Earning his Spurs - Pitchcare

One of the many ‘douits’
that criss-cross the course Thank God for red diesel! The incoming tide!
have been taken as cuttings and grown
on by the staff. The holes that are near
the sea have been planted up with
Tamarix that are hardy and thrive on the
west coast of the island. In the wetter
areas we have planted various willow
varieties - golden, weeping, tortured and
red. We’ve also planted poplars and
alders that also don’t mind wetter
conditions, and we have established areas
of pine, hawthorn and oaks.”
Agronomy
“With so many differing soils on site I
employ the services of agronomist,
Extensive flooding on 1st March this year
George Shiels, who has been advising the
club for ten years. During his visits I walk
the course with him and discuss
programmes of work, take a number of
core samples and agree a way forward.”
Budgets
“Living on an island has one big
disadvantage - the cost of carriage. All
course accessories - flags, sticks, tee
72
markers, signs, hole cutters, cups etc. -
are ordered in one lot, so I have to
ensure that everything is covered.”
“To get goods to the island costs, on
average, £60 per tonne. Topdressing has
just jumped to £100 per tonne, forty
bags of fertiliser now costs an extra £60
to get here. In the present financial
climate it is now costing us much more
for less. That is why I try to get
everything for the year in at one go and
store it in the shed (greenhouse).”
“Even visits from Martin Hawtree and
George Shiels have to be budgeted for;
tickets and other costs can amount to
over £250!”
“I try and keep the total running costs
to around £250,000 per year. The largest
cost is the staff wages at £125,000.
Machinery leasing and repairs costs
around £35,000 and course consumables
- fertiliser, seed, topdressing and
pesticides - between £15-18,000.
Drainage and flood control will usually
cost around £12,000.”
Maintenance Regimes
“I try to keep applications of fertiliser as
low as possible on the greens,
concentrating on applying double the
amount of potassium as nitrogen, which
we try to keep below 70kg N per hectare
per year.”
“With our warmer climate, we can
apply a tonic to the greens in early
March (8:0:0 at 10g/m), before the first
application of wetter H2Pro at 25 l/h,
and then every six weeks at 20l/h. This
will be closely followed by Scotts Blade
soil supplement at 40l/h and a first
application of PrimoMaxx at 0.05 l/h
followed by monthly applications at
0.04l/h.”
“I try to get a head start in spring, with
my first hollow coring work straight after
our first major tournament, which is
usually on Easter Monday. We core with
12mm tines and clear all the greens, first
with the front nine closed and, later in
the day, we start on the back nine and
finish mid-morning the following day.”
“The greens are overseeded with
Manor and Heriot browntop bent from
Johnsons Seeds. This is broadcast with a
pedestrian spreader at 5-6gm per square
metre (about 180 kilos for this year).”
“Each green is then sarrel rolled and
topdressed with around one tonne of
90/10 Wessex topdressing brushed in
with a Sisis Oscar oscillating brush. This
will be followed with vibratory rollers for
the next couple of days.”
“The greens are then topdressed on a
monthly basis, at half rate, until another
hollow coring is completed in August.”
“The height of cut remains at 6mm
until mid to late April, and is then
lowered to 4mm over a three week
period. We never go much below 4mm
during the season and, for our big
tournaments, we double cut and roll
depending on conditions.”
“A number of other fertiliser products
are used during the season that include a
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