Big Game Challenge winners set for Wentworth

The lucky winners of the Syngenta Big Game Challenge have been announced. They will now enjoy a fabulous four-ball round of the awesome Wentworth West Course, along with dinner and overnight in the prestigious Clubhouse.

The four greenkeepers who successfully completed and correctly answered the four Challenge rounds were:

• Scott Aitchison, Deputy Course Manager, Royal Dornoch Golf Club
• Hugo Gallagher, Manager, Muskerry Golf Club
• Brett Moggridge, Course Manager, Kirtlington Golf Club
• Sandy Reid, Links Superintendent, Carnoustie Golf Links

The Big Game Challenge provided a series of Syngenta E-Tech Bulletins that highlighted issues of turf stress and plant health - along with options to counter the effects using combinations of integrated turf management techniques and turf enhancement inputs. Entrants were posed a series of related questions for each round.

Kirtlington Golf Club Course Manager, Brett Moggridge, welcomed the detail of scientific knowledge provided to help turf management decisions. "The E-Tech bulletins introduced some new subjects to me such as free radicals, which although I had heard of, knew very little about. The bulletins showed that using a combination of products can help restore the antioxidants and produce a less stressed turf.

"The more I know and understand about the stresses imposed on turf the better position I should be in to make the correct decisions to reduce such stresses," he added.

Deputy Course Manager at Royal Dornoch Golf Club, Scott Aitchison, said that turf stress is always a key consideration for the links courses where they are always pushing turf to the edge to consistently produce the best possible playing surfaces.

"Understanding the science behind turf management decisions is more important than ever, given the demands we are asking of our courses with surface preparations, number of rounds and an ever increasing season," he reported. "If you're not thinking about what's going on underneath the surface, don't be surprised when you don't have one."

Sandy Reid, Links Superintendent at Carnoustie Golf Links, pointed out that he had already experienced first-hand the benefits of using some of the products highlighted by The Big Game Challenge. "We have now seen how these products, used either in conjunction with another product or in a different way from what is considered the norm, could have a big impact on general plant health and in preventing disease.

"The understanding of the science really becomes valuable once you have implemented something on your own site, and found that it actually works."

The four greenkeepers are planning to enjoy their Wentworth experience in the spring.

www.syngenta.co.uk