My journey at North Berwick started in February 2021. I had been working along the road at Muirfield when I saw the job advert for a Senior Greenkeeper. I absolutely loved working at Muirfield and going through the iconic iron gates every morning really was a joy for me.
The 5th tee overlooking the 4th green at Muirfield
I have always been ambitious and after speaking to Darren McLaughlan, the previous Course Manager, my mind was soon made up that I wanted to join him and the team on an exciting journey to improve the standards and conditions on the West Links. Just as I was heading off on Maternity Leave with our son, Esson, I was promoted to Deputy Course Manager. This itself was a huge honour for me and it gave me the chance to work more closely with Darren and to develop my managerial skills.
Snow on the 14th during my first week at North Berwick
In the 18 months we worked together, we had a lot of successes on the course such as delivering the Final Women's Open Qualifier in July 2022, reducing the Organic Matter content in the greens, improving the standards and playability of the course and establishing a workshop with Richard Connell who became the first mechanic on staff at the West Links.
The 3rd green with Bass Rock in the background
Darren's move back to the West Coast as Course Manager at Turnberry left a vacancy to which I led the greenkeeping team in the interim. I was keen to show the team, the clubs and golfers that I had the skills to lead the team going forward and to carry on the great work started by Darren. I was given the huge honour on the 4th of October 2022 to be announced as the new Course Manager at North Berwick.
I was born and brought up in rural Aberdeenshire, a village called Lumphanan which is between Aboyne and Banchory. I started an apprenticeship at Inchmarlo GC, before moving to a new development in County Longford, Rep of Ireland. This was the summer the "Celtic Tiger" crashed and the development soon went into liquidation. I came back over the water and studied towards a HNC in Golf Course Management at Elmwood College. Upon completion, I was lucky to get a job on the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles where I worked for six and a half years in the build up towards the 2014 Ryder Cup.
The 1st Tee on the morning of th first day of the 2014 Ryder Cup
Waiting for a "Grandstand Finish" at the 18th but the match was already won on the 15th.
All hands on deck on the 6th hole during morning set-up
This was such a great period to be at Gleneagles where i learned so much about how to use different machinery, construction, drainage and irrigation. The Ryder Cup was a great showcase for us and very luckily, the weather played ball. A memorable week to finish my time there before heading off to Australia for 6 months.
The iconic Par 3 5th hole on the West Course
The Par 3 7th hole on the West Course
Raking the 20ft deep bunker on the 10th hole on the West Course
Working at Royal Melbourne was an incredible experience and really opened my eyes to a different style of greenkeeping. They manage an architecturally important site and that plays a big part in how they maintain the courses. A lot of the philosophies that are in place in the Sandbelt courses are what I aim to implement at the West Links. Unfortunately, my time in Melbourne had to come to an end, but luckily, I was headhunted for a position at Le Golf National, host venue to the 2018 Ryder Cup.
The 18th green on the Albatross Course for the 2015 Open de France.
The 18th and 15th island green on the Albatross Course for the 2015 Open de France
I was involved in the build-up to the 2015 Open de France, before a few short weeks later, the course was closed for the last of the big construction projects before the Ryder Cup including the redesign of the 1st and 16th greens and the redevelopment of a handful of other holes. When the Deputy Course Manager's position at The Roxburghe in the Scottish Borders came up, I felt the time was right to move up the ladder and start gaining some managerial experience. I stayed at The Roxburghe for four and a half years before moving to East Lothian and starting the journey towards North Berwick via Muirfield.
I've been incredibly fortunate to experience many different things in 17 years of Greenkeeping including working at over 20 tournaments in 4 different countries, getting to experience different styles of greenkeeping, construction and different cultures. I very much plan to use what I learned through the years to make North Berwick, both on the course and within the team, live up to the expectation set by members and visitors.
My son Esson inspecting the conditions on the 11th fairway.
コメント