Courses Convener Update
25th June 2021
By necessity, this message is longer than my first as its important members are aware of much of this, so far as they choose to be, as it all helps us feel valued and informed on the club’s aspirations and we hope helps improve your membership of Newmachar and be part of shaping the future of it. I want to start with our greenkeepers.
We have got highly motivated and trained staff on our green’s teams. They all routinely work long hours to deliver above and beyond, never more challenging than this year with Winter damage and late growth.
For those not aware our teams work 45hr weeks at this time of year and 35hr weeks out with the golfing season. Coupled with weekend coverage alternate weeks to prepare for competition it really is a demanding role in all weathers.
The most limiting factor on the courses has been the diminished numbers on our green’s teams. If you read the STRI report from 2018 it identified 11 greens staff were employed at that time. We have clearly gone through significant financial challenge since then and we continue to strive to meet our obligations there while delivering on the whole experience.
Our greens team has shrunk in number since then and we have lost three since 2018 due to financial constraints while trying to deliver Golf Gets Better at Newmachar on the courses. The teams support each other routinely so are not working independently. All of this is a challenge, to say the least, but these decisions were made by necessity for the financial survival of the club at the time. This was the core of my input to the most recent Management Committee meeting on 24th June.
The position was that we urgently require to support our greens teams, with more capacity, to deliver on the courses while we continue to meet our financial obligations.
I am delighted to report that this proposition was unanimously supported at the meeting and budget approved for the hire of a further apprentice and two seasonal labourers as soon as possible.
I know this will be welcomed by everyone not least of all our greenkeepers. It will better enable them to manage more than they presently can including some areas of recurring complaints.
The most common area for complaint over the last few years remains challenging growth in the grasses in the rough and around bunkers.
For context to Flymo and strim all the bunkers on one course and remove cuttings requires two days’ work by two people, every two weeks. You will see how labour intensive this is on each course and why with everything else that requires done to enable play this and rough management tends to be challenging to fully achieve to the frequency required with current staffing.
Please continue to support our greatest asset in our people out working on the courses who are so essential to every club. Repair divots and pitch marks, rake bunkers and place litter in bins.
I now want to turn to a few matters on the courses.
SWAILEND 4th HOLE MARKER
This marker was placed many years ago to identify a line for lay up from the tee. Given equipment advances this marker will be moved to the right to align with a tee shot to the centre front of the green entrance. Those seeking a lay-up line should aim to the left side of the marker while longer hitters may line up on the marker. As always please wait for the bell before hitting tee shots.
TREE MANAGEMENT
Contractors are due to return to Newmachar in August (harder ground to minimise vehicle damage) to complete the work begun last Winter on tree removal.
On Swailend this will be concentrating on all areas of the course where the trees are very closely spaced and have not been thinned through maturing. This will allow the trees remaining to mature further and give the course a more established and mature look in future.
On Hawkshill the work will be on the front 9 holes mainly, due to the nature of the work and its proximity to play this is more of a logistical task, this will be managed as best as possible to avoid competition etc. Trees already identified by a survey for removal around the car parks and clubhouses for H&S and insurance purposes will be the last stage.
This is all being done to improve playing surfaces and health of the courses aligned to the STRI recommendations.
The tree at 13 Hawkshill on the left of fairway is dead and will be removed at this time. This is an iconic tree at the club, but its condition is increasingly dangerous to staff and members and risk will only increase with the passage of time. I know many will rue its removal. We simply cannot ignore the risk, however.
Replacement of that tree would be best done with a mature tree, but this is prohibitively expensive for now, even to move an existing tree from our stock.
The area will return to grass initially, at least, and the playability of the hole can be seen over time. The existing tree makes an already challenging hole more difficult and can punish a good shot so the hole may be more playable by many especially those whose ball flight cannot clear it currently. The replacement of this tree however will remain under consideration.
