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Given the increasingly baleful influence of the weather, John Cockayne has embarked on a series of discussions with various venues and commentators, to look at what the golf community, especially golf estates and resorts, can do to lessen the game’s impact on the environment, and mitigate the influence of extreme weather events, which, over the past few decades have gone from being occasional, to increasingly frequent occurrences.
The broader context to this is that the golf community has traditionally been slow in coming forward with its own ‘good news’ stories.
The result of not sharing what it is doing has left many ‘myths’ in circulation and unchallenged, such as golf courses, especially on estates, using drinking water to irrigate the playing areas, to developers only using the ‘best’ land for golf estate developments.
The latter is particularly irksome when the best land is unaffordable in business terms, and when developments, such as Eagle Canyon (the focus of a future discussion), have reclaimed unsightly and virtually unusable tracts of land and turned them into vibrant communities, which among any benefits contribute to the area’s municipal fiscus and job creation.
The John Collier Survey (JCS), which is an environmental and monitoring solution, developed for local conditions and designed to help golf courses track their progress and performance in these key areas, is in the vanguard of developing an enhanced sense of environmental awareness.
Over 200 of South Africa’s golf courses already use the JCS dashboard and toolkit, and so the discussion will also engage with Alistair Collier, the survey’s founder, to see if we are making sufficient progress and if not, what needs to be done.
The impact of extreme weather has been seen throughout South Africa, especially in KZN and the Eastern and Western Cape regions, and it is a global issue, which now impacts in a very real sense on everyone’s lives.
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For example, it is estimated that over 30% of Australia’s homes are now uninsurable, while on the East Coast regions of the USA, homeowners are often paying more per month for insurance (if they can get it), than they are on their mortgage repayments.
Optimistically referred to as the ‘weatherproofing’, the discussion ‘tees off’ with Fancourt, on the gorgeous Garden Route, as we discuss the challenges of managing the estate’s three golf courses with Gerhard Van Rooyen – Head Golf Course Superintendent, and Ryan Reid, Director of Sports and Recreation
JC: As there are 3 golf courses at Fancourt, can you please explain how your maintenance teams are structured?
GVR: The Golf Course Maintenance department at Fancourt consists of a team of 112 staff, and this ‘main’ team is divided into 5 smaller teams.
The Links golf course team includes a superintendent, assistant superintendent, golf course supervisors, and machine operators, who are responsible for the maintenance of the course.
The Montagu/Outeniqua courses’ team, is similarly structured.
The third team is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of all the golf course maintenance equipment. It consists of a resort workshop manager, mechanics, workshop supervisors, and workshop assistants.
The fourth team is responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the entire irrigation system, and consists of a supervisor, electrical technician, and irrigation technicians.
The last and fifth team looks after the maintenance of the Golf Academy facility.
This also doubles in the role of our training facility, wherein new employees who are looking for a future in golf course maintenance, undergo training to become machine operators.
This process ensures that all new golf course maintenance employees have been properly trained, before becoming part of the bigger maintenance team at Fancourt
JC: We have covered a lot of ground to date, so can you comment on what you consider to be the key takeaways to date in this series of discussions?
GVR: My sense is that the key elements to come through so far for me, are firstly that climatic challenges are a threat to everyone.
The second takeout would be that golfers’ expectations of playing on perfectly manicured golf courses 365 days each year are the same everywhere.
The last would be that there is a growing awareness of the need to keep improving our record in keeping our golf courses’ impact on the environment as low as possible by doing things differently than in the past.
Our focus has changed over the last decade from only offering high-standard golf courses to offering high-standard golf courses that also improve/promote environmental health.
JC: Every region has its own particular challenges – in both environmental terms, and those everyday maintenance processes, which are required to keep the courses in the best possible shape.
As Fancourt is at sea level, and close to the coast, what are the challenges that you feel are peculiar to this area, and can you give an example of any recent problems i.e., I believe that you had an issue with pythium root rot?
GVR: Our courses were very well built from the outset, so we are fortunate to have had no legacy issues from the development stages, which many estate and resort courses experience.
That said, as Fancourt is located next to the Outeniqua mountains and near the Indian ocean, we are exposed to bergwinds from the northwest. which are generally warm and dry winds.
As the majority of our bunkers are large (some are waste bunkers), we tend to lose some sand during these wind storms, so it’s important that we water the sand before the wind starts to limit the amount of sand being blown away.
With high humidity the norm during the midsummer months, Pythium root rot can be a recurring problem on our playing surfaces. The fact that these surfaces are highly maintained areas, is also a contributing factor
JC: To keep a sense of continuity, and garner feedback, as we move through the regions and discussions, some of the questions are essentially and inevitably repeats.
One of these is that I have separated golf courses’ venues into three broad categories, just for ease of reference – clubs, estates, and resorts – and naturally, there are variables in between these.
Using these descriptions as a rough benchmark, do you feel that different pressures come to bear with the expectations around each of these different types, especially at resort destination such as Fancourt, and especially as the facility has three layouts?
GVR: I detect that so far, everyone you have spoken to seems to agree that golfers’ expectations nowadays are high, regardless of the type of course, or facility they might be playing at.
One significant difference between a typical golf club and an estate is that it is more operationally challenging on an estate, as one must always be considerate of the residents.
For example, if you are mowing early in the morning, you should try to limit machine noise so as not to disturb the residential areas, but this is not always possible
Furthermore, you have often referred to the Augusta effect, and this is a super description, which sums up how many club golfers want, and or even expect, to see their club’s course – week in and week out.
When you are dealing with a resort destination like Fancourt, the expectation is always high, and Fancourt is rightly recognised, as being one of the top destinations and residential estates in Africa.
As a result, additional pressures come into play, as we need to deal with members, the homeowners and their guests and vacationers.
One thing is for sure – even if their expectations in terms of experiences, might vary from group to group, all will expect the golf courses to be in top shape, from both a playing and visual respect!
JC: As a former greenkeeper, in an era when this on-course role was combined with those required of a club professional, there were certain disadvantages – too much work for one thing! – but it did keep me ‘connected’ with the members on a daily basis, and therefore kept me in touch with their on-course ‘experience’.
Is this important, and is it something you can manage or create the time for, given the time it must take to look after 3 courses?
GVR: It is very important to stay connected.
Admittedly this can be time-consuming, but it brings its own rewards, and by keeping us in step with the experiences of both visitors and members, it provides a valuable stream of info, and through proactive communication, enables to share any challenges that we might have.
‘Running away’ from a member can be tempting (!), but given the benefits that can come from these types of interactions, anything other than an ongoing dialogue, can often be very counter-productive.
JC: Yes, the old maxim about a problem being shared, also being one which is halved, and ongoing communications, whether formally by newsletter, or similar, or more informally via general day-to-day interactions, are very effective and the quicker we can get the membership on board in terms of what is happening on the golf course, the better.
As an ‘old fashioned’ head pro, I had the advantage of being in touch on a daily basis with the members – and their gripes!
As the head pro at Southbroom Golf Club, the ‘moans’ were a little more muted year-round, because I kept up a continual dialogue with my members, and as the membership would almost triple (it often felt like a tenfold increase!) during the holiday seasons.
Thankfully with the latter, the moans, if any, were not about the golf course, but rather the scarcity of tee-off times, especially on the traditional competition days!
