two major pests, white grub (chafer), which hatch out in April and November, and army worm, which also hatches at this time” said Mark. “White grub is the root feeder; the armyworms are foliar feeders. They have two cycles per year due to our climate. To help monitor and better understand insect pest lifecycles we invested in twenty insect traps and positioned them around our course. Insect traps enable us to spray insecticides at the correct time (after peak flights when the insects are hatching), using the correct products (rather than stronger, broad spectrum products that tend to kill off everything) at correct rates.”
Oil wells and pipe lines
Bahrain is an oil producing state and The Royal Golf Club has been designed and constructed around oil pipelines and production wells. In December 2008, during the early hours of the morning, a gas/crude oil line burst under extreme pressure, shooting a mixture of crude oil and natural gas into the air to about 150ft. There was a very light breeze, which resulted in the fine oil and gas being pushed straight over the Par 3 Academy course (holes 3 and 4) and the main course (holes 3 and 8). To make matters worse it was a public holiday, so there was only limited staff on site.
When Mark arrived at daylight the damage was widespread but, through quick action, he and his team managed to hire a water tanker truck and purchase about fifteen litres of shampoo from a local shop. They washed as much of the turf areas as they could, ‘floating’ as much oil off the turf leaf as possible. Once this was done, they reduced the mowing height, using a Jacobsen GPlex, to approx 3mm and scalped most of the green vegetation off the turf. They also cut back all of the landscaping vegetation in the affected areas. “As the oil and gas was very fine, only the foliage was coated. By mowing off the leaf material we managed to save all of the grass. Nothing died, but it was close to being as big a disaster as I’ve seen,” said Mark.
Machinery
During the grow-in Mark took the opportunity to sit with the developer and create a maintenance machinery inventory. As the team are isolated, they took the opportunity to select on their needs rather than on budget constraints. To this end, there is a ‘rainbow’ of colours in the workshop, which the team believe are the industry leaders in their respective fields. To give you an idea of the machinery selection, they have provided an overview below:
BookReview
Birds and golf courses - a guide to habitat management is a splendid publication from the RSPB and the R&A. The Chief Executives of the two societies - Graham Wynne and Peter Dawson respectively - provide the foreword. It is written by Keith Duff, retired Chief Scientist with
English Nature, and the RSPB’s Nigel Symes, both experts in bird conservation. This 80 page
booklet - you can’t call it a book as it’s smaller than this magazine - is beautifully illustrated
and laid out.
It begins with an illustrated list of vunerable birds, currently on the RSPB’s red and amber list, that can be helped by management on golf courses. I was surprised to see the humble house sparrow on the red list, but it just highlights the effect that we humans have had on our habitat. This is followed by an overview of ‘management planning’ and then heads off to look at the various types of course - Links, Heathland, Grassland & Downland and Parkland - and the bird species relevant to each type. Examples are given of good practice, including Royal Birkdale and Royal Troon (Links), Hankley Common and Enville (Heathland)
• Reel mowers for greens, tees and fairways - Jacobsen walk behind Eclipse, GPlex and LF3400 fairway mower
• Boom spraying/utility vehicles - Jacobsen Cushman Trucksters
• Rough mowing (rotary) - Toro rotary sidewinders
• Bunker rakes - Toro
• Renovation aerators - Toro Procore (both tractor mounted and pedestrian models)
• Renovation scarifiers - Graden • Sand topdressing - Turfco • Redexim seeding units • Blowers - Buffalo Turbine • Tractors - Iseki and John Deere • Staff transportation - EZ-GO MPT • Trailers - Tomlin trailers
It’s been an exciting and challenging couple of years for Mark Hooker and his team. In 2009 he has had many successes and, in 2010, we expect to hear more good things about the condition of the course and the interesting trials and programmes that are being put in place. It will ensure The Royal Golf Club becomes known for its ‘best practice in turfcare’ for the Middle East region.
Published by The R&A. Cost £7.99 plus £2.29 p&p Buy online at
www.randa.org or by post to Catherine McGirk, The R&A, St. Andrews, Fife KY16 9JD
and Cumberwell and Filey (Grassland). Habitat management - woodland, hedgerow and wetland - is also discussed, along with buildings and structures, again with course examples. It is, perhaps, not surprising to see a number of the ‘Gingerbread’ courses cited in the booklet. The booklet closes with a
chapter on communicating the wildlife message to club members and a list of useful contacts. Whilst by no means comprehensive, Birds and golf courses, offers clear and concise pointers to any greenkeeper wishing to improve the success of the UK’s bird population whilst, at the same time, improving the image of golf courses.
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