INSIDE WHY SPREAD SAND ON GREENS? COURSE MANAGER’S REPORT WHAT IS STROKE INDEX?
The County Sligo Golf Club Issue 6 – May 2015
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Why Spread Sand on Greens?
Why are you putting sand on the greens making them slow and bumpy! Stop! Really?
The practice of spreading sand on the greens – Top-‐dressing -‐-‐ has been part of golf maintenance for ages. With so many benefits to the putting surface and overall health of the green, top-‐dressing is truly a necessary evil for all. Trust me, do you think I would spend thousands of Euro a year to upset my paying customers; ruining the blades of my mowers for sadistic pleasure? No. Simply put, if you want greens to putt like glass, use what glass is made of -‐-‐ SAND!!!!! 2
The practice of working sand into the top layer of the green has benefits for the player as well as the greenkeepers. The benefit to the player is obvious, top-‐ dressing gives a smoother, firmer surface that will receive shots better, provided you can actually hit the green from yardage. For the Course Manager we like smooth greens (we also play golf.) Seriously though a greenkeeper is concerned mainly with the dilution of thatch, the modification of soil structure to the top layers of the green, and to stop the greens from being scalped by the mower during the summer months.
Simply put, the quickest way to achieve slow, bumpy greens is to STOP applying sand.
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What are we trying to achieve by top-‐dressing? If you have an older green, heavy top-‐ dressing will be required to achieve a smoother more playable surface. On the other hand, if you have a new spec green you will only need light, frequent top-‐ dressing through the growing seasons, mainly Spring and Autumn. When growth of the plant slows during summer and winter it is not necessary to apply as much sand as the plant is not growing as much. The more your plant is growing the more top-‐dressing is needed to keep thatch from accumulating beyond a manageable point. Top-‐dressing is only one of several practices used to achieve the desired surface that golf is known for, others
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include verti-‐cutting, grooming, and of course aerification. Although you may think sand is sand and it must be cheap as there is tons of it at the beach, I’m afraid it’s not! With the cost of the sand and trucking, a 25 ton load being delivered to the course can be anywhere from E1200-‐E1800 depending on the quality of sand and distance from the pit.
Next time you’re at the golf course and you hear that the Course Manager has been spreading sand, appreciate the fact that he is trying to make your greens run smoother and in turn make your game better!
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Course Manager’s Report Mark Millar
The year is going in fast and it’s getting near the real playing season with a few big competitions coming up next month. The course staff have had a very busy month with the new 10th green and surrounds under construction. In my opinion the course has been neglected a little with so much other work going on. For the last month I have designated two days a week for the construction work, normally Monday and Tuesday, with the remainder of the week earmarked to prepare the course for the weekend when most of the members play their golf. The condition of the golf course at the moment is acceptable but I feel once I 4
get all this extra work (Revitalisation Program) completed there will be more time to concentrate on the golf course itself. The aim is to improve grass quality and have a good playing surface for the reminder of the year. The recent over-‐ seeding of the greens has been very successful with a great ‘seed strike’.
‘Improve grass quality…
To protect the new seedlings we have carried out very little work on the greens. This will help the seed to establish quickly and help growth. By the end of the week we will do some brushing and grooming and add some top-‐dressing to improve speed and smoothness.
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At the moment the greens are bumpy and the ball is not rolling true. With the new seed establishing (photo) and the undesirable grasses growing strong, the surface is a bit uneven. By the end of July and into August it will be necessary to blanket spray the greens to kill off the undesirable grasses. This will encourage the correct grasses that will provide a much better putting surface. Over-‐seeding is a numbers game, the more seed you can get into the surface the better. I plan to carry out at least 4-‐5 overseedings this year using approx 700kg of Fescue seed. Several clubs in Ireland have achieved excellent results with this method and are really starting to see the benefits now. They have been on a program of up to 6 over-‐seeds a year, using around 1000kg to 1500kg of seed.
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The Island GC in Dublin have been using this method for a number of years and have now achieved 80% coverage of Fescue grass on their greens. Recently these greens were running at a speed of 14ft without ‘Over-‐ excess mowing or seeding is rolling, all down to having the proper a numbers grass.
game…’
Work on 10th greens is now complete, it has been seeded-‐ out using cores taken from the Bomore course. These cores were spread on the green and surrounds (photo), seeded, treated with a pre-‐seeder fertilizer and rolled. This process will give the new seed a better chance to ‘pop’ and will prevent seed loss due to wind blow.
It is my belief that if we follow this program, three years down the road we will begin to see huge improvement in the quality of our greens. 5
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April/May Links Program Work completed
General
• Construction, turfing, seeding and irrigation works carried out on 10th hole. • Bomore greens cored and seeded. • All new seeded areas watered when needed. • All tee boxes strimmed and tidied. • Fertiliser spread on grass pathways. • Weed killer applied to the back of the 3rd green and on the practice putting green in preparation for seeding. • Grass nurseries rolled and fertiliser applied. • Bunker surrounds and banks strimmed and ‘ Flymo’ mowed. • Car park and clubhouse surrounds have been sprayed with weed killer.
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Work Pending in May/June Brush, groom and top-‐ dress greens. Apply granular fertiliser to greens and over-‐seed with Dyna seeder (photo). Verti-‐cut tees, green collars and fairways. Continue spraying fairways and tees to control weeds. Seed pathways. Re-‐seed practice putting area in front of the clubhouse and the surrounds on 3rd and 5th greens. Trim hedge around putting green. Improve signage between 9th green and 10th tee. Move direction stone up to 18th fairway.
