Trevose Golf & Country Club was founded in 1925. It’s Championship Course is ranked as one of the UK’s top links courses and has played host to The Brabazon Trophy (2008), The McGregor Trophy (2012) and the English Men’s County Finals (2017). This year the club is to play host to its first European tour event when they welcome the Staysure European legends links championship. In addition to the Championship Course, there is also 2 further 9 hole courses in the Headland and Short Course. All are in exceptional condition, which is impressive considering over 70,000 rounds of golf were played on the courses just last year alone. We spoke to Neil Ivamy, the Course Manager there. Neil outlined just some of the ecology-focused initiatives that have been taken in order to achieve this.

A vast reduction in the use of chemical based products has taken place over the last few years. The use of natural products on the greens has resulted in finer but firmer greens but also a reduction in the use of fungicides specifically. No chemical-based products, except a few selective week killers, are being sprayed on the course. As an SSSI Approved course there is an insistence that UK sourced products are applied to the grass. The course is also working closely with Natural England in order to clear scrubland while protecting the sand lizards that are welcome occupants of the site.

         

The Point is a 230 acre 18 hole course that finds itself in an enviable position just above the Camel Estuary, 5 miles from Wadebridge and a mile from Rock and St Enodoc. The course has stunning views out over Hayle Bay and Pentire Point but there is so much more to the site than simply the golf course. We spoke to Tom Collings who heads up a team of 6 Greenkeepers, taking care of the main course, practice area and the wildflower meadows.

Over the last few years, Tom has been focusing a lot of attention on soil quality and rather than using traditional fungicides he has been testing non-chemical based products. The result is that the course is constantly improving its ecological credentials, which there has been a clear improvement to fairway definition, bunkers, tees and greens. Starling and other bird boxes can be found across the course and these will very soon be joined by bat boxes.