The with man perfect pitch

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The with man perfect pitch: Scott MacCallum met up with CEO of Labosport, Professor David James, the man at the forefront of sports pitch development.

If we think back to sport in the 1970s there are two images that spring to mind. There was Ronnie Radford scoring a remarkable goal for Hereford United to defeat Newcastle in the FA Cup in 1972 and then England prop Fran Cotton playing for the British Lions, in Melbourne, in 1977, looking like the muddiest man you’ve ever seen in your life.

The with man perfect pitch

The with man perfect pitch

Both iconic sporting images, neither of which would ever be replicated today. Ronnie’s goal was incredible as he more or less shovelled the heavy leather ball out of the boggy pitch from 30 yards and into the top corner. John Motson’s commentary and Ronnie’s celebration are part of English football’s folklore, but do you really think that the game would have gone ahead in 2025?

And Fran. Same thing. Would a game that resulted in Fran turning into a monster from a B-movie horror ever have got past a modern day pitch inspection?

Different times and different standards, but I do think it is fair to say that most people forget just how far we have come in the construction, maintenance and preparation of modern day sports pitches. It is now rare for a pitch to become a game-defining issue and it would take a highly trained eye to identify whether a pitch was at the beginning or end of its particular season.

And alongside the development of natural turf surfaces is the quite extraordinary progress of synthetic pitches.

At the sharp end of much of natural and synthetic pitch development is Labosport, the international company which is a the forefront of testing, certification and consultancy on all aspects of sports surfaces. Since 1993 they have spearheaded the development of testing methods to raise the quality of sports surfaces and provide guidance on the design and construction of sports facilities.

And the man who is Labosport’s worldwide CEO is Professor David James. As you might imagine David is a busy guy. When I caught up with him, at Labosport’s unassuming UK Headquarters on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Nottingham, he had just returned from viewing some test pitches at Sheffield Hallam University and was about to head off to New Zealand. Air miles are not something for which he is short!

I first bumped into David at the Syn-Pro Seminar held at Loughborough University early last year where he started by saying that the very first synthetic sports surface was at the Houston Astrodome, in Texas, and had been installed in 1966 – the same year as some people ran onto a natural pitch in North London, thinking it was all over!

Given that David is a man with whom you could talk for hours and hours I decided to limit the bulk of the time to the subject he talked on at Loughborough – synthetics.

As a starting point I asked him that, if that Houston pitch were an Amstrad computer, where were we at now?

“I would say the Apple Mac Pro. However it’s still not a finished development. Looking at synthetic surfaces, they’ve really come on huge amounts in terms of playability, athlete welfare, skin injury risks and other injuries,” said David, adding that as with most industries sustainability is now very much the driving consideration.

As for a Eureka moment for the synthetic turf industry along that path from 1966 to 2024..

“I think the Eureka moment has to be the arrival of the so-called 3G. “The two key components of a 3G pitch are a longer pile. Rather than something that’s 25mm, it’s up at 50mm or 60mm.

“And then having an infill, which does a number of things. First of all, it keeps the fibres standing upright which allows players to wear studded footwear, because the infill allows the penetration of the studs. So it gives traction which is much more similar to natural turf and the ball bounce is more comparable to natural turf. You’ve got much more energy distribution so you don’t get very high bounce or very long roll.

“It really simulates natural turf much more closely than those early generations of pitch,” said David, adding that the original 1966 Astrodome pitch was much better suited to American football than it would have been for our more global version of the game.

And indeed those early pitches were still perfectly suited to a sport that has thrived since the introduction of synthetic surfaces – hockey.

But as development continued the understanding of the benefits of a high quality artificial pitch grew.

The key argument for synthetic turf is that that it can withstand up to ten times more playing hours than a natural turf field.

“That’s really important, as you can then look at the availability of land.

Among the reasons why synthetic turf took off so much is that you’ve got this all-weather playability. We don’t get fixtures being cancelled in February. It’s a sobering statistic that up to 50% of all football matches are cancelled in February in recreational football,” revealed David.

“Added to that rather than having ten football pitches you can have as many games on just one pitch. That literally frees up land. You can sell off your playing fields, perhaps for housing developments, and keep the one synthetic field because it can withstand the amount of use.”

