- 8 minutes ago
Golf Monthly's Dan Parker gets a very early alarm call to join Jake Field and his team at Edgbaston Golf Club to see what it's like to be a greenkeeper! Dan gets properly hands on for a day, trying out various jobs including changing holes, bunker raking, measuring green speed, mowing approaches and ironing greens to see what it's like but also discover how techniques have become far more modern to ensure courses can be maintained to a high standard.
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00:00right good morning it is ten past five in the morning we're here at edgbaston golf club in
00:13the middle of birmingham today i'm going to be experiencing a day in the life as a green keeper
00:17hence that early start i'm going to get hands on with some of the stuff they do finding out
00:21what they do why they do it asking all the questions i'm sure you and i have about
00:26their day-to-day lives um it's early and that's fine i'm excited to get stuck in uh let's get started
00:32right good morning i'm here with jake course my name is jake nice to meet you thank you for having
00:49us pal um bright and early just seen the uh staff heading out into course we're going to go now in
00:54a minute follow them around season their stuff doing some of our own stuff what am i going to
00:58be getting up to today so dan i think we're going to have you uh repositioning a pin this morning
01:02exciting that's what i mainly came here for going to be ironing a green yes um mowing an approach
01:07and we're going to get you to do some bunker work for us which will hopefully get you sweating a
01:12little bit that's it i'm here to labor today but i'm here to find out a lot about how green
01:15keeping works you're going to be here to tell us you know the whys and the whats of what you guys do
01:19as well as some of the cutting edge uh technology that you guys use to uh sort of monitor the course
01:24and keep it in perfect condition it is now 10 to 6 which is fine it's a great time of day to start
01:30uh we're going to let it get a little bit lighter i think and then head on to the course
01:33awesome let's do it left out how do i get like that way so i turn to the left so that yeah and that
01:41i'll just send me yeah in that general direction yeah if you hit me got you yeah got you mate
01:47it's a real field thing isn't it to get the idea of it i mean you know i've had new guys and it
02:13takes them quite a while to get to get used to it yeah so especially this time of year dan we're
02:19using it sort of alternative days so say we cut on a monday we'll roll on a tuesday and then work our
02:24way through the week like that just to help mitigate some turf stress this time of year during
02:29competition busy schedule times we generally cut and roll to help promote speed and ball roll it's
02:34a great bit of kit you know especially in the winter months when we're not really cutting so much but we
02:39still want to present a surface with the members and the visitors um yeah it's it's great for that
02:44time and so you use that on all the greens today instead of coating so you'll cut tomorrow yeah
02:48absolutely and what will you have these guys rolling at today we'll do a bit of stint reading
02:52later i think yeah but what have we got them at today so day to day i'd say they're probably around
02:55nine nine and a half yeah uh i'm probably playing that safe just in case they're a little bit slower
02:59and our members see some of this on that day actually wasn't yeah yeah right jake my freshly ironed
03:06green yeah now time for a stint measurement and you'll do this every morning uh once the greens
03:11have been ironed or cut depending on the day yeah absolutely so this just gives us an idea where
03:15we're at ten's ideal perfect for our day-to-day membership nine's a little bit slow but we have
03:20just raised the height of cut slightly on the greens and so i expect it to be around probably nine nine and
03:25a half and so what i've done is i've laid a marker down with a t-peg um i'm going to throw roll three
03:30balls this way yeah we'll take the middle golf ball out of the three we'll measure
03:36with the measuring tape from this point to there and then we'll repeat the process coming back
03:41taking average of those two readings beautiful right let's do it let's see what we're rolling that today
03:48so this device you just sort of let that rise yeah so you just sit a ball in the groove on the bar
03:54and then there it is just let it roll away like that so what are we at so we are at 10.3 in this
04:02direction so we'll head back up now yeah should we leave that marker there yeah
04:09there it does see we're a touch uphill here aren't we yeah slightly
04:14is this why you do two readings yeah it's just so it can take an average
04:18there it goes uh can you get a read there that is that's quite strange here we go
04:32eight eight on the dots so there if we were 10.3 so we're around what 9.1
04:389.1 in the middle of that kind of what i thought pretty much what you said there
04:45okay jake as i said it's time to replace a hole i think this is the most
