Why the heather stays

Bracken Heath sits on a narrow band of sandy, acid soil that runs across this corner of Surrey. It is poor land for farming and wonderful land for golf. It drains quickly, it firms up in summer and it supports a landscape that has all but vanished from lowland England.

Lowland heath is now rarer than rainforest, and the two hundred and forty acres in our care are home to nightjars, Dartford warblers, sand lizards and a remarkable range of solitary bees. Most golfers will never see them. They are there all the same.

Looking after the heath is slow and careful work. Each winter, the team cuts small patches in rotation, so that the heather grows back at different ages, which is what the wildlife needs. Birch and pine seedlings are pulled by hand before they can take hold, and bracken is kept in check wherever it threatens to swamp the heather. None of it is quick, and all of it is done outside the nesting season.

It shapes the golf, too. Heather punishes a wayward shot without hiding the ball, and it gives the courses the colour members look forward to every year, when the whole heath turns purple for a few weeks in late summer.

So the heather stays. We think the course is better for it, and in time, so do most of the people who ask.