The Golf Club Manager: October 2020

THE GOLF CLUB

MANAGER ISSUE 40 | OCTOBER 2020

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

US: SPECIAL FOC OK WE TAKE A LONAL AT PROFESSIOT AND DEVELOPMENSSS WELLNE

INDUSTRY

IS IT TIME TO REIN IN DISTANCE? ARCHITECTS WEIGH IN ON THE G R E AT G O L F CO U R S E D E B AT E GRASS ROOTS

‘COVID-19 WON’T STOP US’

WHY BOYCE HILL REFUSE TO BE D E R A I L E D B Y T H E PA N D E M I C THE INTERVIEW

THE FORGOTTEN RYDER CUP HOST? RICHARD KILSHAW’S MISSION TO RAISE THE PROFILE OF S&A

E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E ‘

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CONTENTS ISSUE 40 | OCTOBER 2020

GCMA

BEST PRACTICE

04

Welcome from the CEO

34 Making yourself more ‘placeable’

08

How we plan to develop education and CPD

38 How to thrive in a crisis

INDUSTRY

GRASS ROOTS

14

57 The club that won’t let Covid alter their plans

Is it time ro rein in distance? Architects think so

THE BIG INTERVIEW 16

Southport & Ainsdale’s Richard Kilshaw

16

38

57

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 Tom Brooke - tombrooke@gcma.org.uk GOLF MANAGEMENT RESEARCHER Jim Cunning - jim@gcma.org.uk FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Lianne Banks - lianne@gcma.org.uk COMMUNICATIONS EXECUTIVE Marie Taylor - marie@gcma.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Julie Knight - julie@gcma.org.uk PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Gavin Robinson- gavin@gcma.org.uk BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER Craig Cotterill - craig@gcma.org.uk PRESIDENT JR (John) Jones 2020/22 CAPTAIN Dave Carlisle BOARD OF DIRECTORS Brad McLean, Amy Yeates, Andrew Rankin, Judy Barker, Stuart Leech, Gareth Morgan, Ed Richardson 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 CONTENT DIRECTOR Dan Murphy - d.murphy@sportspub.co.uk EDITOR Steve Carroll - s.carroll@sportspub.co.uk CHIEF DESIGNER Andrew Kenworthy - a.kenworthy@sportspub.co.uk DESIGNER Emmi Parry - e.parry@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 40 | OCTOBER 2020

THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE GOLF CLUB MANAGERS’ ASSOCIATION

S: SPECIAL FOCU WE TAKE A LOOKAL AT PROFESSION T AND DEVELOPMEN WELLNESSS

INDUSTRY

IS IT TIME TO REIN IN DISTANCE? ARCHITECTS WEIGH IN ON THE G R E AT G O L F CO U R S E D E B AT E GRASS ROOTS

‘COVID-19 WON’T STOP US’

WHY BOYCE HILL REFUSE TO BE D E R A I L E D B Y T H E PA N D E M I C THE INTERVIEW

THE FORGOTTEN RYDER CUP HOST? RICHARD KILSHAW’S MISSION TO RAISE THE PROFILE OF S&A

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

ON THE COVER: Southport & Ainsdale’s Richard Kilshaw

WELCOME

ISSUE 40 | OCTOBER 2020

M

y first month has been an incredibly busy, but extremely positive experience!

It’s been great getting to know everyone within the HQ team at Bristol, as well as spending quality ‘Zoom time’ with the Regional Managers and Board Directors.

We really have got a great team of people who are so passionate about what we do and really focused on supporting the future of our organisation.

Thank you to everyone I’ve spoken with so far, for your very warm welcome and the useful insights you’ve shared. I’ve got a lot of notes to work through!

So on to a couple of key topics that are front and centre of golf club management at the moment: Firstly, Covid-19 and the complexities local lockdown restrictions and the confusing ‘Rule of 6’ have put in front of us. While the current pandemic continues to cause so much sadness worldwide, we must thank our blessings our industry has been permitted to remain open and is flourishing. Moving into the winter, we really must think carefully about how we continue to service the hugely increased level of demand we’ve been experiencing since reopening in May. It will be interesting to see how this continues to progress.

Secondly, preparing for the launch of the World Handicapping System on November 2. I have always been an advocate of a

system that allows a handicap to ‘travel’ more effectively and that is one of the key benefits of the WHS. I am sure you’ll be aware, there have been concerns surrounding GDPR and the transfer of member data to the central system. We will continue to work with the Home Unions throughout the launch and implementation process but, most importantly, will support members in successfully implementing the new arrangements.

This month, our magazine focuses on Professional Development. If you read my article last month, you may have picked up this is something I am particularly passionate about.

We’ve got fantastic people involved in this area, including Board Director, Andy Rankin, and Professional Development Manager, Gavin Robinson.

Professional Development is going to play a huge role in the GCMA’s progression as we evolve in the months and years ahead.

We’ve got some extremely exciting plans under way and I hope this issue provides you with some inspiration and insight.

Tom Brooke – Chief Executive

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GCMA Everything you need to know about what’s happening around the UK in the world of the GCMA

GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS

What does the future look like for education

AND THE GCMA?

W

hen we think of education, what comes to mind? Hours spent looking at whiteboards?

A classroom environment? Tests and exams? Perhaps it brings back memories of schooldays. Perhaps the prospect of putting yourself through learning programmes doesn’t appeal. But if these kinds of feelings have held you back from developing your skills and knowledge, it’s time to reassess.

For Continued Professional Development (CPD) couldn’t be more important and, in these strange times, maintaining and enhancing what you can offer to your club, members and visitors is vital.

CPD keeps you up to date. It educates you about the latest trends in the management profession as well as helping you to stay ahead. This was never more seen clearly than during lockdown when GCMA webinars with industry experts gave managers crucial help, advice and information on what to do when the club doors were closed and how to prepare for their reopening.

While the Covid-19 crisis is far from over, our Professional Development Manager Gavin Robinson is pressing ahead – evaluating and developing the Association’s offering to ensure it continues to maximise its impact.

It’s been a frantic time for Robinson, who came into post in February and quickly

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found himself reacting to an unprecedented situation.

But while dealing with the pandemic, he’s also been busy looking at what the GCMA already offers in terms of professional development – in particular the Principles in Golf Club Management and Diploma in Golf Club Management qualifications – and how they can move forward.

We caught up with him to get an idea of what could be coming in the near future…

Professional development is obviously a key part of the GCMA’s ethos and you’ve been doing a lot of work in the short time you’ve been at the Association. How has that gone?

The first six months were a question of looking at the existing portfolio of products the GCMA had before I arrived and evaluating whether that was sufficient going forward.

It was looking at whether there were individual products that needed developing or if new products needed to be added to make sure we were meeting the needs of professional development.

Our main course is the Principles of Golf Club Management and it is well recognised within the industry.

It’s a great starting point but I recognised that it needed to be developed and modernised. That process is almost complete and we now have a fantastic new online version which is proving very popular.

We did the first of those at the

end of July and the beginning of August and we’ve received really good feedback from both delegates and presenters.

It’s different. It’s more convenient for a lot of people. It may never replace a face-to-face education experience but it’s certainly a good option to have going forward.

When you talked about ways you might develop the Principles course, what did you have in mind?

We have brought in a couple of new modules and have given the course more structure and clearly defined purpose. GCMA have always had a very clear idea of what skills and knowledge are required for the role but that develops and changes over time.

We have worked closely with Colt Mackenzie McNair, who are at the vanguard of golf industry recruitment, in order to determine what the key areas of professional and personal development for Golf Club GMs are and to be able to offer that within the Principles Course.

With that in mind and given the current situation, we’ve brought in Wellbeing as a module within the Principles course and, hopefully going forward, into the Diploma as well. We believe that we are the first of the Professional Associations to do this and it highlights our commitment to the subject. We are very excited to have a complete module devoted to psychological wellbeing, understanding what it is and how

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The way the Association provides learning opportunities to members is changing and these are exciting times for Professional Development Manager Gavin Robinson

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it relates to the role of a Golf Club GM. It considers a lot of issues, such as social responsibility, dealing with an ageing population and spreading knowledge of the subject within the golf club and into the local community. It’s a big subject, a modern subject, and we aim to equip our golf managers with the tools to make a positive impact in combatting any negative effects it may have.

Turning to the Diploma, the gold standard qualification for golf club management, would you be looking at similar developments?

The Diploma has developed along the Ofqual guidelines. It is an accredited Level 5 Diploma and, through that, you have the guarantee of quality of knowledge.

