Future Proofing Your Course

[ACP]

Last night I attended a meeting at my golf club to discuss our 5 year plan for course improvements. The last time the course was looked at by outside consultants was in 1980 by Dave Thomas & Peter Allis. The reasons for the course improvements included the need to keep up with modern club and ball technology but more importantly to build into the course more ponds and water hazards which we can use to irrigate the greens and tees during the summer months.

At the moment we pay about £1 / m3 for water but by 2012 that is expected to rise to about £12 / m3, and because golf courses are viewed as agriculteral land they will not be considered high priority. If this is correct information, I dread to think what my yearly subscription will have risen to in the next 4 /5 years and what would be the case if we do not make provision for the future water rate hikes!?

The course Architect we have employed says approximately 70% of his work at the moment is course improvement - are any of your clubs undertaking or proposing to undertake such work?

ACP

 

[birdieman]

I dread to think what would be the case if we do not make provision for the future water rate hikes!?

Maybe something like this....

 

[johng]

Our Club had Donald Steel visit last summer and he put forward a very detailed plan for both protecting and developing the course along with guidance on improving playability for mid-high handicappers. The club's management and greenkeepers have adopted quite a lot of this and have already started putting the plans in to place, very impressive I feel.

use the link below to the club and you'll find the report and updates of the work occuring, mainly on the COURSE tab.

John.

www.southerndowngolfclub.com

 

[ACP]

use the link below to the club and you'll find the report and updates of the work occuring, mainly on the COURSE tab.

John.

www.southerndowngolfclub.com

Thanks John - Our club have started to impliment some of the proposed changes already but will focus on most of the work during Sept to Feb over the next 5 years.

 

[viscount17]

watering the course is unlikely ever to be an issue for us, getting rid of it may be!

 

[billyg]

Last night I attended a meeting at my golf club to discuss our 5 year plan for course improvements. The last time the course was looked at by outside consultants was in 1980 by Dave Thomas & Peter Allis. The reasons for the course improvements included the need to keep up with modern club and ball technology but more importantly to build into the course more ponds and water hazards which we can use to irrigate the greens and tees during the summer months.

At the moment we pay about £1 / m3 for water but by 2012 that is expected to rise to about £12 / m3, and because golf courses are viewed as agriculteral land they will not be considered high priority. If this is correct information, I dread to think what my yearly subscription will have risen to in the next 4 /5 years and what would be the case if we do not make provision for the future water rate hikes!?

The course Architect we have employed says approximately 70% of his work at the moment is course improvement - are any of your clubs undertaking or proposing to undertake such work?

ACP

Is there any mileage in considering building a small tank reservoir on some spare land? A simple calculation based on projected water usage might show a dramatic saving in the long run if ponds aren't practical.

I have a feeling the golf course industry is going to take quite a hammering once one the McCarthyite enviromental lobby turns it's dark eye in our direction

 

[RGuk]

The reasons for the course improvements included the need to keep up with modern club and ball technology but more importantly to build into the course more ponds and water hazards which we can use to irrigate the greens and tees during the summer months.

I can't think my course has spent a penny on changing the layout to "keep up with modern club and ball technology".

As for the rest, it's a scary scenario, but hey-ho, by the time water is so expensive we need to recycle our own at great expense, there won't be many members at my club because only the super-rich Aston/Bentley driver's will be able to afford the fuel to get there.....
Not to mention £1000 per week for electricity.

Oh, "sorry, ordinary people, we have to put the price of your gas up, that's just the way things are.....we wish we could do something differently"

Oh, "whoops, we seem to have made £1.51 bn pounds profit this year".

 

[HomerJSimpson]

The new Royal Ascot track is only 4 years old so is still maturing. They have recently thinned out a lot of the saplings planted during construction and replanted most to give each hole more definition.

Although not there yet you can see the vision and will make the course harder and more receptive on the eye.

They have also finished a comprehensive drainga programme on tees and fairways following the wet winter several years back and last summers washout. The high water table showed up drainage problems not planned for inthe orignal specs. hats off for being so proactive so quickly

 

[billyg]

Oh, "sorry, ordinary people, we have to put the price of your gas up, that's just the way things are.....we wish we could do something differently"

Oh, "whoops, we seem to have made £1.51 bn pounds profit this year".

Just don't start me off on that one