News
Two new Master Greenkeepers
BIGGA announce the latest recipients of the Master Greenkeeper Certificate
Village people!
Commonwealth Games village to leave both a sporting and housing legacy say council
Designs for The Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Village, released this week, show that the Games will leave behind both a sporting and a housing legacy.
The Games Village ‐ comprising accommodation, dining, medical, transport and essential services for athletes and team officials during the Games ‐ will be situated on a 24‐hectare site at Perry Barr in the north of the city.
Andrew Kerr
Andrew Kerr, Course Manager at Surbiton Golf Club in London, and Anthony Girardi, Golf Course Superintendent at Rockrimmon Country Club in Connecticut, have become just the 73rd and 74th recipients of the Master Greenkeeper certificate.
Recognised as a prestigious and highly‐sought after greenkeeping industry award, Master Greenkeeper certificates are achieved through a three‐stage process. To be eligible, BIGGA members must have been working in the industry for ten years, with three spent in a head greenkeeper, course manager or superintendent role.
Andrew Kerr, 39, was raised in County Antrim, Ireland, and hails from an agricultural background. He began his career working on golf courses in Northern Ireland, before making the switch to England, finally settling in to the course manager role at Surbiton.
Andrew said: “I feel the Master Greenkeeper qualification is important for the industry as it highlights great work, knowledge and abilities in a small industry within a global scale. Each of the stages helped me push my own knowledge and develop excellent standards from a course and administration point of view, which I hope to continue to do now and in the future.”
Anthony (Tony) Girardi, 49, has been in the golf business for 29 years, beginning his career as an intern while attending the University of Rhode Island. He graduated in 1992 with a degree in Environmental Science and earned a role as assistant golf course superintendent at Woodway
10 I PC JUNE/JULY 2018 Tony Girardi Country Club in Connecticut.
After three years he became golf course superintendent at Rockrimmon Country Club, a position he has held for the past 24 years.
Tony said: “I had always heard of the Master Greenkeeper programme through the years, but it wasn’t until I attended BTME in 2016 that I became more aware of the certificate and what it entailed. You are never too old to learn, and in a very short two‐year period, I can safely say that I have learned a great deal about course
management from my peers in the UK and Ireland.”
“The Master Greenkeeper process is an invaluable experience that allows you to grow both personally and professionally.”
Stuart Green, BIGGA’s head of member learning, said: “Congratulations to Andrew and Tony on becoming the latest recipients of Master Greenkeeper status. Our Master Greenkeeper certificate is now in its 28th year and yet only 74 golf course managers and superintendents from all over the world have made the grade, highlighting what an incredible achievement this is. Master Greenkeeper is a learning experience and I would recommend any golf course manager, who aspires to the highest standards, gives it a go.”
For more information about Master
Greenkeeper, visit
www.bigga.org.uk
and click on Master Greenkeeper Certificate in the Education tab.
The site is the current location of the old University of Central England (UCE) and Birmingham City University (BCU) campus near Perry Barr greyhound stadium and is just one mile from Alexander Stadium, which will play a pivotal role during the Games.
Up to 6,500 competitors and officials will be housed in 1,000 new homes in the Village, consisting of a mix of one and two‐ bed apartments as well as three and four‐bed town houses.
After the Games, the Village accommodation will be converted and become available as a mixture of homes for sale and rent, as well as for social and affordable rent through the city council’s Birmingham Municipal Housing
Trust and In‐Reach rental initiative.
The Village will act as a catalyst for significant housing growth in Perry Barr and is the first phase of a wider programme to deliver up to 3,000 new homes in the area.
“Our proposal to bring the Games to Birmingham had a number of key strengths, including our outstanding track record of staging major sporting events, and having almost all of the competition venues in place,” said Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council and chair of the Birmingham 2022 bid team.
“The development of the Village is therefore the largest new‐build element of the Games ‐ and will help rejuvenate Perry Barr and the wider surrounding area, meaning there will be a meaningful and lasting legacy for the people of Birmingham, in particular those living near the heart of the action in 2022.”
“We have a desperate need for high‐quality housing in the city and it would have been much trickier to meet that demand if we had not been successful in our bid to host the Games.”
BASIS Points for Pitchcare Magazine
*BASIS awards two CPD points for ‘paid for’ subscribers to the hard copy version of Pitchcare magazine, due to the “diverse range of content that relates to the control, management and use of pesticides”.
Subscribers can now obtain a further two valuable CPD points for their Professional register, simply by paying for a subscription to the ‘hard copy’ version of the Pitchcare magazine.
Anyone wishing to claim their points should email their full name, BASIS membership number, date of birth and postcode to
editor@pitchcare.com.
*BASIS is an independent standards setting and auditing organisation for the pesticide, fertiliser and allied industries.
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