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One of any estate’s most important assets will be its common areas, many of which are designed to add to the overall aesthetic appeal of the development, and are a very real element in enhancing property values.
If you live on a golf estate, then the golf course will be a significant part of this area, one of the HOA’s most valuable assets, and its presence will add enormous value, both to your personal property and to the estate as a whole. It is at this time of the year when we are thinking about, or trying not to in many cases (and often dreading — especially if the garage is on the ‘to do’ list), the need for spring cleaning. This familiar activity on any estate will include the golf course, and also the garden areas that provide many of us with the views and ‘green spaces’ that make living on these types of developments such a pleasure.
In this issue of Estate Living, our golf columnist John Cockayne (once a greenkeeper himself) suggests that (seeing we just celebrated ‘Thank a Greenkeeper Day’ in September) we should join with organisations such as the PGA, the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA), the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA), the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association (ASTMA), the Canadian
Golf Superintendents Association (CGSA) and the Federation of European Golf Greenkeepers Associations (FEGGA), along with several South African chapters of the Turf Grass Managers of Southern Africa (TGMASA), and participate in the international ‘Thank a Greenkeeper Day’. At the same time, even if you don’t have a golf course in your development, transfer this ‘thank you’ to your turf maintenance team, or contractors who toil throughout the year to keep the common areas, lawns, and gardens a pleasure to look at and live with.
For residents on the golf estates, this is an opportune moment to reflect that without our greenkeepers, there would be no golf, and for the non-golfers in the absence of this often ‘unsung’ function, the aesthetics of their view would be seriously compromised. This is the time of year when many courses will have undergone significant work to their fairways, tees, and greens, through various interventions, including aerating, scarifying, seeding, and hollow tinning, to protect these areas against the anticipated increases in traffic as the summer season draws nearer, and to help combat any long-term conditioning issues.
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I believe that a good greenkeeper is quite possibly any golf facility’s most prized asset, and in this context, ̀Thank a Greenkeeper Day’ is designed to celebrate the hard work of all greenkeepers. In case we forget, this is a sector that wakes up at the most antisocial hours, week in and week out, in order to create magical playing surfaces and vistas, and in doing so, showcase their attention to detail, craft, and expertise.
Golf, as a sport and ball game, is unique in that it presents its participants with the challenges of a myriad of radically different playing arenas. At the same time, golf courses, and the people who maintain them, are always facing equally diverse challenges, in some form or another, from sudden deluges of rain, floods, heat, harsh winters, high winds, droughts, infestations, and broken equipment, to the inevitable challenges of both recruiting, and then retaining, talent on a greens staff’s team.
However, as Alistair Collier, of the John Collier Survey, commented to me recently: ‘Often in the face of persistent adversity, greenkeepers continually strive to keep the game’s playing areas healthy and beautiful, with environmental stewardship as a primary focus. ̀When I asked how the sector is faring in South Africa, Alistair added that: ‘According to recent research carried out by the John Collier Annual Survey, thanks to the overall efforts of the golf industry, golf courses are using much reduced volumes of irrigation water and less fertiliser, while employing sustainable management practices, and expanding the amount and variety of natural wildlife habitats on courses.’
‘Thank a Greenkeeper Day’ happens only once a year, but this writer believes that it should be a year-round celebration, as it takes a year-round effort to keep golf courses playable and in top-notch condition! So, with this in mind, please go out of your way, wherever the opportunity presents itself, to say thanks to your greenkeepers.
It takes a lot of both effort and expertise to be a greenkeeper, so make the time to thank them whenever you have the chance. There are over 400 golf courses in South Africa (source SA Top 100 Courses), each employing greenkeeping staff to look after the layouts, whether they are working at the region’s most prestigious and top-ranked courses, or at the local municipal layout, the greenkeeping staff all have a sense of great pride in their work.
Perhaps the next time you, as a golfer, are disappointed in the amount of sand in a greenside bunker, the length of rough after you have missed a fairway, or are looking for an excuse when your putt finishes a few inches short of the cup, you will find something, or someone, other than the course or the greenkeeper to blame!
Arabella Hotel Golf & Spa presents the type of year-round ‘perfect view’ that we, as both golfers and estate residents, have come to take for granted.
