WEBVTT - Regions of Golf: The Melbourne Sandbelt 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.640 The Melbourne sand Belt boasts one of the densest concentrations 0:00:03.760 --> 0:00:07.720 of great golf courses in the world Royal Melbourne West 0:00:07.760 --> 0:00:12.200 and East Courses, Kingston Heath, Victoria, and then if you 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:16.920 travel down the Mornington Peninsula you'll encounter some exceptional modern 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:21.360 Lynxy courses like Saint Andrew's Beach. Last December, I took 0:00:21.400 --> 0:00:24.279 a very special trip to this region. I got to 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:26.960 know the courses, I got to know the people, and 0:00:27.000 --> 0:00:30.520 I was bowled over by the experience. So today, on 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:34.440 designing Golf, we're talking about the sand Belt. It's history, 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:37.640 it's golf, it's culture and how to go about planning 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:40.440 a trip there. My guests are going to be Harley 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:46.000 Cruz and Lucas Michelle, both Australian golf architects, both intimately 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:50.080 familiar with this region. Let's get into it. I'm Garrett 0:00:50.080 --> 0:01:00.480 Morrison and this is designing golf. There are certain regions 0:01:00.600 --> 0:01:03.960 in the world of golf that can go by very concise, 0:01:04.319 --> 0:01:08.959 sometimes two or three word names. These regions have exceptional golf, 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.360 often because history and geology conspired to make the areas 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.560 wonderfully well suited to the game. You have the right 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.360 people at the right time and the right pieces of land. 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.440 So a few of these regions would include East Lothian. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.160 In Scotland, there are a bunch of them. In Scotland, 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:30.759 you have Saint Andrews. You have South Ayrshire where Royal 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.720 Troon and Prestwick are. You have the Highlands with Royal Dornick, 0:01:34.840 --> 0:01:38.400 Brora and now Cabot Highlands. You know, Scotland is a 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:42.959 special place. Outside of Scotland though, there's the Heathlands south 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:46.319 of London, There's Long Island. In the US, there's the 0:01:46.360 --> 0:01:50.040 Monterey Peninsula, There's the North Carolina sand Hills and the 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:53.600 Nebraska sand Hills. And then you have what I would 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:58.160 consider one of the most fascinating regions of golf in 0:01:58.200 --> 0:02:01.760 the world way over in Australia. I'm talking about the 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:05.160 sand Belt, or the Melbourne sand Belt to be more specific, 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:09.120 and that's the topic I'm taking on today in this 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:15.519 episode of Designing Golf Now. Quick pronunciation note. Australians say Melbourne, 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:21.160 I say Melbourne. Am I mispronouncing the name of the city. 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.560 I don't think so, And that's because Australians don't really 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:29.160 pronounce their rs right. It's a the Australian accent is 0:02:29.200 --> 0:02:33.120 a non rhodic accent. Often ours toward the ends of 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:37.880 words are not pronounced. I speak West Coast American English. 0:02:37.880 --> 0:02:41.240 I do pronounce my rs pretty much wherever they are. 0:02:41.560 --> 0:02:46.520 So you know, Australians say copac, I say car park, right, 0:02:46.840 --> 0:02:49.720 or I would really say parking lot. So I think 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:54.280 it's okay for me to say Melbourne. If I said Melbourne, 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.840 it might feel like I was trying too hard. And 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:01.480 at least I'm not saying Melbourne. So that's the compromise 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:05.440 that I'm making with pronunciation here. All right, let's do 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.560 some very quick and dirty history of Melbourne, the city 0:03:09.960 --> 0:03:13.480 and how golf started there. So Melbourne was a gold 0:03:13.560 --> 0:03:17.720 rush city in eighteen fifty it had a population of 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:22.480 about twenty nine thousand. But then gold was discovered in Victoria, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:28.440 the state or province of Victoria in eighteen fifty one, 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:34.320 and this triggered a massive migration to Victoria. Many arrived 0:03:34.440 --> 0:03:38.760 through Port Phillip Bay, which is where Melbourne is located. 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:43.040 So Melbourne really became the gateway to the Victorian gold 0:03:43.080 --> 0:03:46.480 fields in much the same way that San Francisco had 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.920 become the gateway to the California gold fields. So by 0:03:50.280 --> 0:03:55.440 eighteen fifty four, Melbourne's population had increased to over eighty thousand, 0:03:55.800 --> 0:03:59.640 and as in San Francisco, it wasn't the miners who 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.280 ended up up benefiting most from the discovery and extraction 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:08.400 of gold. It was Melbourne's business class, the city's merchants, 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:13.400 bankers and businessmen. Also in very good shape were the 0:04:13.720 --> 0:04:18.080 land owning gentry in the surrounding area. Sheep farming and 0:04:18.200 --> 0:04:25.000 wool production remained one of Melbourne's signature durable industries, alongside banking. 