Facing new challenges at GALWAY BAY
WHAT a baptism of fire I have had since arriving from the States last September. I came to Ireland to increase my knowledge and experience of managing a European course, having worked at a number of courses in the USA over the last thirteen years. My last job there was as the Assistant Superintendent at the Century Country Club, Purchase, New York.
Ireland, last autumn and wanted to stay for a while, get the Ryder Cup under my belt, and work on for a year or two. However, the chance to direct and manage the Galway Bay Golf Resort became available so, I put my hat into the ring, and was successful. I started my appointment as Director of Golf Course Operations in January 2006; coming to the Bay will give me great experiences and a significant challenge, as we are going through some major reconstruction works at the club. Set in 300 acres the 18 hole 6,624
I secured a job at the K Club, here in
so there has been a lot of remedial work to carry out.
The local contractor, Tom Bryan, actually started to improve the course three years ago, building two new greens and lengthening some of the holes. The improvements were so good that the club chose to close the course last November for twelve months to expedite the next phase. The club has around 300 members, who have been very patient while the course is closed. We’re sure that they will get a real ‘wow buzz’ when they return in the spring, it will look like a Championship course - they should be overwhelmed.
metres par 72 course was designed in 1993 by the former Ryder Cup, and World Cup, golfer Christy O’Connor Jnr. He has superbly blended the stunning backdrop of Galway Bay and the rugged curves of the Atlantic coastline with mature trees, water hazards, concealed pot bunkers and highly acclaimed putting surfaces. Galway Bay Golf Resort is currently
undergoing some major refurbishment works to improve the facilities, performance and condition of the course. The owners of the club want it to become a premier venue and have been prepared to spend good money in backing me to achieve this. Originally, the course was constructed on farmland,
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The course will also open again in 2008 for ‘pay and play’ customers. When I arrived there were only four staff but, although closed for play, the remit was to continue to maintain the course as if it were in play on a daily basis. This meant I had to bring in more staff and, after advertising and interviewing, this rose to fourteen during the summer. New staff included two deputy Head Greenkeepers and a full time mechanic. I was also lucky enough to retain the services of the Head Greenkeeper, who has been here for five years.
It has been great that Christy O’Connor Jnr has come back to oversee these changes and improvements and we have worked closely together to see the project through to fruition.
THE main aim is to turn the existing 18 holes into more of an old style links course. The works include lengthening some of the holes by moving the tees, and the construction of four more greens to a USGA specification. The remainder
dressing and over seeding the fairways is under way with the aim to verti-drain and top-dress 4,000 tons of sand in another four operations by November this year. The fairways are being cut at 14mm. Whenever we do any scarifying or verti- cutting of the fairways, we always follow with an over sow, and slowly the composition of grass is changing to a good 70% fescue and 30% perennial dwarf rye mix.
By JASON PODRIS, Director of Golf
of the greens are undergoing an intensive programme of aeration using a number of techniques, such as the Hortasoil’s Drill and fill, DryJect, and more traditional solid and hollow tine aeration accompanied with top dressing. We will have applied over 400 tonnes of sand to the greens by the end of the season. We are maintaining the greens at 2.7mm; to see how they perform, we use the stimpmeter on the greens every fortnight and we are getting readings of about 9.5. We put the green irons on about once a week at the moment to keep them quite fast. We will be planting over 100,000 gorse plants to create hazards and features along the fairways and rough areas. A programme of re-draining, top
Christy has also introduced a number of new bunkers to the course and, together, we have reshaped and cleaned up many of the old ones. All of the tees have been reconstructed.
Firstly they were excavated out and new drains installed and built to a USGA specification using imported 85/15 rootzone. Once graded and consolidated they were turfed using a fescue mix. Since their completion we have begun a
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