\n Mr Dickie also explains why the club is now formalising a \u201cKilmacolm Standard\u201d to guide future governance.\n<\/p>\n
\n (Image: Damian Shields)\n<\/p>\n
\n You say there have been more competitions cancelled or delayed this year than in any other during the past decade \u2013 what’s going on?\n<\/p>\n
\n That may not be 100% accurate, but does feel that way and a lot of the guys I\u2019ve played with for years say the same.\n<\/p>\n
\n It appears that our seasons are changing, to the extent that we\u2019re thinking let’s maybe not have our opening event on April 1 as we always do. Let\u2019s move it back a bit and then play longer into October, because I think we\u2019ve got a course that can play that long into the traditional autumn.\n<\/p>\n
\n Have these weather changes been dramatic, or more subtle?\n<\/p>\n
\n In the west \u2013 the \u201cwet of Scotland\u201d \u2013 we already get most of the rain that lands on Greenock<\/a>, which sees around 66 inches a year. Last winter we probably had three inches more, so it\u2019s not enormous in percentage terms, but we\u2019ve seen many more days with rain and heavier bursts of showers.\n<\/p>\n \n That gives you flooding where previously you had none. Traditionally, Kilmacolm\u2019s heathland profile drains quickly, but in recent \u201cmonsoon\u201d conditions we\u2019ve had areas ponding and have also had to abandon competitions due to thunder and lightning.\n<\/p>\n \n What was the disease plaguing the greens until recently?\n<\/p>\n \n Fusarium is a natural problem that can hit any course when heat and moisture combine in the wrong way. We had a policy of trying to limit fungicides three years ago, and in retrospect that was the wrong call.\n<\/p>\n \n When Fusarium came, lots of courses were affected, but we got it worse, which I wasn\u2019t happy to simply accept. We consulted the R&A<\/a>, who confirmed the scale of the issue, and the real question became: how do we make the course more disease\u2011resistant?\n<\/p>\n \n What changed?\n<\/p>\n \n We moved away from a biological treatment approach and went back to traditional methods \u2013 more sand, more aeration, more air and better drainage.\n<\/p>\n \n With R&A advice we put a proper disease\u2011prevention programme in place. It meant higher fungicide costs in the short-term, but less than two years later we\u2019ve got, in my view and in the view of many, the best greens in the area. Hosting three major competitions, with visiting players highly complimentary, has underlined that.\n<\/p>\n \n \n The club has also invested heavily in an irrigation project \u2013 how was that funded?\n<\/p>\n \n We were upfront with members about the problem and asked them to help. Rather than borrow externally, we offered members the chance to lend to the club in return for preferential subscription rates over five years, with their loans repaid at the end. Enough members came forward to cover the project cost, which was around \u00a3200,000.\n<\/p>\n \n On the course, we did a lot of research. Big clubs might irrigate greens, tees and fairways, but fully irrigating Kilmacolm would have been a seven\u2011figure sum and hard to justify. We asked members to prioritise; greens were overwhelmingly number one. We installed a four\u2011head, U\u2011shaped sprinkler system on every green and laid irrigation tails to every tee for future use.\n<\/p>\nSteve Dickie says the decision to limit fungicides was, in retrospect, ‘the wrong call’ (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n