Golf


When we featured the work of Shayne Savident in issue 55, the plan was to follow this up in the next issue with an article on his father and mentor, Martyn Savident, Course Manager at La Grande Mare Golf Club on Guernsey. However, for Martyn, things took a decided turn for the worse, which saw him spend a considerable amount of time in Southampton General’s cardio unit. Now, thankfully recovered, we catch up with a man who says he “feels like a teenager again”


La Grande Mare


It’s not big... but it is clever!


Martyn Savident L


a Grande Mare Golf Course is set in 120 acres of land on Guernsey’s western coast, adjacent to the sandy beach of Vazon Bay. It offers a unique opportunity for golf on a


delightful Hawtree-designed ‘parkland course’ with the facilities of a four star hotel. La Grande Mare Golf Course opened for play in March 1994. It was originally designed around 14 holes with four double greens and extended to 18 holes in 2001. Course Manager Martyn Savident has been with the club from the very beginning. “I was approached to take the job at La Grande Mare (LGM) in March 1990. It took a few months of offers and terms, plus several site visits, before I finally accepted. At the time, permission for the course had not been


22 I PC JUNE/JULY 2015


obtained from the Island Development Committee (planning department), but the chance to build a full 18 holes course was difficult to turn down. Four years later, after a lengthy planning inquiry, permission was given and we opened 18 holes on 14 greens; the double greens of 1, 2, 3 and 4 became 15, 16, 17 and 18 on the back nine.” Martyn began his career in 1980. “I


applied for the position of labourer at a new build 9 hole (Tony Jacklin design) course at St Pierre Park hotel - my eldest son Shayne is head greenkeeper there now - which was only a five minute walk from where I then lived. I soon got involved in all aspects of course building, from stone clearing, hand digging irrigation trenches, green construction (from drainage mat to rootzone


level) and then, finally, tee construction and bunkers. The course opened in 1983 and, when the then head greenkeeper Chris Nicole left for a position at Effingham Park some four years later, I was given the head greenkeeper’s job. I remain grateful to Chris for his enthusiasm and giving me the opportunity.” The resort is family run, so Martyn is in


the enviable position of only having to answer to the director of golf, Chris Vermuelen. “It is Chris who sets the budgets, usually going on the previous year’s expenses and any major projects we have planned for the year. He might ask me to save money, but I am never told that there is less than we need. Chris plays golf, sometimes with me, and he knows the


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