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THE GOLF CLUB

MANAGER ISSUE 24 | MARCH 2019

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

INDUSTRY

AGRONOMY SPECIAL

• THE ESSENTIALS OF GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT • DISASTER PLANNING FOR A DROUGHT • B I G G A A N A LY S E T H E E F F E C T S O F L A S T Y E A R ’ S H E AT WAV E

ERODING HISTORY

R OYA L N O R T H D E V O N ’ S M A R K E VA N S O N T H E D E VA S TAT I N G I M PA C T O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E O N E N G L A N D ’ S O L D E S T CO U R S E

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE ‘

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CONTENTS ISSUE 24 | MARCH 2019

GCMA

CAREERS

All the news and views from the GCMA

On the move: Stephen Nicholson

NEED TO KNOW

GOOD PRACTICE

The essentials of golf course management

From the helpdesk

How to make your club more sustainable

INDUSTRY

GRASS ROOTS

We meet Royal North Devonâ€™s Mark Evans

Does your club have a disaster plan in place?

Enville and the Women in Golf Charter

62 27

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION GCMA Bristol & Clifton Golf Club, Beggar Bush Lane, Failand, Bristol, BS8 3TH Tel: 01275 391153 | hq@gcma.org.uk CHIEF EXECUTIVE Bob Williams - bob@gcma.org.uk COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER Mike Hyde - mike@gcma.org.uk GOLF MANAGEMENT RESEARCHER Jim Cunning - jim@gcma.org.uk EDUCATION COORDINATOR Niki Hunter - niki@gcma.org.uk FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Shirley Edmondson - shirley@gcma.org.uk COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Marie Taylor - marie@gcma.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Julie Knight - julie@gcma.org.uk PRESIDENT JR (John) Jones 2018/19 CAPTAIN Cameron Dawson BOARD OF DIRECTORS Gary Steele, Phil Grice, Eddie Bullock, Amy Yeates, Andrew Rankin THE GOLF CLUB MANAGER IS PUBLISHED BY: SPORTS PUBLICATIONS LTD 2 Arena Park, Tarn Lane, Scarcroft, West Yorkshire, LS17 9BF, UK Tel: 0113 289 3979 | info@sportspub.co.uk PUBLISHER Tom Irwin - t.irwin@sportspub.co.uk EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Dan Murphy - d.murphy@sportspub.co.uk OPS DIRECTOR Will Shucksmith - w.shucksmith@sportspub.co.uk EDITOR Steve Carroll - s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk PRODUCTION EDITOR James Broadhurst - j.broadhurst@sportspub.co.uk CHIEF DESIGNER Andrew Kenworthy - a.kenworthy@sportspub.co.uk DESIGNERS Vicky Jones - v.jones@sportspub.co.uk Becky Clark - b.clark@sportspub.co.uk Paul Barnett - p.barnett@sportspub.co.uk Every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, but the publishers cannot accept responsibility for omissions and errors. All material in this publication is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved.The views expressed in The Golf Club Manager do not necessarily represent the views of the company or the editor. Every care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers assume no responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from participation in any offer, competition or advertising contained within The Golf Club Manager. THE GOLF CLUB

MANAGER ISSUE 24 | MARCH 2019

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

INDUSTRY

AGRONOMY SPECIAL

• THE ESSENTIALS OF GOLF COURSE MANAGEMENT • DISASTER PLANNING FOR A DROUGHT • B I G G A A N A LY S E T H E E F F E C T S O F L A S T Y E A R ’ S H E AT WAV E

ERODING HISTORY

R OYA L N O R T H D E V O N ’ S M A R K E VA N S O N T H E D E VA S TAT I N G I M PA C T O F C L I M AT E C H A N G E O N E N G L A N D ’ S O L D E S T CO U R S E

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE ‘

001 GCMA March 19 Cover.indd 3

ON THE COVER: Royal North Devon

27/02/2019 11:52

WELCOME

ISSUE 24 | MARCH 2019

aving enjoyed some of the warmest temperatures recorded in February, we could easily become guilty of thinking spring has arrived? Needless to say, March and April will have something in store we didn’t quite expect. February started with the annual Regional Managers’ Conference, at Puckrup Hall, in Worcestershire. With a great deal of positive views coming forward this theme was continued into the second half of the month when I was invited to three excellent Regional meetings. All were hosted in totally different venues, and kicked off at the home of Wolverhampton Wanderers for the Midlands meeting. The exceptional setting was complemented with a great array of topics and topped off with the club’s MD presenting their business development plan. I then visited the John Deere plant, in Nottingham, where the East Midlands meeting was held. This was another excellent location, which obviously helped attract a good attendance. For my third meeting, the Chilterns region had arranged a business day at Stoke Park. All three were a credit to the Regional efforts. If there was a downside, it was I had the task of informing members that our Professional Development and Education Coordinator, Niki Hunter, has decided to retire from her role once the 2019 National Conference is over. Niki has been a most loyal supporter of the

association and a great ally to me over the last five years. She will be sadly missed. However, her work will have a lasting effect on those managers who have gone through one of the training courses or attended one of the Diploma workshops. I am sure the many friends she has made over the years will have time to wish her well before the end of the year. Finally, I am pleased to announce a joint initiative with England Golf, where we will be hosting a series of workshops in May aimed at providing committee volunteers with some guidance to support the overall management of the private members’ club. Find out more on page 12. Bob Williams – chief executive

“Niki has been a most loyal supporter of the association and a great ally to me over the last five years. She will be sadly missed“

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GCMA Everything you need to know about whatâ€™s happening around the UK in the world of the GCMA

The month in

PICTURES

You may well know various names of people connected with the GCMA, but it’s always helpful to be able to put a face to name! Therefore, we’ve listed everyone in the picture above, taken at Puckrup Hall in Tewkesbury, on February 5, during the annual GCMA Regional Managers Conference. The two-day meeting was attended by nearly every Regional Manager, most of the HQ team, and several members of the board. [L-R]: Bob Williams (GCMA CEO), Marie Taylor

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(GCMA Communications), Ian Symington (2019 Captain), Neil Annandale (North West), Niki Hunter (Professional Development Manager), John Barnard (Norfolk), Jim Cunning (Golf Management Researcher), Mike Rees (Wales), Paul Gaylor (Southern), Gary Smith (East Anglia), David Cook (Chiltern & HC), Cameron Dawson (2018 Captain, and Yorkshire), Maureen Brooker (London & HC), Rod Savage (East Midlands), Bernard Flockhart (Scotland), John Edgington (South East), Peter Jobe (Northern), Karen Drake (South East), Mike Hyde (GCMA Communications), Julie Knight (GCMA Membership), Steve Boustead (Yorkshire – incoming), Phil Grice (GCMA Chairman), Eddie Bullock (GCMA Director).

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Your Regional Managers also had a chance to visit the 2019 Conference venue – DeVere Cotswolds Water Park – for a full tour of the venue. Everyone came away impressed and expect to hear more at upcoming regional meetings. The GCMA Conference takes place from November 10 to 12.

