BUDA Redux / Continuation: Have and should links courses become not-a-links courses?

[Mark Pearce]

Bill,

I don't know.  I do know that the waiting list for Full Membership is closed and that more Junior Members become eligible for Full Membership each year than leave.  That's why I joined Crail.  Junior Membership at Elie is still open, though, and I'm in the process of obtaining proposers for my 12 year old.  With any luck next summer he'll be able to take me round Elie and I'll be able to take him (and his friends) around Crail.

This excerpt from the greens report for August for the Balcomie Links doesn't sound good:

GREENS
We have sprayed a liquid feed to help strengthen up the grass as we have applied a selective herbicide to kill off the pearlwort weed which has worked well, we are cutting daily at a height of 4mm and have been using the groomers to help lift and cut any lateral growth, we have also sprayed a liquid iron to help colour up the greens.

The idea of spraying anything on a links to "help colour up the greens" is surely anathema to all of us who love links golf.

[Bill_McBride]

Mark, maybe it's to turn them brown.  What do you think? 

[Mark Bourgeois]

Reading the year-end newsletter on Cruden Bay's website seems to indicate that those of us who played the main course in June -- played a not-a-links!

Apparently, the course has stepped over the boundary into not-a-links territory, but as two passages indicate, the club is working to return to links status.

Firstly, as regards the brutal rough we experienced in June, the greenkeeping section includes the following passage -- this dubious-sounding term, "definition," gives one pause: (could this be a texture issue rather than a framing issue?)

A wet spring and summer provided for optimal growing conditions for the rough and this season the golf course was arguably playing at its toughest for a long time.  There has been a concerted effort to bring some more definition to the golf course, however we do not wish the golf course become unplayable.  To try and eliminate some of this problem going forward, there will be a large effort to thin out the rough in many areas and already you will have seen that Alister and his team have started this work.  Only however after successive years of management will the rough become ‘thin and wispy’.

Bring back the wispy!

The second passage of note regards an ongoing effort to eradicate "meadow grass" from the greens:

...converting our greens back to a links type surface...The greens conversion programme has continued with good successes this season. Three overseedings have been carried out on the 18 hole course this year, during April, August and September.  On several greens we are now beginning to see the fruits of this intensive programme, however we cannot hide from the fact that some greens are not in a condition which is required for Cruden Bay.  As Alister has indicated previously, where the meadow grasses cannot be ‘managed out’ of a particular green surface, there will be a strong argument for relaying the surface. It goes without saying that this will be the last option, however when the spare hole becomes available, this will not be ruled out.

So how bout it: are things today so far from "true links" that we are unable to actually see that not-a-links-itis runs pandemic across the coastland, that not-a-links courses are far more extensive than virtually any of us believe, and the problem far more intractable?

Taking Campbell's comments together with the Cruden Bay letter, one suspects the answer is yes.  Given Campbell's point that links must show the way to sustainability, an issue which if possible has grown significantly more important in just the past six months, it appears that leadership in this regard, as in so many other areas these days, is sorely lacking.

And if a global association of links were to form, would it be so infected with not-a-links philosophies from the start that it was marginalized?  It's not as though Lundin is going to dig up their irrigation system, is it?

Mark

PS A picture of the 19th hole, a par 3, is included, along with the vaguely ominous comment, "this will then allow further development of existing holes..."  We've gone around this one before; not sure what came out of that.

[Mark Bourgeois]

Bottom line, I think that Malcolm has a point, but it is rhetorical rather than probative.  There are more "true" links now than there were when I frist played golf in Scotland in 1978.  They do change more often than they used to, but that is just the result of tehcnology and greenkeeping methodology.  In any case, what is wrong with change?  The Greek god Proteus could change his shape at will, but if you were lucky enough to catch him he would foretell your future.  Sounds like a links golf course to me.....

rfg

Add Formby to the not-a-links list, per Sean's comments on his Formby thread.  Isn't the better reference to Cronos? Cronos dethroned his father and to protect his reign ate his children.

Markos

[Rich Goodale]

Cheezo, Marco!

What have you been doing for the past 6 months?  Brushing up on your ancient Greek?

More serioulsy, I think that any comments regarding 2008 re: the topic should be taken cum grana salis.  It was an extraordinarily wet year and I do not know of any links course that was playing like a proper links this year.  Amongst other things, wet weather lets broad leaf (i.e. meadow) grasses flourish, and they are hard to get rid of once they infest.

That being said, your observations of CB and Mark P's notes on Crail do confirm a worrisome tendency of green staff/management towards "presenting" their courses rather than letting them present themselves.  Dornoch has had the same problem for many years, with (I think) an ill-thought out strategy that dumbing down the course for visitors exacerbating this tendency.