But now having had 20 years when 3G pitches were the gold standard new heights are being reached and new quality levels achieved.

“We’re now looking at the next generation of pitch. What we’re looking at is having a shorter pile system, perhaps 40mm using less infill material and having a shock pad under the turf.

“Using less infill on the top and incorporating a shockpad underneath, you get synthetic surfaces which are more consistent than natural turf,” said David, adding that upwards of 35% of all the recycled tyres in the world get recycled into sport fields.

The EU have made a decision to effectively have a ban on the sale of granulated tyres for this use from 2031. The UK has yet to decide what they are going to do.

“There is a lot of work looking at alternative infill materials and there are many options including coconut husks, olive pips, ground walnuts, shells, corn on the cob, cork, wood chip.”

The with man perfect pitch

The with man perfect pitch

For a system to work everything has to gel – the shock pad, the carpet, the density of the pile, the amount of stabilising infill, the sand and how much performance infill there is.

“We’re now in a period where there’s going to be huge diversity in the market with these different infill materials, different shock pads, different pile lengths.

They’ve got different characteristics. They’ve got different price points. They’ve got different maintenance issues, different longevity. Some of the materials are very robust while others are more prone to deterioration over time.”

One previous area of concern was the level of injury which can be caused by playing on a synthetic pitch.

“I recently gave a speech at the SAPCA conference on the latest research into the injury risk to players from different playing surfaces. There are very strong perceptions among elite football players that synthetic turf has a highest higher injury risk.

“I don’t discount the player experience but, at the same time, I want to look at the data and there have been something like a 120 peer-reviewed scientific publications that have compared inury risk between synthetic turf and natural turf.

“Indeed here has been a recent systematic review, which took 53 of the highest quality studies from all over the world. It showed that there is no elevated injury risk on synthetic turf to natural turf for football. It did, however, show a slight elevation of risk in American football.”

Around about 10 years ago there were newspaper headlines, and some anecdotal evidence, that rubber crumb in synthetic pitches was causing cancer. However all research has since revealed that the level of potentially carcinogenic chemicals in recycled tyres is so low that it is deemed to be of no risk to humans.

Having taken on the global CEO role at Labosport 18 months ago, how did David find himself in such a key role within the sporting world?

“I actually trained as a mechanical engineer at the University of Sheffield, so for me it’s all about materials and how balls and athletes interact with the surface. That’s still my fundamental passion and I view a lot of these topics through the prism of engineering.

I’m not an agronomist, but I did my engineering degree and then a PhD that was funded by the England and Wales Cricket Board. I got to work with Bill Adams, who sadly recently died, He was a huge leading light in agronomy, and worked for the ECB, looking at cricket pitches.

“He was taking soil cores and looking at clay content while I was coming from an engineering perspective, looking at how balls bounced. It’s impact mechanics.

“I was using high-speed video to film balls bouncing and then characterising things such as the pace of the bounce. That got me going on the engineering of sports surfaces, The surface is fundamentally an engineered product, whether it’s natural or synthetic. Amazingly, my PhD actually became an important reference document on cricket pitches and the science of cricket pitches.”

David remained in academia for the next 15 years, focusing on how balls and humans interact with surfaces in all sorts of different ways.

“I was looking at footwear and worked with companies like Adidas, while working for the University of Sheffield and then Sheffield Hallam University.

“I ended up running the Research Centre. We had a great time during London 2012 as well, and did a lot of work with our Olympic teams, taking this engineering perspective around sports performance and understanding the sports environment. But my personal passion has always been the surface, always been understanding the playing surface or the running shoe.”

David joined Labosport six years ago and ran the UK side of Labosport. Then, a year and a half ago, he became CEO of the whole group.

Labosport has 16 laboratories in 11 countries but also has companies, such as PSD, Professional Sports Turf Design, TGMS. Outside of Europe there is Labosport China, Labosport India and Labosport Australia.

“We also have the New Zealand Sports Turf Institute. In the Americas, we’ve got Labosport Canada and in Texas, Labosport USA, which really focuses on golf and the golf industry.”

The company is there to assist anyone wishing to develop sports facilities.

