Machdunes at Christmas

Wishing all our followers best wishes for the Holiday period and very prosperous 2011.

Sheep of on a wander!

You would think our sheep would prefer our Golf Course for grazing? not this lot! they just love the beach, now part of our work program! "find the sheep!"

2nd Green

We have taken the decision to start again with the 2nd green, this was down to a number of issues mainly the root zone was completely different to the other 17 greens on the course. Main problems we encountered where compaction due to the ratios of fine and medium sands, and also poor rooting due to the root zone conditions.

Machdunes at sunset!

While the rest of the country suffer, the tropical Kintyre penisula enjoys another balmy evening!

Sheep working well

The sheep have been on for over 6 weeks now and are making a huge impact on some of our thicker roughs!

Environmental workshop

As a course manager i never thought in my career that id be attending and participating in local workshops -but at Machrihanish Dunes due to the sensitivity of our site we have embraced the ecological side of business and are trying to promote and also educate local schools and businesses on the type of work we carry out - from protecting the diversity of the site to our waste management policies. The pictures show the Kintyre Environmental day at a local venue.

Bunker work

The huge natural bunker on the 10th hole has been causing us problems for a while now with sand blow - taking many man hours to shape. We decided to split the bunker into 2 and try and reduce the wind tunnel affect. The two pictures show before and after - a break between the bunkers was created then marram grass added to enhance the natural look.

Bunker Philosophy

At Machrihanish Dunes
-we have allowed Mother Nature
-to dictate where our hazards lie.

With a little help from our sheep sheltering from the elements and with Atlantic winds shaping the sand, we believe they need very little ‘human interference’ to remain as many golfers would have found them when golf began…


As modern golf brought financial success and televised tournaments requested a more uniform approach the structured raking of bunkers - this became adopted by most in fashion.
But the first greens and fairways were formed not by men but by sheep grazing amongst the sand dunes while bunkers were created by these same animals wearing out sandy hollows as they nestled for shelter from the wind.
Modern fashions dictated and blind shots began to be eliminated from the designers’ repertoire and bunkers were no longer hidden but constructed so that they were at least partially visible.

Bunker definition -
A depression in bare ground that is usually covered with sand. Also called a "sand trap".
It is considered a hazard under the Rules of Golf.

At Machrihanish Dunes some may lie hidden, waiting to gather stray shots.
Their location and the strategy required to avoid them, the variety of shot making and the contours of the ground will keep the golfer thinking.

Our Bunkers will hopefully fulfill two objectives. Firstly to govern the play of the hole, and secondly to catch a low handicap golfer’s good shot which was not quite good enough. As Tom Simpson & Donald Ross wrote “It is a popular delusion to suppose that the function of a fairway bunker is to catch a bad shot. It is nothing of the kind.”
“Our aim is to bring out of the player the best golf in him. It will be difficult to negotiate some holes, but that is what golf is for. It is a mental test and an eye test. The hazards and bunkers are placed so as to force a man to use judgement and to exercise mental control in making the correct shot.”

Machrihanish Dunes- Bunkers are very obviously hazards!
We will carry out work to ensure they are fair for golf and retain their natural look, feel and characteristics. Back raking occasionally for extreme undulations and move sand to shape the bunker only to avoid major sandblow onto our fairways.
Apart from that they will appear as raw and natural as their maker intended. If you do end up in one, enjoy getting out!

Sheep back on for the winter!

Our 25 black Hebridean sheep, supplemented by around 200 suffolk sheep where ushered back on to the golf course last week. They will be on till around April 2011 and hopefully they will help thin out the rough's - this will be monitored again by SNH throughout. They don't cause to much problems just our guys have to remove there droppings before they cut the greens! but we don't fence of anything - although they have taken a liking to our ornamental gardens at the golf house!

Yearly Quadrant checks!

