Golf
Simon White
Senses working overtime... S
At The Chase Golf Club
& Spa near Stafford, it all gets a bit touchy, feely, smelly where soil samples are concerned. Their Course Manager, Simon White, explains all to our editor
et deep in the heart of the beautiful Staffordshire countryside, and only six miles from the centre of Stafford, is The Chase Golf Course. It is a
challenging Par 72 measuring 6738 yards from the back tees. The course offers a mixture of tricky par 3s and testing par 5s giving the course great variety of play. The course was built over sand and gravel, allowing fantastic drainage and ensuring play can continue uninterrupted from wet weather conditions twelve months of the year. All the greens are a simple push-up, local soil construction, which are holding their own now that they are getting a balanced maintenance programme.
26 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 A simple core sample
can tell you a lot
My visit to the club coincided with another visitor, Mark Allen, Technical Sales Representative from ALS, who was helping Simon take a number of soil samples for lab analysis. Mark and Simon have known one another for many years, having worked together at the Forest of Arden Golf Club. “Like a lot of my colleagues, I believe it
is important to take regular soil samples on the greens,” said Simon. “They help me to ensure that they are performing well and not deficient in any key nutrients whilst, at the same time, I can keep an eye on soil pH and thatch levels. A healthy plant, with access to readily available nutrients from the soil, will be able to fend off pest and disease attacks far more easily than one growing in poor or underfed soil. It’s amazing what information you can get from taking a simple core sample from the green.” “The mere fact that you can use three of your five senses - touch, sight and smell - to gain valuable initial information about your soil always fascinates me. If it smells of sulphur (rotten eggs), it’s a sign of anaerobic activity; a visual inspection will identify thatch levels, any layering issues, root density and depth; whilst feeling it helps to identify the soil classification and how wet or dry it is; a gritty feel will indicate a sandy content, whilst a soapy feel means it has more clay/silt content.” Samples were taken between 100mm-
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