“It could be that we produce a feasibility study. Maybe you’ve got an old facility, you’ve got a piece of empty land, and want to build an athletics’ track. We would look at the ground conditions and then provide options and potential designs and then perhaps assist with the writing of a specification and then assist it through planning. We’re an independent consultant, so we stand aside from construction. However we might be involved in monitoring the quality of the construction and carry out the certification. We would then monitor the pitch throughout its life, carrying out recertifications and ultimately look at the end-of-life options.”

Having been immersed the subject for so many years it would be remiss not to ask David for his thoughts on the future and where he would like to see stadiums and pitches in the next decade or so.

“I would like to see the industry moving away from the model where you have a massive stadium in a city where you play one game every two weeks. It’s a huge facility so why not have four or five games a week there shared by different clubs – men and women, rugby and football, hockey whatever.

“From a sustainability perspective, it just makes so much sense.”

Even if that means we won’t be seeing any modern day images of the likes of Ronnie Radford and Fran Cotton!

Saints are marching in

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Saints are marching in: Susan Lindsay paid a visit to St Andrews to see the work first hand of the grounds team at the oldest university in Scotland.

The University of St Andrews, Scotland’s oldest and highest-ranking, is home to Saints Sports. Stretching over 40 acres, the grounds were gifted to the University in 1904 by Andrew Carnegie.

Saints are marching in

Saints are marching in

The sports grounds combine 13 grass pitches, eight football pitches, two rugby pitches, one lacrosse, one shinty, one ultimate frisbee and two cricket fields. The pitches are overseeded using BAR 7 RPR grass seed mixture and 500 tonnes of dune washed sand is applied annually. Soil is also tested regularly to assess the quality.

There really is a sport for everyone. You might be wondering what ultimate frisbee is – simply known as “Ultimate”, it is a non-contact sport that involves “hucking”/throwing the frisbee long distances and trying to “Sky”, that is grab the disc in the air over the opponent. There are seven players on each team.

I met up with the Estates team and was greeted with smiles and cups of tea all round. With drinks in hand, we settled down to chat about the sports grounds and all that come along with them.

Dressed crisply in well-ironed trousers and Saints Sports polo shirts, the team looked every inch the personification of attention to detail that their jobs require and demand.

This has been my experience of the greenkeeping industry, throughout my travels around Scotland. Along with this comes the ubiquitous and somewhat compulsory working greenkeeper’s/apprentice’s shorts.

Even on a cold, frosty day like today in November, when the thermometer doesn’t reach much further than one degree and there is a yellow snow warning dominating the country, the shorts are out!

Present today is John Reid – Grounds and Facilities Manager, Fraser Wright – Head Groundsman and Gary Brankin – Assistant Director of sports operations and facilities. I will also get to meet the current apprentice, Gary, and the assistant groundsman, Ross, along with Fraser’s Deputy, another Gary.

Saints are marching in

Saints are marching in

The team meet on a Monday morning to discuss the week’s schedule and Fraser encourages each member of the group to participate in discussions and rotate tasks. In the 2018 industry awards, the team were finalists. It was the first time they took part and rate it as a very good experience and something that John Reid plans to do again.

2018 industry awards, the team were finalists. It was the first time they took part and rate it as a very good experience and something that John Reid plans to do again.

Being interested in sport as well as keeping the grounds in pristine condition is pretty much a prerequisite here and all the lads are interested in and have played football, along with
golf. Nowadays, Fraser prefers to cycle to raise money for charity and the boys are kept active maintaining the grounds.

Gary (Brankin) was keen to emphasise that all the work done to the grounds is for the student and the student’s experience, first and foremost. They prioritise reinvesting
back into the grounds and facilities for the students. Once an energetic sportsman himself, Gary now puts his energy into family life and is proud to tell me his daughter plays in the under-tens.

Students and young people starting out in their careers and developing their education is at the heart of all they do at Saints Sports. This is evident in the grounds at the University and the time and investment they put into apprentice greenkeepers coming in through SRUC.

At St Andrews and at SRUC the apprentices learn good turf management and aeration techniques, two skills that the team at the Saints Sports grounds put into practice to keep the grounds from suffering over-watering and keeping them disease free.