BUNKERS
During course walks with Paul Mills, and the head greenkeepers, we discussed the areas of long grass prevalent around several bunkers. As stated earlier the standard we seek for this area (subject to consultation on Course Management Policy with members) is for the grasses to be maintained to allow the bunkers to gather balls as designed rather than leave a harder, often very difficult, shot from thick grass on a gathering slope. Again, we can only fully achieve this with additional green staff, but it is important members know what we aspire to and why this remains challenging just now. This should be achievable once the recruitment detailed above is in place.
ROUGH
Like bunkers there are considerable areas where the rough on both courses is extremely penal. As stated by Jim Grant in February 2021 we aspire to keep these areas at a more manageable length. Again, capacity means this is challenging to achieve but again this is the direction we are aiming for as we add capacity.
The original planning application and Course Management Plan refers to 14 areas on Hawkshill that should be treated as “rough areas” and “should be left”. These areas are well away from usual play where you might expect to lose a ball so should rarely impact play.
The areas of concern are generally in play and may also commonly be in trees. Here the 1998 Course Management Plan is clear that these areas should be “kept at a height determined by golfing requirements”.
It is important we support the greens team to deliver these plans and that members are clear on what we want to achieve at our courses.
A deliverable reduction in rough height will lead to less ball searching, play speeding up and most importantly a more enjoyable membership experience on the course.
As in 2020 you will shortly see a large quantity of this penal rough removed as contractors have again been approved to carry this out.
There is an excellent post on the “Newmachar GC Course Maintenance” Facebook page from 2020 which explains this in detail. The same process is about to be repeated however with continued member support we hope to maintain staff numbers and not see such penal rough prevail in the future.
If you have managed to get to this point you will be glad to know that’s it from me for now. The Management Committee share the aspirations of the staff and members to improve our courses presentation and I will continue to inform you as best as I can around what is happening.
The hiring of additional staff to our greens teams is only possible due to the continuing support of members and the positive direction of travel for our courses will be more visible in the coming months and years if that support is maintained. I can only thank you for it.
Please get in touch if you have any feedback on anything I have covered, or not covered.
Stay safe.
David Forsyth
(Management Committee Courses)
We have got highly motivated and trained staff on our green’s teams. They all routinely work long hours to deliver above and beyond, never more challenging than this year with Winter damage and late growth.
For those not aware our teams work 45hr weeks at this time of year and 35hr weeks out with the golfing season. Coupled with weekend coverage alternate weeks to prepare for competition it really is a demanding role in all weathers.
The most limiting factor on the courses has been the diminished numbers on our green’s teams. If you read the STRI report from 2018 it identified 11 greens staff were employed at that time. We have clearly gone through significant financial challenge since then and we continue to strive to meet our obligations there while delivering on the whole experience.
Our greens team has shrunk in number since then and we have lost three since 2018 due to financial constraints while trying to deliver Golf Gets Better at Newmachar on the courses. The teams support each other routinely so are not working independently. All of this is a challenge, to say the least, but these decisions were made by necessity for the financial survival of the club at the time. This was the core of my input to the most recent Management Committee meeting on 24th June.
The position was that we urgently require to support our greens teams, with more capacity, to deliver on the courses while we continue to meet our financial obligations.
I am delighted to report that this proposition was unanimously supported at the meeting and budget approved for the hire of a further apprentice and two seasonal labourers as soon as possible.
I know this will be welcomed by everyone not least of all our greenkeepers. It will better enable them to manage more than they presently can including some areas of recurring complaints.
The most common area for complaint over the last few years remains challenging growth in the grasses in the rough and around bunkers.
For context to Flymo and strim all the bunkers on one course and remove cuttings requires two days’ work by two people, every two weeks. You will see how labour intensive this is on each course and why with everything else that requires done to enable play this and rough management tends to be challenging to fully achieve to the frequency required with current staffing.
Please continue to support our greatest asset in our people out working on the courses who are so essential to every club. Repair divots and pitch marks, rake bunkers and place litter in bins.
