SNAKES& LADDERS A
The R&A’s highly laudable drive toward best
practices for golf courses uses a ladder as an
analogy for showing progress toward a sustainable golf course, but do you know how high this ladder is?
46
good part of this issue of Pitchcare is given over to the much discussed and promoted subject of
‘sustainable golf ’ and features organised, brave and forthright course managers who are striding up the rungs of sustainable progress. More power to them I say, I have never been in any doubt that firm, free-draining, true, fescue dominated stands are the only turf surfaces worth playing golf on. It is nothing new though, after all, these keen sporting surfaces are as old as the game itself.
So, what’s all the fuss about and why so much promotion from the R&A of late? Well, after all this time, I am sure that you don’t need me to tell you why so many courses are nowhere near the golfing turf Nirvana I describe above. Just to say that, as ever, a large portion of the sustainable effort relates to Poa annua domination. Which, lest you
forget, in the main, is caused by over doing the irrigation, fertilisation, golf traffic, low mowing heights and mistimed aeration practices.
April Fools
Notice I made no mention of Augusta National and the Masters, or the Americanisation of our courses in general. These old chestnuts get rolled out whenever someone has to find blame for the state of the UK’s greens in April. Or the fact that they are, in the main, dominated by Annual Meadow Grass. This is foolish nonsense, I don’t know anyone in this country who has been told by the management of Augusta National to shave, water or feed their greens in the early spring and, to my knowledge, there aren’t many courses with an American agronomist advocating high rates of fertilisation and irrigation. No, this often banded excuse is one first used
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132