I asked the football team for some of the club’s thoughts on the sports grounds:

“The quality of both grass and 3G pitches allows us to train and play at a very high standard, similar to professional players. Playing on the same quality of pitches as the professionals is a great privilege and it’s special for us to be able to gives our players the opportunity of developing as much as possible. The high standard of our pitches has been proven as teams such as Manchester United, West Ham and Brighton have used them for training camps.”

Saints are marching in

Saints are marching in

The pitches have contributed to the success of the club and its development to where it stands today. Currently the men’s section of the football club has seven competitive afternoon in the Scottish University Leagues throughout the full academic year and a membership of around 180 players from all over the world.

The men’s first team have just won tier two of the Scottish University leagues to be promoted to tier one next season. They have also won the Conference Cup for the third time in the last four seasons. In 2018 the team won the prestigious Queen’s Park Shield for the first time in 75 years.

“We currently have around 80 members to the women’s part of the football club which currently makes up three competitive teams. The women’s section is one that has grown a lot in the last ten years from initially one team to now having three who all represent the University in the BUCS competitions throughout the full academic year,” said the team.

“Our first team previously competed in the top Scottish university league and for the previous three seasons won the top Scottish league (1A), winning all games in the process. Following promotion at the end of last season, we now play in the British North League, the highest league we can play at in the university level and recently won that league for the first time in the club’s history. Our second team and third team are both top of their respective leagues and will hope to be promoted at the end of the season.”

Further information on the football club can be found on their website: football.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk

To the question of what the future holds and John doesn’t hesitate to tell me that they plan to further improve the pitches and upgrade the irrigation systems. They also aim to invest more in equipment and continue work organically and manage water usage.

Currently they are completely chemical free with no use of fungicides or pesticides and they utilise fertiliser in the form of a seaweed formula from Orkney.

Another item of equipment that the team currently possess is a beam rider for laser line marking. This takes the place of apprentices past use of string lines.

The 3G synthetic pitch features 100 per cent recycled fibre playing surface with a biodegradable non-toxic cork in-fill and was the first pitch of this kind, provided by FieldTurf, in the UK.

Saints are marching in

Saints are marching in

The third-generation synthetic surface is made using cutting edge methods to reduce the waste and pollution being created each year and contributes to a healthier environment in sport.

The 3G pitch at St Andrews offers a top level playing surface and is suitable for hosting international level matches and has achieved both FIFE Quality and world rugby regulations 22 certifications.

As to what the rest of this frosty day brings, the boys will be cleaning out and tidying up the shed. Even at the most prestigious University in the country, the shed takes priority sometimes! It’s always a satisfying job on cold days like these anyway and some of the best ideas are borne out of time spent in the shed.

There are some beech hedges to be cut back but I think, with the excitement of getting those knees out today, they might be better suited to a calm afternoon in the shed to recover.

They are all keen to tell me that working at the University of St Andrews sports grounds is a pleasure and a privilege and that they are a strong team who work well together to provide each skill needed in a profession where teamwork is critical.

They also enjoy the setting of St Andrews itself, with cafés, restaurants and beaches set in a picturesque location. With a quiet beauty, a calming atmosphere and an air of respect for your privacy, St Andrews continues to attract and gain enquiries from far afield.

Today might be overcast and cold, but the future looks bright for the Estates department here at St Andrews – and the guys are ready to continue to provide excellent facilities for many students to come.

An Italian Japanese fusion

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An Italian Japanese fusion: Scott MacCallum joined the media pack on a visit to Italy.

It seems like a marriage made in heaven. Italian flair and imagination combined with Japanese efficiency and drive. That is exactly what has been achieved by the purchase of Gianni Ferrari by the Kubota company in 2022.

An Italian Japanese fusion

An Italian Japanese fusion

Even in that very short space of time the Japanese influence has been felt in the traditional and characterful, Gianni Ferrari factory in the outskirts of Bologne, and Kubota’s overall product portfolio has been significantly expanded, particularly through Gianni Ferrari’s excellent zero turn mower range and the launch of the XC3 and XC4 into the UK market.

The introduction of the new models like the FC2-221 and FC3- 221 has expanded the company’s portfolio for commercial users.

