The Golf Club Manager: July 2021

THE GOLF CLUB

T H E

MANAGER

O F F I C I A L

J O U R N A L

O F T H E

G O L F

C LU B

ISSUE 48 | JULY 2021

MA N AG E R S ’ A S S O C I AT I O N

THE INTERVIEW

RICHARD WEEKS

ALWOODLEY’S MANAGING SECRE TARY IS BALANCING TRADITION AND PROGRESSION

INDUSTRY

GOLF IN THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

SCOTTISH GOLF’S KARIN SHARP ON MANAGING A CRISIS

BEST PRACTICE

HERE COME THE GIRLS

GCMA MANAGER OF THE YEAR HEATHER MULLEY ON F E MA L E PA R T I C I PAT I O N

EDUCATE | INSPIRE | REPRESENT ‘

CONTENTS IS S UE

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GCMA

BEST PRACTICE

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GCMA Chairman Brad McLean looks back

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Don’t fear the independent golfer scheme

Enville’s Heather Mulley on female participation

INDUSTRY

GRASS ROOTS

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How Scottish Golf kept the game going

Meet Bush Hill Park’s Stewart Judd

THE BIG INTERVIEW 29

Alwoodley’s Richard Weeks

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WELCOME

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 FINANCE ADMINISTRATOR Lianne Banks - lianne@gcma.org.uk PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Gavin Robinson- gavin@gcma.org.uk BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS MANAGER Craig Cotterill - craig@gcma.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SERVICES MANAGER Natalie McColl - membershipservices@gcma.org.uk MEMBERSHIP SERVICES Kerry Spring-Rice - membershipservices@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: 18PLAYERS 2 Arena Park, Tarn Lane, Scarcroft, West Yorkshire, LS17 9BF, UK Tel: 0113 289 3979 | info@sportspub.co.uk EDITOR Steve Carroll - s.carroll@18players.com PRODUCTION EDITOR Justine Board - j.board@18players.com DESIGN Andrew Kenworthy - a.kenworthy@18players.com 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

T H E

MANAGER

O F F I C I A L

J O U R N A L

O F T H E

G O L F

C LU B

ISSUE 48 | JULY 2021

MA N AG E R S ’ A S S O C I AT I O N

THE INTERVIEW

RICHARD WEEKS

ALWOODLEY’S MANAGING SECRE TARY IS BALANCING TRADITION AND PROGRESSION

INDUSTRY

GOLF IN THE PANDEMIC AND BEYOND

SCOTTISH GOLF’S KARIN SHARP ON MANAGING A CRISIS

BEST PRACTICE

HERE COME THE GIRLS

GCMA MANAGER OF THE YEAR HEATHER MULLEY ON F E MA L E PA R T I C I PAT I O N

EDUCATE | INSPIRE | REPRESENT ‘

ON THE COVER: Alwoodley’s Richard Weeks

I S S U E

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’ve spoken with quite a few members recently who are really struggling with workloads and unable to find time away from the club due to a multitude of business and operational pressures. Wellbeing is one of the key focus points for our association and for supporting our members and this is particularly relevant at the moment. I’d like to take the opportunity to remind you we have a number of resources and training aids available through the Skillgate and Perks at Work platforms and we’re also putting on some online Wellbeing Awareness Workshops on July 13th and 20th, which I can highly recommend.

If you’re interested in taking part, please book with Gavin Robinson – gavin@gcma.org.uk. If there is anything else we can do to support you personally, do not hesitate to get in touch with either myself or a member of the team at HQ and we’ll be here to help.

Another key issue is that of environmental sustainability.

We’ve been working with our colleagues at BIGGA and the R&A in recent months to gain a better understanding of issues such as environmentally friendly agronomy solutions and water usage. Many of you attended the GCMA Hot Topics webinar with Jim Croxton from BIGGA and we’ll be looking to put more information and guidance in front of you in the next couple of months. In the meantime, please be prepared that if you are not already doing so at your Club, you will need to have a sustainability plan in place very soon to keep ahead of, or at least on top of, social expectations,

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economic pressures and legislation.

One of the positive outcomes of the pandemic has been the acceleration of the use of technology across many business sectors, including golf. Clubs that never previously considered using online booking solutions have successfully integrated these models, along with online ordering systems for other areas of club operations, including catering. We should never rely too much on technology; hospitality should and always will be driven by people, but if we can use technology in the right way, this will allow more time for our teams to really focus on giving a much better quality of service and far more time for meaningful interaction with members and customers.

Raising these three topics leads me nicely into the 2021 GCMA Conference, where our headline subjects will be: Wellbeing, Sustainability and Technology.

We’re excited to announce this will be taking place in person, between Sunday 21st and Tuesday 23rd November, at Wyboston Lakes Resort in Bedfordshire. We’ll be releasing more details on key note speakers over the coming weeks and bookings will open towards the end of July. We look forward to seeing you for what promises to be a fantastic event, and a much needed social occasion after an incredibly challenging last 18 months.

Tom Brooke – Chief Executive

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Why the GCMA is looking ahead

WITH CONFIDENCE

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lot has happened in difficult conditions because of the pandemic. As GCMA chairman are you encouraged by what you’ve seen?

Absolutely. The association wasn’t floundering but it was just treading water and we knew we needed to make changes. It’s a crowded marketplace. As a club manager, you can look at many different directions, as far as your allegiance to associations, and we brought Tom Brooke in with a clear mandate.

We wanted someone who knew how to run a business and could make sure the GCMA was sustainable into the future, but also somebody who could inspire and have some vision.

Tom has demonstrated that over the last eight or nine months.

We’ve got a very strong board of directors who are running some fantastic golf clubs, have great experience and are forward thinking managers in their own right.

The vision and values work that Tom did very early on when he came here, and his three streams of Inspire, Educate and Represent, sees everything fall under that.

Everything we talk about always comes back to those three pillars and I think they’ve done a fantastic job.

Craig [Cotterill, Business Partnerships Manager] and Gavin [Robinson, Professional

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Development Manager] have done a brilliant job of getting the education and the personal development streams up and running.

We saw some great seminars over the lockdown period – some really fantastic, engaging, different seminars – and, in terms of representation, the links that have been formed with the APPGG and the home unions have really come on.

Tom’s accomplished more in nine months than we thought we’d be able to do in two years.

When you arrived in post as Chairman last year, one of your objectives was that when people thought about golf club management, they thought about the GCMA first and foremost. Do you think that’s starting to happen?

Yes, I do. It always frustrated me beforehand , when we looked at that big high level industry piece, that all the other associations were spoken to first before it came to the GCMA. Then, when I looked at what happened on the ground, a lot of the time GCMA members were the decision makers or the influencers at the club – as far as the committees and boards go.

And yet we were almost second fiddle in those industry pieces and it wasn’t where it needed to be.

Now, Tom holds a monthly call with the CEO of Wales Golf and all the Welsh region members.

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It’s been a year of change at the association and chairman Brad McLean has been there for all of it. He considers the progress made over the last 12 months and looks ahead to the future

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS There is that link directly into the home unions. We’ve made good inroads, and have good links with England Golf and are able to support and push back on initiatives and raise any concerns that our members are bringing.

We’ve made inroads into the R&A and Tom’s had a couple of calls with them, so we’re starting to get that influence going.

We’re an association of club managers. We’re not as big as some of the other associations, nor will we likely ever be, but we feel our members should be some of the most influential people at golf clubs – if not the most influential.

How do you feel about the future of the GCMA? Are you optimistic?

A perfect example is the recent tie up with Under Armour and what the MD of Europe [Richard Palmer-Jones] said. His statement was that when he looked at other associations there was nobody doing this similar type of work and the GCMA stood out.

When we have influential brands of that calibre, who are not engaging with any other associations, coming straight to us and saying ‘we like what you’re doing, and we want to be part of it’, it adds a lot of credence to what we’re doing.

It will continue to help us springboard and to continue to grow what we have. We’re a collection of golf club managers and the education and development of our members is absolutely vital to having these tie ups.

We need to have that representation and that respect from committees and golf club members to realise that we are well trained, well developed, and have good networks.

