St Andrews Links Blog

Plugging away on the Old Course

Just prior to Christmas, the St Andrews Links greenkeeping team were busy replacing divots on the Old Course after fairway mats came into use in early November.

Using a hole cutter, they will replace larger divots with a plug of turf 4 inches deep taken from a nursery area. This is because it’s now too cold for any seeding repairs to grow between October and May, therefore there would be no recovery from most of the divots taken later in the season. This work continued for a few weeks thanks to the reasonable weather we had prior to Christmas and New Year in St Andrews. We estimate we have repaired up to 50,000 divots using this method.

By replacing the divots on the main landing areas as well as our policy of asking golfers to use fairway mats throughout winter, we see a massive benefit to the playing surfaces when the golfing season picks up again in April. All of our greenkeepers involved do a great job given the weather they have to work in and the fact that it’s one of the less exciting jobs on the Links.

 

Words by Gordon Moir, Director of Greenkeeping