Golf
GETTING Personal...
Avon Bridges - hates digging holes in the ground, which is bit of a problem on a golf course!
Who are you? Avon Bridges, Head Greenkeeper at Luton Hoo Golf and Spa.
Family Status: Married (8 years) with two children (5 and 3).
Who’s your hero and why? Anyone who does their best everyday.
What would you change about yourself? I would be more outgoing.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Country Music.
What do you drop everything for? Family.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Winning Toro Student Greenkeeper of the Year in 2007.
Glass half full or half empty? Always half full.
Climate change - fact or fiction? Global Warming, Global Weirding, Global Dimming; fact (maybe).
What’s your favourite season? Autumn/Winter
What are your pet peeves? Being ignored drives me potty.
If you could go anywhere right know where would it be? I’d take the kids to Disneyland.
What’s the best part of your job? Seeing the course just before a competition.
... and the worst? Digging holes in our ground.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? None as yet.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? The Prime Minister.
Favourite record and why? It changes daily; today it is Officially Alive by Brad Paisley.
Who would you chose to spend a romantic evening with? My wife, of course.
34 PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2013
If you won the lottery what is the first thing you would do? Buy a new Land Rover.
If you ware to describe yourself as a musical instrument what would you be and why? Cymbals, you don’t hear me that often but, when you do, you take notice.
What is the best advice you have ever been given? You can’t please everybody.
What is your favourite smell? Rain after a hot dry spell.
What do you do in your spare time? Fix my Land Rover.
What is the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? When changing holes, members asking if I can move it closer to their ball or, when collecting leaves, the same person coming up to me every year and saying “I bet you wish they were all £5 notes”.
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Wiedenmann Aerator
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Honest, fair, motivated.
What talent would you like to have? I would love to be able to play the piano.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? Not repairing pitch markings made illegal.
The sunken rockery is next on Keith’s ‘to do’ list
“Luton Hoo is lovely in the daytime, but if you see it in the evening with all the chandeliers and lights, it is spectacular” Surrounding the walled
gardens are large herbaceous borders that are planted with the same varieties that have been seen at the house for generations. Keith and his staff re-propagate all the herbaceous plant to keep them supplied with new plant material. They do buy some annual bedding plants but, again, will propagate existing plants on site in their own greenhouses, where possible. Keith has also helped design many of the new bedding and gardens seen around the new builds associated with the hotel, such as the coach house refurbishments, hotel bedroom extensions and flower garden block, all planted with a variety of groundcover, floral and tree specimens. One of Keith’s favourite parts of the estate gardens is the sunken rockery garden, a place that reflects peacefulness with water dripping on to rock caverns and planted out with a display of rock plants and ferns. This area is favoured for wedding photos. There are plans afoot to refurbish these gardens and bring them back to their former glory with new and colourful plants. There is a lot of grass to cut
around the house and driveways, and plenty of hedge cutting, which are cut once a year and take six weeks to complete.
There are also over seventy
large, outdoor planters to be maintained during the height of the growing season, which are planted up with spring and summer bedding material, all of which are propagated and grown in- house. In total, Keith will grow around 5,000 annual bedding plants to meet the needs of the house and gardens. The majority of winter work consists of pruning trees and maintaining hedgerows, ditches and pathways. Now, after fourteen years working for Elite Hotels, Keith can’t praise them enough for their continuing investment in a truly historic house and gardens. His initial scepticism has been completely put to rest!
The future of Luton Hoo looks bright for all those who work there, and the addition of the golf course will only enhance the true quality of the estate for future generations to enjoy. Capability Brown would be mightily impressed.
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