these Open Championship Clubs choose to relief grind - Pitchcare

Golf
Greg Evans
Greg Evans is the current Course Manager
at Ealing Golf Club. He has helped to turn
around the clubs fortune from a very
negative situation pre-2006 to an extremely
healthy one now. Golf membership has
increased steadily for the past several years
and visitor income has gone through the
roof, with the past year seeing a 42%
increase in revenue.
To contact him please visit his website
www.gregevansmg.com or by phone 07951
157208.
48 PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2012
Below are the criteria that I use to gauge
firmness of my greens:
Stand at the back of a chosen green
(hopefully not becoming a target for
golfers).
Watch five golfers hit to the green from
about 150 yards away and mark on a
scale of 1-10:
• 1-4 the green is very soft and the ball
plugs (1 is the worst score).
• 5-6 where the greens are receptive but
comes out of its own pitch mark and
either has forward or backspin
(commonly parkland greens)
• 7-8 the greens are much firmer but
importantly the golfer still has control
over the ball (commonly links greens).
• 9-10 where the golfer cannot control
the ball because the green is so hard
(cricket wicket).
Once you have collated the scores, you
can record them in a spread sheet to
track your progress and to see how
cultural practices, such as topdressing
and aeration, affect firmness or not. I
look for a score of around 7, just a bit
above a parkland feel, but not so hard
that the golfer loses control of his ball.
Results
We can use the results to compare how we
are performing from year to year. I
consider the main playing season to be
from early April to the end of October.
During these months your surfaces need
to be performing to your own chosen
targets. Above is a chart of how Ealing’s
greens have performed this last playing
season.
By looking at the chart, we can see that
the speed target for the playing season was
set at 10.5. On the whole, we achieved that
with an average of 10.8 for this period.
Smoothness came in at 8.8 against a target
figure of 8.5, with firmness just a fraction
up on target at 7.1. I and, more
importantly, the club are very happy with
how the greens have performed during
the year. Better greens performance has
meant extra golf revenue this playing year.
In these tough economic times we all
have to justify our course budgets. If we
are spending £5,000 sanding the greens or
have spent £8,000 on a turf iron, the club
wants to know what they will get out of it.
By producing data on the performance of
your greens, as detailed above, you will
hopefully provide data to justify your
expenditures with proven results.