- 27/04/2025
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 to course we're gonna go now in a
00:54minute follow them around seeing some of their stuff doing some of our own stuff what am i
00:58going to be getting up to today so dan i think we're going to have you uh repositioning a pin
01:01this morning exciting that's what i mainly came here for going to be ironing a green yes um mowing
01:07an approach and we're going to get you to do some bunker work for us which will hopefully get you
01:11sweating a little bit that's it i'm here to labor today but i'm here to find out a lot about how
01:15green keeper works you're going to be here to tell us you know the why's and the what's of what you
01:19guys do as well as some of the cutting edge uh technology that you guys use to uh sort of
01:23monitor the course and keep it in perfect condition it is now 10 to 6 which is fine it's a great time
01:29of day to start uh we're going to let it get a little bit lighter i think and then head out
01:33to the course awesome let's do it left out how do i get like that way so i turn to the left so that
01:39yeah and that will just send me yeah in that general direction yeah if you hit me got you yeah got you
01:46it's a real field thing isn't it to get the idea of it i mean you know i've had new guys it takes them quite a while to get to get used to it but it's just a real feel
01:51It's a real field thing, isn't it, to get the idea of it.
02:11I mean, I've had you guys, it takes them quite a while to get used to it.
02:17Yeah so especially this time of year, Dan, we're using it for alternative days, so say
02:21we cut on a Monday, we'll roll on a Tuesday and then work our way through the week like
02:25that just to help mitigate some turf stress.
02:28This time of year, during competition, busy schedule times, we generally cut and roll
02:32to help promote speed and ball roll, it's a great bit of kit, you know, especially in
02:36the winter months when we're not really cutting so much but we still want to present a surface
02:40with the members and the visitors, yeah, it's great for that time of year.
02:44And so you'll use that on all the greens today instead of cutting, so you'll cut tomorrow?
02:47Yeah, absolutely.
02:48And what will you have these guys rolling at today and I do, we'll do a bit of stint
02:52reading later I think, but what have we got them at today?
02:54So day to day I'd say they're probably around nine, nine and a half, I'm probably playing
02:58that safe just in case they're a little bit slower and our members see some of this.
03:01On that day it actually wasn't, yeah.
03:03Right, Jake, my freshly ironed green.
03:07Now time for a stint measurement and you'll do this every morning once the greens have
03:11been ironed or cut depending on the day.
03:13Yeah, absolutely.
03:14So this just gives us an idea where we're at.
03:16Ten's ideal, perfect for our day-to-day membership.
03:18Nine's a little bit slow but we have just raised the height of cut slightly on the greens.
03:22So I expect it to be around probably nine, nine and a half.
03:25So what I've done is I've laid a marker down with a T-peg, I'm going to roll three balls
03:31this way, we'll take the middle golf ball out of the three, we'll measure with the measuring
03:37tape from this point to there and then we'll repeat the process coming back and take an
03:42average of those two readings.
03:43Beautiful, right, let's do it.
03:44Let's see what we're rolling at today.
03:46So this device you just sort of let that rise until the ball drops.
03:51So just sit a ball in the groove on the bar and then just let it roll away like that.
03:58So what are we at?
03:59So we are at 10.3 in this direction.
04:03So we'll head back up now, yeah, should we leave that marker there?
04:07Yep.
04:08There it is.
04:09See we're a touch uphill here aren't we?
04:12Yeah, not too much.
04:13Not too much.
04:14Is this why you do two readings?
04:15Yeah, it's just so it can take an average.
04:21There it goes.
04:24Can you get a read there?
04:28That is quite strange, there we go.
04:31Eight.
04:32Eight on the dot?
04:34So there if we were 10.3, so we're around, what, 9.1?
04:389.1 in the middle there.
04:39Kind of what I thought.
04:40Pretty much what you said there.
04:41Okay, Jake, as I said, it's time to replace a hole.
04:47I think this is the most exciting part.
04:50I 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
04:57the amount of comments.
04:58People love this stuff, man.
04:59Interaction we've got, yeah.
05:00Golf has seemed to find it really satisfying.
05:02And we're going to give the people what they want today, but before we actually get into
05:05the practical side of it, talk me through how you figure out where a pin's going to be
05:09on a green.
