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A chat to super-committed Kingswood Greenkeeper Ivan van Heerden is always interesting and informative – and as 2024 fast draws to a close, it’s great to hear that his team’s many projects have been bearing fruit in time for a smashing summer.
Compliments abound for the late-November look of Kingswood Golf Estate’s extensive course. And this may well be a big part of the inspiration for Ivan van Heerden and his 20-strong team to sign up for duty by first light each weekday.
‘It’s the best we’ve come out of winter for the five years of my involvement at Kingswood, and that makes it easy to get up in the morning! It’s a combination of good weather and the payoff of programmes that we’ve been implementing over the past few years,’ he says.
Taking into account that climate conditions are invariably beyond one’s control, Ivan has seen worse than what the weather gods have delivered over the past four quarters. A quick look back to previous BUZZard editions will remind of extreme flooding in November 2021, and several remedial projects necessitated by meteorological impacts on the course.
Prevention beats cure by far
In anticipation of the coming season and increased player numbers on the course, most of the year’s maintenance and remedial projects would have concluded by the time you read here. But Ivan hopes for a little bit more rain in December to ensure that fertiliser used on the course has the desired impact.
‘With some rain over the coming weeks, it will carry us through the height of the summer. It’s quite staggering to see how quickly the winter’s rainy season has passed and although the majority of the course is healthy and bright green, the past year has been comparatively dry.’
On the day of this interview, 20 November, the tally was standing at 689mm; the figure on the same day in 2023 was 1,150mm of rainfall received, pushing a 40% decline in water gifted by the heavens. So it’s a very good thing that the greenkeeping team works within a preventative frame of mind.
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‘The programmes we’ve been implementing over the past three to five years are not designed to come to fruition overnight, but it’s satisfying to see that they’ve helped us to deal with unexpected or undesirable conditions,’ says Ivan.
The work that worked
Apart from post-flood fixing and drainage maintenance in several areas on the course, fertilising all over and creating green screens in select locations, some of the past year’s projects include:
The settlement with dozens of sandbags of an embankment at the seventh hole, to lessen the risk of water damming up after extensive showers.
Continued spraying and maintenance of Kikuyu patch – a turf disease that appears as rings or patches of blighted turf grass that impacts the appearance of an otherwise good-looking golf course. Fortunately, if kept in check, the patches generally disappear by the onset of summer.
‘We have also just completed a new bay at the putting green, which now allows parking for up to 5 golf carts. But the bigger projects were concluded towards the end of spring, allowing us to now concentrate all our efforts on course maintenance.’
Ivan says that this encompasses sodding along golf- cart tracks, doctoring young plants that may have suffered over winter, and a process known as verti- draining that involves punching small holes into the surface of greens, ensuring effective drainage of what golfers often refer to as the ‘dance floor’.
Beat that sell-by date
Less to do with living matter – but as important in the greenkeeping team’s universe – is the equipment required to pull off their task with aplomb. So one of the projects they’re looking forward to early in the new year is an equipment-replacement drive.
‘Next year will see our first renewal of equipment that is due for replacement. This ensures that we can work with optimum productivity, which of course translates into cost efficiency in the greater scheme of things,’ Ivan explains.
Examples of the specialised machines used by Ivan and his team, and which will be in line for replacement before reaching their sell-by date, include:
- Wessex CR 320 rough mower;
- John Deere 5045D (that pulls the Wessex);
- Toro 3250 for greens and tees;
- Toro 3300 Workman for spreading sand and spraying chemicals.
The Toro 3250 will be replaced during 2025, and other machines will follow suit during the course of 2026.
Bracing for festive four-balls
As a bucket-list course for many golfing visitors to the Southern Cape during the festive season, Kingswood can expect around 6,500 to 7,000 rounds of golf to be played over the next six-plus weeks.
‘With so many extra feet, we’ve been doing our best to get the grass as strong as possible on all sections of the course. If the grass is not resilient at the onset of season, you have to start from scratch come January.
‘Of course, the influx of players makes it harder to follow the normal daily maintenance schedule. The day’s first golfers tee off around 07:00 and the last at 14.30 in order to complete their 18 holes – taking into account that they have to leave the course half an hour before sunset.’
In the weeks to come, the sun sets around 20.30 and, whereas a normal round of 18 holes takes an average of 4.5 hours, seasonal games are known to last longer. So while players enjoy the fruits of their labour, Ivan and his colleagues will be labouring from 04.30 daily to ensure that the course is a joy to behold throughout the season.
But his days are not all work and no play, and Ivan grins when recounting his experience of the Kingswood club champs during the last weekend of October. ‘It was an extremely successful event enjoyed by everyone present, most of whom commented on the great condition of the course.’
Another memorable gathering was the recent Kingswood Member Guest event, themed ‘Around the World in 18 Holes’. One of the teams painted an Argentinian flag next to the 18th green, causing smiles and continuous positive comments long after the day’s conclusion.
But isn’t that a blight on the course that the greenkeeping team takes such care to keep pristine? ‘Nee wat,’ says Ivan, ‘the one thing we can be sure of in George is that the grass will continue to grow and in no time that flag will be mowed away. But our memories of a great day on a healthy Kingswood course will stay.’