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Why clubs shouldn’t fear independent

GOLFER SCHEMES

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trong clubs should “back themselves and not worry” about the independent golfer scheme, England Golf’s second in command told managers.

In an update on the new platform in a Hot Topics webinar, Richard Flint, the governing body’s chief operating officer, said giving nomadic players an official handicap was “not competing with club membership”.

Asked whether handing nonclub members a World Handicap System index was taking away a reason to be a member – harming both recruitment and retention – Flint said: “Handicap isn’t the biggest driver of why individuals join a golf club”.

He added: “Whether it’s social, whether it’s community, whether it’s competitive, handicap isn’t the big driver and certainly the insight and data tells us that.

“Of course, it’s an important part of golf club membership from a competitive element. We’re not concerned that this will take away from golf club membership.

“Individuals that want to join a golf club want [to do so] for many more reasons than purely a handicap. But if by offering that handicap to independent golfers we can increase avidness and regularity of play then, from a financial investment point of view, these individuals will see the benefit of golf club membership beyond purely that handicap and regular play.”

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England Golf’s independent golfer initiative will launch later this month and will cost subscribers £40 a year.

As well as an official handicap, players will receive personal liability insurance and access to the My England Golf app to post scores and track their progress.

Golfers who leave a club will have to wait six months before becoming eligible to join the scheme and county and national events will continue to be the preserve of golf club members only.

England Golf hope the scheme will prove to be a pathway into membership for independent players and Flint added: “Those golf clubs that have a strong business model, that have strong governance, that believe in themselves, should back themselves and not worry about this independent golfer scheme.

“It’s not competing with club membership. It’s not intended to.

It’s meant to move people and independent golfers along that golfer journey.

“We understand that some golf clubs have concerns. But those safeguards we’ve built into the system, around the six-month timeline, hopefully will reassure those golf clubs who were a little concerned at the start of this process, that we’re protecting golf clubs but also encouraging golfers into membership.”

Flint reiterated there would be no extra work involved for clubs, with the governing body taking charge

of all the administration and technical aspects of the scheme.

“There will be a dedicated team at Woodhall from both a customer service point of view, but also a technical handicap queries perspective as well.”

Some clubs have insisted they won’t engage with independent golfers at all, eschewing the opportunity to offer discounted green fees or to allow them to enter club or Open competitions.

Asked how they would explain to independent golfers, who had forked out their £40, that a “significant percentage of clubs are not going to accept them”, Flint said: “Golf clubs are already engaged with independent golfers through green fees.

“Independent golfers, particularly those regular golfers, are playing at our facilities across England – so that connection is there.

“Golf clubs are their own businesses and engage with independent golfers on that basis.

We’re not going to dictate what golf clubs should or shouldn’t do from an independent golfer connectivity perspective, and we’re not going to insist on golf clubs offering any discount or anything like that. That is at the discretion of each individual golf club.”

But clubs that did want to engage with non-club members through England Golf’s scheme would be able to do so, whether that was through offers or green fees, through a microsite that will be launched in the future.

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Richard Flint, England Golf’s chief operating officer, updated members on the platform to give nomadic players a handicap in a GCMA Hot Topics webinar...

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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

‘Your help in supporting greenkeepers

IS APPRECIATED’

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s GCMA members you are well aware of the important role greenkeepers play in the success of any golfing facility.

Indeed, as the golf industry celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Old Tom Morris throughout June, it strikes me that this remains as true today as it was in the latter part of the 19th Century, when Tom was helping define the sport as we know it today.

I’m writing to you as BIGGA undertakes an intensive period of activity relating to the ongoing problem of leatherjackets and chafer grubs on golf courses.

And yet as I write, I’m aware that leatherjackets are just one of a number of challenges that our members face every day. This spring the uppermost challenge has manifested itself in the larval stage of the cranefly, also known as daddy longlegs.

Perhaps you’ve been lucky and you’ve seen little damage, or been one of the unfortunate ones whose fairways and/or greens have seen significant rates of infestation, causing reduced plant health, areas of bare earth as turf dies back and overturned areas caused by predation. Whichever is the case, this is an industrywide problem and it has been disheartening to see so many greenkeepers suffering on social media. We hosted a webinar recently about the situation, which

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highlighted how the problem has escalated since the removal of the previously widely used pesticide Chlorpyrifos in 2016.

There are a range of potential and part solutions available but currently none is as effective and simple to apply as we had access to in the past.

We are hopeful that more solutions will emerge and current ones will improve or be proven but as things stand these insect pests are going to be a challenge for a while and we need to educate golfers about that.

BIGGA has recently compiled a White Paper on the topic of leatherjacket and pest control and we sincerely hope the industry will join together to tackle the challenges faced and communicate them far and wide.

Sadly, a selection of our members often tell us they feel alone when it comes to facing the many difficulties inherent in preparing their course. Some perhaps aren’t as well versed at communicating as they would like and we continue to provide opportunities to improve that from our side.

However, your help in supporting your greenkeeping team is greatly appreciated.

If you are speaking to them about the difficulties they face throughout the year and beginning an ongoing dialogue built on mutual trust and respect then it will undoubtedly build a stronger team from which the facility can only benefit. I know

most of you will do already, but please stand up for them whenever the need arises.

Greenkeepers care deeply about the course they prepare and all are disheartened when the standards they strive towards aren’t achievable, through no fault of their own.

Leatherjackets and chafer grubs are just one of the multitude of challenges the golf industry will face in the coming years. We face a number of challenges related to climate change, resource availability and regulatory shifts.

It may be that by the end of this decade golf courses will be partially prepared in yet-tobe-discovered ways, tackling challenges that we are only just beginning to understand.

Certainly greenkeepers will need to be even better educated and qualified to achieve the best standards possible and for this to happen we need the golf industry to recognise education and knowledge - and improve salaries to match. Greenkeepers and club managers will need to work together to demonstrate and communicate the challenges we all face.

This is an issue that’s bigger than any tiny bugs, but by supporting your greenkeepers as they overcome challenges, and investing in your team to ensure they are skilled for the future you’ll construct a relationship that will stand you and your facility in good stead for years to come.

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BIGGA chief executive Jim Croxton says greenkeepers and club managers will need to work together to communicate the challenges courses face in the coming years

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

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oronavirus brought huge upheaval for everyone and Karin Sharp was no exception. Scottish Golf’s Chief Operating Officer found herself leading the governing body when Andrew McKinlay stepped down as Chief Executive in April 2020.

She steered the sport through the first lockdown and was instrumental as golf stayed open in Scotland when later restrictions closed it in every other part of the UK. Karin’s first year at the helm has also seen the development of OpenPlay, the first independent golfer scheme to be launched, and a revamp of both the nation’s performance and junior programmes.

We caught up with her to look back over a tumultuous first 15 months in charge…

You took on leading Scottish Golf through one of the most challenging periods any of us have ever witnessed. Clearly you had a lot of experience within Scottish Golf but how did you get through it?

It has been a challenging year across the board within Scottish Golf.

We had to make a lot of big decisions at a time of significant uncertainty and many of the early challenges we had to face included furloughing more than half of the staff team and still managing to provide a service to the golf clubs with a much smaller team operating.

But, equally, in the very early days it was about providing strong representation for the sport with government and, in the first instance, to say ‘let’s try and get things back open again’.

As Chief Operating Officer,

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how do you deal with that?

When you took on Andrew’s role, clubs were shut, staff were furloughed, people were working remotely. And you’re still trying to coordinate the sport and get it ready for a restart…

There was strong communication across the team, particularly with those who were continuing to work within the business and who, in most cases, were taking on expanded roles and having to do an element of cover outwith their usual area of expertise and authority.

Whilst the team were all fairly established within the organisation there were many who hadn’t worked cross departmentally much before so strong and regular communication across the team, keeping everybody tight and ensuring we had a high awareness of workloads and there was support for each other.

If one person was asked to pick up certain areas or particular tasks, and if the volume was starting to ramp up, we had somebody else waiting in the wings that could have their back - because we were having that strong level of conversation and ensuring that, across the board, we were being supportive, rolling the sleeves up and getting on with it as a strong unit that did what it took to service our membership through a challenging time.

