Tag Archive for: Business

9 year old launches mowing business

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9 year old launches mowing business: A nine-year-old from Kent has launched his own lawn mowing business so he can save up to become a tree surgeon.

Read the full article from KentOnline here

9 year old launches mowing business

9 year old launches mowing business

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EcoBunker’s new business development manager

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EcoBunker’s new business development manager: Synthetic bunker edging specialist EcoBunker has made a significant expansion by appointing Hamish Crichton as its new business development manager. Crichton joined EcoBunker at the start of May, from soil surfectant and wetting agent provider Aquatrols.

“I come from a corporate background, but a few years ago I decided I wanted to follow my passion, and work in the golf business,” said Crichton. “Although I don’t have a background in golf, while at Aquatrols I took the Fertiliser Adviser Certification and Training Scheme (FACTS) qualification. It was quite a challenge to go back to school for the first time in years, but it did me a lot of good. I found that I love the science in soil and grass. It’s one of the first jobs where I’ve found myself reading books or watching videos at one in the morning and my wife has nudged me saying ‘Go to sleep’. The thing that astonished me was the number of times I read ‘The answer is not yet known’. It’s almost like a frontier science.”

EcoBunker's new business development manager

EcoBunker’s new business development manager

“I have a lot of sympathy for greenkeepers. On top of dealing with Mother Nature and the curve balls she throws at them, they have members to worry about! For me, I’m keen to expand my knowledge of the whole arena of golf. I got to know about the greenkeeping side of things, but I wanted to expand my knowledge of architecture and construction, and understand the world of the general manager. My previous experience in marketing and business development trained mehow to present a proposition to a general manager or a greens chairman, who are usually from a similar sort of background and that’s going to be a very important part of my role.

“I had a number of different opportunities, but I chose to join EcoBunker because I believe it is a company that has almost limitless potential. When Richard Allen first conceived synthetic revetting, it was to provide a new solution to the erosion of low edge parkland bunkers. He wanted to give golf courses the option of building aesthetically pleasing, more architecturally interesting bunker shapes without the worry of introducing an increased maintenance burden. As it turned out, the product quickly became popular on higher faced links pot bunkers and our challenge now is to change perceptions, demonstrating that the product translates extremely well to all golf course styles. It helps that we now have a wonderful portfolio from the tropics to the tundra, Major venues to municipals, featuring parkland, heathland and desert courses. EcoBunker allows greenkeeping staff to spend less time on their bunkers and get on with maintaining the surfaces that really matter.”

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Changing the Business of Golf with Fame Tate

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Changing the Business of Golf with Fame Tate: A unique new docuseries telling the remarkable story of one woman’s mission to turnaround a rundown golf club and make it a friendly, accessible and inclusive community venue is now streaming on syngentagolf.com

In a first for the golf industry, the fly-on-the-wall documentary, Changing the Business of Golf, follows former Ladies European Tour professional Fame Tate as she breaks with tradition and aims to transform the course and customer experience at Stanedge Golf Club, Derbyshire.

Changing the Business of Golf with Fame Tate

Changing the Business of Golf with Fame Tate

In the first episode, Fame recalls the life-changing decision to acquire the golf course and how she is turning the club into an open, friendly venue at the heart of her local community.

Meanwhile, as the team prepares for a new season, they are faced with the prospect of preparing the golf course for reopening without their head greenkeeper.

“If you’d said to me one day you’ll own a golf club, I’d have probably sat there are laughed,” says Fame, whose playing career was cut short by injury. “My vision from day one was to break away from the traditional golf club model. It’s about making a place that’s welcoming, affordable, accessible, inclusive.”

Working closely with her greenkeeping team – and revealing how she rolled up her sleeves to get stuck in to groundwork – Fame is investing in a major course upgrade to improve playing conditions.

The series documents day-to-day happenings, including course management work led by head greenkeeper Christian ‘CJ’ Johnson.

“It was a tough task for Fame and everybody involved to get the course back to where it was,” says CJ. “But since then we have really tried to improve it as a team and get it moving forwards.”

Just one year after acquiring the club, Fame faced the potentially catastrophic challenge of the Covid pandemic and enforced lockdown, forcing her and the team to call on their inner reserves of strength and resilience to keep the business afloat.

Will she realise her vision and succeed? The series will follow Fame and her team as she reopens Stanedge Golf Club and takes on the business of golf.

Watch the first episode now on Syngenta Golf: https://www.syngentagolf.com/changing-business-golf

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New business for renowned greenkeeper

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New business for renowned greenkeeper: Chris Haspell, formerly course manager at Castle Stuart Golf Links in Scotland, and project manager of the ill-fated Coul Links project near Royal Dornoch has launched a turf and golf business consultancy.

Chris Haspell & Associates aims to help golf clubs across the world deal with turf, construction, ecological and machinery issues, among other services. Haspell, who has 35 years in the industry and has already consulted at clubs including North Berwick and St Enodoc, originally made his name at Horsholm Golf in Denmark, where he led a reconstruction of the 27-hole complex.

New business for renowned greenkeeper

New business for renowned greenkeeper

Recently, as well as leading the attempt to build Coul Links for developers Todd Warnock and Mike Keiser, Haspell has project managed the construction of the New course at Les Bordes in France for architect Gil Hanse, with whom he first worked at Castle Stuart. “We were completely confident that in our absence, due to the pandemic, the grow-in would proceed magnificently, and it has! We cannot recommend him highly enough,” said Hanse.

As well as his own consulting business, Haspell is continuing to work with American super-developer Mike Keiser on a number of projects – he has consulted on the growing of fescue at a number of Keiser’s projects, including Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Cabot Cliffs in Canada. “Chris Haspell has that rare magic touch with all things golf,” said Keiser.

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GEA 2021 open for business

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GEA 2021 open for business: Golf clubs and greenkeepers around Europe are invited to apply for the Golf Environment Awards 2021.

The GEAs recognise those in the golf industry that are breaking the mould and highlighting the wide-ranging environmental benefits of golf.

GEA 2021 open for business

GEA 2021 open for business

Entrants may apply for awards in four categories – Environmental Golf Course of the Year, Conservation Greenkeeper of the Year, Outstanding Environmental Project of the Year and Operation Pollinator.

This year we are excited to announce that, for the first time, a panel of judges, selected from across the golf industry, will choose the winners from this year’s entrants.

We are also pleased to introduce a new prize. A £750 grant will be awarded to each winner to invest into environmental and ecological projects at the club.

We encourage all clubs, however big or small, to enter. Entry is free and each entrant will be assessed upon their own merits. A shortlist of finalists will be chosen from categories’ entrants and each will receive a visit from an STRI consultant who will perform an onsite ecological and environmental assessment, using current social distancing advice from the government in relation to Covid-19.

Applications are being accepted up to midnight on 7 August 2020 to give entrants additional time to put together an application during the current pandemic.

Senior environment consultant, Sophie Olejnik, said: “We are so excited to be launching the 2021 Golf Environment Awards and, despite current circumstances, we want to remain positive and celebrate all that is good in golf. We hope that the addition of our new judging panel and prizes will entice more of you to enter and be part of the Golf Environment Awards family.”

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