Golf
Greenkeeping, since the advent of golf, is considered by many who play the game to be the ideal occupation for those who favour an outdoor job where the stresses and strains of society in general can be left at the door of the workplace.
However, Golf Course Agronomist, Declan Branigan, suggests that all that glistens is not gold!
distinctive smell of cut grass, witnessing the natural progression of flora through the growing season, being in a position to view the fruits of your labour as you proceed through the day, and all of this without the constant interference of dogmatic supervision. What better place to be than on a high tee
W
at seven in the morning on a cloudless summer’s day overlooking a scenic parkland vista or listening to the sound of the waves on a links. Surely, this beats winding your way through snarling traffic to spend a day in an office worrying whether your investments will come good or whether your order book will grow? Whilst all of this is true, it is good to remember the old adage; “all that glistens is not gold”. Greenkeeping has evolved significantly
from the inception of golf, at which time the profession merely concentrated on keeping grass low enough to allow golfers - the few that there were at that time - to find their golf balls. There was attention given to greens where sand was spread in an effort to promote a surface where putts would roll as smoothly as possible, but, all-in-all, attention to detail was not nearly as important as it is today.
Whereas it was a pleasant job at that time,
it was also considered to be a fairly unimportant one, in that it catered for a very small and privileged minority who played a very strange game, it paid wages that were lower than the most basic of labouring jobs of that time. How different the task of greenkeeping is
nowadays. It has evolved into a job where considerable expertise is required, and this was recognised by the Labour Court here in Ireland (Industrial Tribunal in the UK) some years ago. For the superintendent, and those in the higher echelons of the profession, it is a very demanding job where knowledge of
hat could be better than working in a tranquil environment, experiencing the climatic vagaries of the seasons, experiencing the
growth cycles, the growing characteristics and nutrient requirements of different grasses, the life cycles of various pests, the impact of cutting heights on sward performance, climatic influences on both performance of swards and diseases, control methods (both holistic and chemical) of known pests and diseases, aeration requirements, the list seems endless, but such knowledge is a prerequisite for doing the job properly. Added to all of this, the superintendent
must manage a workforce and a very significant budget. He must also advise the committee on developing a template for course maintenance that best fits a specific site. Finally, the superintendent must possess
political skills that will enable him to convince a course committee that both his template for the course and his budget requirements are well founded. A fairly daunting array of skills and knowledge is required and one might ask is there any position in the world of business where any one individual is required to have such a vast array of both knowledge and skills? The demands on assistant greenkeepers
are understandably not quite as extensive; they include attention to detail, knowledge of the characteristics of quite a number of machines and the ability to identify and remedy faults that become evident during operation. They must be capable of identifying various diseases and they must develop a variety of skills that fit different operations. Yet, despite all of this, the greenkeeper’s position is still, in many quarters, considered to be nothing more than gardening and grass cutting, paying salaries that are considerably below the average industrial wage. Respect for the position, in most cases, is non- existent. Why should this be the case? Many golfers have a small garden at home and spend a lot of leisure time tending it. They see greenkeeping as an extension to this; nothing complicated at all. However, they fail to take account of the fact that they
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