Golf
An area scraped bare five years ago is now back in play ...
carries on until October.” “This year, for the first time and following
the purchase of a Vredo seeder, we overseeded the greens in May with pure fescue and the results have been nothing short of amazing. We will repeat this in the autumn and for the next few years. The tees have also benefitted from the same work, with dwarf rye being used on the par 3 tees.” “Along with the tree clearance work, our big push has been regenerating areas of heather. It is a sometime slow and painful process, but patience has paid off with some lovely areas of heather now growing. We have just finished a countryside stewardship scheme and are in the process of securing a higher level scheme which, over the next ten years, will fund further woodland management and heath restoration,” Chris explains.
With the never ending debate over water usage, the club took the decision to install a reservoir. “As we are on an SSSI, which is not owned by us but leased, we had to acquire
additional land. An old abandoned Christmas tree plantation beside the course was purchased and over two hundred, eighty feet high Douglas firs had to be felled. This was all carried out in-house. Fortunately, one of our greenstaff was a tree surgeon in a former employment and had all the necessary certification. Contractors then came in and built the 1.7 million gallon reservoir. An underground tank was installed behind the clubhouse and a series of pipes were laid to channel water from roofs, car parks etc into it, via an interceptor, to trap silt and oil. A pump, installed in the chamber, transfers the water up to the reservoir. This final part was also done in-house. Based on average rainfall, these areas are enough to fill the reservoir three times in one year!” Chris confirms that machinery that gets
heavy usage, such as the greens, tees and fairway mowers, are leased and updated every five years. “I don’t stick with any one manufacturer though as I prefer to look at a specific type of machine that does the job I
... with good heather coverage
want. Budgeting is carried out between the treasurer and myself.” “The machine that made the biggest
difference to me was when we bought our first verti-drain twenty years ago. Now, I have to say it is our new Vredo seeder.” “We have some areas that suffer from
worms in the autumn and we try and keep on top of them with carbendazim. We did have a serious problem with badgers on a few fairways but, since we have been giving these fairways an annual treatment of Merit Turf to control chafers, there has been no further damage.” “With both courses being part of an
environmentally sensitive area, the club has to comply with the overall policy laid down by acts of Parliament and the Board of Conservators of Ashdown Forest,” explains Chris. “This involves felling large areas of invading birch scrub and surface stripping bracken. As heather seed can survive for more than forty years in the ground, areas stripped of their bracken and peat layer will
The reservoir under construction
The completed reservoir surrounded by self seeding wildflowers PC AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 I 21
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