Golf
“Initially, we thought we’d do well to lay 800m of pipe work per week yet, once we got going, we found we could lay up to 1000m per week - the lads really set a cracking pace”
Pipeline reinstatement using Teal Turf
knows how many connectors! That took care of fifteen greens and tees.” “Work on the second loop commenced this last October, and was due to be completed just before Christmas. That will account for the remaining thirteen greens and thirteen tees. Originally, we thought the full project might need to stretch over three winters, so to bring it in twelve months ahead of our anticipated schedule is really satisfying.” “With the hire of a trenching machine, all materials and sundries, the cost of the system actually came in at £175,000 - a £75,000 saving on the cheapest outside contractor price.”
Nick Bird
“I’m always more content having spent a day working
physically hard than a day spent writing and responding to never ending e-mails!”
32 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2013
During the course of the work, Mick and his team had to overcome several ‘interesting’ problems. Probably the biggest of these was to find a way of laying irrigation pipes beneath the rubber crumb and tarmac pathways that criss-cross the golf course. “The paths had been expensively installed (all in-house, of course!) just a couple of seasons earlier,” recalls Mick, “so we had to figure out a method of installing pipe underneath them without resorting to cutting or digging them up.” A trawl of the internet turned up the ‘Bullet’ machine (hired at a cost of £400 per week), which literally fired a channel through the sub-soil at a depth of 750mm. “These type of projects always throw you the odd curve-ball, so they do get the old grey matter working! For some of my younger lads it’s a great opportunity to learn about things like soil types and drainage systems, whilst the ground is actually opened up to reveal what lies beneath.”
Of course, what goes up, or in this case gets dug up, must always go back down. The majority of the pipelines were reinstated using 50:50 rootzone and turf from Teal Turf - a company Mick rates highly.
“I’ve used the company over a number of seasons now, and always found their
turf to be of good quality, with delivery and back up to match.”
Once the system is fully operational, all that Mick needs then is the appropriate weather to use it! At the time of writing (end November 2012), it seems difficult to imagine ever needing irrigation again, but we all know that things can change quickly when it comes to the UK climate. During the course of our interview, I
am keen to discover if Mick feels his job as a Course Manager has changed much since his arrival in the early nineties? “It’s changed massively, and not necessarily for the better I’m sorry to say. As a hands-on type of greenkeeper, I find it frustrating that I can spend anything up to three quarters of the week sat behind my desk. Whilst I do appreciate that being a Course Manager brings with it certain responsibilities, I’d say I’m always more content having spent a day working physically hard than a day spent writing and responding to never ending e-mails!” “Also, golfers expectations have now evolved into golfers demands - so the pressures to achieve results are greater than ever.” However, one aspect of the job that is evolving for the better, in Mick’s view, is the technical aspect of greenkeeping. For example, Mick is a big advocate of course assessment programmes, and works with Midlands Agronomist Paul Woodham (and an armoury of measuring tools) to collate statistical data. “The days of relying on opinions are long gone. As well-paid professionals working at the top-end of a multi-million pound industry, we need to be able to back up our thoughts, ideas and gut instincts with measurable, recordable data. Put simply, how can we quantify and demonstrate things are improving unless we have measured them to begin with?” Whilst some greenkeepers have
reservations about work with an outside agronomist, Mick is quite relaxed about the situation at Kings Norton.
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