SOME QUESTIONS FOR OLIVER:
Question: What do you do to unwind at the end of a long day?
Answer: Play golf and reading
Question: What do you like the most about being a Greenkeeper? Answer: Preparing the surfaces to as higher standard as possible with the staff we have.
cutting and top dressing. The most important job for me personally is the aeration (coring the greens) which golfers hate but which is essential for providing healthy turf. Juggling when to do it to keep everyone happy can be a problem sometimes, especially when the season is in full swing.
For major competitions, such as the open or club championships, we will intensify our mowing and verti-cut and top dress the greens the week before. Thereafter we apply 6kg of nitrogen to make sure we present the best putting surfaces possible. With all the controversy of nitrogen use, I would point out that we only used 96kg of nitrogen per hectare last year which is very low compared to a lot of other agricultural practices.
On the day of a competition we will double cut and roll the greens at first light. It is impossible to do this weekly as the greens will become “stressed” and start to thin out, so they need to recover which means we aerate them usually the week after.
Bi-annually we have two maintenance weeks, one in the Spring and one in the Autumn, when it is much busier than usual. This work is vital to maintain the quality of the course, especially the putting surfaces.
I leave anytime between 2-5.00 p.m. depending on what there is to be done, as I am needed to work on the course. The paperwork usually gets completed after the guys have left as its quieter then.
The early evening for me means working on my degree in Sports Turf Science which also takes up my time at the weekends too. I generally pop up to the course even on my time off as the conditions can change daily and grass is a living thing which reacts to climatic conditions and can change daily.
After that it’s an early night ready for that early alarm call. 20/20 A day in the life of... Page 109 RELIABLE
Question: What do you dislike most about being a Greenkeeper? Answer: Being called to work in the middle of summer to sort irrigation faults usually results in having to hand hose.
Question: How did you become a Greenkeeper? Answer: I played a lot of golf as a junior and applied to two courses here on Jersey. I was lucky enough to be offered a position at La Moye Golf Club for a summer. They took me on full time after that period.
Question: What advice would you give someone, either just starting their career or midway through their career, who wants to be a Greenkeeper? Answer: Some people disagree but I really do think you have to love the game and know the basic rules involving course set up. It will be your passion for the game that makes you a good greenkeeper as you know what golfers want; you can't see what golfers expect if you do not play the game. I can always tell a golfer when they start to work on the course; they do the basics with out me having to show them i.e. repair pitch marks, rake bunkers, know where to put tee markers, etc.
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