GOLF
virtually nothing on fairways and other areas. However, we’ve started boxing off in recent years on the greens surround areas, so they get a little bit of fertiliser to compensate for that. So, low fertiliser, very few pesticides, and bit of selective weedkiller because, on courses like this, you tend to get quite a lot of clover in the fairways if you’re not careful. Again, maybe one application a year of selective on areas that need it. Fungicide use, just no. I’ve been here twenty-two years, and we’ve never applied fungicide for fusarium, although we’ve applied it for things like fairy rings on little areas to try and deal with that.” “Irrigation-wise, we tend to keep things very dry. And, again, the sort of figures we’d be looking at before we start irrigating would be well down into the single figures percentage-wise. So, we’d get down to five or seven percent moisture before we started thinking about irrigation. Generally speaking, we are trying to run with the moisture between about ten and fifteen percent if we can, and that works very nicely. A lot of golf courses’ greens would be a disaster area at that sort of level but with deep rooting fine
I always took part in the Golf Environment Awards because I thought it was good for the industry. It’s a showcase for the good
”
environmental work that is done and that is the
important part about it. It’s not whether you win or not
38 PC October/November 2020
grasses, lots of fescue, it works for us.” “It’s very niche and something I’m very well aware will not work at the vast majority of golf courses in the country. Starting here, I needed to develop a feel for the place. When I first arrived, I was lucky in that there were members of staff here who had been here a long, long time and were able to steer me in the right direction. It is so out on a limb that you're not going to get the experience of doing these sorts of things apart from on a tiny number of golf courses around the country that have got similar sorts of conditions and can get away with the same things. So I’d see the greens getting a little bit brown and think do we need a bit of irrigation now and I’d be told by the experienced staff that we could keep going a few more days.” “And some of that is understanding the needs of the agronomic side of things, but it’s also understanding the requirements of your particular set of golfers because what the Aldeburgh member sees as great conditions, firm and fast, at many golf courses they wouldn’t accept it. The greens would be too hard and too firm, and in lots
of places they want them to be receptive, so the ball stops reasonably easily. It’s a double whammy really, you’re looking at the members’ requirements that are a little bit different from the average golf course and what actually works here. It takes a little while, but once you’re into it, you get to a stage where you know that you can go a few more days without irrigation and everything will be fine.”
“The other low input side of things is the frequency of cut and heights of cut because it all relates. If you are cutting really low on your greens, it is probably going to compromise your rooting depth and you’re probably going to need a bit more water and fertiliser, and you’re almost certainly going to need some more fungicide. So, we tend not to do lots of aggressive verti-cutting on greens or any of those sort of practices that are stressful on the turf. It’s sensible heights of cut, minimal brushing, minimal verti- cutting and grooming.” “We don't use a roller much. In fact, we
haven’t used one at all this year which is slightly odd because, in recent years, we’ve tended to use it a bit more for tournament
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