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St Andrews Unveil New Short Game Area

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St Andrews Unveil New Short Game Area: A major revamp of the short game facility at the St Andrews Links Golf Academy is almost complete.

The project, which aims to further enhance the facilities at the Home of Golf, has seen the golf and greenkeeping team at the Links work closely with award-winning Golf Course Architecture firm Mackenzie and Ebert.

St Andrews Unveil New Short Game Area

The work began at the end of October and with the project nearing completion, excitement is now building for March 2019 when the area will open for golfers to enjoy.

Director of Golf John Grant said: “We are very passionate about our work and being able to offer golfers great practice facilities where they can work on improving their game. In recent years we felt the short game area didn’t offer enough variety or replicate the conditions and types of shots golfers experience across the seven courses at the Links.

“We were delighted to be able to work with Martin and the team at Mackenzie and Ebert and believe we have been able to redesign the site and create something that reflects the world class quality of our courses and facilities, enhancing the services we currently offer at the Golf Academy and improving the overall experience.”

Renowned Golf Course Architect Martin Ebert added: “It has been very fulfilling to have contributed to the Short Game Area at St Andrews Links. The beautiful undulations which are present throughout all of the courses at St Andrews have served as the best possible inspiration for the design and shaping of the greens and surrounds which have been created.

“Formerly, the large flat green with the five bunkers on one side was disappointing in terms of the short game shots on offer. This has been replaced with four new greens, three of which have been raised and shaped to replicate shots which might be found around the greens on the courses at St Andrews. The fourth green has been kept at ground level to allow pitch and run shots and flat putts from off the green to be practised and the five bunkers have been shaped and located in positions to allow all different types of bunker shots to be practised.”

With the Old Course regularly hosting Major events, including the 150th Open in 2021, the design also took into account the infrastructure requirements, retaining some flat areas to accommodate a grandstand as well as ensuring an existing putting green – Harry Colt’s wonderful old 2nd green of the Eden Course – remains an integral part of the short game area.

Work began in October 2018 with Director of Instruction Steve North, Eden, Strathtyrum and Balgove Course Manager Kevin Muir and his greenkeeping team working closely with Mackenzie and Ebert throughout all aspects of the project.

The new design has also freed up some additional space, which will be utilised to increase parking provision to cater for the increasing number of golfers visiting the Eden Clubhouse and Golf Academy all-year round.

Elsewhere on the Links, winter projects are continuing apace, including the creation of a permanent catering facility at the rear of the 9th green of the Old Course.

Previously a mobile catering unit has serviced the needs of golfers on both the Old and New Courses, however renovation work has now begun to extend the footprint of the toilet block and shelter to include a dedicated catering facility.

Director of Operations Ewen Bowman said: “We have long held ambitions to find a more permanent catering solution, both for our staff and golfers, as we strive to deliver a five-star experience.

“The new Halfway House will enable us to provide a great facility for golfers to pick up a selection of fresh snacks and refreshments before taking on the challenge of the back 9.”

Finally, work will continue over the winter to improve access routes around the Old Course with a new road routing taking shape between the Old and New Courses. This work has involved moving an existing track several yards away from golf as well as creating better screening to ensure the safety of golfers and staff.

The road, which is predominantly used by greenkeeping team and golfer’s assistants will be completed in the new year with tarmac treatment whilst the former track will be backfilled and turfed.

To keep up to date with all the latest news at the Home of Golf visit standrews.com for regular updates, blogs and insight into these winter projects and many more.

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New Greenkeeping Director At St Andrews

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New Greenkeeping Director At St Andrews: Sandy Reid has been appointed as the new director of greenkeeping at St Andrews Links. Sandy’s new role at the course, known as the ‘Home of Golf’, is one of the most prestigious roles in golf course management in the world.

An experienced figure in the greenkeeping industry, Reid will make the move from Carnoustie Golf Links where he has worked as links superintendent since 2012.

St Andrews Links chief executive Euan Loudon said: “We are delighted to welcome Sandy to the Home of Golf. He has an outstanding track record at Carnoustie Golf Links, as evidenced by the wonderful condition of the Championship Course for the 147th Open Championship this summer.

“Sandy has a great deal of experience of operating within a multi-faceted golf venue such as ours and shares our commitment to delivering unique and memorable experiences to every golfer. He is passionate about the game of golf and is committed to delivering the highest quality results in golf course maintenance and improvements to all our courses, operations and staff.”

Reid originally hails from Blair Atholl and trained at Elmwood College in Fife before starting his career at Letham Grange. He joined Carnoustie Golf Links in 1997, becoming head greenkeeper of the Championship Course in 2005.

Mr Reid said: “I am extremely honoured and excited to be joining the hard working and dedicated team at the Home of Golf.

“St Andrews Links is the pre-eminent public golf complex in the world and I hope to play a small part in ensuring that it continues to deliver excellence to all golfers and visitors who come to the Home of Golf.”

