GOLF
Getting Personal
Mat Edwards - he loves bacon and the Foo Fighters
Who are you? Mat Edwards, Head Greenkeeper, Looe Golf Club.
Family status. Sophie and I have just bought our first house and it’s just the two of us.
What would you change about yourself? Around three stone!
What’s your guilty pleasure? Estrella and chinese food.
What’s been the highlight of your career so far? Hearing the great comments from members and visitors about how much the course has improved in the last few years.
What are your pet peeves? Things getting broken by staff, but not being told… it drives me insane.
If you could go anywhere right now, where would it be? I’d like a nice big villa on the Cote d’Azure.
What’s the best part of your job? Seeing all our work transform into great playing surfaces.
… and the worst? Managing staff at the moment is becoming increasingly hard with such a small work force. It’s hard to fit in everyone’s holiday especially if someone goes off sick.
Do you have a lifetime ambition? At the moment it would be to get our course to a position where there is little room for improvement.
Favourite record, and why? I’m a Foo Fighters fan so probably the Wasting Light album, although The Colour and the Shape takes some beating. I’ve always listened to them from the beginning of the group.
Who would you choose to spend a romantic evening with? It would have to be the Mrs in Monaco.
If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do? Travel the world, fix up the house, and help out our friends and family.
If you were to describe yourself as a musical instrument, what would you be and why? A set of drums… noisy and takes a beating.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to a dinner party? Jimmy Carr for comedy value, Gordon Ramsey to complement us on our food, and Jack
34 PC June/July 2019 Bauer for the Mrs.
If you could be anyone for a day, who would it be and why? Superman obviously.
Do you have any bad habits? I bite my nails and I can be a little untidy at times.
... or any good ones? I do the dishes.
Do you go to bed worrying about the next day’s workload? Constantly! Although, if we have enough staff there is less to worry about. Being quite impatient I sometimes try to do too much at once.
What are you reading at the moment? Jo Nesbo, the Devils Star (online).
What’s the best advice you have ever been given? Forgive your enemies but take a note of their names.
What’s your favourite smell? BACON!!!
What do you do in your spare time? Sophie and I work on the house when we can or just try and chill. We both work long hours so by the time we get a day off we sometimes don’t want to do very much.
What’s the daftest work related question you have ever been asked? When will the fog clear? We also had people phoning up during the winter snow to see if the course was open.
What’s your favourite piece of kit? Toro ProCore 648 which was the first machine I bought when I took over. It’s made such a difference.
What three words would you use to describe yourself? Childish (at times), hard working and creative.
What talent would you like to have? The ability to fly would be amazing.
What law/legislation would you like to see introduced? I’d like to see us getting more help with regards to managing pests such as leatherjackets. At the moment, for some courses, it is a real issue.
In the past, we have suffered with a heavy thatch layer in the greens, so it’s just been a matter of getting as much out as possible and getting more air into them
iron on the greens, then scarified it all out. We have now got to a point where there is no moss in them and they are looking really healthy.”
The greens are all old push-ups which cause Mat some problems. “They are okay at this time of the year but, in the winter when we get heavy rainfall, they are more or less unplayable; we have no drainage in them whatsoever, and we often find ourselves using a sump pump to clear the water from the greens. We could definitely do with some drainage on four or five of the worst greens, but there is literally nothing we can do at the minute except try and get some air into them. The soil profile of the course varies from areas of granite pushing up through fairways, peaty areas and, down the bottom, it’s normal farmland soil.”
The course has an old irrigation system which the club is looking to replace. “Our system is thirty-five years old and is now pretty much obsolete. For one reason or another, we have gone through three pumps in the last two years at £2,500 each. Last year, in the drought, it failed, and it took us five weeks to get it fixed, so we are currently looking at installing a whole
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