Pro speak Top of the Leaderboard


From coordinating a scheme to teaching staff Mandarin to coaching and from marketing to creating new business, life is never dull for Sandford Springs GC’s director of golf, Neal Granville


retailing and mostly generating golf for the business,” says Granville. The director of golf did his


training at Tadmarton Heath GC in Oxfordshire where he was an assistant pro for three years until he became fully qualified. After leaving Tadmarton


Heath, Granville had a couple of different jobs before starting out on his own working for MGolf, a Swedish manufacturer. “It was a great quality product,


but the company didn’t listen to certain people and were pitching their product at a very small market with, for instance, a driver costing £400 for a driver. It had potential but despite being backed by Swedish pro, Robert Karlsson, it didn’t work out.” Now based at Sandford


Springs, anything to do with golf falls within the director of golf’s remit. “It can be anything from


going to wonder if their ears are playing tricks on them soon when they hear staff asking visitors questions such as: “Qing wen nin de pingjun meichang ganshu shi duo shao?’ (What is your handicap?) or telling clients: ‘Da de hao’ (Excellent shot, sir). This is because Sandford


M


Springs is hiring a linguist, Paul Noble, to teach its staff Mandarin. In an attempt to attract the


burgeoning Chinese tourist market, the golf club based near Kingsclere has decided


22


embers of Sandford Springs Golf Club in Hampshire are


that a basic understanding of greetings and conversation will encourage Chinese visitors to play its 27-holes layout set in the rolling hills of Watership Down. The person responsible


for this idea is Paul Gibbons, chairman of Leaderboard Golf. Neal Granville, director of golf, is coordinating the scheme at Sandford Springs Golf Club. Along with such


responsibilities, Granville’s job involves a myriad of tasks. “I’ve gone from a role that


involved mostly coaching with some marketing and creating new business to a diverse role with a bit of coaching, some


improving the retail element of the business when I first got here to adding value to the membership and improving the practice facilities.” Owned privately by


Leaderboard Golf, a company run by Paul Gibbons who along with Sir John Madejski founded Auto Trader before selling the car sales magazine in 1998, Leaderboard now owns and operates four courses in the South East. These comprise Chart Hills in Kent, Dale Hill in East Sussex, the Oxfordshire near the Chilterns and Sandford Springs. In Reading it also owns


Leaderboard Golf Centre, a 37-bay driving range, coaching academy and retail store next to Rivermead and now runs the shop at Reading Golf Club.


“All the courses have an


element of quality and they are very forward thinking. Paul is a golfer and enjoys making his facilities as good as possible. “When it comes to the


relationship between the clubs belonging to Leaderboard Golf, we are all looking to help each other out and we work quite closely together, but there is friendly competition between all of us.” So what makes Sandford


Springs, a club with around 600 members, so special? “One of the things that


everyone says is that it’s very friendly. Many of the initial members who joined over 20 years ago, most joined with little experience of playing golf and they have learned to play golf together. “But it’s not a cliquey


atmosphere here. Members will split up a four-ball to accommodate other players. “The course is unusual in


that we’ve got 27 holes; namely three lots of nine holes. The great thing from our point of view is that if we have a corporate day, the members can still get out onto the golf course. “The success lies in finding


the right balance of having great benefits to membership while still offering guests the opportunity to experience Sandford Springs as well.” What does the future hold for


Sandford Springs? “We’re in the planning process


of bringing in line a 40-bedroom hotel and major improvements to the clubhouse. That will give a different dimension to the business and will lead to exciting times ahead for Sandford Springs.”


Pro Shop Europe September 2011


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