It does have to go through quite rigorous requirements to make sure of that guarantee and there is not that much flexibility in its current shape and form.

We want to work with our partners – the PGA and BIGGA – to continually monitor, review and develop the Diploma and try and make it as user friendly as possible.

It is currently blended learning with a combination of face-to-face opportunities, which take the form of workshops, and distance learning.

The next induction day is October 28 and that will be held virtually. For me, that was almost a barrier to entering the course (previously) – having to actually physically go to an induction day.

There are good reasons for doing that but we want to make that course as accessible and easy to complete as possible – without diluting the academic content and the quality of the qualification.

It can be developed and improved.

I think we can certainly market it a lot better and help it receive the industry recognition it deserves.

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An area of opportunity could be the further development of CPD courses for managers who have done, or don’t want to do, the Principles and Diploma courses…

This is going to be a major area of our focus going forward. It’s those bite-sized chunks we talk about – where people recognise they may be lacking certain knowledge or skills – and we need to have the short courses available to fill those gaps.

General managers are busy people.

They have busy weeks, a lot of people to talk to in their day-to-day role, and we are conscious of that.

We want to make it as flexible and accessible as possible to help them get the knowledge they need.

This would ensure their professional development becomes continuous. It almost becomes part of the normal weekly, monthly, and yearly pattern that is built into their schedules.

We’re in discussions with a number of third party training providers who provide an extremely broad range of high quality professional development packages, which can mostly be delivered online.

You’ve been travelling down this path to an extent already, for example with the weekly webinars that were held during lockdown…

That’s correct. The weekly webinars during lockdown were responding to the needs of the members at a certain time. It was a time of crisis really, where managers were pretty much left alone in the golf clubs.

There was a real need at that time for accurate and up-to-date information: best practice, knowing what’s going on in other clubs and what solutions other managers had, and getting that information out to them as quickly as possible.

We would hope to develop that going forward and get the current

topics out to managers in that accessible format. We’ve started a regional professional development webinar series, which has been developed with Chris Mills of Manchester Metropolitan University and England Golf.

The subject matter is “Member retention – the pathway to Volunteer”and it is research done

by Chris as part of his Phd. It is a time when golf clubs have got a lot of new members and

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we’re very conscious as an industry that we want to hold on to those members wherever it is possible.

We know there are redundancies coming but if we understand the journey of a new member, and integrate them into the golf club as quickly and thoroughly as possible, there’s a better chance that we are going to keep them long term. Four of our regions Scotland, Northern Ireland, Norfolk and London & Home Counties -

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have already had the opportunity to view the presentation and the other 12 counties should see it before the end of September. We would hope to repeat it later in the year and hopefully bring it to a National audience of GMs. What’s the overall aim for professional development?

The overall aim is to provide our members with an industry leading CPD programme which will enable

our General Managers to meet the continually changing needs of the role by engaging with us in a variety of different delivery formats to suit their resources and time constraints. This, in turn, will hopefully place our members at the pivotal person within their clubs and an important influence in the wider community. We are confident that we can achieve this and aim to improve that offering on an ongoing basis.

GCMA.ORG.UK | 11

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

GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS

In the

LOOP

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

Time to rein in distance? Course architects think so Ninety five per cent of golf course architects surveyed by a leading organisation believe the game’s governing bodies need to take action to reduce hitting distances.

In a survey of their members conducted by the European Institute of Golf Course Architects (EIGCA), three quarters of respondents believed increasing ball flight lengths and advances in equipment are diminishing the skill of the game.

courses around the world. ”The most eye-catching result is that 95% of respondents agreed that action needs to be taken to reduce hitting distances,”says Christoph Städler, President of the EIGCA.“The vast majority of respondents (75%) believed that increasing ball flight length and advances in equipment technology are diminishing the skill of the game which is leading to a simplification of golf course

Welcome to our newest GCMA members Craig Gale, at Ferndown Forest, in Wessex region Kieran McCabe, at Helsby, in North West region Allison McColl at St Neots, in East Anglia region Sian Gover, at Camberley Heath, in London & Home Counties region Andrew Hillel, at Hartsbourne G&CC, in Chiltern & Home Counties region Colin Thomas, at Maesteg, in Wales region Iain Yule, at King’s Lynn, in Norfolk region Raluca Parjol, at Aphrodite Hills, in Cyprus Gary Stevenson, at Crondon Park, in East Anglia region

And nearly nine out of 10 considered that driving distances should be reduced by 10 to 15 per cent. The EIGCA has sent the responses to The R&A and USGA as they grapple with the issues in their Distance Insights project.

Some of golf course design’s biggest names - including Ross McMurray, Tom Mackenzie and Paul Kimber - gave their views on a range of factors related to increased hitting distances from their perspective of designing golf

14 | GCMA.ORG.UK

strategy. 88% of respondents considered a reduction in driving distance of between 10% and 15% would be appropriate.”

The Distance Insights project has been billed as one of the most important debates in golf’s future but has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

Last month, The R&A and USGA revealed the releasing of research We want totohear fromphase you! topics related the next of the project will would happen next March.

E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

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The interview...

RICHARD KILSHAW Southport and Ainsdale’s general manager is a man on a mission to let the world know about the club

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E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

Y

ou only entered the industry five years ago and now you’re the general manager of a very wellregarded club that’s hosted two Ryder Cups. Do you pinch yourself at your rapid rise?

Very much so. I count myself extremely lucky that I have been given these opportunities. To manage an historic ex-Ryder Cup club that’s held numerous R&A events – I do pinch myself.

You were previously a civil servant for 25 years and took the GCMA Principles course in 2014 to gain a grounding in golf club management. How important was that week in establishing your subsequent career?

It was very late for me to start, at 45, and I’m 51 now. I am glad I grabbed the bull by the horns, I really am, and the GCMA course was invaluable to me. I learned an awful lot. It was also great to meet people with the same goals as me and to network with people.

I think there’s a picture of me on the GCMA website, with the Clifton bridge behind me, with the group that I attended the course with.

I’m glad I did the research about the GCMA course. I always do my research before I undertake any task or implement any processes. I research and ensure it is right and that’s the case in whatever I do when putting processes in place.

What is it about your particular skills then – what you bring to a golf club from a management perspective – that has helped you move so quickly through the ranks?

I try and think about what a member would want to hear and what a member would appreciate. I’d like to think I’m

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approachable, and not just for members but for staff as well. I believe in good communication.

I’d rather members, staff and so on know about their club and the business than not know. To me communication is key. I like to keep people updated.

I’ve got the experience of being a member, a scratch golfer, of being a captain, of being the chair of a council at Chorley. And I’ve got the experience of being in the public sector and dealing with people.

I used to go out and inspect properties and so I’ve always had that element of dealing with people one-to-one.

It sounds unusual for a manager to have served at every stage

18 | GCMA.ORG.UK

of the club process. As you say, you’ve been a captain, a committee member and chair, a volunteer at tournaments and now a golf club manager. You’ve seen the golf club environment from every side…

I think I see the full 360 – that’s the way I see it. I also like to think that I put everything into it, with regards to that experience.

Everything is a learning process and I see it as obtaining new skills.

For example, while I was at Fulford, we held the R&A Girls’ Under-16 Amateur Championship and that was my first proper involvement with The R&A. I loved it. From the meetings with The R&A five or six months before the event, putting a time

framework in place, getting the infrastructure in place, ensuring all the I’s and t’s were dotted and crossed for players coming over for practice rounds, working with the board on timetables for volunteers to ensure all the catering was right, the bar service, making sure everyone worked as one, it was a great learning experience.

Do you think then – given your background – that you understand the point of view of committee members because you’ve been on the other side of the table – so to speak?

You’ve asked the questions they are now asking you…

It’s going back to the 360. That’s where my experience, as serving

E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

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as a volunteer, puts me in good stead. I used to go up at 8pm for a meeting on a Monday night at Chorley.

It was drenching with rain and I lived 13 miles away from the club, but I did it. If you think about it, I wouldn’t be sitting here now if I hadn’t – and not to blow my own trumpet – had that dedication to the members.

The members voted me on, like any committee, and so I’d like to think that I’ve done something right.

Tell us about Southport & Ainsdale…

It was established in 1906 and it’s a James Braid design found on the famous England’s Golf Coast. It sits along the network of courses from Royal Lytham in the north to Royal Liverpool in the south.