04:49this is the most exciting part uh i really enjoy this job setting up the golf course for the day
04:54you know we've put the club have actually posted some stuff on social media before and the amount
04:57of comments people love this stuff interaction we've got yeah golf seems to find it really
05:01satisfying so i'm going to give the people what they want today but before we actually get into the
05:05practical side of it talk me through how you figure out where a pin's going to be on a green are there
05:10a certain amount of possible options where can they go where can't they go let us know yeah so we
05:15always sit there sort of six feet in from the edge of a green okay day today we try and go for six pins
05:20at the front six pins and six pins in the middle and six pins at the back we keep things relatively
05:25easy if you're day-to-day golf you know how many options would you say there are on a green of this
05:29size uh so i'd say around here we've got plate this is a decent size green so we've probably got anywhere
05:34with serene sort of 15 and 20 positions on here right then so we're back right today here's the
05:40here's the equipment talk me through it and i'm gonna give this a bash so this blackboard here you
05:45can see that's the cutting board um this is just to stop sort of footprints and things like that the
05:50greens are pretty firm at the minute so you shouldn't have any issues anywhere it'll also help stop when
05:55you come to lift the plug out it'll stop that whole crowning a little bit uh we paint our holes daily oh
06:01good all right yeah just a nice little touch for the members that they like do you want to crack
06:06on let's just do it yeah let's have a go let's let's get it done so if you come and pick this up
06:10down uh then you put it in in that gap there stand on there yeah uh you see this pin here i do
06:17so pull that out and then slightly turn it sort of roll it around and it should catch on a notch
06:22uh like that oh i got you yeah got you and then if you lift up and like use a hammer motion
06:31gee whiz yeah yeah keep going and you'll feel it when it hits the board i should go to the gym
06:38hello luna and that that's perfect that's in there okay and then now go back to that pin yeah
06:45uh put it back into the other backing notch there uh then if you spin the handles round
06:53keep going oh i can feel that give it maybe two or three
07:01and then just lift her up now so lift her up towards your chin
07:06and then pop it on the side of the board beautiful perfect hey there we go that was quite satisfying
07:12wasn't it so what have i got in here now so you've got yeah so you've got the plug the uh where the
07:16new cup's gonna go and then we'll go and replace that now into the into the old hole yeah there you
07:22go there it is awesome so i've got the hole there and then it just take it to the side of the grain
07:26down and give it a tap with the uh with the metal just to clear any mud off it
07:33and then if you want to put that in there oh i see so this is filling that back up just literally
07:38as i see it yeah nothing special so i'll pop it back in give it a bit of a wiggle round in sort
07:44of a circular motion give it a tap there you go um and then if you pull this lever out so push
07:55and then it should pop out there you go and then if you wind it round there's a that way yeah
08:00no other way that's it right there you go keep going that's perfect and then uh roll that keep
08:12going and tuck it back behind perfect so if you have a look here yeah you might see some little
08:18straggly bits of turf oh wow yeah so if you just give him a clip
08:21so clear the hole and if you swap those yeah if you put the hole in just leave it sort of halfway
08:34proud about there yeah and then we have a depth set area so let's make sure we get the correct
08:39depth every time oh okay so this is an it this should set an inch yeah so if you pop that on top
08:44of the cup yeah stamp it down just put your foot on it it should slide in yeah and then give it a spin
08:50a couple of times and then just lift it off perfect hey beautiful easy buddy so final touches then
08:58jake yeah that's the paint yeah that's that one so this is uh some clubs do this some clubs don't
09:04like i said earlier you know we find it's a a nice touch for the members i think so i think you always
09:09notice when a hole's painted you go that's a that's a classy club yeah so if you take this so this this
09:14stops the paint getting into the actual hole cup yeah and keeps it from sort of building up around
09:19we're just painting this soiled edge here it'll sit on top of the cup that will so like that there
09:25yeah and then the the painting board here has a has a lip on it as well to sort of stop yeah anything
09:31coming on this area of the turf around around the edge yeah so i'll place that down for you there dan
09:41and then we'll get you some paint yeah and the the best thing to remember when you're painting holes is
09:46little is more so if you put loads on it tends to crack and peel away so a light layer seems to work