It was also really important to keep the team that were furloughed in contact, up to date and up to speed with what was going on to keep them engaged and ready for coming back to work.

And you’re doing that against a backdrop of clubs, areas and counties looking specifically to

you for advice as a governing body. You’d also had to undertake some bridge building at the start – particularly in terms of communicating to clubs how you wanted to take Scottish Golf forward. I’m not being controversial in saying there had perhaps been a disconnect in the past…

One of my early aims was to ensure there was regular and very transparent communication with the clubs, the areas and the counties, and to ensure there was as much information and updates as we had available which could be shared with them on a regular basis.

We kept them as appraised as we could against a rapidly changing environment week to week.

We tried to use the different platforms that everybody has become so accustomed to in the last 15 months – Zoom, Teams, other video platforms to engage with Clubs, Areas and Counties and I think that really did help that relationship building piece.

That trust and rapport that was built across those groups has stood us in good stead moving forward.

One of the biggest plaudits Scottish Golf received was being the only country in the UK to keep playing the sport through the lockdowns this winter. How did you manage that?

We were very fortunate from the outset that - back in late March and early April [2020] - we started a lot of regular and early dialogue with the Scottish Government, through sportscotland and Active Scotland colleagues.

From the early conversations we were positioning the health and mental wellbeing benefits of the game, particularly focusing on it as informal exercise undertaken

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In conversation with...

KARIN SHARP Scottish Golf’s COO has had an eventful 15 months. She talks coronavirus, independent golfers and the future of the game with Steve Carroll…

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS outdoors on a big acreage where social distancing was pretty easy, as opposed to focusing on the sport or competitive element.

Back in May 2020, while we were a few days behind the other Home Nations and opened on May 29, from that point onwards we were very fortunate that we were able to stay open.

We definitely benefited through the December and January period from having the ability to flip back into informal exercise over competitive golf. That was one of the core reasons we were able to keep the game open here in Scotland.

How do you view the situation with the pandemic now?

We are in a strong and positive position right now in that we’ve got all of our national championships - one-day events back under way.

We’re seeing a lot more activity at club level, participation is strong and there’s lots happening across the whole landscape.

The ability to react to the changing of protocols and moving between levels is something everybody has become accustomed to over the last 15 months or so.

Yes, we would like to see things return to a state of normality but I think there is a fairly widespread acceptance that the sport has been able to adapt and operate with modifications, and that those might need to continue for a bit longer.

As we’re seeing things, hopefully, continuing to ease, I believe the clubs feel that they’ve been through the tough bit and are all looking forward to a good strong summer ahead - perhaps not with international travellers as yet but with domestic golfers looking to make the most of staycation golf.

Let’s move onto OpenPlay,

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Scottish Golf’s independent golfer initiative. Are these kinds of projects crucial to the future prosperity of the game?

Absolutely. Golf is a game with a long history and the heritage of the game in Scotland is very strong.

But over the centuries the game has been played, there have been different evolutions and changes that golf has had to adapt to.

What is in front of us now is the wider digital transformation of society and golf has to embrace that or be left behind.

Making the game more accessible and inclusive to a much bigger audience is one of the critical aspects we see as being really positive for the future.

How can the governing body tackle the inherent resistance to change within some elements of the sport? We’ve seen it to an extent with both the 2019 Rules of Golf changes and WHS and we’re seeing it again now…

Change is always something that is difficult to navigate.

Everybody reacts differently to it.

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We will continue to be strong and consistent with our messaging and with our encouragement that golf should be a game that is available for everybody to play.

We want that to be without barriers and welcoming and inclusive across the whole nation.

We will encourage and support any golfer that wants to be part of growing the game in Scotland.

Martin Slumbers was very pointed in saying that golf was a sport that talked to itself. There’s a huge number of players who

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are not affiliated to a club, perhaps have no desire to join one, and they were essentially out of the loop. Is OpenPlay about bringing these people into the fold?

It certainly is. It’s about bringing everybody into the game, having everybody feel part of the game in Scotland and making a contribution to the future development of the game in Scotland.

You haven’t been afraid to take difficult and controversial

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decisions. The new performance programme, for example, is different to anything else seen in the UK with no specific coaching. Can you tell me a little bit about that decision and why you’re not afraid to look at ideas you know are not going to be universally popular?

Since Scottish Golf was launched in 2015, we’ve been in a fortunate position from day one with a strong and supportive board.

We’ve very much been on a journey of transforming the game and making it more inclusive and accessible to a much wider audience and not being afraid to make changes and to drive the sport forward for another generation to come.

Our performance approach is perhaps a bit different and our view is that most of the young golfers who get to the stage of being selected for a performance programme have had many years of individual coaching and already have strong relationships on the technical side of their performance.

Bringing them into a national setup and expecting them to work with somebody different, that they perhaps don’t know as well, or who might have a slightly different approach – we don’t see that as being where we can add most value.

The technical side of it is for the player and their individual coach to work on.

We’re looking at the much wider playing and performance elements of the game and with Paul Lawrie and Catriona Matthew as mentors – having played at the top of the game, competed under the most challenging conditions, both having won major events and performed in team events such as the Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup – means that what they can bring to the players is pretty unique and

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS very different to the technical side from a coaching perspective.

We’ve seen some really good strong and early feedback from the players as to how accessible Paul and Catriona have been in providing very practical but robust advice.

The players feel they’ve been able to put that into practice on the course pretty quickly and despite this being a fairly new programme, we have seen some very strong early season tournament performances which is fantastic.

I’m absolutely delighted both Paul and Catriona have come on board with our performance programme.

They’ve both done a lot for the sport and the country and both are hugely supportive, keen to give back, and to be part of this journey trying to develop future talent and support our ambition to have future Scottish winners on the international stage.

And you’ve got the new junior framework as well…

The launch of our new National Junior Framework earlier this year is very much looking to provide the tools and support for golf clubs from beginner level all the way through a pathway providing coaching and competitive opportunities along the way.

We’ve got about 120 clubs using the programme so far and the feedback from coaches, from junior conveners, from players and from parents, has been really positive.

We’re getting some great feedback around lesson planning and the ability for coaches to use our integrated platform makes their weekly coaching and session planning so much easier than it ever was before.

We have also seen strong take up for the competition element of the

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framework and we look forward to supporting our member clubs in developing the golfers of the future.

We have to ask the obligatory opportunity and challenges question. Coming through the pandemic looks bright for Scottish Golf, and there’s been a huge boom in participation, but keeping those players is going to be difficult as normal life resumes. What are your key priorities over the next couple of years?

We have a range of priorities.

Supporting clubs with that retention of membership growth they have experienced over the last 12 to 15 months is one of the key objectives within the club support team. We’ll be supporting clubs to ensure we try and retain all of these golfers in membership.

There are many clubs who are still reporting pressure on tee times.

We’re hopeful, as we continue to move back down through the level system, those who have still got tee times out at a wider interval than they previously were used to could return back to a sense of normality and start easing some of that pressure, although I know there are many who are enjoying a better pace of play by still operating to 10 minute intervals!

There’s the wider digital transformation across the sport with different platforms, the Venue Management System (VMS), World Handicapping, Webinars and HIVE Learning where we make available a lot of our educational resource to our member clubs.

People are now getting to grips with the different technology and changes in approach on handicapping, but it’s going to continue to be an area of considerable educational support for clubs over the next 12 to 18 months.

We will continue to support the rollout of our VMS platform, our National Junior Framework and work with the events team and performance team to ensure we return to more regular activity in the year ahead.

Do you think, as far as technology is concerned, that we’ve gone down the rabbit

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hole now and we can’t go back to the way it was? We’ve been using phones during the pandemic and there’s the development of the Scottish Golf app. Does everything just continue in that vein?

Undoubtedly the sport has caught up with society and what is commonplace in many other walks of life – whether that’s online

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banking or other app services – golf is now into that territory.

I think the vast majority of people view it as something that they want to see.

Are you optimistic about the future and excited about what it could hold?

Hugely excited. As a sport in Scotland we have been very

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fortunate golf has been able to stay open.

