GOLF Getting Personal
Richard Jones - it could get very in-tents at work!
Who are you? Richard Jones, Golf Course Manager at Hilton Puckrup Hall.
Family status? Engaged to be married in April. I have a two-year-old daughter, Olivia.
Who’s your hero and why? Tiger Woods. I’m a massive fan.
What’s been the highlight of your grounds career so far? Becoming course manager at 26 years old and working as part of the greenkeeping support team at 2010 Ryder Cup.
If your younger self saw you now, what would they think? He’d be proud of what I’ve done with my career.
Which famous people wind you up? Jose Mourinho and Donald Trump.
What job would you love, other than your own? Vineyard owner in France.
A wasp lands on your arm - what do you do? Squash it.
If you could domesticate any animal, which would you choose as a pet? A horse.
What was the most embarrassing moment in your life? That’s unpublishable.
Brexit or Remain? Remain. What is your favourite film? American Gangster. What scares you? Heights.
What would your autobiography be called… and who would play you in the film? My Way. Tom Hardy.
What is your favourite sport? Golf, although I’m also a very keen horseracing and football fan.
What would you cast into Room 101? Drivers that do not thank you when you pull over to let them pass. Brexit.
Which historical time and place would you most like to visit? To any of the times and racecourses that my dad rode a winner as a professional jockey as he retired shortly after I was born.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To run the London Marathon.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Tiger Woods. Noel Gallagher. Winston Churchill.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Treat others as you want to be treated.
What’s your favourite piece of trivia? There is no word that rhymes with orange.
What’s your favourite smell? Smoked bacon.
Which three songs would you take to a desert island? Masterplan - Oasis, Run - Snow Patrol, With Or Without You - U2.
What’s the daftest work-related question you have ever been asked? Can you put tents over every green overnight to stop them freezing during frosts?
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Our pedestrian aerator.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Approachable. Friendly. Loyal.
Finally, what is the single most useful thing you could tell a 16-year-old groundsperson/greenkeeper? Work hard to prove your worth.
34 PC December/January 2019
or golf breaks, all of which are tested on what are already challenging greens (there are five MacKenzie-style greens). The recent removal of Iprodione I feel will be huge for us as an industry. Not having that safety net of a curative product to me will mean using new types of fungicides, more topdressing, more aeration through to November, and even more emphasis on the use of nutrients to produce a stronger plant at the end of summer, ensuring that the plant is a strong as possible heading into the notorious disease prone months. Timing the use of products is as important as product selection; using GDD data to predict when you’ll get the most bang for your buck. That’s now a much more important factor when planning feed and fungicide programmes. I tend to have my soil samples done in the same week each January, because my feed tends not to change much year-on-year, and I feel this gives a better indication of what we have in the profile.
Barring difficult weather
conditions, I know that the nutrient levels and pH will be similar to the same time the previous year, so I can monitor those and the organic material reliably. That January information will guide my March and October operations, which will include OM control. Going back to disease management, I use a 5:2:10 fertiliser around early September (a bit earlier this year to negate the stress following the difficult summer) to focus on strength. Probably 80% of my feed is liquid-based, and we spoon-feed
every ten to fourteen days. I find it easier to tailor to both weather and golfing requirements that way. We used to spray every thirty days, roughly, and we’d get to the end of the cycle and find that the coverage was less than we’d hoped - whether that’s feed, bio- stimulant, wetting agent, or whatever - so we decided to halve the rate and double the
applications. It improves timing and coverage.
The course is twenty-five years old, and was built a few years before I started working at PHGC. I knew, upon arrival, that there were problems with infiltration on certain greens from working with the course manager at the time whilst trying to learn about the site. There were three problem greens (two were completely rebuilt soon after the course was opened) and the remaining green has been our focus for additional verti-draining, additional topdressing and drainage to the perimeter.
This green had developed a hard pan just above the gravel carpet, restricting water reaching the drains, so I brought in an Air2G2 to break that up and bring it up to speed with the rest. That worked well as we could really focus on a specific depth of the rootzone. We also bought a pedestrian aerator two seasons ago. That’s out at least monthly, using various tines and depths. Its ease of use, versatility and ability to give us access to tight areas of the course is superb and has made a huge difference to our aeration regimes across all areas of the course. We core greens in March and
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