The Kubota power and influence now driving Gianni Ferrari is truly immense. Kubota is a 3 trillion yen company which, given the complication of so many zeros, makes my estimate of £15.6 billion open to some scrutiny. However, they operate in 120 countries and have sold 5.5 million tractors worldwide and 30 million engines so it is huge by any measure.

In buying Gianni Ferrari Kubota ensured that the gap in their offering for large sized ride on mowers was removed and means that as Kubota celebrates 50 years in the European market, it is strongly placed to build on the success started in 1974.

Since becoming Kubota Gianni Ferrari the company has introduced some efficiency solutions within the factory, removing one wall to make the production line less complex and bringing in light blue trolleys containing frequently required parts rather than the engineer having to return to a central point every time one was needed.

It is a common misunderstanding that Gianni Ferrari and Enzo Ferrari, of Formula 1 fame, are related in some way. As it happens Ferrari is the Italian form of Smith, and is a very common name on some areas of the country.

With the experience and support of Kubota globally, Kubota Gianni Ferrari have been working hard over the last two years to embrace the very best of the Japanese Kaizen approach to processes and manufacturing – which was evident in the streamlined approach to production visible during the factory tour.

In addition, Kubota’s advanced digital marketing has been used to communicate with Gianni Ferrari users about parts and service availability through Kubota dealers.

The assembled press, including all of the major industry titles in the UK, were also able to learn more about the current and ongoing developments within the product range such as the ‘conversion’ of the PG XPRO into the Kubota FC3- 261, and the FC4-501 which has become one of the most powerful, comfortable and operationally equipped mowers on the market.

While the unprecedented rainfall from the ironically named Storm Boris put paid to seeing the range in action, spirits were not dampened as all enjoyed gaining an insight into the approach – both now and that of the future – and the fascinating company ethos by speakers including Kosuke Ota, Vice President of Kubota Gianni Ferrari S.R.L.

Further presentations were also delivered by Henry Bredin, General Manager and Matt Wilson, Groundcare Product Manager, of Kubota (UK).

“It’s been fantastic to witness first-hand the enthusiasm and passion among the Kubota Gianni Ferrari team and to be able to share this with the media from the UK and Ireland was a real pleasure,” said Matt.

“All of us at Kubota are incredibly excited about the bright future we have with the FC range, not just in traditional groundcare applications, but also in other guises where it can also support the maintenance of artificial sports surfaces.”

Castle Gardens

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Castle Gardens: Scott MacCallum discovers that a successful garden is a key component to a successful Estate.

Kelso’s Floors Castle, in the beautifully unspoilt Scottish Borders, is a place where no two days are ever the same. If it’s a three day event on the equestrian diary; outdoor Shakespeare theatre in the summer; commercial farming; among the finest fishing and shooting to be found anywhere… or even a Michael Bublé concert, there is always something going on at Roxburghe Estate, to give it its correct title.

Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens

The grounds are stunning, stretching across a whopping 50,000 acres and including the Tweed and Teviot rivers. They also boast Floors, Scotland’s largest inhabited castle.

Also, if you listen carefully you might just hear a familiar cry and notice a rustling of the trees in the woods. The reason?

The castle featured in the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes!

It takes a lot to run such an Estate, but key to much that goes on are the spectacular gardens which provide not just a tranquil sanctuary for those lucky enough to walk among them, but fresh produce for the Duke and the Castle’s residents and guests but for sale in the Castle shop too.

For example, there is a white board in the mess room identifying all the Estate shooting parties so that he can ensure there are flowers, looking their best, in each of the guest bedrooms.

The man tasked with making sure everything is looking as good as it is edible is Head Gardener Simon McManus.

Simon runs the gardens with a team of four who look after the vegetable gardens and the show gardens including the five acre Millenium Garden, which has around two miles of edging all of
which is now cut by strimmers, a task which takes two days given favourable weather and carried out once a week. The walled old garden is another four acres, and also contains a number of glass houses.

The Millenium Garden features two miles of edging, and is cut by strimmer.

“It used to be cut by hand shears and would take five or six of us all day. With a strimmer you can do it all edging in a day, weather permitting and it’s done once a week, but that’s going some.

