The Open at Royal Birkdale: How Links Courses Are Maintained

The Open Championship returns to Royal Birkdale this month, bringing golf's oldest championship back to the Southport dunes for the eleventh time. For the watching millions, the appeal is the drama: firm, fast fairways, deep pot bunkers, and the Irish Sea wind that can turn a benign morning into a brutal afternoon. But for anyone who works in grounds maintenance, there is a second story unfolding on screen - the extraordinary standard of links course maintenance that makes championship golf possible.

Links courses are unlike any other turf environment in the UK, and looking after them demands a very particular approach. Here is what goes into it, and why the machinery - right down to the tyres - matters more than most people realise.

What Makes a Links Course Different?

A true links course sits on sandy coastal ground, shaped by wind and dunes rather than by earthmoving. That geology drives everything about how it is maintained:

• Sandy, free-draining soil: Links land drains fast. This is what allows the firm, running surfaces that define links golf - and it means the turf must survive on relatively little water and nutrition.
• Fine grasses: Links turf is dominated by fescues and bents - fine-leaved, drought-tolerant grasses that thrive in poor, sandy soil and produce the tight, true surfaces players expect.
• Exposure: Coastal wind, salt spray, and shifting sand are constant factors. The turf and the machinery both have to cope with it.
• Natural contours: Fairways wind between dunes rather than across flat ground, which shapes how equipment can be used.

The philosophy of links maintenance is famously restrained: feed and water sparingly, let the fine grasses dominate, and keep the surface firm. Overwatering and overfeeding would produce lush, soft turf - and destroy the very character that makes links golf what it is.

The Greenkeeping Behind a Championship

Preparing a course for a championship is a long game. Work begins months, sometimes years, in advance, and the greenkeeping team's job is to deliver a surface that is consistent, firm, and true across all eighteen holes.

The Greens

Championship greens are cut daily, often twice, at heights measured in fractions of a millimetre. They are rolled to produce a smooth, fast surface, and their speed and firmness are measured and adjusted throughout the week. Consistency is everything - every green must play the same.

Fairways and Approaches

Fairways are mown to present a clean, tight lie and kept firm to encourage the running ball that links golf demands. Approaches and surrounds are managed to allow the bump-and-run shots that are central to playing a links well.

Rough and Dunes

The wispy fescue rough is a defining feature. It is managed - not neglected - to be penal without being unfair, and the surrounding dune habitat is maintained with an eye on conservation as well as golf.

Bunkers

The revetted pot bunkers of a links course are built and maintained by hand, with turf laid in courses to create those distinctive stacked faces. It is skilled, labour-intensive work, and they are raked and edged constantly through a championship week.

The Machinery That Makes It Possible

None of this happens without equipment. A championship greenkeeping team runs a substantial fleet: greens mowers, fairway mowers, rough mowers, rollers, aerators, top-dressers, sprayers, and the utility vehicles that move staff and materials around the course from before dawn.

Every one of those machines crosses the turf, repeatedly, day after day. On a surface being maintained to championship standard, that traffic is a genuine risk. The wrong tyre can undo a lot of careful work:

• Marking: Aggressive tread patterns leave visible tracks on closely-mown turf, and can scuff or tear the surface on turns.
• Compaction: Tyres that concentrate weight onto a narrow contact patch compact the soil - the opposite of what aeration work is trying to achieve.
• Rutting: Even on free-draining links ground, wet spells can leave soft areas where poorly chosen tyres cut in.

Why Tyres Matter on Fine Turf

This is why turf-specific tyres exist, and why greenkeepers pay attention to them.

For greens and other closely-mown surfaces, smooth tyres are the standard. With no tread pattern to imprint on the turf, they roll across without marking, and their flat profile spreads the machine's weight evenly rather than concentrating it. On a surface where every imperfection is visible - and where a mark can affect how a ball rolls - that matters.

For fairway mowers, utility vehicles, and towed equipment, turf tyres offer a shallow, closely-spaced tread that balances grip against surface protection. And for machines working the rough and the dune margins, more grip is needed - but even then, the aim is traction without tearing.

Getting this right is not a detail. It is the difference between machinery that maintains a surface and machinery that damages it.

Downtime Is Not an Option

During a championship week, a machine out of action is a serious problem. But the same is true on any golf course, any week of the year - if the greens mower is off the road, the greens do not get cut.

Punctures are one of the most common causes of unplanned downtime, and a golf course has plenty of hazards: broken tees, thorns from gorse and scrub, wire, and general debris. Tyre sealant applied inside the tyre seals small punctures automatically, often before anyone notices, keeping machines working through the season. For a greenkeeping team working to a fixed schedule, it is cheap insurance.

From Championship Links to Local Club

Very few courses have championship budgets. But the principles of links and fine turf maintenance apply at every level: keep the surface firm and true, protect the turf from your own machinery, and keep the fleet running. Whether you look after an Open venue or a nine-hole club course, the fundamentals do not change - only the scale.

Tyres for Golf Course Machinery

Redstone specialises in tyres for grounds maintenance, including a full range of smooth and turf tyres for greens mowers, fairway mowers, utility vehicles, and towed equipment, plus sealant to keep punctures from costing you time.

Whatever you look after, we can help you find the right tyre for the job. Call us on 01243 558959 or browse our range online. Next-day delivery is available on stocked items.