Marie Taylor, who works on membership communications, updates the Regional Managers Conference on plans for 2019. Marie was asking for suggestions

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of members to be featured in the magazine. Plenty were put forward, but, if you’d like to be included, let her know at marie@ gcma.org.uk or email Steve Carroll at s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk

GCMA.ORG.UK | 9

Captain’s corner

CAMERON DAWSON

t’s nearly time to hand over the captaincy to Ian Symington at the AGM at Coxmoor on April 15. I know every outgoing captain says taking over only seems like yesterday but it really is true. I could list the regions I have visited, courses and matches played, miles travelled but that would require me to have counted and for you to be interested. Suffice to say: all, many and lots! Joking aside, the captaincy has been a great honour for both myself and the Yorkshire region. I have enjoyed every minute of it. I have been treated with the utmost courtesy and friendship everywhere. This has left too many people to thank individually, but I would like to thank all the regions, their members and managers for their courtesy, organisation and friendship. As you may know, I remained regional manager of Yorkshire during my year and have to thank my regional committee for taking on many of the duties while I was on my travels. As national captain, you are a non-executive member of the board. It is very pleasing to see the phenomenal turnaround in our finances this year and to have been a small part of that process. Well done everybody. During my year, I highlighted my views on equality - nearly 10 years into the last act - and the lack of any significant move by many clubs towards achieving real equality. I have had some

10 | GCMA.ORG.UK

Our national captain’s year is almost over but, he reveals, you’ll be seeing more of him in the future

interesting conversations, and many hopeful views were expressed for the future, but I didn’t think I would change much - and I was right! I am confident things will change, even if at a much slower rate than I desire, and those clubs that do it well will be the most successful. I would also like to thank all those who have donated to my slimming fundraiser. I hope to have reached my targets by the time you read this and will announce the final totals at the AGM. So, what’s next for me? I will continue to sit on the Committee for Golf Club Salaries, as I have done for over 10 years. It has become clear the current “recommendations” from the CGCS are not that relevant and

are underused. I have developed a five-question drop-down tool to address this situation. Hopefully, we should have enough data from the circulated survey to have a workable and accurate tool for use very soon. As the association continues with the implementation of the strategic review, I’ve been asked to head a working group looking at the regional structure. We will be looking at all aspects of the running of the regions with a completely open mind, with an aim of coming back to the board and regional managers with a report and recommendations for the future by October. I will not be going anywhere and look forward to seeing many of you again in the future.

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

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Helping clubs understand excellent

GOVERNANCE GCMA have teamed up with England Golf to offer a series of workshops. Mike Hyde explains

n partnership with England Golf, the GCMA are delighted to offer golf club volunteers, including Captains, Chairs and others involved in key decision making, the opportunity to attend one of the Club Governance workshops during May 2019. Club Managers are also welcome to attend. This interactive workshop will assist clubs to prepare a long-term, sustainable governance policy. It is accepted within our industry that high levels of membership satisfaction at clubs are generally underpinned by excellent collaborative governance, which can be best described as the staff and the elected volunteers pulling together effectively, in the pursuit of goals that secure the current and future success of the club. That burden of responsibility at clubs can fall to just a few committed members, who often experience the common problems with which golf club committees find themselves wrestling. They can range from painfully long meetings, inconsistency of direction at the club, and ultimately struggling to attract the best possible candidates to best serve the club. The workshops will be led by Kevin Fish, a former GCMA

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Manager of the Year. Kevin now runs his own training, consultancy and recruitment firm, Contemporary Club Leadership Ltd, where he helps club managers and office bearers to do the right things right. After 20 years of supporting clubs Kevin Fish has seen some good, some bad and some highly dysfunctional club committees. He said:“The solutions are often common sense, but sadly not common practice. “My task is to reveal the root of the problems to the committee, and help steer those willing volunteers to work with their senior staff to apply the solutions. Workshops will run from 10am to 3pm, including refreshments and light lunch, and will be staged at the following venues over a 10-day period: Mon, May 20 Chippenham Golf Club, Wiltshire Tues, May 21

Frilford Heath Golf Club, Oxfordshire

Tues, May 28

Garforth Golf Club, Yorkshire

Wed, May 29

Hillside Golf Club, Lancashire

Thurs, May 30

Enville Golf Club, Staffordshire

Announcing the partnership with England Golf, GCMA chief executive Bob Williams explained the thinking behind the new initiative. “For our members, working with an effective committee can be the difference between the club achieving its strategic aims or going out of business, so we have been looking at how best to support our members on that front for a while,” he said. “I’m excited about these workshops, as I think they could be genuinely transformative for golf clubs, and for our members’ day to day working lives. “The real magic happens when everyone at the club is committed to an environment where the directors direct, the managers manage, and the members enjoy.” There are 30 spaces available at each workshop, which cost £30 per delegate. Discounts are available for multiple attendees from the same club, with the price at £50 for two delegates, or £65 for three delegates.

To secure a place, visit https:// www.englandgolf.org/ club-support/education-andworkshops/ to book and pay online.

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

Need to

KNOW All the relevant news, opinion, and expert insight from around the industry

How to... make your

CLUB SUSTAINABLE

hether it is how they develop and manage their environment, or how they work with communities, the need for golf clubs to be sustainable has become hugely important. Projects such as Golf Course 2030 are putting the focus on climate change and the challenges of ensuring optimal course conditions in the future. While that is an industry roadmap, clubs do have a place to turn if they are trying to make changes in their own environments. GEO Foundation are the organisation that help private member and proprietary outfits

to embrace sustainability, help them understand their issues and find solutions. So how can they help? We asked OnCourse engagement manager John Kemp to explain… What is GEO? The GEO Foundation is probably known to a lot of people as the Golf Environment Organisation. We are a nonprofit organisation, and we invest in supporting clubs, facilities and those that work in them to try and be more sustainable in their practices. We’ve been in existence for more than 15 years now. Sustainability: what does that mean in golf?

We break it down into three key subjects. Those are nature, resources and communities. We support clubs, and those that work within them, to try and foster and develop the natural environment in which they are based – which is pretty important for the golf course. We work with clubs in saving and being more efficient in their use of resources, which has a lot of cost saving benefits, and we work with clubs to try and establish a stronger connection with their community. That’s probably an increasing area of focus. Clubs are trying to drive more business in from external sources. Let’s talk about community,

Royal Dornoch

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ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

With pesticides taken off the market, and the industry under more scrutiny than ever, sustainability is the buzzword in golf. We asked John Kemp, of GEO Foundation, how the organisation works

as that’s a part of your work of which I’d imagine not too many people are aware. How do you help in this respect? A lot of consumers and people looking to buy, whether that’s a club membership or just a visitor, and are starting to look at the business they are buying from and their social responsibility. They are looking at the wider connection they have with the community. We provide a whole range of ideas, tools, communication mechanisms, and there are a whole bunch of marketing mechanisms we can provide clubs with as well, that will give them a leg up in terms of saying ‘we want to engage with the community, how do we go

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about doing that?’‘What’s the first step we take?’ Some clubs will be really focused on engaging with the community. They might work with local charities, with schools and local community groups, while others might say ‘we’ve never opened our doors before and we’re going to try it for the first time. How can we go about doing that?’ It’s an important point that most club managers, and even course managers, those on the committee and boards of clubs, will sit and say ‘sustainability – that’s all the green grass, environmental stuff’. Increasingly, people are starting to look at clubs and say

‘what’s the wider picture. How do they fit into our community?’ That’s probably a big area of growth in the sustainability industry right now. So looking at turf matters, give me an idea of the scope of GEO certification? It’s really important to recognise that becoming a GEO certified venue is a long journey that clubs go through. A lot would start off by saying they just want to make some small changes and improvements in the practices they are doing day to day. They might have a specific challenge, or a problem or an issue. They might be working within a designated area or they

GCMA.ORG.UK | 17

The Duchess course at Woburn

might have requirements placed on them by external stakeholders or legislation. There’s reference to pesticides but it might just be that it was a scorcher of a summer last year and clubs are suddenly having to say ‘where are we going to get our water from?’ There are always these different components as to why a club might look at sustainability and say ‘do we need to talk about this?’ That’s always the starting point for us to say ‘what’s the thing you are looking to address? What is the item that might be of interest to you guys?’ Then we take it from there and say ‘no you’ve addressed that small problem, or we’ve looked at a way you can mitigate a challenge or improve your practices, what’s the next step after that?’ Ultimately, it will just be step-by-

18 | GCMA.ORG.UK

step. The club might say they don’t aspire to become a certified facility, they just want to make themselves more sustainable. That’s absolutely fantastic and what we are here to help them do. The certification is an end recognition for their great work and it’s a quality mark that gives them marketing opportunities as well. It’s really important that we try and articulate to clubs that it’s not about getting the quality mark at the end of it and saying ‘that’s all the good work done now’. It’s an ongoing process that has cost savings, improves their product and makes themselves more marketing and helps engage more customers. That quality mark, though, is becoming more sought after? There are more than 50 clubs in the UK and some of the knock-on

benefits are marketing and being to say ‘we are a sustainable facility and we can promote ourselves as such’. There are some cracking clubs who have come out of it and said they’ve gained marketing and media coverage they would never have had otherwise without doing it. For a smaller club, or someone that’s not necessarily one of the big five star facilities in the UK, that can be a real competitive advantage they can benefit from and it’s a means to differentiate themselves in what is a crowded marketplace. Golf courses have had quite a bad reputation in terms of the environment in the past… We’ve got a brand issue in the industry and we don’t often help ourselves by talking about sustainability in a positive light. We are often saying ‘we need

