KEYNOTE
coming into the industry in five years’ time, but this is going to be an interesting transition for all of us. We can’t just say ‘chemicals are gone, let’s do something different.’ It’s going to take a long time to learn new methods and for the grasses and soil to adapt.
90% of the golfers who play here do so for the first time and the remaining 10% are members. Therefore, we only have one chance to make an impression and the stakes are high here. In the summer, the courses are busy from 7.00am right through to 4.00pm, which means I can’t topdress or cut tees/fairways in the afternoon like private member clubs might do. We have trialled a few of the new products coming into the market but it’s very difficult to ascertain success to one particular method or product. These are not laboratory conditions, where you can set temperatures and conditions to be 100% certain what has worked. We currently buy a vast amount of BioMass Sugar from ALS and this seems to work well for us in conjunction with keeping the height of cut short (even throughout the winter months).
Do you have to treat each course differently?
There are very slight differences. The 2010 and Montgomerie courses are fairly similar given the USGA construction. However, the Roman Road course has old UGSA specifications which means we don’t just have a gravel and sand profile, there is a choker layer in-between. These greens are designed so that the rootzone will fill up with moisture and, when it reaches capacity, will then drain away which means they are managed slightly differently to our other courses. We try to maintain the Montgomerie and Roman Road with a softer surface, as players on these courses (with a handicap of 12 upwards) want the ball to stop on the green.
What are staff levels for each course?
There are thirteen full-time team members who work on both the Roman Road and Montgomerie courses alongside a head greenkeeper, and then we also employ an additional eight seasonal staff. The 2010 course has a strong team of ten full-time
It’s never going to go
according to plan. It’s a rocky road and your direction will probably change multiple times, but stay true to
yourself and your goals and you will get there
50
PC June/July 2019
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