Golf
The village of Porthdinllaen
The club worked with John Deere equipment for six years on a contract. They recently returned to a Toro contract, as they had done until then.
“There was a perception upstairs that Toro would be nice and cheap,” Richard said, “and that I seemed to be having no trouble when working with Toro kit. They’re very reliable machines.”
“I’ve had a great relationship with John Deere. We get on very well, both with the dealership down the road and Max at their headquarters. So, we couldn’t write off being with them again in future.” His main aim in recent years has been to reduce thatch, as was the case with those greens, and as is the case with many head greenkeepers, Richard has been working in the last few years to help members understand aeration regimes’ benefits. When he took over the leadership of the team, he declared it his primary aim to reduce thatch levels in the course’s many greens.
The team did a great deal in 2017, but some members perceived that ‘too much’ had been done, because the tine holes were visible on colder mornings.
This, he said, was exacerbated by a severe attack of leatherjackets that year, coinciding with the withdrawal of chlorpyrifos. Richard described this as “a perfect storm”. “I did a lot of work in September and October, and the crane flies laid their eggs in
the aeration holes. Every core taken for sampling last year had big, juicy leatherjackets in them.”
“To satisfy that worry, we didn’t punch large holes in the autumn just gone. We held back with the verti‐drain and undertook that twice in January and once in February instead.”
“We micro‐tine on a monthly basis and solid‐tine throughout the season on a fortnightly basis. Our contractor also comes in four times a year with twelve and six inch tines.”
“We talked about nematode introduction this year for those leatherjackets, but the temperatures dropped, and I had left it too late. Luckily, the infestation wasn’t as bad this year ‐ last year these windows were covered in crane flies. I’d never seen anything like it.”
Since Richard took over, the team has switched to mostly using liquid fertiliser, with one granular spread at the start of the calendar year. He likes to feed it once per month but does so by eye.
He said that liquid feed is fine even with the high sand content. “My first purchase was a sprayer,” he said, “and, if it washes out, that counteracts it. I also use wetting agents, two different ones for greens versus tees, aprons and fairways.”
The club has White Moss sand in its bunkers, which still looked somewhat fresh and loose not long after the storm that had
occurred just a few days before, in the last part of February.
The coming year’s renovation is on the same basis as the delayed aeration, to be held back. The club hopes that it will build some immediate trust with the membership that no machinery‐related disturbances will occur for a substantial period.
Along with this, Richard said he wouldn’t want to lay any new turf on the damaged greens right now anyway, as it’s only when it gets to summer that additional storms are unlikely, and these would disturb any work in progress were they to coincide. “The turf is coming in the last week of March [interview was 6th March], and we’re going to drill‐seed the affected areas,” Richard said.
The club has a brand‐new Triflex mower sat in the shed, waiting to cut its first blade. “That’s for obvious reasons”, he said. “It’s been minus‐whatever for weeks now.” Grass in the greens contains a lot of poa annua, but Richard has been trying to introduce both bent and fescue. In season, they go as low as 3.5mm on the greens. And, whatever it means, the resilience of the poa this has encouraged in the front‐nine ‐ the only blades of grass the
saltwater didn’t manage to kill ‐ must surely have some kind of significance.
Stunning views await golfers on the peninsula 18 I PC APRIL/MAY 2018
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 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164