It’s a great test of golf and has a lot of history. It’s held a lot of qualifying events for The R&A and ladies’ championships but we are famous in the 1930s for hosting two consecutive Ryder Cups on these shores – in 1933 and 1937. The latter was the very first occasion an away team won the Ryder Cup. The course has evolved, as every one does, and a couple of years ago golf architect Marc Westenborg redesigned the 1st and 18th.

There are great vistas and it’s just a classic Braid design. I do feel like we are forgotten sometimes as Southport & Ainsdale.

When people come here, what do they find? What keeps them here?

It starts from the moment they park in the car park, with the welcome in person in the pro shop, and we now have a meet and greet – our golf coordinator who will meet all the parties and

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make sure everything is to the visitors’ satisfaction. . There’s top class catering. It’s an excellently presented and challenging golf course.

You just feel that warm experience – ‘I really enjoyed that day and felt special’ – and that’s what we are endeavouring and driving to provide here.

By fortune, or misfortune, you’re in a golden area for golf with Hillside and Royal Birkdale as your immediate neighbours.

The competition is immense and so is your role to try and gain the club the recognition it deserves?

I’d like to think so. I’d like to increase the profile of the club. A lot of visitors don’t realise S&A’s history.

They ask,‘did you host the Ryder Cup?’ and we are in the process of increasing our profile with regards to marketing.

We’ve had flyovers and a video of the course just done. That has been done by members and that’s great because they want to have input and contribute to the course and the club.

We have got a great relationship with our counterparts along the England Golf Coast.

We all work together, and I think that’s fantastic. Some people think you wouldn’t do that, as competitors along that line, but that’s not the case.

We are all part of England’s Golf Coast and we contact each other to ask how we’re all getting on.

During COVID we have held Zoom meetings to discuss various matters and especially how we can work together with visitors playing our respective courses.

Such networking and discussions I have found invaluable.

We all usually have a get together, as managers. For

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example, in March the managers and head greenkeepers play a competition and I think that networking is fantastic.

It’s all about ‘What are we doing?

Can we help each other?’ It’s wonderful.

You’ve got a waiting list at S&A and so people locally know all about the club.

How do you get the wider public to cast their gaze this way – when their focus might naturally fall on clubs like Royal Birkdale because of The Open?

It’s all about hard work and increasing the profile of S&A. I’m going to start sounding like a stuck record in that respect.

But it’s also about enhancing our reputation through social media – with twitter, Facebook – and getting images and video out there.

Golfers like to see before they buy, that’s the same in any walk of life, and that’s why we are putting together this promotional video.

A member of the club Gary Gillespie, the former Liverpool player, did the voiceover for us, which I am extremely grateful for.

It’s fantastic. We have members with licences to fly drones and produced the flyovers.

We have developed a Ryder Cup room, which shows all the history and memorabilia from the two events we hosted.

I had one visitor who said that ‘along with Royal County Down, this is the best memorabilia golf club I have seen’.

That Ryder Cup room is a real treasure trove and reveals stories about some of the greatest players to have ever picked up a club…

Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, Henry Cotton – some fantastic icons of

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the game. They make the game what it is today.

Moving forward, we’re offering what I hope will be a Ryder Cup experience.

Have you had to change the nature of the club at all?

Outsiders might perceive S&A as a quite private, very traditional, club but to get that increased profile you would, by necessity, have to open up?

I don’t feel that. We’ve changed a few things operationally since my arrival and we are a traditional club. But we are a welcoming

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club and when we release our new marketing literature, and our videos, you’ll see that.

We are a warm, friendly, and welcoming golf club that also has traditions. That’s very important.

There’s a drive in some quarters in golf to remove those traditions – and that will work for some clubs – but how important has it been for S&A to maintain its essence?

It’s very important and it’s the same ethos for my counterparts.

We’ve got a good mix of members: young, colt, 40s, 50s and retired.

You’ve to respect everybody but it is important to have that tradition.

We have a Captain’s presentation on a Sunday and it is collar and tie.

That’s a nice tradition to keep, as well as trying to move along with the times and evolve.

We’ve had to adapt. During these Covid times we have produced takeaways, which the membership has been fantastic in supporting.

There’s another idea that the big-name traditional wellestablished clubs couldn’t be harmed by something like Covid-19 – a sense of ‘you’ve

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Richard Kilshaw Richard Kilshaw has been a golf club manager for five years after serving as a civil servant with HMRCfor a quarter of a century. Now a member at Hillside, with a handicapof 1, he had previously been at Chorley where he was captain in 2004and served on the council and was also previously a chair. Amember of the greens committee at Hillside, he self-funded a GCMAresidential course at the end of 2014 and was appointed manager of Prenton, on the Wirral, in 2015. After two and half years there, he moved to Fulford in York, where he spent a year before getting the job of general manager at Southport & Ainsdale last year.

Southport & Ainsdale Southport & Ainsdale are a key part of the famed England’s Golf Coast.

Best known for twice hosting the Ryder Cup in 1933 and 1937, they have also staged a host of prestigious professional and amateur tournaments, including the British Ladies’ Open and Amateur Championship. Astrong test of golf, Southport & Ainsdale are a fixture of top 100 ranking lists.

been shut, but you’ll get through it’. Has coronavirus proved a challenging time for S&A? Yes. I can’t deny that. But I’d like to complement the board here at Southport & Ainsdale and the finance structure they implemented prior to my arrival.

They put together a sound base looking ahead to any circumstances that occurred, obviously like Covid-19.

When we closed down in March, it was a reset button. I’ve basically gone into the business and looked at every cost and stripped it back.

We’ve tried to utilise as many

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grants as possible – Business Rate Relief was a huge factor for this golf club because it was nearly £45,000.

But, with regards to utilities, to insurance, to laundry, Sky, we have pressed the button and reset.

We’ve done a great job.

It’s not just me. It’s my assistant manager Lesley (Thompson), it’s the staff and the board.

I find it interesting that the wider golf community might assume clubs like yourselves would be fine.

You’ve clearly got a sound base to cut the cloth where you’ve

needed but the assumption in the crisis is that it’s been the smaller clubs that have needed to do that. Yet the challenge has permeated throughout the industry…

Massively. It was great to see membership numbers at other golf clubs increase.

At Prenton, (my first club as GM) they have a waiting list. I still keep in contact with them and that’s absolutely superb.

We haven’t seen the need for that here, but it has given the board and I a chance to stop and evaluate. That is what we’ve done.

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It has been an opportune moment to do that - if a positive can come out of Covid-19 for this golf club.

Our subscription year was right in the middle of lockdown and 99 per cent of the membership renewed, which is a testament to this great club.

You’ve clearly had a successful start to your tenure. How are you going to build on that in the next six months to two years as we, hopefully, emerge from the pandemic?

It’s working on a Southport & Ainsdale experience for the members and for staff – because they are such an asset to the club as well.

I am always keen to help develop staff and I will aid in any learning and development opportunities that may arise and help them in their respective careers. It is something which I/we are looking at currently during the upcoming winter period.

It’s also about an experience for visitors. We want them to think ‘that was brilliant, we really enjoyed the whole day’. That’s what I want to do.

I want to just build. I believe you can improve every year both on and off the golf course.

We’re always looking for improvement and I don’t believe in staying still.

I’ve embraced that throughout my career, I think I’ve proved that in the last five years, and it’s great to have the staff on-board with that.

I had it at Prenton, I had it at Fulford, and I have it at Southport & Ainsdale. They’re engaging with me and I really appreciate that.

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E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

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Learning and Developing

PROFESSIONALLY

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espite an extraordinary year that has thrown up many new challenges, the GCMA continues to evolve in order to maintain its relevance to golf club managers.

Professional development is part of this evolvement and forms an integral part of the membership offering at national and regional levels. As the GCMA Board member responsible for professional development, I have been working closely with colleagues on the board and at HQ, in particular new GCMA CEO Tom Brooke and Professional Development Manager Gavin Robinson, so that the GCMA can continue to provide support and prosperity for its members.

Below, I highlight some brief thoughts and ideas that inform a culture of learning and related values that form the basis for professional development at the GCMA. The Learning Landscape The management and leadership of golf clubs takes place in a sport and leisure industry that is changing due to wider environmental influences, be they social, technological, ecological or otherwise. The golf club and its environment continues to be subject to changing trends including:

Increased competition driven by a market supply and demand imbalance;

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GCMA board member Andrew Rankin reveals the culture of learning that will form the basis for the Association’s plans for professional development

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The growth of ‘nomad’ golfers; Changes in golf club committee and member attitudes demanding an increasingly professional approach to golf club management; The golf, sport and leisure sectors becoming increasingly professional as a result of tertiary education provision and career opportunities; A refocusing of golf clubs as commercial as well as social enterprises where members are also seen as customers; The effects of changes in law and regulation such as privacy rights and GDPR.

