German greenkeepers first to benefit from Dutch experience
Dutch golf course maintenance specialist De Enk Groen & Golf is about to roll out the Dutch national quality manual for golf courses to elsewhere in Europe. By invitation of the Greenkeeper Verband Deutschland (GVD), the manual was translated into English. NiB Scanpro has provided new tables for the international version.
The manual is already used by Dutch greenkeepers as a point of departure for conversations with the golf course management or course committee. Its use provides good insight into the condition of the golf course and the level of maintenance, reason enough for the GVD to contact the authors who had worked together with the Dutch Golf Federation (NGF), Dutch Greenkeeper Association (NGA), training institute HAS Kennistransfer and Bedrijfsopleidingen, and consultancy firm Veenstra Adviesburo Golfterreinen when they drafted the document. “The GVD was straightforward and immediately suggested converting the document into English, as this will facilitate everybody learning from it,” explains Arthur Berends, manager of short grass management of De Enk Groen & Golf. “For convenience, an appendix will be included that will list the German translation of certain specific descriptions.”
English inspection method
The handbook contains a number of scale bars that represent three levels of quality. “This will help to establish the quality in an objective way. It will also make the quality visible immediately,” Casper Paulussen of NiB Scanpro adds. The tool can be adapted for every golf course and different selections can be made. By determining which quality must be achieved for each course component, it is possible to work towards achieving this goal on the basis of feedback obtained from periodic measurements. The manual thus makes it possible to work in a data-driven manner.
The English inspection method was used for the international version. “However, the principles remain the same,” Paulussen points out. “It will be a bit more digital. Germany is simply a large country, but we want to ensure that people can still act quickly on the basis of the acquired knowledge.”