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Spalding GC go into winter clear of compaction

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Spalding GC go into winter clear of compaction: A Deep Tine Aerator (DTA) from GKB Machines was delivered and put straight to work by the team at Spalding Golf Club, as part of their pre-winter maintenance programme.

Delivering impressive aeration down to 12”, the DTA 160 has already completed passes on both the greens and the fairways since its arrival in October 2022 and will be pivotal in keeping the course clear of compaction in the wetter months.

Spalding GC go into winter clear of compaction

Spalding GC go into winter clear of compaction

Head Greenkeeper Kevin Goude took charge just five months ago, and together with the greens team of five, was delighted to learn he’d inherited an order for a new GKB DTA 160 placed by his predecessor and due for delivery from local distributor Russells Groundcare. “We’ve got a pedestrian aerator in the shed which is ideal for summer work at depths of 4” but we needed something to replace an ageing machine that could penetrate much deeper to really help drainage and root growth” explains Kevin.

The GKB DTA is deep by name and deep by nature, offering easily adjustable depth and heave angle of up to 25o for effective compaction relief. At 1.6m wide, the DTA 160 at Spalding GC is well suited for tasks around the golf course – from fairways, tees and aprons to intensive aeration on the clubs 18 greens.

“We took delivery of the DTA 160 at the end of October and went out immediately on the greens, before switching to ¾” tines working at a depth of 10” on the fairways due to the dry summer. One thing we really like about the GKB aerator is the tine blocks which make switching between sets really quick and easy compared to having to replace each tine individually. There’s a whole range of tine options available with this machine as well so we can really make the most of it with operations throughout the maintenance calendar.”

“Alongside the tine system, another thing we’ve been particularly impressed with is the build quality of the DTA – well engineered and robust to handle some of the more challenging ground conditions we have on the fairways.” Kevin concludes, “Beside the machine itself, the support and back-up service we’ve had from Russell’s Groundcare and Tom Shinkins at GKB has also been excellent. We can now look to aerate deeper as we go into winter and be best placed to cope with whatever the weather can throw at us!”

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Planting of a new ‘community woodland’

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Planting of a new ‘community woodland’: Leading international exhibition for sports turf professionals helps create wildlife habitat at Harrogate Golf Club with the planting of a new ‘community woodland’

Staff from the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association joined the greenkeepers and members at Harrogate Golf Club recently to plant a ‘community woodland’, comprising more than 200 trees donated by exhibitors at the upcoming BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition (BTME).

Planting of a new ‘community woodland’

Planting of a new ‘community woodland’

BTME is due to take place at the Harrogate Convention Centre from 24 to 26 January and is recognised as among the most influential events on the UK golfing calendar, with more than 5,000 golf greenkeepers and turf professionals in attendance.

High on the agenda each year is sustainability and the increasing importance of environmentally friendly practices on golf courses, particularly with the annual Golf Environment Awards taking place in Harrogate concurrent to the trade show.

Overall, British golf courses cover an area roughly equivalent to the whole of Greater Manchester and provide wide-ranging habitats including wetlands, wildflower areas and woodland. Countless forward-thinking golf clubs around the UK are now undertaking activities that boost their environmental credentials and the team at BIGGA, as the UK’s only membership association for golf greenkeepers, wanted to do their bit.

When booking their spot at the 2023 exhibition, supporting companies were invited to ‘Plant a Tree for BTME’ and it is hoped that over the years sufficient trees will be planted to create a network of ‘BTME community woodlands’ around the UK, with Harrogate Golf Club the first to participate in the scheme.

BIGGA is extremely grateful to those exhibitors who have participated in the scheme, with Reesink UK purchasing 100 trees, Aquatrols purchasing 50 and The FairWays Foundation purchasing 20. Other contributors included: Advance Grass Solutions; Bernhard and Company; Campey Turf Care Systems; COMPO Expert; East Riding Turfcare; EVEN Products; GreenBest/Velvit; LFP Civil & Environmental Engineering; Redlynch Leisure; Shelton Sportsturf Drainage; and The Double A Trading Company.

James Hutchinson is Membership Services Manager – Ecology & Sustainability at BIGGA and is considered one of the UK’s leading authorities on golf course ecology. James said: “Plant a Tree for BTME is a wonderful scheme and I’m delighted that so many exhibitors purchased saplings, which we have planted at Harrogate Golf Club. This is such a brilliant idea because trees sequestrate carbon in the soil, meaning we are able to offset some of the carbon that is generated at BTME.

