Golf Club’s NHS tribute

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Golf Club’s NHS tribute: The Llandrindod Wells Golf Club has paid tribute to the National Health Service by mowing the letters NHS on its course – with a heart around it too.

A photo of the tribute, which was created by greenkeeper Ben, was posted on the golf club’s Facebook page and gained a hugely positive response; with well over 100 people liking or reacting to the post and almost 50 people sharing it. Hopefully, this means it will have reached plently of hardworking frontline NHS staff in the Llandrindod area and beyond.

In the post, Llandrindod Wells Golf Club said: “Our lovely greenkeeper Ben has done this as a tribute to our wonderful NHS! Keep strong and stay safe! We will come through this!”

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New Zealand greenkeepers return

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New Zealand greenkeepers return: Mowers started up for the first time in three weeks on Tuesday at many of New Zealand’s 400 golf courses.

Greenkeepers returned “just in time”, with some facing overgrown roughs and disease encroaching on the greens.

The Government gave the all-clear for golf course maintenance to resume, following lobbying from those in the golfing community. The stipulation from the Ministry of Primary Industries, which applies to bowling and croquet greens and nurseries, is that the maintenance must be urgent.

The upkeep of golf courses is a daily task, and if maintenance were delayed further, it could have a million-dollar impact, said Remuera golf club superintendent and NZ Golf Superintendents Association board member Spencer Cooper.

“We’ve got back to work just in time. It’s essential we maintain the properties so we’ve got something to go back to,” he said.

“Delaying… there would be tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.

“A lot of golf courses wouldn’t survive and it would result in a lot of people losing their jobs unncessarily.”

Cooper arrived on Tuesday to find “really nasty” fungal disease starting to appear on the greens. Some diseases can spread “extremely quickly” and wipe out entire greens within 48 to 72 hours.

“For the golf courses that do financially survive, the damage could be quite severe which would cost a lot of money to repair,” he said.

“It would keep the golf courses that do survive closed for longer and it would take longer for people to get back to playing golf.”

Golf is one of the most popular sports in the country, with more than half a million players picking up the golf clubs in the last 12 months.

Cooper’s club has a membership of 1600, and has more than 60,000 rounds of golf per year.

While Cooper is sceptical about the sport resuming in the next few weeks, he said golf offers an opportunity for exercise while in isolation.

“I believe people can go and play golf, in pretty much isolation, out in nature, get a bit of exercise, getting a bit of sunshine, without coming across too many other people,” he said.

“If we do it properly we believe we’re one of the few sports that can really be viable when others can’t…[and] there’s a huge mental health benefit.”

For now, he and his team are happy to be out on the course, also working on their mental health.

“This something extremely therapeutic about mowing grass and the smell of it… it was amazing,” he laughed.

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Plymouth pay NHS tribute

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Plymouth pay NHS tribute: Plymouth have paid tribute to the NHS with a special decoration of their Home Park pitch.

The League Two club got their head groundsman Chris Ralph to work with the mower, cutting a pattern reading “Thank You NHS” into the turf.

Plymouth had already handed their stadium over to the local NHS Trust, who are using it for phlebotomy and antenatal appointments during the coronavirus pandemic.

A club statement released to the PA news agency said: “The club is proud to have worked in partnership with the local NHS Trust at the earliest possible opportunity – handing over our stadium to be used for routine phlebotomy and antenatal appointments.

“We feel a civic duty to support our local community at this time, and the pattern on the pitch was cut by grounds staff to show our immense gratitude for our NHS heroes, working at Home Park and further afield, during this time of crisis.”

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Greenkeeping during a pandemic

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Greenkeeping during a pandemic: As clubs continue to be shut in the UK while the coronavirus pandemic holds its grip over the world, one of the biggest concerns looking ahead is the shape our courses will be in when normality returns.

In the wake of the lockdown, the government confirmed greenkeepers could still attend work for “essential maintenance purposes”.

