Carnoustie Golf Links
Carnoustie Golf Links Project Profile
The Carnoustie Golf Links is one of the ancestral homes of the game. It is a public links, and so the opportunity is there for anyone and everyone to play the Championship course. Yet that same course has been graced by some of the greatest names in the game. Carnoustie will host the Open Championship again in 2007, exactly 70 years since the last significant alteration to the layout was made. The man charged with ensuring that the course plays up to its reputation is John Philp, a Head Greenkeeper with incomparable knowledge on the subject of turf installation and maintenance.
The Inturf Connection
John Philp started working with Inturf in 2002 after another producer ceased production of the turf grade which he had customarily sourced from them. “It was unfortunate but we have no regrets as Inturf have proved themselves adept at custom growing a top quality mixture for us which offers us more flexibility than we ever had before,” says John. Inturf products have now been used on maintenance and improvement projects on all three courses, including green rebuilding, building up bunkers, and fairway restoration.
The Client’s View
“It isn’t easy to meet the very exacting requirements of Links like Carnoustie,” says John Philp. “We, like all other links courses, have to combat salt laden air and strong winds, and whilst for one part of the course we might be looking for a turf which will give us height without too much density at the base, in another part we would need something different altogether. Inturf have the knack of growing top quality turf across a very broad spectrum. They work with us as partners - and they’re very flexible with deliveries too.”