Golf
“Sometimes, the wind can be so strong that it prevents us from working on the course, as we simply cannot stand up!”
As roving reporters go, our editor roves more than most. One area that has avoided his camera, until recently, is West Cumbria. So, when he got the call to visit Furness Golf Club, he was off like the proverbial rat up a drainpipe!
Here, he talks to the club’s Head Greenkeeper, Alick
Mackay, about the trials and tribulations of maintaining a golf course in one of the windiest, wettest and most exposed parts of the country
lick Mackay’s first words are; “On a clear day, you can see the Isle of Man, but we don’t get many of those here, and you are very lucky that this is one of those clear days.” Indeed, the views from this old links course, the sixth oldest club in England, are quite stunning, with panoramic views across Morecambe Bay in one direction, and the peaks of the Lake District in another. Depending on your viewpoint, there is also the ‘spectacle’ of one of the largest off shore wind farms to delight the senses.
A
The town of Barrow-in-Furness, more commonly known simply as Barrow, is famous for its shipbuilding legacy. Its location, and the availability of steel, allowed the town to develop into a significant producer of naval vessels, a shift that was accelerated during the First World War, and the local yard’s
specialisation in submarines. The original iron and steel making enterprises closed down after World War II, leaving the Vickers boat building factory as Barrow’s main industry and employer. The Royal Navy flagships HMS Hermes, HMS Invincible and HMS Albion, as well as all four Vanguard class submarines (which carry Trident nuclear weapons), were manufactured at the facility. From the 1960s, the shipyard increasingly specialised in the construction of nuclear-powered submarines. However, with the end of the Cold War and the subsequent decrease in military spending, the town suffered high unemployment through lack of contracts. Despite this, the shipyard remains operational, and the only submarine production facility in the UK, but the number of people employed has shrunk from over 15,000
Stand up and be counted...
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