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:30.000 So Melbourne continued to grow through the eighteen sixties, seventies, 0:04:30.040 --> 0:04:33.720 and eighties. The eighteen eighties, in fact, are widely recognized 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:38.000 as the city's peak. The population reached and exceeded four 0:04:38.040 --> 0:04:41.320 hundred thousand people, which made Melbourne one of the biggest 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:44.800 cities in the British Empire. This was the era of 0:04:45.200 --> 0:04:50.719 marvelous Melbourne. It was a modern, thriving metropolis with electric 0:04:50.760 --> 0:04:55.680 street lighting, a cable car network, huge commercial buildings. So 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.880 this was an era of really rapid growth and prosperity 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.000 which was never going to last forever. It did come 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.440 to a halt with a market crash in the eighteen nineties, 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.839 but by that point Melbourne was established, there were still 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:14.680 plenty of well off people who had this new thing 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:20.000 in history called leisure time right, and in the eighteen 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:23.760 nineties some people in the Melbourne area decided to spend 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.760 a portion of their leisure time playing golf. This was 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:31.320 around the time that golf was catching on internationally. The 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:35.080 game had spread from Scotland to England in what the 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:39.719 historian Michael Morrison calls the Great English golf Boom of 0:05:39.800 --> 0:05:43.880 the eighteen eighties, and then in the eighteen nineties Scottish 0:05:43.880 --> 0:05:47.880 and English immigrants exported the game to both former and 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:52.760 current British territories like the United States and Australia. So 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:55.599 the first golf clubs in Melbourne were founded in the 0:05:55.640 --> 0:06:00.000 eighteen nineties. The courses were established on land just outside 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.800 the city and it's very possible, I think that the 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:08.960 land bust of the eighteen nineties in Melbourne allowed for 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.320 this use of land, because in the eighteen eighties those 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:15.760 same properties might have been too expensive to be used 0:06:15.760 --> 0:06:20.200 for golf. So in any case, Melbourne Golf Club, later 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:24.560 called Royal Melbourne, was founded in eighteen ninety one on 0:06:24.640 --> 0:06:26.880 a site in a suburb just south of the city 0:06:27.680 --> 0:06:31.000 named Caulfield, so this was just outside the city, just 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.640 south of the city. Basically, various other golf clubs sprung 0:06:34.720 --> 0:06:36.960 up in the outlying areas of the city over the 0:06:37.000 --> 0:06:40.000 next couple of decades. But if we're talking about the 0:06:40.040 --> 0:06:44.520 story of the Melbourne Sandbolt specifically, the key event came 0:06:44.760 --> 0:06:49.440 in nineteen oh one when Royal Melbourne relocated from Caulfield 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:54.680 farther south, about five miles south to an area called Sandringham. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:57.640 And this was the first time a golf club had 0:06:57.640 --> 0:07:00.560 been established in what we now know is the Melbourne 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:04.719 sand Belt. The sand belt is a geological anomaly in 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.640 the Melbourne area. Most of the city and its surrounding 0:07:09.320 --> 0:07:13.240 regions sit on heavy clay soils, but in this one 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.760 band along Port Phillip Bay, starting about ten miles south 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.280 of the city center, you have a very different soil profile, 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.480 which turned out to be really great for golf. So 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:30.560 to discuss the geology and vegetation and agronomy of the 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:32.960 sand belt more in depth, I'm going to bring on 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:37.600 Harley Cruz. Harley is an Australian golf architect and Melbourne 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:42.720 native who has developed a tremendous expertise in vegetation management, 0:07:43.120 --> 0:07:46.560 so he's really the perfect person to discuss this topic with. 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:50.480 But first, a quick word from our sponsor for this episode, 0:07:50.720 --> 0:07:53.960 Club Champion. We at Friday Golf are very excited to 0:07:53.960 --> 0:07:57.640 have Club Champion as a partner again in twenty twenty five, 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.160 and if you're looking to improve your game this year, 0:08:01.560 --> 0:08:04.360 Club Champion has a lot to offer you. They have 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.680 the most highly trained fitters in the world. 