Golf Thread

[tweety]

Pretty grim today, lucky to be playing, course saturated, temporary greens pissed wet through and frozen. Looking forward to next spring.

 

[sky tot]

Pretty grim today, lucky to be playing, course saturated, temporary greens pissed wet through and frozen. Looking forward to next spring.

Our course has been closed since Friday. I walked on it with the dog yesterday, it was absolutely saturated. Need a few dry days until it’s fit to play again . I did a hour in our swing room , least I was hitting golf balls

 

[give it to gordon]

They did really aggressive maintenance at the end of March which was too early because of the cold, didn't recover till June, then they repeated in early August and only recovered by the fag end of the season. To say that the members weren't happy would be an understatement.
Scratch is a big ask, I admire your positivity. Good luck. Got down to 2 one year but couldn't sustain it. 3 to 4 was my sweet spot until recently.

What was the maintenance ?

It always baffles me that golf is the only fine turf sport that doesn't have a closed season to allow for recovery. Tennis, bowls, cricket etc all do.

Maintenance in my experience is govern by the competitions and not the correct time to do maintenance. Hence the recovery can take longer due to the fixtures list.

My maintenance was being put back to October/November way to late to get good recovery and likely to be hit with disease.

Now this for a few seasons than the standard of the greens starts to fall and the greenkeepers get the blame lol. When the blame is at the club for insisting maintenance is carried out at the wrong time of the year.

Still after 30 yrs of being a head greenkeeper I'm so happy to be out of it now as are alot of my skillful and knowledgable friends. Nothing would get me back into greenkeeping in the UK

Ot amazes me just how knowledgeable and skillful so my golfers are at greenkeeping. Yet when you ask .most what grass they are playing on they havent a clue but are experts at maintaining it lol.

This is a pop at Tweety by the way just my 30yrs of being a head greenkeeper

 

[sky tot]

What was the maintenance ?

It always baffles me that golf is the only fine turf sport that doesn't have a closed season to allow for recovery. Tennis, bowls, cricket etc all do.

Maintenance in my experience is govern by the competitions and not the correct time to do maintenance. Hence the recovery can take longer due to the fixtures list.

My maintenance was being put back to October/November way to late to get good recovery and likely to be hit with disease.

Now this for a few seasons than the standard of the greens starts to fall and the greenkeepers get the blame lol. When the blame is at the club for insisting maintenance is carried out at the wrong time of the year.

Still after 30 yrs of being a head greenkeeper I'm so happy to be out of it now as are alot of my skillful and knowledgable friends. Nothing would get me back into greenkeeping in the UK

Ot amazes me just how knowledgeable and skillful so my golfers are at greenkeeping. Yet when you ask .most what grass they are playing on they havent a clue but are experts at maintaining it lol.

This is a pop at Tweety by the way just my 30yrs of being a head greenkeeper

Sounds good idea in theory but most golf clubs are suffering with the economic climate like everyone. To closed for a sustained period could spell disaster for some clubs . I think it just needs managing properly, ie winter greens when needed, fairway mates . No buggies & winter wheels or carry .

 

[tweety]

Our course has been closed since Friday. I walked on it with the dog yesterday, it was absolutely saturated. Need a few dry days until it’s fit to play again . I did a hour in our swing room , least I was hitting golf balls

Sounds good idea in theory but most golf clubs are suffering with the economic climate like everyone. To closed for a sustained period could spell disaster for some clubs . I think it just needs managing properly, ie winter greens when needed, fairway mates . No buggies & winter wheels or carry .

Our course was saturated and it drains very well. We played temporaries and no buggies, about half the field went out. It's obviously important that courses try to stay open for the money because so many are on a knife edge financially.

 

[give it to gordon]

Sounds good idea in theory but most golf clubs are suffering with the economic climate like everyone. To closed for a sustained period could spell disaster for some clubs . I think it just needs managing properly, ie winter greens when needed, fairway mates . No buggies & winter wheels or carry .

True golf has changed so much. When I first started as a young greenkeeper you would only see about 10 golfers a day through the dormant winter months. Now you see around 100 a day if not more.

Yet golfers still want a great course without any maintenance or rest. Than your course gets compared to another course where winter greens and tee mates have been used all winter. Those members come and play your course because the committee want main greens and tees all year round. Than come the spring the course with winter tees and greens is so much better than yours ! Than your members moan that the other course is so much better after those members have been smashing our course up over winter lol.

