Technical
The way forward is surely to emphasise the need to replace tired old troublesome golf greens based on native soils, possibly established a hundred or more years ago, with the most sophisticated mode of construction currently available today
Multi use sports area
But, in my experience and in each and every situation, there have always been identifiable reasons why this was the case. It is, therefore, the failure to embrace fully
what should be a fairly uniform approach to golf green construction and maintenance that I believe has held the industry back. Indeed, it is largely because this form of green construction has not been sufficiently widely accepted, in Britain at least, that improvements in the technology, derived from actual experience, have not been achieved. If you think maintaining the ‘character’ of
a green is putting up with persistent annual waterlogging or regular outbreaks of dry patch, anthracnose or fusarium, then that’s fine, but I would not consider this a particularly enlightened or forward-thinking view. I would argue that consistency is a good thing with regard to the performance of a golf green, and that the diversity that golfers tend to seek comes in the form and character of the course as a whole and not in relation to the actual greens. I also expect many golfers, if not all greenkeepers, would agree with this. In this respect, golf might take heed of what appears to be taking place in football
with the rise of the AGP as the preferred playing surface. A more developed example is that of hockey which is now played almost exclusively on artificial surfaces, although the game itself evolved, of course, on natural turf.
There are now numerous golf courses on which entirely artificial greens have been established, and very many golf practice facilities are based on artificial turf. The knowledge and understanding surrounding this technology is such that the experiences of golfers and the behaviour of golf balls will soon replicate, if they do not already, exactly those that may be achieved on the best- performing natural turf greens. It may be only a matter of time, therefore,
before these surfaces become accepted and ultimately demanded by golfers, irrespective of what the sporting bodies or the greenkeepers or the agronomists might prefer. Where then would be the debate over pure fescue greens, use of phosphates or ‘displacement theory’? “My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!”* I love natural turf; like many of you no doubt. Indeed, I have built my entire career on it. So such a development I would view as
If the only thing Richard Campey ever did was bring the Koro Field Topmaker to this country, he would have qualified as a Diamond Geezer.
DIAMOND GEEZERS
RICHARD CAMPEY - THE KORO MAN
However, even though the Field Topmaker is oft heralded as ‘the machine of the last decade’, as Jimmy Cricket used to say; “come ’ere, there’s more”.
From humble beginnings in Macclesfield, Cheshire, Campeys has grown to become major distributors in the industry, not just here in the UK but also Europe and, in conjunction with Imants, worldwide.
a very great tragedy. The way forward is surely to emphasise the need to replace tired old troublesome golf greens based on native soils, possibly established fifty, a hundred or more years ago, with the most sophisticated mode of construction currently available in the industry today. If even half of the amount of discussion
that has taken place, much of it in these pages, over the last ten years and concerning, for example, the control of annual meadow grass or the environmental advantages of minimising fertiliser and water use on greens, had been devoted instead to the construction and maintenance of USGA or generally sand-based greens, I am sure that the overall standard of British golf greens would, by now, be much better than it is at present.
www.agrostis.co.uk
Patent Number GB2442787, Golf Green Roughness Meter. Disclosed 22 October 2005, granted 9 June 2010
*The central theme of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Ozymandias is contrasting the inevitable decline of all leaders and of the empires they build with their pretensions to greatness. 1
”
New and improved technologies are regularly being introduced, the most recent being the Air 2G2 aeration machine.
He has also championed ‘demo days’ and one suspects that this is his preferred method of marketing his products. Certainly he is most happy - if there can be such a thing - when sat on a machine carrying out a working demo.
Richard is also a staunch champion of natural turf over the onrush of 3G into top flight sport.
Not a bad CV from one of the nicest men in the industry.
PC APRIL/MAY 2015 I 129
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