Creation of an Hethland Golf Course

Index

1.0 Condition of the land

2.0 Heathland habitat

3.0 Proposed treatments for golf development and recreation of a Heathland habitat

3.1 Clay-Loam areas – Golf course establishment

3.2 Clay-Loam areas – Creation of an Heathland habitat

3.3 Clay and Gleys areas – Golf Course establishment

3.4 Clay and Gleys areas – Creation of an Heathland habitat

3.5 Peaty Area

4.0 Green’s Construction

4.1 USGA Green construction

In this report I am going to speak about the proposed development of the site, with the aim to obtain an “heathland” type golf course. I will analyse the present condition of the land and which kinds of treatments are necessary to achieve the requested result.

1.0 Condition of the land

The land is undulating and test digs have shown that the site is covered with different kinds of soils.

The higher ground is covered by 150 mm of clay-loam, this kind of soil has a good water and nutrients holding capacity. Its permeability and aeration may be in some areas restricted. It could be suitable for grass growing for golf purposes, but especially where the percentage of clay is higher some treatments are necessary to have good playing conditions, especially during periods of heavy rainfall.

The lower ground, covered by clay and gleys, is characterised by water logging, sometimes permanent, those types of soils may be sticky and hard to work. They are predominant in western Scotland and because of their acid and poorly drained characteristics, they have a low potential for forestry and agriculture, so it is necessary to cover those areas with proper topsoil to have good conditions for golf playability, they support wet heathland and rough grassland communities.

A small part of the site is covered by peat, which is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation matter that forms in wetlands, for that reason the soil here is very poorly drained and it needs to be filled with backfill material to be suitable for golf course development.
Because of the challenging ecological conditions of peat wetlands, they are home to many rare and specialized organisms that are found nowhere else. Some environmental organizations and scientists have pointed out that the large-scale removal of peat from bogs in Britain, Ireland and Finland is destroying precious wildlife habitats.

Soil’s condition is also affected by grazing mammals. The decomposition of dead grazers as well as their excrement adds nutrients, such as carbon and nitrogen, to the soil. The urea of grazers may also affect the soil by decreasing the pH.

Occasional floods of the river can influence the condition of the soil, because it is possible to have near the edge of the river an high gravel concentration on the ground, that dramatically affects the drainage.
I would recommend the construction of an embankment to do not have flooding problems in the future. Standing water on a golf course following intensive rain can delay play for prolonged periods, sometimes up to several days; additionally it would be impossible to provide quality turf under such conditions.

2.0 Heathland habitat

Heathland is an habitat that is favored where soils are acidic, of low fertility, and free-draining. Heaths are dominated by low shrubs 0.2–2 m tall. Heath vegetation is species poor and comprised primarily of heather (Calluna vulgaris), heath (Erica species) and gorse (Ulex species).

Wet heathlands can also occur on acidic, nutrient-poor soils with impeded drainage. Mixtures of cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix) typically dominates the vegetation. These heathlands often contain heather (Calluna vulgaris) and varying proportions of bell heather (Erica cinerea).

Heathlands support many other rare plants and animals, such as the marsh gentian, southern damselfly, nightjar and sand lizard, which often live only in these areas.

Several programmes have taken place in recent years in Britain, which aim to restore heathlands or to re-create them on sites where they have been lost. There may be funds available to manage, restore and re-create heaths on designated sites from the country conservation agencies and other conservation organisations. Therefore recreate an heathland habitat is also useful from the economical point of view.

3.0 Proposed treatments for golf development and recreation of a Heathland habitat

In this chapter, I will explain which kinds of treatments are required to create an excellent golf course and an heathland habitat.

Turf grass for golf purposes and heathland’s vegetation require different soils condition, especially the pH recommended is completely different: between 5.5 and 6.5 for growing turf grass and an average 3.8 for an heathland habitat, for this reason I will suggest different kinds of improvements and managements.

The suspension of grazing will be considered, due to the influence on the pH and the amount of nutrients caused by the mammal’s presence.