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Professional Development In order to adapt the golf club and its business sustainably, golf club managers need access to a network of peers as well as a programme of learning opportunities that enables professional development.

The GCMA continues to evolve its education and training offering into a practically orientated Professional Development Programme (PDP) that is flexible, focused and modern with ensuing benefits to members and the GCMA. In evolving and adapting our offering, thought

has been given to concepts in the learning landscape and their implications for best practice in PDP design and experience.

There is an acknowledgement that members develop practical knowledge or ‘know-how’ throughout working careers and that professional development is unique to each individual.

An objective of the PDP is to identify and develop knowledge, skills and behaviours that are professional, modern and relevant to members as practising golf club managers.

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Knowledge It is the know-how inherent in decision-making that is associated with the notion of being ‘professional’, where competence means the ability of achieving something with precision and certainty. In this context, whilst technical knowledge may enable action, know-how is intrinsic in action and gained from the ability to learn from experience.

Skill and Decision Making Golf club managers are judged by actions – effective actions reflect

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an individual’s ability to make informed decisions. There is skill involved in making decisions in management and leadership.

Skill is an ability that facilitates and is inherent in solving problems over and above a command of technical knowledge.

To be skilful is to understand a body of knowledge and employ techniques creatively and flexibly in making decisions.

Developing skill and decisionmaking is at the centre of the PDP and underpins a competent – proficient - expert pathway

characterised by an individual’s ability to recognise and resolve issues in practical situations.

Competence, Proficiency and Expertise Competence is characterised by routine or ‘rule bound’decisionmaking.

Progress beyond competence depends on an individual’s motivation and ability to adopt an increasingly holistic approach to practical situations.

This in turn leads to proficiency.

Proficiency is characterised by semi-

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automatic decision-making where situations are thought of more deeply and issues in practical situations are recognised more quickly.

Expertise happens when the decision-making and situational understanding becomes intuitive rather than analytical. Expertise occurs as a result of significantly more experience combined with developed decision-making processes that are fast and accurate.

The relationship between speed and accuracy of thought and the resulting effectiveness of action are of central importance in expertise.

The ability to analyse, decide and act in a timely, accurate and effective manner requires automatic responses and decisions.

This expert ability reflects an individual’s capacity to perceive quickly and accurately ideas received from the senses.

A general description of skill can be modelled as follows: Competent: sees actions partially in terms of longer-term goals, conscious deliberate planning, standardised and routinised procedures; Proficient: sees situations holistically rather than aspects, sees what is most important in a situation, perceives deviations from the normal, decision-making less laboured, uses maxims for guidance whose meaning varies according to situation; Expert: no longer relies on rules, guidelines or maxims, intuitive grasp of a situation based on deep tacit understanding, analytic approaches used in novel situations or when problems occur, vision of what is possible.

The Learning Environment

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Culture and Values In a service setting the knowledge, skills and behaviours of managers (and staff) are an important asset to organisations such as golf clubs.

The better and more forward thinking golf clubs recognise this and encourage professional development as it benefits both individuals and the organisation.

From an Association perspective, the GCMA recognises that even where a professional development culture is strong, the motive may be on preparing for organisational change or career development rather than improving the quality of individual practice.

At times there can be an issue in the continual focus on new knowledge that remains distant from personal experiences and therefore never fully understood and owned by the learner.

The potential of work related learning in professional development is often underestimated.

The objective here is that golf club managers reflect on practice in light of experiences in a collegial way.

There are also a range of other factors that affect the learning experience such as publications in various media, practical experience and people.

Publications may be readings, databases or case studies. People may be sources of knowledge and experience, such as tutors and mentors. Colleagues may provide perspectives, support and motivation.

Learning from practical experience depends on what is perceived, on time devoted to reflection and making sense of and linking experiences with knowledge.

The Benefits of Professional Development

It is the intention that benefits will occur to members resulting from engagement in the learning, advancing and practising of a body of specialised knowledge, skill and behaviours.

Another objective of the PDP is to authenticate professional claims with positive reputational benefits to individual members and collectively as the GCMA. In this sense, the organising and advancing of professional development opportunities, the

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GCMA are refining knowledge, skills and behaviours as well as protecting the integrity and standards of golf club managers in a meritocratic manner.

Another objective of the PDP is to create a learning culture within the GCMA whereby members become professional learners.

It is hoped that as members understand more about the way they approach and manage their own learning, they will be better able to assess and meet their

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needs whilst creating interests with peers in the wider GCMA community.

The success of individuals and the PDP will require attention to the coordination and support of a range of factors including: Access to a variety of learning approaches; Access to face to face and online learning; Learner time for study, consultation and reflection;

Learner support; A system of valuing learning; A system of capturing a learner’s professional development.

The benefits to members engaging with professional development will likely be both intrinsic and extrinsic.

It is hoped that, whilst economic imperatives may often prevail, all will be pleasantly surprised by the inherently rewarding nature of learning and growing‌

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How to make yourself

PLACEABLE

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hat steps do CMM undertake to evaluate a candidate initially?

CMM are very thorough in their candidate evaluation. When going through the process for a particular role the candidate will speak to two and sometimes three of us before being presented to the client. We ask competency based questions that are in line with the skills the client needs, as well as questions based around soft skills to see if they would be a good cultural fit for the client. We don’t just look for a perfect answer, we

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need to hear credible examples of success. When asking questions, we also like to listen to the language they use and their reactions.

A candidate’s communication throughout the recruitment process is also a good indicator.

Prompt, consistent communication, and regularly asking insightful questions, immediately separates placeable candidates.

We use matrixes to measure people’s skills sets to ensure that our evaluation is consistent for all candidates. Therefore, if candidates make clear their strengths, they can be assured it will be recognised at our end.

Throughout the screening

process, our consultants pick up on a candidates weaknesses. When the next consultant screens them, they are briefed to pressure test these areas. Clients understand that no one is perfect, but we are looking for somebody who is always working to improve themselves.

How do you monitor the candidate market on an ongoing basis?

To understand what is going on in the candidate market we constantly reach out to connections. Whether that be candidates or previous clients to see what they are currently doing in terms of personal and

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Ticking boxes on a job description is one thing, making yourself an attractive candidate is another. CMM senior consultant Michael Herd looks at how to make yourself ‘placeable’

© Kevin Murray

professional development, roles they may be looking at, how they are doing in their current role and what their future plans are. Humans are unpredictable and constantly changing their thoughts and actions, so it is important for us to continually have these conversations.

We also monitor social media and industry news very closely – there are often really insightful pieces of information on these platforms.

LinkedIn has become a key platform for us, and is really helpful for us to identify thought leaders and active industry professionals.

Similarly, industry news sources like Golf Business News are helpful to

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see who is doing prominent work in the sector.

We obviously also have a large network of contacts, who we talk to on a regular basis, and it’s a good sign when we hear an individual’s peers talking highly of them. If somebody is popping up across all those platforms, it’s a good sign!

The industry is also usually aware of the organisations or clubs that are performing well. Not every one can run the best clubs in country, but being able to point to specific objective successes is a huge plus.

What are the basic steps candidates can take to make

themselves more ‘placeable’?

There are things candidates can be doing to become more placeable, although these are often personal to each candidate. However, there are some really basic activities you can be doing to become more placeable, one of them being your CV/covering letter.

Hiring managers read through hundreds, and are normally frustrated that the formatting is haphazard or the content is hard to follow. We want to see clear and concise information showing credible examples of what you have achieved in your previous and current position. Strong communications, a good attitude

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© Kevin Murray

with integrity and good selfawareness all go a long way. They are tougher to measure as they are less tangible but the smaller details are normally picked up on by hiring managers.

We love to hear of candidates who undertake their own mystery shop of the hiring organisation to help them understand how the business is currently being run. How would they improve it?

Identifying, and acknowledging, one’s strengths and weaknesses demonstrates good self awareness and humility.

Candidates should always be building their network, as well as their personal brand. It takes time, but becoming known for your specialisms, by the right people, will always lead to further opportunities.

In an interview situation, presumably candidates

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shouldn’t just assume their abilities are a given?