We’ve seen new and returning golfers come into the game and we’ve got a massive opportunity to keep growing that number, to use the digital platforms to attract a younger audience, engage them in the sport and help our golf clubs to flourish in the years ahead.

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How well do you know your member Roger Brown, Chief Commercial Officer, Fairway Credit...

new product, a new fee structure, better opening times etc. the list is endless.

If you are one of the lucky ones, you will have a great relationship with your members, know them by name, what handicap they play off, what drink they like on the 19th hole and crucially, know what they want from your club…

The most important part of any survey is to find out what your customers think of you, your club, your services and the golden ticket item, if they would recommend you to others. The latter is easy to get an answer on, you add in the Net Promoter Score (NPS) question, set on a scale of 0 to 10 that is then played through a weighting model to provide you with an NPS score. Here is the standard question:

Or do you?! You’d be surprised at how little businesses know about their customers beyond their name and bank details.

Many businesses worldwide think they know their customers, ploughing forward with the thought “if it’s what I want, it’s what everyone wants” and this method can bring success.

However, we all know that one person’s opinion doesn’t actually guarantee success as it may not meet the wants and needs of the majority, thus diminishing their offer, product or service, pushing customers to their rivals instead.

Is there a solution?

YES… Customer Insight!! This is the main reason why many businesses survey their customers and prospects to find out exactly what they want from them, whether that is a

“With 0 being unlikely and 10 being very likely, would you recommend our golf club to your friends and family?”

This type of question will help you identify who your supporters are and more importantly who are not. By using an NPS generator (these are abundant online) you will be able to gain a score which is recognised around the world. The score is based on subtracting your 0 to 6 scores from your 9 and 10 scores (7 to 8 are deemed neutral) to give you your final NPS score.

Once calculated, if your final score is over 1 this is seen as a good result, 30+ is great and 50+

For further information about how Fairway Credit can benefit you and your members, simply; call, email or visit our website.

“Why did you give us that score?”

The next step for Fairway Credit is to start to implement some of the suggestions we received, and this work has already started, there is no resting on our laurels, so watch this space!

Getting verbatim feedback from your members is really important, it allows them an open forum to speak out and gives you valuable insight to any potential issues that members might have avoided sharing in the past This in turn provides an opportunity to save potentially disenchanted members. Using the survey will help you to structure any changes required and will allow you to communicate better with your members.

Be a part of the Fairway Credit family Fairway Credit have been working with golf clubs in the UK and Ireland for over 25 years, helping golfers enjoy the benefits of a monthly membership payment whilst giving clubs the satisfaction of knowing their membership administration is expertly managed and that income generation is being sustained. As the NPS results show we’re doing this to a high standard.

How does Fairway Credit standout?

We recently completed our annual NPS survey with our partner golf clubs and were delighted to score +52. Combined with the verbatims it shows that our product and related service are highly regarded and a boost to our clubs’ offering. Naturally some of the feedback was also developmental and this commentary is vitally important to allow us to improve our service, improve our product and show that we are “listening” to our clubs.

With 1 in 4 golf clubs in the UK using Fairway Credit we know that we can add value to you and your club. Why not speak to one of our team to see what we can do for you and your members – Call 0344 736 9818.

is exceptional. To make this more meaningful you should always follow it with an open-ended question:

0344 736 9818 | leisure@pcl.co.uk | www.premiumcredit.com/products/fairway-credit Fairway Credit is a trading name of Premium Credit Limited. Registered office: Ermyn House, Ermyn Way, Leatherhead, Surrey, KT22 8UX. Registered in England and Wales under company number 2015200. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. *Facility is subject to approval, terms and conditions apply.

FC-GCMA-DPS-230621-001

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The interview...

RICHARD WEEKS Alwoodley’s managing secretary tells Steve Carroll about leading the way at the renowned Leeds club where architect Dr Alister MacKenzie made his first mark on golf

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ow did you get the position at Alwoodley?

The opportunity came up and it was a long interview process due to Covid and lockdowns. I think the first interview was the week before the first lockdown. Everything was finalised by the end of June and I started here in September.

I’ve really enjoyed it. It is a change in the sense that I was brought up on the golf professional side and I am still learning the general management side of the job.

I’m still learning about everything it takes to run a golf club, from food and beverage through to health and safety, the staff you have, the relationship with the golf pro and the relationship with the members.

I’m the first to say I’m not overly experienced in this role, but I’m happy to learn. So far, it’s been really enjoyable. I’m just looking forward to things opening up more and more now.

Looking at your career, you’ve been at some pretty high-profile clubs and experienced both traditional and commercial environments. Do you think that’s made you a more rounded manager? Did it help secure the role at Alwoodley?

I think it was advantageous when applying for this role. They were looking for someone that had a bit more commercial experience.

And you’re absolutely right, those very traditional clubs in my early years as an assistant golf professional were just that. Then to be introduced to the proprietary sector, and to see how those organisations worked, was very useful and very interesting.

Moving back across to a members’ club, to bring some of what I’ve learned into this

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS environment, was very helpful and it will continue to be going forward as well.

Alwoodley is the original MacKenzie – where it all began for the man who designed Augusta National. It must be quite a place to come and spend your time each day…

I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet.

[Until recently] I’d never seen the front doors open due to the pandemic but it is very special.

The history is quite incredible and it’s something I’d like to learn more about and discover. The club has got much better in the last five to ten years of making a bit more about its history, the person that obviously created it and what he went on to do.

It has some fantastic links with the MacKenzie Society, which is an international society and quite a small group of clubs.

Some of our members are part of that and go away and play at various MacKenzie courses each year and we have got very good relationships with them.

You must never forget that – how special it is for a non-member coming here for the first time with the history involved and the members understand that also. It’s an incredibly special place.

How difficult has it been to take on a role like this during a pandemic? What kind of challenges have you faced?

I started last September and we had limited access to the clubhouse. I was still living in Teesside then so made the effort to come down on a few Saturdays and meet members, which was very helpful.

Things then went slowly downhill, in the sense that we got more and more restricted with the

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tier system and Leeds was badly hit with that and then a lockdown.

We had to organise our AGM online in November. It was supposed to be in April, got pushed back, and we had hoped to do it in September.

We did it in November and so I got very well known as the person who was able to organise an online AGM, via Zoom, for approximately 150 members attending.

I think I met members more via Zoom, or by email, than I did in any other form. We’d closed for a month in November, opened loosely in December, which gave me another chance to meet a few members, and then there was the long lockdown.

So it has been tricky. It’s trying to look at the positive side of these things, if you can. The good side is I’ve been able to get my feet under the table, understand how things work and talk to staff and spend some time with them before everything starts to happen at once.

Food and beverage is a big part of my remit here and that’s having a bit of a rebuild so it’s quite helpful that we’re not hit with functions and large events right from the start and that we can slowly start to build it up.

Can you take the positives from that experience? You’ve had some time to embed your philosophy on members and your management philosophy with staff? I imagine now we’re into the summer it’s a busy year…

I was very conscious, when starting, that a lot of long-standing staff members had done an incredibly good job for a long time.

It’s not my role to come in and change everything on day one. So it’s been spending a lot of time with the current staff, listening to them,

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asking how things work, asking how they do things, and them teaching me how things work.

I think that’s been very useful and I hope I’ve done a good job with that. Now, it’s slowly been the time to start to think forward a bit.

A huge amount of it, certainly on the food and beverage side, is about starting to raise the standards.

The members very affectionately talk about trying to get the off course to match the on course, and the experience in the clubhouse to be as good as the experience on the golf course.

That’s very idealist and something we’d like to work towards going forward. For me, it’s all about trying to improve the standards as much as possible and also for staff to enjoy their jobs.

From what I’ve seen here, staff have really enjoyed their roles and so it is about continuing that.

We are carrying out some quite key recruitment on the food and beverage side and I want to make sure they’re the right people for the role and they actually enjoy doing it.

Being front of house, and serving the members and non-members, is an incredibly important part of Richard Weeks Richard Weeks qualified as a PGA professional, having completed a degree at Durham University. After a spell as an assistant professional at Fulford, in York, and The Berkshire, he spent four and a half years as a teaching professional at Roehampton Club before holding roles as director of golf and then general manager at Hunley Hall. He became managing secretary at Alwoodley in September 2020.

