CSGC Links News August 2015

The County Sligo Golf Club Issue 9 – August 2015

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Is Waving Through the Best Option?

The Irish Links

Initiative Bunker Basics


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Links golf is special, it is the purest form of golf there is and occupies a central position in the history of the sport. It has been estimated that there are less than 200 true links golf courses in the world today and it is highly unlikely that these numbers will increase.

Happily some 50 of these links courses are located in Ireland – a unique resource and one of the reasons that

Ireland ranks so highly in the world of golf. Golfers want to come here to experience golfing history – our links courses. In 2008 a number of Irelands links courses, including Co Sligo GC, conscious of their unique position in golf, came together to set up the Irish LInks Initiative, a ‘not for profit’ organisation, with the express aim of

“Preserving, Protecting and Promoting Links Golf in Ireland” At the heart of their initiative was a wish to preserve and protect the unique nature and playing characteristics of a true links course .

The Irish Links Initiative which is recognized and supported by golf’s governing body the R&A believes that it is vital that this wonderful resource is preserved and protected for future generations of golfers, and that golfers get a better understanding of what links golf is all about.

The Initiative was the brainchild of Brian Coburn, the greens convenor of Royal County Down. He saw the unique asset that is Irish links golf courses. He also saw the need to ensure that those courses were preserved for future generations as true links courses with their unique landscape and other features. He was conscious that as golf course agronomy developed there was a real danger that the very nature of the true links could and often was at risk.

• To maintain and conserve the heritage of Irish links golf.

• To enhance the links experience in its natural raw state.

• To promote and drive the education of links management.

• To exchange and share information among links courses.

• To create greater awareness of Irish links courses.

• To promote Irish links golf locally, nationally and internationally.

What is the Irish Links Initiative?

IRISH LINKS INITIATIVE

Objectives & Guiding

Principles


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Achill Lahinch

Arklow Laytown & B’Town

Ballybunion Mulranny

Ballycastle Nairn & Portnoo

Ballyliffin North West

Belmullet Otway

Buncrana Portmarnock

Bundoran Portmarnock H /GL

Castlegregory Portsalon

Castlerock Portstewart

Ceann Sibeal Rosapenna

Co Louth Rosslare

Co Sligo Royal Co Down

Connemara Royal Dublin

Coosheen Royal Portrush

Cruit Island Seapoint

Donegal Spanish Point

Dooks St Annes

Doonbeg Strandhill

Dunfanaghy Sutton

Enniscrone The Island

European Club Tralee

Greencastle Waterville

Kilkee Rush

Kirkistown

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About The ILI The Irish Links Initiative (ILI) was set up in 2008 with the aim of ‘Protecting, Preserving and Promoting’ links golf in Ireland. The Initiative was the brainchild of Brian Coburn, the greens convenor of Royal County Down. He saw the unique asset that is Irish links golf courses. He also saw the need to ensure that those courses were preserved for future generations as true links courses with their unique landscape and other features. He was conscious that as golf course agronomy developed there was a real danger that the very nature of the true links could and often was at risk.

An initial meeting to discuss the subject of links golf in Ireland attracted over 100 people all associated with links golf courses countrywide and out of that meeting the Irish Links Initiative (ILI) was born.

That first meeting was supported by the Golfing Union of Ireland, Failte Ireland, the GCSAI and the R&A all of whom undertook to support the ILI going forward. Subsequently the Northern Ireland Tourist Board also came on board.

IRELAND’S LINKS COURSES


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Waving through the group behind has always been the convention when searching for a ball, but is that always the best thing to do on a busy course?

Page twenty of the etiquette section of the Rules of Golf says this: “Players searching for a ball should signal the players in the group behind them to play through as soon as it becomes apparent that the ball will not easily be found. They should not search for five minutes before doing so.”

This is in the etiquette section, little of which is readily enforceable by penalty or disqualification – it is simply advice to help everyone get the most out of their golfing experience.

With the game seemingly grinding to a halt, surely any advice encouraging players to allow others through should be applauded? Well, yes and no…

Let’s focus on that first sentence, and in particular the phrase, “as soon as it becomes apparent that the ball will not easily be found” How often does that really happen?

