Přinášíme vám rozsáhlý rozhovor viceprezidenta RGCML Petra Somola s greenkeeperem Stuartem Burridgem o našem hřišti, o plánech jeho rozvoje, i o golfové hře, zaznamenaný 25.srpna 2012. Zde rozhovor uvádíme v původní anglické podobě, český překlad připravujeme a zveřejníme zanedlouho.

(Dotazy Petra Somola jsou psány kurzivou, odpovědi Stuarta Burridge jsou psány standardně.)

Stuart, thank you for agreeing to make this interview. The idea is to give our members a broader picture of what's happening around the golf course, what are the long term plans etc.

Actually I've had an idea as well - to put together a fact sheet, of the problems we have, and to do a monthly update on that, so that people can see the improvements, of soil quality, etc., as we go.

Great idea. Now, before we start talking about the course I have another question. How have you settled in ?

Fine. Everyone is great. People seem to be giving me the chance to do what I need to do, so.. I like the town, I like the golf course. And I think we are going in the right direction here.

Any particular difficulty for an Englishman to live in this country ?

No, I do not think so. Not for me.

Not even the weather ? Which here in Marianske Lazne might be even worse than in England ?

Yes, to be honest this is kind of normal. This is typical English weather. Actually I have been fortunate enough to have worked in couple of countries where the weather gets really bad. I was in Germany around Frankfurt for three or four years and there they got it pretty bad, down to minus 27 at times.

By the way, our town has a nickname from the Germans - Schneeloch. Unfortunately we have snow around here late into the season, it is not unusual to have it at the course till May. But back to the club. I can tell, that - fortunately - this is a club which still is... a club. Where members do care..

..yes, the other good thing is, well, this seems the kind of place where people are going to ask questions. Well, it is great to go to a golf course where they totally leave you alone to get on with things, but after a while you start sort of thinking.. where is everybody? If people are asking you questions and there is genuine interest, at least you gonna know that you will have someone behind you, pushing you, and it gives you that little bit of incentive. you still need that.

So back to the key question - what is the current state of the course ?

Terrible (laughing). The greens,and  the main plain areas are not very healthy. There is far too much thatch, far too much black layer. Not enough aeration has happened. But that's history. We are in this position now and it is up to us to make improvements.

Is there some kind of disease or so ?

No, not so much. That was something I was surprised about. When we're having these mixed conditions, this warm and wet, we were having recently, I was expecting an outbreak of something because of the general poor health of the greens. But I think we've been quite lucky. Maybe the temperatures were so high throughout the day and so low overnight, that the disease had no chance. That may change the next month though. But you know, in the main part of the season, there is not really a disease issues that I've had. The main problem we've had this year is insects. Leatherjackets. That's from where most of the scars on green Nr. 10 for example, 16, 13, come. 8 as well a little, 7 a little bit. That's mainly cranefly larvae that's attacking. And the problem is  because the thatch layer is so thick, when I spray, by the time the application gets to where the leather jackets are it is so weak so that it does not kill all of them. I have applied twice by now and it has still not got all of them. Fortunately it's coming to the end of their season.  the problem is when you have unhealthy greens, you make the environment suitable for insects, disease, and even compaction.

So the way forward is better aeration..

Yes, just what we are doing.

One related question. I heard in the past that one of the difficulties with this golf course is principal, and that's the layer of clay, which is supposed to underlay roughly half of the course area. I also heard that we are principally unable to improve the health of greens considerably because of that, without reconstructing the greens... ?

No. You can't get rid of it but you certainly can create air spaces within that. As long as we are aerating deep enough to this kind of depths, roots actually can develop in this area. As long as you are constantly aerating.  we will apply very coarse sand after aeration  that will never get compact and will always have air spaces. During winter months water will make its way down these shafts of sand and will freeze and expand. This in itself is a form of aeration. Creating air spaces where before was compacted soil.

So the optimistic outcome of this is that even without complete reconstruction we should be able to improve greens considerably.

Yes. I worked on a golf course in England, where every green has had similar problems as here. Not as bad, but there was three or four greens that were exactly as the 2nd green. Now I was on the golf course maybe three years. By the time I left, all the greens were playable for all the season. And that was just from sensible aeration, doing things at the right time, and it works.

And that tells also a very important information that it takes time. I guess we need to stress it for everyone.

Of course. You know in a ideal world we would aerate the greens 7 times in a season, basically every time the greens recover from previous aeration. This is not realistic  because the greens would be constantly worked on throughout that year and it would effect business. We must improve course quality without having a direct effect on business. If we could aerate 7 times next year our problems would obviously be sorted a lot quicker, the realistic situation is that it will take the best part of 18 months before we see the results of our work

But for that year you have no play on them.

Exactly. So you've got to space those aerations out, you got to space the things out so that you can keep business, to keep money turning. It is people playing who is paying our wages.

Is there a chance to take effective use of those off-season periods, early spring, late autumn ?
At the start and end to every season we must aerate very heavily. Throughout the season we can control thatch and compaction with lighter foérms of aeration.

I understand we do have our own means to aerate "reasonably heavy" ? Plus we need once a season this Drill & Fill ?

