How does a heathland course get ready for summer?
This article was featured in the Spring 2018 edition of Your Course magazine
“What I hear a lot is members saying ‘well, you’ll always be a couple of weeks behind here’ and that’s about as scientific as it gets,” said Walton Heath course manager Michael Mann.
“I live in Chertsey, which is a 25-minute drive away. It’s pretty much a steady drive all the way uphill and the temperature gauge in my car might be two or three degrees colder by the time I get up to Walton Heath.
We sit 190 metres above sea level and the site is very open and exposed. You get the wind blowing and it is quite a harsh environment. People might start to notice the grass verges growing down in Epsom, for example, but then when they get to Walton Heath there might still be snow lying on the ground. When we get snow up here, it tends to hang around. But you can drive a couple of miles down the road and there will just be nothing. It’s quite a unique position up on the north downs.”
Walton Heath is on every golfer’s bucket list. The wonderful heathland layouts, the Old and the New, both feature strongly in top 100 lists. The club will host the British Masters in the autumn – another notch to a fine heritage that stretches back more than a century.
Close to the M25 and surrounded by trees, you would think there’s plenty of shelter. But in fact, the open heathland, combined by the elevation, brings a wind chill factor and makes temperatures a couple of degrees colder than the surrounding area. That can bring challenges in the New Year, when Michael and his team begin preparations for that April D-Day.
“Our spring renovations are generally in March,” he said. “What might happen is that you get a cold and dry period, you may get no growth on the greens. You may get very little recovery. So, we have to be mindful that we might not get the recovery we want.
“We tend to do fairly non-aggressive spring maintenance and keep the aggressive stuff for August, when we know we get the recovery.
“The composition of the greens – there are all sorts of grass out there. There’s bits of Yorkshire Fog, there are all sorts in the greens but they roll well and that’s the main thing.
“But what can happen is you get different grasses growing at different rates when you come into the spring. The bent grass might start to kick into life and start to grow but the meadowgrass – the poa – is sitting there doing nothing.
“So, you get uneven surfaces and throwing fertiliser at it – to try and kick things on – is a waste of time because the grass is dormant. You might have bumpy greens for a period going into spring until you get consistent growth across the whole surface.”
Michael aims to have his winter projects in the books towards the tail of February, leaving the end of the month, and March, to concentrate on presentation before the growth finally arrives. Before then, while the work is ongoing, the emphasis is on protection.
“Through the winter, you may take height of cuts up on greens. We have got greens that are over 100 years old and need a certain type of looking after.
“It’s making sure wet areas are not getting mown consistently. You might miss areas, use hand mowers or take heights of cut up.
“You sacrifice green speed a little but the most important thing for me is to have coverage on the greens coming into spring so that once the growth does kick in you’ve got something to work with.
“It’s about trying to avoid bare areas on greens. It can be tempting to carry on mowing at low heights, really shaving things through the winter to try and keep standards up.”
Key to the whole exercise, Michael believes, is keeping golfers up to date with how the winter is progressing and being ahead of the curve in getting ready.
“We’ve got a reasonable sized staff to cope with most things,” he said. “But I think it is about being proactive in your management – making sure you are protecting at the right times, making sure you’re pushing at the right times.
“Sometimes coming into spring is about patience and communication with members is important. It’s always good to inform them of anything – good, bad and ugly – so there are no surprises.
“In my mind, I need – come February and March – to make sure everything is in place so when the growth does come, it’s a case of presentation and touching things up.”
Walton Heath
The host of this year’s British Masters, the Surrey club was founded in 1903 and consists of two courses – the Old and the New.
Both were designed by Herbert Fowler and the heathland club can look back at four prime ministers as members – David Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Andrew Bonar Law and Arthur Balfour.
The club played host to arguably the greatest Ryder Cup team of all time in 1981 when an American outfit containing 11 major champions hammered Europe 18.5-9.5.
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