09:52a lot better okay right oh i see
09:54i can have a look at that i don't want to overcook it that's perfect that's great easy money well
10:10it's quite a process actually isn't it yeah it'd be an easy in and out but um this is an important job
10:15very satisfying job i would agree yeah uh thank you that would go yeah no worries
10:24so for cutting you go into the tortoise i like how they've got the animals that show the speed
10:30yeah it's like they knew i was coming uh so your revs need to be on full okay so when you come to
10:35cut your first line get a little bit on just be front two cutting units yeah and then tap that down
10:42and your units will drop then and then when you get to the end pull it back towards you okay
10:48yeah so we'll i think we'll start from the team work up that sounds good uh so our team surfaces are
10:53cut eight millimeters in the in the summer uh we mode those three times a week wow so it's that
10:58monday wednesday friday yeah approaches are the same so that monday wednesday friday and they are also
11:03cut at eight millimeters keep going a bit fairways they're cut at 13 millimeters three times a week
11:09uh semi rough is at 22 millimeters and that is cut twice a week our rough is at two and a half inches
11:18which is where we're still now quite nice to juice it this morning yeah that wet winter punitive the
11:23golfers have had a bit of a moan this year but the weather's sort of taking it out of our control
11:28absolutely yeah uh greens are currently sitting at three and a half mil yeah and so is mowing the most
11:32sort of labor-intensive part of a green keeper's life it's the yeah sort of keep on top of the most as it
11:38were uh yeah i'd say moan is but bunkers is also a big big labor cost uh i know we're going to touch
11:44on that later yeah but yeah no besides uh besides the greens bunkers are our biggest labor cost
11:56and why is that just the maintenance of them yeah and you know during heavy rain events we have to
12:01we used to have to get like three or four guys out here and fix the washouts so it's manpower as
12:06much as the actual physical part of it as well yeah so the club looked at installing a liner
12:11um so it's a rubber crumb liner uh what that does is it prevents sand contamination uh weeds coming
12:17through the through the surface and it also helps us during those rain events with washouts from a
12:23playability point of view it's it's great for the golfers uh and it should last us you know for a
12:28good 20 25 years now well i've got you i've got to ask when i end up in a bunker i come out of that
12:34and i'm playing with my mates i've got to rake it quickly how should i be raking it how do you want
12:38to see it raked by us by golfers when we're out on the course yeah so i mean typically um you know
12:44when golfers come into a bunker they either you know some clubs don't have members that rate the
12:49bunkers after themselves you know we've all seen it um but we always see a pull in motion really we
12:54need what we need to see working in a pushing motion pushing away like that and i leave a nice nice
13:02area for if anybody was to land there after yourself and where should i leave the rate so
13:08oh is this is club by club it's an opinion it is an opinion what's your opinion i like to see them in
13:13the bunker just all in in the bunker yeah um if they're outside the bunker and a ball hits it
13:19you know it could rest up behind it don't want that don't want that it's interesting what you said
13:23about the pushing motion i'm certainly when i'm busy raking it after i play i pull and so does that
13:31gather the sand up and that's not that's not what you want so generally we find you know
13:36if we if you have complaints about bunkers it's about the sand depth you know there's not enough
13:39sand in there that's what i all yes and when we go and spend some time checking where all the
13:44sand's gone because it doesn't disappear that quickly we find it all built up on the back edge
13:48yeah and how long does sand last in a bunker are you having to come in and replace these very often
13:54with the new tech and uh you know with the liner we're finding a lot less blowout and this type of
13:59sand is quite coarse sand so it doesn't splash or blow out quite as bad so it allows you to stay
14:05there a bit longer what type of sand is this so this is china clear sand it's called is that just
14:09something that you guys chose that you want to do this course yeah different options right yeah it
14:13works quite well with the liner as well yeah so with it being quite coarse it packs into packs very well
14:19so i'll keep prepping it press it down to drop it and then when you get to end and i'll point up
14:35it to end and i'll point out right then jake aeration yeah i think maybe one of the biggest bugbears of
14:58members but what we're going to chat about here is what it is and most importantly why it's so important
15:04so should we start with that why do you do aeration when you do it yeah so we typically air it heavily
