GOLF
many qualifications, including NVQ Level 2 and 3 Sportsturf, carried out a BASIS course at the STRI, supervisory management courses, spraying certificates PA1, 2 and 3, chainsaw licence and would like to take more courses in the future. When Craig first took the job at Harleyford, the club had money problems and, within a year, things went from bad to worse. Craig explains; “there was no money for products, and machines were constantly breaking down. We were leaving machines out on the course, as our sheds are a mile and a half away. It takes us twenty minutes to get from the greenkeeping compound to the first.”
“In June 2014, the administrators came in and, to make matters worse, due to all the hours I had to work, I lost my marriage. Four of us were doing our very best, for about a year, to keep the golf course up to the same standards of the surrounding courses.” I told Craig that I could directly relate to what he went through, as I lost my first marriage to the job. Like many
greenkeepers and groundsman around the country, we don’t just do the job for the money but for the love of it.
Craig continues; “I couldn’t just sit back and watch the course deteriorate, pride for the job keeps you wanting to provide the best possible surfaces.”
Once the course went into administration, the landowner bought the club off the bank and, with Craig’s help, wanted to get the course back to its former condition. “The owners have been great to me. After I lost my marriage, I needed somewhere to live, so they let me put a static caravan in the compound where I have lived for four and a half years now. From July 2014, that’s when Harleyford started for me, as the two previous years were poor. They weren’t suddenly able to throw loads of money at it as they had bought the club in July, so had none of the membership money from April, which would have usually taken us through the year. It was made clear to me it was going to be a difficult few years, but I was assured that, whatever money the
When we had the event, we went through appalling
weather conditions, minimal staff, poor machinery and struggled with the distance from the shed
Many driftwood sculptures appear around the course 16 PC June/July 2019
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