“Not only that, but trees create wonderful habitats for the great British wildlife. Golf clubs are often overlooked by the general public, but they provide priceless habitats for countless species, often forming safe zones for wildlife to thrive in urban areas. Harrogate Golf Club is a fantastic example and the addition of these silver birch, downy birch, rowan and cherry trees will create outstanding habitats for years to come.”

Ken Ward is Head Greenkeeper at Harrogate Golf Club and said: “I was thrilled when James asked us if we would like to take part in the Plant a Tree for BTME scheme. We are very much about ecology and sustainability at Harrogate GC and creating new wildlife habitat by planting trees is very much in line with the ethos of the club.

“Harrogate Golf Club is hugely appreciative of BIGGA and all the exhibitors who contributed to this scheme as it is such a worthwhile cause, not only for us but also for our kids, grandchildren and future generations.”

Lauren Frazer, Head of Business Development at BIGGA, said: “We’re committed to making Plant a Tree for BTME a fixture on the BTME calendar and I’m hopeful that next year we’ll be planting even more trees at another brilliant golf club and once again highlighting the vital work golf greenkeepers do to support the wider environment.

“Thank you to all of those who contributed to this wonderful scheme and I’m really looking to seeing all our exhibitors and the attendees at BTME in just a few short weeks.”

For more information about BTME 2023, head to www.btme.org.uk

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Aspen fuels a cleaner way of working

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Aspen fuels a cleaner way of working: As one of the largest associations of its kind, Orwell Housing provides housing for more than 7,500 residents by managing over 4000 properties across East Anglia.

Powering the maintenance services, as well as helping to lower the associations carbon footprint, is 2 and 4-stroke petrol from Aspen Fuel – a switch made by Repairs and Estates Manager Simon Bennett three years ago, and one that’s delivering improvements on a daily basis to the workforce, the residents and the machinery alike.

Aspen fuels a cleaner way of working

Aspen fuels a cleaner way of working

Simon manages all elements of the direct labour operations (DLO) from co-ordinating the 75-strong workforce to sourcing and purchasing equipment across the repairs and estates division. “We renew our machinery every three years” explains Simon, who has been with Orwell Housing for ten years. “To help us with our objective or carbon neutrality, some of what we now invest in is battery powered but, with the diversity of items like mowers and woodchippers that we have on our fleet, for these we’re looking at better and cleaner ways of fuelling them and that’s where Aspen comes in.”

“I was familiar with Aspen Fuel but always just assumed it would be much more expensive for us than pump fuel. It wasn’t until I sat down and did a cost analysis, factoring in the downtime of the team going backwards and forwards to the forecourt, that I could demonstrate Aspen was a viable choice.” Being ethanol-free and virtually free from sulphur, benzene and other hazardous hydrocarbons, Aspen alkylate petrol burns cleaner than regular petrol making it safer and greener for operators, machinery and the environment.

“The operators like using it – they notice the reduction in noxious fumes and don’t go home smelling of petrol come the end of the day. This is also a major plus for those tasks where we’re in close proximity to the residents.” He continues, “Three years in, we’re also seeing a big reduction in the number of machinery breakdowns we’re experiencing with is a further cost saving.”

Overall, Simon feels the whole Aspen experience has been really positive for the group. “We order Aspen in bulk, with the cans being collected by the team as and when they need them. This way, we can easily monitor usage and, with the plastic containers being fully recyclable, we are also reducing our output to landfill. I’ve recently done another cost analysis, which has shown that purchasing Aspen has actually decreased our annual fuel bill by approximately 10-15%.”

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Four acres of Capillary Bunkers at Sagamore

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Four acres of Capillary Bunkers at Sagamore: Founded in 2004, the Sagamore Club to the north of Indianapolis has a lot of bunker sand. In fact, according to superintendent Dan Grogan, who has been with the club since 2006, it has a total of four acres of formal bunkers, with high-sand flashed faces into the bargain.

It isn’t surprising, then, that bunker maintenance has always been a big job at Sagamore. “When the course was built, there was a liner installed under the original sand, but as the bunkers were repeatedly edged, more and more soil was exposed around them and the sand got more and more contaminated,” says Grogan. “Inevitably, it took us a long time to get the bunkers back into condition after severe rain – we had to pump them out, which took a lot of time and a huge amount of labour. We had to do something about it.”

