Bro Hof Slott Golf Club, Sweden (pictures)

[Eric Franzen]

Found a couple of pictures on a memory card that I shot during a visit to the construction site of Bro Hof Slott Golf Club, outside of Stockholm, Sweden.

The Club plan to build two 18 hole courses. Both of the layouts are done by the Robert Trent Jones JR company, with Bruce Charlton as lead designer and Art Clarke as head shaper. The championship layout, The Stadium Course (around 8000 yds - already confirmed to host Scandinavian Masters in 2009), will open this summer with The Castle Course, which is more aimed towards casual member play to follow in 2009.

The scale of the project is quite ambitious for the Swedish market. The Stadium Course will have 18 USGA greens equipped with the same sub air system which are used at a certain course in Georgia. The total project budget is around 45 million dollars (privately funded by business magnate Bjorn Oras), while the first 150   memberships (of 1100) where sold for around 45 000 dollars each.

The courses will be open for outside play (greenfee will be around 120 dollars) with accompanying hotel and conference amenities.

Penn trio (Penn Eagle, Penn Links and Penn Cross) was used for the fairways and Penn A4 for the greens.




The club house


First hole (par 5, aprox 630 yds from the back) on The Stadium Course


The stretch of holes situated next to lake Mälaren (fairway of the 9th in center)


9th green (with fairways of 10 and 15th in the background).


The finishing stretch with the island green on 17th and the fairway of the par 4 18th to the right.

[Tom_Doak]

Can anyone with a turf background explain to me why you would want or need Sub Air under the greens on a golf course in Sweden?

[Eric Franzen]

Tom,

The main reason for installing the sub air system is for distributing heated air and oxygen - which should extend the season in early spring and late autumn.

[Joe Hancock]

Tom,

The main reason for installing the sub air system is for distributing heated air and oxygen - which should extend the season in early spring and late autumn.

Eric,

How will this extend the season?

Thanks,

Joe

[Marty Bonnar]

Tom,

The main reason for installing the sub air system is for distributing heated air and oxygen - which should extend the season in early spring and late autumn.

Eric,

How will this extend the season?

Thanks,

Joe

One would assume mostly by melting greensnow (Close, but no relation to yellowsnow)

FBD.

[Joel_Stewart]

An island green, very original.

Its so flat it look like a Florida resort course.

[Eric Franzen]

Tom,

The main reason for installing the sub air system is for distributing heated air and oxygen - which should extend the season in early spring and late autumn.

Eric,

How will this extend the season?

Thanks,

Joe

One would assume mostly by melting greensnow (Close, but no relation to yellowsnow)

FBD.

The heated air and oxygen will be distributed towards the root system of the grass. I'll guess to stimulate growth and improve the quality of the grass, but I am not an expert on turf or agronomy and I haven't   spoke to their super yet.  

I am not sure for this specific course, but more and more Swedish clubs are starting to cover their greens with big plastic/microfiber blankets during the wintertime to avoid problem with ice burn and other issues related to melting snow.

[Tony Ristola]

Sub air in Sweden?

It won't extend the season, but may get help get the greens better faster. Dry soils require 500% less energy to heat up. With cool spring weather and rain, I could see subair help make growing conditions more favorable. Stockholm is somewhere close to Anchorage in latitude. They need all the help they can get.

Most courses there don't have decent greens until after mid sommar. (July)

It can get pretty wet there. And when it rains it's usually cool or cold. Even in the summer. That's why you get such good rain gear from the Scandinavian companies.

I remember one season it rained every week on the Swedish Tour. It was nicknamed the Swedish Rain Tour. Every club could have used sub air.

15 plus years ago some clubs experimented with heating under the greens. It warmed the greens, but did nothing for moisture removal.

Geotextile use will be interesting to follow. Weather there can get warm, cold, warm, cold. Perfect for ice creation and when you get ice for extended periods, how much will the geotextile help?

[Eric Franzen]

Thanks for your input, Tony.

No, it wont extend the season in terms of melting away the snow. The main selling point from the club (Disclosure: I am not a member)  is that it will extend the period that they can have greens of decent quality open for play. It will be interesting to see how it turns out in reality during the next couple of years.

We have been able to see a clear difference in terms of general quality during the early months of the season for the Stockholm clubs with USGA greens (new courses like Vidbynas and Kyssinge and older ones like Djursholm remodeling).

[Joe Hancock]

Eric, and Tony,

Thanks. I had an idea this was the mindset behind the Subair, but wanted to hear if there was some other claim behind it's abilities.

Joe

[wsmorrison]

Eric,

It was very nice of you to let the club use one of the outbuildings on your estate for the clubhouse  

[Eric Franzen]

Eric,

It was very nice of you to let the club use one of the outbuildings on your estate for the clubhouse  

Yes, and I also have a bridge for sale on the same property. A slightly used sub air system could be included. Meet me at the site around midnight at any suggested date and we'll work something out.  

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Eric, when will the course be open for play?

[Eric Franzen]

Tiger,

The official word is just "2007". My guess, based on what I've heard, is late May or sometime in June.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Eric, I hope so. It would be fun to see it this summer.

[Jari Rasinkangas]

The biggest problem in Scandinavia is that every winter is different and the length of it is also different.  The conditions is springtime are usually quite the same each year but very different on different locations.  It may rain a lot on some places but e.g. on my home course it hardly rains in spring.  The course, Oulu Golf Club, Finland, is about 1000 km north from Stockholm on seaside.  For us the subair could be even harmful because when the snow melts the dry and cold winds dry the turf surface.  That is why we use light blankets on greens to keep them moist and warm.  To warm the greens underneath would be fine but we cannot use the irrigation system because the ground is still frozen for a few weeks after the snow melts.  The pipes would freeze.

On the other hand in Stockholm region subair could work fine but the super has to be very careful not to use it too early in spring.  I am sure there will be some trial and error for a few years before finding out the best practice with it.

The problem with the heating systems that were tried earlier was the same as described above.  The greens dried out.

In Finland we have not used geotextile for greens covers.  Some clubs have had good results by using first a bubble plastic on green surface and then on top of it a plastic sheet that does not let water through it.  This way the water cannot reach the green surface and the bubbles keep air layer for the grass to breathe through the winter.  The problem with this protection is that the sheets should not be put on warm ground.  The super has to wait until the freezing weather to get the sheets on cold and dry ground.  E.g. last year we could not get the sheets on the ground because we had a long warm and moist autumn.  When we finally got the snow the ground was still very wet. If you put the sheets on warm and moist soil you will get disease under the sheets that will kill the grass.

Jari