What effect will the lockdown have on golf course conditioning?

Three experts give us their thoughts on course management through the crisis and how playing surfaces are being affected

his is a very strange time for all of us, but, for golfers, one of the oddest thoughts is of deserted courses, still maintained but totally unused.

The R&A and BIGGA have released guidelines for essential maintenance of golf courses in this country and on how clubs should look to restructure working practices to follow government guidance for essential workers.

We spoke to three experts from across the country –

Craig Gilholm, course manager at Royal Liverpool GC, Rob

Surgey, senior course manager of the Burhill Group and Richard Mullen, course manager at Banchory GC in Aberdeenshire – to ask how lockdown is affecting their course maintenance and conditioning.

TIt’s a breath of fresh air actually, like going back to how I learned my trade at Muirfield in 1990 – cutting fairways once a fortnight! Modern culture means expectations have changed, but it’s nice to revisit those days for this spell.

The last five weeks of weather has been beautiful, with only about six or seven millimetres of rain. Without traffic, it’s certainly the case that the grass is not as stressed as normal.

People might say no traffic will make the greens softer, but in this short period of time, it’s not noticeable. I think if it went on for months then maybe things would change as you do want footfall. But we had a busy winter, right up to the lockdown. So, yes, it’s allowed for a recovery on areas that have suffered.

At this point in time, I’m delighted. We’re keeping up with regular maintenance programmes and I’m not losing sleep.

The Open moving back to a later date is not a problem. With three new greens laid last winter, 18,000m2 of new turf overall, it gives more time for that to bed in, so really it’s a good thing for us from a greenkeeping perspective. Right now, the new turf is challenging for us with the dry weather. When we’re not cutting grass elsewhere on the course, we’re looking after that turf.

The lack of traffic on our courses has certainly had a beneficial impact on the greens. No new pitchmarks mean we have a good full coverage of grass.

The lack of divots out of the fairways and tees has left us with a better sward. Actually, the first job we did when we went into lockdown was to repair as many divots as possible to aid recovery. Hopefully these unique circumstances mean the courses will be well rested.

We’ve had to change the way we work to ensure we maintain social distancing and reduce contact on areas around the maintenance department. We all have our own set of keys for the machinery and have designated buggies assigned to each individual, as examples.

The regulations have impacted on the way we work, but our team has done a great job making

“The expectation will be that the courses should look like Augusta when they open”

changes to their standard practice in the weeks of lockdown so far.

The weather has been challenging. After a very wet winter, we’ve had warmer conditions with virtually no rain since March. This has presented its own challenges with courses drying out.

The expectation will be that the courses should look like Augusta when they open, and we have to manage that expectation given the decrease in staff levels. However, once we are back to full staff capacity, it shouldn’t take long to get the course presentation just where we want it. government specified what we were allowed to do. At Banchory, a typical week would see 205 working hours. In an equivalent lockdown week this year, we are running a skeleton staff and completing just 45 hours.

We have cut the greens at a higher level to protect the plant, and no more than three times in seven days. We’ve also cut tees and aprons higher and less frequently, and fairways and rough only once a week. We haven’t been able to maintain hazards, which will of course have an effect.

Yes, we haven’t had holes to change and bins to empty and the courses will not have divots or pitchmarks. But, with less mowing and spraying, reduced dressings and reduced inputs of nitrogen and water, the standard of the surface will change. I won’t say drop, as reducing synthetic fertilisers and water input isn’t a bad thing. Maybe this challenging situation will show some in the turf industry that the plant can actually perform with less input? But, it’s difficult to assess that as we don’t have the 125 pairs of compacting feet per day, plus mowers and rollers, to make a comparison.

Just maybe it will give us more confidence to take a more sustainable approach in the future. Only time will tell.