Lee Williams at golf on June 14, 2019

This article appeared in Pitchcare Magazine Issue 84

It has been more than eight years since Pitchcare first visited Hart Common Golf Club, and many things have happened during this period. Lee Williams visited one of his old places to discover more.

Hart Common Golf Course is located in Westhoughton in Bolton and is privately owned by Peter Roberts. Since its first opening as an 18-hole course in 1995, it has developed into a 27-hole comprehensive course, with an 18-hole, par 72 6307-yard park course, a 9-hole 694-yard college course, and three full-size courses for practice Hole and a fully covered Twenty-Six Bay floodlight driving range.

Hart Common was the first club I joined when I was 15 years old, as well as my father and uncle, because it is only a short drive from where my parents and I live. Over the years, I have been watching the development of this course, and I am deeply impressed by the large amount of thought and work that Peter and his family put in to improve it year by year. This shows that because they are now ranked in the top ten best courses under £20 on Golfshake.com.

On a cold and foggy day, I met Richard Roberts, the course manager, who is also Peter's son. I have known Richard for several years. We first met when I was working in sales. Over time, we grew into good friends because of our mutual love for the industry.

Richard and Peter are always looking for new ways to improve the curriculum, whether it's investing in machinery or testing new products on the market. In order to maintain this investment, they have been looking for other ways to bring money into the club so that they will not rely solely on green fees.

One such method is the outsourcing of work in the Greater Manchester area, where Richard is responsible. He is responsible for the daily management of the golf course. "Over time, we have just ventured into other fields. We always buy machines instead of hiring machines. We like to do vertical drainage ourselves. Some people ask contractors to do several times a year on their greens, tees and Fairways. We now have the equipment to do this ourselves, and we are also doing other people’s. This helps pay for the machine, but also allows us not to rely on the flexibility of the contractor."

In the early days, Richard began to help in local sports clubs where he played in the past or where his friends participated, helping them deal with the playing field and developing from there. "Once the club knows that someone understands their needs and budget, and can tailor their work to make their money worthwhile, they will soon trust and rely on the services we provide."

Over time, the demand for Richard's services continued to grow, and subsequently, they obtained a considerable number of professional toolkits. This allows them to cover almost all sports surfaces, both natural and man-made, from local bowling alleys to stadium courts. "We used Vredo for a lot of training on the greens, while Air2G2 was rented out. We did drainage work on some other local golf courses. We carried out a lot of football field maintenance and renovation works for clubs in the area at the end of the season. "

When Richard is away, his twin sisters Catherine and Claire (33) are at the helm. After leaving full-time education, they have been working full-time in the club, but even before they finish their studies, they will pick up balls and rake the bunkers at the driving range on weekends and school holidays. Alan Lee's father helped build the golf course, and he has been working at the club for 20 years. Terry Battersby joined 12 months ago. Johnny Bowker is an in-house mechanic. He is a self-employed person who runs his own business using the club’s grinders and facilities, and also repairs and maintains the club’s machinery. Johnny appeared in Pitchcare's "How To" series of videos.

Richard has PA1, PA2 and PA6 spraying certificates, but other than that, he doesn't have any industry-recognized qualifications. "In the past two decades, I have learned everything from my work and shared my thoughts with professionals in other industries. My family comes from an agricultural background, and we all have an understanding of planting grass and what it involves. So, Quite a lot of adjustments have been made here and there, and I am where I am today. I never really had time to go to college because I have been helping my father build and improve the curriculum since the beginning. That said, I do feel To pursue a career in this industry does not need to go through the usual training and education, which is helpful to my knowledge. Over the years, we have tried and tested many new products, equipment and ideas, and adjusted some of them to include them Our course maintenance and contracting business."

Back to the course itself, I asked Richard what they did to maintain the green. “Since last March, we have been monitoring the greens every six weeks, using 20 kg of creeping bend grass seeds, and we have achieved some good results. Over the years, many experts say you only watch it in August/September The soil temperature has risen by the time the curved grass grows, but as I said, we conducted a test in early spring last year and the results were very good. We are going to conduct some tests with a seed manufacturer at the end of January, so it is interesting to see the results."

With the higher percentage of curvy grasses now visible in the greens, Richard uses a lot less fertilizer. He believes that this has led to a decrease in the bluegrass, either starved to death or strangled to death by crawling and bending.

In addition to the planting plan, Richard also likes to scratch the green as often as possible. “We used a few scarifiers on the greens, and a small tractor with Koro belt boxes. The frequency of use was a bit serious, so we used them twice a year with a depth of 15 mm. Then we installed Greentech pine on the Toro Greensmaster. Soil device. The blades are narrower and spaced farther apart, so this allows us to go deep; if necessary, about 25 to 30 mm. This will be done once a month throughout the season if the grass grows hard and dense. Then we can They are loosened on Monday, and by the end of this week, it looks like we are no longer on them. This is about removing thatch there; many people say that creeping produces more thatch than other varieties. If there is one, I think We have now reached our thatch level."