15:11during august yeah um space and what we're doing by air rating is we're allowing the plant to take up
15:17nutrients get gas and air in and around the roots and break up some compaction in the soil if you can
15:23imagine you know we've got mowers turf irons rolling you know going over the turf all the time we do get
15:28quite compact greens and when they when the soil structure is compact it makes the roots unable
15:34unable to spread and that stops growth yeah it stops growth the plant gets really unhealthy prone to disease
15:41so by air rating we get a better grass plant the reason we do it in august uh is because you know we
15:48just want the quick recovery yeah we want the quick recovery we do ours not long after club championships you know
15:53we get all the applaud it's a club championships and then you know the members turn up on a monday
15:58morning we do try and communicate the best we can yeah to them so they know it's coming as you said
16:02you've done them already we're filming in late august but you've allowed me to have a little go on the
16:06chipping area today which is great talk us through this machine then is it just it looks kind of like a
16:10torture device yeah so this is a toro pro car um it's a pedestrian pedestrian machine so when we use this
16:18the guys walk around the golf course tying all the greens it leaves a great finish afterwards but yeah
16:23it's it's a very very good piece of machinery this so for our main aeration which we do twice a year
16:29we'd be bigger time size yeah than this uh this is quite a small time so generally through the season
16:35we'll run these once a month or once every six weeks roughly so we use sand for two things really so
16:42it's for dilution of organic matter which is uh thatch people maybe know it as um so we're trying
16:47to break down that organic matter uh to allow for a firmer surface which will obviously allow for better
16:53putting surfaces um we can also use sand to try and make sand channels into pipe drainage which is
16:59below the surface so if we can get our percolation rates up it allows the greens again to be drier and
17:04firmer especially through the winter that's what we want
17:07right jake we're doing a lot of sort of things i think a lot of people see green keep us doing with
17:14the equipment mowing greens but i want to talk technology now and sort of the cutting edge stuff
17:18that you guys are using to help you better maintain a golf course really now i didn't hear about this
17:24before we spoke a couple days ago about it but it's it's sensors underneath the greens now talk me
17:29through what they are and what they help you guys do so what maya does it's a under soil sensor
17:35um it feeds me data on soil temperature moisture salinity um various other things but where it
17:45was really sort of crucial for me is the disease forecasting okay so how it works is if we see
17:53a small outbreak of disease i can send a whatsapp message to maya and using an ai basically they build
18:00it builds data from throughout the year and it allows uh it allows it to predict disease outbreaks
18:07wow so i'll get a notification on my phone if you know the weather conditions are all lining for
18:13for a disease outbreak and it just gives me that few days ahead of an outbreak so we want to be
18:19preventative rather than curative so as you can see here we've got a graph chart so that's given me
18:24the last four days and it's predicting the next 24 hours so if i see a spike on this graph here of a
18:30value over 40 i know we need to go and apply a product so at the minute we have had a slight bit
18:36of anthracnose activity so you can see that sort of spike in the graph yeah and this would be just a
18:42godsend for you what was the sort of process before you had this information was it a lot of guesswork
18:47was it a lot of presumption now now with some data behind you you can confidently go out and do what
18:51you're doing and use your labor more efficiently yeah yeah absolutely so before you know we were
18:57looking at um just the weather forecasts you know which is on the office yeah which is so you know so
19:04unpredictable so yeah no having it and being able to track it all on here yeah manually rather than
19:09the old paper diary is is fantastic yeah much more efficient i'm sure and uh i guess this is where
19:14it all happens isn't it yeah the heartbeat of edge baston's uh green keeping it's brilliant we love it
19:21so we'll get this yeah okay i'll get it all right yeah okay okay great um
19:25jake now this is one i've not heard of before green firmness and we talk about green firm is kind
19:29of anecdotally all those greens are a bit firm today or soft or whatever here's a device that can
19:32give you an actual number yeah yeah how does this work so yeah we normally you know we take readings
19:38across the green and take an average yeah you'll see these quite used quite frequently at the open
19:43British open and links causes obviously have a tendency of getting almost too firm i guess they don't want
19:48on it where there's ball, it was windy especially
19:49and that ball starts oscillating a bit.