Ricardo

[Mark Bourgeois]

Which offers better sustainability for a links -- "sustainability" in its various guises, but especially environmental and financial (which includes not only costs but visitor revenues):
Irrigation systems
No irrigation systems

When Campbell criticized Lundin for installing an irrigation system, my thought was why's he banging on THIS? Seemed hopelessly quixotic, not only in the sense of utopian but in the sense of being misguided.

Now I'm not so sure.  Maybe the lack of a system would protect a links from its caretakers.

Mark

PS Very unsporting to use Roman language to crit Greek god! A "with wax" sort of comment -- the next pay packet will be light by about one box of Morton's.

[Rich Goodale]

Sorry, Mark.  i don't do Greek.

As for irrigation my guess involves a scenario like this:

Greenkeeper/Green Convenor:  "Murdoch!  Why did ye turn on the waterin' pipes this mornin', mon?"

Murdoch:  "Because I could, ye ken?"

It's sort of a reverse corollary of Parkinson's Law:

"Golf course maintenance interventions expand to fill the available map-hours of each individual machine/system bought or leased."

[Mark Bourgeois]

It's settled then.  We go with Campbell...


...lest we suffer Cronos


Mark

[Sean_A]

What is really troubling in all of this is despite the R&S's pleading and cajoling for proper links conditions as a responsible and sustainable option for the future and Hoylake a few years ago as probably the greatest example of this most likely since the Duel in the Sun, we have clubs insisting on non-links presentation (which I think narrowed fairways and thick rough is a root cause).  Folks go on about a wet summer, but a few links I saw this year definitely looked and played like links.  It is possible and it is being achieved.  I wonder if clubs are hedging their bets as it were.  Sort of betweext and between?

Ciao

[Mark Bourgeois]

It seems odd yet true that the associations with responsibilities for presenting golf's major championships are not the stewards for what might be called "sustainable golf."  The link (heh) could be down to the need, or perceived need, to present the courses in a certain type of condition, a condition that is at odds with "true links."

Wouldn't an association that established a clear definition provide a North Star the game so sorely needs?

Mark

[Peter Pallotta]

Mark -

Where would you put "proper maintenance" in your heirarchy of values?

As Sean suggests, it's plausible to me that as pilgrimages to the home of links golf become ever more popular/common, the clubs might choose to present and highlight to their high-paying visitors the most popular/common elements of the links experience, as popularly and commonly understood.

Where do you think proper maintenance ranks in terms of the important  elements of the links experience, in the popular/common conception? Where does proper maintenance rank for you, amongst the elements that makes links golf what it is?

Thanks
Peter

[Mark Bourgeois]

Peter

Can't answer for the popular perception except to note the wind lobby seems to have earned its pay but whoever handles the publicity work for "links-style conditioning" needs to be replaced.  Golfers from N Am come tend to come back with positive stories about the wind and negative stories about the conditioning...(Honestly, Brits sometimes bitch about conditioning, too. Well, the English, maybe because whining is an important part of the national character.)

I guess I see maintenance as a necessary but insufficient condition.  You feel it when it's missing.  As is often the case with the wind, proper maintenance is necessary for the links architecture to come out.

Anyway...how would you answer the (excellent) questions you've posed?

Mark

[Rich Goodale]

Mark

I'm not sure what you and/or Malcolm mean by "sustaionable golf," but in my experience and observation, links courses are very resilient, regardless of how well or poorly they are maintained.  Brora got by quite well in the 1980's with one man, his tractor and several hundred grazing animals, while nearby Dornoch went into a funk through over maintenance.  Now, the tables are turned, and Brora looks relatively overwatgered while Dornoch is in pretty good shape.  Swings and roundabouts, as they say over here, but nothing to do with "sustainability."  Both Dornoch and Brora will outlive anybody posting on this thread.

rich

[Peter Pallotta]

Mark - to answer your question about my question, I really don't know.

I think that a) the landforms/features made possible by the nature of the sandy soil, b) the apparent randomness that sometimes results, c) the subsequent un-predictability of the bounces and the game itself, and d) the openess and (therefore even more pronounced) windiness of the sites would all rank higher for me than the proper maintenance practices. BUT having never played there myself, I'm not sure that the proper maintenance practices aren't not only aids to but actually instrumental in bringing all those other elements to life. And if so, how does one rank -- in the heirarchy of values -- that which isn't all that important in and of itself but which gives life to all the rest?

Like I say, Mark - I really don't have any experience to base this on and really don't know. But I find the ideas of someone how does know (Rich, in his post above) telling.