In most cases, the waving through, if it comes at all, won’t be until the countdown is well on its way towards five minutes by which time the intended benefits have been all but nullified. Often, it occurs as the ball search ends and the player is heading back 200 yards to the tee having neglected to play a provisional.

When the course is not busy and every available space on every hole isn’t taken up, then waving through is a very good idea that should be heartily endorsed. But what about during the weekend competitions when 100 or so golfers might be out there back to back and there’s barely room to breathe even before anything goes wrong.

Who actually benefits then from the wave-through? One group and one group alone – those waved through. For everyone else behind, it simply adds another five to 10 minutes to the round as play backs up while the call-through is acted out.

Those who have been waved through will be celebrating, but for everyone else, does it really help on a crowded course, especially if the call-up doesn’t come early in the search

Is Waving Through

Always the Best

Option?


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Continued >

as per The R&A guidelines? Common sense would suggest not.

Convention has always been that once the call-through has happened, the group called through should proceed regardless, but again, is that always the wisest thing for the good of the overall field on a busy course?

What if the ball is found before the second, maybe even first player behind has even teed off?

In the wider interests of the field, wouldn’t it be better for the group ahead to simply continue, rather than stand there twiddling their thumbs for 10-15 minutes, staring at a perfectly playable ball while the group behind all tee off, walk down, find their balls, play their approaches, walk up to the green, putt out and finally clear the hole?

If you’re too hasty and the ball appears the instant you beckon, you now have a long wait under the standard call-through convention. a protracted call-through down the line.

But if you wait too long, you’re just adding insult to injury for those caught up in the knock-on effects of a protracted call-through down the line.

For some, such thinking will be too radical or just plain wrong. But on a busy course is the whole issue far less clear-cut than it may at first seem, and at a time when people are crying out for ways to address slow play, perhaps a degree of rethinking is required on crowded golf courses.

And the very people who are adamant that the second part of this call-through advice should always be enforced – i.e. the group behind must play all the way through and clear – are often somewhat less meticulous in adhering to the first part concerning the amount of time allowed to elapse before the call-through comes.

So am I out on a limb here, or is there a degree of common sense with regard to a slight call-through rethink on a jam-packed golf course?


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Course Manager’s Report – Mark Millar

Work completed in July/August The main focus in the last couple of weeks has been on the greens. All the greens have been over seeded with over 400kg fescue seed. They were solid tined with 10mm blunt tines to ensure minimum disruption to the surface and then seeded with a hired-in Blec overseeder (below).

A drag mat was used to spread a ton of sand per green to cover and protect the seed. I would expect to see a good seed strike within two weeks. Due to this work, the greens may be a little slow and bumpy for a time. We will be working hard over the next week to get them back to normal.

The 6th,7th,9th and 11th greens were sprayed with a fungicide (Rescue) to kill off the unsightly grasses. These grasses have now ‘died back’ and are starting to go a little brown (left).

The new seed has taken very well and with correct nutrient management I’m confident that they’ll recover quickly.


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Other Work Completed

• Painted hazard stakes on Bomore course.

• Topped up bunkers with sand on 5th,9th and 13th holes.

• Tidied and weeded all bunkers.

• Damaged benches replaced on 1st,3rd and 15th tees.

• Levelled area at Bomore/Driving Range to prepare for sod nursery.

• Cleaned course huts and sprayed with disinfectant.

• Put out newly painted stones for tee markers.

• Working on new astro-turf tee at driving range.

• Seeded selected tees and collars.

• Tidied sides of drains with flymo mower.

• Fairways divotted – thanks to junior members for their help.

• Direction sign erected between 9th green and10th Tee.

• Red & White stakes erected on 18th fairway to aid direction of tee shots.

Work Scheduled for August

• Continue top-dressing and fertilising greens.

• Solid-tine greens with 10mm tines, 3” spacing.

• Monitor ‘unwanted grass’ project on 6th,7th,9th and 11th greens.

• Verti-drain, seed and roll Bomore turf nursery.

• Repair gravel paths damaged by heavy rainfall.

• Cut back area to facilitate new extension to 7th green.

• Lay new astro-turf on bridge at 8th green.

• Commence work on new ‘trial tee’ for 5th hole.

• Spray fairways to control weeds, especially daisies.

• Paint and repair ball-washers.

• Continue to clean drains.

