Royal Dornoch Winter Newsletter 2024

17th, building new holes on land near the 10th
green overlooking the Dornoch Firth, which we
are keen to secure.
In summary the Struie will undergo a full irrigation
install and the par 3 being built right now is being
factored into that install, so when the time comes
it can be seamlessly integrated into the new system.
The ground source heat pump planned for the
clubhouse requires 21 vertical bore holes so at some
point this will inevitably mean an element of
disruption on the 1st hole of the Struie Course.
The Greens Subcommittee have taken advice from
Fairhurst who have been monitoring the water
extracted from the 2 existing boreholes and they
have advised that this won’t be adequate to cover
both courses with two top class irrigation systems
in place while the pumps in place aren’t big
enough to draw the amount of water required
quickly enough. The only choice now is drilling
one big borehole and installing a larger pump.
With a larger borehole we will have an automated
recorder that sends information directly to SEPA.
Fairhurst and Raeburn Drilling are formulating
the plan for costs/dates etc. so that we can double
our water abstraction to irrigate both courses.
The update on the burn on the Struie Course is
that this is out of our hands at the moment and
with the Highland Council as to what is going to
be done to improve the flow.
Greens
The greens on both courses have stood up well in
the very wet conditions although they are very soft
and this can cause many problem with pitch
marks. Other problems that can occur in this
weather pattern is disease and they were hit with
fusarium. They were sprayed with Iron Sulphate to
check back this disease but a few weeks later were
hit again. So the decision was taken to spray them
with chemical. The chemicals we now use are not
as effective as in previous years, as with new
legislation many of the active ingredients have been
removed because they may cause harm to the end
user. The Greens Team have to be vigilant at this
time of year and keep enough product in stock to
combat any further outbreaks. They also sprayed
the greens on both courses with a pesticide to
prevent any damage to the surfaces with birds
pecking to eat the grubs. The disc seeding of the
Championship Course fairways and the pot
seeding the Championship Course tees have been
completed.
Coastal Erosion Update
The good news for the Struie Course is there has
been no movement despite the high tides and we
luckily avoided some enormous logs being washed
up that can damage our fences. The 10th hole on
the Struie Course has had no damage and the
chestnut fencing and newly planted salt grasses are
doing well.
However, the bad news is that the storm has caused
erosion on the Championship Course from the
12th tee round to the 16th tee. This may look bad
but it is nothing that the Greens Team haven’t
experienced before. We do have posts dotted along
this area to monitor the situation and these were
installed around 1994 and all but one are still in
place. The storm has removed all that had been
built up during these years. Understandably
because of the erosion the building of a new tee at
the top of the 13th will not now be going ahead
this winter. Eoin and his team are hopeful that
over the next few years the land will be reclaimed
again. The Greens Team are constantly monitoring
these areas on both courses.
17