IT’S A SHAW THING!
15-12-2009
Roger Shaw is a man on a mission, his goal
is simply to develop and deliver a high
quality golfing facility. However, when will it
be considered finished? To date he has
spent every day of the last sixteen years
dedicated to the cause!
Laurence Gale MSc walks the course
It was Duncan McGilvray who introduced me to
Roger Shaw, telling me of the unique role he has
at Ramside Hall Hotel and Golf Club where he
has helped design, construct and maintain the
course since its conception in 1993.
Roger had been course manager at Brancepeth
Castle Golf Course near Durham for ten years,
where he brought a tired and out of condition
Harry Colt designed golf course back to life. Before
that he was course manager at Darlington Golf
Club, for ten years having served his apprenticeship
at Billingham Golf Club, his home club, as a junior
golfer.
He moved to Ramside in September 1993 to start
the planning of a 27 hole course and a 16 bay
driving range with practice chipping and putting
green.
Working directly for the owner, Michael Adamson,
he was given the responsibility of overseeing the
entire project. The first task was for them both to
visit numerous other golfing projects and select
their own team of people and companies they knew
they could work with.
Jonathan Gaunt was appointed as the course
architect and, after several months agreeing
planning permission, the construction of the course
began in March 1994.
The project management team was
headed by Ian Martin and his associate,
Bob Hornegold who, along with
agronomic adviser to the R&A, David
Stansfield of PSD Agronomy, formed an
experienced team.
Construction started on the 14th
March and was completed in just over six
months, with the last seed sown on the
19th September 1994.
When it opened in April 1995,
Ramside Hall was the largest golf
development in the North-East of
England. The course was designed, with
big undulating greens and numerous
strategically placed lakes set in historic
parkland surrounding a 100-bed hotel.
The architectural brief was for “a
course of quality to please golfers of all
abilities”. That’s the essence of good
architecture, but here Jonathan Gaunt
had created a gem, with a card of 6,809
yards, 6,100 yards of the yellow and
5,530 yards for the ladies, all par-72.
The course has many highlights,
among them a collection of outstanding
par-3s, two dominated by water, and one a double dog-leg with a stream in the
green approach. This all enhances a site
of exceptional beauty, a mixture of
mature woodland, ancient parkland and
rolling countryside.
In addition to the 18-hole golf course
the grounds feature a 9-hole golf course
of 3000 yards and a driving range. These
facilities will shortly be extended to a 36-
hole golf course.
Roger has a staff of ten to help
maintain the course and hotel grounds.
Head Greenkeeper is Harry Lees and his
deputy is Craig Hardy. The
greenkeeping staff are Lee Mason,
Anthony Baker, Andrew Shaw, Mal Atwill
and Mick Dobson. Nick Scott is the club’s
mechanic and Bob Stewart is Head
Gardener.
Harry and Craig have been with Roger
since the early days of construction in
1994 and helped with the growing in of
the course. They have a wealth of
experience and know the course inside
out. They are a “well-balanced and
dedicated team” who have learned many
new skills under his leadership.
All service and repairs are carried out
in house. All machines are fully serviced
during the winter months with the aim of
keeping downtime to a minimum during
the height of the playing season. Nick,
with assistance from Craig, does a
sterling job keeping the equipment in
first class condition, some of it has been
in use since 1994, still looking good and
giving good service.
Mowers are set up on a daily basis,
with the cylinders checked for sharpness
and set to the correct height of cut. A
new grinder from Bernhard & Co. was
purchased in 2006 to speed up the whole
process. It has proved a very worthwhile
investment.
Another invaluable piece of kit is the
Rotary turf lift which, in Roger’s words
“is a great tool and helps with easy access
to all areas of the machine and at any
height. We have found it a great help in
the workshop”.
Presentation of the course is
paramount and keeping the machinery
in tip top condition certainly helps to
achieve this aim.
Staff begin work at 7.00am and
finish at 4.30pm with weekend
cover provided on a rota basis.
Recent Project Work
The construction of a new water feature on the 2nd and 4th holes,
with stonewalls to the existing
ditch and new stone bridges, have
improved the aesthetics of the
course. The base of the ditch was
concreted with river stones set in
to form weirs. A new pump was
installed in the lake to recycle the
water back through a 90mm pipe
to the headwall where it starts its
journey again. A local stonemason
was employed and Roger states
that “he has done a fantastic job”.