3.1 Clay-Loam areas – Golf course establishment

The areas for the golf course establishment are:

- Fairways
- Low Rough Areas
- Greens

In this chapter, I will describe the required treatments for the fairways and the low rough areas, the green’s construction will be explained in the paragraph 4.1 .

Large part of the site is covered by friable clay-loam, so in the topsoil there is a reasonable percentage of sand, more than 35%.
This is a good condition for growth of turf grass, but because of the position of the site in a region characterised by high average rainfalls, the soil must guarantee an excellent drainage also during wet periods. I would therefore recommend to mix the 150 mm of clay-loam topsoil with sand to obtain a layer of 300 mm similar to a sandy loam soil.
This device will increase water movement, root development and ground’s aeration.

After the soil’s structure modification and the earth movements required to shape the golf course, some preparatory treatments are necessary before the turf seeding.
The main steps in turf establishment are:

- Soil reaction adjustment
- Fertilization
- Preplant soil preparation
- Seeding
- Postplant turf care

To achieve an optimum turf condition it is necessary to have the right soil pH, because it influences the availability of nutrients.
All the essential turf nutrients are available at a pH around 6, the average soil pH is now 5.2, I would recommend to add Calcium Carbonate(CaCO3) to the soil to achieve the right pH.
The application rate should be based on chemical soil tests and may vary across the site, those kinds of treatments should be applied well in advance of the planting period, periodic tests on the soil are necessary to check the soil’s reaction to treatments.

After the adjustments in soil reaction a preplant incorporation of fertilizer is needed, the major nutrients for turf establishment are:

- Phosphorus (P)
- Potassium (K)
- Nitrogen (N)

Due to the fact that the land is used for grazing at the moment, a good amount of nutrients is already available, but a further fertilizers’ application is almost always needed, the amount of each element should be based on previous chemical tests on the soil. In this phase I would recommend and higher concentration of Potassium and Phosphorus.
This kind of treatment has to be done just before planting.

The last step, before seeding, is the final preparation of the plantbed to obtain a smooth, firm soil surface.
The preparatory phase is now completed and it is time to seed the turf grass, I would recommend to plant a native type of grass like Meadow grass (Poa Annua).

To achieve a good turfgrass condition, after the seeding some cultural practices are needed: the amount of water and fertilizers on the soil must be often checked and a mowing schedule should be followed. In this phase I would recommend to apply mostly Nitrogen, because it helps in the photosynthesis’ process.

Fertilizers, especially Nitrogen, are a serious treat for water quality, so the presence of the river requires particular care and attention during the nutrients’ application, due to nutrient loss caused by runoff. Also the ground water quality could decrease when leaching occurs. Using slow-release source of nitrogen and trying to avoid potential runoff events may reduce the losses of nitrogen from turf grass systems.

3.2 Clay-Loam areas – Creation of an Heathland habitat

To create or recreate an heathland habitat on a land that is used for grazing and trees invade the site, the nutrient content and soil chemistry has to be adapted or completely changed.
Grazing field topsoil, when compared to heathland topsoil, contains higher concentrations of nutrients.
The trees that are now present on the site will be cleared to recreate the right habitat for heathland’s vegetation.
The restoration of the right soil conditions starts by removing topsoil, scraping away dead plant material or in some cases adding sulphur to make the soil more acidic.

When the soil has the right acidity, it is time to import the heathland’s vegetation by sowing seed or growing and planting seedlings, once restoration has started, natural processes may help, seed can be carried from nearby areas by wind or even in bird droppings, also micro-organisms such as bacteria and some types of fungi are also important in the restoration of the habitat, as they help the plant to obtain nutrients or water, growing them with seedlings can significantly increase the survival of plants in the recreated habitat.
The restored area will need to be managed and monitored to ensure that the restored area develops into the intended type of habitat. Alien invasive species may need to be controlled regularly and eliminated to avoid that competing species may overtake heathland species.

The pH level should be often checked, in an area of heavy rainfall the pH tends to return to the initial value (5.2). Therefore the soil will need to be acidified when necessary.

