Tag Archive for: golf

2024 golf salary recommendations published

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2024 golf salary recommendations published: Following extensive research, the Committee for Golf Club Salaries (CGCS) has recommended a 7% increase in the salaries of golf club staff for 2024.

With an increase in the National Living Wage due to come into force from April 2024, to ensure all staff remain ahead of that base line a 9% increase has also been recommended for assistant greenkeeper salaries.

2024 golf salary recommendations published

2024 golf salary recommendations published

The increases have been added to the salary calculators provided on the CGCS website and take into account the National Living Wage increase, the prevailing economic environment and the importance of golf facility staff to the overall industry.

The salary calculators take into account geographic regions, facility size, core responsibilities, club rating, qualifications and experience, ensuring recommendations can be tailored to individual members of staff.

The CGCS is comprised of representatives of the British & International Golf Greenkeepers Association (BIGGA) and the Golf Club Managers’ Association (GCMA) alongside independent golf club experts.

While keen to impress the need for golf clubs to ensure staff are suitably paid and valued by their employers, the committee is also aware that employee reward and retention must be balanced alongside the affordability and financial health of the business.

Alongside salaries, the organisations represented on the CGCS advocate for the provision of resources aimed at supporting employee mental health and wellbeing, as well as providing adequate opportunities for career pathway support, training and development. To find out more about what BIGGA and GCMA can provide in these areas, please do not hestitate to get in touch. Contact details are on the various associations’ websites.

Head to the CGCS website for more information and to explore the salary calculators, guidelines and principles of good pay.

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MM Seed: A Key Ingredient for Golf Course Excellence

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MM Seed: A Key Ingredient for Golf Course Excellence: Attendees at BTME 2024, visiting DLF’s stand 126 in Hall B, can anticipate a showcase of cutting-edge products from the world’s premier grass seed breeder and producer.

In the face of increasing demands and pressures on modern greenkeepers to maintain a consistent playing surface, the pivotal elements for a top-tier golf course are seed quality, purity, and vigour. The MM range of seed mixtures stands out by utilising materials from the DLF Select programme, ensuring high purity and germination rates.

MM Seed: A Key Ingredient for Golf Course Excellence

MM Seed: A Key Ingredient for Golf Course Excellence

For over three decades, greenkeepers and course managers have reaped the benefits of choosing the MM brand and its superior quality varieties. All MM varieties undergo thorough testing at the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI), guaranteeing that the final product meets the requirements for play, appearance, and maintenance.

Leading the way for golf greens is MM9, a three-way Browntop bent mixture that remains a top choice for renovations and species exchange. MM8, designed for links-style courses and sustainable golf, offers a three-way fescue mix with excellent disease resistance, drought tolerance, and minimal fertiliser requirements. MM Coastal is a great alternative to MM8 where salt spray is a concern, providing excellent salt tolerance for golf greens, tees, and fairways with its 100% Slender Creeping Red Fescue mix.

For golf course managers seeking a 100% Ryegrass Greens mix option, MM Supreme Ryegreen mix is the answer. It includes Singapore Perennial Ryegrass, known for its fine leaves, good shoot density, high disease resistance, and wear tolerance. This mix embodies the main benefits of perennial ryegrass, including fast establishment and wear tolerance in close mow situations.

If you’re in search of a mixture ideal for tees and fairways, consider MM50, a 100% ryegrass blend. It boasts rapid establishment, quick recovery from divot scarring, high wear tolerance, and an extremely fine appearance. Meanwhile, for links-style fairways where damage and wear are less prevalent, MM13 is well-suited. With a high percentage of Crystal Hard Fescue, it offers excellent drought tolerance and low maintenance requirements for this challenging environment.

DLF’s stand also provides information about the DLF Pro Flora and Colour Boost range of Wildflower mixtures, perfect for those looking to establish a traditional perennial flower meadow or create a vibrant display of annuals and perennials.

The MM team of amenity seed specialists will be present at BTME to discuss these products in more detail and offer their expertise to address any queries attendees may have.

For further information, please contact DLF UK on 01386 719758 or visit the MM website www.mm-seeds.co.uk.

