A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...
OLIVER PENNINGTON, HEAD GREENKEEPER, LES ORMES GOLF CLUB
You will never be bored or need more variety in a job if you are a greenkeeper. The daily diary below omits to mention the smaller matters of machinery maintenance, paperwork or liasing with management; or that this job is great in the summer sun but not so glamorous at times during the winter months.
I have been working in greenkeeping for 12 years, starting as an apprentice at La Moye Golf Club then moving to St. Anne’s Old Links GC (Lytham St Annes, Lancs) before returning to the island where I have been the head of Les Ormes golf course and grounds for the past two years.
The alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. every morning, a little later in the winter due to shorter days, and I arrive at work around 5:45 a.m. when the first job is to put the kettle on!
Whilst having my tea it’s a quick check on the internet for what the day’s weather has planned as that really affects what we can and cannot do. Then it's a quick drive around the course to check things like irrigation which may have failed overnight, or trees or branches that may have come down or the greens that may have flooded and need squeegeeing if the rain has stopped. Finally flags, tee markers and bunker rakes have a tendency to go missing so we need to replace them.
Once done, the morning's jobs can be handed out to the team, who need to set up the course first thing before the golfers go out. The day to day jobs involve raking bunkers, mowing greens, which are
also rolled twice weekly,
cutting tees, fairways and rough. Obviously we move the holes regularly too!
Other jobs done on a weekly or monthly
rotation range from
chemical spraying to kill weeds or promote healthy grasses to verti-
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