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Last updated: April 04. 2007 11:43AM
Golf
Queen of the Course
The Country Club of Landfall has a new Employee of the Month, who's providing one of the most important jobs on the fairways
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Belle is specifically trained to be a thorn in the side of the Canadian geese that attempt to set up housekeeping on the club’s expansive greens. It’s an excuse to put that herding instinct to good use. Her main job is to aggravate, needle, harass and irritate the birds to the point they relent and head for canine-free territory. She goes to work everyday with her owner/caretaker Adam Davis, an irrigation technician at the club.
Geese are one of the most destructive forces on a golf course. A flock of geese can create pounds and pounds of goose dung each day, which can burn through course greens in a matter of days. In fact, the birds can cause thousands of dollars in damage to a single golf course in a year’s time. “They start nesting, get comfortable, have babies and won’t leave,” says Jeff Mack, the club’s director of golf courses.
Because the birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1916, preventing them from doing what they do best – defecating and procreating – is an ongoing challenge. Belle is just part of the process at the club. Mack and his crew are constantly instituting ways to deter geese from hanging around. It’s nearly too much territory for just one border collie, says Mack. “For it to be 100 percent effective we would probably need a lot more dogs.”
Landfall boasts courses designed by golf legend Jack Nicklaus (27 holes) and golf course architect Pete Dye (18 holes). The four courses combined comprise thousands of Bermuda grass-covered acres, an irresistible nesting place and never-ending smorgasbord for the birds.
Other courses in the area understand the value of having a lively goose-shooer on staff. Lester, an 8-year-old border collie, lives and works each day at Eagle Point Golf Club. And while the U.S. Golf Association rates border collies as the best breed for geese patrol, Miles, a 4-year-old golden retriever/Irish setter/Labrador mix, does a fine job at the Beau Rivage Resort & Golf Club.
At Landfall, Belle spends her days riding shotgun in Davis’ truck scouting the unwelcome guests before they have a chance to get cozy. When she catches a gaggle in her crosshairs, her composure shifts from laid-back pooch to stealth hunter. Once Davis gives her the signal – a sharp “Shhhh!” – she’s off.
It’s a continuous battle of wills. Imagine a Far Side cartoon come to life. The birds typically congregate around course ponds. One of Belle’s strategies is to chase flocks into the water, then double-back to the other side of the pond and chase them back in from the other direction. In her younger days, Belle would go right into the water after them, but she’s not as inclined these days. It appears the birds know this, gliding smugly just a few feet from the shore, taunting Belle, setting her off on a high-pitched bark-fest.
Mack observes this and adds, “I swear, they have a sentry goose out there who’s the look-out for Belle.” Since Belle’s days in the water are over, and a persistent limp signals her pending retirement, Mack and Davis joke about investing in a small remote-controlled boat that barks at times when the geese aren’t budging out of the pond. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities. A few years back, the golf superintendent at North Ridge Country Club in Raleigh tried something similar: He placed a boat in each course lake, manned with a driver and a life-jacketed border collie.
Dogs and volunteers were positioned around the perimeter of each lake. According to his account, “The geese went berserk! … At first they swam or flew to another area of the lake only to find a team of people and border collies waiting on the shore.” It wasn’t long after that the geese had moved on. Swans skim pond surfaces, as do mallards and other ducks; but they pose no threat since they stay on the water. In fact, swans sometimes chase off the geese, acting as Belle’s unofficial assistants.
Belle came to the course from a North Carolina organization that raises and trains dogs specifically for geese patrol work. Davis learned the commands that help guide her toward the birds. That was quite a few years ago. Talk of Belle’s retirement is a tender subject. “Everyone loves her. She is the unofficial mascot of the grounds crew,” Mack says.
Employee of the Month winners score at least a day off from work. “Day off” isn’t among the commands Belle understands, and much to Davis’ dismay, her furry alarm clock sounds each day – even on his days off – at 6 a.m. “She loves coming to work,” he says.
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