Ten Years Ago on a Golf Course in Japan: part 1

I was a golf course superintendent in Japan from September 2000 until August 2001. Now, ten years later, it is interesting to see some of the photos from that year and to remember what it was like. We were working with a maintenance crew of about sixteen people in July of 2001, and I think five people on the crew went on to be golf course superintendents themselves; two interns from the United States, and three of the Japanese crew. 

We had a great team. July 22 was a Sunday that year, and on Japanese courses then, it was not typical to have much afternoon or “twilight” play. Golf tended to be (and generally still is) a structured event, so tee times (Japanese courses usually do a two tee start, off #1 and #10) would generally be booked a few weeks in advance, with the last tee times usually set at midday. Even on a busy day, after 14:00 or so the course would begin to clear as the last golfers played their final nine holes. 

We were able to get a lot of work done on these afternoons. Soil tests of the fairways showed that the soils were low in magnesium and potassium. We were able to find sul-po-mag (0-0-22) from a Japanese agricultural supply company and apply it to fairways to increase the potassium and magnesium availability. And we had to do a lot of work to manage soil compaction, improve water infiltration, and stimulate growth on the bermudagrass fairways. At the time Habu CC was one of the few courses in Japan that used two passenger carts, and at which the carts were allowed to be driven on the fairways. We were doing about 4,000 rounds per month, all with carts driving onto narrow fairways of this course in the mountains of Chiba. So ten years ago today, we waited until the last golfers had moved off these holes and then worked until the sun went down.