BIGGA and the R&A then set out a comprehensive plan on what that should look like.

But what is being done in practice?

Nairn Dunbar, in the North of Scotland, will co-host the Amateur Championship next year. We caught up with course manager Richard Johnstone to ask him how his team were working during the outbreak and how the coronavirus lockdown and aftermath would affect the Highland course…

What is essential maintenance looking like at Nairn Dunbar?

The health, well-being and safety of our staff, members and visitors is priority so, for now, all staff are on three weeks furlough.

We are lucky there is very little growth until mid-April in the North of Scotland and are happy with course conditions after completing a lot of work during our winter maintenance programme.

I have been in constant contact with my Club Manager and Management Committee to plan the next steps needed to implement essential maintenance, starting mid-April.

How will staffing numbers continue to be affected?

We recently had our Deputy Course Manager retire after 27 years working on the course.

An internal promotion is being carried out, giving the opportunity to one of our highly skilled assistant greenkeepers who have been excelling in their role and are ready for a new challenge.

Due to new financial restraints caused by Covid-19 we will be unable to take on anyone new, meaning we will be running with five staff through 2020 to look after our 135-acre site.

How will the course react to the new regime and how much time would you need to reinstate it when the restrictions come to an end?

Having missed out on three weeks of work, tasks will be prioritised to ensure the main surfaces are in the best possible condition given the resources available.

It will be tough but our hard-working team will do our best to ensure members and guests can continue to enjoy a first class experience.

Our enthusiastic members will also be offered the opportunity to volunteer alongside our team on the course, which will really help us complete smaller tasks through 2020.

We will also be working closely with the STRI and R&A as we look at best practice ahead of hosting The Amateur Championship, alongside Nairn GC, in 2021.

What measures will you need to take to ensure everyone stays safe?

Prior to the lockdown we had already put measures in place to make sure staff and members were as safe as possible by implementing practises such as different shift patterns to avoid similar start/finish and break times, machinery and surfaces wiped before and after use.

We also have a lone working policy in place to ensure safe working practices are followed at all times.

Golfers were asked to follow guidelines, such as 2m distancing between players, not to touch pins and hole cups were turned upside down to avoid contact with the pin.

All bins, water fountains, ball washers were stopped from use and rakes and ball scoops were removed from the course totally.

A lot of these measures will almost certainly still be in use when the course opens again until we can return to some sort of “normality”.

Being such a close-knit community club during this tough period has been a big advantage and we hope we can work through this together coming out the other side even stronger.

We do encourage, if financially possible, members and guests continue to support us and invest in the future of our 121-year-old club.

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Greenkeepers work fury

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Greenkeepers work fury: Greenkeepers at Caird Park Golf Club in Dundee are said to be fuming they are being forced to continue going in to work despite two of their colleagues testing positive for coronavirus, according to the region’s Evening Telegraph.

A report from BIGGA last week claimed that it was in their understanding that greenkeepers are able to keep “essential maintenance” of golf courses should they wish to, despite the UK lockdown for COVID-19 so that golfers would still have courses to play when the health crisis is over.

Union bosses are said to be backing the call for greenkeepers at the club to be off work due to two members of staff testing positive for COVID-19, with one other self-isolating due to having symptoms.

A decision to remove staff workers from the course is now being strongly backed by union bosses representing the club.

“Following the confirmation of the cases the remaining staff feel they shouldn’t be asked to go into work,” said Dundee branch secretary of the GMB, Jim Cunningham.

“The union is backing this call and we are demanding that our members should not have to go to work in the meantime. We have asked that the remaining workforce is currently removed from such  hazardous duties.”

He added: “We have been told that golf courses must be maintained so that when the current crisis is over they can immediately come back into use.

“However, we don’t believe that the greenkeepers and groundsman are essential staff currently. City council gardeners are not working at the moment and we don’t think our members should have to either.”

It is also claimed in the report that members of staff were not being supplied with the correct level of protective equipment with which to go about doing thejr jobs on the course.

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