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The GEO Foundation The GEO Foundation inspires golf to “fully embrace sustainability and promoting a shared understanding of issues and solutions, working with and through industry associations and businesses.” They provide “practical, straightforward online guidance programmes and mentoring” to clubs and try to share the sport’s great golf environments. GEO provide three programmes and also administer golf’s sustainability assurance, GEO Certified. A not-for-profit organisation, they are governed by a board of directors and receive input from advisors and working groups. Expanding their aims, they say:“Our guiding principles include the highest standard of credibility and transparency; commitment to real-world results throughout the global golf community; and an ethos of continual improvement and collaboration.” Aldeburgh, Royal Dornoch, Woburn and Frilford Heath are just four GCMA members clubs who are GEO Certified. Visit sustainable.golf

Aldeburgh

to fix a problem or we’re trying to wean ourselves off pesticides’. But most clubs are already doing a lot of great work. Most course and club managers are already doing some fantastic stuff. We just want to help them sing their praises a little bit more. A lot of what we do, by helping clubs become certified but also by just engaging in our OnCourse platform on our website, is sharing what we call ‘highlights’ and good news stories. Our goal is to articulate those great news stories, the fact that good work is going on in the industry, and that people are making real strides forward in being more sustainable, and say that we are making real progress here. So you’re becoming the vehicle for best practice?

ED U C AT E | I N FO RM | I N S P I RE

Exactly and that’s how, as someone who has been a club manager and a greenkeeper in the past as well, I always start off by thinking practically ‘what does it mean and what would it change day to day for me if I was managing a club?’ I always look for the practical things, the little steps, the one change that we can make tomorrow or the area of focus that golfers are looking at as something they would like to see happening on the course. It’s a feel good factor, or something for the team to work on, a means to improve the golf course or the clubhouse facilities. All these best practices are something we can help clubs tap into and explore. Ultimately, they take the steps forward and collate them together and make real sustainability progress.

If I want to start on this path. What’s the process? The best step for every club manager is to go to the website which is getoncourse.golf That’s where they can find sustainability best practice, track and record data, benchmark themselves, get access to tools and marketing advice and resources. They can see those highlights – the best practice case studies from other clubs of all shapes and sizes. It’s a really light touch process, initially. When someone registers with the website, we will drop them a line and ask them whether there are any specific areas of focus. It’s important to say that this is essentially done at the pace the clubs want. There are no timelines we would proscribe; it’s more about the clubs themselves.

GCMA.ORG.UK | 19

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INDUSTRY The latest news, insightful opinions and in-depth features from the golf industry

In the

LOOP 1. First English club to sign up for The R&A’s Women in Golf Charter is revealed What’s happened: GCMA club Boldon, in County Durham, have become the first in England to join the Women in Golf Charter. What does it mean? The club have made a series of pledges, which include running events to encourage more women and girls to play golf. They’ve also agreed to have at least three female board members and to create even better community links. Member Alyson Chapman has been appointed as the club’s Charter Champion to support and help new players and members. Alyson, who has previously won a Durham award for her efforts to get women involved in golf, said:“I’ve had a huge amount of pleasure out of golf and I enjoy sharing that with other women and girls. “Golf isn’t just about competing. Women and girls at Boldon really value the social and friendship groups – and we’ve got a growing group who holiday together, with ages from 20 to 70+!” The Women in Golf Charter was

The news you need to know from the last month in the golf industry…

launched last year to increase the number of women and girls playing golf and to encourage more opportunities for women to work. England Golf, along with the GCMA, were among the first signatories and 106 organisations have now committed to it. Among the other clubs to have signed up and join Boldon include Royal Birkdale and Fulford, in York. Boldon currently have 42 women and six girl members, including seven who are following the club’s pathway to full membership. They

want to increase this number by five in 2019. Boldon run Get into Golf sessions for women, as well as family days which have attracted boys and girls to the junior Wee Wonders programme. Manager Steve Watkin said:“It was an easy decision to support the Charter and to embed our activities and commitment into our business plan. We are excited to be recognised as the first Charter signatory in County Durham and the first club in England.”

be announced in the next couple of weeks too... @GCMAUK

the @GCMAUK Midlands Region AGM today. Excellent introduction this morning from @Wolves fantastic venue. @intelligentgolf

@GCMAUK Delighted to have now formally announced our partner network it makes a huge difference to the association, so thank you to all the current members! Several more to

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Great to be presenting today at

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We want to hear from you! Send your correspondence, on any subject, to letters@gcma.org.uk

2. Clubs urged to become more dementia friendly What happened: Golf clubs have been asked to become dementia friendly to help the 850,000 people living with the condition in the UK. What does it mean? The first dementia-friendly sport and physical activity guide has been launched by the Alzheimer’s Society and, speaking at the launch, England Golf chief executive Nick Pink said:“We would encourage any golf club or facility to get involved as a dementia friend and use the support guide to help them, their golfers and the local community. “Dementia is something that affects every household and golf can help, both by reducing the risk of dementia and supporting people with the condition. “There is strong, good practice in many clubs in England and we want to shine the light on this and, where possible, encourage it to be shared and replicated.” The guide was produced with National Lottery funding from Sport England and is designed to help the sport and physical activity sector to support - and

Encouraging women in Golf made the news yesterday as The R&A announced 106 others have joined the GCMA as signatories to the Women In Golf Charter,

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empower - people who are living with dementia to lead active lives and remain independent for as long as possible. It provides tools and guidance to help more people affected enjoy the benefits of staying active. With 225,000 people developing dementia each year, being dementia friendly will help organisations retain and build on existing custom, both from people living with the condition and from carers, families and friends. Jeremy Hughes, Alzheimer’s Society chief executive officer, added: ” Visiting golf clubs and driving ranges can be daunting for people with dementia, loved ones and friends - but with support and adjustments from the golfing community, they will remain active.” To find out more about the guide, visit alzheimers.org.uk/sport

Welcome to our newest GCMA members Simon Laird, at North Hants, in Southern region David Quinn, at Consett & District, in Northern region Stuart Finlay, at Radyr, in Wales region Michael McGeevor, at Whitley, in Wessex region Robert Taylor, at Elsham, in Lincolnshire Phil Luxon, at Royal Malta Neil Wood, at Chelmsford, in East Anglia region Steve Greenwood, at Oxford, in Southern region Simon Williams, at Sherwood Forest, in East Midlands Rosie Nutland, at Basset Down Golf Complex, in South West region Michelle Webber, at Chelmsford, in East Anglia region Jon Brook, at Las Colinas Golf & Country Club Benjamin Thompson, at Sale, in North West region Philip Joynes, at Hallowes, in Yorkshire region

including @conwygolfclub and @Mastercard. @GCMAUK

George Moss, at Dulwich & Sydenham Hill, in South East region Edward Prentice, at Prestwick St Nicholas, in Scotland region Luke Cornford, at Cooden Beach, in Southern region

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The interview...

