Q&A Forum - July 2022

Following the Question Time-style forum held on the 14th of July, here are the questions proposed, and the answers supplied by the relevant Directors.

Q1. STRI. Please can the directors explain to the members the reasoning for reducing the two annual visits from Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) to one per annum? A previous Board of Directors felt the need to engage the professional services of STRI which was to help make sure that the HGK and membership would receive expert advice about the course/soil/turf conditions. This information would guide recommendations for a program of work to continue throughout the year as part of the maintenance program, which we have definitely benefited from over the past nine years. At the time this was part of the Club’s Mission Statement to make Penwortham Golf Club one of the finest parkland courses in Lancashire, and to make certain that the club’s major asset was the number one priority. I have been told that a POGO Multiprobe meter was being considered instead of the initial annual visit from STRI which would assist the HGK in carrying out his own assessments. In my opinion would be a great asset to the HGK, but to be used alongside both visits from STRI and updated to the membership in their reports and findings.

Chair of Greens: Over the past year or so we have been looking at all of the services we use, using the following mindset: Are they fit for purpose?; Are they value for money? It should be noted that this was not being carried out as a cost-cutting exercise, but more of a “what’s best for Penwortham Golf Club?” exercise (a good example of this philosophy being the purchase of a Wiedenmann GXi8 TerraSpiker costing £38,000). The STRI yearly visits came up when carrying out this exercise.

The current STRI model we use is 2 visits per year, which is known as the “1-Star Package”. The early year visit in April consists of a course walk, with a few core samples taken around the course - normally several greens and a few fairways. This is basically to see how the greens are performing and to visually check for any issues underneath the surface. On the fairways we can see other things like the amount of thatch we currently have. This is work that we could carry out ourselves if we purchased a core sampler. It should be noted that none of the core samples taken out of the ground are taken away for sampling. They are just replaced in the ground. Other areas of the course are looked at during the course walk - areas like the newly laid tees on the 3rd, 9th & 10th recently. Following the visit, STRI produce a report, this is hung outside the office in the foyer for all to read. This visit cost us around a £1,000 + expenses and VAT. Coming to around £1,300.

The 2nd visit in September is basically the same as the first visit, with the addition of STRI taking some performance data such as greens speed, trueness, and firmness levels. They also discuss the results of the soil samples that Steve sends away a few weeks before. Following the visit, a report is sent to us, and this includes the sample data results from areas around the course, but mainly greens. The cost of this visit is slightly more due to the sampling, with the cost around £1,300 + expenses and VAT. Coming out around £1,700.

What I must say is that you can tailor the STRI package to suit your own needs. Obviously, the more you request, the more you pay.

The way we currently work with STRI highlighted a few things, the main one to me being we only get soil sampling done in September, with the results following later in the month. One of the issues with this is that if any major issues are highlighted, we are coming into the time of the year when the growth around the course is slowing down - giving no real time to react to any issues highlighted by the sample results.

So, over the last 12 months Steve has been using other options available to us to get areas sampled (and subsequent reports) on a more regular basis. Most of these sample reports are carried out by reps from reputable companies that are trying to help us improve what we already have, with the majority of these reps being ex-HGK’s (although we fully understand that these people are reps for companies, attempting to sell us products). Some of the companies we have been using are Symbio, Rigby Taylor, Aitkens & Headland, basically the same suppliers we have been using for years. Most of these reports are free of charge, though some companies will charge you (£100).

As a Greens Committee, we fully understand the reasons we initially employed STRI and we do not plan to dispose of their services completely. Considering all the above, the Greens Committee had an in-depth discussion, and the outcome was the following:

• Remove the April visit by STRI, whilst keeping the later year visit. This would however be moved forward to early August (this will include the sampling and results). We will carry on using the other companies/suppliers to carry out regular sampling across the course. We can always go back to the 2 visits by STRI if we feel that we are missing out on diagnostic insight (as it is simply you-get-what-you-pay-for setup).

My own personal issue with the current set up was that we are only getting sampling in September, using this new set up we will be getting regular sampling through the season, in conjunction with the STRI visit in August.

This decision was forwarded to the directors to be discussed and it was unanimously agreed.

The small amount of money we have saved changing our STRI arrangement has been used to help the purchase of a POGO tool, a much more in-depth moisture meter with loads more features.

Q2. Course Condition. Whilst there has been good work on the surrounds and drainage on the course in particular, there have recently been concerns from members about the untidy condition of the whole course including the practice ground during the past three months, with weeds, grass and dandelions growing in bunkers also weeds/grass growing on the pathways especially the one leading up to the first tee. Some of the tee surrounds looking tired with long stems of grass growing and needing attention, the speed of the greens being slow due to the grass being too long, which brings the question is there an underlying problem in some of the greens? 

Chair of Greens, relaying answers from the Head Greenkeeper: I’m not sure about how often the weeds were treated in the past, but I would say that it was not that often as there are a lot of areas around the course that weeds grow, including tees, fairways, approaches, semi, rough, tee banks and bunker edges. That suggests to me an issue with the ground in those areas holding too much water, especially in the winter. Wet, soft conditions allow weeds to ingress and overpopulate areas. It is for this reason we wanted a top aerator, which we have now got in the shape of the Wiedenmann GXi8. Also, because there is so much of it, we need to decide, do we want to spray once a year, or twice? I decided to do it once in the main summer period, which should see it under control for the rest of the season. Maybe next year we can budget for double the amount of spend in that area and spray it twice. Hopefully a continued process of aeration and scarification, as well as chemical control will help to reduce the number of weeds on the course.

