RYDER CUP GLORY Dedicated greenkeepers shine in Paris by TurfPro Editor, Laurence Gale MSC, MBPR
Like most turf professionals, we all like to support and watch the major sporting events – and this weekend’s Ryder Cup is one such event I particularly relish watching.
It was of course extra special yesterday considering that Europe managed to hold off a valiant final-day comeback from a rejuvenated Team USA to regain the trophy with a 17.5-10.5 triumph after a tense, dramatic and historic afternoon at Le Golf National.
Sunday morning, one greenkeeping team on one hole
As a grounds professional The Ryder Cup is up there with the best in terms of challenging the skills of our sportsurf industry in delivering and producing the highest quality turf playing surface. It’s up there with the likes of the FIFA World Cup, Rugby World Cup and Wimbledon.
As we all know, these large sporting events take years of planning and the level of input by grounds professionals is staggering. The general public and the thousands of fans who turn up and watch these events rarely have an inkling of what goes on to stage these events.
In the case of the Ryder Cup, the support for the Le Golf International has been enormous with plenty of major sponsors coming on board along with an array of manufacturers, product and service providers supplying a range of machinery and products to help maintain the course throughout a challenging summer.
Greenkeepers' facility
The course manager of Le Golf National, Alejandro Reyes, and his team of greenkeepers have no doubt been very busy preparing the course for this major event. Three years ago they oversaw the installation of some major fairway drainage soon followed up with some secondary drainage slits to ensure they could cope with any amount of rainfall during a major event. It was then a case of improving the aesthetics and performance of the playing surfaces using the most advanced agronomy maintenance regimes. The below video gives you an insight to the work Alejandro Reyes and his team have been doing to prepare the course for the Ryder Cup.
I understand only too well the amount of work required during a tournament, having myself been on a tournament greenkeeping team when I was privileged to work at the London Club on a European Open event in 2008. The greenkeeping team are effectively carrying out a complete maintenance regime of the course in a few hours pre and post-match play.
They can only ever achieve this level of support by the fact they themselves have support from key industry companies. Ransomes Jacobsen have whole heartily supported the golf course ever since it took on the role of supplying all their machinery. Over £2m of Ransomes Jacobsen turf equipment was used to maintain the course.
A team of about 190 volunteers from across the world was tasked with the job of getting up before dawn to keep the course shipshape, armed with a fleet of Ransomes Jacobsen mowers. As well as the 42 pieces of our equipment that the course already owns and uses every day, the company loaned a further 60 pieces of equipment during the tournament.
Other companies supplying tournament support were both Bernhards and Syngenta. Le Golf National had a full Bernhard sharpening system set up working almost non-stop in the background during the event.
Working with their distributor Macdis in France, they supported the mechanics team in the 4 weeks in the run up to the event. Gary Woodward and Paul Wilcox supported Brice and his team and the volunteers for the whole of September.
They have been working closely with Brice Rué and Alejandro Reyes at Le Golf National for the last year to make sure they had the right set up for the Ryder Cup, providing support for the Paris Legends in September 2017 and the Open de France in June 2018 as a dress rehearsal.
The full set up for the Ryder Cup was:
1 Express Dual 5000
1 Anglemaster 3000MC
1 Express Dual 3000MC
1 Anglemaster 4000DXi
1 Rotamaster
Bernhard set-up for the Ryder Cup
Steven Nixon said: “It is a privilege for any company to be involved in such an event as the Ryder Cup. Bernhard Company are very proud to have worked with Alejandro’s team over the years. Brice Rué and his team at Le Golf National were already working with a strong sharpening regime providing excellent presentation and we are extremely happy and proud to have supported them through this winning event.”
As for Syngenta, Daniel Lightfoot MG, Syngenta UK Turf Business Manager, was on the LGN greenkeeping team in September, utilising his skills developed as former course manager at Bearwood Lakes, along with experience of tournament preparation across the UK and US.
Daniel was working at Le Golf National for the full week before and throughout the Tournament, alongside Syngenta Nordics Business Manager, Lars Tveter - also a former course manager and previous president of the Norwegian greenkeepers’ association. They were among over 160 volunteer greenkeepers working alongside the existing Team at Le Golf National. The greenkeepers’ facility at the course was bedecked in the multinational flags representing those that were helping out. Although it’s an incredibly busy and arduous schedule to get the course prepared and nurtured through the matches, Alejandro Reyes had laid on a full education programme for all the greenkeepers to learn about the practices he’s used- as well as the downtime to talk about and discuss greenkeeping skills.
Daniel Lightfoot and Lars Tveter at the end of the weekend - job well done!
Early starts, long days and late night finishes - fuelled by cans of Red Bull and Mars bars - but still incredible satisfaction from working with such a great team and forging some long-lasting friendships, added Daniel.
Syngenta say they were very pleased to be involved in the event and were very happy to see the benefits the course gained from using some of their key growth regulator products, including Primo Maxx II. Syngenta fungicide, Ascernity, now registered and launched in France and their Ryder Pigment.