Every project needs their Dr. Dirt. Ours is Anton Morbach from Walsrode, Germany… a gentleman I’ve used on several occasions. He comes in, does a soil analysis of the site, checks the physical and chemical properties of the soil, and tells us how we should treat the different areas.
Rarely is a site homogenous, so some areas will require different care. He will also tell us about the soils we can use for building the foundations of greens and tees. What material we have suitable for the rootzone mix, if any, the chemical characteristics of the soils and dozens of other questions. He also took samples from quarries in the region for testing.
After he runs a battery of test and creates the recipe for blending the materials, we blend a small mountain according to the formula he prescribes. Every so often we send samples to him for testing to ensure we have matched the recipe (test twice build once). Most critical is the 30cm or so (1 foot) of rootzone that serves as the growing medium for the putting greens. Once we get the OK…that we have indeed matched the recipe, only then will we transport the rootzone to the green for installation.
Consistency is a key concern today. In the old days a golf course would have the greens play differently due to the use of differing materials and construction methods. It was up to the golfer to take these differences from green to green into account. This made maintenance more challenging, as each green required very specific, not generic care. Today’s science based golf course construction makes courses more consistent, predictable to play and easier to care for.
I loved Anton Morbach’s joke (all good jokes have some basis in truth) about consistency... “The course should be built either equally good or equally bad, that way nobody will notice the differences.”
Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
+1 (909) 581 0080
