First year students on the Old Course, St, Andrews
Students with FEGGA, Polaris and Elmwood representatives
Students sprigging Paspalam An opportunity for Life
Dean Cleaver, Chief Executive Officer of FEGGA, talks about the success of the Association’s new Golf Course Management Programme
Three years ago FEGGA (Federation of Golf Greenkeepers Association) were working hard to put together a unique opportunity for Greenkeepers looking to gain experience and become the next generation of golf course managers. With the support of Polaris World, Ransomes Jacobsen and Elmwood College they have been able to realise this opportunity and have recently said goodbye to their first three students, Elena Gonzalez (Spain) Tuukka Montinnen (Finland) and Petr Moucha (Czech Repulic) who have completed the twelve month programme. At the same time they have also welcomed four new students, Alan Lindsey (Scotland), Peter Nilsson (Sweden), Paul Cook (England) and Alesjandro Reyes (Spain) who will spend the next twelve months experiencing the many different aspects of golf course management.
The scholarship programme is based in the Murcia region of Spain in partnership with Polaris World and Ransomes Jacobsen. The programme is run over a period of one year. The students gain exceptional
experience at Polaris World’s four golf courses, working with some of the most experienced people and companies in golf course design and maintenance. The unique work experience includes attending lectures throughout the course of the year. They learn skills and put those skills into valuable work experience. This helps the students not only gain the knowledge but also the experience of putting it to the test, so
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that they don’t go away with just notes on how construction is carried out and what machinery is useful in different situations. Throughout this work experience, they will be overlooked by Sylvain Duval the Project Manager on all four of Polaris World’s courses. The students move through the
different stages of development by working on the four different golf courses, starting with construction, then moving on to early stage grow-in, pre- opening and course set-up. This gives the students the opportunity to focus on one particular area of constructing a golf course and, also, to follow the development stage on different courses thereby gaining wider knowledge and understanding.
During the year the students undertake a PDA (Professional Development Award) qualification with Elmwood College and attend a wide range of lectures given by some of the industry’s leading names. The lectures are linked with the work experience.
Sylvain Duval commented “We are delighted to be part of a unique scholarship programme with a work experience. This is only possible when working with professional organisations like FEGGA, Elmwood College and Ransomes Jacobsen. The level of the lectures and formal education has been outstanding and will only improve each year. It is a great achievement to be able to give something back to the industry and help in preparing the next generation of golf course managers
throughout Europe.” As part of their final education
programme the students spent a week at the international offices of Elmwood College at St Andrews, Scotland doing their final PDA module on the history and development of golf. During the study tour week they attended lectures and visited some of the UK’s finest golf courses, spending discussion time with a number of golf course managers in the Fife area. A tour around the clubhouse of the R&A with Steve Isaac was also arranged and was a great way to complete their one year scholarship.
The four incoming students were able to spend time working with the outgoing three, which was a good way for them to get an understanding of the programme and what was in store for them. Having taken the first group of students through their year, FEGGA is in no doubt that the programme is able to offer, through its partners, a unique, combination of work experience coupled with a formal Greenkeeping qualification. The programme’s aims are to help students grow as Greenkeepers and as people, to strengthen their confidence as they take their next career steps.
Further details from Dean Cleaver, Chief Executive Officer, FEGGA Tel: 0044 1789 762912 Email:
deancleaver@fegga.org
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