Peter   

[Sean_A]

Mark

I'm not sure what you and/or Malcolm mean by "sustaionable golf," but in my experience and observation, links courses are very resilient, regardless of how well or poorly they are maintained.  Brora got by quite well in the 1980's with one man, his tractor and several hundred grazing animals, while nearby Dornoch went into a funk through over maintenance.  Now, the tables are turned, and Brora looks relatively overwatgered while Dornoch is in pretty good shape.  Swings and roundabouts, as they say over here, but nothing to do with "sustainability."  Both Dornoch and Brora will outlive anybody posting on this thread.

rich

Rich

I think sustainable refers to developing the types of grass that need minimal input from man.  What I see now on many links are grasses which need more love and care than they should considering what should be growing there.  The ironic thing is the more love and care we offer, the more the grasses need.  There are very few links left which are true links and I think watering systems are a direct correlation to what is and what isn't a true links.  We seem to be in state of compromise at the moment, but perhaps rising costs will turn the tables, but wherever you turn, memberships want to be able to turn on the water in (they say) emergency conditions. 

Ciao

[Rich Goodale]

Sean

Hopefully some qualified turfheads will jump in here, but my understanding is that once you get an infestation of broad-leafed grasses on links courses it takes a lot of hard work to get rid of them.  I'm also pretty sure that un-natural watering (i.e. irrigation) is opne of the main culprits for their arrival.

As to the idea of scrapping irrigation and allowing mother nature to do his work, this would surely be sustainable agronomically, but at the cost of having courses which look far diffrent than they do now.  My old (30+ years) photos of my first trips to Scotland and Ireland show courses that would make the Sheep Ranch look like Augusta.  I also remember playing on bone dry fairways where clouds of dust would arise instead of divots and balls landing 20+ yards short of the green would end up through the back (actually I saw this again this year in a tournament at Monifieth).

But, while we all know that links courses will come back from those conditions (viz. Hoylake after its recent Open), how many visitors willknow or even care if they are paying $200+ for an "experience" which is an acquired taste?  How sustainable, economically, is this strategy?  Sure it would be interesting to go back to those kinder gentler days, when small was beautiful, 18 holes could be played in 2 hrs 45, beer cost 70p a pint and the beauty of golf courses were in the eye of the beholder rather than the hands of the greenkeeper, but is that feasible?

I think not....

[Sean_A]

Sean

Hopefully some qualified turfheads will jump in here, but my understanding is that once you get an infestation of broad-leafed grasses on links courses it takes a lot of hard work to get rid of them.  I'm also pretty sure that un-natural watering (i.e. irrigation) is opne of the main culprits for their arrival.

As to the idea of scrapping irrigation and allowing mother nature to do his work, this would surely be sustainable agronomically, but at the cost of having courses which look far diffrent than they do now.  My old (30+ years) photos of my first trips to Scotland and Ireland show courses that would make the Sheep Ranch look like Augusta.  I also remember playing on bone dry fairways where clouds of dust would arise instead of divots and balls landing 20+ yards short of the green would end up through the back (actually I saw this again this year in a tournament at Monifieth).

But, while we all know that links courses will come back from those conditions (viz. Hoylake after its recent Open), how many visitors willknow or even care if they are paying $200+ for an "experience" which is an acquired taste?  How sustainable, economically, is this strategy?  Sure it would be interesting to go back to those kinder gentler days, when small was beautiful, 18 holes could be played in 2 hrs 45, beer cost 70p a pint and the beauty of golf courses were in the eye of the beholder rather than the hands of the greenkeeper, but is that feasible?

I think not....

Rich

For sure you are right.  It takes hard work and diligence to eliminate broad leaf grasses which have thrived under recent links maintenance practices.  I spose there will always be a balance between presenting a product the members and visitors want (I reckon there is a lot of debate about this issue) and keeping maintenance budgets under control in this time of seriously escalating costs, possible water shortages and more stringent regulation on who can use water and for what purposes.  Its a sort of catch 22.  Because there are visitors there is loose money about to spend (some would say unnecessarily) on the course and this in turn requires more visitors to maintain the budget.  Of course, the well known clubs do alright, but the smaller clubs who can't keep pace are in a spot of bother with sharply rising dues (encouraging the marginal golfers to quit) at a time when dues should be coming down to attract new members. 

Personally, as stewards of the game, I think the R&A (because big name clubs won't lead the way) is right to award their championships to clubs who are trying to develop more sustainable maintenance practices by reducing water and feed.  The game in Britain is losing its way, but the trend can be haulted if we act now.  There could be many lean years ahead and clubs need to be in a better position to weather this period. 

Ciao

[Mark Chaplin]

I can only speak for Royal Cinque Ports when I say that conditioning by colour is certainly not in our course strategy. A good even covering of fine quality grasses of whatever colour certainly is.

Deal fitted fairway watering in the late '90s as the bottom end of the course (9,10 & 11) was so dry the fairways ended up with no grass, players had to use tees on the fairway even in the summer! Since then the summers have been pretty wet and I'm sure we made some mistakes with the watering. However the fairway watering is used sparingly to keep the grass healthy.