MARK EVANS Climate change is bringing challenges that Mark Evans, the long-serving manager at Royal North Devon, could not have foreseen. He talks to Steve Carroll about keeping Mother Nature at bay

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hat is the privilege at being the general manager of the oldest course in England? It’s a massive honour and you are just a custodian. You’re just passing through and you’ve got to make sure you retain the traditions of the game and the golf course. I’ve been there 20 years and the history keeps you there because you know everything about it. When visitors come, you can tell them the story and I think that really helps. It’s just a lovely part of the world to live. I’ve got three kids and it’s a privilege to bring them up in that part of the world. It’s the perfect job most of the time. It’s a big membership - 500 are local and the rest are away or social - and it’s a big job to manage in a poorly paid area. It survives on tourism, which we all know doesn’t pay well, and the membership fees relate to the area we are in. It’s £780 and £350 to be a country member. But it is a good solid club, with a massive history. We were given the Royal title in 1866 and were one of the first clubs to get that. Climate change aren’t just empty words at Royal North Devon. You’ve seen incredible alterations… Over the last five years we have suffered a huge amount of erosion. In 2013 we lost 15 to 20 metres of dunes in three nights – three tides. Last year, we lost our eighth championship tee. There were just the tee markers left on the beach, and we are keeping them there. Right next to the eighth green is a massive landfill site which was capped in 1995. The authorities have to defend that but I don’t

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think it is going to retain our seventh hole. The seventh green is eroding – that’s where the land is eroding – and we are likely to lose that into the sea. As a links course, you’re dependent on the dunes. Can you give me an idea of what’s causing them to shift? There’s a sea defence there called the Pebble Ridge, which is a natural phenomenon. Pebbles fell off the cliff and were washed around and became a sea defence. That’s part of a Special Site of Scientific Interest and so we are not allowed to manage that in any way. For whatever reasons, the material is not coming around as quickly as it used to and so the ridge is getting less effective. Behind that ridge are the sand dunes and, against the Atlantic

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Ocean and when you get big swales and ten-foot tides, there is no defence there. It is all being washed away very quickly, unfortunately, and it is very concerning. Were you aware of these issues even when you were course manager? We had some flooding but we weren’t losing land. There’s a difference. You can handle salt water flooding by various means. Once you lose the land you never get it back again. That’s the difference and that’s only happened in the last five years – for whatever reason. Talking about the sea defences, the local authority – up until 2000 – used to bring material back and keep restoring it. Natural England got involved and stopped them doing it.

There has been deterioration from 2000 in the sea defences, because it is no longer man-managed. So what have you seen, specifically, in the last five years in terms of the lost land? As far as the course is concerned, all we have lost is the eighth championship tee but you can see the sea a lot more clearly now from the seventh fairway. There were massive sand dunes on the left hand side and you could never see the sea. All those have gone and, in depth, it’s probably about 25 metres of sand dunes that have gone. You were talking big, high, sand dunes and millions of tonnes of sand that have just washed away. It’s getting ever closer. We have now got Tom Mackenzie involved in trying to change two holes and putting in a new par 3. We

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“If we can make them better holes... then the scenery is going to be fantastic” are going to lose the seventh green. There is 12 metres between the edge of the sand and the back of the green. Hopefully, we are going to do the work this summer. Tom has designed the holes and we are hoping to get the planning permission, and Natural England’s permission, to change the seventh, eighth and ninth holes. How heartbreaking is it to be losing holes that have been there for more than 100 years? It is obviously heartbreaking, but if

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we can try and create better holes than the ones we are losing – if that is possible – then you have got to look at it as a positive. Nobody wants to move but we are forced to move. If we can make them better holes, and more exciting holes, and the land that Tom has chosen is going to visually create a great golf hole, then the scenery is going to be fantastic. You are going to be able to see down the River Torridge, and at the moment you can’t do that on the golf course, so there are a lot of positives about it. We’ve been forced into the issue but you have got to make the best out of it. You’ll have tried to estimate what the erosion might be like in the future. If you don’t take any action will it just keep getting worse?

Absolutely. There is a possibility that the seventh tee could go and the sixth green could go. The erosion could move further back up the coast. But we are taking a gamble at the moment that isn’t going to happen. The predictions from the Shoreline Management Plan and the Environment Agency say that is not going to happen. They have done a huge amount of research on it but what they are not willing to do is bolster the sea defences to stop Mother Nature encroaching any more. They just want to let it happen. You feel without some sort of change in that policy, at some point – whether that’s the next 20, 50 or 100 years – there’s a chance the course won’t exist if the climate changes at this rate? Yes, but we won’t be the only golf

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course in that boat, unfortunately. If the predictions are correct then a lot of links courses are really going to start to suffer. Apparently, if you strengthen one area (of coastal defences) it weakens another. We don’t like to admit to it but what can they do? What is Tom Mackenzie is working on? The seventh hole is a par 4 and a right to left dogleg that plays towards the sea. That is now being made into a straight par 5. We had a green created 20 years ago and we are going to reuse that area with more landscaping. The eighth hole will remain a par 3 but it is going to moved inland and played on the higher ground. That’s where you will find the nice scenery and the ninth hole is a par 5 at the moment and will become a par 4. The par for the front nine will stay the same, it is

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just that the seventh and the ninth will swap as a par 5 and par 4. So there is one completely new hole, and the seventh and the ninth greens are being altered.

before the winter of 2019. Natural England insist we use it in three years. We can’t maintain 19 or 20 greens after three years. We will use it in three years.

When does the club expect that project to come to fruition? We’d like to get everything done

And you’d hope that would future-proof the course? We don’t think we would have any more problems for at least 50 years – or at least we hope so. As I said earlier, nobody wants to move but it has been forced and we have got to make the best of it. Unfortunately, clubs like Montrose and Aberdovey are all in the same boat and there are probably many others. East Devon, a couple of years ago, had to move inland because the cliffs were falling off and Lyme Regis was the same. They haven’t quite got the historical credence that we have but the golf club has got to evolve and move with it.

Royal North Devon Royal North Devon is one of England’s historic golf clubs. Founded in 1864, it is the oldest golf course in the country and the Old Tom Morris design has been largely untouched since the 1920s. Found at Westward Ho! the club honours board lists founding fathers of the English game, including Horace Hutchinson, Harold Hilton and Herbert Fowler. RND, as it is affectionately known, does not have a club captain – instead using the title of president.

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SA re VE

ra H ti E on D op AT en E ss oo n

10 - 12 NOVEMBER 2019 DE VERE COTSWOLD WATER PARK

GCMA 2019 CONFERENCE

EDUCATE | INSPIRE | INFORM

Disaster planning for drought

CONDITIONS

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After last year’s hottest summer for four decades, Alastair Higgs, golf district manager UK at Rain Bird Europe, explains why an effective irrigation system is now more important than ever

lastair Higgs has stood at presentation after presentation encouraging golf clubs of the need for a sound irrigation system and to have a disaster plan in place should the incredible happen. And then last year, it did. We experienced the hottest summer for four decades and the intense heat wreaked havoc at courses up and down the country. The weather exposed flaws in irrigation systems and left some teams fighting day and night to keep their grass and greens alive. With that event unlikely to have been a freak, as climate change threatens to bring us ever warmer summers, we asked Alastair about those crucial months last year and how we can protect ourselves should the mercury start rapidly rising once again… For some time, you’ve been pointing out what can happen if clubs don’t have effective irrigation in place. Given last year’s hot summer, were you proved right? Last year’s drought really opened people’s eyes. And yet, very recently on an education day for greenkeepers, we asked the same questions about being prepared for drought conditions and disaster planning and 90 per cent of people in the room still didn’t have a plan in place. Imagine if your water source was contaminated tomorrow, what

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would the outcome be and how would you keep the business going? Irrigation failure is a potential risk that could break the business. It can be catastrophic for a club if greens don’t survive, so knowing what you’re going to do in a disaster situation has got to be given a much higher priority. Disaster planning is something that should be on everyone’s agenda for 2019. From an expert point of view, how bad was 2018 in terms of the severity of the drought and the effect it had on golf courses? Most survived because greenkeepers and their staff had the passion and dedication to go above and beyond the call of duty, not because courses had invested in infrastructure to manage or survive drought, or quickly reacted with on-the-spot investment. Many people worked way over their allotted hours and through the night. To be brutally frank, it was more by luck than judgement that some businesses didn’t go under. The hot weather badly affected playing conditions and had an impact on the customer’s experience. On the flip side, when the sun comes out, people want to play golf so, in that sense, the industry probably benefited. The severity of last summer’s drought exposed just how badly turf quality is affected when there are inadequate water resources and inefficient irrigation systems. I’m sure many people will change their turf management practices this year because they were caught out. Turf stress through lack of moisture control was a key factor – more so than ever before – and I think 2018 highlighted the inescapable fact that moisture management and irrigation management play a crucial role in

