“It’s unbelievable how many golfers there are out there after 9 o’clock midweek firing balls at you - it doubles the time of every job!”


firing balls at you and you can’t get round the course. It doubles the time of every job you’d be doing on a private course, because they just won’t get out of your way.” Brian chips in: “It’s the lack of etiquette from a lot of the players. On a private course the greenkeepers always have right of way, here they’ve no chance. It’s just a lack of knowledge from some players about that side of it.” “They don’t like replacing divots on here either, or pitch-marks, which is a big problem,” notes Vinny. “That’s something we have to do in the evenings; there’s simply not enough hours in the day to keep up with it.” Consequently, these


greenkeeping ‘grunts’ have to cut their cloth, fairways and greens accordingly. “At the start of the season we have a slower growing-in process, because we’ve been played so heavily throughout the winter,” says Vinny. “Whereas everywhere else will be up and running by April 1st, we’re a month or so behind that. With it being so open as well it gets so weathered, the grass is a slower grower.”


And just as those that tend them have to be tough, the greens, too, need a good degree of resilience, given


the punishment they receive. They are made up from a blend of bent and meadow grass; pure bent is out of the question. Like most things at Heaton, a degree of realism about what can be achieved is required. “A lot of our greens are old


clay-based ones, not like the new sand-based greens, which need water and plenty of fertiliser,” says Andy, “Our greens were built to retain water, so you have to look after them the old-fashioned way. We haven’t got an irrigation system so we can’t plan fertilising, we have got to solely rely on the weather.” “It is a different ball game.


You can’t cut your greens at 4mm when you’re going through a drought; you’ve got to let the leaf grow back in to get the moisture back into the ground.” The team are as


environmentally friendly as possible - not spraying and generally avoiding any use of chemicals. Furthermore, a ‘live and let live’ policy is pursued when it comes to the course’s furry inhabitants. “People love to see the rabbits - what with it being essentially a city course,” says Andy. “Realistically what damage do they do? They dig in your bunker edgings, they do a bit of scraping on


tees, but it’s nothing major that can’t be repaired. It’s nice to see all the wildlife - you’re having a pint in the clubhouse and you look out…and there’s 20 flaming rabbits chewing your first tee up!”


Joking aside, the real


threat to the course comes from two rather than four legged animals. “We’re on constant daily


repair duty of damaged greens,” despairs Andy. “The pitch and putt is the same. What upsets us more than anything is people who don’t respect these greens and take divots playing irons off them.” “And that’s before we get to the motorcyclists,” sighs Brian. “At the moment he’s got


five greens to his name,” Andrew shakes his head. “Last year the 15th green was one of the best on the course, but then you come down one morning to see these deep


tyre marks and it breaks your heart. But there’s not a lot we can do.”


As a municipal facility, Heaton Park is open to all and sundry to come on the course, reflects Brian. “In an ideal world we’d love to surround it with a 20-foot fence but as a public park protected by legislation you can’t do that. You have to work with what you've got.” Indeed, ‘working with what you’ve got’ would seem to be a good maxim for municipal course greenkeepers. Those at Heaton have mastered the art of ‘creative greenkeeping’ and an ability to turn their hands to many different tasks; in addition to greenkeeping, the team have been busy this winter in the heavy plant hire, constructing new tees, as well as carrying out building maintenance work. From the clubhouse in which we sit talking, we can see an immaculate newly constructed tee area


“We haven’t got an irrigation system so we can’t plan fertilising. We have to solely rely on the weather”


42


revered by Golfing guru Peter Alliss as “a par 4 on this hole feels like a birdie and in some cases an Eagle!!!”


by the current Greenkeeping team, officially opened in July 2005


The 1st tee, designed and built


View from the magnificent 15th hole, which was


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