Richard is trying to reduce the amount of chemicals he uses on the greens. This is a process he has been working on for the past two years because more and more chemicals have been withdrawn from the market in recent years. "It was very hard at first, but now we have done more core work, using Greensmaster mini core boxes. We break the cores on the greens so that they get the fertilization and humus of the root zone that get all the nutrients. And everything else. In the past 12 months, we have only used two types of granular fertilizers; the rest are liquid feeds with added biomass sugar, liquid gypsum and precision microorganisms."

"Wetting agents played a big role last summer. Generally speaking, when the weather is hot, the greens will burn out over a weekend, but panic will not appear until at least eight weeks after the dry period last summer; we are in Watered, but did not go out to water and try to apply wetting agent tablets. To us, this is unheard of."

I asked Richard what he attributed it to. "This is really everything; obviously, we are removing the thatch, and if everything is underneath, the grass will take care of itself. Only when the grass is under pressure and the situation is wrong, diseases and dry spots will get in."

In the past eight years, with the support of Richard, Peter has invested heavily in various aeration equipment of Campey Turf Care and Cheshire Turf Machinery, which have played an important role in the maintenance of the stadium.

I asked Richard what his aeration plan was and how often it was executed. "We don't have a fixed maintenance plan, it just depends on the situation and time of the fixture. We are equipped with Charterhouse high-speed Verti-Drain, Toro ProCore, Air2G2, Imants Rotoknife, Greentech hollow trimming device on one of the triple and maroon "Rollers, so we try to keep the greens open. We will inflate on Monday/Tuesday of most weeks, changing the machines we use and the depth we go to. "

"The green is not a U.S. Golf Association specification, but we have a 12-inch root zone on the gravel carpet, so we like to go as deep as possible. The tee and fairway have vertical drainage and shock waves at least once a year, sidewalks, and high-traffic areas. It takes two to three times a year."

Richard wants to invest in a larger Koro with an elevator and Koro Recycler in the future, but he said he must find enough jobs for them outside the golf course to make the purchase cost-effective. "This will mean getting bigger in terms of contracting and increasing my already busy workload. I think Koro Recycler is something we will focus on.

As sand becomes more expensive, this will help reduce the cost of top dressing when refurbishing football fields. We have seen its T-shirt before, instead of going out digging every week-let the T-shirt be torn apart, put the soil collector on it, bring the soil back to the top, reseed, level it, and you have it A complete one is the new jersey. "

Richard and his father are proud of the work they have done to improve the ecology of the golf club in recent years. "We planted thousands of trees and created quite a lot of woodland areas, along with long fields, we allowed to grow in the middle of the course. This helped to create ideal habitats for many wild animals. We also gained Quite a lot of wild orchids grow around many ponds on the golf course."

Richard believes that the industry is currently facing many problems, mainly because, while facing budgets and layoffs, green managers are under pressure to continue to produce high-quality surfaces and continuously improve courses. He said that this situation cannot be maintained.

Chathouse 220 Verti-Drain New Holland Boomer 54-D Tractor New Holland T6155 Tractor Toro Workman Imants Roto Knife 7626 Imants 3m Shockwave Fleming Roller 5m Grass Harrow John Deere TC125 Brush New Holland T495 Tractor Vortex Blower Richie 2ms xler2 Mumpey Groundmaster Trailer 4700D Groundmaster x 2 Toro 4500D Groundmaster Grasshopper 928 Toro 6700D Reelmasters x 2 Toro 3100D Sidewinders x 2 New Holland TZ25D Trimax Snake Tycrop MH400 Dakota Topdresser Vreder Seeder Pro Multisee Vreder Seeder Pro Multisee Sprayer Multi-purpose Sprayer with funnel Liquidject ejector loose Toro Green Iron Billygoat Sweeping and Filling Brush Charterhouse Verti-Top Baroness Double-head Green Mower AFT45 Trencher Amazone Fertilizer Ryan Lawn Cutter John Deere 1200A Sandpit Rake Toro Sand Pro 2040 Sandpit Rake Toro Greensmaster x25ds 325 2 Greentech Ripper head Dynocore High-speed coring head Verti-Cut Poa Buste rs Sarrel roller Air2G2 Baroness cylinder mower x 2 AFT Whiz Wheel Bernhard Grinder Bobcat 360 degree excavator Kioti EX35 New Holland 730TL Loader

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