Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

Waves ...
and an almost full time mechanic, Geoff
Duquemin, who works thirty hours a
week and has been part of the team for
six years.”
“I call in extra labour as required
during the growing season, just to keep
up with rough cutting, which takes up to
forty hours a week, and tees and fairway
divoting, to which twenty-four hours are
allocated. I also take in a student from a
French horticultural/agricultural college
for between four to eight weeks each
year.”
Drainage
“With the course being below the high
water mark, flooding is a problem and
drainage essential. There are a network
of ditches - douits, pronounced ‘dwee’ in
the local patois - that criss-cross the
fairways. These carry the water, that
enters through the boundaries at around
twenty different places, to one outlet that
runs under the coast road through a
three foot pipe to the beach.”
“This pipe has a non return valve
halfway through that closes when the tide
rises - there is over ten metres height
difference from the highest and lowest
tides - and the inward pressure of the sea
is higher than the outward pressure of
the water in the drainage ditch.”
“The non return on a high tide can
keep the gate closed for up to six hours
and, with two tides a day, this is always a
problem during winter months. This can
become a problem when high tides and
rain cause the ditches to fill and, on
occasions flow over the fairways. We have
been known to row a boat across six
fairways without touching dry land.”
“To help control the flooding, a pump
is positioned near the beach that lifts
water from the main ditch to the beach
up a ten inch suction pipe to the pump
ten feet above. The water is then pushed
along a further sixty feet, and up another
five feet, to the coast road drains where it
then passes under the road to an outlet
just above high tide mark to the beach.”
“During the past winter the pump ran
from late November to early January,
non-stop, pumping 2,000,000 gallons a
day, using around four litres of fuel per
hour - thank God for red diesel. The
pump can be manually controlled or put
on a float switch. We keep it on float
most of the time.”
“On the outlet pipe, on the course
GuernseySport
side, there is a gate valve that can be
lowered in times of drought to keep
water in the ditches and raise the water
table to keep the fairways green. But, this
would have to be carefully monitored,
and we have not needed to resort to this
yet.”
Design
“Originally designed by Fred Hawtree, as
a 9 hole, par 35, it was subsequently
extended by his son, Martin, to an 18
hole, par 64. It is a very challenging
course with ponds, lakes and open
ditches in play on all but one of the
holes. Even from this tee though, a
shanked ball can find water! Martin
Hawtree still visits us regularly, the last
time was in February of this year.”
“All of the greens and tees were
constructed from the native soil - a
mixture of peat, sand and clay - dug out
when creating the lakes and realigning
and widening the ditches.”
“Over 17,000 trees have been planted.
There is quite a contrast in environment
around the course, from exposed coastal
areas to sheltered woodland further from
the sea. We have had to put various
species around the course, most of which
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