A former greenkeeper at Wentworth and
Sunningdale, Darren Lee has taken over as Course Manager at Salisbury & South Wilts Golf Club.
Report by Tom James The perfect E
nsuring year-round effective golf course maintenance can often be an uphill struggle for groundscare teams. Difficult soil types, drainage issues, invasive weed grasses, or simply having to do your best on a smaller budget can all impact on the task. In private clubs, the relationship between committee members in charge of overseeing course maintenance and the groundstaff can, sometimes, make that undertaking even more of a trial. So, for a grounds professional to enjoy the benefits of free drainage, good workable soil and an understanding committee would be fortunate indeed. Few might be able to make this claim but, for Darren Lee, Course Manager at Salisbury & South Wilts Golf Club, these joys are everyday realities and his cheery demeanour betrays that fact. Darren began his career eighteen years ago when he clinched his first groundscare job at no less a venue than mighty Wentworth. After learning the ropes there he moved on to hold a post at Sunningdale Old Course, another of Britain’s top sites.
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His duties there, he said, set him in good stead for his current role at Salisbury & South Wilts Golf Club - a position the 38-year-old has held for the last three and a half years. Salisbury & South Wilts is considered to be an archetypal English downland course setting, with its chalky, free draining soil and rolling countryside. Two courses run side by side on land leased from the Earl of Pembroke, whose seat, Wilton House, stands majestically on the extensive estate. The original 9- hole Bibury course borders Salisbury Racecourse. The newer 18-hole course was built, in part, to ensure that members could be assured of golf whenever they wanted a round. When only the Bibury course existed, golf was ‘out of bounds’ on and around race days. Both courses command stunning views of the surrounding countryside, with nearby Salisbury Cathedral presenting a magnificent backdrop.
The club hosts a clutch of annual competitions, including the Pro-Am Tournament - which attracts many of the region’s top professionals and European
Tour players - as well as the Wiltshire County Championship and other fixtures.
“I decided to move to here because I felt I needed more responsibility, a higher position, and for the chance to run my own course, something I had always wanted to do,” Darren recalls. “For me, this is the ideal job and the courses are perfectly suited to what our climate throws at them.”
The enviable drainage at Salisbury & South Wilts allows year-round golf - a growing demand from the modern golfer. At a time when so much of Britain has lain under water after the November deluges, flooding has never presented a concern, insists Darren. “The chalk has the benefit of not drying out too quickly in the summer months, yet drying quickly enough to avoid any surface water sticking, which might interrupt play.”
But Darren knows that beneficial soil types alone cannot alleviate the need for thorough maintenance regimes though, and he points to regular aeration, slitting, coring and microtining two to
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