KEYNOTE


P


itchcare: Are you still hands on or do you generally oversee everything?


Jim McKenzie: I like to get out on the practical side whenever I can. Just last week, I had an afternoon whereby I had no meetings planned and managed to get out on the 2010 course to mow the approaches. Of all the directors and managers within the company, I’m the only one who doesn’t wear a suit! If I came to work corporately dressed, I think it would give the impression that I’m not willing to help, whereas I can always jump in to lend a hand washing down machines or cutting where necessary and I think my team respect that. Having said this, about five years I got a bit of a shock when I had carried out some work on the course and one of the summer guys turned to


me and said ‘I didn’t realise you were a greenkeeper’ … so maybe I should do practical work more often? However, after half an hour of practical work now I realise that it hurts more as you get older to carry out physical tasks.


Were you interested in golf or any sports as a youngster?


I played football, as most kids did from the west of Scotland, and I also played a lot of golf from the age of twelve - which was when I first became attracted to the industry.


How did that lead you into this career?


Originally, I didn’t want to get into golf, and I had spent time at school thinking that I wanted to work in the Forestry Commission. I liked the idea of jumping in the back of a Landrover and cutting trees down (it’s at this point Jim asked me to picture the muscly guy from the Yorkie advert). However, my


father died when I was just sixteen and, as the eldest of three boys, I felt it was important to be around for my mum and brothers, particularly as my mother didn’t have immediate family close by. At that point (and without my mother knowing), I applied for a job to be a printer and, one Thursday afternoon, she returned home from work early and intercepted the letter from the Job Centre. This caused a blazing row, but I told her I’d made my mind up and was leaving school.


So, on the Friday, I lay in bed technically unemployed and my aunt came around to put some money in our rented television (this will make no sense to readers under the age of forty - but that was life). She realised I was in bed and proceeded to throw a large pan of water over me and dragged me to the Job Centre. It was on that day (in 1978), that I saw an advert for an apprentice greenkeeper at Haggs Castle, so went to the interview and got the position, where I stayed for the next six years. I was very fortunate that the Head Greenkeeper


I think it will be very different for people coming into the industry in five years’ time, but this is going to be an interesting transition for all of us. We can’t just say ‘chemicals are gone, let’s do something different.’ It’s going to take a long time to learn new methods and for the grasses and soil to adapt


PC June/July 2019


47


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