Getting stronger over time

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Getting stronger over time: For almost any product, there is an environment that provides its toughest test. If you’re making extreme winter clothing, and you get asked to supply your gear to McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, you’ll know it is going to get the best possible test.

Similarly if you sell bunker liners and you get asked to supply The Preserve GC, in Vancleave in southern Missssippi.

Getting stronger over time

Getting stronger over time

Designed by Jerry Pate and opened in 2005, The Preserve is attached to the Palace Casino Resort in nearby Biloxi. According to director of operations Stephen Miles, the course does 13,000 rounds in an average year, though the post-Covid golf boom means 2021 has been significantly busier. And, let us not beat about the bush: this part of the Gulf coast is the wettest location in the whole of the continental United States, averaging almost 70 inches (1780mm) of rain a year. And 2021 has been wetter still than that: club meteorlogist Jeremy Steven reports that the figure for this year is very close to 100 inches (2,540mm).

Fortunately for Miles and his team, back in 2014, The Preserve chose to rebuild its bunkers and line them with Capillary Bunkers technology. “Nine years after opening is not a long time to have to renovate, but the infrastructure in the original build of the course was simply not up to coping with our weather,” he says. “The bunkers were originally lined with fabric, but it was wearing out, and we needed a more resilient solution. I knew that concrete had the tendency to get stronger over time, and Capillary Bunkers was less restrictive in the conditions needed for installation than its closest rival. I was confident at the time that we had made the right choice and installed a product that would stand the test of time. And time has proved we made the right choice!”

“We have not had to repair our bunkers at all, and, incredibly, the original sand is still in them,” Miles says. “Since 2014, I have bought one truckload of sand, and that was for the bunker in our chipping green – which gets blasted out by players. Our bunkers have flashed sand faces, but our minimal washout issues only occur where water actually flows into the bunkers. When we get a big rain – and eight to ten inches of rain is not uncommon – we have to wait for the drainage infrastructure underneath the bunkers to catch up with the bunkers’ ability to move water. But it always does, and then the crew can prepare the bunkers for play again.”

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Change, change and more change

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Change, change and more change: For virtually all businesses this is a time of major change and challenge and not least in the world of amenity management. Steeply rising input prices, continual change to the restrictions imposed because of COVID, major economic pressure on both users and providers – the list goes on. Yet despite this, the need to keep our amenity and sports surfaces fit for purpose, healthy and sustainable as never been more important.

In terms of weed, pest and disease management, significant policy change is afoot. With our withdrawal from the EU, new regulations are emerging regarding the approval and use of plant protection products. In addition a new UK National Action Plan is to be issued setting out the requirements going forward. We already know that this will have a major focus on integrated management approaches and greater enforcement and standards. Then there has been the implementation of the Official Controls (Plant Protection Products) Regulations 2020 (OCR). This has already legally required all suppliers of plant protection products (PPPs) to register their locations and stock carried. From June 2022, such a legal responsibility will also apply to all users of PPPs backed up by increased inspection and enforcement.

Change, change and more change

Change, change and more change

Early in 2022, the Amenity Forum is holding a series of Updating Events across the UK to address such policy issues and their implications along with presentations on all other topical matters and issues impacting upon amenity management. It is vital that all involved in such activity keep fully updated and these events provide an excellent way of doing so. The programmes will also include presentations and demonstrations from host organisations as well as chance to network with fellow professionals.

Professor John Moverley, Chairman of the Amenity Forum, said ‘’Our free Updating Events are always popular but in 2022 take on even greater significance with all the changes impacting upon the sector’’

Whilst free events, pre-registration is needed by contacting Kate at admin@amenityforum.net . As some locations have restricted places, early registration is recommended. Full programme information is available from Kate at the same email. The locations and dates are as follows:

ENGLAND

Knaresborough, Yorkshire                           9th February
Manchester City FC                                         24th February
Leicester City FC                                               25th February
London                                                                 9th March
Throws Farm, Essex                                        17th March         

NORTHERN IRELAND

Belfast                                                                  23rd March                                         

SCOTLAND

Edinburgh                                                           4th March                                            

WALES

Cardiff                                                                  16th February

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Capillary Bunkers project at Marienburger

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Capillary Bunkers project at Marienburger: Germany’s largest Capillary Bunkers installation so far has just been completed at the Marienburger Golf Club in Cologne, by architect Christian Althaus and contractor Sommerfeld.

Founded as Cologne Golf Club in 1906, the club moved to its current site in Marienburg in 1909. The construction of an autobahn (motorway) to Aachen in the thirties saw the course reduced to nine holes, which it has remained ever since. The club called in architect Althaus to advise on course improvements several years ago, and in 2021, the upgrade project got underway, incoporating the reconstruction of all nine greens – which were not properly drained – as well as bunkers, and the regrading of fairways to provide better drainage and more interest.

Capillary Bunkers project at Marienburger

Capillary Bunkers project at Marienburger

“The course is within a kilometre of the Rhine River, and is thus partially sandy, but even so it was clear that we needed a bunker liner,” says Althaus. “Even on the parts of the site that have a sand base, the steep faces of the bunkers would erode quite badly without it, and also the sand of the sub-base and the bunker sand would intermingle and contaminate the bunkers.”