“The groundsman does it and he’s got a routine. So he’ll start here and hopefully get back to here within the week, and then start all over again. It doesn’t take much to knock them off – an afternoon of rain or a machine breakdown.”

Simon has been at Floors for over 20 years and Head Gardener for the last two. His fellow gardeners have arrived at the Castle, and in the horticultural industry, following careers in anything ranging from grave digging to owning a recruitment business.

“We work well as a team, which is good. On the big jobs, we just get stuck in. Like today we’re picking apples and we’re all on it,” said Mark, adding that this was something new.

“Previously, the apples just went to waste as we didn’t get any revenue for them, Now, as a new venture, a company is going to produce cider for us and we need to collect all the apples we can to provide the juice,” he explained.

Castle Gardens

Castle Gardens

It’s not just the weather that can get in the way of the smooth running of the gardens.

“Breakdowns are a real nuisance. You’ve got a job on and then the machine doesn’t start. Last week, the Kubota machine had two punctures. One step forward and one step sideways!”

They do embrace modern technology and had introduced a robot mower to the team.

“We have a Husqvarna robot mower. It does a very good job because it’s cutting it constantly, it’s not like it gets to grow two inches and then cut back. We also got a new piece of kit last year, called the Foam Stream which uses heat to destroy weeds.”

How does the work fall on an annual basis?

“September is probably the quietest month of the year – everything’s done! Over the next few months we’ll be cutting back herbaceous borders and take them right back.

Then we’ll be on with the pruning, rose pruning, apple pruning, the plums. And that’ll keep us busy. Peaches, that’s quite labour-intensive because they’re all tied in a traditional method which looks great but takes time. It’s always been done like that and it’s nice to keep it going. When you get it done just perfectly, it does look good.

“And that’ll take us right up to Christmas and beyond,” said Simon, who also conducts pruning workshops in the garden.

The Castle gardens are very popular with the many visitors who are attracted to Floors and while many are pleased and interested to see the quality of the work carried out, others can be more critical.

“Sometimes they say that we should have had X or Y harvested by that time in the year. But if we did that they’d have nothing to look at! Also with just four gardeners there is a limit to what we can do and sometimes there have to be compromises made.”

The new year starts with seed sowing.

“We’ll start with leeks and onions,and the like and that will run through sort of into May, April, March and April when we carry our propagation and more seed sowing, bedding plants, veg plants, plants for the castle,” explained Simon, who nets the herbaceous borders.

Simon’s team are experienced in years but have arrived in the world of horticulture via previous lives. For example Kate McClorey, Assistant Head Gardener and current Scottish Garden Designer of the Year worked in the world or recruitment, while Mark Baldwin was a grave digger.

Claire Nicho also had various jobs before finally arriving at the Castle.

Prior to taking over as Head Gardener, Simon used to be in sole charge of the glasshouses.

“That was my thing. All I did was the glasshouses. Now managing the garden and the glasshouses is hard going, particularly when you’re hands-on.”

His ambition when he took over his new role was to make his mark.

“I wanted to raise the standard up to the sort of next level. And the feedback we’ve had this year from the visitors is all very positive. Many saying that this is probably one of the nicest gardens that they’ve seen.“

But he is aware that without bigger budgets, a dream to all but the very few, there are compromises that have to be made.

“If I had more staff, I’d have the lawns weed free and cut with a cylinder mower so we’d get beautiful stripes.”

It’s fair to say that in the last two years Simon has earned his own stripes and is delighted to be working as such a special place as Floors Castle.

“It’s a good place to work and it’s certainly not a drudge getting out of bed in the morning to come here.”

Simon and his team are a key cog in the whole Roxburghe Estate operation and the dedication and hard work shown by them show ensure that the Estate and the iconic Floors Castle will remain as one of the country’s foremost tourist destinations.

World class ambition

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World class ambition: Scott MacCallum caught up with Corey Finn, a New Zealander managing a United Nations of staff in Abu Dhabi.

As a 17-year-old boy, New Zealander Corey Finn wrote down what he hoped to achieve in life. He wasn’t giving himself an easy ride, as his goal was to be Superintendent of a Top 100 Golf Club by the age of 35.