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Toro helps Lewes Golf Club

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Toro helps Lewes Golf Club: East Sussex-based Lewes Golf Club has brought in a small but mighty fleet of Toro machinery to help with its winter development project, the first goal of which will be to recondition eight of the club’s 11 bunkers.

When it comes to turfcare machinery, course manager Tim Brewster, knows he can rely on Toro’s extensive range of mowers and utility vehicles. He’s of the view that it’s important to work with the best when looking after a course steeped in history: the work never stops.

Toro helps Lewes Golf Club

Toro helps Lewes Golf Club

Although Tim’s relatively new to the club, having joined just before the pandemic, he has big plans to execute this winter. Fortunately, Lewes recently brought in a small but robust Toro fleet – Groundsmaster 3500 and 4500, Reelmaster 3575, TriFlex 3420, and Workman HDX – with the assistance of Reesink.

Tim’s a career-long Toro user. Since 2005, he’s relied on the brand to deliver a consistent and professional cut. On top of the club’s new fleet, Tim also runs a 12-year-old Toro tees mower, which he argues still performs like it did on day one. For his latest project, though, the star of the show won’t be a mower.

“In total, we have 11 bunkers,” says Tim. “Last year, we revamped three, so that means eight more to do this winter. While we’re a relatively small team, it’s a fairly big job. However, with the new Workman HDX, we’re now best placed to complete it.

“As the name suggests, it’s a total workhorse,” he adds. “We can put a top dresser on it, load it up with sand and top-up bunkers with ease. It’s going to be a huge help when we begin the bunker revamp project this winter.”

Tim’s also quick to praise Reesink’s help with finding the right machinery for the club. Over 125 years old, Lewes Golf Club is a varied, downland course; players need to think their way through each tee. “Every green is different,” Tim reveals. “Some are built on clay; others have four inches of root zone and chalk or a ballast mix of soil and sand.

“The diversity makes it interesting for golfers,” he continues. “But it also affects how we look after the course. Each green dries and drains at different rates, so we have to treat each on an individual basis. It’s a unique groundskeeping experience.

“Reesink’s advice and customer service throughout the process was fantastic. When we started looking for a new fleet, we came up with a checklist that covered various factors (quality, fuel consumption, and comfortability, for instance) and we sampled lots of brands from various retailers. Needless to say, Reesink and Toro came out on top!”

To learn more about Toro’s package deals, call 01480 226800 or visit https://www.reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Rustington Golf Centre tees off with Toro

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Rustington Golf Centre tees off with Toro: Rustington Golf Centre charges forward with a commitment to an electric future with two new Toro Greensmaster eTriFlex 3370 greensmowers and is rewarded with increased efficiency on all fronts.

The multi-purpose venue in Angmering includes a family activity centre alongside a nine-hole parkland golf course, earning it the reputation as one of the most versatile golf centres in Sussex. And with a new housing development being built next door, a versatile mower that is as quiet as it is efficient was needed.

Rustington Golf Centre tees off with Toro

Rustington Golf Centre tees off with Toro

Rob Hill, manager at Rustington Golf Centre, who has a team of eight says: “There’s a new housing development going up nearby, so having electric machinery gets us around the noise pollution issue and means we can work earlier without worrying about complaints – especially on parts of the course that are near the houses.”

With a golf course designed for all abilities, from established golfers to complete beginners, having machines that don’t disturb members is also a plus. “Our course is a two-loop nine-hole golf course which means you play it twice, so it’s nearly always busy and we usually have to work among the golfers,” continues Rob. “With the machines being so quiet we can go out and do work in the afternoon without being a distraction – they’re a perfect fit for us and our customers.”

It’s not just sound – or lack thereof – that Rob and his team have noticed with the eTriFlex 3370. Efficiency in daily operations across the venue has also been noted since using the industry’s first lithium-ion battery powered ride-on greensmower.

“Having these machines has made us even more efficient than usual. Being electric means we’ve reduced costs by no longer spending on diesel, and not having grease points on the machines means we’re focusing less on maintenance too. That, and the DPA cutting units, it just makes everything quicker and easier. Using the new Toro greensmowers beside some of our older machines has been eye-opening with how well they work.”

