Golf GETTING Personal...
Eoin Riddell ‐ cracking joints Gromit; now that might annoy Holly!
Who are you? Eoin Riddell, 48, Course Manager at Royal Dornoch Golf Club.
Family status? Married to Claire (25 years in September), with two daughters: Rebecca, 19, and Hannah, 16.
Who’s your hero and why? Seve Ballasteros, for what he did for European golf and the legacy he has left behind.
What would you change about yourself? I asked my 16‐year‐old daughter to answer this for me. She said: “Dad I don’t think there is enough room to write it all!” In all seriousness, I would change my life/work balance and not spend all my free time working.
What’s your guilty pleasure? Dairy Milk chocolate.
What’s been the highlight of your grounds career so far? Becoming course manager at Royal Dornoch, and preparing the course as best we can for tournaments, whether it be R&A or the Members’ Medal.
What are your pet peeves? Lateness. In my book, if you’re not early, you’re late!
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? Driving along the Pacific coast highway in an open‐top Mustang.
What’s the best part of your job? Early starts in the summer with no golfers. Also, bunker revetting.
… and the worst? Dark mornings in the winter.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? I would love to travel to all continents.
Favourite record, and why? Anything by Queen. They’re great to listen to when driving.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? I would have to say Claire, my wife (she is sitting next to me while I type this!).
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? I would buy a nice car and one of the big houses overlooking the course, and watch the
greenkeepers work whilst sitting on my balcony with a beer.
34 I PC APRIL/MAY 2018
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Freddie Mercury, Payne Stewart and Shania Twain.
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why? Philip Schofield… who wouldn’t want to sit next to Holly Willoughby every day?
Do you have any bad habits? Cracking joints.
... or any good ones? Working hard and being punctual.
Do you go to bed worrying about the next day’s workload? Sometimes, as I’m sure others do also when trying to keep the golfers happy.
What are you reading now? Just started “The Winchman”. It’s about a local guy who was a winchman with the coastguard for 20 years.
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Take your time and do it right first time.
What’s your favourite smell? The early morning, beside the sea, with the fresh air and seaweed.
What do you do in your spare time? At the moment, DIY. Usually, golfing and walking my dog, Brodie.
What’s the daftest work-related question you have ever been asked? “If we put cement dust in the bunkers, will it firm up the sand?”
What’s your favourite piece of kit? I love the Toro 4500. It can go anywhere, and productivity is great.
What three words would you use to describe yourself?
Approachable, loyal, trustworthy.
What talent would you like to have? I would love to be able to play a musical instrument.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? It should be made illegal not repairing your pitch marks.
‘first aid at work’ course. These are refreshed every three years.
How do you purchase machinery?
We are on a five‐year replacement programme. All machines are new and bought outright. We also have a yearly replacement plan in place for machinery not covered in the five‐year deal.
We generally deal directly with the manufacturer, but after that with the local dealer also.
Are there any new pieces of kit that have significantly helped to improve your playing surfaces?
Not just one piece. With the new technology available, there are many that, when combined, help to produce better surfaces. Mowers have extra cutting blades to give a better clip rate. Then, there are turf irons, topdressers and brushes ‐ these all help us produce better surfaces.
Do you have a wash down area that is compliant with current legislation?
Yes. We installed a Waste 2 Water system in 2006.
What would your wish list include?
A fairway topdresser. After the last few seasons being so wet, it would be good to get back firmer and drier fairways.
How do you undertake pest and weed control?
By spraying weeds only on closely‐mown areas, apart from the greens, which are weeded by hand.
Do your courses suffer from specific disease outbreaks?
Very little (the odd bit of anthracnose and fusarium).
Are rabbits, badgers, foxes, geese, chafer grubs, worms etc. a problem?
We get the odd rabbit, and moles in the winter months, and also suffer from leatherjackets on some of the Struie course fairways.
My mechanic and I hold gun licences. We try to shoot weekly to keep down the rabbit population. We trap moles.
As for the leatherjackets and chafer grubs, we can’t do any spraying now, so we try to stop the birds pecking with bird scarers.
How important do you consider the local flora and fauna?
We have just gained our GEO certification. The club is currently working on updating our environmental policy, under guidance from the GEO.
We consider the local flora and fauna very important, and we try to leave it alone whenever we can.
We work with national environment agencies; Scottish Natural Heritage and the RSPB specifically.
We don’t currently employ an environmental consultant, but we have been looking into it.
After talking with the GEO, we will be trying to do more in the future. We used to have bee hives on the course, but sadly the member who looked after them is not well, so he removed them.
What would you consider to be the state of our industry?
I feel it could be better. The larger clubs are doing well, but the smaller clubs are still struggling.
Are we undervalued?
I don’t feel that we are. Dornoch treat their staff well, but experience and knowledge should not be taken for granted.
How would you raise our profile?
It’s very difficult to say, but our relevant associations are trying their best to promote the industry. If we could have more PR on big events, i.e. showing course set‐up and work on the course behind the scenes, this may help all golfers appreciate what greenkeepers do for them daily.
Do you and your staff attend industry shows, seminars, demo days, road shows?
We try to attend BTME, the Scottish conference and any regional outings, but as we are in the north of Scotland it makes it difficult to get to many, as they are mainly in the central belt. That can mean a travel time of over eight hours!
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