“This course is in far better condition and better designed than any of the local courses”


A satisfied customer


greens are protected by bunkers. A computerised pop-up irrigation system services the tees and greens. Asked about being a woman in charge of a male crew, Marian says there is no hierarchy and everything gets done. Small, wiry and brown as a berry she walks the course with a surety that gives her staff, I suspect, no choice but to follow. Dissent seems as unlikely as autumn following winter and summer preceding spring. As we stop to take photographs a satisfied customer calls over, “I’ve played at three other golf clubs in the area and this is in far better condition and better designed than any of them,” he says. The Forest of Galtres Golf Course might be maintained under a slightly unconventional management style but, clearly, Marian and her staff of three approach their work in a purely


Marian Softley


professional manner. Perhaps it is her gardening background that allows Marian to tend the course with a ‘soft’ touch, or maybe it is simply her feminine sensitivity. She goes home to revert to her


profession as a gardener, sharing a half acre plot with her neighbour and growing fruit, vegetables, shrubs (not much grass) and tending the Gloucester Old Spot pig who has just given birth to twelve piglets. As we part at the clubhouse I notice the water lilies growing in the adjacent pond. “I borrowed them from Geoff ’s garden,” she says. “By the way, we’ve got a new man starting next week. He’s a qualified greenkeeper but he’s also just gained a degree in Environmental Science.” It’s a clear statement of intent by a club that takes the environment seriously. I think he’ll fit in just fine.


64


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