World class ambition

World class ambition

Viya Golf in Abu Dhabi has three fantastic golf courses, including Yas Links, host to the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, which is ranked 32nd in the Golf Digest World Top 100 rankings. And yes, Corey is Director of Agronomy and very much the man in charge of the golf courses.

He achieved his ambition! Well, not exactly, as he was 36 when he took the job two years ago, missing his target by a year. But seeing what he has achieved since arriving in Abu Dhabi, no-one is going to hold that against him.

Under his charge is the aforementioned Yas Links, which has a greenkeeping team of between 45 to 50 for its 27 holes; Yas Acres, which has a staff of around 32, for its nine holes and large landscaped area, and Saadiyat Beach Golf Club, with a team of around 40. Each are exceptional examples of their type.

“Saadiyat is probably the hardest of the three to manage due to its high-profile visitors and the size and quality of the properties on the site that we maintain,” revealed Corey.

The quality of all the golf courses, coupled with the nature of the members and guests, mean expectations and standards are air-thinningly high.

It’s not probably a true reflection on what golf is in the world. At Viya Golf members and guests have everything provided for them. From turning up and someone taking your bag out of your car; a comfortable locker room; golf balls ready for you on the range. Everything you could possibly want or need before you even hit the 1st tee.

“You go to New Zealand where I’m from, or to Scotland, at most golf courses you take your own range balls and pick them up afterwards.

So a lot of golfers out here have extremely high expectations.

And we have to meet them.

“Some of our members and guests started playing golf here and it’s all they know. They don’t realise that this is a golfing Disneyland, in terms of conditioning, and that it is consistently very good, virtually all of the year round.

“That said we are still always working with Mother Nature and it’s a challenge.”

Yas Links is, as its name suggests, a links course – not a style of course you would have a right to expect in the desert-like Middle Eastern topography.

World class ambition

World class ambition

“Every country around the world has its own unique climate. Here we have a few things to deal with – heat and humidity are the main ones, while we’re using recycled water on all three properties. It’s great that we’re using recycled water, but in reality it’s not the best quality.”

Viya Golf’s water is treated by the Abu Dhabi state before it reaches the golf courses and it doesn’t receive any further treatment.

“We don’t treat the water, but we’re using Paspalum, which is salt tolerant, to overcome the deficiencies in our irrigation water,” said Corey.

That Paspalum was found near the beach, so you could argue that, while it is completely different from those links grasses found in Scotland, it is still a legitimate links grass.

“It was found in a warm season climate next to the beach and was developed from there. Hence why it’s a good grass for us in the region. I’m not going to say it’s going to work in Scotland, or even that it’s going to work in Saudi Arabia, but it works for us,” he explained.

“It can handle the irrigation water, it can handle being next to the seaside breezes, which whip up, and carry salt through the air.”

Corey can get his grasses incredibly short, especially the recent versions of Paspalum which provides the firmness required for running a links course.

“We get our greens down as low as 1.3mm, surrounds to 2mm, while fairways are cut at 4.5mm.”

While they host regular Ladies European Tour and Challenge Tour events, perhaps the highlight of the season, and what gets the juices flowing for Corey and the team, is the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship which sees a host of the world’s best competing for vast sums of money.

Who can forget the astonishing holed bunker shot by Victor Perez on the 71st hole, which set up his win in January 2023?

When we spoke, Corey was about to start the prep for the next edition of the tournament, which has been moved by the DP Tour to a November slot.

“Going from a January tournament to a November tournament makes it a bigger challenge for us. That’s for sure.

“Our build-up is pretty much starting now (speaking in mid-August). It’s still incredibly hot and we are battling with water issues, but my goal is to have the golf course as good, if not better, than the January tournaments.

“We did some mock prep last year in November, when we knew the date was changing, to see where we were going to be and I was pretty happy with what we could deliver,” he said.

Like a Formula One driver trying to manage his car and nurse it over the line, Corey looks at how best to manage his team in uncomfortable circumstances.

“We start slowly as I’ve got to manage my staff through the heat. It’s still mid-40s and humid, so I’m trying to work out when I pull the trigger – when we’re going to push hard and push the staff that little bit harder.

World class ambition

World class ambition

“If I go too early, I’m going to burn these guys out. So that’s going to be a new challenge. There’s a lot of growth in November.