The electric greensmowers aren’t the only new Toro machinery that Rob plans for the centre. Also on order are two Toro Workman UTX utility vehicles designed to tackle all terrains.

And as far as taking the centre into the future, “I’ll be keeping an eye out for any new electric machinery that Toro comes out with,” says Rob. “We really want to go down the electric route where we can from now on, and ordering with Reesink means we can always be confident in the backup and communication it provides.”

To find out more about how your centre can benefit from using electric machinery,  call 01480 226800, email info@reesinkturfcare.co.uk or visit reesinkturfcare.co.uk

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Stover Golf Club love their Ventrac

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Stover Golf Club love their Ventrac: Purchased as an ex-demonstrator in January 2022 from Ventrac’s local dealer, Devon Garden Machinery (DGM), Stover Golf Club’s 4500 compact tractor with Contour deck attachment is a hit with course manager Jason Brooks and his team.

“They just love it,” he said, “it’s simple to operate and suits our course as it makes light work of undulations and the bunker and tee banks that are a feature here. It’s certified to operate on 30-degree slopes, so from a health and safety point of view, it ticks all the boxes. We have numerous slopes that we used to strim, but we now use the Ventrac and save multiple work hours, they get cut more regularly and the definition is much better.

Stover Golf Club love their Ventrac

Stover Golf Club love their Ventrac

“We are situated mainly on clay, in fact there’s a Kaolin (china clay) and Silica (fine sand) quarry less than a mile away, so the light footprint of the machine is ideal. We also have a stream, Liverton Brook, running through the course and even in wet weather we can still mow the banks.”

Stover Golf Club is located on the outskirts of Newton Abbot and opened in two phases in 1931. It was designed by James Braid and constructed by his favoured course builder, J.R. Stutt. In 1942 during WW2 half the course was compulsory purchased to accommodate an American military hospital and after purchasing two nearby fields, returned to its 18-hole format in 1949. Today, four of Braid’s original holes remain.

Commenting on the latest developments to the course, Jason Brooks said,

“Devon County Council are widening the nearby A382 and in doing so they needed some of our land, not a lot but enough to mean that a redesign of the front 9 was necessary as it impacted holes 1, 2, 3 and 9 as well as the practice putting green. The council purchased an additional 30 acres of neighbouring land and architect Simon Gidman along with Profusion have constructed phase 1 which consists of 4 brand new holes. These open this June then phase 2 construction begins to renovate 4 existing holes to complete the changes.

“The grow in started last July and towards the end of the summer the fairways and roughs were seeded, we had a good start to the grow in but then as I’m sure a lot of greenkeepers experienced, we had an incredibly wet winter. The Ventrac was at times the only machine we could get out on the new part due to the low ground pressure of it.”

“On the existing course we did a lot of tree removal during the winter and had a lot of stumps to grind; normally we would get a contractor in to do this at quite an expense, instead, we hired the stump grinder attachment from DGM and were very impressed. We managed to remove 150 stumps in just a week! With DGM only 8 miles away, it’s good to know they have a range of Ventrac attachments for hire.

Brooks began his career as a seasonal at Dartmouth Golf Club in 1995, before starting his HND in turf management and on completion worked in Germany for a couple of years. On his return to the UK, he spent three years at Torquay Golf Club, before returning once again to Germany.

A return to Torquay as deputy head greenkeeper for 9 years was next before taking a 6 month position at TPC Scottsdale in Phoenix, Arizona. In 2012, whilst there he helped prepare the course for the 2013 Phoenix Open, won by Phil Mickelson, as well as spending time in Texas working at both the Houston and Texas Opens. He then came back to England and was appointed course manager at Torquay, before taking up his current role at Stover in 2021.

“I’ve inherited a great team here at Stover and they’ve worked hard to produce superb facilities for the members,” he added. “The management have been really supportive, especially during the construction of the new holes and, with the addition of new machinery such as the Ventrac, we are confident that we can keep club moving forward during the next phase of its evolution.”

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