October 2013 was a sad time for Seckford Golf Club as the Administrators were brought in. Despite the club thriving, the company had got into difficulty after it was unable to service an historic debt. However, landlords rescued the club by buying back the lease and reissuing a more commercially viable lease to the newly formed ‘Seckford Golf Club (Woodbridge) Ltd’.
Paul Durrant is Course Manager (and also Course Director) and has been at the club for nigh on 20 years. He is supported by three other longstanding greens staff that have in depth knowledge of the needs of the course. The course consists of 18 holes over only 5,000 yards which makes it very appealing to senior and junior members, although it provides a challenge to the more accomplished golfer with some professionals only coming in 2 or 3 under par!
Thegreens are of poor construction with varying types of soil with no drainage, resulting in problems with dry patch. They had tried various combinations of wetting agents over the years until Claire Harley of Headland Amenity recommended them to try TriCure AD. This produced superb results and is now used religiously, regardless of the weather, starting the season in April with a higher rate and continuing with monthly applications through the season to September. They compliment this with a policy of hand watering problem areas rather than relying on the irrigation system. The combined result is they now have minimal issues with dry patch.
“Claire put together a nutritional programme for us,” said Paul, “that sees us start the season off with applications of Greentec 6-5-18 in March and C-Complex 7-0-7 in May. We get a good response in cool conditions with Greentec and have found that C-Complex is rapidly washed in with very quick results, producing superb colour without any significant growth flush.”
Having poor drainage, the greens tend to get a little stressed allowing Fusarium patchto take a hold. The greens fertiliser programme relies heavily on tank mixes of N-Sure, Seamac Ultra Plus, Solufeed, Seamac ProTurf and TeMagHPE through the growing season. This is applied little and often and has significantly reduced the stress on the greens and therefore disease outbreaks. The resultant growth rate has allowed them to grow out the disease. The same tank mixes have helped them nurse the greens through nematode attack and outbreaks of thatch fungus.
Paul again, “Unfortunately our irrigation water has high pH which has not helped with our fight against disease. However, the iron content of TeMagHPE and Seamac ProTurf certainly has a contributing factor to aiding with disease resistance. To round off the programme we have had good results with a mix of liquid turf hardener, Turfite and Seamac ProTurf, through the winter to help keep the greens stress and disease free.”
Seckford Golf Club www.seckfordgolf.co.uk
Headland Amenity www.headlandamenity.com