Technical
Good playing surfaces are a prime requirement for golf clubs to attract and retain members and, without that in place, members will start to chunter and the word will be out.
In this article, golf course agronomist Chris Roberts explains the methods used to tackle thatch management at Sandwell Park Golf Club in the West Midlands
Thatch Management Chris Roberts
As a result, the need for good quality all year round playing surfaces has never been more important. However, this pressure to constantly produce undisturbed surfaces often means that thatch levels can rise and have a dramatic impact on medium to long term playing conditions.
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So, how do we reduce or maintain thatch levels with only minimal disruption to play? In this article I will concentrate on the work that has been carried out at Sandwell Park Golf Club in the West Midlands to reduce their thatch level, without the need for major disturbance to play.
Physical examination of the soil profile
My work began at Sandwell Park in 2009, when the club’s committee wanted firstly to concentrate on the condition of the greens
126 I PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014
Control and reduction
any golf courses are under increasing pressure to retain and attract new members as well as sustain or even increase their visitor income.
and their all year round performance. I’d been told that there had been little thatch management for a number years. So it was no shock that a physical examination of the soil profile indicated significant thatch accumulations in the top 40mm of the soil profile, and excessively so in the top 25mm where a dense thick band of yellow thatch was clearly visible.
Under these organic accumulations was approximately 75mm of relatively clean rootzone. This then gave way to the heavy clay base of the green.
These large accumulations of organic matter (thatch) were having a dramatic effect on the playability of the greens, especially in periods of heavy rainfall. This, coupled with footfall, resulted in uneven, foot-marked greens that were not conducive to producing a quality putting surface.
Testing
After a physical examination of the greens profile, it was decided to carry out a loss on
ignition test on three greens in 20mm zones to a depth of 80mm. These tests would give us a tangible benchmark of the amount of organic matter within the greens and where it was within the soil profile. From these tests, targets could then be set for its reduction. The three greens chosen were perceived, at the time, to be a standard, a wet and a dry green.
The results, not surprisingly, confirmed that all the greens had high organic content within the top 40mm of the soil profile. All three greens had between 10.4% and 14.5 % in the top 20mm, while the zone between 20mm and 40mm held between 9% and 11.6% organic matter. Below this, there were only slightly raised levels with approximately 7% organic matter. Now we knew, relatively accurately, how much thatch we had and whereabouts in the rootzone it was positioned. From these results, a target level of 4% organic matter was set for all zones, however the top 40mm was to be our main focus.
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