Golf
“ “
That was the first time I’d seen exposure for greenkeepers at that level. We were published on Twitter, and it went out on Sky Sports
top of everything that was going on under that much rain was incredible.” “Building up to it, everyone was saying, ‘No, really. This is going to be crazy.’ And I’d already done a couple of Wales Opens, but it didn’t prepare me. It was next level.” When asked whether the weight of the event leads greenkeepers to watch media coverage to analyse the way they are being perceived, he said: “Oh, yes. 100%. In 2016, I went over to TPC Sawgrass, who take six UK and Ireland‐based greenkeepers for an exchange.”
“I did that in 2017 as well ‐ off my own bat. That was the first time I’d seen exposure for greenkeepers at that level. We were published on Twitter, and it went out on Sky Sports.”
“People can tend to forget about the people who make this happen. And it’s nice to see. I was always looking out to see when I was featured on something, and I think we all do.” At Sawgrass, Chris was part of the bunker crew. He described this as “unbelievable”. The raking of the bunkers was always aimed directly at the hole, possibly to aid the alignment of players’ clubs with the hole to increase fairness.
To be successful in this job, you have to be willing to move around, especially where big golf courses and opportunities are limited
He said the response to his work on that project was well received too: “Some of the Americans kept calling me Harry Potter… because I was a wizard with the rake, or something like that. They also thought I sounded like Harry Potter.”
“I was in Preston at Myerscough College for about three years, so I suppose that’s fair, because my accent got broken up a little there whilst mingling with English and Scottish people. It’s okay ‐ the Cardiff accent isn’t the greatest of Welsh accents.” He began at fifteen with a single week’s work experience at Mountain Lakes Golf Club, and they offered him a summer job because of his performance. This continued for four years. At university, whilst still working during the summers, he studied for a degree in
26 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018
Management and Golf. This led him to his greenkeeping interest, and onto Level 2 and 3 courses, though he told us he knew from the start of his studies that he wanted that type of job.
Like many, he has travelled around distant parts of the country more than most jobs of equivalent salary would merit.
“To be successful in this job, you have to be willing to move around, especially where big golf courses and opportunities are limited.”
Hampstead is a private members’ club, and Chris said his budgeting is relatively autonomous, that although it’s not necessarily a “straight line to the end of budget”, they acknowledge his experience and give him a good level of freedom. For a while, the membership at the club has been increasing, so the budgeting is getting less strict if anything. Chris told of multiple improvements to the course recently.
The ground is London clay‐based, and some of these improvements have been focused on drainage. Chris spoke about some bunker work which started in December 2016, and took all the way through until March 2017, because it had “turned to grey soup”.
The bunkers had become unmanageable in their wet state, because they would settle in unwanted positions, but it was also useful because they could continue to reshape them very easily.
These were undertaken by 10‐year veteran Deputy Course Manager Andy Cox, and Apprentice Greenkeeper Lee Hall who is completing his Level 2 (Chris said training is a firm priority for them, and it almost always gets funded).
The club was established in 1893, at a time when the local area was a burgeoning centre for the arts and becoming a known base for key members of the intelligentsia. It was designed by Tom Dunn, and the club website describes the course as “classic parkland”, “probably the most interesting 9‐
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