Althaus considered various liner options, but was led to select Capillary Bunkers on environmental grounds. “We considered various liner options, but I knew I needed a very strong and stable liner on environmental ground, which led us to choose Capillary Bunkers,” he explains. “The strength and neutrality of the Capillary Bunkers product made it the right choice.”

Construction work is complete, and the project is growing in – the course will reopen in spring 2022.

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Toro selected as a founding partner

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Toro selected as a founding partner: The R&A has named The Toro Company as a Founding Partner and Official Golf Course Maintenance Partner for its planned community golf facility at Lethamhill in Glasgow, Scotland. The development aims to make golf more accessible, appealing and inclusive for people of all ages and backgrounds by creating an open and affordable pathway into golf that helps drive the future of the sport.

At the heart of facility, The R&A is committed to showcasing the gold standard in golf course maintenance, turf care, equipment innovation and development. To that end, they have selected Toro to join them in the development and fulfilment of their mission.

Toro selected as a founding partner

Toro selected as a founding partner

As part of this role, Toro will be the exclusive supplier of all course maintenance equipment to the new facility. Development is now underway for this new family-focused venue, which is to include a nine-hole course, putting greens, short game area, adventure golf and a driving range for visitors to enjoy a wide range of golf activities, including shorter forms of the sport.

In addition to providing an equipment fleet and irrigation products to the facility, Toro will have the first option to partner with The R&A on potential future developments. Toro also plans to provide a grant to be used toward the development of a greenkeeper apprenticeship, as well as for efforts that promote the global development of the game of golf.

“We are delighted to become a Founding Partner of this unique project,” said Peter Moeller, vice president of international at The Toro Company. “The R&A’s commitment to developing the game of golf and making it accessible to the broadest possible community is very much in line with Toro’s own mission and objectives. It is both humbling and exciting to see Toro’s equipment and irrigation solutions advance The R&A’s sustainability efforts, and we look forward to helping its team bring plans for the new facility to reality.”

Martin Slumbers, Chief Executive of The R&A, said, “Toro has a world-renowned reputation as a supplier of high-quality equipment and solutions for golf course maintenance and so was a natural choice for us in selecting a partner for the new facility. We look forward to working alongside them in the development of the new venue and providing golfers with excellent facilities so that they can fully enjoy playing the sport in a variety of formats with family and friends.”

For more information about The R&A and its initiatives, please visit randa.org. Toro’s full line of equipment and irrigation products for golf courses can be found at toro.com.

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Home from home for Terrain Aeration

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Home from home for Terrain Aeration: The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) is an independent social change organisation working to solve UK poverty. The founder, Joseph Rowntree, of the famous York sweet manufacturing family, was a visionary Quaker businessman and social reformer.

The origins of the organisation’s financial resources lie in a major donation of shares in the original Rowntree Company he gifted in 1904. In the same year, Joseph’s son, Seebohm made available fields behind his Homestead House to children attending York Elementary Schools for outdoor activities. Today, at just under 15-acres, Homestead Park is a beautiful garden owned, managed and maintained by JRF for visitors to enjoy. There are various tree-trail walks around the park and the heavy footfall over time has led to severe compaction and waterlogging, causing the trees to suffer.

Home from home for Terrain Aeration

Home from home for Terrain Aeration

“The areas had never been aerated,” says Senior Gardener Paul Sarginson, “and we were finding the semi-mature cherry trees, around a hundred of them, as well as the mature chestnut and mature oak trees were becoming distressed. Terrain Aeration were recommended to us for their deep aeration treatment and they came to us for two half-days in October to do the work.”

Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division, headed by David Churchyard, has been formed out of the company’s work over twenty-five years of treating trees in all types of situation, from back gardens to large estates right through to Royal Parks. Trees may become stressed as a result of a number of factors such as nutrient shortages in the soil, surface compaction due to foot traffic and waterlogging where water drains off hard surface pathways.

The Terrain Aeration Terralift machines comprise a probe which reaches one metre depth, deeper than the roots of trees (other than the major tap roots which grow straight down). Breaking up the soil around the roots, and beyond, means that excess water will drain away from the roots to help stop anaerobic conditions and rotting of the root system. The probe is then used to inject dried seaweed, which helps keep the fissures open and backfilling the probe holes with aggregate provides a semi permanent aeration/ventilation shaft. Terrain Aeration aerates around the roots using two-metre spacings – on most occasions one-metre inside and one-metre outside the canopy drip line, as this is where the growing roots lie.

Decompacting around the roots and injecting air into the soil increases the percentage of uptake of oxygen into the root system. Using the Terralift’s ability to inject granular material via its seaweed carrier, forcing it upwards into the root zone of the trees, it is also possible to inject a tree feed mix containing slow release general nutrients and magnesium.

“Treatment of the main lawn areas this year was part of JRF’s management plan,” says Paul, “the Terrain Aeration lads who came were great and the plan from here is to have them back every year for a rolling programme of treatment.”

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