Golf
recently, have been revetting some faces - Winnie has become the revetting master. We’ve also realigned some fairways which meant some tree moving and last year we reshaped the 4th green. I also have plans for more bunker and tee work through to next spring, which Nick will also help us with.” “I read a lot about how undervalued
greenkeepers feel and how they have to cope with cuts to budgets and staffing levels - I have suffered the last one, but not imposed on me. In the recent financial climate, I can understand their concerns but, as with everything, there will be dips and troughs in all economies. These are the times you have to dig deep (no pun intended) and try to weather the storm. Maybe it will take times like these for our members to realise a couple of hours a day grass cutting will not get the course in the condition they want. Maybe, through our adversity, it will actually help them to understand what we actually do.” “I don’t know the answers and, to be
honest, I have never felt undervalued in my job. Maybe I have been spoilt.Wherever you are, there will always be members who think you can do more than you do, there will always be the ones who don’t make eye contact or speak as they walk past. Every club will have these types but, here, this is far outweighed by the vast majority who appreciate we are out in all weathers to get the course as good as we can, primarily for them. I have members who play a shot and
need to aerate them several times a year. We use our Wiedenmann GXi160 mounted on our Kubota ST36 with various solid tines from 12mm to 20mm and also a variety of depths, and with or without heave; this can take up to a week to complete, depending on how busy the course is. At other times, we will use our Earthquake
Tremor; we can get the blades down to about 10 inches and this leaves a continuous channel, so following the actual fall in the land is important. As we have so many ditches and ponds, we
can normally find an outlet to start from; we often use the Tremor on the greens and tees as well; it is such a versatile machine, although you would not want a long dry summer after extensive use of this machine, as the lines can open up. Following the extensive flooding last year, I
even brought out our mole plough fitted to the Case 255 compact tractor. You have to be very aware of what is below the surface when you use this implement but, if you drop it over the edge of a ditch and move off in a low gear and 4-wheel drive, it can make a lovely channel a foot or so down with the bullet end. Water soon finds its way down the channel to the ditch - basic but worthwhile. Also in our aeration armoury we have a Sisis outfield spiker; we use this all over the course, greens, tees and fairways; the two sprung rollers on the back keep any surface disruption to a minimum and, when we just want to open the top surface, we put on our Greentek sarrel rollers over the greens; we do this when we are about to overseed the
hear my Gator in the distance and keep looking for me to wave and acknowledge
them.Most of our members know me and my men by name and we know theirs. I play golf with them and I have represented the club many times in team competitions, both locally and nationally. “
“Living on an island, the biggest problem is
travel and the associated costs. I have attended both association exhibitions, and we do get to have road shows and demo days in the Channel Islands; but usually in Jersey. I think a lot of companies think we just jump on an island hopper and fly over like its a bus service.” “Things are improving though and we now see more companies visiting us at our own places. A few years ago, we hosted a Toro maintenance workshop with greenkeepers from all three main islands. I confess that I got a bit nervous when we all left the hotel and made our way to my sheds to check my machinery set ups, but all was fine. I felt good that day.”
What’s in the shed?
John Deere 2500 greens mowers x 2 John Deere 7200 trim and surrounds John Deere 7500 fairway mower John Deere 1565 rough mower John Deere 1200A bunker rake John Deere TS 4x2 Gators x 2 John Deere 6x4 Gator
6th green awaiting turf
greens in the spring and at the end of the season, followed by a light topdressing. When we do overseed, we pick a week when there are no fixtures. If we can leave the greens a couple of days and roll only, we will pencil tine them to about 100mm, then we will heavily sarrel roll before broadcasting seed. We use Johnsons all bent, which has highly rated cultivars and we seem to get a very good percentage to germinate. This is helping us to reduce poa and increase the finer grasses in the greens; after we have overseeded, we apply a topdressing of pure sand, anything from half to a full tonne and then we will roll for the next few days, or longer if we can get away with it and still achieve a decent pace on the greens. We also overseed the tees once a year. We
have a divoting programme once a week, and the tees have improved in the last couple of years. As well as the grasses starting to move
earlier, so do the weeds. We use Re-act at 5.5 l/h to give an early spray when the plants really get going. Presentation is right up there and we
always strive to get the course in the best possible condition that we can. It doesn’t matter if it’s for a junior monthly medal or the club’s Open. We have tried to improve our greens every
year and I think this past year we have delivered the best greens ever. Even at the end of the season, going into November, I had members commenting on the speed and smoothness of the greens.
Kubota STa35 compact tractor with front loader and mid mounted deck. Case 255 compact tractor Massey Ferguson 360 Wiedenmann Terra Spike GXI 160 Earthquake Tremor Sisis outfield spiker McConnel moleplough Toro 2500 Topdresser Team Club 300litre sprayer Farmura 30litre walk over sprayer Groundsman turf cutter Ryan Mataway Toro hover mowers x 2 Stihl strimmers x 4 Stihl chainsaws x 2 Stihl hedgecutter Stihl and Echo blowers Mountfield rotary Several pumps
Greentek Thatchaway, sarrel roller and vibe rollers Hunter Juno grinder
“Most of our equipment is purchased outright, but our cutting fleet is on a lease deal of five years - perhaps a year too long. We started a while ago with a three year deal with Toro, then moved to three years with John Deere and we are coming to the end of our current deal and have invited John Deere and Toro to quote for the next four years.
We purchase from our local dealers wherever possible, but not all groundscare equipment is available that way and we look further afield. We try to get demos wherever possible, but carriage is so high not everyone wants to send machinery over to us if there is a doubt that we will buy (they are not all confident in their product!)
I would not say we are loyal to one manufacturer, when there are so many manufacturers around; some new to the market. You have to shop around for the best performance, even with our cutting fleet we have to make sure we are getting the best deal possible from our two main suppliers.”
PC JUNE/JULY 2015 I 29
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