As far as the rough is concerned Sandwich, Princes and Deal all have fairly wide fairways but natural rough. That means if you play in late June or July the rough will often be very thick, by August the sun has dried it out and it should be whispy and playable...nature permitting. If the clubs messed around with the rough one of my golfing highlights, the sound of a Skylark singing high above us would surely become a rare sight and sound.  

[Sean_A]

I can only speak for Royal Cinque Ports when I say that conditioning by colour is certainly not in our course strategy. A good even covering of fine quality grasses of whatever colour certainly is.

Deal fitted fairway watering in the late '90s as the bottom end of the course (9,10 & 11) was so dry the fairways ended up with no grass, players had to use tees on the fairway even in the summer! Since then the summers have been pretty wet and I'm sure we made some mistakes with the watering. However the fairway watering is used sparingly to keep the grass healthy.

As far as the rough is concerned Sandwich, Princes and Deal all have fairly wide fairways but natural rough. That means if you play in late June or July the rough will often be very thick, by August the sun has dried it out and it should be whispy and playable...nature permitting. If the clubs messed around with the rough one of my golfing highlights, the sound of a Skylark singing high above us would surely become a rare sight and sound.  

Chappers

I also believe that part of the reason we are seeing thicker and thicker rough in the UK is due to watering and feed run off.  Unless we get a period of sustained heat in the summer there is a nasty undergrowth of thick broad leafed grasses which don't really die back. 

Ciao

[Mark Chaplin]

Agreed you'll note several months ago I mentioned on this topic that Deal's rough was fertilised a number of years ago on the instructions of a wayward soul.

[Rich Goodale]

I remember a wee chat I had with the Secretary and his R&A turf consultant on this matter when I last played Deal in May 2006.  I'm really looking forward to seeing the course again in September, as it was very good then and ought to be great for BUDA VII!

[Mark Bourgeois]

What an enjoyable set of comments these are to read!

Rich as I think both Sean and you allude, there are two types of sustainability: agronomic and financial.

The former seems to me as much about philosophy, about what we think a links is supposed to be and how it is supposed to be presented, as it is about environmental concerns.  Perhaps the environmental aspect should be broken out as a third element, for as Mark notes a links like all course types is a habitat. (Mark have you read the stories that songbirds have declined greatly in recent decades?)

Yes, Rich, links will endure. The question is, will they prevail? I see "sustainable" agronomical philosophy as underpinning a view that a true links' natural state is variability, the absence of constancy or stability. Seems like where things go off the rails is a view that wants to see, not zero variability, but minimized variability, or less variability than is "normal."

I, too, hope someone with expertise chimes in on the broad leaf question. The questions I have are, what is the relationship of their sustainability on linksland to maintenance and what is the relationship of their introduction / propogation to wandering golfers?

The other aspect is financial sustainability. Sean is right, a storm is coming.

Mark

[Peter Pallotta]

Just to pick up on one of your comments, Mark, in light of all the other posts since. I don't think any aspect or element of links golf is immutable, as we're not talking about the ten commandments. If proper links maintenance is (currently) not economically sustainable, I believe it can be made so by the same approach and efforts used succesfully by the "wind lobby" as you so nicely put it. Currently though, and as my own outsider's hierarchy of values suggests, dry-as-a-bone conditions don't likely jump out to almost any of the new class of visitors as essential to the links experience....

Peter

[Rich Goodale]

What an enjoyable set of comments these are to read!

Rich as I think both Sean and you allude, there are two types of sustainability: agronomic and financial.

The former seems to me as much about philosophy, about what we think a links is supposed to be and how it is supposed to be presented, as it is about environmental concerns.  Perhaps the environmental aspect should be broken out as a third element, for as Mark notes a links like all course types is a habitat. (Mark have you read the stories that songbirds have declined greatly in recent decades?)

Yes, Rich, links will endure. The question is, will they prevail? I see "sustainable" agronomical philosophy as underpinning a view that a true links' natural state is variability, the absence of constancy or stability. Seems like where things go off the rails is a view that wants to see, not zero variability, but minimized variability, or less variability than is "normal."

I, too, hope someone with expertise chimes in on the broad leaf question. The questions I have are, what is the relationship of their sustainability on linksland to maintenance and what is the relationship of their introduction / propogation to wandering golfers?

The other aspect is financial sustainability. Sean is right, a storm is coming.

Mark

Excellent Faulkner reference, Mark.  As a good ole southern boy I would have expected nothing less from you.

r

And as for the storm reference, will it be full of sound and fury or more like the tale of an idiot?  We descendants of King Malcolm would like to know.....

[Eric Johnson]

Gents,

After skimming through this thread, I thought this link may be of interest:

https://www.bestcourseforgolf.org/

Sustainable golf maintenance may be necessary (or more attractive) in the future as a result of the current economic climate.