Column | The Greenkeeper Writes
Published on April 30, 2020The Day After Part 5
Why is she driving so slowly? Can’t she drive any faster? These were the thoughts that went through Roslan’s mind. On another day, he’d have loved spending time with her – on a buggy in an open place – he hurriedly corrected himself but today, he really wanted to rush through the South Course, do the best that he could and open it to relieve pressure on the club.
Maybe she wants to do the same too? Maybe she wanted to spend more time with him? Is that why she is driving so slowly? That’s nice. He smiled inwardly. It did feel nice to be wanted at my age. I’m not rich, so it was not about the money, maybe it’s my personality. He grinned; no one had ever said he had a winning personality.
“Why are you smiling?” Nina asked, startling Roslan out of his thoughts. He saw that she herself was smiling. And she had the sweetest smile. No, the description should be ‘coy’, not sweet, but maybe her lips are sweet. Roslan felt a stirring in his…
“Why are you smiling?” She asked again.
“Nothing” he racked his brain for an excuse and found none. “Let’s stop there.” He decided his safest bet was to change the subject and pointed to a spot on fairway hole 1.
The grass felt hard under his feet. Probably because there was not so much leaf but more stolons and stems which were harder. This was the kind of feeling he wanted on his greens. Harder grass would make the ball move faster, which is why shorter grass was better, not only was there less leaf, relatively speaking, there was also less distance between ground and ball. That’s how he saw it, but not how he liked it. He hated short grass on greens, it kept him awake at night worrying about disease, insects and compaction. Sure, those things happened on longer grass too, but there was a smaller margin of error with shorter grass.
The fairway grass had been long and Chong had cut it by only a few millimetres the first day and lowered it again yesterday. Roslan judged the fairway grass to be about 25mm long now, which was about the height of the grass on a football field or on the rough beside the fairway.
Oh… how long was the grass on the rough? He started to walk and then winced as pain shot up his back. He sat back on the buggy and pointed to a spot 20 meters away without a word. The look on his face explained the pain he was feeling to Nina.
The grass on the rough was just slightly taller than the grass on the fairway. That was good enough, he thought, they’re the same grass so the rate of growth would be the same, but the fairways received more fertiliser than the rough and there was actually a limit to how tall the grass grew, depending on genes. It was probably about 35 – 45mm tall and would hide the golf ball. That was fine, he thought, the golfers wanted more challenge anyway.
He always kept a pack of three golf ball in his buggy. He reached for it now and threw one into the grass. He could just see the top of it but only because he was three meters away.
“It’s going to be difficult for them to find the ball in the rough,” Nina said.
“Serves them right,” Roslan replied. “They should keep to the fairways anyway.”
“I don’t get why people play golf,” said Nina, looking up at the sky but it was still too early in the morning to say it’s hot. “It is too hot,” she said it anyway.
“That should be one of the reasons to sell the game of golf after the lockdown; the heat is supposed to be bad for it.”
“It’s not hot all the time at all places on the golf course. But you said, ‘one of the reasons’, what else is there?” asked Nina
Roslan thought for a moment. He had thought about it a lot during his time recuperating from his back injury. This job was all he knew, he’d like to keep it and he’d like golfers to keep coming. He had the reasons, he just needed to compose them so that non-golfers could understand and not oppose the opening of golf clubs.
“For one, golf is the one game where you can do physical exercise and still keep your social distance. Even if we filled up every slot at 120 golfers per session, that is still 120 people spread over 100 acres” the South Course alone is already 132 acres but that includes the deep rough, the ponds and other non-playing areas. “Give each player one buggy and they are separated from each other. Or use trolleys for some.”
Roslan drew a deep breath. “In fact, golf is the only game – other than video games – where you can play against yourself. You don’t really need an opponent. If today my score is 100, tomorrow I can play to beat my own score; maybe I’ll play to 96, the following day I’ll try to play to 90 and so on.”
“Wait,” interjected Nina “96 beats 100?”
“Yes,” Roslan frowned “don’t you know golf? You’ve worked here for almost a year! The lower score always beats the higher score.”
Nina shrugged “Do you think business will come back after the lockdown?”
“If the clubs can sell the concept to the government and to the public that golf is the safest sport in the context of the virus, I am sure we can get back some of the business if not all. Look, people want to go out, they want to exercise and golf is a game for all ages, they can be healthy and they can keep their social distance on the course. The club will have to figure out the restaurant seating, changing room et cetera but that can be solved by the golfers themselves if they prefer to eat and bath at home”
“So easy?”
“Not really. I have to figure out how to reduce touching on the golf course. Maybe, I’ll put the cup upside down so that the ball doesn’t go INTO the hole but remains on top so golfers don’t need to pull up the flag or touch the cup. Maybe remove the bunker rakes and tell golfers that we will rake the bunkers – actually, that’s what’s happening now anyway.”
“Sounds like you got it all figured out”
“I had too much time to think.” Roslan pulled out his phone dialled Chong’s number and told him to wait at the green of hole 1.
He put his phone back in his pocket and put his hand by his side, on top of Nina’s hand. She didn’t pull her hand away. Neither did him. This was one touching he didn’t want to reduce.