Never assume you have got the job before you interview.

Always prepare, even if you are really confident or have been told it is a ‘formal exercise’. Do your research on the company.

Look at their social media and website, research the people who you would be working with and learn about the interviewers. It is important that you can display your knowledge on the company, as doing your research shows the hiring manager that you care and have taken time to prepare. A good attitude is something hiring managers love to see.

When it comes to preparing for an interview, you should always know your strengths and areas you need to develop as well as having relevant examples of how you have achieved something.

Research the organisation’s vision, and align it with your experience.

If a company explicitly states their future plans, demonstrate how you can support those plans.“I see you are looking to implement X. In my previous role at Y I delivered a similar plan, which has Z effect on the business”.As long as it’s true, it’s a compelling argument!

Interviewers love to see passion and enthusiasm.

Being overly relaxed often betrays that you think the job is already yours. Hiring managers are looking for people who clearly really want the job, as they are more likely to deliver and put their all into it.

How important is it that candidates keep you up to date on their personal development?

For us, personal development is something everyone should be doing and if a candidate keeps us informed it is only beneficial for them. It helps us gain an understanding on what they are

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trying to improve and what they are good at, meaning when we have suitable positions they are the forefront of our minds.

It also shows us which candidates are actively bettering themselves, which also gives us a good indication of who is taking their career seriously.

Seeing that someone has undertaken personal development is an easy way for us to identify a good general attitude, as it underpins their wider experience to make them a more rounded candidate.

oblivious to that then you are more of a potential threat to an organisation than if you are aware of your weaknesses. Being aware allows you to improve and develop and, therefore, become a strong professional. On the flip side, being unaware means, you are likely to keep failing in that area which could be to the detriment of your employer. Being honest about your weaknesses also shows any future employer that you have good integrity, which everyone wants in an employee!

© Kevin Murray

It’s also not always about the specific course or training that you’ve undertaken. Your development doesn’t have to be directly related to the role you’re applying for, but it demonstrates the right mindset, and an eagerness to grow, which will always be viewed positively.

Some people might be wary of flagging up potential weaknesses, but presumably that’s a key step in personal development?

No one is perfect and everyone has weaknesses. If you are

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improve in an area you aren’t sure about, think about shadowing people. For example, do a shift in the bar if you are the assistant GM and don’t understand the F&B area of the business.

Remember to look outside of your organisation for opportunities to develop. When we’ve seen people who have volunteered their services to learn about a new area, we’ve always been particularly impressed.

What are the key traits that

© Kevin Murray

Individual self-awareness also often leads to team members pro-actively helping each other to develop, which contributes to a strong company culture.

What examples of innovative personal development have stood out for you?

I know of people who have gone out of their specific industry to improve on their skill set. For example, going to acting school to improve their public speaking.

I love this approach, as it is a skill that lots of people need but often aren’t good at. Closer to home, to

make a candidate immediately stand out to you?

Asking intelligent questions that are clearly based on prior research and due diligence, and sharing credible experiences with proven examples.

Also, dressing smartly for a meeting - even on a video call and being polite go a long way.

In terms of specific traits, conveying gravitas, and being confident yet humble, are three huge ones, which aren’t easy to fake.

Finally, someone who actually heeds, and actions, any advice we give to them!

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How to thrive

IN A CRISIS Marie Taylor unpicks the hallmarks and lays out practical tips you and your team can take

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hen our environment seems to change every day, never more so than in the midst of a pandemic, there is more potential than ever for people to be tipped into a state of crisis – and there are any number of things that can be the cause.

It might be a mental health crisis, identity crisis, an accident, a lawsuit, a family disruption or the loss of a job or loved one.

Crises can also be caused by positive experiences too. Most people would consider the birth of a child to be a blessing, or a marriage to be a time of joy. But sometimes that can initiate a crisis too.

In this article, we will explore the steps you can take in a crisis and the route to turn it around.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE FACED WITH A CRISIS When crisis strikes, there are a number of states we go through as we try to process what is happening. These include some of the following…

Shock The first thing that happens is a person goes into a state of shock.

People report a sense that things

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are surreal. They experience the feeling life is turning into a movie they are watching. They also experience a brain fog and thinking becomes difficult.

Shock is a difficult thing to describe. It’s the feeling of stasis and the more you resist the worse it gets.

Some crises, though, don’t allow for the luxury of sitting still, particularly if it involves immediate danger. We’ll consider a four-step plan to tackle these circumstances later.

But if you are not under immediate threat, the way to deal with that initial shock is through stillness.

The body needs an intense amount of focused presence and stillness in order to deal with the flood of hormonal chemicals that put you into fight, flight or freeze mode.

It’s not possible, in that state, to deliver sound judgement and objective decision-making.

So when you’re in shock, you’ll need to resist all your urges and powerfully do nothing.

Reactivity This is a self-preservation strategy.

You may succumb to knee-jerk reactions and follow a pattern of behaviour that worked successfully at some point in the past.

A person who has learned the best way to defend themselves is to fight back will immediately get

defensive, agitated, and will get into more fights and disagreements.

A person who has learned to take responsibility is going to react by immediately blaming themselves. When we are reacting, we are not accepting what’s happening. We are proactively resisting and trying to come out of the crisis situation unscathed. This resistance, or refusal, to accept makes it a time of extreme frustration, anger and heightened anxiety. If you find yourself in that moment of reactivity, the most effective way through it is to recognise that it is happening. There is an intense polarisation between the part of you that’s trying to protect yourself and that which is trying to mitigate or minimise.

Meaning An obsession with the ‘meaning’ of a crisis is still a version of a refusal to accept what has happened.

It rests on the belief that if you could fully understand it you could in some way prevent or mitigate the consequences.

When searching for meaning you’ll become obsessed with finding out the truth (the could’ve, should’ve, would’ve).

In this phase you’re going to want to tell your story as many times as you can so you can grasp

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the meaning of it. If you don’t feel like you have a confidante to talk to, writing it out or keeping a journal instead is the next best option. It’s also a time when people start bargaining: Maybe if I can change my bad habits? Maybe if I can do better? This is an attempt to understand and therefore gain control over the experience that’s making you feel so out of control.

Acceptance and processing Accepting is different to what

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most people think. You start to realise that once you can’t prevent something, you can only take proactive steps from where you are now. You are also accepting that it involves some degree of pain.

To accept does not mean to like!

When swallowing the reality and validity of something, typically people start confronting their feelings of powerlessness relative to the situation. Once acceptance occurs, and a person levels with the reality of what’s happening,

defence mechanisms start to diminish. A person focuses less on the story, and trying to understand, and mentally switches to what they can do about it now. They also start to let go of what doesn’t make sense to hold onto anymore.

What can I do with what I have now?

Reorientation When the world takes all the cards and throws them up in the air, the reorienting phase is when they get

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organised in a whole new form.

This is the critical phase when re-imagining a “new normal”.It’s the finding of a new sense of direction, deciding which cards you’re going to play next, and this phase is the most fun.

Even though when you look back you’ll see this phase was difficult, you’ll also see how it made more of instead of taking away from you.

HOW TO MOVE THROUGH THESE PHASES

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It’s critical to understand these phases and how to move through them relative to a crisis. If any of them are resisted you could get stuck.

Some people do get stuck in long-term shock. They get stuck retelling their story, or trying to find the meaning phase, so they never reach a place where, deep down, they accept what has happened.

This is why all the mainstream mental health campaigns encourage people to talk and be open about what’s going on for them.

What this means is we have to face any resistance to any of these phases, allow them to occur, and relax in the knowledge that whatever phase we are in right now, it will pass.

But you can’t skip a step.

The good news is you are hard wired to survive a crisis and you will get through it. The concept of thriving in a crisis is a concept you use so that whatever you face becomes woven into the tapestry of who you are becoming. It needs

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to add instead of diminishing you.

HOW TO REACT BEST IN A CRISIS WHERE YOU NEED TO RESPOND IMMEDIATELY Once you’re out of immediate danger these four steps are the first to take. Please note, if you are in danger you won’t get this ‘right’.

Mistakes will be made and that’s OK. Step 1 Diaphragmatic breathing: take breaths as deep as you can. This

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means breathing into your lower back, filling up to the bottom of your rib cage. This helps you mitigate panic, because panic stops you from prioritising well.

Step 2 Get the situation under control: prioritise people over property and call emergency teams depending on the crisis you find yourself in.

