Why we should be worried about the condition of our courses

Why we should be worried about the condition of our courses Recently, the Sports Turf Research Institute has published a new book that, in my opinion, raises some of the most important issues currently facing British golf. Within the pages of this book, which is entitled 'A Natural Course for Golf' and is compiled by Malcolm Peake, some of the world's most respected agronomists, ecologists, administrators and architects explain how traditional British golf is currently being undermined by an insidious process of 'Americanisation'. Crucially, too, it also outlines how this destructive process can be reversed. Is it a difficult read? Well, yes, it is in parts. Is it worth persevering with? You bet it is. Put succinctly, it highlights a subject no British golfer can afford to ignore. Over the last three decades or so, there is no doubt the standard of many British courses has deteriorated. The fine fescues grasses, which used to predominate and produced firm, fast, all-year-round playing surfaces have all but disappeared, replaced by wall-to-wall poa annua (annual meadow grass), which thrives on over-watering and over-fertilisation and which is playable in summer but not in winter, when many poa-infested courses are so soft and wet they resemble bogs. Unfortunately, many NCG readers will recognise this scenario. In summer, your course will be in what many golfers now regard as 'good' condition. It will be lush and green, the greens themselves receptive even to badly hit shots. In winter, however, it is an altogether different story. Then, for months on end, golfers will be up to their ankles in mud. You get nowhere near your 'normal' tees and greens. Instead, routinely, you have to play off mats, to soggy, winter 'greens' cut on the only dryish piece of fairway the greenkeeper could find. Recognise the picture? I thought so. Sadly, it is becoming more and more common. It was in an effort to make the golfing public aware of what was happening that Peake decided to compile A Natural Course for Golf and, believe me, he knows what he is talking about. A number of years ago when he took on the job as Greens Convenor at Temple Golf Club in Buckinghamshire, he inherited a course which, like so many others, was incapable of sustaining all-year-round golf. However, with the help of his talented and tenacious head greenkeeper, Martin Gunn, he has transformed the course, turning it into a beacon of hope amidst a sea (and I use the word advisedly) of mediocrity. Nowadays, Gunn and Peake, regularly welcome delegations from other clubs, keen to learn from their experiences. Between them, they present a convincing argument for a return to traditional British maintenance practises. But, more often than not, they are preaching to the converted. The idea of the book is to educate a wider audience, one that is increasingly disillusioned with the condition of our courses, but is often unaware of how to go about turning things round Unfortunately for Peake, and all those other people who promote traditional British playing conditions, most golfers in this country know as much about course maintenance as they do about, say, nuclear physics. That, however, does not stop them pontificating on the subject. At every golf club with 500 members there will be about 475 individuals ready and willing to put in their tuppence worth at every available opportunity. Some of the most vociferous will even put themselves up for election to the Greens Committee, not so much to support the Head Greenkeeper, but to tell him how to do his job. Sadly for the Greenkeeping staff, for every ten people who make it onto a Greens Committee, about nine will have had their views on course condition quite literally coloured by what they have seen on TV. Augusta National, I'm afraid, has a lot to answer for in this context. Thanks to the pictures beamed from that affluent corner of Georgia, a large percentage of British golfers equate green with good. That 'Green Brigade' then demands their courses should be similar 'green oases' forcing their greenkeeping staff to apply ever-increasing amounts of water and fertiliser, just to achieve the appearance they want. That, as the book explains, set the club off on downward spiral that, ultimately, ends in the destruction of our golfing heritage. If this trend towards the 'Americanisation' of our golf courses continues unchallenged then the stage is not far away when winter golf at many British clubs will be all but impossible. Does this sound overly-alarmist? It isn't, I assure you, which is why you should all read the book.