GOLF


H


idden away in the moorland hills of Saddleworth, the golf course offers breathtaking views, no matter what time of the year. But, with the views,


comes challenging conditions for Head Greenkeeper David Roberts, who is used to the ever-changing weather conditions associated with being, in places, 1,000 feet above sea level, with the surrounding hills reaching as high as 1700 feet.


David didn’t start his career in sports turf straight from school; he stumbled into at the age of twenty-three. “When I was eighteen, I joined the army, and I was in the engineers, which took me to Afghanistan and Canada, to name a couple. After four years’ service, it started to get a bit boring so, when I left the army, I thought I would get trained up in air conditioning and earn an absolute fortune. Then we hit the financial crisis and there was no one taking on apprentices.


That meant I had to have a rethink. Luckily, my mate told me there was a job going at Saddleworth Golf Club as he was leaving to join Royton & Crompton GC. I thought that would be a great opportunity until I could get back into air conditioning. I started here as an assistant greenkeeper as I had some transferable skills from the army. Plus, I used to look after the ground at Uppermill Cricket Club, so I could use a mower at least. I was able to take my NVQ level 2 in Sports Turf, but I then had a bit of a gap; we had a new greens chairman come in who changed everything around and made it not a nice place to work.”


“So, I decided to go over to Australia to play cricket for two summers with all my expenses paid for. After those two years, I thought it was time to knuckle down and carve out a career for myself. I was fortunate to start back at Saddleworth as my position had been left open. And I was happy to be


back as the atmosphere was a lot more relaxed and enjoyable. I was never really ‘in love’ with greenkeeping until I came back and got on with gaining my NVQ Level 3.” “Daryl Smethurst, the Head Greenkeeper at that time, who was here for twenty-five years, told me he was going to retire when he was fifty. This gave me four years to put myself in the best position so that, when he left, the club wouldn’t look elsewhere to replace him. So, I started my foundation degree in sports turf management, joined the R&A scholars and worked at Wentworth with the STRI agronomy teams in 2017; and I also worked at The Open at Royal Birkdale. I did my best to make myself into the only option they would look at and, thankfully, they gave me the job two years ago.”


In January, David headed out to the Orange County Convention Centre in Orlando for the Golf Industry Show, as part of the BIGGA Delegation supported


PC February/March 2020


15


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