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the agronomic wheel. It became a prominent topic, even to those without an agronomic focus. You have to have the ability to change what you do, day-in and day-out, depending on what’s thrown at you. You simply can’t keep doing the same thing when conditions change and expect to get the same results. How were clubs using your systems and products able to ride through that period? Many clubs found out how to use their Rain Bird system to its best effect - more than they ever had – simply because they were forced to. In ‘standard’ years, when drought periods were short, having the ability to flick a switch and have irrigation coming on effectively to overwater in a short window to get by was fine. But, when we had sustained drought last year, there wasn’t always the water available to do that. So, using their Rain Bird control systems, clubs were micromanaging water use and able to scale it back even further. More importantly, many put in the time and effort to make sure that the

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Who is Alastair Higgs? A keen golfer, Alastair started his career as a greenkeeper at Calcot Park in 2000. He joined American Golf UK Golf in 2004, becoming head greenkeeper at Donnington Valley Golf Club in 2008 and course manager at Windlesham Golf Club in 2012. He joined Rain Bird in 2016 and is golf district manager for the UK. Rain Bird Europe Rain Bird provides complete irrigation solutions to golf courses across the globe and has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leading-edge products including pump stations, rotors, field controllers, map-based and mobile central control systems, decoders, swing joints, filtration systems, valves and irrigation accessories. The latest irrigation and control system technologies combine computer-aided design with GPS geo-referenced images and stateof-the-art ET-based scheduling and are designed to be easy to install and use. For more information, visit rainbird. eu/golf

products they had in the field were set up correctly. They had to make the most of their current system, before they even considered major investment and new systems for future years. That was probably the biggest learning curve. Those conditions may well continue, won’t they? That turf still hasn’t recovered fully and will be recovering throughout this year… There are still many who haven’t completed overseeding programmes and these will continue well into spring as clubs

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try to recover from the effect of last year’s drought. To maintain turf quality for this year, overseeding has to be done and can be very expensive. If it wasn’t budgeted for, clubs have to find that extra money. Overseeding requires moist soil conditions so having efficient irrigation is critical. It’s always more costly having to pay out after the event, rather than investing up-front to prevent problems happening again. There’s a tendency to dismiss these events as one-offs – a ‘freak’ winter or a ‘freak’

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summer. Do you think these are going to become more frequent? Should clubs put irrigation at the forefront of what they’re doing? The trend over recent years has definitely been to see the four seasons diminishing. We’re moving from winter to summer, losing spring and autumn weather. In spring it’s colder and dryer for longer and warmer temperatures seem to last longer towards the end of the year. Last summer, we had about ten days of spring and then we were straight into

does your current irrigation management affect customers? Ultimately, that’s what you’re trying to achieve every day – a good customer experience. If managers answer five key questions, it naturally leads them to make the correct decision, which is to first invest more time and effort maintaining the system they already have. How can Rain Bird assist clubs in this process and what can you do when clubs come to you for help with their irrigation needs?

drought. That really does stress turf. For the turf manager, having an efficient system is the most important tool for managing irrigation in ever-changing weather conditions. Clubs cannot risk relying on the weather to provide all the water a golf course needs. So clubs have had their warning now, and if you could address managers directly, what would you say to them about addressing their irrigation effectively? The number one priority is knowing how much your current irrigation system costs you. What are you actually spending on it? Are you monitoring spend and allocating it effectively? How

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First of all, we help clubs understand the importance of making the most of what they have and knowing what their system costs to run. If you don’t know what you’ve got, what it’s doing, making the correct investment decisions is difficult. Renovating and upgrading the system and products you have is always the first option. Small changes, such as replacing rotors, can make a big difference. Many older irrigation systems have already gone over their expected lifespan and do need replacing. But you can only start looking at investment appraisals when you know what your system is capable of, compared to what

else is available. I often say that clubs know how many pints of beer were wasted in the clubhouse last week, but they can’t tell you how many litres of water were wasted from their irrigation system. Irrigation is the scary thing that’s underground and outside. Last summer’s drought highlighted that clubs need to start looking at what’s often out of sight! It’s not as easy as reaching into your wallet to buy a new solution that is going to work for the next six months or six years. Today’s irrigation systems have a longer, Five key irrigation questions every club should answer 1.What does it cost to run our irrigation system on a daily basis? 2.How much does irrigation cost our club each year? 3.What’s spent on preventative maintenance and upgrades? 4.How do we measure water usage and electricity for course irrigation? 5.What’s our approach to irrigation risk management and disaster planning? 30-40-year lifespan so it’s going to be a 40-year partnership. Rain Bird works with golf courses throughout the lifetime of their system. We’re a company that is solely focused on irrigation, nothing else. Compared to our competition, we’re different in that respect. Once you join the Rain Bird family, all our innovations are available to you. When we create something that makes watering more efficient or more intelligent, you can easily add it to the system you already have. Ask yourself the five questions in the panel and when you’re ready, get in touch. My aim is to support GCMA members to getting this important process started.

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Why we’re not over the worst

OF SUMMER YET

ast year’s drought was tough. Thankfully it’s over now and we’ve had a relatively mild winter, so there’s no reason for courses not to be in top condition, right? Well, not exactly. The drought in 2018 affected very many of the nation’s golf courses, particularly in areas that were either not irrigated or that had to suffer reduced irrigation due to priorities elsewhere on the course. As a result, many courses had large areas of effectively dead grass. While grass can lie dormant for weeks without dying, intense drought will kill it over time. Dormant grass shuts down and turns brown in order to conserve water and nutrients. But after three to four weeks, if situations don’t improve, the grass will begin to die off and in 2018, this threshold was reached. These bare patches don’t simply recover overnight, instead requiring substantial remedial action. Greenkeepers will have been doing everything in their power and budget to bring the course back up to scratch. This will have ranged from scarifying and overseeding to physically transplanting turf from other areas onto the fairways. There’s a lot of work to be done and unless this took place last year in late summer and autumn, giving the seed the opportunity to germinate before temperatures fell too low, you should expect to see residual

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damage while things recover. During the dry summer, the bare patches weren’t a major issue as courses were hard and fast. However, when the golf season kicks in, it is highly likely that conditions and the firm bare earth will turn the bare patches into unpleasant mud. It’s important that club managers and officials support their greenkeepers as they work hard to get the course back in order after what has been an extremely difficult period. At Formby Ladies, Rob Sandilands has enacted a programme of overseeding that he hopes will get the Lancashire links ready for summer. “Things did get really testing last year,” he explained.“It tested all of our infrastructure to the absolute limit and beyond. A real, typical summer maintenance regime had gone out of the window by midJuly. It was extremely challenging. “The course was brown for a while and then it was white after a point. I’ve been greenkeeping for 20 years and I’ve never encountered anything like that. A lot of species that we thought would be drought tolerant just met their limit and all of a sudden, we were losing coverage on the fairways. “The heat pushed the turf well beyond its limits and we’ve still got a bit of work to do to catch things up. We did a bit of overseeding in autumn and we’ll be doing more during the spring.” Even if the grass survived the drought, it will have been put under incredible stress. This

Jonathan Lupton puts Toptracer through its paces at Close House

Broadstone

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BIGGA explains why the consequences of last year’s drought may last throughout 2019…

“We have had more footfall. We have had higher revenue through the range”

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Cleveland

means it is less healthy and more susceptible to disease. And what contributes to disease pressures during winter? How about a relatively mild, wet autumn. Maxstoke Park Greenkeepers found themselves battling high disease pressures throughout the winter at a time when chemical solutions are being withdrawn from the market. Among the diseases that will have been prevalent are foliar blight anthracnose and basal rot anthracnose, which thrive following hot, dry weather. Anthracnose can be one of the most difficult diseases to treat as it spreads quickly. Initially the grass will turn yellow and then lesions will appear and expand, reaching up to 15 centimetres in diameter.

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Chemical products can rectify the problem, but the main solution is restoring the turf to a healthy state and that takes time. One of the main failings to emerge from 2018 was that after a succession of relatively wet summers, many irrigation systems were found to have been woefully neglected. Hidden below the surface and with no maintenance or investment, golf clubs were unaware their systems were failing. Then, when pushed to the limit by the drought, they were found to be inadequate and it was way too late to put a plan into place to remedy the problem. Many greenkeepers could only stand and watch as the course turned brown before their eyes.

