Honiton Golf Club, in Devon, is a short 18-hole parkland course which is 850 ft above sea level and boasts some spectacular views. Stuart has been working at the Club since March 2015 and was appointed as the Head Greenkeeper in September 2019. Throughout his time at Honiton, Stuart has overseen some big changes and is now pleased with the direction the course is heading.
“I would say that we are work in progress, but we have come a very long way in the past few years,” he said. “The club is doing really well, we have a lot of new members, and the goal is to keep improving course conditions every year.”
Stuart and his five members of staff work hard to make improvements wherever they can, and as soon as one is identified, the team is quick to act.
“Last year it became apparent that our members didn’t like the soil aspect of the traditional 70/30 dressing we were applying,” he said. “We wanted to go down the pure sand route instead, so I did a lot of research looking at all the different pure sands which might be compatible with our old dressing. The product which was most compatible and the one that stood out by far was Mansfield Sand’s MM35 Golf. Not only did it work in terms of particle size distribution, but the pH was also what we were looking for.”
Mansfield’s MM35 Golf pure silica sand is ideal for top dressing greens because it brings a number of benefits such as improved recovery, firmness, smoothness and an improved rootzone. MM35 Golf also makes for a great bunker sand as it has fantastic playing characteristics as well as being aesthetically attractive.
Sourced directly from the company’s Two Oaks Quarry in Mansfield, the Mansil Silica products are predominantly used in the construction and maintenance of a wide range of sports surfaces – from winter sports pitches, golf courses, bowling greens and all amenity turf areas.
“One of the main reasons for choosing MM35 was the pH level – which is 6.6,” continued Stuart. “The pH was just too high on all the other competitive products we looked at. In fact, the next nearest match was 7.3.
“MM35 is a great product to work with; we can get the dressing down early in the morning, give it an hour or so to dry, and we can then brush it in before the golfers arrive. We can tell that the MM35 has signalled an improvement because members don’t really know that we’ve done it now, whereas before there was always a bit of debris laying around.
“It is our go-to product for regular light top dressings through the season and we also use it for our renovations in September. MM35 is mainly used on greens but because it has worked so well, we have started using it on the approaches as well.”
Stuart estimates that he will apply approximately 120 tonnes of the MM35 Golf over the course of the year and claims that ordering the product could not be a smoother process.
“From start to finish it is great. Delivery is always on time and well organised and Sharon Morris (Sales Manager for Mansfield Sand) has been superb from a customer point of view.”
For more information visit www.mansfield-sand.co.uk
