Schoeman Park was disappointing for the first day of the Senior Society National tournament. This is an attractive and challenging course, but it was poorly presented and looked scruffy. Schoeman’s greens were brilliant at the beginning of the year, but very average now due to an unfortunate hollow-tining experience in January that upset the members. The hollow-tining was done during hot dry weather, which was not ideal, and then contaminated sand used to cover the greens. The sand evidently had worms in it which proceeded to attack the grass. Greens are patchy, and competitors are being allowed to place on the greens when putting, moving their ball to avoid the worst areas. But they are playable. It’s the general presentation which is more disappointing. Yes, maintenance has been disrupted by rain, but we were told that the club had dispensed with the services of a greenkeeper for several months, which is irregular. A long new tee box has been built on the second hole, turning this superb dogleg par 4 into a dull straight hole. Mysterious decision. Plus, the new tee is poorly constructed, still growing in, and competitors were made to use it. A weakness of Schoeman Park is the paucity of tee boxes. Back tees are 6394 and Blue tees 6094, so these are close together. Red is then 5417. The bunkers at least were very good.
