GOLF
but also more experienced was difficult and I had no previous management experience. Still, I got through it with the help of the Club-Pro Tim Coxon and the Secretary Graham Finney. Five years later, I ended up at Chesterfield Golf Club, which was a much more management-based role. Instead of having a Greens Chairman, I had a place on the board and ran the Green Committee meetings and took the minutes. It was a steep learning curve dealing with people who have been in business all their lives and you can’t fail to learn from people like that. I spent five years there before moving to Prestbury, where I have been for the last five years.”
The course is very much a parkland course in nature, but with heathland characteristics and is built on a sandy sub-soil, which helps it drain well. “Over the last few years, we have been working on reducing the organic matter throughout the course. This will help it drain better
and, at the same time, it will enable firmer and faster play. We also have a couple of holes with heather which we are trying to regenerate and reproduce more widely across the golf course.”
The construction of the greens is indigenous. “I can’t say they are clay push-ups because they are not clay! They have little or no drainage but, for one-hundred-year-old greens, they work well. It is quite a special course; they are a great club to work for and financially secure (touch wood) - I just hope this pandemic doesn’t affect us too much.”
Mark is fortunate to have a good team to rely on, aided by an apprenticeship scheme through Myerscough and Oldham College. “This helps us keep salary costs down whilst, at the same time, offering young people a way into the industry.” The team includes Callum Goodhind - Deputy Course Manager, NVQ Level 3 Sports turf (4 years’ service); Mike
You go out to the States and the course managers out there have a Masters degree and/or a PhD and are seen as professionals. I do not feel we are seen that way - at least, not as much as we should be
Bunker project 44 PC June/July 2020
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