sadly, passed away. He was a true inspiration for me, and is greatly missed. Leek Golf Club is a private club in Staffordshire, and highly regarded as one of the best clubs in the county. John had grown up working on Links courses and was heavily into sustainable greenkeeping. He worked tirelessly and managed to get Leek accredited to the magnificent ‘Royal and Ancient’ programme.
He taught me a significant amount about sustainability, including the effects it can have on your budget and the overall quality of the playing surfaces. During this time, I was still maintaining the Maer cricket square and, by the end of the summer of 2007, had achieved best cricket square in the league two years running.
In the winter of 2007, at the age of
twenty, I was left with a tough decision - to continue as a greenkeeper at Leek, find a way of pursuing my cricket groundsman career or, alternatively, apply for the Ohio State University Turf Grass Programme in the USA. Looking back now, I’m
really thankful I chose the Ohio option. It was a perfect opportunity to
explore a new country, whilst still pursuing my career. This, however, was a huge step for me - new people, new environment and a new culture. I sent my CV and application through
to Mike O’Keeffe and was subsequently offered a “twin location” internship on the programme. The OSU Programme is of 12-18 months’ duration. I started off at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin - from March through to October - and then moved down south to the Doral Golf Resort in Florida. This all began in March 2008. After a few days initial orientation in Ohio, I flew into Milwaukee airport and was taken to my first base at Whistling Straits, around sixty miles north of Milwaukee on the waterfront of Lake Michigan. Whistling Straits is a Kohler Resort course, and a championship course that has already hosted the 2004 PGA, the 2007 Senior Open Championship and, last year, the 2010 PGA championship - which I was lucky enough to return to as a volunteer for the tournament. In the future, this venue will host the 2015 PGA Championship and the Ryder Cup in 2020. There are two courses on the site; the Straits course (Tournament course), that runs along the waterfront of Lake Michigan, and the Irish course that runs immediately behind the Straits course. Both courses are designed by the
legendary Pete Dye, who created Sawgrass, Harbour Town Links and many more. Both the Straits and the Irish courses are US design examples of Scottish and Irish Links courses. During my internship, I worked on the Irish course with Superintendent at the time, Grant Davey, and Assistant Superintendents, Travis Schnelle and Emily Shircel. I was also joined and worked alongside Scott MacNicol, a Scottish Ohio intern from Glasgow. Whistling Straits was both an
interesting and challenging course to work at, mainly due to its multiple bunkers (roughly 1000). Some range from huge sand pro bunkers to tiny little pot bunkers. They provide a monumental maintenance task during the summer. Turf cultivars on the Irish course at Whistling consist of Providence bentgrass greens, Penncross bentgrass tees and Penn-trio fairways. Penn-trio is a blend of penn links, penn eagle and penncross.
My internship at Whistling straits was truly outstanding. From the moment I arrived, I was heavily involved with the spring greens renovation. This was the first time I had ever seen extensive damage from ice. The winter period, from 2007 to early 2008, was particularly bad due to the persistent snow and ice coverage, creating several issues. The fairways on the Straits course are
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