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Harley Cruz, 0:09:43.240 --> 0:09:44.880 Welcome to the pod. Thank you for being here. 0:09:45.160 --> 0:09:47.400 Yeah, great, Garrett, It's excellent to be here and to 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:50.720 follow on from my colleague in things here where I 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:54.120 am at Eleanorgolf Club in Sydney Lucas Michelle. So we'll 0:09:54.160 --> 0:09:56.600 both here this week working on a project which is good. 0:09:57.400 --> 0:10:00.000 Later in this episode, I'm going to bring on Lucas 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:04.040 Spashelle to talk about various subjects to do with sand 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:05.679 Belt golf, and the two of you happened to be 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:10.000 in the same location, which worked out well for I 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.200 think all of us so hardly I wanted to talk 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:17.360 with you about what the Melbourne sand belt actually is 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:19.400 like geologically speaking. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:25.080 Yeah, look, good question. And sand belt of course sand 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:29.560 wind blown sands. Interesting. Underneath all this sand too, is 0:10:29.600 --> 0:10:33.439 like a bedrock of sandstone. It's like dated back four 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:37.160 hundred million years. It's pretty amazing. But I guess, you know, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.760 windblown sand that came from the coast of port Field Bay, 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:43.760 and you know, the stronger the winds, the more the 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.120 sand went inland, so it stretches. I guess the sand 0:10:47.120 --> 0:10:48.959 belts are sort of a patch of ground that sort 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:54.000 of stretches inland, probably ten to fifteen k's thereabouts, in 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.280 various different parts of the coast. But underneath it all 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:01.040 not far from Royal Melbourne actually is. You know, it's 0:11:01.120 --> 0:11:06.160 cliffs of which we stood the we stood the basically 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.360 the erosion and hung in there and that's part of 0:11:08.400 --> 0:11:12.200 the original bedrock and the sand of great depths, you know. 0:11:12.320 --> 0:11:15.080 I guess sand and sand dune has been a variable thing. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:18.200 You know, they can be two hundred feet deep of sand, 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:20.640 or it could be you know, twenty centimeters deep of 0:11:20.640 --> 0:11:23.480 sand or even less in some places. So some sand 0:11:23.480 --> 0:11:26.920 belt golf courses have more sand than others, and with 0:11:27.040 --> 0:11:31.079 that becomes also that connection of geology and the vegetation 0:11:31.600 --> 0:11:35.800 is also part of that mix of the sand as well. 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.240 The sand is pretty deep in the sand belt in 0:11:38.320 --> 0:11:41.360 certain spots. Right at Royal Melbourne for instance. 0:11:41.520 --> 0:11:43.400 Correct, I think on Royal World on top of the 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.000 big jernes, it's very deep. I was only there looking 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:49.560 at an air off the side of West Course last week, 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.439 whereas some dams were done a few years ago now, 0:11:52.440 --> 0:11:55.000 and I mean it's seriously deep there in those locations. 0:11:55.000 --> 0:11:57.400 And then you get other parts of the golf course. 0:11:57.400 --> 0:11:59.200 We're doing some work with Yarria at the moment and 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.160 it's got some good of sand as well. But then 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:04.320 certain parts of that site you might only have three 0:12:04.400 --> 0:12:06.200 or four feet five six feet of sand, and then 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.280 you hit these sort of clay underneath, and parts of 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:13.400 Metropolitan even less again in some cases Metropolite even less 0:12:13.440 --> 0:12:15.320 because they sold off some of their sand back in 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.319 the sixties. I think, so so yeah, it's it's it's 0:12:19.400 --> 0:12:21.240 they're not all the same in terms of the massive 0:12:21.280 --> 0:12:24.640 depths of sand. I guess is the outset that that variability. 0:12:25.760 --> 0:12:26.080 Is there? 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.880 A historical story here? How did how did this geological 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:31.400 formation come about. 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.640 Yeah, I guess it's like all sort of dune country. 0:12:34.679 --> 0:12:38.280 It was coastal coastal windblown sands of Port Philla Bay. 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.120 And I guess the sea level of Port Phila Bay 0:12:40.200 --> 0:12:42.600 might have been lower at some point or high at 0:12:42.640 --> 0:12:45.040 some point, but you know, just nature's forces of work 0:12:45.600 --> 0:12:47.640 blowing in, you know, washing. I think a lot of 0:12:47.640 --> 0:12:50.280 the sand is deposited by the you know, the ocean 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.280 and the tidal movements on Port Philla Bay, and it 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:55.280 was deposited on the coast, and the wind picked it 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:58.440 up and blew it inland, and then eventually, you know, 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:03.680 plants would colonize the primary dunes and then other plants 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:07.280 with colonized inland and the primary dunes along Portfoli Bay, 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.200 there's probably a width of call it, you know, a 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:15.000 mile at most width of sand there that's young, fresh 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:18.840 sand with less organic material in it, and it supports 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:21.320 