At Sitwell Park the greenkeeping team went through nearly 60 wetting agent tablets just around the greens in an attempt to keep the grass alive. Head greenkeeper Martin Hayward started at the club in May 2018 and didn’t have much time to get to grips with his new charge. Martin said:“Having looked at the irrigation system when I first came in, it took us about two months to get the sprinkler heads set up properly to get a better dispersion of water across the whole area, rather than just the centre of the greens. “We put in a few extra hours here and there but, because of the irrigation system and how it works, we couldn’t stay and hand water. We had to do it all in the time we were there and then let the system

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Martin Hayward

refill so it could water at night. We had to stop, otherwise there would never have been enough water to go through the night. “We’re still recovering now but we’ve overseeded all approaches. The tees came back absolutely fine and they got through the summer quite well. It was round the edges of the greens that we had real loss of coverage and that’s going to take a little bit of time to recover.” Clubs all over the country now have a decision to make. Do they keep their fingers crossed and hope their irrigation system holds in the case of another drought, or do they look to invest the significant sums it will take to have an system that is fit for purpose? It’s a difficult question to answer,

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Rob Sandilands

particularly at a time when clubs are already financially stretched but greenkeepers regularly refer to their irrigation system as an ‘insurance policy’ and we all know the serious perils of operating without insurance! In the meantime, greenkeepers will continue to do what they do best. Aeration breaks up the dead matter and provides air pockets in the soil, which the grass can grow into as it attempts to recover. Spiking or slitting will also provide the opportunity for fertiliser or topdressing sand to be placed into the soil, again improving the health of the turf. The Richmond’s course manager, Les Howkins MG, said:“The summer of 2018 was a bumper one for golfers, who were out

playing every day with the sun on their backs and the balls travelling long distances down the rock-hard fairways. “If your club that had a good year due to the nice weather, consider utilising some of the extra income on course repairs. “If, as a club sits back and does nothing, and doesn’t supply its greenkeepers with the resources they need to get the course back in good shape, don’t blame the greenkeepers for the outcome. “If you have noticed worn areas on your course, talk to your course manager or head greenkeeper and they will be happy to supply you with the information you need to make an informed choice on how your course will perform going forwards.”

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ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

10 top tips for running a successful

GOLF EVENT

N the last 12 months leading tournament software provider Golf Genius has managed over 465,000 golf events, involving more than 18 million golfers for 8,000 golf clubs in over 40 different countries. This extensive experience has allowed the company to truly understand what it takes to run a successful golf event. A recent 59club research campaign of more than 100 international customers of Golf Genius scored the firm over 75% for adding more fun to golf events. Making an event fun is easy to overlook under the pressure of setting up for a golf day, but the

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customer is key and the product golfers most want from a club is the golf event. It is important not to let the business of creating a golf event take over from the business of great customer experience. The perfect golf event needs to be both planned and personal – not always the easiest of combinations to deliver – and it needs to be professionally presented before, during and after. Several clubs forget about the post-event marketing, missing an opportunity to present the day and cement the memory in the minds of members, guests and clients. To assist clubs, Golf Genius has produced 10 top tips for hosting

consistently great golf events. Pre-event set up 1 Planning/event branding – the key question is: what do you want your golf day to be? Is it a traditional club event or a more modern, interactive experience that is more in keeping with your club and brand? 2 The event template – how do you want to run your days? It is best to have a plan; a customer/ guest journey from invitation to results and everything in between. It is important to not just let it happen as it did last time.

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Software company Golf Genius have a long track record of hosting golf events. Here are the company’s 10 nuggets of wisdom for running a golf day at your club Be proactive and map out your perfect golf day. 3 Registration/player enrolment – “it will be all right on the day” never works. The more you can get to know your customers – GDPR compliant, of course – the less you have to do on the day when you frankly don’t have time. Encourage players to confirm their details.

first pinch point of the day: everyone arrives at once. If you know who’s coming you can get prepared and point players in the right direction. Use materials to inform players of the day’s requirements and itineraries.

lot of pressure to name the winner or winners but no one wants a fast result that is wrong. Instead, live leaderboards can keep players and organisers up-to-date on scores and help to avoid mishaps.

7 Personalisation – knowing who is coming is one thing but showing it is another. There is nothing better than great event materials personalised for each player.

Post event

4 Sponsorship/selling – why not make money from golf days or secure more golf days from clients by increasing their exposure at the event? Scorecards, scoring, apps, leaderboards, print and signage are now very easily personalised for the extra touch for players and clients. Exposure that is valued means that is it also chargeable at a premium. 5 Event central/communication – where do players get information on the upcoming event? Usually a call to the pro shop or office, which is valuable time taken away from other things. Ease the burden on staff and free their time by being proactive in your communication to competitors. This should certainly be emails and maybe even a portal as an event hub. Make them feel important and show them you are fantastically well organised for their arrival. Day of play 6 Welcome/registration – the

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8 Play/formats – share the wealth by making it more than one tournament within the event. Individual/team/skins/birdies etc help increase the winners – and everyone likes to win. Change up the format; there is much more than just best two from four! 9 Fast reliable results/ leaderboards – the second pinch point of the day is to get scores out quickly and reliably. There is a

10 Memories/event remarketing – The day has been a great success so use emails and social media with the results and photos to engage with the players. Photos are the new currency for enjoyment; we cannot always win but there may be a great photo of your swing.

Visit demo.golfgenius.com to register for a free demonstration

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CAREERS Advice and news for golf club managers. Plus, the latest jobs from clubs across the UK

On the

MOVE

tephen Nicholson’s project at Oxford was a huge success – his development strategy resulting in a significant increase in membership and revenue. That achievement has now seen him appointed as the new business manager at Haydock Park, in Lancashire, where he will oversee a strategic growth programme. He will manage all operational areas of the club, which was founded in 1877, and will look to implement a strategy to improve the club’s operations, facilities and partnerships while retaining and attracting members. He will hope to repeat the outcome he had at Oxford, where he welcomed around 80 new faces in his first 18 months and made particular strides in the usually hard to reach 18 to 25 category. We asked Stephen above about his new role, his ambitions and Haydock Park’s big plans… You made big strides in the time you were at Oxford, so why did you decide to move on? I was a little bit sad to leave Oxford behind because it was on the move upwards. I definitely left with unfinished business. It was a significant role for me in my life but personal circumstances contributed. I was very excited about what we achieved there but those circumstances led me to look for another opportunity.

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You must have been pretty proud of what you achieved… There’s great fondness and excitement when I think back to where we were when I started and where we came to – not just in terms of the marketing and increasing the business side of it

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In this series, we profile GCMA members who have recently taken up new positions. This month, we talk to Haydock Park’s Stephen Nicholson What did you learn from your time at Oxford that you have taken to Haydock Park? I can prioritise my time better, and particularly at the start. What we did really well at Oxford was marketing but what we didn’t do so well was actually finish off some of the compliance things that we needed to. I found that I was just nudging things forward all the time, where some of the areas when I started were a bit of an issue. Going into Haydock Park, my focus has been on getting those compliance things sorted. For the first six months, that’s the priority for the business and what I am going to deal with. It’s prioritising my time better for the benefit of the business rather than when I went into Oxford, from a sales and marketing background, and scaling that back a little bit in light of the experience of being a golf club manager and everything else that goes on and around it.

but also sorting out the stuff at the back end that nobody ever sees, whether that’s electrical safety certificates, or health and safety plans. I wish the club really well and I do plan to go back and take part in one or two of their annual events in the future.

