GOLF
And there goes
NIGEL MANSELL I
IAN CHENERY, Course Manager at Woodbury Park Golf Club, was delighted with the performance of his course throughout the PGA Seniors Tour Event. Laurence Gale MSc finds out about his maintenance regime and also his ongoing working relationship with owner and former Grand Prix driver Nigel Mansell
t was Ian Chenery’s third Seniors event since being promoted to Course Manager at Woodbury Park almost four years ago. The experience, according to Ian, has been fantastic, but not without a few stresses. The planning and programming takes well over a year. As soon as the last event has finished they are looking at what changes need to be made for the next one.
The additional amount of work for the event is phenomenal, particularly additional signage and extra furniture required around the course. All this extra work has to be fitted into the normal maintenance programmes. However, Ian says it does get a bit easier the more times they do it.
By working closely with the clients all the staff get to understand what standards need to be achieved for the tournament. Woodbury Park is owned by Nigel Mansell and Ian has worked for him since the course was built 13 years ago. They have developed a professional relationship; both know where they want the course to go whilst, at the same time, continuing to maintain the highest standards.
Nigel Mansell does not interfere with
Ian’s management, he lets him run the course the way he wants, so long as it meets the desired standards. For this year’s Seniors event 11 of the tees were extended. The position and design of the tees was a joint decision between Ian and Nigel. They walked the course together and chose the final positions and sizes.
WOODBURY Park is a magnificent championship par 72, 18 hole golf course (The Oaks course) set in 500 acres of stunning tree and lake studded parkland on the edge of the Devonshire Moors near Exeter. The complex also has a large 9 hole golf facility (The Acorn course), a full size football pitch, golf driving range, hotel with conference and banqueting centre, and the famous Nigel Mansell Racing Museum. The Greenkeeping staff also maintain Nigel Mansell’s own garden and grounds which feature three full size USGA golf greens.
IAN has a staff of 12 Greenkeepers who are all multi skilled and able to do most of the jobs on the course. A dedicated
mechanic, Steve, is employed solely to maintain the machinery at Woodbury. He is always kept busy as Ian enforces a strict inspection regime; the staff have to carry out regular daily checks on all machinery. The time spent inspecting the machines pays off with reduced breakdowns. The staff report any problems to Steve who quickly fixes them.
Steve has improved the efficiency and down time of changing and servicing bottom blades by introducing the use of the Mag Knife blade system on all of the triple mowers, reducing the time to change blades to 20 minutes instead of the previous 1 hour. Regular changing keeps the blades sharp and accurate, thus improving the cut on the tees and greens.
It also saves Steve time when he has to change new blades for older ones for mowing the greens after the top dressing activities.
All the machinery is leased on a four year deal. Ransomes Jacobsen currently provide all the main grass cutting and grooming equipment. For the Seniors event the company provided additional back up machines.
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