very different types of species as opposed to when you 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:25.480 get inland where you get that darker lone sand, which 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:27.760 is organic material that's broken down in the sand, and 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:33.720 it's a very different type of older structured sand. And 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:36.120 the sands are pretty fine. You imagine wind picking up 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.120 the sand, the fire of the sand, the further inland 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:41.720 it would go. So yeah, it's interesting and it's different too. 0:13:42.200 --> 0:13:44.319 We're doing I'm doing work in Sydney at the moment 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.800 with Royal Sydney. It has different sand again, and if 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:49.760 you go to Adelaide you get the red sand. So 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.880 Melbourne's fame for its dark gray sand. Sydney's got its 0:13:52.880 --> 0:13:56.800 white sands, and Adelaide with raw Adelaide and Kyunga A, 0:13:56.800 --> 0:13:59.160 Green Grange, Glenel we've all got the red sand. 0:13:59.440 --> 0:14:03.640 So yeah, so Melbourne you've got the dark gray sand. 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:09.440 Is there anything special about what other characteristics of it, 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:13.120 aside from color, are unique to Melbourne sand? 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:13.440 Yeah? 0:14:13.480 --> 0:14:16.240 I guess. I mean bunkers were dug out of that sand, right, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.600 so you've got native bunkers dug out of native sand 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:24.040 and that sandy loam having those vines in it gives 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.000 it a structure that means you can get those beautiful 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:29.920 sand faced bunkers and those beautiful edges and lips that 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:32.880 you know, anywhere from four inches down to sort of 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:35.120 you know, a few feet deep on those edges and 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.480 it stays up and hangs together. And I guess too, 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.560 you know, Historically all the greens have built out of 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:46.480 the naive sands, and so the whole culture of Melbourne 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.640 sand belts is growing turf on these on these sands. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:52.160 But two, I guess even on one golf course, you'll 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:54.720 have a variation of sand, so that we are I 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:56.400 guess I be a certain part of a site where 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:01.240 historically greenkeepers of quarried sand one spot just to have 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:05.400 that native sand for the greens, so and of that 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.160 particular speck. So it's it's you know, it's the fundamental. 0:15:09.200 --> 0:15:11.680 It's the foundation, isn't it of that sand belt golf. 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.240 You mentioned. It holds together really well, and that's part 0:15:16.240 --> 0:15:18.240 of the reason that you can get some of these 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:22.520 these sharp edges and shapes that people associate with sand 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:25.920 belt golf. Now, that's just because like the particles of 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:27.960 the sand just locked together, don't they. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.080 It's fine, Yeah, it's the fine I guess it's the 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.920 angular shapes then as part of the structure and that 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.120 organic material that's in amongst it all that gives it 0:15:36.160 --> 0:15:39.720 their dark gray color, right, and that's that's where it 0:15:39.760 --> 0:15:42.280 locks together. Whereas the sands, say in Sydney, in Rose 0:15:42.280 --> 0:15:46.600 Bay and Sydney where ural Sydney is they're rounded sand particles, 0:15:47.120 --> 0:15:49.600 less organic and they just don't hold together, not structural, 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:54.080 they're very very very soft and very unstable. So yeah, 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.520 it's a unique makeup in that Melbourne sand belt. I 0:15:56.520 --> 0:15:58.240 guess hit Austray golf because even when you go down 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:01.680 to the Morning Peninsula it's a bit and again. So 0:16:01.680 --> 0:16:04.560 so it's an interesting, interesting part of the Yeah, the 0:16:04.600 --> 0:16:06.960 foundation of that sand belt golf. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.640 It's part of why it's such a unique golf region 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:11.640 is it comes from the ground itself, which I think 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.440 is is really interesting, you know, aside from aside from 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:18.480 holding together nicely, and you know, it must be nice 0:16:18.480 --> 0:16:20.480 for architects to work in this kind of sand because 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:22.880 they put it into shapes and it sort of stays 0:16:22.920 --> 0:16:27.120 in those shapes to an extent. Why is the why 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.480 is the soil so good for golf in in other senses? 