Golf: Gleneagles poised to splash £500k on sub-air system for all greens

Published on Tuesday 2 August 2011 14:28

GLENEAGLES could be set to splash out £500,000 to install a revolutionary sub-air system in all the greens on the PGA Centenary Course ahead of the 2014 Ryder Cup.

Initial results from a test of the system, which is the first to be used on a golf course in the UK, have been positive and bosses at the Perthshire resort are now looking at the possibility of it being rolled out in full.

"The sub-air system is untested in the UK and when we discussed it with the European Tour's agronomy team they weren't sure what effect it would have," said Bernard Murphy, the general manager at Gleneagles.

"We have installed it on the tenth green, which is the lowest lying one of the wetter greens. If it works there, then sensibly we've got to think it's a good thing to do on the rest of the course.

"It is difficult to get a true cost, but it is likely to be the thick end of half a million pounds for us if we do the whole course. However, the fact is that the wet is a bigger villain than the dry at the moment, so if this can help with that then it is the right thing to do.

"The Ryder Cup is a consideration but we are also looking beyond that. If we can bit a little bit of warmth in the greens, we can get out of the winter a bit quicker and get into May a little bit more aggressively. It's a long-term thing as well as being handy for the Ryder Cup."

Scott Fenwick, the golf courses and estate manager at Gleneagles, said the tenth green was the one that gave him and his staff "the most problems" and the results of the sub-air system being tested there have been "positive".

"We've put sensors in both the tenth green and sensors in the 17th green," he revealed. "When the machine first went in, the tenth green was at 1 degree colder than the 17th and it was also 5 per cent wetter than the 17th.

"It is now 1.2 degree warmer than the 17th green, a 2.2 degree swing, and it is 6 per cent dryer, which is a 11 per cent swing in moisture."

Jack Nicklaus, who designed the course, is now back on board after the 18-time major champion had expressed his discontent at changes made to it by David McLay Kidd.

Nicklaus was driven around the course by Fenwick during a visit to Gleneagles last month and is in the process of coming up with suggestions for further changes he'd like to see in time for the Ryder Cup.

He has already asked for some bunkers to be made bigger and others reduced, but it remains to be seen what he has in mind for the 18th, which is weak in comparison to the closing hole on most of the courses used for the Ryder Cup in recent times.

"It was a nice relaxed day when I drove Jack around the course," said Fenwick, who has been on the Gleneagles greenkeeping staff for more than 30 years. "There were people out on the course playing golf. We'd stop and watch them play shots and he'd encourage them and clap when they played a good shot. That was nice.I certainly didn't feel as though I was one accompanying of the great golfers due to how relaxed it was.

"Some of the stuff that was in his original design is coming back in with the changes we are making. It's about seeing the fairway lines into bunkers and making them visible. Bunkers will no longer be blind and holes will look totally different due to the fact the sand will be visible."

On the controversial 18th, Murphy said: "There are one or two competing theories for that at the moment and we really don't know what way that is going to land. It is important to have a good last hole, but I still look to Colin Montgomerie's line that most of the matches in the Ryder Cup are settled on the 16th and 17th.

"There are ways which could change it to be compelling to more people but, at the same time, it ticks a lot of boxes in terms of spectator movement etc and that is important as well with an event like the Ryder Cup. I am sure Jack is going to come back with something that will take due consideration of those other aspects."

The most significant change that has been made for the Johnnie Walker Championship at the end of this month is the latest re-shaping of the green at the par-four seventh.

"It was quite slopey from the right and there was quite a severe slope from the front of the green up over a saddle and on to a plateau," explained Fenwick. "We have taken away basically the whole front third of the green. The ridge has totally come out of it and the whole green is now pinable.

"It has been the green that has caused the most problems for us over the years and hopefully we won't need to do anything else with it now. The Johnnie Walker is obviously going to be the real test for it and we'll take feedback from that. The European Tour have been up to look at it and they're happy with it."