Week commencing 18th April- Christmas came early....

This week started off with a delivery of new waterproofs which felt like Christmas had come early in the greenkeeper sheds! No longer would I have to wear my antiquated waterproofs from my Duke of Edinburgh Expedition days, which I’m pretty sure still had dried pot noodle and energy bars stuck to them.

Wait a minute, a warm front is forecast for this week…. Typical! Note to self, it may be cold at 7am but after walking round the Hilton raking bunkers it sure warms you up, so leave the waterproofs behind next time!

Once that job had been done and with the bunkers looking their best, it was on to collecting turf from the old 10th green on the Allander for use elsewhere on the course. This turf was used to repair ground that had sunk and become damaged on the first whole on the Allander at the bottom of the hill. The process of fixing this is to use an edging iron (see picture below)

 to cut out squares of turf, then to use a turfing lifter to lift about 3” thick squares up. (see picture of turfing lifter below).

The damaged area is then filled with sand and levelled off leaving about 1-2” gap at the top. The turf is then laid on top and cut into place to ensure the turf will take to the sand beneath and blend into the rest of the fairway.

My Tuesday started off with some pace, my job was to follow behind Gordon and Scott as they cut both the surrounding grass on the greens and the top of the tees. My job was to switch behind them. To do this you use a metal pole that contains a plastic rod (see picture below), you skim across the grass dispersing any clumps. This is done for a number of reasons. Firstly, it stops the grass sitting there and stopping grass growing below it, it does not look good when it dries out and lastly it may inhibit golf balls from rolling freely. My afternoon was spent clearing up some of the remaining logs from the bonfires at the 18^th tee on the Hilton.

Tuesday was such a nice day weather-wise! I had learnt from Monday not to wear my new waterproofs unless I wanted to keel over from heat exhaustion! My morning started with a job that a lot of golfers may not know goes on called dewing the greens. This consists of myself pushing this wide brush around the greens in order to disperse the water droplets. There are a few reasons for doing this. Firstly it allows the golf balls to run better and it reduces the risk of the grass scorching in the sun as the water particles can magnify the suns' rays which creates heat. Lastly, it reduces the chances of fungal infections ruining the grass. Who would have thought it was so scientific! (See picture below).

For the rest of the day I helped Graeme, Heather and Scott to flymo the grass surrounding the tees and grass surrounding the bunkers. This task is a great team effort. Two/ three people will flymo or strim the grass while the fourth person will use the leaf blower to blow the grass clippings out of the bunkers and disperse the grass clippings. Using the leaf blowers is a bit like having a jet pack on your back, it is great fun!

Its FRIDAY everyone’s favourite day of the week! My day started with Graeme, blowing debris from in front of the clubhouse and shoe blowers to tidy the place up a bit. We then set off to do multiple tasks around the Allander including emptying the bins, moving tee markers, moving pin positions and changing the flags and poles to shiny new ones. In the afternoon, there were similar tasks including raking bunkers on the Hilton.

Let’s all pray the weather stays like this for a few more days! I thought the picture below was particularly nice of the 17th green on the Hilton, at 7:42am. 

My first few weeks

Greenkeeper starter pack; 

Scottish weather repellent waterproofs..........check

Ability to dodge flying golf balls...................check 

The ability to function at 6am........................I try!

Back and arm muscles of steel to rake 20 bunkers......I’m working on it!

If you can tick all those boxes then you are in with a chance of being a greenkeeper. 

Before I started working at Hilton Park Golf Club, I thought that greenkeepers just cut grass all day, maybe moved the odd hole but how wrong I was. The list of jobs is endless and no doubt not recognised by many golfers including myself.

Before the grass starts growing there are a lot of jobs that need doing. My first week was prior to the season starting and focused on getting the courses ready for the start of the season. Tasks included putting out the yardage markers on some of the holes making sure that the holes were cut to fit the marker. The tee off mats had to be taken up (which weigh a tonne!) and then cleaned and broken tees removed. Other tasks included raking up fallen branches and twigs on both courses that could affect the path of the ball and looks untidy.

Due to the typical Scottish weather we had half a day inside in the sheds. I know what you are thinking; a nice wee tea break, read the paper, have a chat. Nope, shovelling sand into bags in preparation to be used for drainage on greens. Along with this, tasks such as vehicle maintenance are carried out, making sure that all vehicles are working well for when the rain decides to stop, as well as a general tidy up of the sheds.

Now that the season has started, some of my daily tasks have focussed on preparing the courses for certain events such as the medals or competitions. This preparation includes changing flags, moving tee markers and making sure the bunkers are raked well.

Another job that may go unnoticed by golfers, is the effort to improve drainage on the golf course. Gravel banding took place on some of the holes during the winter (see picture below). You may notice stripes throughout the fairway on some of the holes. This is there to try and allow the water to drain through the gravel bands. Over a few weeks, these gravel bands will become less intrusive to golfers as the grass starts to grow.

I hope this has given a small insight into my first 4 weeks of being a greenkeeper from a novice’s point of view. I hope to blog regular updates on my progress throughout the summer.

I’m off now to perfect my raking skills…..