3.3 Clay and Gleys areas – Golf Course establishment

Those areas are generally very wet, because those types of soils tend to stay wetter for longer as the fine particles hold more water, therefore it is impossible to grow in those areas an healthy turf grass ground for golf purpose.
From my point of view it is necessary to cover the ground with 300 mm of topsoil, using the clay loam that characterizes the other part of the site, that was removed to create the conditions for an heathland habitat, and mixing it with sand.

In those part of the site with excessively wet soil condition, drainage problems can not only be corrected just by covering with topsoil: a drainage line will be installed.
The drainage system is normally made by a mainline and some lateral lines, the shape, the number of the lateral drain lines and the direction of the mainline are dictated by the topography of the area that is considered.
For the pipes in this case I would recommend perforated PVC pipes that are 100 mm in diameter for the lateral lines and 200 mm for the mainline. The pipes will be covered with 50 mm of gravel .

Treatments before and after seeding are the same explained in the paragraph 3.1.

3.4 Clay and Gleys areas – Creation of an Heathland habitat

Clay and gley areas can support wet heathland vegetation if properly managed.

Trees that are now on the site will be cleared and the amount of nutrients on the topsoil will be reduced, scraping away the topsoil, removing all aboveground biomass, which includes the removal of the litter layer and humus layer.

The soil’s pH needs to be tested and adjusted, and then it is time to seed with the plants that normally grow on wet heathlands, such as the cross-leaved heath.

Those areas need to be managed and monitored to avoid that alien species invade them, the soil pH should be often checked and adjusted.

3.5 Peaty Area

Peaty areas are normally very wet and I would not recommend to develop part of the golf course on them, due to environmental issues and the increasing of costs.

Peaty areas are naturally part of heathland complex, they are acidic and nutrient poor soil, they contain large amounts of organic matter and they support the growing of particular types of heathland shrubs.

4.0 Green’s Construction

Putting greens cover less that the 2% of a total golf area, but around 50% of the strokes are played on them, therefore a proper design is essential to build a green that is playable all the year-round, and that keeps low the maintenance costs.

The average rainfall in the region is very high, for this reason I would recommend the construction of a two-layer system USGA green, the two layers are: a root zone mix and a gravel drainbed .

The USGA green has an high-sand content root zone that possess good internal drainage, minimal proneness to soil compaction, and enhances aeration, which provides needed oxygen for root growth.
Large migration (more than 10%) of root zone particles into the gravel drain-bed must be avoided for this type of construction to work properly: several laboratory tests are necessary to check if the materials available can work together.

The construction of the putting green is a very important aspect of golf construction, it involves many steps, all of them critical for the final result.

4.1 USGA Green construction

In this paragraph, I will explain the guidelines for the USGA’s green for every step of the construction and for the turf grass establishment.

The first step in constructing a new green is shaping the sub-grade level that is 400 mm below the proposed finished grade, the shape must be the same of the surface of play.

On greens a sub-grade surface drainage is always required with mainlines and lateral lines, the design should follow the slopes of the surface, depressions that collect water must be avoided .

For the drain lines I would recommend perforated PVC pipes and a diameter of 150 mm for the mainlines and a diameter of 100 mm for the lateral lines. The excavations to install the pipes have to be covered with gravel (dimension: 6-10 mm).
After the drainage system, the drain-bed of gravel will be installed, the dimension of the gravel should be between 2 and 6 mm, the layer needs to have a thickness of 100 mm. The contractor must install stakes at frequent intervals, marking them to have the same shape for the drain-bed and the finishing putting surface.

It is now time to install the 300 mm-thick root zone mix, that is composed by sand, soil and organic matter. The sand should be at least the 70% and there should not be more the 10% of clay and silt.
For the organic matter is possible to use peat, that it can be obtained from the peaty bog that are on the site.

The soil needs some treatments before and after the seeding date, they are similar to the treatments explained in the paragraph 3.1 for fairways and low rough areas.

I suggest to seed a Bentgrass (Agrostis …) specie, because it guaranties an high shoot density and a low cutting height.

In addition to the common treatments I would recommend also mulching. With this device it is possible to achieve a rapid turf establishment on an high-sand root zone green. The mulch should be applied uniformly on the green to achieve good results.