Golf


With its furthermost hole lying less than 500m from the Bristol Channel, Pyle and Kenfig Golf Club is regarded as one of the top links courses in Wales, separated by just three grass fields from its well-known neighbour, Royal Porthcawl Golf Club. This proximity led to the two courses co-hosting the British Amateur Championship twice, most recently in June 2002.


In 2006, P & K hosted the Men’s Home Internationals followed, in 2009, by the Senior Ladies British Open Amateur Championship and, a year later, the Welsh Boys Championships. In July of this year, the Faldo Series returns to P & K for the third consecutive year. A full schedule of club, inter-club and


regional golfing events, society visits and corporate days means that Paul Johnson and his six-strong greenkeeping team remain very busy from March to late October, with golf able to continue right


through the year, weather permitting. During the extremely wet conditions


experienced in 2012, play was successfully diverted from the low-lying holes within the dunes on the back nine onto the club’s freer-draining academy holes. “What the exercise did reveal was a need to raise the standard of the academy holes to the level of the rest of the golf course to provide a seamless transition between the two courses,” commented Paul. “This year and next, we plan to renovate all of the academy greens, re-level and landscape their tees and install synthetic turf to the rear of the tees to minimise natural turf wear and tear.”


He pointed out that, during the summer of 2012, greenkeeping staff laid 750m of main drainage pipe beneath the 10th fairway. A contractor had cut the drain lines, leaving course staff to install pipework and aggregates and reinstate


the turf.


However, because the work had taken fourteen days to complete, Paul is considering engaging a specialist contractor to drain subsequent fairways to speed-up the operation and minimise disruption. “That said, there were no complaints


from anyone who was asked to play an academy hole instead of the normal hole,” he commented. The improvements planned for the academy holes come in the wake of ongoing improvements to the main golf course, which began in earnest three years after Paul joined the club in May 2006.


“Before moving to south Wales, I had been at Hankley Common in Surrey, where I had worked for six years following four years at Pyrford Golf Club,” he explained. “I was a late-comer to the greenkeeping profession, starting off as a summer casual worker at Pyrford,


Five and three-gang ride-on mowers cutting the 14th fairway and approach to the green


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