Golf
“The aim was to provide improved grazing for the sheep, encouraging them to stay off the main playing areas using wholly natural methods”
been repaired using the system. Impressed with the results which, he says, appeared virtually identical to those that he was achieving using slabs of natural turf, Andrew discussed costings with the golf club’s committee. The decision was taken, in January 2011, to trial the method on a practice bunker. The speed and ease of using the recycled material, instead of natural turf, convinced Andrew that the system could prove a useful and cost-saving solution for Southerndown.
Although the company offers a full contractual service for installation, Andrew decided that he wanted to manage and carry out all future bunker rebuilding projects himself, under licence, enabling work to be undertaken at short notice, as and when course maintenance staff were available. Having calculated the amount of material needed for those bunkers on the course requiring most urgent attention, Andrew arranged for his first delivery of recycled synthetic turf. Stacked neatly on pallets, the material arrived pre-cut to identical dimensions for ease of handling and laying.
Each slab of “turf ” measured 500mm long by 200mm wide by 20mm deep,
Golf course staff clear scrubby rough close to the 5th fairway in a move to provide attractive grazing conditions for sheep away from the main playing areas of the course, helping reduce turf damage
enabling handling and laying just like normal turf being used for revetting. “The major difference is its resistance to wear and damage,” he said. “I reckon that we’ll get at least twenty years’ life out of our rebuilt bunkers before the faces need any attention,” he said. “There are also environmental benefits that we are keen to highlight to members of the club.”
All of the material now being used for
bunker repair has previously been employed as a sports surface for activities such as hockey and football training. Having come to the end of its useful playing life, the existing synthetic turf is lifted and replaced. Previously, the removed material would have been sent to landfill or stacked unwanted in a corner of a yard.
Spotting a sound business opportunity,
Envirosports is putting the material to excellent use and, over the past three years, has supplied their bunker system to an increasing number of golf clubs including Turnberry, Addington Palace and Sand Moor, as well as Southerndown, which has now committed to using the method on all eighty-four bunkers on the course. With a further twenty renovations
completed last winter, Andrew says the club is on target to have all of its bunkers repaired and upgraded by the end of 2015. With regard to cost, he is finding that materials and labour are very similar to using natural turf for the job. The big saving comes in not having to continually repair bunkers, due to the system’s high stability and the exceptional resistance it provides against wear, tear and the elements.
The turf nursery established at Southerndown Golf Club more than ten years ago is still in regular use, providing turf for the top surrounds of bunkers, for tee extensions and for the repair of ground damaged by sheep or rabbits. Meanwhile, the greens on the course
are receiving special attention of their own. Approximately six years ago, Andrew and his staff noticed a number of localised bare patches appearing on the greens, accompanied by increasing levels of Poa annua and inconsistency in turf growth.
Discussed at committee meetings,
there was even talk at one point of digging up the worst-affected greens and starting afresh. Feeling that this was a step too far,
First pass made with the Vredo Super Compact overseeder was across the course's 1st green in July 2012. Sowing pure fescue, the machine will be making six return visits during both 2013 and 2014
36 PC APRIL/MAY 2013
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