GOLF


Perranporth Golf Club is situated on the beautiful North Coast of Cornwall, overlooking the glorious Perran Sands beach. It sits on top of a disused tin mine, among the dunes of blown sand and old mine workings and the views from every hole are dramatic and a delight. Lee Williams met with Course Manager Rob Cook, who is tasked with the general upkeep and maintenance of this unique links course


R


ob has taken on the enviable task of this James Braid course designed in 1929, after industry legend Bill Mitchell retired in 2018, having served the club for a


remarkable fi fty-eight years. Rob fi rst took an interest in golf when he started caddying for his dad, when he was just fourteen. He then started to play himself (at his local golf course of Bowood) and would spend any free time working on his handicap. After completing his A-levels and a BTEC in business and fi nance, he was still unsure what career path he wanted to take - until his mum stepped in. “She told me I


needed to further my education rather than just playing golf all the time. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do, but obviously I loved golf and, whilst at school, I had worked with the greenkeepers at Bowood in the summer holidays, so I decided to complete a HND in golf course management at Reaseheath College. Part of the course involved going out on work experience for seven months, and I was lucky enough to be placed at the Forest of Arden in Warwickshire. I loved it and, when I fi nished the HND, they off ered me a full-time position.”


“I would regularly go home to Cornwall to


see my parents and friends and, every time I visited, I would chat with the guy who leased Bowood Golf Course, who was spending quite a bit of money on the course. Whilst working at the Forest of Arden, the phone rang one day and Ray Hunt (Course Manager there at the time) informed me there was some chap on the phone for me. In front of Ray, I answered the phone and was then scared to inform him that Bowood had just asked me to be their Head Greenkeeper. Ray was supportive but recommended i only take the job if suitable budgets were in place, however I was twenty-one at the time and a bit naïve, so I accepted the job.” “It turned out to be a nightmare at fi rst; there were older greenkeepers who did not like being told what to do and the guy who was acting head (who had been demoted) was stubborn. Eventually, with there only being a few of us, things calmed down. Then, the owners went bust, someone else came in with a lot of money and we had some excellent years … until they did a moonlight fl it and the farmer (who originally built the course) took it back on!”


Whilst at Bowood, with not having a lot of money to spend on maintaining the USGA specifi cation greens, Rob made the decision to go down the fi ne grass route and he started to get quite a lot of fescue on the


It may not be the easiest of courses to play and you may not love it, but I urge


everyone to visit because it is pretty old school and natural


PC October/November 2020 43


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