LINKS NOTICE BOARD

Watch our for Course updates on the Links Notice Board located opposite the Pro Shop in the Clubhouse.


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The club recently took delivery of a brand new, state of the art, John Deere self-propelled sprayer. This is a timely and necessary purchase as the new EU directive regarding the safety and proper use of sprayers comes into law this autumn. As part of the Sustainable Use Directive (SUD) all boom sprayers greater than 3m must be tested by 26th November 2016.

The (SUD) has three main areas in which all Course Managers will have to be compliant, these are:

• Training - Pesticide application courses. • Registration - All professional users must be registered by 26th November 2015. • Testing of application equipment - Equipment must be tested by 26th November 2016.

Why do golf courses use pesticides? Pesticides help limit the damage that can be caused by insects, weeds and plant diseases. Insecticides, herbicides and fungicides are used very selectively to protect the health of the turf and other living things on the course. Fertilisers provide much-needed nutrition for the course's plant life.

It is very important to note that pesticides and fertilisers are not used primarily for aesthetic reasons. First and foremost, they are tools that help ensure a healthy playing surface for the game. Furthermore, they help protect a valuable and ecologically important piece of land.

Other work

New John Deere Sprayer Purchased


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Bunkers are an integral part of most golf courses and have their origins in the wastelands of the early links courses that were built on the wind-blown sand dunes of the Scottish coast.

From these humble beginnings, golf is now played in all corners of the globe and golf courses have adapted to all manner of environments both natural and manmade. Whether a course is in the mountains of Canada, the deserts of the Middle East or as the lungs of a new city in China the course will almost certainly have bunkers.

Golf course architects use bunkers as a key strategic element of the game and as an aesthetic tool to create a memorable sense of place. Bunker styles and quantity vary dramatically from course to course and place to place in response to the particular conditions of the site, the Architect’s design preferences and the purpose of the course.

The contrast between the bunker styles at this year’s Major championship venues illustrates that a variety of styles can be used. The Augusta National, the venue for the US Masters has relatively few bunkers and they are generally concentrated around the greens

leaving many fairways without bunkers.

The sand is pure white and flashed up the bunker faces to contrast with the perfectly manicured turf and the dense landscape backdrops.

The Old Course at St Andrews, the venue for The British Open, has well over 100 bunkers but the total area of sand is relatively small.

The bunkers vary in size and all have names including among them the famous Road Hole bunker, Coffin, Hell, Principal’s Nose and Shell. The bunkers are revetted using stacked sods of solid turf and have steep faces which sometimes require shots to be played sideways


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or even backwards. The famous road hole bunker on the 17th at St Andrews has been responsible for numerous calamities at the penultimate hole in The Open Championship.

Chambers Bay, the controversial venue for the US Open, has a sea of bunkers with gray coloured sand, a throw-back to the days when it was a sand and gravel mine. During construction, over 100,000 truck loads of dirt and sand were removed, cleaned off site, and returned to sculpt the course. At the time, it was still permitted as a working mine, which meant fewer restrictions for the course architects.

Whistling Straits (below), the venue for the US PGA Championship, was designed by Pete Dye who is famous for his deliberate distortions of traditional design elements. The course boasts an incredible 1400 bunkers but most of them are sandy wastes used to create a memorable landscape setting.

Every golf course architect responds differently to the land at his or her disposal and their individual response would vary from day to day depending on their mood. In reality there are no

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strict rules with bunker design although bunkering strategies can be either penal, strategic or heroic or a combination of each. Some architects have a recognizable “one size fits all” approach whereas others experiment with a range of styles.

Bunker styles vary from course to course to suit ground conditions, weather conditions and the design brief. It is also important to consider the impact of design solutions on the cost of construction and the ongoing maintenance costs. Also, if the course is ‘over-bunkered’ the problem of frustration and slow play can be significant.

Too many bunkers on the course can spoil it for everyone. You need enough to properly define the fairway, landing areas and greens, but not so many as to confuse the golfer and clutter the landscape.

At the end of the day, the architect often gets favourable comments from low handicap players, but if he doesn’t hear the same from players of lesser abilities he has not done his job.


Editor: Vincent McGee

The County Sligo Golf Club 2015 ©

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.

New John Deere sprayer ready for action…

Documents

CSGC Links News August 2015