Four acres of Capillary Bunkers at Sagamore

Four acres of Capillary Bunkers at Sagamore

Grogan started looking at the best options available to line his bunkers. After research, he concluded that the Capillary Bunkers solution seemed best for Sagamore’s needs. “I started doing some homework and talking to other superintendents about bunker liner technology, and I realised that Capillary Bunkers had one key advantage for us over competing products – we could install it ourselves,” he says. “So, in 2016, we did so on an initial test bunker. We picked one that washed out regularly and didn’t drain too well, and we were very pleased with the results. Based on that, we started an in-house bunker update project, picking off the bunkers one by one.”

This went on for a while. “Eventually, we had done more than fifty bunkers in-house – more than two and a half acres of them,” he says. “There was only one greenside bunker left, but it was an enormous one, more than 20,000 square feet. I realised it was time to bring in the cavalry!”

The cavalry, in this case, was a crew from contractor Landscapes Unlimited, which owned Sagamore at the time. “They mobilised on site in September 2018 and were onsite for two and a half months to complete the remaining bunkers,” says Grogan.

Four years on, Dan Grogan is still extremely happy with his decision. “We are delighted with our bunkers,” he says. “Sometimes we get a huge rain event, and there’s a tiny bit of contamination, but it isn’t anything we can’t easily deal with, and apart from that, there’s nothing. Before we installed the Capillary Bunkers liner, if we had an inch of rain, half of our bunkers would need to be pumped out. Maybe a third of them would be back in play the first day after the rain. Now, we are fully back up and running by lunchtime on the first day. This fall, we had six and a half inches of rain in eighteen hours. There were definitely some washouts – we have steep faces that are eight to ten feet high – but we were back to normal in two days. That would have been an impossible dream beforehand.”

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Finalists of GEA awards announced

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Finalists of GEA awards announced: Since STRI Group launched the Golf Environment Awards (GEAs) in 1995, the aim has been to recognise, reward and promote outstanding individuals and golf courses, no matter how big or small, for the time and effort they put into protecting and preserving their unique surroundings.

With the ever-increasing spotlight on environmental matters, it is fundamentally important for golf courses worldwide to assess what they can do to achieve environmental sustainability, protecting and encouraging habitats and biodiversity, while continuing to maximise the enjoyment of golf.

Finalists of GEA awards announced

Finalists of GEA awards announced

Following a recent judging day, the finalists and winners for the GEAs were decided. The judging panel were given a list of anonymous applications and an accompanying list of positive environmental practices from the clubs, which were then given a numerical score across a range of categories. The judges were representatives from STRI Ltd, The R&A, Aquatrols, BIGGA, Syngenta, Tillers Turf, and Textron.

The categories, criteria and finalists are as follows:

Operation Pollinator Award

Golf clubs who consistently deliver outstanding ecological habitat creation and management for pollinators.

  • Huntercombe
  • Goring and Streatley
  • Corhampton
  • Bamburgh Castle

Ecological Project of the Year

Golf clubs who have implemented a successful ecological project, with clear objectives and targets that contribute to a better environment, and are making sound progress in fulfilling the goals of the project.

  • Cirencester
  • Clitheroe
  • Pannal
  • Andrews

Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year

Outstanding individuals who make significant contributions to the success of environmental and ecological management making a positive impact on the surrounding landscape and biodiversity.

  • Garmouth and Kingston
  • Newquay
  • Sleaford
  • Warren (Devon)

Sustainable Project of the Year

Golf clubs who have implemented a successful sustainable project with clear objectives and targets that contribute to a more sustainable environment.

  • Hever Castle
  • Pannal
  • Royal Mid-Surrey
  • Andrews

International Environmental Golf Course

Golf clubs outside of the UK that brilliantly demonstrate efficient management across nature conservation, turfgrass, waste and water.

  • AFRIYEA (Uganda)
  • Al Mouj (Oman)
  • Finca Cortesin (Spain)
  • Sentosa (Singapore)

UK Environmental Golf Course of the Year

Golf clubs in the UK that are leading the way in sustainability across nature conservation, turfgrass, waste and water.

  • Anne’s Old Links
  • Nairn Dunbar
  • Gog Magog
  • Elmwood

The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Harrogate on 25 January 2023. All winners are rewarded with a grant to help fund further ecological and environmental projects at their clubs and entry to the Foundation Award in Amenity Horticulture Course.

Entry to the awards is completely free with the aim of encouraging every eco-conscious golf club to have their efforts rewarded, and also to educate the industry on simple practices that can have a hugely positive impact.

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