Interview
Championship Department on the sustainability of The Open, through the GreenLinks initiative which was introduced at The 144th Open at St Andrews in 2015.
Our department is made up of three individuals. In addition to myself, Philip Russell (Assistant Director - Sustainability) is responsible for implementing GreenLinks, and Wendy Cole (Manager - Sustainability) looks after our greenkeeping scholarship and machinery donation programmes.
What initiatives are you involved with that will encourage greenkeepers to take the conservationist/sustainable route of developing fine grassed greens with their low input maintenance and enhanced resistance to disease and drought?
Any initiatives we undertake are achieved in conjunction with one or more of our affiliates (the national governing bodies of the sport within our jurisdiction - 140 countries, excluding the USA and Mexico, which is the province of the USGA). These initiatives are often supported by organisations such as GEO and associations representing professionals, such as club and course managers.
Our advocacy of sustainability includes promoting low input maintenance and the grasses that are best adapted to any particular site, wherever that may be in the world. This is highlighted in the general guidance, features and in the opinion pieces by Alistair Beggs of STRI and Dr Micah Woods of the Asian Turfgrass Center in the sustainability section of our website,
www.RandA.org.
We also include this information in presentations we give around the world. However, it is important to point out that the lowest input grasses are not always the right choice for every climate or course design but, even where other grasses are employed, we want to see a greenkeeping approach that provides minimal resource use in order to present optimal playing surface performance.
The venues used for The Open, which is organised by The R&A, are all on agronomic programmes advised by STRI, which encourage the native perennial fine grasses.
The R&A often acts as a facilitator, supporting others in their good work. We feel that there is often nothing more persuasive than peer pressure. An excellent example of this is our support of the Irish Links Initiative (ILI), and I am constantly impressed with the regeneration of links grasses that is being achieved at the courses that take the twice- yearly meetings of the ILI.
We have also supported research in Scandinavia, under the auspices of STERF (Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation), which contributed towards a change in their recommendation of fescue from, at best, a niche grass to the low input grass of choice for Nordic
Are you doing anything to help publicise the results of the STRI Measurement of Greens programme, that has demonstrated that fine grasses give better performance greens than annual meadow-grass (Poa annua) greens?
This is another good example of The R&A acting as a facilitator. We provided some funding towards the development of their Trueness Meter and were early adopters of their objective testing programme of putting surface performance. All agronomic visits to Open venues include this testing programme. We feature this in many presentations we give, including recent ones in Japan and South Korea!
I also wrote articles, which were published in the STRI Bulletin and Pitchcare, highlighting their findings in relation to the relative performance of fescue/browntop bent and annual meadow-grass (Poa annua) greens.
“There has been a lot of debate on Jim’s approach, with some even suggesting that
traditional greenkeeping is not applicable in the modern age”
countries. This followed our visits to Denmark, in the early days of the Golf Course Committee, to meet with the ‘Sons of Golf’ and the excellent work they were doing with fescue.
You are a member of the panel of experts speaking at the ‘Running-Golf Day’ on Monday 4th September at Notts. Golf Club (Hollinwell). What will be your contribution to the day?
For many years, the late Jim Arthur was agronomist to The R&A’s Championship Committee, until he handed over this role to STRI in, if memory serves me right, the early to mid-1990s. The R&A persuaded Jim to write Practical Greenkeeping, a book which describes his approach to golf course design, construction and management. This has become the reference for many greenkeepers in this country and further afield. In 2014, The R&A published the third edition and it remains a steady seller from our shop.
The first edition of Practical Greenkeeping was published in 1997 and updated in 2003, since when there has been a lot of debate on Jim’s approach, with some even suggesting that traditional greenkeeping is not applicable in the modern age. At the Running-Golf Day, I will be making a short presentation that will, hopefully, persuade those attending that it is as relevant today as when it was written.
One problem with the Trueness Meter is its high cost, and lack of availability to purchase, which makes it unaffordable for most golf clubs. The Greenstester was developed by Irish course manager Fintan Brennan, as an affordable tool to put course managers in charge of objective measurement of their greens performance any day of the year, and to help them in their sward change programmes from weed to fine grasses. Is The R&A supporting the take-up of the use of the Greenstester in combination with The R&A’s ‘Holing Out’ test?
Nick Park, for twenty-five years a member of The R&A’s various golf course committees, was instrumental in the development of the ‘Holing Out’ test. A protocol and ‘quick start’ document on this test, together with a short video, is available on The R&A website. In the protocol it states that: “The ‘Greenstester’ is currently The R&A’s preferred option for the ‘Holing Out’ Test”.
Do you believe that the fact The R&A plays The Open Championship and The Amateur Championship on links encourages others to adopt the philosophy of maintaining fairways and greens to present running golf courses?
We would like to think this has some impact. The Open and The Amateur have been played solely on links (as far as I am aware) since their first playing in 1860 (at Prestwick) and 1885 (Hoylake) respectively. Our historic links and heathland courses created the running game - probably a combination of the golf equipment available in the early decades of organised golf, the terrain and, particularly for links, often having to play in high winds when there would be little option than to play more of the game along the ground rather than always taking the aerial route. The R&A has built on this legacy and is committed to maintaining that tradition at our two showcase championships.
However, I would note a word of caution in PC JUNE/JULY 2017 I 59
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