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the job here.

So it’s finding the right staff and making sure they are comfortable with responsibility. I like to give them responsibility, because I think good staff enjoy being empowered, and then letting it move forward from there.

There are staff here who have been with us for a long time: a club pro of 30 years, Julie, who performed the secretary’s role previously and has moved into a financial role, has been here 25 years.

This was never a position where you were going to come in and tear everything up and start fresh.

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It’s slow steps forward. That’s what came forward in the interview process. That’s what they wanted and I think it’s new to everyone.

They do embrace change here but it’s got to be done correctly and properly and through a process.

I’d like to think that what they were looking for has actually started to happen.

You obviously understand the traditions of the club, so how do you plan to move forward?

It’s a really interesting question because, as you’ve said, you’ve got

a club that is very traditional but is also aware of the fact they can’t stand still and they’ve got to look to the future. Our membership is very interesting in that we now have a large group that know that as well.

For a club like this, it’s about not forgetting who they are, or where they’ve come from, or how privileged the members are to actually be here and play here, but to also look forward and think ‘how can we develop things?’

‘How can we look at junior golf?

Should we be doing a little bit more? Should we be encouraging juniors that maybe aren’t children

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of current members to join here?

And how do we go about that?

Could we run a junior event once a year that local children could come and play in?’

It’s just little steps forward. It’s not changing everything. It’s looking around the golf industry and taking little bits that other clubs might be implementing and saying ‘is that right for us? Should we consider doing it?’

When you work that way, you will always hold the core of the club and you will always continue to be Alwoodley Golf Club, with its history, and you’re showing intent

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just to take small steps forward.

What kind of manager are you, Richard, and how do you like to operate? Do you direct? Are you consensual? Do you like to delegate or are you very hands on?

I like staff to have their own responsibility and take control of situations and departments.

When we look to recruit staff, we look for people that have an air about them and will want to have responsibility, will actually take that on, and enjoy having it.

The job is very broad and I can’t be in one place for too long. It just

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doesn’t work. For example, if we are a staff member down on food and beverage and I go down and help out, I’ll probably feel towards the end of the day that I’ve lost a bit of time somewhere else.

So I need staff that I can trust and I can work with. But at the same time, I’m pretty open and honest and they can tell me if they need more help and, if they’re working on something that’s new and they’ve not spent much time on it before, to come to me and I’ll help them with it.

I like to lead. I like to go out and meet members as much as I can.

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GCMA | NEED TO KNOW | INDUSTRY | CAREERS | GOOD PRACTICE | GRASS ROOTS We work upstairs so it’s very easy to get caught upstairs and the day’s gone by.

It’s nice to go out and see people that come to play golf – be it people who are just here for a day or regular members.

I like to try and do a little bit of everything. I’ll go into the pro shop once a day and check everything’s all right. I can walk over and see the greenkeeping team.

I’m not responsible for them here – the club pro and course manager report to the chair of greens and the chair of golf – but occasionally there will be times when I need to speak to them about things.

It’s incredibly important that I know I can work with them and it’s very useful to do because you learn what’s going on in the club as well.

Golf feels like it is at a juncture at the moment and no one knows where it might go. So do you think your appointment is beneficial for a club that wants to retain its traditional structure and history but also recognises the sport might be changing? Do you think you can put them in the Alwoodley Known as the original MacKenzie, because it was the first course designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie – the worldfamous architect behind Royal Melbourne, Cypress Point and Augusta National, Alwoodley is one of Britain’s best inland courses.

The heathland course dates back to 1907 and has been the host of many prestigious amateur events, as well as a regular venue for Open qualifying.

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best place for the medium term?

They wouldn’t have brought me in if they didn’t want to look forward a little bit more. I will always try, if we’ve got a committee meeting and we’re going to discuss something, to find the industry’s point of view and bring it to the table.

I’m the one that can do that – be it through people I know, or things I’ve read – and they’re very open to that and they will certainly consider it. They will look outside of the club.

They’re always very interested to see what the actual golf industry is doing and then take that into account when they think about changing things here.

That’s what I always try and do and I think it is helpful for the club to have that. It helps them just carefully step forward.

And as we spoke about earlier, the traditions at this club will probably never really change to a point. But we’ve always got to keep moving forward and making little changes and trying things out.

For example, we mooted talk of a self-service bar area this year [because of Covid] where you’ll be able to get drinks and food just on an honesty system without having staff there.

Do we need to do that? No. Are we conscious that staff costs are very high at certain times of the year when there’s not many people here? Yes. These are just small steps that we can, fortunately, take our time with and think ‘is that something that we need to be doing going forward?’

So just being forward thinking, and having me there to look outside and bring that in, is very important for the club.

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PRACTICE Advice on golf club management issues – from finance to clubhouse rules and employment law

ADVERTORIAL

Technology meets

TRADITION Innovation in IT is moving at a furious pace and, as Golf Genius explain, it can enhance the experience on the golf course as well as saving you time

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nderstanding and being able to assess the ever-evolving golf software landscape is an increasingly important part of the General Manager’s role.

Knowing what’s happening out there and keeping up with the latest innovations can be a source of confusion. However, navigating the impact of software at golf

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clubs and the key players in the industry need not be scary, it’s not rocket science.

If you’re looking to change or add a new club software supplier, or just interested to understand the options available out there, here are some considerations that you should be making and general rules to follow.

Odds are, if you’re taking the time to investigate or thinking about how software can help your club, then you’re already a long way towards your goal.

Every industry in the world has either gone through or is going through these business decisions and taking on the investment in technology. Embracing software can upgrade efficiency without compromising the traditions of clubs and the traditional golf experience. Looking close to home, you can probably imagine one of your members, or even a few, that will routinely turn up with 17 ‘computers’ - a sensor on each of 14 clubs, an Apple watch, a distance measuring device, and a smartphone. Technology is and will continue to pervade every aspect of clubs, and those that embrace technology will be far better off than those that do not plan thoughtfully.

Technology today is about software; sometimes the software is ‘wrapped in hardware’ such as a smartphone or moisture sensor, and sometimes it’s a software product such as a reservation system, but it’s useful to think of all this technology as software.

Why has computer technology exploded in the past 50 years? It improves productivity, allowing management and employees to relieve themselves of relatively mundane activities and focus more on high value activities - and in a private club, that means delivering

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better service to members at lower cost and spending more time interacting with members.

An ecosystem is a collection of products and services that connect with each other to form a system. It’s important for General Managers to understand the ecosystem of technology and software that surrounds their daily club life, and where it can be enhanced for these benefits.

Clubs have indeed adopted technology-based solutions, but not at the same rate as other industries. For example, the way customers interact with banks and the travel industry has changed dramatically in the past 10 years. In both cases, there was a massive shift to customer self-service. Although most of us see golf as a wonderful social activity shared with friends and close to nature, it is actually a very technology intensive industry. Golf clubs and golf balls are marvels of engineering and agronomy is a science. We use computer aided design (CAD) to map out new builds and rely on cloudbased systems to manage the infrastructure around our courses.

One of the debates among software suppliers and customers has always been all-in-one software versus best-of-breed products that can be integrated into a solution.

With the range and quality of many providers these days, this poses a tough question for General Managers to answer. In the early days with few suppliers, software firms had to be generalists and provide everything from tee-time software to accounting to POS to membership management to tournament management.

As the industry has matured, software firms tend to focus on one or a few areas. Some seek to build the best tee-time software,

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ADVERTORIAL

and some the best tournament management software. It becomes more and more difficult for all-inone suppliers to compete with firms that specialise and focus on delivering their core strengths to the benefit of the customers.

To help further understand the context of software’s impact on traditional golf venues, we spoke with industry veteran, Dr Michael Zisman, who can provide a view from one of the industry leaders as Co-CEO of Golf Genius Software.

“Fundamentally, I’m a software professional and passionate golfer,” says Zisman. Having served on the faculty at MIT in the late 70’s, and then pursued a successful career as an entrepreneur and IBM executive, he’s seen the proliferation of technology in business and life

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first-hand.

