Golfers on the first tee at Royal St. David’s have Harlech Castle perched high above them, probably just catching their eye at the top of their backswing. Surrounded by history, they are about to play a course which recently adopted modern technology to help sustain its ranking among the world’s best.

Royal St. David’s links manager, Rhys Butler, has more than two decades’ greenkeeping experience, beginning his career at Aberdovey GC before taking his current role 12 years ago.

“I always knew this position was coming up, so I kept a close eye on it,” Rhys said. “I was lucky to get it – Royal St. David’s has always been a great golf course, a real challenge for golfers. The chance to manage it was very much on the radar.”

When he first arrived at the links – currently ranked 76th in the world – irrigation was one the main challenges that he faced. That was resolved in 2022 after a £600,000 investment fully funded by the club – something that made a huge difference to the presentation of the course. This is perhaps most evident in the lush, green grass paths which have replaced the shell walkways.  

“I knew that the club was very progressive, it always wanted to improve,” said Rhys. “We’ve come a long way in 12 years – the board has put a lot of investment in the club for irrigation, staffing levels and now the machinery. We’re very much improving all the time.

“We used to only have irrigation on the tees and greens, but now we have it everywhere – into the walkways, the fairways and the surrounds. It’s been an absolute game changer.”

He says managing a links course comes with different sets of challenges than an inland venue, especially with the seasonal challenges.

“We tend to suffer sometimes with a high water table in the winter, so a lot of our winter projects have been about raising areas to try and get them higher,” said Rhys.

This is emphasised in the upcoming project the greenkeeping team is planning for. This winter the team will be raising the par-four 15th by a metre to tackle the water table, as well as tweaking some embankments and carrying out drainage work.

A team effort

With a team of eight greenkeepers – and a couple of dogs – behind him, Rhys has confidence in both his team and machines to get the job done.

“We could always do with a couple more greenkeepers, just to help with the little jobs, but eight is a pretty good number,” said Rhys. “It’s a young team as well, so there’s plenty of energy and enthusiasm in them.

“They all play golf as well, and because of that they see a lot more when working on the course, noticing the little things that they may not notice if they didn’t play.”

Over the past six years the number of members at Royal St. David’s has doubled to 1,100, with the green fee income increasingly putting the club in a position of strength.

The course, driving range, practice area and putting greens see approximately 40,000 rounds of golf annually, with an even split of playing members and visitors making up the numbers.

“The increased number of visitors has come with the improvement to the course,” said Rhys. “Thanks to word of mouth on social media, visitor players have increased massively, which is good because you always need that engagement and investment to keep progressing.

“We have to make the course good enough for people to want to come back, not just visit once.”

Adopting technology

Having the right machines to do the job is crucial to any greenkeeping team. Rhys’s greenkeepers were using mowers that were about ten years old before new equipment arrived in the shape of two John Deere 7700A fairway mowers and a 2750 riding greens mower.

“We were thinking of refurbishing the machines we had, but after 4,000 working hours, by the time you fully service and repair them it would have cost us quite a lot,” said Rhys.

“We had a demo of the fairway mower and the greens mower, and we were impressed. There was a good finance package available plus the PowerGard servicing package which means we should have no down time, and the residual value of the machines is better when we trade them in. Comparing the package to the cost of refurbishing our existing machines, it was a no brainer to get the Deere in.

“The 2750 greens mower has really surprised me with the quality of cut. I always compare how good a riding greens mower is to a walk-behind mower, and the cut is equally as good with the 2750.”

For the fairway mowers, Rhys purchased a 7700A with hydraulic reels, and a 7700A E-Cut with electric reels.

“The cut quality is identical, but the hybrid is slightly better for fuel consumption,” he said. “Plus, you have taken out that risk of a hydraulic leak.”

Purchased from local dealer Charlies Ag & Turf, salesman Harry Jones wanted to demonstrate how technology could further benefit the staff. They installed a Starfire receiver on one of the 7700A mowers and activated AutoTrac for precision guidance.

“Because we’re cutting so much more often there’s a little bit less grass there, so it’s not as obvious to see where you’ve been cutting,” said Rhys. “Sometimes if you’ve got the sun in your face too, and on links courses it can get misty in the mornings. You just can’t see where you’ve cut.

“So having that GPS there, you’ve got accuracy within a couple of centimetres, so it reduces the chance of missing bits and having to go back and cut it again or overlapping the same area. We found that sometimes we were overlapping by as much as the width of a cutting unit.

“Operationally, the accuracy saves us time and fuel and helps us get it spot on all the time.”

There are also benefits for the club.

“The club wants to see what the advantages of technologies are before investing in them, which was highlighted pretty quickly,” said Rhys. “It’s a case of us communicating to the board how it’s going to save us money, how it’s going to save us fuel, and how it’s going to save us time to do other jobs, and this helps us make that case.”