I'm just an old bitter ex head greenkeeper who loved his job, but got disillusion golfers and committees. Like lots of my friends within greenkeeping.

I'll sign of now and leave it to you golfers. Enjoy your golf but dont compare courses as you dont know the restraints the greenkeepers are working under :)

 

[tweety]

What was the maintenance ?

It always baffles me that golf is the only fine turf sport that doesn't have a closed season to allow for recovery. Tennis, bowls, cricket etc all do.

Maintenance in my experience is govern by the competitions and not the correct time to do maintenance. Hence the recovery can take longer due to the fixtures list.

My maintenance was being put back to October/November way to late to get good recovery and likely to be hit with disease.

Now this for a few seasons than the standard of the greens starts to fall and the greenkeepers get the blame lol. When the blame is at the club for insisting maintenance is carried out at the wrong time of the year.

Still after 30 yrs of being a head greenkeeper I'm so happy to be out of it now as are alot of my skillful and knowledgable friends. Nothing would get me back into greenkeeping in the UK

Ot amazes me just how knowledgeable and skillful so my golfers are at greenkeeping. Yet when you ask .most what grass they are playing on they havent a clue but are experts at maintaining it lol.

This is a pop at Tweety by the way just my 30yrs of being a head greenkeeper

What have I said that's triggered you?

 

[give it to gordon]

What have I said that's triggered you?

Lol my love of being a good knowledgeable head greenkeeper ( big head )

I loved my job really really loved it, I was one place for 22 years, knew it inside and out. Than get paid redundant to save money, 22 years of knowledge of the course just thrown away.

Each year the quality of the greens committee was getting worse. Each wanting to out do the previous head of greens at the expense to the course.

Over a 10 year period the club spent over 100k on bunker sand and drainage. Each year the new head of greens thought he knew better than the one before. After 10 years we ended back at the original sand ! What a waste of money all because 90% of the members couldnt play bunker shots but blamed the sand, the depth etc.

That's just one example lol.

It's very difficult to carry out your job when you know what you are doing is detrimental to the health of the course. Plus in a few years time you are going to get the blame and the knobhead head of greens has left the club with no come back on him !

Thus is turning into a therapy session for me lol

Honestly my health is so much better now I'm out of golf, as are the friends I knew who were in golf.

 

[sky tot]

True golf has changed so much. When I first started as a young greenkeeper you would only see about 10 golfers a day through the dormant winter months. Now you see around 100 a day if not more.

Yet golfers still want a great course without any maintenance or rest. Than your course gets compared to another course where winter greens and tee mates have been used all winter. Those members come and play your course because the committee want main greens and tees all year round. Than come the spring the course with winter tees and greens is so much better than yours ! Than your members moan that the other course is so much better after those members have been smashing our course up over winter lol.

I'm just an old bitter ex head greenkeeper who loved his job, but got disillusion golfers and committees. Like lots of my friends within greenkeeping.

I'll sign of now and leave it to you golfers. Enjoy your golf but dont compare courses as you dont know the restraints the greenkeepers are working under :)

Don’t sign off , it’s interesting to hear green keepers opinions.

 

[give it to gordon]

Don’t sign off , it’s interesting to hear green keepers opinions.

To be honest I have been out of greenkeeping for around 10 years now. I loved the science behind growing health awards. The problem I had was so much that I was being instructed to do by the heads of greens who were double glazing salesman, photo copier salesman etc was seriously damaging the course.

One tired to fire me because I wouldn't irrigate the greens at the back end of October ! I was signed of for 6 weeks because of his bullying. His qualification in greenkeeping played of 7 and a double glazing salesman.

I strongly believe that alot of course would be better if the head greenkeeper was allowed to manage.

The head greenkeepers at top clubs are allowed this, but even they have problems with nature !

The biggest crime heads of greens demand is more irrigation and more fertiliser. Irrigation because most golfers cant put back spin on the ball. More fertiliser because they think that's the answer to every problem that natural will throw.

I hated a cold sunny spring, hated it. The greens weren't growing because the soil temperatures were still cold. The plant was inactive, but the head of greens would be putting pressure on us to irrigate lol. That makes sense put cold water onto an already cold soil to make the growing conditions even colder delaying the warming up !. Same with fertiliser put as much as you want on the planet wont take it up until it warms up . But in the heads of heads of greens and members I should be putting on water and fertiliser !.
Leave them dry so they warm up quicker with natural rain.

I could write a book but no one would believe the way some members clubs are run ;)