“I am a member of three clubs including Merion Golf Club, which has hosted five U.S. Opens, where I have previously served on the board and as chair of the finance committee. As such, I have a very good understanding of the business model for a hugely traditional private club.”

Some clubs choose to be early adopters of technology, some are fast followers, and some are part of the broad majority that want to be on the leading edge of the second wave. There is often a conflict between technology adoption and tradition because technology adoption is about change and tradition is about keeping things the same. When considering the impacts of technology on a club, the focus

should be on culture and not on tradition, as tradition is a carrier for culture, but just one aspect of it.

Tradition is a means to convey and sustain culture; the focus needs to be on culture - the set of values and beliefs that influence behaviour and create a community. Traditions change much more rapidly than culture because traditions must adapt to an ever-changing world. Protect the culture, evolve the traditions.

Most clubs are far too small to have a chief information officer or even software specialists. This function is usually outsourced to some form of local consulting firm.

Like everything else, a GM can delegate authority to employees and others, but responsibility for decisions ultimately rests

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with the GM. Hence, in today’s technology-intensive, softwareintensive world, the more a GM understands about technology, the better prepared he or she is to manage the specialists. This does not mean that a GM need be a technical wizard or steeped in technology, but it does imply having a good understanding of club needs and being able to ask the right questions of suppliers and consultants.

In dealing with software suppliers, it is important to place the club in a strong position that maximizes flexibility. This is particularly the case as our world moves very quickly from desktop in-house systems to “cloud-based” systems. Here are some guidelines to think about when engaging a tech supplier.

• Assure that your data is adequately protected and safely stored.

• You own your data, even if it’s in the cloud. This is critically important when the time comes to change suppliers.

• Be very clear on what suppliers can do with your data, particularly member personal identifiable information • Avoid vendor lock-in • Insist that your suppliers play well together • Understand that your software supplier owns its intellectual property, and you are merely using their product

•

• •

•

•

•

expertise from members willing to help - you just need to find them Develop a priority list of member-facing systems, backend systems and infrastructure systems Develop a sense of how the pieces fit together Think cloud. It is happening very, very quickly and delivers numerous benefits. It makes very little sense to own your own servers in today’s world Educate yourself about contracting for IT products and services. Otherwise, your suppliers will have a big advantage Help your board think through your club’s approach to member-owned technology – mobile phone and tablet use in the clubhouse, for example - by distinguishing culture from tradition.

Exploit data to better understand what is happening at your club. Using technology can give you a superior way to analyse your operations.

General managers, golf

professionals and other key managers create the greatest value when they are interacting with members. Technology properly implemented and managed frees up staff from mundane and/or administrative activities so that they can focus on higher value activities. The rate of innovation in IT is increasing at a furious pace as we move forward to wearable computers and sensorbased systems. More and more of your members are those 30 somethings who are completely comfortable with technology and strongly prefer self-service systems. IT not only enhances the member experience, but it also decreases labour cost or materials cost and allows management to spend more time engaging with members. Every online reservation is a labour saving. Tournament and tee time software reduces labour in the golf shop. You may not reduce headcount, but you can redeploy headcount to memberfacing activities, and that further enhances the member experience.

Properly managed, technology truly lets you have your cake and eat it, too.

Some things you should consider as you move forward with implementing software or subscribing to cloud-based software services: • Leverage your members by forming an IT committee of your board. You probably have a lot of

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How Enville have led the way in

WOMEN’S GOLF The number of women and girls playing golf has soared as a result of the pandemic. Heather Mulley, general manager at Enville and GCMA Manager of the Year, explains how the sport can capitalise on this opportunity

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

T

he certificate has pride of place on the wall – alongside press cuttings, photos and a letter from the R&A’s chief executive Martin Slumbers.

No one was more surprised than Heather Mulley when she was named GCMA Manager of the Year back in November 2019, and there’s a big smile that still beams at the mere mention of that achievement.

It seems a long time ago that the Enville general manager’s image shone through the video screen and the memories of her father – and his strong links to the Staffordshire club – left few dry eyes in the room at De Vere Cotswold Water Park.

Heather had been thrilled to be nominated, astonished to be shortlisted, and so convinced the prize would go elsewhere she didn’t reschedule a holiday to Dubai.

Then she won, and a two-year ambassadorship, a traditional path for the victor at the Golf Club Management Awards, awaited.

“It confirmed to me that I was capable of doing anything,” she remembers. “And to win the award was just amazing.

“It made a huge difference to me and I worked really hard for it.”

What is it they say about best laid plans? The world is now very different following a pandemic that has marked all of us in some way.

Covid forced everyone in golf to turn inwards, focusing firstly on health and then on getting clubs through the crisis.

But as we start to come out of the other end of a near 18-month challenge it’s worth remembering why Heather won the award and the opportunity that the work she is doing presents other clubs.

Because the participation boom which stunned an industry after

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the first lockdown threw up a hugely encouraging element.

Following years of struggling to get women and girls to embrace the game as a collective, figures showed that 25% of female golfers in 2020 were new to the sport – and tried it for the first time because of the pandemic.

Enville were ahead of their time.

One of the first signatories to the R&A’s Women in Golf Charter (hence the letter from Slumbers on the wall), the club had become well known for staging high-profile tournaments for women and girls.

The English Women’s Senior, along with the R&A Girls’ British Open Amateur Championship, will be followed this October by the first of a three-year stint as the host of the R&A’s Girls’ U16 Amateur.

Girls Golf Rocks has always been successful at Enville, as have taster schemes and various other participation drives.

So there are few better than Heather to talk about how to capitalise on the opportunity coronavirus has presented.

“We’re running our latest academy and we’re keeping up those initiatives,” she says. “It’s about plugging away.

“We [recently] converted our academy ladies into six new full members of this club.

“They had never picked up a golf club 18 months before and now they’ve paid £1,620 joining fee and the sub. There are much easier courses around here and much cheaper courses but they chose Enville.

“That’s testament to what we’re achieving with our academy and it’s little steps.

“We were lucky enough to ride on the back of the R&A Girls’ Championship in 2017 and our board were forward thinking enough to use that money to fund the acad-

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emy in the beginning. It is now self-funding.

“I realise resources aren’t the same for everybody but if every golf club in the country could do a little bit then that would be great.

“Get your women’s section involved. Make sure everything they are doing is welcoming. Make sure your bar and your lounge facilities are welcoming to all.”

It’s simple things, adds Heather, like ensuring you’ve got a nice coffee machine and that there’s a good selection of gins and prosecco behind the bar.

“Go out to different women’s groups. That’s something we did and it’s an untapped area. Although it’s improving, and I’ve read those figures you’re talking about, it’s still an untapped market.

“We can’t ride on the back of the increase in golf participation from Covid forever. There is this market out there, especially for professional women.

“We went out to a few breakfast clubs, from local solicitors, local accountancy firms, and made the suggestion ‘have you ever thought about golf? Have you ever thought about its networking possibilities and what it could bring to you as a businesswoman?’ A few of them were quite surprised.”

What strikes you walking around Enville is the buzz around the club, even with social distancing, masks, and the like, and it’s an integrated community.

There are no specific tee times.

The club are holding more mixed competitions and it is a venue for families.

“We have a midweek Stableford that’s open to men, women and juniors,” Heather adds.

“But there’s lots more than we can do and we’re developing all the time.

“We’ve been very lucky in that

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

we’ve had a lot of couples join the golf club and we do a lot of mixed golf.

“It’s really encouraging when you have a guy that’s never played mixed golf before and he comes in and says ‘I really enjoyed that. It was so much fun’.

“There will always be a place for a woman’s competition, or a man’s competition, without a doubt and there will always be people who prefer it that way.

“But on a Wednesday we get a real mix of people playing together. Years and years ago, if a woman had put her name on the tee-sheet with two guys, because there was a space, you’d have seen

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those two guys drop away.

“That doesn’t happen anymore.

That hasn’t happened for the last three or four years here.

“We’re progressing. We’re getting better.”

Enville see the Under-16s event in the autumn as another opportunity to make even further progress and to push this progressive club, that’s developing both on and off course, further into the spotlight.