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What attracted you to the club? The board of directors painted a very good vision for me of what they are trying to achieve. They are investing £50,000 a year into capital expenditure projects for each of the next four to five years. It’s a total, and decent, spend of £200,000 to £250,000. That has been the basis of a fiveyear plan to move us forward and that’s really exciting. The final part of that is a potential in-fill project, which the club were approached

about in late summer last year, and I’ve started to progress that. We are waiting on three or four potential ideas and plans that could transform our practice area, which is currently just a flat field, into an outstanding facility. Further to that, we could also generate a commercial driving range on the property, perhaps shift some holes around and have a short game academy – all of which would come at no capital expense to the golf club. That’s really exciting and could be hugely beneficial. What would constitute success in this role? In the short term, it is to continue to reinforce the membership. We have had a slight increase this year and we need to continue that trend. The visitor green fees element is very low, compared to Oxford, and there is a tremendous amount of potential there. We’ve started the process of getting more visitor bookings in and we have just introduced member tee time booking as a trial. That will help us know who is playing, when they are playing and we can open out the tee sheet and yield more on price for visiting golfers. If you have recently moved jobs, why not tell us about your career progression and your new club. Email editor Steve Carroll at s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk

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The Golf Club Managers’ Association delivers a recruitment service for golf clubs to advertise management vacancies.

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PRACTICE Advice on golf club management issues â€“ from finance to clubhouse rules and employment law

Golf course management:What should

YOU KNOW?

n 2015, BIGGA were invited to work with the PGA and GCMA to build a qualification for golf club managers. The Diploma in Golf Club Management is being delivered to a growing number of golf club managers, professionals and greenkeepers. The question why should BIGGA be involved was raised and the simple answer is that better qualified and educated managers would be of greater benefit to our members. From the outset, it was never

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BIGGA’s intention to give golf club managers the knowledge and skills to do the greenkeeper’s job. This is a highly skilled and technical role and club managers have more than enough on their plates! We set out to give managers sufficient knowledge to understand the reason why the essential maintenance tasks are carried out and what the effects are of not doing them, outlining course policy documents and the fundamentals of data collection, recording and their use in benchmarking. It is also

important to remember that the green staff manage the biggest asset at the club and this requires considerable knowledge of health and safety legislation, water and equipment management to name a few things. I’m going to cover two of these areas: two essential maintenance tasks and the advantages and disadvantages of Turf Management Performance Data. Essential Maintenance Tasks Aren’t they all essential?

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BIGGA, along with GCMA and PGA, are a key part of the delivery of the Diploma in Golf Club Management. In this article, Stuart Green, head of member learning, reveals a basic guide to how course managers operate Yes, but some are more than most and some are, shall we say, more disruptive than others. Firstly, let’s look at mowing. This is fundamentally the most important task, yet it’s not the most essential and I’ll come to why that is in a moment. Golf is played on a variety of closely mown surfaces, with each one requiring mowers to be set to different heights of cut. The mowers will also have different cutting mechanisms, such as cylinder, rotary or flail.

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Let’s look at cylinder units for putting greens – as these will be the most commonly used on areas that require a greater need for precision. A putting green is where a golfer, allegedly, will play most of their shots in a round of golf. It is the one area where the ball must roll across the surface in a smooth and true fashion. So the putting green is the area that requires the most intensive preparation. Cutting heights on putting greens are generally around the 3 to 6mm range.

This will depend on a number of factors: Grass species Soil types Type of golf course Type of surface required Equipment available for maintenance Note I haven’t mentioned speed at this point as that raises a number of questions, some of which I will cover later. There are two types of mowing equipment that will cut the green

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at these heights – a pedestrian cylinder mower and a ride-on cylinder mower. The main difference for the ride-on equipment is that it has three cutting units. But the really important part is the cylinder itself. For the greenkeeper to achieve the quality and height required the cylinder must have more blades on it. Usually, this varies between 11 and 14. At this point, more blades do not mean a better cut as there are other factors that need to be taken into consideration, such as the speed of the cylinder and the forward speed of the mower. The action of the cylinder can be likened to a pair of scissors as, to cut the grass, the cylinder needs to have something to cut against and this is the bottom blade. This fundamental operation requires precision and sharpness. If

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not, then surface performance will decrease, as the end of the grass will be ragged, resulting in a less smooth surface. A damaged plant will allow opportunities for disease and pests to attack. As I said, this is a greenkeeper’s most important task, yet it is probably the most stressful thing we do to the plant. Grass naturally wants to grow tall, procreate and produce seeds and we take away its ability to do that. However, it adapts to this environment we create but we need to carry out further tasks to keep it from dying and performing for us. Next is aeration. This is a word that all golfers dread when they see it announced! Putting holes in the surface, taking cores out or blasting air into it, are considered to be the worst thing for the golfers, yet it is the most essential task greenkeepers can do.

Pop quiz time: What does grass grow in? If you said soil, you’d be wrong. Grass grows in the air spaces between the soil particles. Imagine the soil as a mixture of golf balls, marbles and small ball bearings. The plant cannot grow through any of those elements, so the roots work their way through the spaces between them to find water, nutrients and provide the plant with stability. However, because of all the maintenance tasks we carry out and golf being played on it, those air spaces get squeezed out and that impedes the uptake of nutrients and water, drainage and rooting. This results in wet playing surfaces, drought intolerance and a weak grass plant, which again is prone to disease and pest attack. So this is why we aerate. Aeration is best carried out all

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year round, except in periods of drought, water logging or frost. In fact, it is best carried out in the growing season as the surface recovers very quickly and the plant is able to take advantage of the lovely air channels that have been created. The advantages and disadvantages of Turf Management Performance Data (TMPD) Wow! This sounds complex. Why is it important? Well, I was once told:“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else!” Do you actually know what you have at the golf course? Have you ever heard comments such as “the greens were faster last week!” Or heard that the greenkeeper should be sacked because the greens at so-and-so club are better than here? In any business, if you don’t know what you have you can’t set goals or targets for improvement, or expect the people to deliver a product if they do not know what is required. In this day and age, we need everything to be measurable to ensure we can gauge improvement or decline, identify great or poor performance and publicise the successes. Is it me or are we on feedback request overload? Anyway, TMPD is about gathering data on the performance of, for this article specifically, greens but it can be used across the course. So what should a golf club be looking at? Initially, the golf club should audit what they have. Start with a baseline. Do you have any historic data, reports, plans or photos that can give you a picture of what has gone before? Then look at the soil profile: Thatch levels Root development

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Soil type and its characteristics Soil analysis results Drainage It is always said that what happens under the turf dictates what goes on the surface and that should never be forgotten! You will need to look at what’s on the surface, in terms of grass species composition. This is the cause of much debate in greenkeeping circles, but at this point it’s what you have and, as long as you have some, you can work with that. Then you can look at the performance of surface: Smoothness and trueness – how well the ball rolls across the surface Firmness Moisture levels Some of you may have noticed I haven’t mentioned green speed. This is a contentious issue. Reports have clearly stated that faster greens do not make for enjoyable golf and actually increases the length of time it takes to play a round. So there are a number of questions that need to be asked before we use green speed as a metric: What is your golfer demographic? What are the contours of the greens? What are member expectation? What is your golf course maintenance budget? There is a correlation between the height of cut and how much money will need to be invested to maintain the greens. The lower the height the more inputs are required Available manpower and equipment Now I’ll mention the word: stimpmeter. This is a wonderful

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tool when used correctly but, unfortunately, it has been used all too often to beat greenkeepers. It is important to remember that a stimpmeter is not the most accurate tool available and the results should be used as a guide to assist – not to sell or punish. The speed of a putting surface will change throughout a day. This will depend upon factors such as maintenance practices, environment and, of course, the weather. Therefore, if using green speed,

or to give its correct title Ball-Roll Distance, then setting a realistic range for the green staff to work to is fundamental. I cannot stress that enough! As a once great sage is quoted as saying: There is more to life than increasing its speed – Mahatma Gandhi. In this article I have covered just a small part of what is delivered in the Diploma in Golf Club Management. I hope this has piqued your interest? I hope to see you in class soon!

