After severe waterlogging caused five fixtures to be cancelled during the 2016-17 season, the soil-based pitch at Accrington Stanley FC’s Wham Stadium was reconstructed to improve drainage and ensure year-round playability. But it is the pitch’s ongoing fertiliser and maintenance regime which have given head groundsman Martyn Cook the confidence that his pitch has the requisite attributes to remain in good condition season after season.
With a heritage stretching back over 150 years, the picturesque course at Stirling Golf Club is well known, not only throughout Central Scotland, but to golfers across the globe. With the last major course improvements made as long ago as 1967 (under the watchful eye of Sir Henry Cotton) the club appointed Northern Irishman, James Lindsay, as course manager in 2012, with his team subsequently implementing a series of changes to bring the course up to date with the modern game.
The course at Dumfries and County Golf Club has changed a lot in the 32 years since Steven Knaggs joined the greenkeeping team as a 17-year old apprentice, with an in-house programme to rebuild all 19 greens amongst the most significant of the improvements he’s overseen.
The decision to switch from its own in-house greenkeeping team to an external sports turf maintenance contractor has transformed the fairways at Flackwell Heath Golf Club near High Wycombe.
The rise in popularity of the modern creeping bentgrass starts in the mid 2000’s at Rutgers University in New Jersey where Dr Richard Hurley, after 10 years of germplasm collection, evaluations and trials, developed the first varieties of a new generation of creeping bentgrasses.
After two successive hot and dry summers had left the lawns at High House in Essex looking somewhat worse for wear, specialist overseeding advice from Germinal’s Sandy Pentecost has helped to restore the site’s green spaces back to their former glory.
With a team of just three greenkeeping staff, Barry McCulloch has instigated a series of cultural changes to the way the course at Caldwell Golf Club in East Renfrewshire is managed, with a focus on regular aeration to improve drainage as well as over-seeding with quality cultivars transforming the playing characteristics of the almost 120-year-old course.
With a playing season that lasts from mid-April to late September – and on occasion into mid-October – ensuring there’s always a fresh wicket available for East Moseley Cricket Club’s first team is a real challenge, but one that the team at Greenside Up Grass tackles with relish.
