Frank DiNenna and Tony Taylor at the ‘Royal’.
Kolkata, India: Quality Golf has renewed its contract with the historic Royal Calcutta Golf Club [RCGC] for another three years of Maintenance Advisory Services and Superintendent Placement.
Affectionately known as the ‘Royal’, the RCGC is synonymous with golf in India. Founded in 1829, it’s the oldest golf club outside the British Isles.
The area over which the Royal is laid was originally paddy fields. Consequently, the course is very undulating. Over the years, committees built mounds and planted thousands of trees and shrubs to enhance the beauty of the property. Today it is a mature parkland course.
A Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation, Quality Golf began its maintenance advisory services at the club in mid-2009 with the objective ‘to have golf course maintenance standards consistent with and comparable to that of the recognised best golf courses in India’.
Quality Golf began by focusing on the greens with the primary objective to improve the speed, smoothness and health of the putting surfaces, ensuring no turf loss or damage.
This was followed by the tees. All were levelled and expanded to improve tee space. In addition, projects were completed to improve drainage, playability and enhance aesthetics.
Between 2012 and 2015, the RCGC hosted three season-ending tournaments for the Professional Golf Tour of India.
The goals for the next three years focus on upgrading the infrastructure, including irrigation and drainage.
For this next phase of work, Quality Golf has placed
Frank DiNenna as Golf Course Superintendent to oversee the renovation projects and maintenance programmes. Hailing from America, DiNenna has extensive international experience and has worked in all aspects of the golf industry.
As well as placing a trained and experienced course superintendent, Quality Golf implements its Maintenance Optimisation System to achieve established objectives for the club.
At the core of this system is a Benchmark Evaluation system that rates the maintenance and playability conditions of the course. The information provided by benchmarking removes much of the subjectivity out of maintenance condition reports and discussions.
This can facilitate more effective communication between owners/club committees, general managers and the superintendent and his crew, says Quality Golf.
