Royal St George’s Golf Club

In March, Royal St George’s Golf Club was the venue for annual meeting of the Links Club. The Links Club was established in 2018 as a way of gathering together UK based course managers from fescue dominant, links golf courses. Barenbrug were invited to sponsor the two-day event which provided an opportunity for over fifty course managers and industry specialists to share ideas and discuss the challenges which come with managing links golf courses.

The morning of day one saw the delegates compete for ‘The Fescue Putter’ over the famous Sandwich links which will host The Open Championship in 2020. Local knowledge proved invaluable, with The Fescue Putter being won by Royal St George’s Course Manager, Paul Larsen. Well played Paul!

During the two days delegates had the opportunity to see and hear about the work that has been done at Royal St George’s to restore fescue dominant surfaces, manage rough by burning and to recreate large ‘sand scrape’ areas. A hot topic of discussion between delegates was how their courses fared during the summer drought, what measures they put in place at the time and what they have had to do since to repair any damage. David Greenshields, Barenbrug’s Amenity Product Manager commented, “Following the summer drought many courses are having to consider additional overseeding. Successful seed establishment can be challenging in harsh environments such as those found on links courses and we would welcome anyone to contact us for advice on seed selection and application”.

Paul Larsen, Royal St George’s Course Manager commented; “The last twelve months have proven challenging times for managing links golf courses. Having the opportunity to gather so many professionals together gives a valuable opportunity to share experiences and to learn from one another. Hopefully everyone will go away from the event with some fresh ideas ahead of another busy golfing season”.