The weeds in the bunkers are to be sprayed this week and as much spraying around the tees, bunkers and other parts of the course will continue too, having already done some last week.

As for the general tidiness of the course, I would make two valid points: Staff numbers; and machinery breakdowns. During the whole of June two members of staff had separate holidays, which basically meant we had a man short for the whole month. We have young Oliver helping out over the summer, but he is not fully trained on all equipment to a safe standard. Together with this, some of the machinery has let us down over the same period, with several breakdowns happening. Frustratingly, some of that machinery that suffered is specifically for things like cutting the wispy grass around the tee banks. This put us on the back foot, and we had to prioritise our work, concentrating on the main areas of play.

On any golf course the priority has to be the greens, as that is what you are judged on most of the time. Our aim is not only to maintain the greens (and other areas) but improve them. This is difficult with tired machinery, short staff issues and the amount of play on the course. (In June with all the competitions and team matches, there were only 3 days free from competition, two of which were the Jubilee Bank Hols). A review of course usage for 2023 is taking place to ensure that the greens staff have the required level of access to the course that they require in order to maintain and continually improve the course.

I’m pleased to reassure you: there is no underlying issue with the greens. USGA greens are a very sterile environment for grass to grow in, however we have a fantastic coverage here, maybe even too much in certain areas! This sterile environment and certain past maintenance practices (i.e. weekly feeding) has meant that they can struggle to hold on to applied nutrition. We are now applying more biology into the greens, through the use of organic fertilisers and composted material, which will help to encourage more finer grasses into the greens, rather than the weak poa seed heads we see all over. This in turn would naturally create a smoother and quicker surface.

With regards to pace, in the new year we suffered quite a bad attack of Fusarium patch, which then turns into bare patches on the greens. That’s fine for introducing new finer bent grasses into the sward, but it is unsightly and affects the smoothness of the ball roll in the spring. Therefore, we intentionally put a bit more feed on than normal to encourage these scars to heal as quickly as possible, as well as adding bent seed into the scars.

Once soil temps then increase, this nutrition pushes growth which leads to slower greens. This extra nutrition, together with added biology has freed some locked-up nutrition in the soil, and at times the growth became excessive. This will not be repeated next year, even if we suffer with some disease, although steps are being taken to try and keep that to a bare minimum.

The greens have been cut at 3.8mm, which I believe is lower than previous years to try and keep the speed up. There is a fine balance between speed and health of the turf on greens, and we do not want to stress the swards out too much in the summer, as summer stress definitely leads to winter disease.

 Also, the work carried out on the 18th white tee which clearly hasn’t been successful… is there a plan to relay the whole tee and replace the winter mat during Autumn? 

Chair of Greens, on behalf of the Head Greenkeeper: The tee work on the 18th was carried out too late in my opinion. The turf was not laid until December, when really this kind of work should be done in October at the latest. Any future tees will be turfed sooner if possible. The turf is weaker than other tees (the 1st, 3rd, 9th & 10th tees are also a lot weaker than the others, potentially down to rootzone being too sandy?). More aeration work as well as added nutrition will improve things. The level of the tee is greatly improved from what it was, but the tee surface I agree needs improving. The local environment for that tee means that it will never be in perfect condition in my opinion, due to the surrounding trees creating a lack of light and air. I would suggest the yellow tee is left alone, improved during the winter through maintenance, ready for the new season. Winter mats all around the course are under review.

As a final point, I’d like to say that golf course maintenance in general is a long-term thing and should be viewed as such. Unfortunately, there are rarely ‘quick fixes’, but we do try and use best practices to build for the future.

***additional Greens news communicated by Chair of Greens***:

1.   Bridge at the 6th tee. This has been assessed as to whether it’s worth repairing - the result being that it is worthwhile, as we are aware of the secondary problems created by having the bridge out of use. We plan to replace up to 14 damaged slats. This should be done in the next few weeks. We are also looking at a long-term fix to the bridge to hopefully avoid maintenance issues in the future.

2. We plan to introduce a divot bag system. There will be approx.30 divot bags on a divot tree at the 1st tee. We will provide a bin to drop your bag in on completing your round.

3. We are also introducing more ball washers around the course in the next few weeks. At the back near 5th tee, this can also be used after playing the 6th. Plus, one on the 11th & 17th tee area.

4. Looking at replacing the damaged practice nets.

5. As the path on the 17th looks to have been a success, we will be looking at doing the 13th path with the same hexagonal matting.

Q3. Shoe Cleaner. When will a new shoe cleaner be in place? This also adds to the untidiness of the surrounding areas due to grass cuttings being walked around the car park.

Chair of Greens: We agree that the shoe cleaner is an important service for the members and does contribute to a tidier exit from the course. A new compressor has been purchased and is currently in situ. We are waiting for Ormiston’s to come on site to professionally complete the electrical installation. The compressor housing will be renovated as well.

Q4. Clubhouse tables. I have noticed many of the clubhouse tables have been badly scratched and in need of urgent attention also some of the leather upholstered chairs need repair/refurbishment. Would this be actionable?

Chair of House: I’m pleased to report that the House Committee is in a strong position at the moment, made up of members with fantastic experience both professionally and within the Club. As part of our ongoing work (of which the priority is the catering situation) we have developed a ‘snagging list’ for the clubhouse. As part of this exercise, we have gone through the building, room by room, highlighting areas requiring attention. We will continue to work through this list to affect positive change, and I can confirm that the clubhouse furniture is on that list. Whilst it would be great to do all the work in one hit, there are obvious budgetary constraints, but we will look to prioritise works as we go.