Golf
up. He might get a call at any minute to tell him that so and so is coming to play the course tomorrow - or even that afternoon. It always has to be ready and be the best ever golf experience for whoever it is. Nothing less will do. Carved out of the Ashdown Forest, it is a
very tough course with 73-par standard scratch. The top section used to be farmed and has heavy fertile soil, and the lower half stretches into the forest with heathland terrain and acidic sandy sub-soil. It’s heathland and parkland rolled into one. It’s a huge challenge for golfer and greenkeeper. For each and every hole the tree line is both beautiful and problematic. It causes hardship for play and surface upkeep. In January, when I visited, only four of the 19 greens, including the practice green, would be getting direct sunlight, yet on a crisp sunny morning the whole place was alight with interest and golfing challenge. A joy to behold, and that is no exaggeration. Just 150 rounds - give or take - are played
each year. Forty of those could be on a single day. Busy it never is. “Nobody ever walks off disappointed -
however well or otherwise they might themselves have played,” said Pete. “My brief is to see that whoever plays here leaves feeling that it is the best course they have ever played.” It’s a near certainty that no one will play
here between the end of October and April. The 1200-acre estate is very much a shooting estate and, every Thursday, there is a game- shoot, which includes the whole of the course area. You can see many a gun peg as you walk around it. There are also clay pigeon and running boar shoots for guests to enjoy.
The massive benefit to Pete about the The testing yet beautiful 5th in summer “
Nobody ever walks off disappointed - however well or otherwise they might themselves have played
project. The back 9 needed to be stripped off once more, and the front 9 would require substantial remedial work. It was a challenge Pete could not refuse. He knew the beauty of the course very well. Work got under way in the spring of 2012 with wide scale koroing, as reported at the time in a Pitchcare feature. Since then, he has been Course Manager. There is no other full-size 18-hole course in the country that exists for the same
14 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017
over winter absence of golf at all is that it guarantees him a 5-month period to carry out renovation work. All serious scarification and topdressing can be done without interruption, which is unquestionably heaven to a greenkeeper. In summer, the course is at its most joyous
- to play and to keep in trim. In winter though, cushion moss imposes itself extensively on the fairways. It is a consequence of tree line shade and airflow restriction. It’s not unusual for this type of course, but regular winter months play that a normal club course experiences does, to a certain extent, alleviate this, Pete reckons. “Players’ spikes do unsettle the moss plant
... and in winter
purpose as this one. It is unique. The owner uses it simply for private entertainment. There are also occasional community days, such as an annual one for the Sussex Police, but these are rare. Pete, quite literally, never really knows when golfers are going to turn
to some extent. On a club course with golfers constantly walking over the fairways and greens, there’s a natural hardening effect on turf, improving disease and wear tolerance somewhat. That’s not the case here. Some of the fairways can get to be 60 or even 70 percent moss during the winter,” he said. Because there’s no winter golf, he has the
luxury of being able to deal with it in a single ‘hit’ every spring by using a chelated iron product which stresses it out enough, ahead of scarifying and re-seeding in two directions with traditional J Fairway fescue-bent fairway mix with added rye. Within a couple of weeks, the fairways are in fine shape and
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