I now want to turn to a few matters on the courses.
SWAILEND 4th HOLE MARKER
This marker was placed many years ago to identify a line for lay up from the tee. Given equipment advances this marker will be moved to the right to align with a tee shot to the centre front of the green entrance. Those seeking a lay-up line should aim to the left side of the marker while longer hitters may line up on the marker. As always please wait for the bell before hitting tee shots.
TREE MANAGEMENT
Contractors are due to return to Newmachar in August (harder ground to minimise vehicle damage) to complete the work begun last Winter on tree removal.
On Swailend this will be concentrating on all areas of the course where the trees are very closely spaced and have not been thinned through maturing. This will allow the trees remaining to mature further and give the course a more established and mature look in future.
On Hawkshill the work will be on the front 9 holes mainly, due to the nature of the work and its proximity to play this is more of a logistical task, this will be managed as best as possible to avoid competition etc. Trees already identified by a survey for removal around the car parks and clubhouses for H&S and insurance purposes will be the last stage.
This is all being done to improve playing surfaces and health of the courses aligned to the STRI recommendations.
The tree at 13 Hawkshill on the left of fairway is dead and will be removed at this time. This is an iconic tree at the club, but its condition is increasingly dangerous to staff and members and risk will only increase with the passage of time. I know many will rue its removal. We simply cannot ignore the risk, however.
Replacement of that tree would be best done with a mature tree, but this is prohibitively expensive for now, even to move an existing tree from our stock.
The area will return to grass initially, at least, and the playability of the hole can be seen over time. The existing tree makes an already challenging hole more difficult and can punish a good shot so the hole may be more playable by many especially those whose ball flight cannot clear it currently. The replacement of this tree however will remain under consideration.
BUNKERS
During course walks with Paul Mills, and the head greenkeepers, we discussed the areas of long grass prevalent around several bunkers. As stated earlier the standard we seek for this area (subject to consultation on Course Management Policy with members) is for the grasses to be maintained to allow the bunkers to gather balls as designed rather than leave a harder, often very difficult, shot from thick grass on a gathering slope. Again, we can only fully achieve this with additional green staff, but it is important members know what we aspire to and why this remains challenging just now. This should be achievable once the recruitment detailed above is in place.
ROUGH
Like bunkers there are considerable areas where the rough on both courses is extremely penal. As stated by Jim Grant in February 2021 we aspire to keep these areas at a more manageable length. Again, capacity means this is challenging to achieve but again this is the direction we are aiming for as we add capacity.
The original planning application and Course Management Plan refers to 14 areas on Hawkshill that should be treated as “rough areas” and “should be left”. These areas are well away from usual play where you might expect to lose a ball so should rarely impact play.
The areas of concern are generally in play and may also commonly be in trees. Here the 1998 Course Management Plan is clear that these areas should be “kept at a height determined by golfing requirements”.
It is important we support the greens team to deliver these plans and that members are clear on what we want to achieve at our courses.
A deliverable reduction in rough height will lead to less ball searching, play speeding up and most importantly a more enjoyable membership experience on the course.
As in 2020 you will shortly see a large quantity of this penal rough removed as contractors have again been approved to carry this out.
There is an excellent post on the “Newmachar GC Course Maintenance” Facebook page from 2020 which explains this in detail. The same process is about to be repeated however with continued member support we hope to maintain staff numbers and not see such penal rough prevail in the future.
If you have managed to get to this point you will be glad to know that’s it from me for now. The Management Committee share the aspirations of the staff and members to improve our courses presentation and I will continue to inform you as best as I can around what is happening.
The hiring of additional staff to our greens teams is only possible due to the continuing support of members and the positive direction of travel for our courses will be more visible in the coming months and years if that support is maintained. I can only thank you for it.
Please get in touch if you have any feedback on anything I have covered, or not covered.
Stay safe.
David Forsyth
(Management Committee Courses)