“We will produce a golf course fit for the occasion,” said Corey, who has built up an excellent relationship with Tournament Director, Miguel Vidaor and the DP Tour agronomists.

“If Miguel asks for 10 feet I make sure he gets it, but it’s not just that. Anyone can get fast greens, that’s easy, but holding a number, or holding a speed, is the challenge. If it’s 10 feet on Thursday, I want them 10 feet all week.”

Speaking with Corey is to appreciate that he is a greenkeeper through and through.

“I just love greenkeeping at the end of the day and doing what we’re doing out here,” said Corey, who attended the Ohio State programme at the age of 19.

From an environmental perspective at the time of talking, Viya Golf was on the verge of achieving its GEO certification, while it is already Audubon accredited.

The club recently recorded 194 species of birds, including one which was actually thought to be extinct – a striped whimbrel which hadn’t been seen in about 10 years. A whimbrel is a smaller version of the curlew, with a shorter, straighter then down-curved bill and pale crown-stripe.

“It’s not just about golf here for us. We are big on the environmental side of things,” said Corey who has recently worked with local schools on environmental projects.

“We use sustainable products wherever possible including a lot of organics and actually we don’t throw out a lot of fertiliser. When it comes to our chemicals and pesticides, we go down the preventative route,” he revealed.

There are obvious differences between working in Abu Dhabi and other parts of the golfing world, and not all agronomic.

When asked to highlight something he deals with which would be different from his colleagues in the UK, Corey talks about pulling together the skills of a team drawn from all corners of the world, many different religions, and a massive disparity in ability levels.

“My assistant, Jack, was trying to train a guy to reverse a machine and trailer and he just couldn’t get it. He just kept going backwards, without looking and couldn’t work out why it wouldn’t go straight back,” recalled Corey.

And then there was the “mechanic” who was instructed to go and grease a machine.

“He went out and spread grease over the entire machine!”

But Corey couldn’t be more complimentary of his United Nations of staff and he is seen as very much of a father figure to a team which very much wants to please, and occasionally do refer to him as “father”.

World class ambition

World class ambition

“I put a lot of trust in guys. They are from all parts of the world, including India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which are countries which have issues back home. Many of them come with no education, a wide range of religions, and we train them from scratch.

“In fact, I prefer to bring guys in who have not had any training so I can teach these guys to our way of doing things. But I’ve had guys who come from small villages where they’ve never even been in a car or even seen a car,” said Corey.

“I can go to a guy and say to him that I need him to go mow a green. They’ll go ‘Ok, no problem boss’. Then go and do something completely different!

“If I try and grab a shovel they’ll take it off me, as it’s almost a sign of disrespect to them,” said Corey, who added that he often has to force guys that don’t like drinking water.

“Every year the same guys get sick. You are always reminding them that they have to look after themselves and drink water, but still they don’t!”

Corey also finds himself helping them on outside of work issues, including how to make a doctor’s appointment or opening a bank account.

“That’s because they’ve always been in a village and haven’t the experience of living away in a different country. They haven’t acquired the life skills.”

“You’re managing the whole person, not just the working person. Yes, they’re working for you but they need a lot of other support and you’ve got to make allowances for that sort of thing.”

It’s a measure of how far Corey has come in his greenkeeping career that he has the maturity to handle all that comes his way. It perhaps suggests that while he just missed the goal the 17-year-old greenkeeper set for himself, he is probably better off for it.

“I now appreciate that the golf course is one big circle and not isolated from everything else.

If the guy that picks the golf clubs out of the car, drops them, the golf course is going to be disappointing, and in the restaurant, the food’s going to be lousy.”

“I’ve come a long way in the last five years in understanding and getting better at seeing the bigger picture. I’m not saying I’m perfect, but I’ve now got the miles on the clock.

“I was that guy that used to wear emotions on the chest. I still do, but there’s a time where you’ve just got to hold it in and perhaps I wouldn’t have done had I become a Superintendent at 30.

“I strongly believe you need to work through all the steps and gain that experience and gain that knowledge.”

That experience is sure to ensure that Corey, and any golf club which benefits from his talents, are sure to have a successful future.