TOURS TOURS
Major
opportunities
In addition to spending three months working with the Merion Golf Club crew, Royal Sydney’s Adam Marchant visited a number of other turf facilities and volunteered at the 2017 US Women’s Open and US PGA Championship.
T
he US is home to some impressive golf facilities and with the opportunity to spend three months at Merion this past winter came the chance to also visit a number of other establishments to see how they operated. Among the facilities I ended up visiting included Aronimink GC, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Somersett Hills, Rolling Green, Shinnecock Hills, National Golf Links of America, Friars Head, Bethpage Black, Glen Oaks Club, Oakmont, Winged Foot and Pine Valley. I had also arranged to volunteer at the 2017 US Women’s Open at Trump National Golf Club and the 2017 US PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. Given that it was the middle of their summer, I was really impressed at the time the superintendents, director of grounds and assistant superintendents of these facilities set aside for me. One thing that resonated was the passion they all shared for the industry and their courses and it was great to be able to ride around with them and talk all things turf.
ARONIMINK GOLF CLUB
Above: Preparations in full swing at Trump National Golf Club which hosted the 2017 US Women’s Open in mid-July 20
Aronimink Golf Club in Philadelphia is currently undergoing some refurbishment work under the auspices of Gil Hanse who has been tasked with returning the course back to its original Donald Ross design. It was extremely interesting driving around with Aronimink superintendent John Gosselin and learning how they have used old aerial photos to assist in reinstating the course. Through that process the number of bunkers has more than quadrupled from 40 to 170! When some of the new bunkers were installed they found sand from the original bunkers! They have a few tee complexes left to complete this November before then gearing up to host the 2018 BMW Championship next September.
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 19.5
PHILADELPHIA CRICKET CLUB Philadelphia Cricket Club was high on my list of must-see facilities. With three golf courses, 22 grass tennis courts, cricket, squash and paddle tennis facilities, the operation is very complex and similar to Royal Sydney. Dan Meersman, director of grounds, runs an extremely professional operation. It was great talking to him regarding the access he and his staff have to the course to achieve the standard expected by members. He has implemented a 36-minute maintenance gap every day except Mondays, when the whole club is closed. They have 12 minute tee times and therefore blocks out three a day for maintenance purposes. He has most recently started to roster a crew to come in at 10am. With the gap starting at 10.30am, he works them in that gap for the remainder of the day. With an average of 20,000 rounds per year on each course, he felt the afternoon golfer was not getting the same experience as those playing in the morning, hence one of the reasons the gap was introduced. Depending on his current works programme he will use it to repair ball marks, rake bunkers, hand water and, if he feels green speed is slowing, will mow or roll again.
LONG ISLAND The stretch of iconic golf courses on Long Island, New York has always held great fascination for me and I was able to spend two memorable days visiting the likes of Shinnecock, National Golf Links of America (NGLA) and Bethpage. Shinnecock Hills and NGLA share a boundary and you could literally walk between the two courses. Jon Jennings (Shinnecock) is extremely busy with the 2018 US Open set to be staged there and I was fortunate that he was able to set aside some