Work has begun on clearing the
land that will be used for the
extension to the course. A further
fourteen holes will be constructed
on 100 acres of farmland which
has not been maintained for
thirty years. Fifty of the acres have
already been cleaned, ploughed
and cultivated and the same
process will soon begin on the
remaining fifty.
Nine existing holes (19-27) will
be redesigned down to four holes
allowing space for future hotel
development. A new underpass is
also planned that will link the old
and new courses for access by
both players and machinery.
Annual Maintenance Regimes
Greens are mown with a
combination of triple and
pedestrian mowers depending on
the time of the year. Cutting with
pedestrian mowers is preferred
during the spring and autumn
period, especially after any
aeration work, as this helps to
restore the surface.
Greens are cut at 3.5mm in the
summer and 5mm at all other
times. Tees and approaches are
kept at between 6-8mm, fairways
at 12mm and semi-rough between
35-50mm.
Fertiliser Programmes
Greens are fed with a cocktail of
products using a combination of
granular and liquid formulations.
Greens - spring to autumn
applications:
- Spray applications of Mivena
Granusol 10:10:35+Fe+Trace
- Spray applications of Mivena
Granusol 20:0:20+Fe+Trace
- Granular Application of Mivena
Granuform 20:6:18+2mg
- Rigby Taylor Breaker Advance
used as wetting agent
- Rigby Taylor Microflo cocktail
mix 15:2:11+Fe+Trace
- Granular application of Mivena
Granuform 15:0:22+Mg+Trace
Tees and approaches:
- Gem Procote. One application in each of the seasons
Fairways:- Mivena Granupermanen
18:7:15+2mg+Fe - 3-4 months during spring and summer
- Mivena Granumaster 15:0:22 in
late summer and autumn/winter
Aeration
possible when soil conditions are
suitable. The greens are hit hard
in early spring and then again at
the end of the competition season
early October.
The first pass is with the Imants
2.1 metre Shockwave at 250mm
depth to decompact the rootzone.
This is followed by hollow core
aeration with 10mm tines to keep
thatch under control.
The final aeration pass is with
the Terra Spike with 12mm tines
set at 250mm. The greens are
then lightly firmed to restore the
surface using the hand mowers.
During the growing season the
greens are kept open using pencil
8mm solid tines aerating to
125mm depth on a monthly basis.
They are deep scarified with the
Allett in the spring and autumn
and verticut with thatch removal
blades every other week during
the season.
Greens are scarified and sarrel
rolled to key new bent grass seed
into the surface of the greens.
Straight sand dressings to
greens and tees helps to keep the
surface open. Leighton Buzzard
30 grade sand is used with a light
application through the Dakota
after each of the aeration
treatments. This is vibro/brushed
into the surface with Turfworks
units on a Greenking 4.
The fairways are scarified in
spring and autumn with the Trilo
SG700.
They are aerated twice a year,
once in the autumn with the 2.2
metre HD Imants at 275mm
depth and once in the spring with
the 2.5 metre vertidrain with
25mm tines set at 250mm depth.
Irrigation
The club has a fully automated
Toro Watering system, controlled
by a Toro SC3000 controller, that
was installed during the
construction of the course in
1994. The system uses water from
the course’s own lake for greens,
tees and approaches. The club are
currently upgrading parts of the
system to accommodate new
pumps and pipe work to increase
the flows and performance.
Also, a new submersible pump
has been fitted to operate the new
water features on the 2nd and 4th
holes. All of the work was
completed by Enviropro H2O.
Winter work
This winter Roger’s staff, who all hold chainsaw certificates, will continue with their
tree-thinning programme, with
approximately thirteen hectares of
woodland plantation to thin out leaving the
better quality trees to mature. All branches
are chipped on site and stored for future use
around the course.
Bunker work will be ongoing with the
replacement of some drainage and the
upgrade of the blinding material between
drainage stone and bunker sand. Some
bunkers, now classed as ‘out of play’, will be
filled in and new ones added and brought
more into modern play areas.
After last year’s wet weather, and the
problems it caused with some parts of the
course flooding, a programme of installing
new surface water drains will also be
undertaken this winter.
The work will be done with whizzwheel
type sand bands. After trialing other
equipment Roger feels this is the best way to
enable them to link into the existing
drainage stone at 250mm and lateral drains
laid at 10-15 metre centres.
Having walked the course, and seeing first
hand the dedication and passion Roger and
his staff have, it is easy to understand why it
is in such excellent condition. For a course
barely sixteen years old it seems to have
matured beyond its years. Roger is
clearly still on his ‘mission’.
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