ALL ABOUT GREEN KEEPING
QA &
WITH
CHARL POTGIETER
Head Greenkeeper - Southbroom Golf Club
1. When did you realise that turf management was the industry you want to take further? I always wanted to do law and I enrolled at RAU, but a last minute change of mind meant that I ended up going to Wits Hotel School. After realising that i did not want to work in hospitality, I tried to turn Pro, although I am a good golfer I will never make money out of the game. My time spent on golf courses and watching the way the ball behaves interested me and that was the start of getting into greenkeeping. 2. What is the best and worst part of being a golf course superintendent? The best part of being a greenkeeper is getting to the course every morning to watch the sunrise. That quite time of reflection, gathering your thoughts and driving around the course with a sense of purpose. The worst is when things happen and you can’t give your members the product they deserve. 3. You are at Southbroom, a coastal course, what is your biggest challenge maintaining a KZN coastal course? Our biggest challenge at Southbroom is definitely dealing with the elements. Staying on track with your spraying programme sometimes only having 2 to 3 mornings to spray before the winds pick up. We also struggle more with disease than up country. We have a grass on our greens, paspalum vaginatum, which is very susceptable to fungus. 4. What are the differences in grasses (fairway, rough, greens) in KZN to other parts of the country? In KZN we generally have cynodin tees and fairways and on the coast paspalum greens. When you move more inbound towards Pietermartitzburg you to tend to have the more traditional kikuyu tees and fairways and bentgrass greens.
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5. Does one need different machinery on course for different types of grasses around the country? Our machinery on most courses are very similar. The only major difference is in that the upcountry courses use walkbehinds far more extensively than us on the coast. 6. How big a difference does climate and location play in golf course maintenance? Climate and location play a big role in the way you maintain the course. We are located on the beach and we have very hot, humid summers, that is why we have paspalum on the greens, for this grass is very salt tolerant and can take heat but will not grow in cooler conditions. We are also on dunes where the cynodin thrives under the drier conditions on the coast if cut at a bit higher height. 7. To what extent does course setup affect slow play, and how do you deal with it? I take time to set up the course and for bigger days it is in consultation with the director of golf as to what his requirements might be for either the competition or sponsor day. You must know your bottle neck holes and on busy days set them up easy as to encourage faster play on those specific holes. Does not always work but does help. On blind or semi blind tee shots put out a forecaddy as a spotter and to indicate in or out of bounds so there is no need to return to the tee and waste time. You can immediately reload. 8. In your opinion does course machinery or golfers spread more seeds like POA or diseases? I think there are a few elements in the spread of POA seed. Golfers do spread the seed and so does machinery but I think especially on our course it is mostly spread by birds. We have flocks of these tiny black birds moving from green to green in winter eating the seed and then also moving it around.
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January | February 2022