05:10Are there a certain amount of possible options?
05:12Where can they go?
05:13Where can't they go?
05:14Let us know.
05:15It's sort of six feet in from the edge of a green.
05:18Okay.
05:19Day-to-day we try and go for six pins at the front, six pins in the middle and six pins
05:23at the back.
05:24We keep things relatively easy if you're day-to-day golf.
05:27You know, how many options would you say there are on a green of this size?
05:29So I'd say around here, we've got, this is a decent sized green, so we've probably got
05:34anywhere between sort of 15 and 20 positions on here.
05:37Oh wow.
05:38Right then.
05:39So we're back right today.
05:40Here's the equipment.
05:41Talk me through it and I'm going to give this a bash.
05:44So this blackboard here, you can see that's the cutting board.
05:48This is just to stop sort of footprints and things like that.
05:50The greens are pretty firm at the minute, so you shouldn't have any issues anywhere.
05:53It'll also help stop when you come to lift the plug out, it'll stop that whole crowning
05:58a little bit.
05:59We paint our holes daily.
06:01Oh good.
06:02I like that.
06:03Touch of class.
06:04Yeah.
06:05Just a nice little touch for the members that they like.
06:06Do you want to crack on?
06:07Let's just do it.
06:08Yeah.
06:09Let's have a go.
06:10Let's get it done.
06:11So if you come and pick this up, Dan, then you put it in that gap there.
06:14Stand on there.
06:15Yep.
06:16You see this pin here?
06:17I do.
06:18So pull that out and then slightly turn it, sort of roll it round and it should catch
06:22on a notch.
06:23There.
06:24Like that.
06:25Oh, I got you.
06:26Yeah, got you.
06:27Lift up and use a hammer motion.
06:30Gee whiz.
06:31Yeah.
06:32Keep going and you'll feel it when it hits the board.
06:35I should go to the gym.
06:36Hello, Luna.
06:37And that's perfect.
06:38That's in there.
06:39Okay.
06:40And then next, go back to that pin.
06:41Yeah.
06:42Put it back into the other backing notch there.
06:43And then if you spin the handles round, keep going.
06:44Oh, I can feel that.
06:45Give it maybe two or three.
06:46And then just lift her up now.
06:47So lift her up towards your chin.
06:49And then pop it on the side of the board.
06:52Beautiful.
06:53Perfect.
06:54Hey, there we go.
06:55That's quite satisfying, wasn't it?
06:56So what have I got in here now?
06:57Just a bit of tart?
06:59Yeah.
07:00So you've got the plug on the side of the board.
07:01Beautiful.
07:02Perfect.
07:03Hey, there we go.
07:04That was quite satisfying, wasn't it?
07:05So what have I got in here now?
07:06Just to turn a bit of tart?
07:07on the side of the board beautiful perfect hey there we go that was quite satisfying wasn't it
07:12so 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
07:21you go 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
07:30and then if you want to put that in there oh i see so this is filling that back up there
07:38just literally as i see it yeah it's special so i pop it back in give it a bit of a wiggle
07:44round in sort of a circular motion give it a tap there you go and then if you pull this lever out
07:53so push and then it should pop out there you go and then if you wind it round there's a that way
08:00yeah no other way that's it right there you go keep going that's perfect and then uh roll that
08:12keep going and tuck it back behind perfect so if you have a look here yeah you might see some
08:18little straggly bits of turf oh wow yeah 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 should slide in yeah and then give it a spin a
08:50couple 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
09:45little 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 now i see
10:04can have a look at that i don't i don't 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
10:14job very 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 cut
10:35your first line get a little bit on just be front two cutting units yeah and then tap that down and your
10:42units 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 yes approaches are the same so they're monday wednesday friday and they're also
11:03cut at eight millimeters keep cutting 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 mowing is but bunkers is also a big big labor cost uh i know we're going to touch
11:44on that later yeah uh 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 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'll leave a nice nice
13:02area for if anybody was to land there after yourself and where should i leave the rake so
13:08oh is this is club by club it's an opinion it is an opinion i like to see them in the bunker
13:14just all in in the bunker yeah um if they're outside the bunker and a ball hits it you know it could rest
13:20up behind it don't want that don't want that it's interesting what you said about the pushing motion
13:24i'm certainly when i'm busy raking it after i play i pull and so does that gather the sand up and that's
13:32not that's not what you want so generally we find you know if we if you have complaints about bunkers
