Heads you win!
the site and, over the years, has seen the results of his hard work in terms of the playability of greens, tees and fairways. The other bonus has been seeing the diversity of flora and fauna that have made the course their home. Marsh orchids have, this year, provided an impressive show of flower heads and are now firmly established on the site. As we walked the course, a kestrel hovered above us and dived to capture a mouse, whilst a flock of Canada geese, perhaps annoyed by our presence, waddled off the fairway back to the pond they now call home.
Justin has also been introducing yellow rattle to help improve the permanent grass areas. Yellow rattle is an attractive, semi-parasitic, grassland annual. In the past, this plant was a serious pest for farmers as it weakens grasses which, as a result, can reduce hay yields by as much as 50%. In a greenkeeping context, however, this suppression of grass growth is welcomed, as it helps to produce a better display of wildflowers and eases the mowing required.
Yellow rattle germinates in late
February to early March, flowers in June, and sets seed in July. At the end of each growing season, as the plants die back, they leave gaps into which new wildflowers can establish. Back at the mess room, I am keen to find out how Justin got the course to where it is today - the threat of decapitation being one motivational factor! Justin takes up the story.
“TEN years have got behind you” or, in my case, double that; a classic line from a well known song. How many of us wonder where the time has gone? I know where my time has gone, although looking out on the course and seeing how it has matured, it does seem like no time at all.
It started in 1989, when I had a job interview for an assistant golf course construction manager on a new build in the heart of Cheshire. The interview went fairly well and I secured my position; the worrying thing, at the time, was something one of the directors said to me
during the interview; “if the course is not finished by opening day, I will have your head put on a spike outside the main gates”. At the tender age of twenty one this had a very lasting effect on me - fear! - which tends to focus your attention on the job in hand.
I had served my apprenticeship at
Green Drive Golf Club (Open qualifying course) in Lytham, under the tutelage of a very passionate Scotsman called Charles Smith. He was to be the construction manager in Cheshire, building Oaklands Golf and Country Club. Construction started in March 1989. The construction team consisted of three greenkeepers and a selection of machine drivers and labourers. These were interesting times for me as I was thrown right into the deep end. Construction progressed well and was finished on time and within budget. There were lots of challenges along the way, not least turfing USGA greens in the height of a drought, and with no irrigation system! Watering greens in the middle of the night with a water bowser is
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