The Firm & Fast Golf Podcast · Shane Derby

James Bledge - Links Manager @ Royal Liverpool Golf Club

·1 hr 21 min·5 clips

Bledge says Hoylake used over half its water allowance by the end of May, then only 1,000 cubic metres in three weeks.

Shane Derby opens by placing James Bledge at Royal Liverpool Golf Club, where he serves as superintendent and also co-hosts the Golf Badgers podcast with Sam Cooper. Bledge is a native of Dumfries in the Scottish borders. He started out at Dumfries and Galloway Golf Club. After that, his career moved through several high-profile postings in Scotland. He also had two working spells in Norway and Sweden. For nine years before moving to Hoylake in 2022, he was based at a links club that had become home base. The interview takes its time with that journey because the route matters. It then shifts to the practical work of looking after a championship links. A dry spring with northerly and easterly winds is not treated as a theory. It is treated as the daily problem. Bledge explains that the site has super hydrophobic soils and sands, so water management is a constant calculation. Wetting agents, watering, and the shape of the allowance all become part of the same conversation. He notes that by the end of May he had already used more than half of that allowance. The following weeks then brought a sharp change in conditions. In a short period, the team moved from heavy watering to barely putting a thousand cubic metres on over three weeks, after putting on 15,000 over the six weeks before that. He describes how wind can push water all over the place when fairways are being irrigated. Root-zone depths vary across the course as well. That means some areas dry out much faster than others. The course can look rough from above even when it seems acceptable from the ground. One media shoot was even cancelled because the drone view did not show the course at its best. From there, the discussion turns to how championship clubs work with the R&A's championship and agronomy departments. It closes on the use of technology to monitor turf performance and improve presentation efficiency.

As heard by us

A steady golf interview about weather, turf, and the work that keeps a championship links honest.

James Bledge's interview stays close to the work: how he got from Dumfries through Scotland, Norway, Sweden, and on to Hoylake, and what it takes to keep a championship links playable when the weather turns awkward.

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Why you'd press play

You want the practical inside line on keeping Royal Liverpool in shape through a dry, windy spring.

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