PHOTOS: DR PHIL FORD
GREENS
Sand-based
constructions Following a recent visit to New Zealand and taking in a couple of golf courses,
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Dr Phillip Ford revisits the topic of sand-based greens construction.
hile over in New Zealand in March for the ‘Turf Days’ event held at Kimihia Research Centre in Canterbury, I had the opportunity to visit Jack’s Point Golf Club near Queenstown with course superintendent Simon Forshaw and Royal Melbourne Golf Club director of courses Richard Forsyth. Browntop greens… ahh, beautiful! The greens at Jack’s Point are based on the ‘California method’ with no gravel layer, using flat pipe (with geotextile sock) laid directly on the sub-base without trenches.
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Designed by Dr. Richard Gibbs, who wrote the book on turf drainage (Adams and Gibbs, 1994), these 20-year-old greens were firm and dry with deep roots and no free water showing in the cup or in the profile despite 25mm of rain the night before we visited (see photo opposite). In short, their ‘modified California’ type of construction was working beautifully. While at Jack’s Point, we also visited a new project Simon is in the midst of constructing at Glendhu Bay on the shores of picturesque Lake Wanaka, about 90 minutes northeast of Queenstown. Again, greens construction here is using a modified California method with flat
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 27.2
pipes laid straight onto the base (see photo above). As well as the speed and ease of construction, a big advantage of the California method over the USGA method is the freedom to create dramatic contours in greens without having to worry about the perched water table creating wet and dry spots. The visit to Jack’s Point reminded me of an unfortunate situation just months previously where a newly-minted superintendent, an extremely competent student of mine and well trained in these concepts, had decided on exactly this design for a green relocation project at his course. However, the golf course