'Our ecologist Carol Crawford was over last week to carry out recording of the 30 fixed quadrats scattered about the fairways and roughs and to monitor the pyramidal orchid populations, our most nationally uncommon species . It will take a while to analyse the fixed quadrat data but the pyramidal orchid monitoring showed this species is definitely spreading eastwards as we had hoped. In 2004 it was largely confined to the coastal edge, where marram grass provided some protection from the heavy summer grazing levels. Since livestock were removed in summer 2007 orchid populations have gradually recovered, numbers are increasing and it moves further east each year. Photo shows Carol with pyramidal orchids between the 1st and 9th. Carol also found that colony of sea bindweed, another very uncommon species, which Carol discovered last year behind the 2nd green seems to spread and is helping to binding the dunes on the seaward side. Photos shows Carol photographing them. Other good news is that our frog orchids are increasing in height. They all used to be very stunted as a result of grazing pressure. Photo shows a giant frog orchid on a tee bank at south end of course with soldier beetles crawling over it. Carol was joined by her friend Gill Smart and her dog Alfie for a couple of days. Gill is the Scottish Wildlife Trust's Reserves Manager for the South West Scotland. Gill had been dying to see our machair in full bloom and was not disappointed. Gill is also a keen entomologist and identified many of the insects about at this time of year. The sheltered dune slacks were alive with butterflies and moths. Photos show the Tiger Moth. Our own Tigers on the Course!'

Machrihanish Dunes from a helicopter!

A group of golfers playing us on Friday arrived in a helicopter and the pilot kindly agreed to take our Golf opps/starter and Deputy Kevin Smith on board for a tour of the course here are 2 of the pictures taken - one of the 6th hole and the other 14 and 15.

Scottish Natural Heritage's visit July

Ian Jardine the Chief executive of SNH along with Stan Phillips and Andrew Campbell (also from SNH) visited the Dunes recently. We gave them a full tour concentrating on how the build of the golf course has had so little impact on a huge proportion of the site - currently a number of orchids and other wild flowers are in bloom giving the roughs a beautiful colour - even the wild thyme on the fairways survives due to the restricted heights of cut - giving them a purple look which is different but very much playable!!! Stan visits us regularly - giving us advice and helping us protect and enhance the SSSI where ever we can. The picture shows us looking at Frog orchids close to a bunker on 16.

Yay!! Rain

May and June where very dry months with only 35mm of rain over that period, we have a number of well points and these where tested to the full. Towards the end of June we actually ran out and they ran dry! So we where left in gods hands - and as luck would have it - it hasnt stopped raining since and have had 40mm in 5 days with more due! So hopefully i wont need to turn our pump on for the whole of July and let the Wells replenish! This week with more moisture in the ground we sarrel rolled and overseeded all the tees with a fescue mix and fed and topdressed them after. With having to use water sparingly unfortunately some of the tees dried out severely - to combat this we also applied the re-wetter aquaduct. Starting to see some nice signs of recovery now. Also with not having to worry about the greens overly stressing we brushed and also mowed with burshes down (flex 21's with brush attachment at 4mm) the following day we verti-cut them in 2 directions trying to take out some of the lateral growth and thin out some of the coarser indigenous grasses and then topdressed quite heavy - also giving them a hit with a granular fertilizer. We used the tru-roller for the first time to work in the topdressing - leaving the sand on the surface as long as we could with the sun out to dry then rolled in 2 directions - worked very well. The greens held up to the dry spell well - using our hydroject every 2 weeks and applying a decent wetting agent monthly along with handwatering - no real dry spot problems just one or two fairy rings appearing. We have a tournament on the 25th of july so now just working towards that.