19:51Yeah, so the R&A are using this quite a lot.
19:54The club's been, Edgebaston Golf Club's been using it
19:56probably three or four years now.
19:58And what's the actual unit of measurement?
20:00So we're measuring in a unit called gravities.
20:03Never heard of that before.
20:03Yeah, so there's a ballpark figure.
20:07I think sort of day-to-day through the summer
20:09where we're aiming for 100 to 110 gravities.
20:12Okay, let's have a little go with it then, shall we?
20:14So you showed me this before off camera,
20:17blue pieces style.
20:18But I'm gonna hold this sort of,
20:19what would you call that?
20:21A plunger?
20:21Probe.
20:22Probe, good, yeah, don't mind that.
20:24So hold it about level to there.
20:26Keep going a bit higher, a bit higher.
20:28Yeah, and then just let go.
20:30Yeah.
20:32There we go, 99.
20:33So we're saying that's about right for you.
20:35We did 111 earlier just off camera,
20:37but you do this on different points around the green,
20:39take an average and that would be the same,
20:41presumably for all 18 grains.
20:43We generally, so what we'll do is we'll do six grains a week
20:46and we'll continue monitoring those grains throughout the week
20:49and then we'll move on to another six
20:50and then do it on the cycle over three weeks.
20:52Brilliant, and gravity is a brand new unit of measurement
20:54I've never heard of.
20:55Lastly then, we're gonna do moisture.
20:58Talk us through this sort of contraption you've got here
21:00and why you guys are using it at the minute.
21:02Yeah, so this probe here will give us quick data
21:06on what the soil's doing underneath in terms of moisture content.
21:09Gone are the days where we have a lot of disposable water.
21:12Golf clubs are trying to now be more sustainable
21:15and prevent over-watering and things like that.
21:17This year has been exceptionally wet.
21:19Yeah.
21:19So we've not had much need to use water.
21:22But this moisture probe will allow me to apply water to areas,
21:27specific areas with a hose rather than running a sprinkler,
21:30which isn't as accurate.
21:32Let's have a little look at this then.
21:33Let's just see what sort of data this gives us.
21:34I'm sure it's pretty self-explanatory.
21:36So yeah, if you just stab it into the ground
21:37and press read, it'll give you a reading.
21:40So we've got on there 33.0.
21:45Yep, a little bit too high.
21:47Yeah, it's quite high, it's quite wet.
21:49What sort of number are you looking at for like a neutral?
21:51I'm happy with that.
21:52Between 20 and 25%.
21:54We did have a bit of rain last night.
21:56Yeah.
21:56So yeah, we're a little bit higher than we'd like to be,
21:59but that number will drop over the coming days.
22:06Well, there we go, Jake.
22:07I think we're about done for the day.
22:08I really appreciate you showing the ropes.
22:10I want to thank Bigger for setting this opportunity up
22:12to sort of teach you guys a little bit about what greenkeepers
22:15like Jake up and down the country, across the world, are up to.
22:20I've enjoyed it, Jake.
22:21Do you enjoy this sort of lifestyle you've been living,
22:23looking after this beautiful golf course?
22:24Yeah, I think it's a fantastic career, Dan.
22:27It's, you know, you get the beauty of being outdoors all day,
22:30although the weather can be bad at times.
22:32You know, days like today make it worth it, really.
22:34Yeah, I think there's a huge misconception, isn't there?
22:37That green stuff, all they do is more grass.
22:39You know, I've heard it a few times from people outside of the industry.
22:44You know, I kind of laugh.
22:45I wish I did only just cut grass.
22:47It'd make my life a lot easier.
22:49But yeah, no, there's a lot more to greenkeeping
22:51and the way technology is moving now,
22:53it's definitely going to become more and more of a thing.
22:57Well, it's Jake.
22:57Thank you for having us.
22:58I really appreciate it.
22:59Got a beautiful golf course here.
23:00Hopefully you've learned a little bit about what Jake and his crew
23:04and teams up and down the country across the world get up to.
23:07Hope you've enjoyed it.
23:08And coffee, I think.
23:10Yeah, absolutely.
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