13:38it's about the sand depth you know there's not enough sand in there that's what i all yes and
13:41when we go and spend some time checking where all the sounds gone because it doesn't disappear that
13:45quickly we find it all built up on the back edge yeah and how long does sand last in a bunker are you
13:52having to come in and replace these very often uh with the new tech and uh you know with the liner
13:57we're finding a lot less blowout and this type of sand is quite coarse sand so it doesn't splash or
14:02blow out quite as bad so it allows you to stay there a bit longer what type of sand is this so this is
14:07china clear sand it's called is that just something that you guys chose that you want to do this course
14:11yeah different options right yeah it works quite well with the liner as well yeah so with it being
14:16quite coarse it packs into packs very well i'll keep prepping it press it down to drop it and then when
14:33you get to end it i'll point off right then jake aeration yeah i think maybe one of the biggest bug
14:57bears of members but what we're going to chat about here is what it is and most importantly why it's so
15:03important so should we start with that why do you do aeration when you do it yeah so we typically
15:10aerate heavily during august yeah um space and what we're doing by aerating is we're allowing the plant
15:17to take up nutrients get gas and air in and around the roots and break up some compaction in the soil
15:22if you can imagine you know we've got mowers turf irons rolling you know going over the turf all the
15:27time we do get quite compact grains and when they when the soil structure is compact it makes the
15:33roots unable unable to spread and that stops growth yeah it stops growth the plant gets really unhealthy
15:39prone to disease uh so by aerating we get a better grass plant the reason we do it in august uh is
15:47because you know we just want the quick recovery yeah we want the quick recovery we do ours not long
15:52after club championships you know we get all the applaud it's a club championships and then you know
15:57the members turn up on a monday morning we do try and communicate the best we can yeah to them so
16:01they know it's coming as you said you've done them already we're filming in late august but you've
16:04allowed me to have a little go on the chipping area today which is great talk us through this
16:08machine then is it just it looks kind of like a torture device yeah so this is a toro pro car
16:14it's a pedestrian pedestrian machine so when we use this the guys walk around the golf course tying all
16:19the greens it leaves a great finish afterwards but yeah it's it's a very very good piece of machinery
16:26this so for our main aeration which we do twice a year we'd be bigger time size yeah than this
16:32uh this is quite a small time so generally through the season we'll run these once a month or once
16:37once every six weeks roughly so we use sand for two things really so it's for dilution of organic
16:43matter which is uh thatch people maybe know it as um so we're trying to break down that organic matter
16:49uh to allow for firmer surface which will obviously allow for better putting surfaces um can also use sand
16:56to try and make sand channels into pipe drainage which is below the surface so if we can get our
17:01percolation rates up it allows the greens again to be drier and firmer especially through the winter
17:07that's what we want right jake we're doing a lot of sort of things i think a lot of people see green
17:14keep us doing with the equipment mowing greens but i want to talk technology now sort of the cutting edge
17:18stuff that you guys are using to help you better maintain a golf course really now i didn't hear about
17:24this before we spoke a couple days ago about it but it's it's sensors underneath the greens now talk
17:28me through what they are and what they help you guys do so what maya does it's a under soil sensor
17:36it feeds me data on soil temperature moisture salinity various other things but where it was really sort of
17:46crucial for me is the disease forecasting okay so how it works is if we see a small outbreak of disease
17:55i can send a whatsapp message to maya and using an ai basically they build it builds data from
18:01throughout the year and it allows it allows it to predict disease outbreaks wow so i'll get a
18:08notification on my phone if you know the weather conditions are all lining for a for a disease
18:14outbreak and it just gives me that few days ahead of an outbreak so we want to be preventative rather
18:20than curative so as you can see here we've got a graph chart so that's given me the last four days
18:26and it's predicting the next 24 hours so if i see a spike on this graph here of a value over 40 i know we
18:33need to go and apply a product so at the minute we have had a slight bit of anthrac nose activity so you
18:38can see that sort of spike in the graph yeah and this would be just a godsend for you what what was
18:44the sort of process before you had this information was it a lot of guesswork was it a lot of presumption
