float switch. We keep it on float most of the time.”
“On the outlet pipe, on the course
side, there is a gate valve that can be lowered in times of drought to keep water in the ditches and raise the water table to keep the fairways green. But, this would have to be carefully monitored, and we have not needed to resort to this yet.”
Design
“Originally designed by Fred Hawtree, as a 9 hole, par 35, it was subsequently extended by his son, Martin, to an 18 hole, par 64. It is a very challenging course with ponds, lakes and open ditches in play on all but one of the holes. Even from this tee though, a shanked ball can find water! Martin Hawtree still visits us regularly, the last time was in February of this year.” “All of the greens and tees were constructed from the native soil - a mixture of peat, sand and clay - dug out when creating the lakes and realigning and widening the ditches.” “Over 17,000 trees have been planted.
There is quite a contrast in environment around the course, from exposed coastal areas to sheltered woodland further from the sea. We have had to put various species around the course, most of which 71
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