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Greens • No granular fertiliser applied due to cold weather. • Greens were hand watered during dry spell. • Liquid fertiliser (6.O.6 Rootmass) sprayed to boost root growth. • Wetting agent and Seaweed fertiliser applied. • Light top-‐dressing with 8 ton sand.
Fairways & Tees
• No herbicide was applied to the fairways due to low soil temperatures. • Fairways sprayed with fertiliser (21.0.o + Iron). • A granular slow release fertiliser was applied to all tees.
LINKS TEAM 2015 Mark Millar William Acheson -‐ Sean Melly -‐ Michael Gillen -‐ Colm Hargadon -‐ Donal Egan -‐ Peter Connolly -‐ Ben McGarry 7
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What is Stroke Index?
If you've ever wondered what the Stroke Index system is all about, what it's for and how Stroke Indexes are allocated -‐ here's the lowdown.
Every golf scorecard has a column headed, “Stroke Index.” Each hole has a number allocated to it between 1 and 18. Clearly the number doesn’t signify a recommended number of shots, or a minimum age requirement for attempting the tee shot, so what’s it for? Here we explain the purpose of stroke indexes and how they are distributed.
Why do we need stroke indexes? If you’re playing in a handicap matchplay competition, the chances are you’ll be either giving or receiving shots. Where 8
those shots come into play is determined by the stroke indexes allocated to the holes. If you’re giving away 3 shots, your opponent will receive them on the holes with stroke indexes 1 to 3. If you’re unfortunate enough to be giving away 20 shots then your opponent will receive a shot on every hole, and two shots on the holes with stroke indexes 1 and 2. Remember, if the match goes into extra holes, stroke index applies by the card again.
They’re just for matchplay then? No. Stroke indexes are also important in Stableford competitions. If you play to a handicap of 10 you’ll receive shots at holes with stroke indexes from 1 to 10. If you make a bogey at stroke index 5, you’ll receive a shot and will actually make a nett par: two points.
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Stroke indexes are used in the same way for calculating scores in par and bogey competitions. In addition, clause 19 of CONGU’s Unified Handicapping System relies on stroke indexes. This clause states that, for handicap purposes, you can’t score worse than a nett double bogey at any one hole. If you play off 6 and make a triple bogey at the hole with stroke index 15, clause 19 will reduce your score to a double bogey (for handicap purposes). However, if you had made a triple bogey at the hole with stroke index 1, you would have received a shot: the triple would have already been reduced to a double bogey so a clause 19 alteration wouldn’t have been required.
OK, so how are Stroke Indexes allocated? It’s complicated. A common misconception is that stroke index simply gives an indication of a hole’s difficulty, i.e. the hardest hole on the course is stroke index 1, second hardest is 2 and so on. In fact, difficulty is just one of the many criteria considered when distributing stroke indexes.
And those criteria are? Firstly, an even spread needs to be achieved. Many clubs do this by
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numbering the holes on one nine with odd stroke indexes and the other nine with even. Stroke indexes 1 and 2 tend to be allocated somewhere in the centre of each nine. This is because in many matches, where the handicap difference is minimal, the placing of the lower indexed holes is of vital importance. An effort is generally made to ensure the first 6 should not be allocated to adjacent holes, and the first and last holes are often not given a stroke index below 9. Then length should be considered. Indexes should be allocated to holes of varying lengths. Stroke 1 might be a long par four, 2 might then be a shorter, more-‐strategically difficult par four, 3 might be a par five and so on.
What about difficulty though? It should generally follow that the harder holes on the course have low stroke indexes. But, difficulty in relation to par is not the overriding consideration when selecting indexes. This is because a long par four may be a very difficult par for a low handicapper but a fairly straightforward bogey for a player of a slightly higher handicap. Some clubs have opted to use dual Stroke Indices – one for Matchplay, another for Stableford and other relevant competitions, based solely on the difficulty of the hole in relation to par: A great idea, but it does make for rather a complicated scorecard! 9
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We all have a love/hate relationship with bunkers…generally we just love to hate them! Below are a few ‘bunker basics’ that we need to remember that will make life easier for our greenkeepers and fellow golfers.
Raking bunkers Surprisingly enough, leaving a bunker unraked isn't a massive concern for a greenkeeper. It's not the correct etiquette, however, and is extremely unfair on the golfers behind you. Always rake the sand no matter how bad the shot!
Leaving rake inside bunker
Bunker rakes should always be left inside the hazard. If a golf course has 70 bunkers, it should have over 70 rakes for 10
the golfers to rake their footprints. If all of these are left outside the bunker, can you imagine how many times a greenkeeper will have to get off his machine to replace the rakes when cutting the surrounds of the bunker! Greenkeepers are not lazy people but during a lush period the surrounds of a bunker may have to be cut two or three times a week. Time is of huge value to greenkeepers and if they have to stop the mower and get off to remove a rake and put it back in a bunker at least 10 times, this will significantly affect the time and quality of the job.
Enter and exit bunkers at the lowest point
The turf surrounding bunkers is very fragile and often worn and dry during the summer so they can crumble easily. Please therefore enter the bunker at the most sensible point.
Links News Editor: Vincent McGee Please contact me with any comments or Links issues.
The views expressed in contributed articles are not necessarily the views of the editor of this publication or Co Sligo Golf Club. Editorial content and photographs cannot be reproduced without prior permission from the editor.
The County Sligo Golf Club 2015 ©