Step 3 Analyse: What happened, what

happens now, and what happens next? Have you experienced anything like this before? What did you learn then that you can use now? What can you do in the next minutes, hours, and weeks?

Think through any unintended consequences of a course of action you decide to take now. There may be a domino effect.

Step 4 Act in alignment with your values.

In a crisis everyone wants relief.

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This can mean the desire for relief causes you to look at things that don’t align with what is important to you. You may compromise your ideals or the things you value.

Stick to your morals and conscience and only take actions now that won’t keep you up at night in the future. If in doubt choose the moral high ground.

PUTTING YOURSELF IN A POSITION TO RESPOND WELL Leadership and your ability to

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thrive in a crisis is built upon being able to regulate emotionally. In a crisis, that means lowering your stress response in the situation you’re in so you begin functioning from your rational objective mind and using your intuition.

All crises have an element of surprise. You are hard wired to react so you can’t stop it unless you are aware of it.

Practice noticing when you are reacting. If you resolve the reaction you are having internally, this lowers stress and allows you to respond better.

Three ways to reduce reaction: Breathe in for two counts, hold for four, out for eight, and no breath for two before you repeat the process.

Seek out deep touch – squeeze your forearm and/or your ankle. This calms the overall charge in your nervous system. You can also grab a blanket and wrap it tight. This sense of containment is a way the nervous system tries to naturally sedate and bring down stress chemicals.

Bringing the knees to the chest also has the same effect.

Create resources for yourself.

Good sleep: Regularly playing the same piece of music or calming sounds, just before you go to sleep, will train the unconscious part of the mind (associated with learning and behaviour change) that these sounds signal it’s time to be sleep.

After a short time, your brain will automatically associate the sounds with calmness and sleep and become a tool if insomnia strikes.

Explore: While you’re planning your response, look at the recipe or ingredients that constitutes the crisis with which you are dealing. What’s the expectation that’s been unfulfilled or what’s the attributed of the unsuccessful communication?

If these options fail to create calm, it could be you have a

deeper unconscious wound from the past that this latest crisis is triggering. In these circumstances a therapist or coach can help you overcome this. A local Master Practitioner of NLP or Time Line TherapyTM will give you someone who can help you efficiently but gently move forward.

Simplify When you’re faced with a crisis, get anything unnecessary off your plate. If the crisis is in your club, focus on what you can do right now (and delegate the rest). But take one thing at a time.

Practice taking things off your plate: What can you do to stop thinking about it?

What goals can you put on the back burner?

What daily chores or activities could you pause or remove from the to-do list?

What appointment can you cancel?

What have you said yes to that you need to back out of?

Now list things that require your focus. For some, this will include daily exercise. For others, doing daily exercise will feel like pressure.

This list will be unique to you and will change as you move through your situation.

Marie J. Taylor is Communications Executive at the GCMA and a Master Practitioner of NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) and Time Line TherapyTM. If you are in a crisis, or if you or any other person is in danger, you can get immediate help from: Samaritans – Whatever you’re going through, a Samaritan will face it with you. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Call free on 116 123.

Or call emergency services on 999.

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Terms and Conditions apply. The Fairway Credit / GCMA membership fee offer – Membership fees will be paid to the GCMA for up to 1 year, either remainder of current year or full fee for 2021. Offer open to managers of clubs who arrange for their club to join ( including re-join) Fairway Credit, in 2020 (acknowledging that renewal of 2020 memberships may already have occurred in 2020 but will use Fairway Credit for 2021 renewal). - Offer open to current GCMA member or for a new member joining GCMA. - Maximum fee covered £275. For more information contact us.

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‘Behind the scenes there are

DEEP CONCERNS’

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Coronavirus has had a huge impact on greenkeepers and, reveal BIGGA, it’s more vital than ever that your teams get the help and support they need

G

The Rowbottom family with John, pictured left, at Woolley Park

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olf clubs are enjoying a spike in players this year and there have been many stories about golf clubs increasing their membership.

When the UK began to reopen after lockdown, the sport of golf was one of the first to get back up and running thanks in part to a unified approach from various bodies including the GCMA, The R&A and BIGGA. Golf clubs reopened because these bodies and others had worked sensibly and with expert knowledge to operate safely throughout the heightened restrictions and had presented a unified case regarding how the game could be played in a safe manner. Played outside, with no physical contact between players and strict regulations on contact points, golf was an ideal candidate to get the world moving again and fingers crossed that has paid off, with no horror stories about clubs being hit with the virus.

Within the greenkeeping team, course managers and head greenkeepers who had grown accustomed to managing staffing, budgets and long-term planning found themselves back out on the course as golf clubs utilised the Government’s Job Retention Scheme – on average, each club furloughed more than half of their greenkeeping team.

For head greenkeepers at smaller clubs who go about their regular daily business with tiny budgets and resources stretched, that may

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The greenkeeping team at work at the Hero Open at Forest of Arden

have meant just an extension of their usual duties. But for anyone else, the shift was devastating.

From a career dedicated to making golf courses as picture perfect as can be to being told to leave areas to go unmanaged, many found it incredibly difficult. And the highest levels of the game were impacted just as much as the lowest, with Royal St George’s course manager Paul Larsen seeing his plans for the year switch from the hosting of The Open to merely trying to keep the fairways in manageable order.

“I had good and bad days, but I was so busy that I didn’t have time to think,”said Paul.“I was working 11 hours a day and when I got home, I had just enough energy to cook for myself and then I was knackered and slept like a log.

The hardship for me was I wasn’t with my lad, Elliott. He lives with his mum and I wasn’t able to see him. We speak on the phone every night, but it was hard not being able to see him.”

When lockdown was announced and golf facilities went into stasis, the clubhouse lights were switched off, caterers stopped ordering supplies and turned off equipment and pro shops

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closed. You can’t put a golf course into stasis, though, and the greenkeepers kept working, often alone and for extended periods. Others were furloughed and at a time when they are usually gearing up for the busiest period of the year, they were stuck inside, home schooling children or finding other ways to pass their time. For a group of people who are used to working in the outdoors and who care deeply for the course they present, it was incredibly difficult and groups such as the Greenkeepers Mental Health Group have reported increased activity.

John Rowbottom is head greenkeeper at Woolley Park in Yorkshire. He said:“Having a young family stuck at home and me having to work most of the week was one of the toughest things.

My daughter is five and my son is two, so having school, nursery and that routine taken away was difficult for them. Home schooling was difficult and my wife took on a lot of the responsibility, but it was difficult not being there to help every day.

“I have grown up in a family business where working every day

is normal to us. For those periods when I was furloughed, to have to shut down was tough mentally.

I’m an outdoor person who enjoys working, so after a week of no work I was beginning to climb the walls. I really felt for some of my team who experienced this for a lot longer.”

You’ll have heard the phrase ‘essential maintenance’ a lot since March and that defined what work greenkeepers like John could complete during lockdown. It meant greens could be mown a maximum of three times per week, while fairways and tees could be managed just once a week. That sounds like it would remove a lot of the burden for those working, but when you have only one or two staff on an entire golf course, it remains a massive amount of work.

Since lockdown eased, those maintenance restrictions have been lifted and golfers are expecting courses to return to normal, with little awareness that at many clubs, the important income stream provided by the Job Retention Scheme has meant clubs haven’t returned staff from furlough as quickly as you may expect.

Essentially, at the height of summer

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greenkeepers have been expected to provide regular playing conditions with fewer staff, reduced resources and ongoing requirements regarding social distancing.

Put bluntly, that’s just not possible and if your course is looking and playing well at the moment, then the greenkeeping team need praising because they’re doing an amazing job.

Sadly, that work hasn’t always been appreciated and during this summer the narrative quickly switched from how glad people were to be out on the course to the loss of jobs and greenkeepers’ fears about providing for their

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family. Calls to the horticultural charity Perennial and BIGGA’s own charity, the Greenkeepers Benevolent Fund, increased exponentially. BIGGA staff are dealing with increasing numbers of members encountering hardship or asking for guidance through employment disputes. The sun may be shining and golfers may be golfing, but behind the scenes, there are deep concerns.

Some clubs had the added challenge of the European Tour’s UK Swing, the Rose Ladies Series and other major events. It took 17 staff seven weeks to take the Forest of Arden from ‘essential

maintenance’ standards up to European Tour standards for the Hero English Open. That’s a superhuman effort and most clubs won’t be able to get anywhere near that standard, nor will the resources even be in place to achieve that.

“What can I say, panic set in straight away and I’ll never forget it!”said the Forest of Arden’s course manager Rob Rowson.

