Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

‘This is devastating’: Golf course greens left unplayable at Inverness’s newest club

The Kings Golf Club opened in 2019. Image Sandy McCook /DC Thomson
The Kings Golf Club opened in 2019. Image Sandy McCook /DC Thomson

An investigation has failed to solve the mystery of how a leading Inverness golf course was left looking distinctly under par.

Greens at the Kings Golf Club were left unplayable when grass was damaged while being sprayed during routine maintenance.

The putting surfaces were temporarily ruled out of bounds and players had to use winter greens while the “freak” problem was tackled.

After weeks of work, 17 of the 18 greens will be back in action by Monday.

But the cause remains unexplained despite being analysed by the club and experts from other courses.

Course opened in 2019

The incident has been “devastating” for the club, which only opened in 2019 and was looking forward to a bumper year in the wake of the Covid pandemic.

In a letter to members, the club’s management committee said the problem was caused by “a solution” that had been sprayed on the greens.

It said the green staff had not used any different products, or changed routine in treating the grass, and normal procedures were carried out when spraying.

Club president Duncan McDonald said: “We have carried out a thorough investigation and have involved an awful lot of other golf clubs.

“I want to thank the other golf courses in the area and further afield who have come to our assistance. They have been magnificent in their effort to help us.

“Head green keepers and others have helped and they are as perplexed as us as to how this happened.”

The greens were left unplayable

Mr McDonald said as part of the investigation staff replicated exactly the spraying that took place on the greens on nursery grass with no adverse effect.

“We are not 100% certain (what happened). There is a lot of speculation, but we have been as thorough as we can to get to the bottom of it.

“We’ve now instigated a raft of things we’ll do in future to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“It’s one of those things. Whether it was a mistake, or whether it was a solvent left in there which reacted with something, I don’t know.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get to the bottom of it. If the head green keepers from around the areas are perplexed, where do we go to next?”

Proper procedures

The club has one sprayer that is used on both fairways and greens. But Mr McDonald said the equipment was washed in line with instructions before being used on the greens.

“We have no reason to doubt that the proper procedures were used.

“It is so frustrating. The members are frustrated and so is the committee.”

Mr McDonald said the putting surfaces have improved significantly in recent weeks and play has continued on temporary winter greens.

Visiting golfers who pre-booked to play the course were asked if they wished to continue.

All but one of the course greens will soon be playable again

He added: “We thought this would be a bumper year for us after the last few years of Covid.

“Everything was looking just perfect for us, we were really going forward. This is devastating for the club.

“Everything was coming together and we thought we are turning a corner and it’s onwards and upward, but unfortunately this happened.”

New club replaced former course

The 18-hole championship course was opened in July 2019 and was described as the “best inland course in the Highlands”.

It was built to replace the former Torvean Golf Club which moved to allow the construction of the new West Link bypass in Inverness.

Are you interested in more exclusive and breaking Highland and Islands news from the P&J? If so, why not join our dedicated Facebook page HERE

Conversation