GMé | issuu 84

GolfManagement Europe

UK £6.00 Eur 7.25US $9.50

Director of golf, leisure and spas at De Vere, Daniel Hodson, discusses how the De Vere Club

has revolutionised golf club membership. page 25

five-star toro a cut aboveToro extends its relationship with St Andrews Links Trust as ‘The Home of Golf’ signs a new, five-year agreement

issue 84june 2012

ThE EssEnTial ManaGEMEnT publicaTion for EMEa Golf club opEraTors

june 2012 GME 3GoLfmAnAGemenTnewS.Com

publisher’s editorial

I’ve just finished watching an exhilarat-ing day of sport. It involved the conclu-sion of the english Premier League foot-ball season, the Spanish Grand Prix and, later, matt Kuchar’s victory in the Players Championship, at Sawgrass.

I then sat back and watched Twitter as many pundits eulogised over the man-ner in which manchester City claimed

the Premier League title, with two goals in stoppage time. It just proved, they all said, that football is the world’s great-est sport. It was, admittedly, compulsive viewing and one of the most amazing sporting moments I can remember.

And, I have to say, I was instantly enthused about football in a way that golf hasn’t moved me recently. Both now receive saturation TV coverage in the uK, yet only after watching the masters this year have I felt motivated to pick up my golf bag and head out on to the fairways – it’s just that the golf I’ve watched hasn’t inspired me to want to go out and play.

It got me thinking: is the saturation TV coverage of golf a good thing, and are we becoming blasé about it? It’s certainly not as exciting ‘televisually’ as football, so will others, like me, feel less inclined to participate if they’re not suf-ficiently moved?

But one thing I do know for a fact: the golf industry is a far more preferable place in which to earn a living than the football industry. Both associate editor David Bowers and I have spent time

working in the football industry and one thing we both agree on is that golf has fewer massive egos and, generally, much nicer people.

This was brought home to me again recently when, following a brief revisit to the football industry, I attended an event at which there were dozens of football personnel.

If one could bottle arrogance and sell it on to those with a lack of self-belief, I could have retired there and then. Top golfers can earn far more than Premier-ship footballers, yet you don’t see the likes of Lee westwood kicking a fellow golfer just because things aren’t going his way as he leaves the course.

So while, on the one hand, I may be-moan the fact that golf hasn’t grabbed me in 2012 like it’s done in previous years, I can put my hand on my heart and admit that there are a lot worse ways to make a living than working in golf.

we should all remember that the next time we sit round a table at one of our myriad industry conferences and com-plain about our lot. GME

Will golf ever be as exciting as f1 and football?

Michael [email protected]

The St Andrews Links Trust signs a five-year extension with Toro at ‘The Home of Golf’.

7

onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort celebrates its first anniversary.

19

How will france capitalise on hosting the Ryder Cup at Le Golf national in 2018?

31

Deere and Co celebrates 175 years since the company was founded by john Deere.

37

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Associate Editor David BowersContributors mark Alexander, michael Brookers, Samuel frederick, Ian Grant, Steve Isaac, Kevin marks, Kevin nash, Aidan Patrick

Publisher michael LenihanPrint The manson Group

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“is the saturation TV coverage of golf a good thing, and are we becoming blasé about it?”

4 GME june 2012

headline news

The London Golf Club has submitted plans for the construction of a new european Tour Performance Institute (eTPI) complete with driving range and an inno-vative nine-hole academy course, which will be situat-ed alongside the existing 36-hole complex and proposed 130-bedroom five-star hotel and spa, for which planning permission has already been granted.

The state-of-the-art eTPI complete with a fully-covered driving range and inventive short-game facility, will be the first of its kind in the uK and promises to raise the bar in golf coaching and sports science.

unlike any other golf school, the eTPI at London Golf Club will use the very latest technology, biome-chanics and tools devel-

oped by elite professionals and medical specialists on the european Tour.

Commenting on the signif-icant developments on the horizon, London Golf Club’s general manger, Austen Gravestock said: “we are a very forward-thinking golf club and I firmly believe the new eTPI, academy and nine-hole golf course will elevate our status on the International golfing arena.

“Along with our stunning five-star hotel and spa and close proximity to the capi-tal, major road networks and international airports, London Golf Club is set to become an important desti-nation for The european Tour, international golf tour-ists from Continental europe and further afield, as well as golfers from London and the uK.”

David macLaren, director of property and venue development at The european Tour, said: “our partnership with London Golf Club goes from strength to strength and we again applaud the foresight of the club and its owners.

“we recently opened the world’s first european Tour Performance Institute at Terre Blanche in Provence,” he added, “and I am confi-dent that the creation of a state of the art practice and learning facility at London Golf Club will be of great benefit to club members, visitors and the wider community.”

Designed by european Golf Design, managing director, jeremy Slessor said: “It’s been a fascinating start to the project – combining the evolutionary approach to performance and training of the eTPI with an academy facility that will support, with-out replicating, the two existing courses at The London Club.

