DIVIDE
culprits. Some of my UK clients have come up with some novel ideas though, which include:
• Putting a golf ball on every pitch mark on a badly affected green and taking a photo for members to see how many there are.
• Put the pin in the middle of an area with lots of pitch marks that haven’t been repaired (I like that one).
etiquette would be a priority on their
golf courses. Oh, how
wrong I was! Noticeably fewer people carry in the UK, and there
seems to be a plague of electric buggies and trolleys on the courses. I
know that there are legal reasons why clubs allow them on courses, but that doesn’t stop me hating them. I find it especially amusing that players who have a medical certificate for a trolley can miraculously be cured once the ‘carrying only’ sign goes up. Like the UK, New Zealand clubs also have issues with getting players to correctly repair pitch marks. I don’t purport to have any new radical solutions to this problem other than a ceremonial dunking in the irrigation pond for
• Install a CCTV camera on the par 3s to identify golfers that don’t repair their marks so that they can be named and shamed (only the Brits could come up with that).
Personally, I still think that good mentoring of young or new golfers is vital. The USGA have a handy DVD that has an animated movie of how to correctly repair pitch marks and why they need to be repaired. I think that the more golfers are aware of the effects of poor pitch mark repair, the more they are likely to repair them.
Chemicals
The UK has far fewer chemicals available on the turf market than their NZ counterparts. Several chemicals recently released on the UK market have been available for several years in Australasia. This can be useful to the UK greenkeepers as they can draw upon the experience of their colleagues ‘down under’ with regard to how best to use them as turf conditions are pretty similar. When I came to the UK, there were no
growth regulator to use on greens. In Australasia we had significant experience of these products so, when PrimoMaxx
came onto the market, I was able to explain the practical implications that we had experienced in New Zealand. New Zealand’s greenkeepers have some handy tools available that I am sure UK greenkeepers would love to have, such as the growth regulator that prevents seedheads and another that removes all other grasses from fine fescues. Perhaps these products will eventually come to market here and, if so, the New Zealand experience will be of reassurance to British greenkeepers.
Green Establishment
The establishment of greens on existing courses is an area where I think the Kiwis definitely have the upper hand. The New Zealand industry has moved away from traditional turfing and seeding. The problems with introducing a thatch layer and ‘seaming’ associated with turfing means that it is not an ideal approach. Seeding new greens can also result in a new green that is totally different in appearance, performance and maintenance to the other greens on the course. Hence, New Zealand greenkeepers now use micro-tine cores from their best greens to establish the new surfaces. These are then overseeded with the fine grasses (hydro-seeding is best). The greenkeepers have perfected this technique and some of the country’s finest golf courses now use this method as establishment is rapid and the long- term results very good. Several golf courses in the UK have trialled the technique in the past few years with very good results.
... continued over
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