ALL golf clubs would love to be in the pink, but as snow and ice still envelops North Yorkshire’s courses there’s one hue that would generate an outcry.

Pink snow mould, a potentially damaging fungus, is an insidious enemy which green-keepers across the area are anxiously monitoring.

And with more of the white stuff forecast to fall this weekend, the heat is on to prevent any outbreaks of a disease that can prove expensive to eliminate.

One such man earnestly checking and rechecking the condition of the course, and in particular the greens, is Rob Bradley, the head green-keeper at Allerthorpe Park Golf Club.

With last winter also providing a lengthy winter white-out, Bradley said he had never experienced two successive winters like it since he first took up green-keeping at Kilnwick Percy GC in 1997 after a spell as a talented junior player.

Snow still blankets Allerthorpe Park, which has been closed now for more than three weeks and which lost a round of the Humber Winter Alliance, which features 12 clubs as well as several visitors’ parties.

But it’s not a case of green- keeping staff just putting their feet up and cupping their hands around endless supplies of hot drinks.

The snow-cover, combined with any rise in temperatures, can lead to the formation of the dreaded pink snow mould, a fungal infection which can attack greens.

Said the 33-year-old Bradley: “It’s vital to keep taking the temperature of the grass on the greens.

“Pink snow mould can develop, especially between two degrees and ten degrees Celsius.

“Luckily we have had temperatures out here of minus 14 and 11, which means it’s too cold for the disease to take hold.”

Bradley, who has worked on the green-staff at Allerthorpe Park for six years, explained how preventative fungicides were usually sprayed in September.

But if the disease breaks out in the winter, it can prove costly to remedy as a curative fungicide is then needed.

“Besides the expense, there are the environmental implications in that you don’t want to be using even more fungicides and chemicals on the course than is absolutely necessary,” said Bradley, who heads a five-strong team at Allerthorpe Park.

“We have to be vigilant to make sure the greens are not being damaged during the cold snap.”

However, while the snow has ruled out any play, the Allerthorpe Park complex is not closed.

Its bar and restaurant facilities are still open as is the club professional’s shop and there is a New Year’s Hog Roast at the club on Friday, December 31 for which tickets are available to members and non-members.

For details of the club, phone 01759 306686 or visit the website allerthorpeparkgolfclub.com