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:33.160 Well, I guess, I guess you know, of course, as 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:37.120 we know, golf began on sand and and I guess 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:40.880 it's the free draining nature of it of sand, you know, 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.760 that fluidity of it. You know, the natural shapes that 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:46.360 were there, the natural green sites, the natural tea sites. 0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.000 I guess it's just it's golf country right as we 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:53.960 call it so and you know the backstory of course, 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.280 Royal Melbourne was a couple other locations before they got 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.280 to black Rock to where they are today, and a 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:02.240 few other clubs are same so oldly. Fortunately there was 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.560 a realization that sandy ground was way better to put 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:09.760 golf on than heavy soils, and and you obviously were 0:17:09.800 --> 0:17:13.199 fortunate to get some influences from the UK, and notably 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:16.879 of course doctor Alison Mackenzie. But and those influences, you know, 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.000 I guess helped identify what's the best land for Melbourne 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.679 for golf, and off they went and it was you 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:25.200 know what too, I guess it was one of those things. 0:17:25.240 --> 0:17:27.440 It was the benefit of the fact that it probably 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:32.159 agriculturally wasn't very fertile, so it wasn't great golf for agriculture. 0:17:32.160 --> 0:17:34.520 It wasn't great land for agriculture, but great land for golf. 0:17:34.920 --> 0:17:37.760 And and in fact many of the many of the 0:17:37.800 --> 0:17:40.400 golf courses were on land that had been sand belt. 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:42.280 Golf courses were on land that had been clear at 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.720 some point for farming. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.080 But probably the only farming they could do is like 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:50.000 sheep farming, they couldn't grow things in it. 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:53.760 Yeah yeah, yeah, Craig, you'd be running a few sheep 0:17:53.880 --> 0:17:56.400 or a few cows and things like that. So I mean, 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:02.159 you know, Yariarra Metropolitan, they're all all these golf courses, Woodlands. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.480 Woodlands was a farm, so they're all they all had 0:18:04.480 --> 0:18:06.320 some sort of you know down on the outside of 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.560 suburban Melbourne at that stage that was it was sort 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.280 of farmland and relatively cheap land and obviously good land 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:12.720 for golf. 0:18:12.880 --> 0:18:17.240 So yeah, yeah, striking similarity with Scottish Links golf. You know, 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:19.920 land that wasn't good for anything else but was perfect 0:18:19.920 --> 0:18:23.639 for golf exactly, and so golfers found it and they 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:25.600 could use a lot of it because you know, it 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:30.520 wasn't super valuable and and so that's that's where I 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:35.800 guess Melbourne golfers just found found this area and knew 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:39.679 what to do with it, which is fantastic. And you know, 0:18:39.760 --> 0:18:41.120 you could go you. 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:43.000 Could get the grasses to grow and you can get 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.080 things to happen. I mean at these you know, when 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.360 we think about the courses were built with no irrigation 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:51.640 system existing, right there was, so you know the fact 0:18:51.680 --> 0:18:53.600 that it took you know, three or four years to 0:18:53.640 --> 0:18:55.680 grow a golf course in like the West Course took 0:18:55.720 --> 0:18:57.320 three or four years to grow until it was ready 0:18:57.320 --> 0:18:59.760 for play. These course at Ryal Melburne similar two or 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:02.960 three is you were relying on mother nature to liver 0:19:03.080 --> 0:19:06.560 some rainfall to grow grasses. So I guess it was 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.719 the combination of that free draining nature, a little bit 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:12.120 of fertility with the organic material in the sands and 0:19:12.200 --> 0:19:14.800 just believe for root systems to get down and just 0:19:14.880 --> 0:19:19.399 provide that great, great golfing ground. So yeah, it's interesting 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:22.639 we look back on that non irrigation factor of establishing 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:25.239 golf around the world. Actually, I guess, but here it 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:26.320 is good golf country. 0:19:27.400 --> 0:19:30.720 Was it easy to establish the turf at first? And 0:19:30.840 --> 0:19:33.440 that's that's such a common story in golden edge golf. 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.680 What is the agronomy of the sand belt? So what 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.200 kinds of grasses are used generally used for golf in 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:42.280 the same typically, now there's a variety. 