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About the Diploma in Golf Club Management Representing a fundamental shift in the approach to professional education in golf club management, the three partner organisations of the Golf Club Management Partnership – GCMA, BIGGA and PGA – combined forces to create the ASQ L5 Diploma in Golf Club Management. Suitable for, and open to all levels of skills and experience, this accredited golf specific qualification is perfectly suited for existing managers, and those looking to move into the profession. The Diploma can be studied at a student’s own pace, over a maximum of three years, to accommodate the varying schedules of working managers, or aspiring industry professionals. With an emphasis on flexible learning, it is delivered through a combination of online and face-toface workshops. Training and education that has been previously undertaken, and is relevant to the qualification, can be recognised through a formal process in order that course work is not unnecessarily repeated. The Diploma covers all the core skills required to manage a golf club, and notably as an ASQ externally quality assured qualification, visible on the framework of regulated qualifications. To find out more about the Diploma, visit gcma.org.uk/diploma/faqs

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Partner Network The GCMAâ€™s Partner Network supports the associationâ€™s work to professionalise the industry and promote a culture of excellence in golf club management. Thank you to all our partners who continue to support the association.

strategic partners

business partners

official suppliers

gcma.org.uk/partners

From the

HELPDESK This month: Tipping, GDPR and... recognising a captain who has died in office? Does the GCMA have any views on how Government plans to regulate tipping for workers in the hospitality sector might affect your members and the way they operate? The GCMA is in favour of the proposed regulation as it only serves to formalise what we believe every golf club should be doing. The GCMA will not condone any club who does not pass the full value of tips received to their staff. We are not aware of any clubs, that are members of the GCMA, who do not pass on all tips to their staff and are therefore confident that any new regulation will have little effect on future operations. Our captain died earlier this month while in office. A member thought it was protocol to add letters as an abbreviation after his name on the captain board to recognise he died while in office. During the history of our club we have had two other captains die in office, but we don’t have anything on their boards to recognise this... I think that as the club has already decided, whether consciously or not, that the two previous captains did not require any additional letters there is a tradition already established.

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Presumably the reasons for establishing it, if there are any, are still relevant but whatever you decide to do you should do the same for all three and agree that that is the policy going forward. Do you have some definitive advice guide lines for disabled people using buggies on course, when conditions are so poor they need to stay on paths? Consult the policy drawn up by England Golf and NGCAA which can be found on England Golf’s website. Can you please provide me with the GCMA guidance on the matter of publishing member directories, telephone numbers and so on? Unless you can get the explicit consent of all the members who will have their details published then you will be in breach of GDPR. The best way around it is to have the details password protected, by the latest encryption, and accessible only to members on your website. The problem with a paper diary is that it is not secure and could be obtained by anyone (and used for a cold calling campaign trying to get bank details for instance), if a member lost it, so it is best to go down the password route.

GDPR says that personal data shall be: ‘Processed in a manner that ensures appropriate security of the personal data, including protection against unauthorised or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage, using appropriate technical or organisational measures’. You can refer to this as the GDPR’s ‘security principle’. It concerns the broad concept of information security. This means that you must have appropriate security to prevent the personal data you hold being accidentally or deliberately compromised. You should remember that while information security is sometimes considered as cybersecurity (the protection of your networks and information systems from attack), it also covers other things like physical and organisational security measures. You can find this here: ico.org.uk/for-organisations/ guide-to-the-general-dataprotection-regulation-gdpr/ security/ Obviously, a paper diary cannot be protected against accidental loss! An online helpdesk offers an advisory service. Visit gcma.org. uk/members

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Grass

ROOTS All the latest news, views and interviews from across the GCMAâ€™s various regions in the UK

My success story...

HEATHER MULLEY Enville have taken the message from The R&A’s Women in Golf Charter to heart. General manager Heather Mulley tells Steve Carroll what they’ve done and what the impact has been...

he R&A’s Women in Golf Charter demanded a fundamental change in the culture of golf clubs in a bid to increase the number of females both playing and working in the sport. “Creating a product that families together want to experience from clubs will be the catalyst to take golf forward for the next 50 years,” said chief executive Martin Slumbers as he unveiled the governing body’s motivation, and vowed to plough £80 million over the next 10 years into the project, at a launch event last May. “If we don’t change, then we will suffer the consequences. “We have to encourage everyone involved in golf to play their part in this change.” If The R&A wanted to find themselves a club that had embodied that desire, and the ethos at the core of the project, then it is to the West Midlands that they should head. For Enville have taken the message to heart, and they have been doing all that they can to bring more ladies and girls into the Stourbridge club. Enville, under the stewardship of general manager Heather Mulley,

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hosted the Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship in 2017 – an event that gained the huge support of members and the local community. On the back of that tournament, they launched the Enville Ladies Academy in a bid not only to try and increase membership at the club but also to try and grow ladies golf generally. “Membership of the academy was open to any lady who was 18 years or above,” explained Mulley. “No previous golfing experience was necessary and equipment was provided. “The aim of the academy was to bridge the gap between having lessons, and beginning to play, to joining a club as a full member. “Having spoken to lots of ladies who have taken the first steps, and have started lessons, this could be a daunting process.”

“These are only small things I know but all, I hope, help to promote and encourage the Charter and all it represents”

The academy offered its members a structured process with which to get into the sport. They had six group lessons with Enville professional Rich Copsey and 10 individual lessons. They could use the practice facilities whenever they wanted, as well as the clubhouse and were also handed the members’ bar benefit card. They could set events and play in full competitions and had a ladies’ section member as a mentor for the full year. With that mentor, academy students had limited use of the course at off-peak times and were also given guidance on the etiquette, rules and traditions of golf. The academy began with 13

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Sponsors of My Success Story

The Ladies Academy sessions have been hugely successful at Enville

beginners and the scheme is now about to go into its second year. Five of the first year group are looking to take on full membership and Mulley is hoping there will be a new intake when the Academy opens again this month. “The board of directors at Enville are very keen to support the Women in Golf Charter,” she added.“We are constantly looking at ways to support this and I hope our Ladies Academy goes some way towards a beginning. “We were due to host an event for women working in the golf

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industry, and particularly women managers, but were beaten by the snow last year. “Hopefully, a regional meeting using Enville as a venue will be organised again some time in 2019. “I was also very pleased to begin the Diploma in Golf Club Management last year with the full financial backing of the board. “These are only small things I know but all, I hope, help to promote and encourage the charter and all it represents.” The reaction from those involved in the academy class last year was

hugely positive with testimonials raving about the welcoming and helpful atmosphere, as well as the quality of the instruction. One said: “I have met some very lovely people and it has been a great experience. “I would recommend the Academy to any ladies thinking about of taking up golf.”

We want to hear all about the success stories at your club. Get in touch by emailing s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk

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From the

REGIONS LONDON & HOME COUNTIES Assistants’ Meeting, Tuesday, January 22 St George’s Hill, Surrey London & Home Counties region, together with their colleagues at Chiltern & Home Counties, held their second Assistants’ Meeting in the glorious surroundings of St George’s Hill. Twenty assistants, ranging from Parkstone to Verulam, attended to hear from three speakers and get the chance to network and share ideas.

between service in the UK and the United States. It was a very interesting and absorbing session. Prior to lunch was an open session where every kind of subject was discussed and many ideas were circulated. In the afternoon, St George’s Hill course manager Chris Gosden took the attendees out onto the course and an insightful hour saw lots of discussion regarding bunkers, heather regeneration and greens speeds, among many other topics. The course walk was cut short

Regional Managers Full details at gcma.org.uk/ regions Chiltern & Home Counties

David Cook East Anglia

Gary Smith East Midlands

Rod Savage London & Home Counties

Maureen Brooker Midland

Rob Wormstone Norfolk

John Barnard North West

Neil Annandale Northern

Peter Jobe Northern Ireland

Jim Cullen Scotland

Bernard Flockhart South East

Gary Peddie, the host club’s secretary for the past three years, opened with an excellent presentation on his experience and detailing the three most important people at a club: you, the member and your team. John Davies, the retired secretary of Surrey Golf Union, followed up with a presentation on service. He spoke about service to your members, training staff to give service and the differences

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as the temperature fell drastically outside and, an hour later, snow started to fall. The afternoon concluded back in the warmth of the Harry Colt Room with an extended question and answer session where everyone put the world to rights within their own clubs. Thanks to St George’s Hill, Gary Peddie and his wonderful team, and John Davies for giving up so much of their time.

John Edgington South West

Karen Drake Southern

Paul Gaylor Wales

Mike Rees Wessex

Alex Taylor Yorkshire

Cameron Dawson

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