“Trying to marry the requirements of the european Tour with the need to provide a bespoke training course, concentrat-ing on game improvement, has been challenging – but we feel confident that this is what we’ve achieved.”

london Golf club announces plans for new ETpi

Phase one of the luxurious new golf and spa resort at Château de la Cazine, near Limousin in france is under

way with the opening of the Château hotel last month.

Developers Barrasford and Bird worldwide have

commissioned golf course architects wellers Designs to design and project manage the accompanying champi-onship golf course which will commence construction this summer.

undertaking the conver-sion of the Château into a hotel is Charles mador of mador Architects who also designed the clubhouse at Celtic manor.

The golf course takes advantage of a stunning landscape that is character-ised by numerous naturally occurring lakes, ponds and springs. The Château itself forms the centre piece of the estate with the 18th green finishing directly in front of the historic building.

mytime Active claims it is now the largest uK operator of pay-and-play golf courses, after secur-ing the contract to manage all seven of Birmingham City Council’s public courses.

It now operates 19 golf courses and also recently purchased orpington Golf Centre in Kent, a 54-hole course and one of the largest golfing facilities in the country.

Chief executive Steve Price said: “we are delighted to have been awarded the contract to manage Birmingham’s golf courses, which takes us into poll position as the country’s leading opera-tor of pay-and-play golf.

“In the current economic climate, many local authorities are find-ing it difficult to keep their golf courses open and well-managed, but we have the unique exper-tise to run them, and as a social enterprise, we are able to reinvest back into the properties.”

château de la cazine under way in france

former newspaper tycoon eddy Shah has put his wiltshire Golf and Country Club up for sale for £3.5m.

Shah, 68, and his wife jennifer have decided to pass the mantle on after more than ten years living and working in the area.

He said: “It’s time for someone else to take it on.

“we’ve been down here for more than ten years working on a project which we have loved. But it is a seven-day-a-week business which needs someone else younger running it and perhaps putting in more money.”

The couple moved to wiltshire 12 years ago from

east Anglia where they owned The Suffolk, The norfolk and the essex golf courses.

They bought the old 18-hole course and have since built a 58 bedroom hotel and leisure centre as well as 50 holiday homes, spending a total of more than £5m.

shah puts The Wiltshire up for sale


news

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© Copyright 2012 Marsh Ltd - All rights reserved. Ref: 8025795700358B79_ExpApr2013

6 GME june 2012

news

Gleneagles has signed a ten-year extension to carry the PGA brand.The license agreement includes the PGA Cente-nary Course, host to the 2014 Ryder Cup along with the PGA national Golf Academy and PGA national Golf Academy Course.

Golf tourism is on the increase and is bouncing back from the economic downturn, a new survey by KPmG has revealed.According to the Golf Travel Insights report, 60 per cent of golf tour oper-ators experienced an increase in the number of golf breaks booked in 2011, compared to 38 per cent in 2010.

European Golf Design’s award-winning debut project in Russia, PGA national, is set to open this summer. The classic style course, featuring distinctive heather-clad bunkers is situated next to a tributary of europe’s longest river, the Volga, and is similar in appear-ance to a traditional heathland course.

Teeofftimes.co.uk, has announced a new agreement to be the ex-clusive provider of online tee-times for the Scottish Golf union.

Kingsbarns Golf Links has announced that the elizabeth montgomerie foundation will be its chosen charity for 2012. Colin montgomerie and his family established The elizabeth montgomerie foundation in memory of his mother who died of lung cancer, with the charity raising money for cancer patients.

in briEf;

one of the most anticipat-ed uK golf course projects in decades opens on july 10 after years of controversy, headlines, arguments and planning disputes.

Trump International Golf Links occupies 500 hectares of land on the north-east coast of Aberdeenshire, the menie estate, and has been making headlines ever since eponymous billionaire devel-

oper Donald Trump announced plans to build the “greatest golf course in the world.”

only recently Trump went head-to-head with Scotland’s first minister first minister Alex Salmond over the benefits of off-shore wind farms.

Trump objected to a planned offshore wind development near the site

of his £1bn resort and has shelved plans for an adjoin-ing hotel until a decision is made and has even threat-ened to sue the Scottish Government.

The course, which has already gained many plau-dits, has been designed by martin Hawtree, and its billionaire owner has prepared a Who’s Who of golf lovers to attend the offi-cial opening.

Trump’s son, Donald jnr, said: “we are just putting together the finishing touch-es and making sure every-thing is to my father’s stand-ards. we are putting togeth-er ideas for the opening.

“There are some figures within the golfing world that are really anticipating the opening and they have read all the accolades we’ve received.”

The course was recently ranked number eight in Golf World’s prestigious top 100 list, above this year’s open venue Royal Lytham and St Annes.

Trump gets ready to unveil Menie Estate

Kirk Lovell has been appointed to Goodwood as golf operations manager.

Lovell, 38, takes up his new role having previously worked as golf services manager at The Belfry.