Changes winter 2009

After some feedback from golfers and talks with Paul Kimber and David McLay Kidd we got permission to make a few alterations - this involved moving the 2nd tees inland to create a better angle of play/soften the 4th fairway that was hard to mow producing scalping/reshaped the 7th green/moved the 8th green 50 yards closer to fairway/reshaped the 14th green and altered some routes for golf paths saving over 700 yards in walking distance. Paul Kimber and Conor Walsh where again on site along with Gregg Sherwood from Southworth Golf Development (our owners) We turfed the altered greens and tees - this was started in February 2010 and the greens where re-opened for play mid April 2010 at a cutting height of 7mm. Again my squad performed great under pressure and proved many wrong when told wed not have them playable by April! Although there was allot of praying involved and the weather behaved! just

1st Ecology Management meeting (Sep 2009)

With the course being on a SSSI we have produced a indepth 5 year management plan for the protection of the site - every year we review and also talk about the monitoring that takes place. This involves regular visits from SNH and 2 visits from our ecologist to record data from set points within the site. If any amendments are to be made this is the time - for this meeting through feedback we decided to ask if we could get permission to alter parts of the course - this involved installing some new ladies tees/moving one full set of tees/moving a green and softening a fairway. After undertaking a impact study we where given permission - also at this meeting we agreed to start doing some trial mowing's of thicker roughs/some coring and seeding of agricultural based fairways and allowing us to vertidrain compacted foot paths. It was also agreed to up the numbers of sheep through the winter to combat roughs that where becoming unplayable but also smothering some rare flowers. SNH where to visit monthly throughout the winter of 2009.

The Grand Opening July 2009.

The golf course had a soft opening in May 2009 and a proper opening the week after the Open at Turnberry. After allot of hard work and many hours the golf course was taking shape - reviews where getting better and better - yes we needed some time to mature but the potential was there for all to see. The week before opening we where still rushing to make the course as presentable as possible for the worlds media! That week we had well over 20 staff and we worked closely with Gregg Sherwood who works for the company that owns Machrihanish Dunes and runs the Golf development. We had the greens smooth and running at 9.5 on the stimp the day before! The course was very fiery and linkys - and what happens? The day of opening we have over a inch of rain and the golfers get soaked! not to mention the 40mph winds! typical!!! but as good day and after many hurdles the course was now open - now lets keep improving.

The grow in! (late 2007 - May 2009)

By late 2007 DMK construction had left site and the grow in began - all the greens where seeded out with fescue and the rootzone was the natural sands from the site. This caused some problems as some greens where more exposed than others and in the end we turfed 5 of the shore greens. The fairways where mown out of the existing swards which involved strimming and collecting. Rabbit damage was a huge problem and there where an estimated 350.000 of them on site when we arrived (a successful cull has now taken place) but at the time every green site had to be fenced off. As no chemicals are allowed to be used on the SSSI (apart from on greens and tees) weeds like ragwort and thistles had to be pulled manually which took up huge amounts of manpower. The roughs in the beginning where to be maintained by sheep we purchased 25 hebridians and we "lend" up to 300 suffolks during the winter from a local farmer. Every greensite and tee complex that was chosen the existing turf had to be moved to another similar area within the SSSI this is where our ecologist played one of her crucial roles. One of the many "rules" we work within is that we are not allowed to import any turf or non native seed to the site - so patching damaged areas was very time consuming.

The beginning and construction

After a number of years going through the planning process work started mid 2007 with the course designed by David McLay Kidd and DMK golf constructing. Paul Kimber was lead designer on site (now with http://www.kimbergolf.com/) and Connor Walsh lead shaper (now with http://www.conorjwalshgolf.com/) Measuring 7,175 yards, Machrihanish Dunes features six greens and five tees at the ocean's edge. "We followed the lie of the land and unlike most courses around the world, we did not lay out the course and make the land change with it, we designed each hole around the natural terrain," says David McLay Kidd. During the whole construction phase we worked closely with Scottish Natural Heritage and actually employed a full time ecologist Carol Crawford (http://www.tnrc.co.uk/) The story was just beginning.

Welcome

Welcome to the Machrihanish Dunes Greenkeeper's Blog where Keith Martin, Keeper of the greens and his deputy Kevin Smith will give regular updates on the challenges and work involved in maintaining one of the most environmentally sensitive Links Golf courses in the World.