GOLF
8th hole
The STRI’s report into the surface before I arrived basically suggested that the only way to manage the greens surfaces was to dig them all up and start again - and that was on a set of USGA-spec greens built in the 1970s.
They’re now playable all-year-round whereas, back then, if it rained heavily, it was like a herd of cows had been across the green. The pH and element levels are as they should be and it’s no longer too soft to manage properly.
Our last remaining job is to refurbish those huge bunkers, because they’re so demanding from a maintenance point of view, and they aren’t what they were 30-40 years ago in terms of drainage or sand build-up.
Raking them and keeping them edged is a big job, and they were built for a time when we had higher staff numbers in the greens department.
We use White Moss’ new sand, which doubles up as both dressing and bunker sand. I’ve had two loads so far, and it’s great because you can just buy it in bulk for all your sand requirements.
Going back those eleven years to when we started aggressive aeration and scarifying to get the greens back up to scratch, we’ve always filled with sand and, when you’re getting close to being a pure sand surface, it’s important that the sand is of the necessary quality to sustain that. We’d like to go with the modern approach of breaking the bunkers down into smaller, more manageable chunks, after which we’ll be able to undertake all the work we’d like to do on them.
We’d love to line them, control the sand depths, and maybe strengthen the edges in some way, and those things can only be done when the maintenance of them doesn’t take up so much of our time.
Like many these days, we think we’ll go down the route of minimising sand area, creating banks, turfing it, and forming a gradual recession into the bunker base. The one thing we need to ensure, then, is that we form them in such a way as to keep the course’s challenge, because one of the big draws of this course is its test. Balancing that with the improvement of manageability will be key.
Everyone sells packages of chemicals and the like designed to cover a hectare, so we have to buy two of each and, of course, that leaves half a packet left over each time
2nd fairway 20 PC October/November 2018
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