Over the last decade St Andrews Links has continued to make major investments in its facilities and services. In addition to maintaining seven public courses, St Andrews Links is now home to three clubhouses, five shops and the Golf Academy. It employs just over 400 people in the high season with almost 230,000 rounds of golf played on the six 18-hole courses in 2017.

Reid’s appointment arose following the retirement of incumbent Gordon Moir, who has worked at the venue for more than 26 years and began his tenure as director of greenkeeping in 2000. Reid will take up his new role in December – the same month that Moir will formally retire.

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

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Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC: At more than 100 years old, Kent’s St Augustine’s Golf Club has changed a lot over the last century and is now far from the grazing land that once occupied its 60 acre site. However, the pop-up greens, on original clay soil, used to cause Head Greenkeeper Gary Kennington and his team a headache when it came to topdressing and drainage. That was until the club discovered the benefits of the Graden Contour Sand Injection (CSI) unit, which has helped to improve water dispersal and greens speed, all with minimum surface disruption.

“Though we’re not strictly a links course, as there’s a road between the club and the Kent coast, we do still have to deal with the climatic challenges our location brings” explains Gary. “One year in particular, going back now 7 years, the weather meant the usual tactic of tining and topdressing wasn’t getting sand down into the greens as well as the team hoped.  At the time the Graden CSI was a relatively new concept in the UK so we hired a unit and quickly realised that it could really help.”

Graden CSI Helps St Augustine’s GC

The Graden CSI is a 3-in-1 verti-cutter with the ability to aerate, scarify and remove thatch to any depth between 1mm-40mm, whilst simultaneously backfilling the grooves with either sand or a combination of sand and seed. Its ability to conduct multiple jobs in one pass reduces play downtime without causing any detrimental effect to the firmness of the ground. “With this CSI you’re getting the sand into the green, rather the putting it on the top, allowing you to get greens back into play in as little as half an hour.”

Gary and his team now use the CSI on all 18 greens twice a year and continue to see marked improvements. “From the very first use we reduced the thatch content of the greens and worked the sand down into the soil profile which helped with drainage and greens speed. With it being a pedestrian unit, we have great manoeuvrability and it means we can still go out and use it in conditions that may not always be ideal. Should we need that little extra advice or support we now have John Fitzpatrick of Charterhouse Turf Machinery who is great to have at the end of the phone.”

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Irrigation At St Andrews

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Irrigation At St Andrews: The Castle Course at St Andrews Links is benefitting from an upgrade of Toro irrigation. Switching from Toro Site Pro to Lynx GAC software and from Flex to Infinity sprinklers, the upgrade brings the most modern technology available on the market to this majestic clifftop golf course.

Forming the first irrigation deal since the Home of Golf reached a long-term agreement with The Toro Company to ensure Toro equipment and irrigation will maintain the seven courses for many years to come, Director of Greenkeeping Gordon Moir says: “The Site Pro system has served us well for many years, although we did suffer a severe lightning storm on one particular occasion, which over time has caused decoder failures. It was also time to extend and enlarge the pipework for an increase in flow, so the timing was right on all fronts. It was an easy decision to choose Lynx from the Toro range. It’s the newest system on the market and its features will make life easier from an operational point of view.”

Irrigation At St Andrews

Course manager Jon Wood confirms: “Many features stand out with the Lynx software, but especially the mapping and testing capabilities. From behind the desk you can narrow down the problems quickly, so by the time you go out on the course you have a pretty comprehensive idea of what the issue might be. Plus, there’s no need for endless sheets of paper, the mapping feature gives you all the site info you need on screen.

“While the software will make a big difference to how we run the irrigation on The Castle Course, making the biggest difference are the Infinity sprinklers. The ground here is different to the other six courses in that it’s more soil with a little bit of sand rather than sand-based and that makes it much tougher going when digging up sprinklers for maintenance and repairs. To know that we don’t have to do that anymore thanks to the fact that they are accessible from the top is fantastic for the team.”

As well as extending and enlarging the pipework, the opportunity was also taken to audit the site and make water savings where possible. That’s why the decision was made to break up some of the pairs of sprinklers running down the fairways, as Jon explains: “Out of the 300-400 pairs of sprinklers we have on the course we have split 100 for more effective water consumption. This will prevent over-watering the same area or areas we don’t need to water.”

The next step in the irrigation upgrade is to move to Toro B-series sprinklers on the tees over winter 2018. This will make all the sprinklers on the course interchangeable so the Trust won’t need to hold as much spare stock.

Jon concludes: “We were in America at the Toro headquarters earlier this year and we were talking about upcoming irrigation developments and basically the future is interchangeable. With this combination of Infinity and B-series sprinklers we’re not only taking the irrigation on The Castle Course to where it needs to be now, but we’re making it future proof, too. From now on, we’ll be able to leave the externals and just change out the internals such as the nozzles when required.”

And this progressive approach and attitude toward sustainability validates the reasons why St Andrews Link Trust entered into the long-term partnership with Toro this time last year. Not only was it felt that Toro was the best choice to maintain the playing conditions required now, but also gave the best fit for the club’s vision for the future, which is nicely illustrated here.

For more information, visit: reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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