Golf
Woodlands Manor Golf Club
Downland hideaway
Once the site of one of the country’s first holiday camps, this delightful course in the heart of the North Downs is set for a fresh beginning. Neville Johnson went there to talk to its new head greenkeeper, Luke Jenkins, who is charged with the job of making it even better
Luke Jenkins
T
he setting for the Woodlands Manor Golf Club, even on a dull and chilling early winter’s day, is more than pleasing on the eye. It is one of its strongest selling points.
Kent’s North Downs is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and to play golf here has to be one of life’s pleasures. It has a loyal membership of just over 400, and no wonder.
It is an 18‐hole parkland course, centered on the site of Woodlands Holiday Camp, which ran from 1927 until 1970. It still enjoys very much the same idyllic setting as it did when first designed and built back in 1928 by top professional golfer JH Taylor, and officially opened in 1930 by none other than Henry Cotton. It closed in 1942, but re‐ opened initially as a 9‐holer in 1968 by Harry
Weatman and Neil Coles. There has been various reshaping since then. A recently refurbished clubhouse has upgraded the club’s appeal as a worthwhile leisure venue.
“Our club is a hidden gem with stunning views of the Kent countryside. We like to think it’s an exclusive hideaway,” said General Manager Charlie Bourne. She is part of a management team put in place by new owners, Unique Leisure and Estates, who bought Woodlands Manor about a year ago with the simplest of mission statements: to make the club the best possible place to enjoy golf and relax. Part of that plan, and key to it, was to improve the course itself.
Last spring, the course did not have a head greenkeeper and maintenance was being
carried out by just three, the then owner and two assistants. It was a struggle in terms of labour and resources. The need to raise the greenkeeping game was quickly identified by the new owners. Charlie introduces me to Luke Jenkins, appointed last June as the club’s new Head Greenkeeper.
Luke began his career in greenkeeping at sixteen as an apprentice at Shooters Hill Golf Club in south London. By the time he was nineteen, he had worked his way up to be Deputy Head Greenkeeper there. His ambition had always been to be in charge of a course and, with NVQ levels 2 and 3, BIGGA CPD certification, plus chainsaw and spraying certification under his belt, he was a perfect match for the job at Woodlands Manor.
PC DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 I 27
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