Golf
The Greenkeepers Training Committee Chairman, Donald Steel, reflects on the ‘good old days’ and how modern machinery, training and communication have improved the greenkeeper’s working environment, even if the techniques remain somewhat similar at times
n his lighter, tongue-in-cheek moments, Jim Arthur used to say that keeping a golf course in good condition would be a piece of cake if it weren’t for the ruddy golfers. He might have said the equivalent when looking at the Centre Court at the end of Wimbledon fortnight, or a cricket square on the fifth day of a Test Match. Battle scars are a problem in most sports. It was nothing, years ago, for football pitches in mid-season to be all earth and no grass. Goalkeepers invariably stood on mud from October to April, with a fair sprinkling of standing water on the rest of the pitch thrown in. Hockey’s answer was a conversion to artificial surfaces, speeding up the tempo of the game in the process, although a game, played all along the ground, forbidding the raising of sticks above the shoulder, now seems to allow more freedom. Tennis’s decision to follow suit was also an attempt to standardise playing conditions, as well as a consistent method of snuffing out the weather that could be so disruptive to tournament schedules. Only a few British tennis tournaments remain loyal to grass.
If golf could be played indoors, which heaven forbid, it too could take place at all hours of the night and day but, whilst suspensions to play are made when it rains and blows too hard, there is no doubt that golfers’ expectations are more demanding than fifty years ago, largely a response to the rising skills of greenkeepers and their methods. Increasingly, they have made the impossible possible. This expectation among golfers is as true of clubs’ catering solely for its members, as it is of the professionals
42 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
THOSE were the DAYS? I
competing for indecently large prize money. Whereas, years ago, members would put their clubs away when the clocks went back in the autumn, and leave them there until they went forward again in the spring, a high proportion want to play all the year round. The season is never ending. In order for this to happen, a greater
awareness of the need for good drainage has become ingrained. The example of new courses building greens designed for this very purpose has led to something of a fashion of fairly widespread remedial work to those built in far off days, but it has been the arrival of sophisticated and versatile machinery that has, more than anything, helped to achieve miracles. Wear and tear is still a factor but it is disguised far more skilfully. Turning the clock back is a wonderful way of showing your age but, if there is one benefit in growing old, it is in enabling you to make comparisons - comparisons that younger generations may find hard to believe. It is the same with today’s young players who think everybody has always hit drives 350 yards with club heads as big as melons. Back in the 1950s, a small part of my long summer holiday was spent helping the Head Greenkeeper at Denham with the annual task of treating the greens. It took the form of an army of helpers scarifying the putting surface by hand with springbok rakes and cutting the grass raised above ground level. There then followed the process of hand hollow tining and an application of sand or soot to fill the holes before, finally, a wash-in with sprinklers that were neither creeping nor automatic. Because of the laborious nature of the work, it was only
Wilmslow Golf Course in stunning condition
possible to programme five or six greens a year.
Nowadays, eighteen greens can be completed in perhaps two or three days with a wide range of choice surrounding the type, depth and severity of aeration. What is more, some sort of aeration can be attempted several times a summer. All this came back to me during a series of workshops given during last year by Laurence Pithie, Master Greenkeeper, a helpful series of gatherings to be repeated throughout 2012. They were organised by The
Greenkeepers Training Committee to promote better knowledge and understanding among Secretaries of Clubs, Chairmen of Green Committees and the greenkeeping staff. The clear message was that, whilst principles haven’t changed, implementation has been transformed. Illustrations of a battery of modern machines that synchronise the whole exercise were an absolute eye-opener, although an even bigger eye opener was putting a figure on the cost of equipping an average greenkeeping complex. There is no hint of criticism at the methods of yesteryear because everybody
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148