“There’s no doubt about it. You can’t buy the publicity of holding a tournament for the R&A and especially holding it for three years,” Heather says.

“They’re such a well-oiled machine, and we’re such a well-oiled

machine now, that I think it’s going to be a really good fit.

“Once we’ve got one under our belt, and I’m sure we’ll do really well, we have the stability of having that event for another two years. That is brilliant.

“It will be interesting to see some of the same girls over a couple of years and see how they progress.

“It’s onwards and upwards for us. I really feel as if we are on a roll with everything we have put in place over the last few years.

“With everything that’s coming our way, and with the R&A coming back again, it’s just a great feeling around here at the moment and the sky’s the limit.”

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The life beneath

YOUR FEET After linking with the GCMA as an approved supplier partner, Kerr Hunter, Symbio’s UK and Ireland Business Manager, explains soil biology and its role in golf course management…

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stablished more than 30 years, UK based soil biology specialists Symbio have been working with golf venues across Europe since their inception. With sustainability and climate change key considerations for both course and club management, and the withdrawal of a number of chemical applications in recent years, their philosophy of managing soils and turf as nature intended has never been more relevant. We took a look ‘beneath ground’ to find out how, and why, golf venues should be more focused on soil health.

The Symbio philosophy Grasses, trees, shrubs and heathers have been able to grow quite healthily since the beginning of time, even in the face of some extreme weather patterns, but regular readers of ‘turf Twitter’ will observe how extreme weather problems are influencing playing surfaces, from poor growth in a cold spring to soft surfaces due to a wet winter (or even summer!).

Looking around the golf course and beyond, have you ever wondered why, quite often, less managed areas cope better with such conditions? It’s all to do with the soils we grow in. Natural soils contain the nutrients, water, air and microbial species required to support a healthy plant above ground. It sustains good grass growth, is free draining when required, but can also hold sufficient water. Plants grown in such rootzones have fewer disease pathogens, such as Fusarium, TakeAll Patch and Fairy Ring, and the finer grass species we associate with golf greens, fescues and bent grasses, are supported and dominant.

The life beneath your feet

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What makes soil healthy? The simple answer is when it’s carbon rich, full of biological organisms, and capable of holding nutrients, air and water. The ground beneath our feet should be full of life. From the smallest bacteria to larger organisms like worms, they form a complex soil food web and are a major influence on soil’s ability to be classed as healthy.

Bacteria are microscopic, single-celled organisms that live in the rhizosphere, the area around the root, and are responsible for digesting plant root exudates and organic matter. They are an essential part of the nitrogen cycle, recycling other nutrients that are made available to the plant or grass. Bacteria are also able to produce other by-products like enzymes, vitamins and hormones, which aid growth. Bacteria can form a protective coating around plant roots against disease pathogens, as well as forming a barrier in the soil to repel diseases.

Fungi are multi-celled organisms that usually grow as long strands or threads called hyphae in the soil. They digest carbon and lignin compounds found in decaying plants, especially thatch. Organic acids produced by fungi lower pH and efficiently solubilise phosphate, calcium and other nutrients locked up in the soil. In conjunction with bacteria, they also help form soil structure whilst making it friable and free-draining.

Mycorrhizal fungi are especially beneficial as they extend the root system by mining nutrients and water from the soil and making them available to grasses.

They have a strong symbiotic association with finer grasses like fescue and bent. It is this for this reason that these grasses can colonise and survive in difficult areas with less applied water and

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nutrients, as they are making available water and nutrient already in the soil in exchange for the plant’s exudates.

Protozoa are single-celled animals that feed primarily on bacteria and fungi, even other protozoa. They also eat and solubilise organic matter, playing an important role in nutrient cycling by eating around 10,000 bacteria daily. They are also an important food source for other soil organisms. Protozoa can release excess Nitrogen making it available to the plant.

Nematodes are four types of microscopic worms. They help improve soil structure, releasing excess Nitrogen by making it available to plants. They have received bad press because of one species that feeds on roots, but the other species are an important part of the soil food web and have been used to reduce leatherjacket and chafer grub attacks.

Soil biology and its role in golf course management In an ideal world, the soil food web would go about its business with all plants growing healthily, but we know that golf courses experience issues with thatch build-up, outbreaks of disease, dry patch, waterlogging, fairy rings, and poor growth. If soil microbes are responsible for preventing such problems, why do we have them, you might ask? The answer lies with what we have being doing to our soils in a quest for healthy turf.

Turf managers have been able to apply chemicals in order to help keep turf healthy. These include fertilisers, pesticides, wetting agents and metals such as iron to control moss. However, many of these compounds damage soil microbial populations. Fertilisers often have a high salt index, and

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the higher the salt content the more damage it causes to living microbes. Humans are advised to reduce our salt intake, but if you are a single-celled bacteria or strand of fungi responsible for degrading thatch or suppressing disease, you don’t fare well against kilos of synthetic salt.

Because of increased chemical usage to enhance playing conditions and presentation, we have diminished the natural processes responsible for creating healthy plants. Pesticides used to prevent or treat turf diseases do not distinguish between those pathogens and good microbes responsible for degrading thatch or supporting nutrient uptake.

Healthy soil has fewer disease attacks to begin with as a result of a balanced soil food web.

Increased prevalence of disease on the golf course is a sign that the food web is off-balance, and further treatments lock soil in that unhelpful cycle. Restoring the soil food web can break that chain, resulting in healthy plants less susceptible to disease.

A useful analogy is the effect of antibiotic medication on the human microbiome. When ingested to treat infection, they also wipe out all the beneficial bacteria in our gut. We now know that antibiotics have been overused, which has reduced their efficacy over time. Research has also shown that the health and balance of our gut microbiome is critical to our overall health and wellbeing, including our immune system.

The impact on turf isn’t just from products applied to it. When the thatch layer in turf thickens, it holds more water and harbours disease, so invasive, disruptive physical work takes place to remove it. This impacts playability, endured for the long-term good,

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ADVERTORIAL and this process is repeated yearon-year. This is a consequence of the chemistry used to produce lush green growth the golf industry has come to expect.

Topdressing with sand is necessary to create smooth surfaces, but have you noticed a huge increase in the volume of sand applied to playing surfaces in order to dry and firm them?

They’re often wet and spongy due to thatch build up, then thatch is further diluted with sand. It is reduced through hollow coring or scarifying, but it’s building up because natural bacteria and fungi that degrade organic matter are not present in abundance. This is because chemicals applied to increase growth or stop disease also prevent natural degradation, and so the cycle continues.

We see the pros and cons of sand usage in sports turf. The issue is present from the point of construction. Golf greens built with sand are dry and free-draining, but immediately lack natural biology and require greater maintenance.

Physical work to remove thatch build-up and chemical applications are required to provide necessary nutrients, all because sand cannot hold onto elements due to its neutral charge. Grass grown in inert sand is also weaker because it has a greater nutrient requirement, and as a result is more susceptible to disease, so more fertiliser is applied to sustain play, and round we go again.

A world of benefits from a natural approach By breaking the chemical and physical dependent cycle and adding and nurturing biology, we observe beneficial results and improved turf quality. A microbial rich and biodiverse rootzone fed with organic compounds will

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eventually have fewer issues with thatch, disease, fairy rings and annual meadow grass.

Symbio promotes healthy soils and their many benefits. We help clubs restore healthy soils by adding appropriate microbial species lost due to overuse of chemicals and synthetic inputs, and we encourage the use of biostimulants and organics to help nourish those microbes, allowing them to flourish. Our philosophy works well for the golf business, because it results in a better experience for members and guests. Reducing disruption from maintenance practices provides access to better playing surfaces for longer in the season. Aeration should continue, however we advocate substituting aggressive, disruptive works for regular micro-tining and mini-aerating.

This delivers air and oxygen to soil microbes but also keeps golfers happy.

It is well documented that overuse of pesticides has dramatically affected soil quality in agriculture. As a society, we all want to minimise chemical use and look after the environment.

Fungicide and pesticide use is limited if soil biology is healthy, which in turn reduces costs and the time associated with that task.

