Berkhamsted Golf Club’s powerful new course management tool sits 250 feet in the sky, and captures changes on the course smaller than a sleeve of three golf balls.
The ‘eye in the sky’ is a drone used by a new online portal, the Clere GolfHub, which helps Berkhamsted to manage every aspect of its golf course, bringing a sophisticated new toolset to the science of golf course management.
After two flights so far, with another scheduled for this season, an evolving interactive mosaic of thousands of high-resolution overhead photos of Berkhamsted’s golf course is now stored in the GolfHub.
Thanks to the GolfHub’s sub-10cm resolution even the smallest course features, including individual plants, tee boxes, sprinkler heads and club signs were digitally captured when the drone did its first sweep in 2021. Subsequent drone flights have informed the golf club’s management team as to how the golf course is changing over time with easily-organised ‘before’ and ‘after’ images.
The club’s greens committee now uses the GolfHub’s visual information as its go-to tool when monitoring seasonal programmes of work. This includes growth and planting, pathway alterations, course renovations and other factors which commonly change over time such as tees, fairways, rough, gorse and heather.
Howard Craft, Berkhamsted’s Club Manager, said: “My Course Manager Gerald Bruce and I have found the Clere GolfHub incredibly useful when collaborating with our greens committee. Discussions and management decisions are quicker and easier than ever before because we now have such clear information.
“The Clere GolfHub has been a success at Berkhamsted, and we are only using a fraction of its capabilities so far. We have trained multiple staff to use it, from the team in the management office through to Gerald and his senior greenkeeping staff. For us the GolfHub is mainly a one-stop tracking & monitoring tool which removes uncertainty and saves us time and money because we are now making better course management decisions.”
By examining the visual information in the GolfHub, Craft and his office team can use their desktop PCs or mobile phones to geo-tag on-course actions needed, adding notes to help the greenkeepers to identify exactly where and how the work is to be done.
“As everything is guided by accurate GPS, our greens team now has absolutely clear location instructions about every aspect of their work” said Craft. “For example, the GolfHub provides exhaustive information about our new irrigation system, including the location and routing of every underground pipe and sprinkler. It is also an incredibly accurate measurement tool, which helps us to order the right quantity of materials and analyse data across all surface areas. Our club trustees also now use it to monitor the extensive non-golfing parts of the Berkhamsted estate.
“In addition we now use the GolfHub to decide where to put the pins on the greens, as it contains a wealth of historic pin placement data. All of our green slopes are accurately stored in the GolfHub, so our members can now have attractive printed tournament-style pin sheets, and they can view pins through its powerful Player App which they download for free.
“The App gives us additional new ways to engage with our members, and when it comes to major club events and Opens the GolfHub helps us to create an enhanced experience.”
Clere Golf Director Steve Richardson leads the team which is implementing the new tool at golf clubs across the UK. “The Clere GolfHub builds up a bank of information over a period of time, so you can see the changes” he said. “For example, for high-traffic areas such as pathways or bunker surrounds which are prone to erosion and in need of attention, the GolfHub can save huge amounts of time as club staff can see exactly how each pathway is now looking following maintenance visits.
“Berkhamsted is also currently upgrading its safety signage, so the club’s health & safety team can now pinpoint the precise location of where the safety signs currently are, and where they should be.
“Another useful feature is that it enables the club to accurately check course boundaries, which helps greatly with HM Land Registry sector alignment.
“We feel that the Clere GolfHub represents the future of golf course management, and its success has been proven at Berkhamsted Golf Club” said Richardson.
“For some people, greenkeeping will always be largely an art form – but modern course management now uses data and science!” said Craft. “For golf club managers the Clere GolfHub supports the cases for change when the Course Manager proposes works, and enables the club to manage those changes once the works are underway.
“It is the best tool I have ever used for professional golf course management.”
The bunker-free Berkhamsted Golf Club is laid out on common land in Hertfordshire’s largest expanse of natural gorse and heather, with over five miles of bridleways and pathways running throughout the golf course and its 530-acre estate, full of natural beauty.
Situated north west of London, close to the western boundary of Hertfordshire, Berkhamsted Golf Club is easily accessible from the A41, five miles west of Hemel Hempstead and just 15 minutes from M1 Junction 8 (St Albans).
For further information see www.berkhamstedgolfclub.co.uk and www.cleregolfhub.com.