Golf
GETTING Personal...
Alexander MacDonald - Runrig, bagpipes, malt whisky and the lovely Amy MacDonald - a proud Scot methinks!
Who are you? Alexander MacDonald, Head Greenkeeper at Golspie Golf Club.
Family status? Single, dad to my eight year old son, Alexander.
Who’s your hero and why? Seve. Loved his style, swagger and his never beaten attitude.
What would you change about yourself? Spend more time AWAY from work.
What’s your guilty pleasure? I like my malt.
What do you drop everything for? My son and work.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Winning the Golf Tourism Scotland Young Person Of The Year in 2008.
Glass half full or half empty? Half full.
Climate change - fact or fiction? Fact.
What’s your favourite season? Summer.
What are your pet peeves? Golfers not repairing pitchmarks, replacing divots, raking bunkers properly and stepping on/over ropes.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Oz or NZ to avoid our winter.
What’s the best part of your job? Being out in the sun.
… and the worst? Being out in the rain.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? To see my son go to university.
Who wouldn’t you like to be? David Cameron on September 18th, 2014.
Favourite record, and why? Hearts of Olden Glory, Runrig. It’s a brilliant song by my favourite band.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? Anyone that would have me! Failing that, it would be Amy MacDonald.
16 PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2014
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Jack the job and grab my son, our passports and clubs.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? Bagpipes! Scottish, loud and proud!
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? After a night out, never trust a fart!
What’s your favourite smell? My mother’s roast dinners.
What do you do in your spare time? I slash about a golf course to a handicap of +2.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? How do you cut around the hole on a greens mower?
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Charterhouse Verti- Drain.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Confident, ambitious and dedicated.
What talent would you like to have? To pick a winning accumulator on a Saturday.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? That paedophiles be executed after they had been tortured. Absolute scum of the earth.
The Golspie staff l-r: Jack Harrison (apprentice), Alexander MacDonald (Head Greenkeeper), Stuart Gillies (skilled labourer), Craig Mackay (Deputy Head)
1600m of coastal defence to rebuild. In April, the club hired Jack, a local lad of sixteen who was with us helping out the previous summer. His wages were to be paid by the insurance and he was getting an apprenticeship out of it. Now we were up to four staff and that gave us a big boost.
Our greens were
showing some serious signs of die back due to the salt contamination. I was in touch with David Greenshields of Barenbrug, our seed supplier of choice here at Golspie. He suggested some seed mixes that were more tolerant to salt areas and, in April, I ran the overseeder and covered the greens with grow sheets. Two weeks later, in conditions really not favourable, the seed was up and it was the first chink of light at the end of the tunnel. We then had the
impetus to push on again; seeing that it was possible really gave us a boost and, by May 1st, the full course was opened again. With the insurance paying for a Dakota topdresser, Charterhouse Verti-Drain and Charterhouse seeder, we had the tools to push on this year. We were dressing greens
more than ever - there were nine passes with the overseeder on the affected greens, with around 45kg/green. Affected fairways were seeded, verti-drained and turfed. We were still on reduced rates due to the fact we still had large areas of GUR, and throw into the mix that it was the driest, coldest spring we’d had in years.
By June, the course was
playing far better, The County Championship was played over the Golspie links and the feedback was excellent. The course that gave me such a headache this year also gave me my first County
Championship win, with a 36 hole total of -3. In July, the course was back to its full rate and was looking very good. With the summer being one of the best ever, it was all hands to the hoses to keep our huge areas of bought in turf alive. Although some shrinkage occurred, it was minimal, and we just had to divot up any cracks that appeared.
In August, we held a warm up competition for the Carnegie Shield at Royal Dornoch. One of the competitors was a writer for Golf Monthly and he came off the course tweeting that the greens were the best he had putted on all year. It was a great compliment for the hard work that the boys had put in to restoring the course. We also found out that we are in another top 100; this time the National Club Golfer Top 100 Courses in Britain Under £100 - in at number 69 again!
This year has been a steep learning curve for us here at Golspie. We are a young squad and I think that this helped in the resilience shown. We are determined for this course to be remembered for being a quality place to come and play golf, to relax in beautiful surroundings and to breathe in the sea air, so long as the sea stays on its own side of the wall!
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