Yes, realistically, if we start the season or end season with drill fill we are giving ourselves the best chance of quality play throughout the year. When we combine drill fill with scarification with graden machine we not only relieve compaction and remove thatch we also allow gas exchange in the profile. This will lead to much healthier playing areas.

So in terms of play the members should expect roughly three times a year aerification to be done, affecting next ten days ?

Three or four times during the season. You know the heavy aeration at the start and end of season are essential, they need to be done. Then if we could do three hollow cores throughout the season we will really start to see improvement. The good thing about it is that once we get to a point when the greens are at least free draining (the water goes through), then we can start reducing couple of the hollow cores during the season. Now we are trying to get to that stage, so that we can maximize the time of play on the course.

OK so that's greens.

Yes, basically everything else is in the same condition. The tees are very compacted, very thatchy. We will have a similar program with those. There is not so much disruption to golf when we work on tees. Approaches, again, similar kind of problem. And for the fairways, we need a full irrigation system.

Which is incomplete now, I understand ?

Yes, we only have tees, greens, the greens do not have a full coverage. Most of the green I have seen should have four sprinklers but only have three. That's something we need to look at in the future.

I also understand we need a bigger water supply.. that's what the governing body is addressing now.

Yes even now we do not have enough water storage areas and in terms of next five years, should the irrigation system be updated to cover all greens, fairways, tees, partly roughs, we will need even moe water.

So we can not avoid now those dried out fairways as we have seen in August ?

You know now we are very much dependent on the weather for the colour of the fairways. We've had fertilizer in the shed for maybe two or three weeks now, and I have not wanted to apply just because of the fact it will burn if not watered in. OK, I've been given guarantee by the people that supply that it will not scorch if it does not break down but in my experience its better to air on the side of caution.  Because we do not have full irrigation i must wait for perfect weather conditions before I apply fertiliser when I know it will start  to break down and will not cause any scorch. I have seen it recently on another course where the guys fertilized, did not water it properly, then one of them run over it with a buggy and they just got these big burn-outs.  Here the fact that we do not have a full irrigation system brings other problems like compaction. You get this clay soil that gets unbelievably dry. And it just tigthens up and nothing grows.

You mentioned that you were surprised how well the local turf survived in the difficult conditions..

There is so many stories like that. Even microclimatic conditions make a difference. Every golf course I have been to has been totally different. The elevation does not help. Take for example the 2nd green. We went to work and it was something like 4 to 5 degrees at the greenkeeping shed. Down the 2nd hole it was kind of 2 to 3 degrees down there. It makes a big difference. Also when a green is in shade it is gonna to be a lot colder there. Those changes in temperatures and even the changes in light can stop grass from working altogether.

Let's go to something on a positive note..

(laughing) But you know these problems we have, we'll fix all of them. All of them.

OK, what biggest assets you see we have ?

Well, there is the great golf course. We've got a great golf course, we've got a board of directors that are willing to face up the problems that we've got i feel we are going in the right direction. Another asset we have is the greenstaff a great bunch of guys and good at their jobs. But I think the most positive thing is the actual golf course. It is a great golf course. A little bit of work, a little bit of attention and it will be fantastic. It's got history. You know it's got everything you need. Just needs to be in better condition, that's all.

That's actually another question - your long term plan, long term vision ?

we have enough equipment in the greenkeeping shed to take care of most of the problems we have. As far as big investments are concerned, you are really only looking at the drill & fill for the time being. And later on in future there will be the irrigation system. Realistically with what we've got, we can start making headway to the problems. Once we got through this year, and see the effect the drill & fill has, we will know more about how the greens are going to respond to that kind of heavy aeration. Actually you asked about something positive.. when we hollow cored this time,  we really did get a really positive result from that. You know there were places where we caused damage by ourselves because the grass is so weak. But you see those problems getting less and less with more aeration.

Have you actually got enough time to play ?

Not yet. I'll try to play a couple of tournaments in September.  obviously at the end of September we are going to be busy with preparations for the Drill & Fill so i dont have much time. After drill and fill i will be getting married so i am very busy.

Oh that's great. Congratulations. So your girlfriend is happy about you being here ?

Yes, we're OK. She knows I want to be here. Plus I want to see this through. I want to be here at least five years. Because you are going to see improvements next year, and the year after that as well, but realistically the whole plan - greens, tees, fairways, approaches, couple of new tees - that all takes time. So my plan is 5 years, if you guys can put up with me for 5 years (laughter). And we will see where are we after five years..

Can you imagine your life without actually playing golf ?

No, I do not think so. I enjoy it, you know. There is nothing better, after a good day of work,  going out and playing golf in the evening. The greens and golf course are presented well. you are standing there over a 6-foot putt and you hit it where you want to hit it and it rolls, it does not move off line and it drops. And you just get that extra feeling of, you know, I did that.

..it's this repeatable victory over yourself.

Yes, i like the fact if you play badly you can not blame anyone but yourself. When you play well it makes that achievement so much greater because it was you and you alone that was responsable. Golf is a great game.

Stuart, I've got no more questions today, thanks a lot for your time...