18:48now now with some data behind you you can confidently go out and do what you're doing and use your labor
18:54more efficiently yeah yeah absolutely so before you know we were looking at um just the weather forecasts
19:00you know which is on the office yeah which is so you know so unpredictable so yeah no having it and
19:06being able to track it all on here yeah manually rather than the old paper diary is is fantastic
19:12yeah much more efficient i'm sure and uh i guess this is where it all happens isn't it yeah the
19:16heartbeat of edge baston's uh green green green tea it's brilliant we love it
19:25jake now this is one i've not heard of before green firmness and we talk about green firmness kind
19:29of anecdotally all those greens are a bit firm today or soft or whatever here's a device that can give
19:33you an actual number yeah yeah how does this work so yeah we normally you know we take readings across
19:38the green and take an average yeah uh you'll see these quite used quite frequently at the open british
19:43open um links courses obviously have a tendency of getting almost too firm i guess they don't want
19:48it where there's ball it's windy especially that ball starts oscillating a bit yeah so the rna using this
19:52quite a lot uh the club's been edge baston golf club's been using it probably three or four years now okay
19:57and what's the actual unit of measurement uh so we're measuring a in a unit called gravities never heard of that
20:03before yeah there's a ballpark figure um i think sort of day to day through the summer where it
20:10aiming for 100 to 110 gravities okay let's have a little go with it then shall we so you showed me
20:15this before off camera blue pizza style but i'm going to hold this sort of what would you call that
20:20a plunger probe probe good yeah don't mind that so hold it about level to there keep going a bit higher
20:27bit higher yeah there you go and then just let go yeah there we go 99 so we're saying that's about
20:34right for you we did 111 earlier just off camera but you do this on different points around the green
20:38yeah take an average and that would be the same presumably for all 18 grains we generally so what
20:44we'll do is we'll do six grains a week and we'll continue monitoring those grains throughout the week
20:49and then we'll move on to another six and then and do it on the cycle over three weeks brilliant and
20:52gravity is a brand new unit of measurement i've never heard of uh lastly then we're going to do
20:57moisture and talk us through this sort of contraption you've got here and why you guys are using it at
21:01the minute yeah so this probe here um will give us a quick data on what the soil is doing underneath
21:08in terms of moisture content gone are the days where we have a lot of disposable water and golf clubs are
21:13trying to now be more sustainable and prevent over watering and things like that this year has been
21:18exceptionally wet yeah so we've not had much need to use water but this uh moisture probe will allow
21:24me to apply water to areas specific areas with a hose rather than running a sprinkler which isn't as
21:31accurate uh let's have a little look at this then let's just see what sort of data this gives us i'm
21:34sure it's pretty self-explanatory just so yeah if you just stab into the ground and press read
21:38it'll give you a reading so we've got on there 33.0 yep a little bit too high yeah it's quite high it's
21:48quite wet what sort of number are you looking at for like a yeah between 20 and 25 percent um we did
21:55have a bit of rain last night yeah so yeah we're a little bit higher than we'd like to be but that
22:00that number will drop over the coming days
22:02uh well there we go jake i think we're about done for the day really appreciate you showing the
22:10ropes i want to thank bigger for setting this opportunity up to sort of teach you guys a little
22:13bit about what uh green keepers like jake up and down the country across the world uh are up to um
22:20i've enjoyed it jake this is do you enjoy this sort of lifestyle you've been living you're looking after
22:23this beautiful golf course yeah i think it's a fantastic career done it's you know you get the beauty
22:29you've been outdoors all day although the weather can be bad at times you know days like today
22:33make it worth it really yeah i think there's a huge misconception isn't there that green stuff all
22:37they do is more grass and you know i've heard it a few times from people outside of the industry
22:44you know i kind of laugh i wish i did only just cut grass it made my life a lot easier
22:49but yeah i know there's a lot more to green keeping and the way technology is moving now
22:53it's uh it's definitely going to become more and more of a thing well it's jake thank you for having us
22:58really appreciate it got a beautiful golf course here um hopefully you've learned a little bit
23:02about what jake and his crew and teams up and down the country across the world get up to
23:06thank you for watching hope you enjoyed it and uh coffee i think yeah absolutely
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