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:47.160 But yeah, I mean typically in civil terms, sand belt 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:52.119 golf is what you would call bermuda, what we call couch, 0:19:52.200 --> 0:19:56.760 So it's basically couch couch or bermuda on teas and 0:19:56.840 --> 0:20:01.080 fairways and then bent grass and greens, and that's pretty 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:03.920 ubiquitous through the sand belt, you know. So it's it's 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:07.640 troop spairways, roughs, teas and then and then and then bent. 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.480 And of course there was a lot of experimentation with 0:20:10.600 --> 0:20:13.720 Bent and lots of other backstories. But I'm probably not 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:15.520 the best person of the story around the Sutton's mixed 0:20:15.520 --> 0:20:17.960 at rural Melbourne, but you know it was they were 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.040 sitting there ordering some seed for some grasses to grow 0:20:21.400 --> 0:20:24.639 off a British seed supplier and said, we're here in 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:26.920 this climate, this, this and this. The seed pliers sent 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.680 them hold on different seeds and they mixed it up 0:20:29.800 --> 0:20:31.720 as the Suttons mix, and they threw it out there 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.040 and what grew grew. But so at Royal Melbourne situation, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.919 there's more than ten varieties of different grasses in their greens. 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.520 It was the shotgun mix, I guess you'd call it, 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.840 to see what would work. But you know today today 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:48.879 the golf course is still primarily primarily couch grasses. You know, 0:20:48.920 --> 0:20:52.560 you've got hybrid bents on greens. Now. You know Victoria 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:54.920 next door to Royal Melbourne's got pure distinction. Pininicia Kings, 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:57.840 who has got pure distinction. I think colnwealth as well, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.359 and I guess the only difference is probably is getting 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.840 some of the fescue surrounds of greens. That's happened probably 0:21:04.840 --> 0:21:07.520 the last fifteen to twenty years to get a more 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:12.000 interesting short game around around the greens. So Royal Melbourne 0:21:13.520 --> 0:21:16.560 woodlands have all got you know, fescue green surrounds as well, 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.280 which is a little bit more intensive because you know, 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:23.399 I guess the other thing. Melbourne's climate is coolish in winter, 0:21:24.720 --> 0:21:27.280 but then sorry, I'm going to talk since celsius here, 0:21:27.320 --> 0:21:30.200 but you might get mornings down to one to three 0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:32.439 or four degrees but nothing much lower than that, and 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:35.760 then in the middle of February and our summertime you 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:39.280 can get nor Westley winds coming in at forty degrees celsius. Dry. 0:21:39.520 --> 0:21:41.840 It's a dry heat though, but it's dry and hot, 0:21:41.960 --> 0:21:45.199 so so you know, the coach is fine in that 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:47.680 sort of weather and the events can handle in there, 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.000 and the fescue is there's a lot of hand watering 0:21:50.040 --> 0:21:51.960 that goes on, of course to keep the fescuse in 0:21:51.960 --> 0:21:57.760 good condition, but that's differentie. Sorry, that's the thing that 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.840 we've got water now and you can hand water. I mean, interestingly, 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.000 post World War two where there's a lot of austerity 0:22:05.040 --> 0:22:07.720 going on around in golf courses around the world, and 0:22:07.760 --> 0:22:10.760 even it was affecting the better courses. Rural Melbourne had 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:13.840 fourteen staff looking after thirty six holes of golf. You 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.639 just imagine that today, you know, so today there's a 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:19.680 lot of extra hands to look go after our golf 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.880 courses and that includes you know, hand watering of greens 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:25.480 and green surrounds. 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.800 Yeah, keeping that fescue going. And that's something you'll see 0:22:29.840 --> 0:22:33.000 at real Melbourne is the you know, the grass changes 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:36.239 color as you're approaching the green, and that's those are 0:22:36.280 --> 0:22:38.879 the fescue surrounds. And I mean when a ball lands 0:22:38.880 --> 0:22:40.880 on it, it just leaps off of the ground, which 0:22:40.920 --> 0:22:45.159 is quite a sight to see. But yes, I mean 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:49.960 Melbourne is a moderate climate and famously fescue, you know, 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:55.960 has some troubles and moderate damp climates, like like where 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.800 I live in Oregon, where it's just like a battle 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:04.320 you around to keep fascue from being invaded by poet anyway, 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.560 but in any case, that is, those are the kind 0:23:07.600 --> 0:23:10.840 of varieties of grasses people love to hear about Sutton's 0:23:10.840 --> 0:23:14.520 mix when you go to Royal Melbourne, you hear about 0:23:14.520 --> 0:23:18.680 this wonderful bank grass mixture that they have in their 0:23:18.720 --> 0:23:23.840 greens and it's basically unique to Melbourne. Is this Sutton's 0:23:23.840 --> 0:23:26.560 mechs And that's always that's always fun to hear about. 0:23:26.920 --> 0:23:28.120