We have reached the last month of the season and for the club as a whole it has certainly been a turbulent year, but fortunately the course has shown itself from a particularly nice and calm side. Granted, the rough has started to bite back, the eternal bunkers are sagging a bit and need more love, but apart from these conditions the course has given us very nice playing conditions for you golfers and few worries for the greenkeepers.
In the greenkeeper's yard and on the course committee, the care of the entire course is a focus point, but fairways have received special attention for a number of years. Generally, everything was always better in the old days, but a few months ago a diligent member came over to me one day and told me that he had been playing golf out here for 70 years and in all the time he has played, he has never experienced better fairways. That was cool. The journey towards better fairways is certainly not over and we must continue and move upwards. My personal ambition is that one day we will have such firm and strong fairways that their strength can outweigh the ravages of deer. Then we will have a true all-year-round course.
We can certainly thank the weather for the fine conditions. Overall, the weather this year has been neither too hot nor too cold, neither too wet nor too dry. Real grass weather. But ultimately, the fine course conditions are due to the fact that we stand on the shoulders of many years of focused investment in the care of the course and, not least, maintaining a strategic aim for sustainable, pesticide-free operation in the challenging environment of Dyrehaven. It is not easy and certainly not grateful, but it gives a return over time that creates a really good golf experience.
This year we say goodbye to Hilmar Sveinsson, who has been employed as a greenkeeper at the club since 2007. At the age of 16 he started as a fisherman and worked his way up the North Atlantic for 30 years before he went ashore and became a greenkeeper. In Denmark first in Dragør, then in KGK. All members know Hilmar as a really helpful, hard-working, passionate greenkeeper who it is perhaps difficult to put down. That is also how he is known among his colleagues with the nickname: “One man army”. We will not find a guy like Hilmar again.
The final winter measures for the track have been implemented:
Flags on the greens are now rare. We have said "thank you for this season" to our regular flag collector Bitten and are therefore reducing the wear and tear from transporting them around the course in the morning and evening. From now on, it is the greenkeepers who collect flags at the end of the working day, if there are any flags on the greens at all.
We are also taking extra care of our two weak greens, 1st and 18th. Both are now played on provisional greens.
Thank you for this year. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Martin Nilsson, chief greenkeeper