Golf
“Colin reckons his own golf suffers because he’s more likely to note
particular green or a tee than concentrate on his shot”
The bunkers at Muirfield are as elegant entrapments as you get. There are 148 of them. Colin grows all his own revetting turf from seed on Muirfield’s nursery. He likes to use turf that’s about ten years old for this purpose. That way it ensures a dense covering and fibre content perfect for bunker sides. “What you never want are holes in the
something he’s seen on a
revetting, and that’s what we will be ensuring for the Open,” says Colin. “It doesn’t matter whether they’re
green or otherwise - and some of the south facing ones do burn off - it’s the overall consistency of coverage that matters.” A mixture of appearance is a characteristic of Muirfield’s bunkers. They look all the more natural for that. September is bunker assessment time and Colin has a chart that catalogues all work previously done. He literally walks the course and sets a work plan that begins in October and is completed the following January. Colin says that bunker revetting first started on the east coast of Scotland to counter the effects of the harsh conditions and the grazing sheep. It’s certainly one of a greenkeepers’ toughest jobs, and one that may or may not be appreciated by the world’s top golfers come this July.
The course maintenance team at Muirfield is twelve-strong, including Colin, and everyone - even the rawest apprentice - gets to know the skills of revetting. It’s a tradition handed on from generation to generation, and a tried and trusted one.
Colin has noticed a dramatic change in the seasons since he began greenkeeping
14 PC APRIL/MAY 2013
in the 1980s. In those days, all machinery went away for sharpening in October. There was very little cutting after the Autumn Medal tournament at Muirfield - or indeed any need for it. Now though, he’s cutting fairways up to Christmas, even into January, and this isn’t just for presentation.
He has a computer-linked weather station, and records in recent years show that springs are getting drier and warmer. Heat at a time of year when there isn’t so much grass is a pattern emerging, and that’s what prompted the extension to full course auto irrigation a couple of years ago. With the Open looming, it was an essential move to counteract the downside of climate warming. In March 2012, 20O
C plus
C was, as often as not, the daily peak. Only snow closes Muirfield and it’s actually quite rare. Two years ago it did cause a twenty-four day no-golf white-out and, annoyingly, it was also just when the changes for the Open were under way. Stimpmeter usage on the greens and
figures were regularly recorded. In June, 15O
aprons, and wetting agents for just about all in-play areas, play a part in Colin’s maintenance programme, the latter playing quite a big part in things, he says, to try and get more even and lasting usage of rainfall and irrigation water. It also cuts irrigation time, too. On an undulating, sandy coastal location like Muirfield, it pays to make the water go round and do as big a job as possible. Colin uses a John Deere HD200 sprayer to ensure that the wetting agent is spread evenly and to maximum effect across the humps and bumps that characterise this famous old course. In conjunction with
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