Healthy soil biology is part of your workforce. It works 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, every single day of the year to maintain golf courses without the need for aggressive disruption to play. Every week becomes ‘Maintenance Week’ when your soil biology is working well. Course closures due to maintenance are limited and revenue is optimised. In terms of cost, adopting a microbial approach to degrade thatch is generally more cost-effective than the physical alternatives, with

the additional benefit of keeping golfers satisfied. Adopting a natural approach is sustainable and costeffective. The R&A’s Golf Course 2030 initiative highlights the challenges you and your greenkeeping team face of maintaining playability while minimising the use of resources, including water, and managing the effects of climate change.

The creation and maintenance of healthy rootzones is pivotal to meeting these challenges and preparing golf for a sustainable future.

Natural soil is full of life and should support healthy growth, but we alter natural systems and processes with chemical and physical applications. The outcomes we’re looking for can often come naturally. Maintenance tasks are necessary in order to deliver highquality golf courses that are in use all year round, but we need to strike a balance.

Working with nature as a starting point is true sustainability. With that approach at the heart of a golf course management strategy, we deliver a cleaner, greener future for our courses, clubs, and the game of golf.

For further information, visit www.symbio.co.uk. Kerr Hunter can be contacted directly on 07966 786743 or email kerr. hunter@symbio.co.uk.

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Grass

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

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

Meet the Manager...

STEWART JUDD

Bush Hill Park

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his is quite a shopping list, so bear with us as we make our way through it. New bunkers, an on-course toilet facility and a halfway hut. Five undercover practice bays and a new chipping area for members. A takeaway service that sold 2,500 portions of fish and chips and curry.

More than 100 food parcels delivered to members, who were either forced to self-isolate or

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couldn’t get out to a supermarket to shop.

Take a breath. We’re not done yet.

Perishable food and drink that was donated to a homeless charity. An enhanced social media campaign that sprawled out into the community. 160 new members and a new women’s affiliate programme that put 26 players on a pathway to full membership.

Oh, and Bush Hill Park celebrated its 125th anniversary and became a limited company at the same

time.

All while negotiating a pandemic and three lockdowns. Is there any wonder the London club was named England Golf’s Club of the Year?

If the last 12 months or so have been a whirlwind for general manager Stewart Judd and his team then so have the past few weeks, after Bush Hill Park edged out Derbyshire club Stanedge, Cumbria’s Dunnerholme and The Nottinghamshire Golf and Country

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Bush Hill Park achieved a remarkable amount when many clubs battened down the hatches. Now the work of general manager Stewart Judd, and his team, has been recognised with England Golf’s Club of the Year award...

Perhaps it brought something else out. I don’t know. But we did huge amounts.”

Judd was brought in four years ago to a traditional club with a declining membership.

His brief was to shake things up and get people back through the doors.

He was making good progress but then coronavirus changed everything – and gave Bush Hill Park an unexpected jolt.

“The club was really brought

“We did a food delivery service.

Members were using our food and drink suppliers to provide basic groceries and we delivered 100 food parcels to members who were either shielding or couldn’t get to the club or didn’t want to risk the supermarket.

“We had volunteers who would go out and do deliveries.

“And when we opened in May [2020] golf really bounced back and we had a massive influx of new members.”

Celebrating being named Club of the Year

Club to the premier accolade at the England Golf Awards.

What’s more, Judd still hasn’t really worked out quite how it all happened.

“It was a crazy time – absolutely crazy,” he admits. “I was probably working every day. We had volunteers. We had a board who were trying to drive things as well.

“I have asked myself the same question of how we did it, but I think it’s a can do attitude and probably being in survival mode.

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together and it was the community aspect of it that I focused on. While we were in uncertainty, I focused on what was certain – the membership and the community that is there within the club.

“We set up a virtual clubhouse via our Facebook community page, where our members signed in and were sharing funnies and stories and golf tips. I was still taking photos at the club and sharing them.

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Probably because people noticed. They noticed what the club was doing for those who needed help and they noticed that the gates were open – the ‘private’ signs gone for good.

“Our gates are open. Our doors are open,” adds Judd. “We’ve done quite a big mail drop around the area to offer social membership.

We grew that from around 100 to closer to 350 now.

“The club has got more of a vibe about it and we’re trying to do

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more social activities.

“It’s putting us in the community, supporting the community so it supports us back.”

They’ve probably achieved more in the past year than some other clubs might have in five but what Bush Hill Park have learned over that tumultuous period – which for many clubs went from fearing closure to putting in waiting lists – is that there is no time to stand still.

Having revitalised the club, Judd intends to put the hammer down to ensure the opportunity now presented isn’t frittered away.

“We’re trying to achieve more of a balanced membership profile.

Within the Women in Golf Charter we’ve set ourselves a target of another 50 female members between now and 2025.

“We’ll continue to drive that and we want to continue to

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improve things in the clubhouse.

We refurbished our bar the year before last, and made it much more contemporary and modern looking. We want to try and keep that rollout going in the clubhouse – with potential to improve changing rooms and our restaurant area.

“It’s just carrying on improving things in the clubhouse and developing things out on the golf course. We want to keep improving our practice facilities.

“We’ve put the new bays in and practice green and chipping area, but we’ve got a space where we can put in some more holes and the aim is to have an academy course.

“Golf clubs can get a bit caught up with tradition and tradition is a reason not to change, whereas we try to celebrate our heritage but

keep looking forward.”

And so Club of the Year is probably only the latest rung on a long ladder for Bush Hill Park. But the prize has proved a welcome fillip – a nod that they are on the right track.

“It’s recognition – for the members and the club,” Judd says.

“My inbox has gone crazy with thank yous, congratulations and ‘what a fantastic achievement for the club’. It’s recognition of one of the toughest years we’ve had in our 125.”

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Get In Touch To contact Bush Hill Park, visit www.bhpgc.com

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Meet the

GCMA PARTNER We speak to Paul Chester, Director at Huxley Golf, about all-weather surfaces and how they can improve the golf club member experience

W

ho are Huxley Golf?

Huxley Golf specialise in the supply and installation of all-weather surfaces for golf, including practice tees, short game areas and even par-3 courses. We supply to golf courses, driving ranges, golf academies and also to the general public for installations in private residences and gardens.

The company was founded in 1946 by Edward Huxley, who started out as a manufacturer and supplier of grass-cutting and turf maintenance machinery, which they continued to do until 1999.

Shortly before then, Huxley started experimenting with all-weather surfaces and the company has grown and grown since.

Has the technology improved in recent years?

We are constantly going through research and development to improve our surfaces. It takes a lot of hard graft to produce the best surfaces with the most longevity and the least maintenance, which gives the best results for clients.

We trial all new products for 6 months up to a year before launching them.

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Can Huxley Golf help improve the golf club member experience?

One thing golf clubs can do is invest in practice facilities. We have been involved in various projects where clubs have installed Huxley Golf tee areas, driving ranges or greens to hone the short game.

Our surfaces are not designed to replace natural grass, but to complement it. During winter months, it is incredibly hard for greenkeepers to maintain practice surfaces and practice greens.

We may be asked to install a tee-strip or winter tees. Members don’t want to be knee high in mud before teeing off in winter.

Our installations are there to complement holes – to hide wear and tear. The whole experience for golf club members can be improved by having that availability.

They can also mean a reduction in maintenance, so greenkeepers can be re-deployed elsewhere on the course and they can be a water-saving installation.

How authentic can artificial surfaces become?

We have worked with many tour-pros including major championship winners, and to

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see them chip or putt on one of our greens and say “wow, that is exactly what I wanted”, that is extremely rewarding, as is getting a positive reaction from golf club members.

What is your favourite thing about the industry?

Working with like-minded people.

Each day is different but always enjoyable when you are working with people who are on the same wavelength. People work in the industry because they love golf.

What does the future hold for Huxley Golf?

Last year, Huxley Golf became an Employee Ownership Trust.

Our aim is to keep Huxley Golf as strong as ever, to keep building the brand and to continue building our distributor network across the UK and the world, and to bring more awareness about what allweather surfaces can do.

Contact details Paul Chester Tel: 01730 829608 paul.chester@huxleygolf.co.uk

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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

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Associate Partners

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