With a little help from some trusted industry contacts, like Richard Shapland of Headland Amenity, Jon Funnell decided to “give it a go” and take over as Head Greenkeeper at Westcountry Golf Academy in 2010.
Developed from a 12 bay driving range, to a challenging Par 3, 9 hole golf course in 2005, Westcountry is located in 15 acres of Devon countryside.
Despite having no previous greenkeeping experience, Jon has since transformed the clubs approach to maintenance, and in turn the results being achieved.
Richard conducted a soil analysis and suggested a simple yet effective course-wide nutritional programme.
“We start our greens feeding programme in March with Greentec 4-0-4+9Fe to check any moss we may have," said Jon.
"Following this we apply C-Complex 7-0-7 to keep us going through the summer, with C-Complex 4-3-4 used during our August renovation work. We also use Seamac Ultra Plus through the summer to improve stress resistance. We identified that the main reason for course closure during the winter was the weak structure of the approaches.
"We started a programme to strengthen the sward by boxing up on every cut, combined with the use of Headlands Multigreen 30-5-14 over a 6 month period.”
Annual soil analysis now keeps them on track. And after a few tough years, Westcountry now boasts a membership of 300+ and a further 60 junior members.
Jon adds: “We’re very fortunate that our owner Stuart Sawyer has really invested in the course, and it’s thanks to this together with elements such as the nutritional programme that has boosted the overall course condition; this pro-active approach means we’re continuing to improve plant health rather than firefighting problems.
"Just one example is the number of days the course has been shut. In previous years this has been up to 30 days a year, but last year the gate was shut for just three. Though there’s still work to be done, we’re making great strides in establishing ourselves as a quality place to learn the sport or for those members that want a challenging course without the physical stress of walking thousands of yards.”
