Golf
B
enjamin ‘Ben’ Lovett took on the role of Course Manager at Montgomerie Maxx Royal, part of the European Tour Destination portfolio of courses, in June 2009.
Having previously worked at several Troon Golf properties worldwide, including Troon North in the USA, The Grove here in the UK, Pacific Harbour and Settlers Run in Australia, before heading to Spain to work on the construction and grow in of Las Colinas de Campoamor in Spain, he was well qualified for the position. “I started working on golf courses as a summer job, doing renovation projects in Ireland, before going full time after completing my A levels. After spending time doing construction and maintenance in Ireland, the UK and Spain, I went to Penn State University to complete a Turfgrass Management programme on an internship at East Lake Golf Club, Atlanta. From there, I joined Troon Golf.” “It was my father who got me into the
industry and inspired me to be where I am today ... and he puts up with my numerous phone calls about everything!” Opened in 2007 and designed by Colin
Montgomerie in association with EGD (European Golf Design), ‘The Monty’ as it is affectionately known, has hosted three Turkish Airlines Opens as part of the European Tour Final Series. It is built on pure sand amongst pine trees on the Mediterranean coast with bent grass greens. The rest of the course is Bermuda Tifsport 419, which is overseeded with ryegrass during the winter.
It is an 18-hole, par 72 course measuring
6522 metres (7133 yards), with some forty hectares of grass, two of which are the bent grass greens. There’s seven hectares of wasteland, forty-five traditional bunkers, seven lakes and a man made stream. There are also two full size football pitches, four clay and five hard tennis courts, plus three practice greens - putting, chipping and bunker - and a double ended driving range. Also on site are two hotels with over one thousand rooms. Ben reports to the Golf Course Manager
and, together, they work with the Hotel group on budgets and purchasing. He has a team of twenty-seven, including
an assistant, foreman, two irrigation technicians, two golf mechanics and three buggy mechanics, with an additional team of three for the football pitches and clubhouse landscaped areas. All the team are Turkish and most have worked at the Monty since its opening. All staff work a six day week, with a designated day off to enable Ben to schedule a full team every day. Everything is serviced in-house with support from the local dealers. “We aim to train all the staff to carry out multiple tasks and, during the year, job rotate to mix everyone up. Running up to tournaments, we tend to move towards keeping everyone on the same jobs to improve quality and control.” “We have regular management meetings
where I update everybody on my ongoing programme. I like to put together Power Point presentations for upcoming projects as well as our yearly plan and objectives. I find it’s better at showing what’s going on than
We aim to train all the staff to carry out multiple tasks and, during the year, job rotate to mix everyone up. Running up to tournaments, we tend to move towards keeping everyone on the same jobs to improve quality and control
”
The Turkish Airlines Open attracts large crowds and a strong field PC APRIL/MAY 2016 I 25
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