Covid-19 Lock Down Week

Hi All,

I have been thinking how I would start this blog, how to say how we are feeling, how to describe whats happened in the last week. I cant find those words just now but I will try, that's all I can do.

On Monday 23rd March, Boris Johnson issued a full lock down of the UK. People just were not listening to the warnings and still gathering, laughing and joking about the situation. He had no choice.
You are only allowed to leave your house for the following reason he said

• Shopping for basic necessities as infrequently as possible
• One form of exercise a day - for example a walk or cycle alone or with people from your family or household
• Any medical need, to provide care or to help the vulnerable
• Traveling to and from work, but only where this absolutely necessary and cannot be done from home

After the announcement lots of phone calls back and forth took place with Richard Arnold, Nick Clayton on what this meant to us as a business. Would we need to shut down? Would we be able to maintain the course? Lots of calls from other clubs to find out our position and what we thought. The team were text messaging to find out if they needed to be in work? how could we secure the premises?  Are we allowed? emails from the MC were now coming in thick and fast. Yes its only grass, but an un-maintained golf course is a field, park. The fine turf areas such as greens, tees, aprons would need some serious work to bring back to normal standards. A few weeks would be doable but months would not. Luckily all the golf Unions made announcements very quickly to back up the clubs decision.

Golf Courses are close but Greenkeeping staff can attend work for security and essential maintenanace purposes. First thing we did was get a small team ready for the morning and told the rest of the staff to 'stay at home' like the government guidelines. This would give us time to digest what had happened and to plan for the coming weeks or months.  

Tuesday morning came, getting up early to secure the club. I felt guilty when leaving my driveway as no cars were on the road... I am allowed to be doing this, surely if I was stopped securing our business would be allowed (since then we have been issued with letters to travel). The English golf union had spoke to the government and we had permission but it didn't feel right. Once at the club the small team of twos arrived staggered. Talking on the radios and across the width of a green to a couple of them ( a team we would normally sit together and brief the day, not anymore) the feelings of worry, guilt for being out, scared, scared to touch anything were all being discussed. We worked to erect the fence to shut the car parks and clubhouse down. The gaps to the course were also fenced. After this all, flags, hole cups and markers and yardage posts were removed from the course. I ve got to say it looks so nice without all the furniture. What golf would have looked like in the early days.

After discussions with the Chairman we looked at selecting six staff to stay on and maintain the course and three would be furloughed and sit on the subs bench to come back to work when needed. Our thinking was we could survive with four but having a little room for staff illness which is bound to happen as staff isolate. This way we will always have three that can come in and maintain the course if the entire team also comes down with the virus. Telling the team who was staying and who would be off until further notice was hard. These guys live and breath being on the golf course daily and I can tell you being isolated isn't good for anyone but when you spend most days outside all day in all weathers, it's hard even at weekends.

We have been very pro active since the outbreak of the virus. We have been cleaning down the touch points all day long. Our staff now arrive at different times, staggering start times in ones or twos to stop any bottle neck that would go against government guidelines. If we have a break we now sit out on the course on our own, we work on our own, when we use machinery this has to be washed and then sprayed down with antibacterial spray or wipes. Gloves are worn non stop. Staff keep to the social distancing. Most times of the day now with no golf there can be six holes empty between us. Hearing there voices on the radio the only normal part of our day. Even going out to get fuel for the machines is a worrying time. Making sure latex gloves are worn and taken off straight after, using card only pumps to minimise contact with more people. Nothing is normal anymore...

How I wish to be moaning only about the weather or chemical withdrawals now but now is a time for us to do our bit as long as we are allowed. To maintain this beautiful course and come out of this in a condition that we can play golf asap once the green light is given and lets face it, these restrictions will be phased out and golf will be one of the first sports to be reinstated as its one of the safest at these times. Golf brings over 2 billion to our economy so bringing it back will be in the governments interest that's for sure. Once it is safe to do so.

After a couple of days and a lot of national debate about what is "Essential Maintenance" to golf courses and how long and how many staff are needed the R&A, BIGGA (Greenkeepers Association), GCMA (Managers), the PGA, the golf unions all came up with an document of what is essential at the moment and what is not. A national live debate took place via Zoom the app for meetings on Thursday and the Essential Maintenance statement for golf courses during Corvid 19 came out on Friday. This is version one and I think we will get an update in three weeks because some of the work is limiting at the moment but I am more than happy with whats on the document for now. It allows us to cut greens, tees, aprons, fairways semi rough and rough. No work to hazards including bunkers is allowed. Unfortunately we can be doing grand works or improvements as this is about keeping the buisness in a recoverable state. If the lock down is extended we will be able to do work I am sure to maintain the investments but the worry is if a hard lock down comes in and no work can be done.
We planned for this by applying PGRs to slow the plants growth down (this is normally against our planned spring works) last week.

One of our main worries this was also the lack of water. Our system has been down and the pipe work broken and buried on 18th. You will have seen the pipe work laid out on the surface. This week Graham working with Andy our irrigation engineer (2 metres apart) managed to get the system connected and water back on. This is a huge relief and something we can now use to keep the course alive in the coming months. Thanks to them both and Mr Trant for leaving us a digger to get this done.

Tees coming up well this week

Turning up everyday to an empty course has been very different. The team have been fantastic and getting jobs done as best we can on our own. Machinery breakdowns is a worry as no parts or mechanics are allowed to work at the moment. Currently our semi rough mower is down, changes to how we do things is a constant but we will over come this.
Some good news is that TJ waste have diggers back on the practice ground, at the moment like us construction is allowed and two guys in two machines at one end of the range to each other is permitted.

Fairway recovery is coming on

The bonus is the course will get a natural rest and mother nature has a way of healing areas when no golf is walking over her. We have left the greens to raise the height of cut for now. This will reduce the stress the plant is under and will require less maintenance. We are doing all we can to get through this very scary and worrying time.

I know we are lucky to be getting out during the lock down and its one of the safest places to be with no one around and I always thought wouldn't it be great to have the golf course to ourselves to do what we wanted. I can tell you that this isn't what I imagined, we miss every single one of you. We miss the  office staff, the pro shop team making us smile everyday, the clubhouse being busy, the bar serving drinks, we miss Leon and Dave's food and people to say hello too or laugh with. We miss being a team. We cannot wait to welcome you all back but we will with the golf course ready!

Take care of yourselves and others

Stay safe

Matt

The power of stepping away