Golf
GETTING Personal...
Stuart Hogg - fetch out the barbie, pop open the champagne, this man is not a quitter!
Who are you? Stuart Hogg, Course Manager at St Annes Old Links Golf Club.
Family status? Living with partner Viv and our two young children, Ruby and Lewis.
Who’s your hero and why? My dad, as he got me into this career, supported me in my younger days but,
unfortunately, hasn’t lived to see where I am now.
What is your dream holiday? Anywhere nice and hot with a swimming pool and bar!
What annoys you the most? At the moment, all these PPI phone calls.
What would you change about yourself? Learn to relax more.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? A Member of Parliament.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? Obviously, my partner Viv!
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Crack open the champagne.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Winners never quit and quitters never win.
What’s your favourite smell? Anything cooking on the barbecue.
What do you do in your spare time? Spend it with the family, and watch football.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? Being asked if the course is open when it has three inches of snow on it!
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Hunter Jupiter ATI Series 5 Grinder.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Dedicated, passionate, predictable.
What talent would you like to have? I would love to be able to play a musical instrument.
What makes you angry? Golfers taking divots out of greens just because they have missed a putt!
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? That travel agents don’t put prices up over the school holidays!
28 PC JUNE/JULY 2013 The native soil is sandy St Annes is a typical ‘Old Links’
corridors for nesting skylarks, along with a small planting programme of gorse around the course for strategic and ecological reasons. When asked what piece of equipment has made the most significant different to how he manages the course, he says; “All machinery has evolved, so it’s hard to pick just one but, if pushed, I’d say our Hunter Jupiter grinder is so important to keep all the mowers nice and sharp.”
“In time, I would like to see new maintenance facilities, but that will be a few years off yet, I think.” “We had a few drainage issues, but most have been sorted and we’ll finish them off later this year, along with continuing our small development of the course by recontouring the banks around our 13th green.” Looking to the future, Stuart confesses that ongoing finances are his biggest concern. “We do have a strong membership of around 700, but last year’s weather certainly put a strain on income across the board.
Hopefully though, if we can keep the course in the best possible condition, then members will remain here and visitors will keep coming back!” Like many golf clubs around the UK, maintaining its financial viability is a continual headache. “Whilst we pride ourselves on having one of the best maintained true links golf courses in the UK, we still need to market its potential to a wider audience,” says Stuart. It was whilst discussing this very topic with the club professional, Daniel Webster, that one of the members, Peter Barrett, suggested an innovative idea. Peter’s son Ali, an ex-club member until he left the area for Southampton University, had been developing a helicopter drone which he had used for filming “mates” doing extreme sports; primarily kitesurfing and wakeboarding. So, why not use this same technology to film the course and allow prospective visitors to see the quality and standard of the greens and fairways before they visit?
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