GOLF
Getting Personal
James
Hutchison - can someone explain what shinty is please?
Who are you? James Hutchison, Head Greenkeeper at Castle Stuart Golf Links.
Family status? I have two children.
Who’s your hero and why? My parents - for keeping me on the straight and narrow.
What’s been the
highlight of your grounds career so far? Hosting the Scottish Open.
If your younger self saw you now, what would they think? Old git.
Which famous people wind you up? Footballers.
What job would you love, other than your own? Moto GP rider.
What was the most embarrassing moment in your life? Holding up a flight, then being cheered by all the other passengers.
Brexit or Remain? Remain.
What is your favourite film? Bad Boys.
What scares you? Brexit.
What is your favourite sport? Shinty.
What would you cast into Room 101? The taxman.
Which historical time and place would you most like to visit? Battle of Bannockburn.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To have no regrets.
Which three people, living or dead, would you
34 PC December/January 2020
invite to a dinner party? Family that I never got to know.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Don’t eat yellow snow.
What’s your favourite piece of trivia? The diameter of the Earth = 8,000 miles.
What’s your favourite smell? Whisky.
Which three albums would you take to a desert island? Kenny Rodgers, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Ed Sheeran.
What’s the daftest work-related question you have ever been asked? To go and get a long stand.
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Hand mowers.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Fun, passionate and focused.
What is the single most useful thing you could tell a 16-year- old groundsperson/ greenkeeper? Don’t be scared to ask lots of questions.
What talent would you like to have? To be able to see into the future.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? A three day working week.
16th green Picturesque clubhouse
Castle Stuart covers eighty hectares, which includes two and a half hectares of greens, two hectares of tees and eighteen and a half hectares of fairways. James tells me about the soil profile of the course. “There is 600mm of sand rootzone over the whole course on fairways and tees, on the greens there is 600mm of medium/ fine (which is our rootzone) and underneath that is a metre of pure sand. This was on site when we started the construction and we mined an area up at the 13th for all our rootzone for the greens and surrounds. That obviously saved us a lot of money, but what we are finding is it tends to flush. We have been open for ten years now and we have developed a small thatch layer in the greens but, ironically, we could probably do with a little bit more thatch so that we can hold on to stuff. At the moment, product
is still going through too quickly, but if you look at it on some greens you can see the collapse of thatch - so it’s just about getting a happy medium. So far, we have found that a solid tine isn’t breaking it as a knife tine would, but then the knife doesn’t give you the surface afterwards for the golfers.” Soil samples are taken from the greens annually when STRI visit; however, if there is an issue, they will visit mid-season to gain an additional sample and determine what’s going on. “The whole site suffers from barsideous fungus and it fluctuates with moisture levels; if the levels change within five and six per cent, either way up or down, it’s enough to trigger it off. We sometimes get questioned on why we are putting the irrigation system on when we’ve had 20mm of rain overnight but, with temperatures rising to twenty-six degrees over
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