“But I must say, my team did a fine job, together with support from other golf clubs in the surrounding area. My thanks go to everyone involved in making the event the success it was.”

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Clockwise: Social distancing at Royal St George’s, Rob Rowson and Aidan Williams at Forest of Arden, and Colin Webber shows his appreciation for the NHS alongside his dog, Nelly

Greenkeeping isn’t just about mowing the grass. We’re not going to insult your intelligence by telling you that. As a pro-active club manager, you know that there’s so much more that goes into the maintenance of a modern golf course.

But what distinguishes those golf clubs that are recovering well and those who are struggling?

There are clearly a number of differentiating factors, but a well-educated and professional greenkeeping team is chief among them. Key to that is giving your team access to networking and educational opportunities,

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such as those provided by membership associations such as BIGGA. Not only is it morally right to look after your staff, but membership of an association and promoting a culture of professional development at your club is a way to support them in a cost-effective way that means you retain your high-quality staff and the course continues to operate at the standard your members have come to expect.

Membership of BIGGA provides your greenkeeping team with access to a global network of industry experts and opportunities to develop their own knowledge

and experience, often at little or no cost. On a personal level, they also gain access to legal advice and financial support if they encounter hardship.

Will the post-COVID golf boom last? The economy is taking a hit, so your members have less money.

The Bank of England has estimated that unemployment will hit 7.5% so job cuts are happening.

The same forecast says GDP will be 5% down at the end of 2020, taking a year to recover to pre-pandemic levels. When those members who signed up as the sun shone during June and July get their renewals notice early

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John Rowbottom and his daughter on the Woolley Park course back in May

next year, will it be seen as a luxury they feel pressured to do without?

“This is harvest time,”BIGGA President and Portmore Golf Park owner Colin Webber wrote in his August column for BIGGA’s monthly journal, Greenkeeper International.

“But when winter arrives it won’t last and the key thing is to focus on surviving through until the next summer, the next harvest.”

The question is, when renewals come up next April, what will people look for?

Golfers rate the course condition as their number one priority when choosing where to play. As The R&A states,“the mark of a good golf course is one that: caters for a desirable level of play throughout the year… provides fair and consistent playing surfaces… sits

52 | GCMA.ORG.UK

inclusively within the local natural environment and adds to the landscape of the vicinity”.

Costs should be saved, there’s no denying it. But no one person has access to all the answers and active membership of BIGGA gives your greenkeeping team a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips.

Sustainability is the buzz word – every expenditure needs to be justified and balance sheets should be just that, balanced.

For the small expense of BIGGA membership, your golf club gets a whole load back in return.

“At Chippenham we’re enjoying a surge in membership,”said the club’s course manager, Chris Sealey.

“Some are students, who’ve had the summer off, while others have joined because there’s been no rugby, football or cricket and the

gyms are closed.

“What will be key is whether we can retain those members when renewal notices go out next April.

Things may be busy now, but next year’s renewal rate will have a big impact on what the club can achieve going forward.

“BIGGA has made me a better greenkeeper and it’s more important than ever before to be a member of the association. It’s going to be so important going forwards for golf clubs to have greenstaff that are razor sharp and educated. We’re all going to have to make ourselves stand out from the crowd if we’re to flourish and thrive.”

To find out more about BIGGA and the benefits of membership, head to www.bigga.org.uk

E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

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

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01275 391153 | marie@gcma.org.uk

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS

From the

HELPDESK This month: Locker room surveillance, hard hats and... can you recycle golf balls?

Is VAT payable to HMRC on buggy hire income?

Golf Buggy income is classed as Additional Income by HMRC and is subject to VAT at 20%.

Do we have to file a RIDDOR report for golf ball strikes on the course? Our assistant pro was hit by a member...

It all depends on the injury sustained, please read the list of reportable injuries on the HSE website: hse.gov.uk/riddor/ reportable-incidents.htm What action is the GCMA taking over HMRC’s proposal to exclude golf courses from buying red diesel?

We have, through an industry response facilitated by the Sports & Recreation Alliance, taken part in the government consultation. We have informed the consultation of the increased financial burden that this will place on golf facilities, especially during these difficult times.

We have had a spate of locker room break-ins. What are the views on CCTV or small surveillance cameras in locker rooms to catch the culprit?

Quoting from a previous GCMA library document on CCTV:“The covert monitoring of [members]

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can rarely be justified.

Do not carry it out unless it has been authorised at the highest level in the club.

You should be satisfied that there are grounds for suspecting criminal activity or equivalent malpractice, and that telling people about the monitoring would make it difficult to prevent or detect such wrongdoing.

Use covert monitoring only as part of a specific investigation, and stop when the investigation has been completed.

Do not use covert monitoring in places such as toilets or private offices unless you suspect serious crime and intend to involve the police.”

Issues might begin to arise if you intend to keep the cameras there after the culprit has been caught.

This article can found in document 8045 in the Information Library.

Visit http://www.gcma.org.uk/ library/8045 Should greenkeepers be wearing hard hats while they operate mowers? If so, is it a legal requirement?

It is for the club to address the risks that could result in greenkeepers being injured before introducing hard hats.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and current Health and Safety

Regulations both place obligations on employers to protect employees at work. However, whilst there is the Construction (Head Protection) Regulations 1989, there is no equivalent regulation relating to golf clubs.

Regulations suggest recording formal risk assessments with the greenkeeper, especially as Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is advised to be the last resort.

It is worth noting if a greenkeeper was to have as serious accident, there is no doubt that an Environmental Health Officer could prosecute if the risk assessment was not suitable.

This article can be found in document 1200 in the Information Library. Visit: gcma.org.uk/ library/1200/ Have the GCMA ever looked into recycling golf balls?

You will find that local authority recycling programmes and your local recycling centres typically do not accept golf balls (or most other types of sporting balls for that matter). That is because there is no true way to recycle a golf ball at present. However, there are companies that put balls back to use.

An online helpdesk is available at gcma.org.uk/members

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Grass

ROOTS All the latest news, views and interviews from across the GCMA’s various regions in the UK

My success story...

SCOTT CLARK Membership boom or not, there are still plenty of clubs wary of the wrath coronavirus may bring. But, as Boyce Hill general manager Scott Clark reveals, the Essex club are refusing to let the unknown get in the way of their plans

Scott Clark

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A

‘normal’ Monday once meant 40 golfers – now you need to put another digit in front.

A half-century have been signed up as members and all of them have paid a joining fee.

Scott Clark looks back over 16 weeks and can barely believe the numbers he is seeing. The daily average spinning round the course

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at Boyce Hill is more than 170 players. Golf has enjoyed a golden summer. Membership is through the roof. Courses have been packed for months as the UK basks in the world’s biggest golf spike.

Yet the future looks so murky. Is the second wave now on the way, and another lockdown with it? Will clubs have to close their doors once more if coronavirus takes hold in winter?

In such uncertainty, it wouldn’t be

“It was a bold move but we felt it was definitely the right one to make.

It was going to buy people some time to assess.”

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Boyce Hill

too much of a surprise to see clubs acting on the cautious side – to put on hold projects that might spend precious resources should things turn again for the worse.

That’s not how Boyce Hill see it.

“The key factor is looking after the bread and butter that is the core of the membership,” says Clark, who is the general manager at the Benfleet club. “We wouldn’t have been able to sustain anything without the

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membership and it is about making sure they get the best experience.

“It’s making sure we carry on our investment into the golf course. This year, we are committing to in excess of £35,000 to £40,000 of drainage.

“We’ve got a five-year rolling bunker programme. We are not going to let Covid halt our progress in that respect.”

Lockdown came with familiar concerns for Boyce Hill.“Did we have enough time? I don’t think anybody had enough time,” adds Clark.

But the ticking clock meant pressing decisions needed to be made quickly – especially with membership renewals fast on the horizon. The club made a choice that has split private institutions all over the UK, and has filled plenty of column inches since.

They gave their members a month for free. Plenty have warned of the potential folly, arguing that clubs that took this path are storing up a revenue shortfall.

Give it away now, and you have to pay for it next year, so the received wisdom goes. But Clark explains:“It was obviously a calculated risk as, by giving a month’s subscription free, we could compound our problem.

“It was a bold move but we felt it was definitely the right one to make.

It was going to buy people some time to assess their finances and it was one less thing they had to worry about.

