Golf
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Some of the greens here are ‘original’, which means they are 127 years old! They weren’t built, just laid at original ground level rather than pushed up
be. Not only that, he gave me the work ethic I have today and also taught me a lot about life in general. If it wasn’t for him, I don’t know where I would be today. A true professional of the industry and someone I still email regularly for advice and have a beer with when I’m home!” Orkney Golf Club is a 5575 yard, par 70 for the men and 5088 yards par 72 for the women. It covers a total of around seventy acres, so occupies quite a small site. This can be a health and safety concern at times with holes in “very close” proximity. “It’s classified as a parkland course - although we don’t have any trees as it’s such a windy site - so it’s pretty barren looking parkland,” observes Chris. “What I have done during my time here is introduce long rough - much to the delight of the members - to create definition between holes as the site was mown wall to wall previously. A lot of gorse and heather has started growing back where we have left the rough. The long rough has become an issue though so, this year, we are undertaking a programme to eliminate the thick Yorkshire fog which seems to be
Prior to me working here, the club used to purchase a kiln dried loam from Kent - if you know your geography, that’s going to be expensive!
” The Orkney greenkeeping team l-r: Chris Rae, Fergus Macivor, Ewan Coltherd and Adrian Stanger 30 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017
spreading, using Rescue and a new addition to the machinery fleet, a Major flail/collector. We are hoping to promote some of the more local fescue species.” Chris describes the soil profile in one word - poor! “We have about 200mm of topsoil, which is actually quite good, across the course but, after that, it’s down to shale and rock. So trying to keep the course dry can be very difficult, even though we are on the side of a hill.”
“Some of the greens here are ‘original’, which means they are 127 years old! They weren’t built, just laid at original ground level rather than pushed up. These pose the biggest problem during the winter with all the rain we receive. Some of the others are push up style; the most recently built green was sometime back in the seventies. None of them have any drainage so, when you’ve got 200mm of topsoil then clay, it makes flooding quite common. The tees are all push up style and, as far as I know, there is no drainage in them, but they do seem to drain quite well, only flooding after heavy rainfall.” “We run our GreenTek Thatch-Away
verticut units over the greens twice a year (in May and September), and will also give them a light run over with the units through the season just to keep them running true. We either hollow tine or solid tine, depending on the condition of the thatch, in May and September. We then topdress with a locally washed sand, applying about a tonne per green. I give the greens a hit of iron in November to keep the moss under control and once again in February. “Prior to me working here, the club used to
purchase a kiln dried loam from Kent - if you know your geography, that’s going to be expensive - approximately £100 per tonne by the time you include haulage and ferry costs! And, only being able to bring over 26 tonnes at a time, we were limited as to how much we could put on. I have reduced that down to £28 per tonne by using local washed sand, which has freed up money for other projects. I will solid tine greens though the winter when the weather permits. We solid tine tees and aprons in the spring and autumn, but no topdressing.” Chris goes on to explain that the course
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