More than just a golf course!

All golfers will take to the course with one mutual thought, to play well! We all play golf because we love to play the game and all think we will play better than the last round, we live in that hope but did you know that your golf course is home to more than golfers?

Just because we are a unique course, that if you stand in the middle of our 18th fairway you are only an Adam drive away from the High Street with shops and restaurants. It seems impossible to be home for numerous “locals” including deer, red squirrel, pine martin, foxes, cats, rabbits, moles, otters on the river and numerous birds from woodpeckers, tits, finches and the feeding Osprey also feeding on the river.

Birds and Insects are too many to mention but thanks to the conservation work of the Greens staff, we encourage all of the above and more, I’ll explain why in short...

• Long maintained rough areas as and also thinned out and maintained areas to leave a habitat/ corridor allowing insects and animals to make their way around safely.
• Bird boxes are placed in all different areas around the woodland to encourage nesting.
• Wild flowers to help in the National Operation Pollinators programme to encourage and help bees and insects survive.
• Insect hotels beside flower areas to encourage the flying variety of insects, single bees for winter and Hedgehog dens.
• Bird feeders... Did you know that if you look out the south side of the clubhouse there is bird feeders and a red squirrel feeding station that is constructed by limbs that have fallen off our trees?
• All our tee markers here at the club are made from Recycled wood that has fallen off our trees around the course.
• Heather regeneration, one of the hardest things to encourage but as you can see we have success, small but success!
• Buffer zones where possible to protect the water course from pollution.
• Our own turf nursery which I stray from the path a little bit, but all of this is part of the bigger picture in the target of sustainability.
• Even our traditional and recognisable Docot is obviously home to young pigeons and is safety for these birds.

We are always improving our surfaces here at the club, but off the beaten track let’s just say we are also making strides forward to be sustainable and a golf course that is trying to be aware of its ecological conservation and importance in the greater scheme of things.

There’s lots planned in the coming years with us changing the composition of the long rough and encouraging natural flowers within these areas, changing seed cultivars on the fairways to be more tolerant and less chemical dependant. More red squirrel boxes are due out over the next week and we will look at setting up a trail camera to see if the little ones use them, please look outside the clubhouse and share any photographs of birds and squirrels you’re lucky to see!

We’re more than just a golf course here at Banchory so if you’ve not played for a while, drop down and visit.

Richard Mullen
Course Manager.