“If you grant it, you know where your shortfall is immediately. If we hadn’t and people turned round and said ‘we’re not going to renew until this is over’ you then create yourself a longer shortfall, which is unprecedented, and you don’t know exactly how much money you could be chasing or you could be losing. We know what we were in for and the decision was based on having a healthy enough reserve to make that calculated risk.”

He added:“It was a test to the loyalty of the membership and, as it actually happened, we had in excess of 120 members turn round and say,‘The club supports me through everything, I am going to support the club and I’m going to pay my April subscription’.

“In essence, 25% of that shortfall was paid by the members anyway as, effectively, donating their April subscription to the club.”

Members then responded by

“We’ve got a fiveyear rolling bunker programme. We’re not going to let Covid halt our progress in that respect” committing themselves for another 12 months too – the club coming through that tricky renewals question with a year that was better than average. Would that have been the case had Boyce Hill not made a magnanimous gesture?

“I’m not so sure,” admits Clark.“It might have just forced the hand (of some) and it was so early on in Covid (lockdown) that they would have withdrawn their membership until the muddy waters were clearer.

“We took that decision out of their hands.”

He adds:“We thought ‘we will make a statement of intent to our members that they have the club’s full support. For us, it paid off.”

Seven disaster forecasts later, written within the first week of lockdown, and Boyce Hill knew where their liabilities stood.

Clark cut expenses in half, 80 per cent of the club’s staff were furloughed as the doors stayed shut, and he then set what surely must

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS

have looked like an ambitious target of breaking even throughout May, June and July.

“We were slightly ahead,” he says.

“We actually made a little bit of money in June and that was really through solid cost control and the fact we had a good membership renewal. I looked at the positives (through lockdown). We knew there would be a boom. We knew the quicker we could get open that golf would be the number one thing on everybody’s mind.“ And so while the scenes of full courses, and bar tills ringing loudly in recent weeks, has been a source of relief for some – a chance to

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take stock and ponder what’s coming next – that’s far from what’s happening at Boyce Hill.

Clark and his team have decided it’s the moment to push on. Time to reinforce the club’s place in the minds of members and visitors as leisure activities that have traditionally stolen golf’s thunder in the past, but have been stymied by social distancing, start to return.

“Post-Covid has provided the boost for the golf industry that it has needed for decades,” he concludes.

“It has given us the boom we need to carry on the momentum that’s been created. We can’t rest on that.

We need to ensure the experience

is better than it was before. We’ve got to make sure the product is better than it was before. That’s the only way we are going to ensure people see the value in what they are paying, rather than drift away into anything else. They’ve made a commitment to us – if you are paying £1,000 (joining fee) we have to make sure we are giving value for that. So they tell the next person we are the club to join.”

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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‘How I introduced golf to more than

1,000 CHILDREN’

A successful school taster day

I

f you speak to any golf club manager across the world, one of the biggest challenges facing most golf clubs today is an ageing membership.

In 2018, England Golf conducted a survey of its affiliate member clubs. The survey looked at a number of key areas, one of which was membership.

According to the survey, the average golf club in England

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has a total membership of 484 members. Of those, just over six per cent of the membership is made up of juniors aged five to 17.

If the game is to continue to grow and develop, something needs to change.

We need to come up with innovative new ways to increase the number of younger golfers playing this game. After all, young people are the future of golf.

Over the last couple of years,

developing junior golf has been a key focus of mine and is an area I have had great success in.

One of my greatest achievements to date with regards to junior golf came in 2018, while the club manager of Sale Golf Club.

Here, I successfully developed and implemented a junior development programme which saw over 1,000 school children across Greater Manchester try golf for free.

For many of the children, this was

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Grange Park secretary/manager John Jackson reveals how a focus on junior golf proved hugely successful their first ever time playing golf.

Some of the children came from deprived areas of Manchester and never had the opportunity to play golf before.

This initiative was hugely successful.

A proportion of the children went on to take part in further coaching sessions at after school clubs and some even went on to join the golf club as junior members.

So how did I do it? Here are the three main steps I took to successfully introduce golf to over 1,000 school children across Greater Manchester!

school a free golf taster day. The day would be made up of several smaller taster sessions, aimed at different year groups.

The taster sessions would be fun and engaging and would give the children the chance to try golf. Best of all, they would be free!

However, if I was to be successful with this initiative, I knew I needed to get the buy in of the teachers. I spent time developing

development, honesty and team work.

Step 3 - Contact, contact, contact and don’t give up!

Now that I had my offering and promotional pack ready, I was all set. I contacted over 80 Primary Schools across Greater Manchester, introducing who I was, what I was offering and explained just how beneficial the sessions would be

Step 1 - Set SMART Goals I started off by setting a SMART Goal. My main SMART goal was to introduce golf to over 500 school children across Greater Manchester by the end of August 2018. Having this goal in place gave me a clear focus. I knew what I was trying to achieve and by when.

Step 2 - Develop a Plan and create an offering too good to turn down!

Now that I had my goal in place, I then developed a step-by-step plan detailing how I would achieve it.

I created a database of all the primary schools in Greater Manchester and made note of who the head teacher was at each school.

Once I had the names of the local schools, and knew who I had to contact, I created an offering which was just too good to turn down.

I decided to offer each primary

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John Jackson

a promotional pack, with a front cover which featured children playing golf, laughing, and having a good time.

I wanted to show the teachers that golf is a fun game and the children would love it.

It was also important that the pack was appealing to the teachers from an academic point of view. I detailed and promoted all the benefits golf had to offer the children such as improved fitness, improved co-ordination, maths

to the school children.

The uptake was slow to begin with. Some schools replied and a lot didn’t. It’s important that you persevere and follow up with telephone calls.

Six months later, I had visited 14 Primary Schools and delivered free taster sessions to over 1,000 school children!

For anyone working in sport looking to increase participation and membership, I hope you find this article helpful.

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From the

ARCHIVES We scour the GCMA magazine archives to find out what managers were saying in years gone by Ten years ago Networking is today’s buzzword.

We’re all doing it but, only 10 years ago, some regarded it as an “unnecessary management facet”.

Not so Eddie Bullock who, in a lengthy piece in the magazine, argued against the backdrop of recession that there were ‘no excuses for not maximising every opportunity to strengthen the club’s operational and strategic direction in this ultra-competitive market’.

“A manager’s knowledge needs to include not only what is happening at the moment and what will - or may - happen in the future,” he wrote.“But it must also include the ability and resources to lead the club through such events and circumstances.

“The smartest and most successful managers don’t just know ‘the what’ of that, but they are also particularly knowledgeable of ‘the who’ - if they don’t know the answer or the solution, they have developed the ability to find it through the process of networking which they have cultivated down the years, and continue to develop”.

Networking, Bullock wrote, was one of the most important business tools - whether focusing

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on business operations, personal or strategic. As we’ve learned during the present coronavirus pandemic, it’s more vital than ever.

25 years ago A large feature focused on Marin Yates, the manager of Roehampton Club in London, and shows that tensions over dress

codes have merely travelled down through the decades.

Subscribing to an overall philosophy of balance and fairness, Yates admitted he was ‘constantly holding the ring between different activities’.

“For example, on the subject of dress code,” he said.“All members

share the same bar and restaurant facilities, but the golfers want a collar and tie code and they resent the tennis players coming in in tennis clothes!”

An artfully placed screen of potted plants semi-divided the bar where, at one end, tennis players and casually dressed members would gather while, at the open terrace end, golfers and the like would drink.

50 years ago It might seem unthinkable in today’s point, click, and get whatever information you need as quickly as possible world, but it wasn’t long ago than even the biggest golf tournaments would find their reach somewhat sparser than might be expected.

You’d be struggling, otherwise, to explain why Cecil Morton was given three pages to outline the story of the 1970 Open Championship to readers.

But he gave an in-depth description of each day, right down to the hole-by-hole scores. It was worth it, though, if for nothing else than the beautiful illustrations included by Jack Dunkley - the former Daily Mirror cartoonist who also drew for the Radio Times.

E D U C AT E | I N F O R M | I N S P I R E

Creating solutions in the changing and complex energy markets

Brook Green Supply Guidelines • Version 2.0 • November 2017

Introducing the new GCMA business partner

business partner

Drive your business towards a greener future UK-based industrial & commercial energy supplier 100% REGO-backed electricity and carbon-offset gas EV charging Bespoke energy solutions Tailored energy contracts

sales@brookgreensupply.com Telephone: 07387 174 551

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Partner Network

The GCMA’s Partner Network supports the association’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