BIGGA Young Greenkeeper Award

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BIGGA Young Greenkeeper Award: Talented young greenkeeper Alistair Morrison is celebrating after being crowned winner of a BIGGA Award at BTME 2018.

Alistair (25) is head greenkeeper at Durness Golf Club and was announced as the winner of the BIGGA Young Greenkeeper of the Year Award sponsored by Textron Golf at an awards ceremony held this evening.

BIGGA Young Greenkeeper Award

Alistair began his career as an apprentice at Brora, before moving back to his hometown club at Durness. As the only member of the greenkeeping team at the most north-westerly course on mainland Britain, the role requires a huge amount of dedication and commitment to personal development and the development of the course.

During his three years at Brora, Alistair volunteered at three European Tour events, including the European Masters in Switzerland.

Alistair’s award was announced by television presenter and #ThisGirlGolfs ambassador Naga Munchetty at the BIGGA Welcome Celebration sponsored by Textron Golf. He was presented with his award by Andre Andrade, director of international sales at Textron Golf. The awards ceremony is one of the highlights of BTME 2018, the premier turf management exhibition in Europe.

Alistair said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have won, I certainly never expected this! I’m from a small village of around 300 people, we rely mainly on tourists, and I do have a good relationship with my club. As a small community you get to know everyone at the club, as they’re all friends, family, neighbours, and I’m delighted to have been able to represent them on such a massive scale.”

BIGGA Chief Executive Jim Croxton said: “I’m delighted that we have been able to recognise the efforts of Alistair, who has achieved professional and personal development despite the challenges faced of preparing a course in tough economic time. The fact Alistair is able to prepare a thriving course for his golfers, despite working on his own and in such a remote location, is no mean feat and he is an inspiration to us all.”

The other finalists of the award were Angus Roberts of Roxburghe Hotel & Golf Club and Carl Sharp of Royal Mid-Surrey Golf Club.

Jim added: “Congratulations must also go to Angus and Carl who did incredibly well to reach the finals of the awards. With such outstanding candidates, it’s great to see that the future of greenkeeping is in safe hands.”

BTME 2018 runs until Thursday 25 January and features more than 150 exhibitors from all aspects of the turf management industry. Each year more than 4,500 greenkeepers, trade members, club managers and other representatives of the golfing industry come together to network and share news of the latest education and innovation.

Visit http://btme.org.uk/ for more information.

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Iseki Sign With Hitachi Capital

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Iseki Sign With Hitachi Capital: Iseki UK & Ireland has announced that it has chosen Hitachi Capital to provide floor-plan services to its network of 60 dealers across the UK. Additionally both companies announced their intent to run a range of attractive and innovative retail finance options later in 2018.

David Withers Managing Director of ISEKI UK commented “As you can imagine with ISEKI forming in the UK there was a lot of interest in the finance community to secure a relationship with our new company to provide floor-plan and retail finance offerings, having evaluated all the options we have chosen Hitachi Capital as our partner and look forward to working with them over the coming months and years to ensure that we can complement the best machinery in the World with the best finance offerings”

Iseki Sign With Hitachi Capital

From Hitachi Capital Sean Jones, Head of Strategy, expressed his pleasure at the announcement “With a Japanese parent ourselves we were determined that the opportunity to partner with a high quality Japanese manufacturer would not pass us by. Having worked in the past with many of the staff now at ISEKI coupled with the excellence of the product offering it made a perfect fit for us and we could not be more pleased to be able to provide the UK agricultural and grounds care industry with solutions to their finance requirements.”

The decision was announced at the BTME show in Harrogate and comes into effect immediately.

For more information go to www.iseki.co.uk

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BIGGA Award For Wentworth

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BIGGA Award For Wentworth: The Wentworth Club greenkeeping team in Virginia Water has been recognised for its incredible performance in preparing the course for the BMW PGA Championship 2017 by winning the BIGGA Championship Performance of the Year Award sponsored by Rigby Taylor.

The redesign of Wentworth’s famous West Course was conducted by European Tour Golf Design, with the support of Ryder Cup captains Paul McGinley and Thomas Bjorn and the Ernie Els Design group. But it was Director of Estates and Golf Courses Kenny Mackay and his team who were responsible for ensuring the changes were implemented ahead of the BMW PGA Championship in May 2017.

BIGGA Award For Wentworth

All 18 greens were stripped of the old turf and re-seeded with a new creeping bent, while four greens – on the eighth, 11th, 14th and 16th holes – were completely rebuilt. A sub-air system was also installed on all the greens, while new drainage and irrigation was introduced.

Furthermore, all the bunkers were redesigned and reconstructed, with 29 completely removed from play.

European Tour Chief Executive Keith Pelley said: “The greens are spectacular and aesthetically the golf course is considerably stronger. Stephen Gallacher was walking by and he said, ‘The golf course has significantly improved. It’s just absolutely fantastic and the greens are great’.”

Kenny accepted the award at the BIGGA Welcome Celebration sponsored by Textron Golf, held this evening in the Harrogate Convention Centre’s Royal Hall. The awards ceremony is one of the highlights of BTME 2018, the premier turf management exhibition in Europe.

Kenny said: “It’s a very close-knit team. The big challenge we’ve seen is preparing the greens from tournament.

“When the new owners came in we knew we had a plan together. There was a lot of work behind the scenes and all that research came off. It’s two years in the making to get to here.”

BIGGA Chief Executive Officer Jim Croxton said: “This was nothing short of a superhuman effort by the team at The Wentworth Club, who worked non-stop from the moment the 2016 BMW PGA Championship ended until the 2017 event began to ensure the course matched up to the incredible standards required when hosting the European Tour’s flagship championship.

“Well done to Kenny and to all his team on this spectacular achievement, and on being crowned winners of the Championship Greenkeeping Performance of the Year at BTME 2018.

“Congratulations also to the Dundonald Links and Moor Allerton teams, who were both worthy finalists after hosting exceptional tournaments during 2017. All are a credit to BIGGA and the greenkeeping industry as a whole.”

BTME 2018 runs until Thursday 25 January and features more than 150 exhibitors from all aspects of the turf management industry. Each year more than 4,500 greenkeepers, trade members, club managers and other representatives of the golfing industry come together to network and share news of the latest education and innovation.

Visit http://btme.org.uk/ for more information.

For the latest industry news visit turfnews.co.uk

Get all of the big headlines, pictures, opinions and videos on stories that matter to you.

Follow us on Twitter for fun, fresh and engaging content.

You can also find us on Facebook for more of your must-see news, features, videos and pictures from Turf Matters.