Golf


K


ing’s Lynn 18-hole parkland course is believed to be the first fashioned by design doyens Peter Alliss and Dave Thomas when the club moved from its old site


in 1975, and nestles in traditional Norfolk woodland right by The Wash. This labour-intensive course keeps the


seven-strong greens team busy year-round, managing the impact of the many thousands of trees, such as Scots pine and silver birch, which line the fairways. “We are driven to keep everything tidy,”


notes Course Manager Colin Robinson, conscious that King’s Lynn is a highly respected course, ranked among England’s top 100. With its own borehole and seepage


ponds, the course relies less on mains water, but the sandy, free-draining soil can create its own problems, given the windswept, isolated location. The application of science to


greenkeeping forms the backbone of Colin’s career to date and his commitment shows little sign of waning as recent work has helped him solve what seemed like an intractable problem of disease outbreak. But more of that later. Like many whose calling is turfcare, Colin


felt the primal urge to work in the great outdoors early in life. After leaving school in 1973, aged sixteen, he started work as a mechanic in a local garage, but his heart lay elsewhere. “We overlooked fields and I yearned to work outside rather than in the


grimy indoors,” he remembers. Two years later, he had left. Seeking a breath of fresh air, Colin landed


at Wheatley Golf Club, Doncaster, as an assistant after seeing their advertisement for greens staff. On applying, he learnt that the head greenkeeper was ill. Desperate for a job at the course, he persisted in his bid for employment and was eventually given the good news to “start Monday. I knew that this was what I wanted to do”. Within two years, he had risen to become


first assistant, but he was keen to move up and, during his four-year stay at the parkland venue, qualified with a City and Guilds in greenkeeping. At just twenty-two, he took the post of head greenkeeper at Town Moor Golf Club,


PC JUNE/JULY 2017 I 41


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