His extensive career has also taken him worldwide, and he worked in Vietnam as golf services manager at the montgomerie Links in Danang after spending two years in Australia at the luxu-rious Bonville International Resort at Coffs Harbour, where among his other duties he organised corpo-

rate golf events including the star-studded Australian Rugby union wallabies Golf Day.

while in Vietnam he also spent time teaching english and golf at The International School in Ho Chi minh City.

moreover Lovell brings a formidable repertoire of other skills and expertise to his new role at the west Sussex venue having worked extensively in banking in the united Kingdom and Australia before turning his attention solely to the golf industry.

while at The Belfry he was responsible for managing 40 golf services staff and led them to the 2011 Team of the Year award.

lovell takes up new role at Goodwood

outline plans for a world-class golf complex at Rossington Hall, Doncaster, are being prepared by a consortium which it hopes would come under the PGA european Tour banner.

The scheme is being pulled together by a consor-tium of local land owners with Doncaster Council support and an outline plan-ning application for the

project should be submitted later this year with building work, subject to appropriate approvals, starting within two years.

The project would include an 18-hole golf course, club-house and leisure facilities, with luxury homes set along-side the course. There would also be road infrastructure improvements to support the plans and public foot-

paths, cycle routes and bridleways so residents living close by can enjoy the wide variety of green space, parkland and lakes.

David macLaren, the european Tour’s director of property and venue devel-opment, said: “I have been impressed with the determi-nation, vision and strategy of all concerned with the Rossington Hall project.”

plans for new pGa course in Doncaster


on the cover

facTfilE;

The Toro Company8111 Lyndale Avenue South

Bloomingtonmn 55420

uSA

TEl; (1) 952 888 8801faX; (1) 952 887 8258

WEbLinK; ToRo.Com

The Home of Golf remains home to a full fleet of Toro turf maintenance machinery after St Andrews Links Trust renewed its partnership with Toro and its distributor Lely uK for a further five years.

Spanning seven courses, 117 holes, around 900 acres, 230,000 rounds of golf a year and 600 years of history – the needs of St Andrews Links are immense.

Toro is proud to be an offi-cial supplier to the world’s most renowned golf venue and play a part in keeping its hallowed courses in pris-tine condition.

Commenting on the recently renewed deal, euan Loudon, chief execu-tive of St Andrews Links Trust, said: “we have had a long and successful relationship with Toro and are delighted

to be renewing the agree-ment with them as an offi-cial supplier.

“maintaining the historic courses at St Andrews Links, including the old Course, in top-class condition is our

prime duty and working closely with Toro has been key to achieving arguably the best conditioning on the

courses in modern times,” continued Loudon.

“we look forward to developing the partnership with innovative new approaches and technolo-gy to ensure that we contin-

ue to set the benchmark for effective and sustainable management of links cours-es.” GME

“We have had a long and successful relationship with Toro and are delighted to be renewing the agreement”

st andrews links Trust sign new five-year deal with Toro

180x127_INT_GolfManagem_GO.indd 1 07.05.12 09:25

8 GME june 2012

news

estonian Golf and Country Club is set to expand with plans for a new 18-hole golf course to sit alongside its renowned Sea Course.

The purchase of land adjacent to its nine-hole Stone Course will allow the

club to remodel the existing course and add a further nine holes to make a completely new 18-hole layout. The new course will be constructed on land within the Rebala national Heritage Area and will incor-

porate a number of ancient burial grounds dating back to the Bronze Age as well as giant granite boulders from the ice age.

mait Schmidt, estonian Golf and Country Club presi-dent, said: “we will be announcing a headline course architect in the coming months and expect work to commence on the new course at the end of next year.

“we have had plans to develop the Stone Course into a full 18-hole golf course for some time and continue our vision of making estonian Golf and Country Club one of europe’s finest golf resorts.

“Alongside the Sea Course which has received international acclaim we will have a second course that we are sure will be held in just as high regard.”

Expansion plans on the table in Estonia

when looking for a total vehicle solution to meet the needs of their 7,500 acre estate, the management of The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle turned to e-Z-Go.

As part of the evaluation process, Gary Gruber – the course manager at the 18-hole golf course – visited e-Z-Go’s manufacturing plant in Augusta, GA, where it became clear they had a

range of electric vehicles that could accommodate the estate’s needs.

“I visited e-Z-Go as part of the itinerary on one of jacobsen’s Round Table events and after seeing their product line up and discuss-ing future product develop-ments they were bringing to market, I quickly realised they were a probable supplier,” he said.

“I wanted to ensure that we researched all options to obtain the best business solution for the Skibo estate,” continued Gruber, “and the series of demonstrations confirmed to all of us that the e-Z-Go product offering wasn’t going to be beaten.”

with the 7,500 acre estate occupying land with SSSI status and some in designat-ed conservation areas, sustainability and environ-mental impact was a prime consideration.

“That was the principal driver for selecting electric vehicles,” added Gruber.

In a total fleet of 45 vehi-cles, all but one – the ball collector on the golf driving range – are electric. for ease of maintenance the majority have semi-auto-matic battery fill systems and all have on-board chargers.

“we’re really looking at our carbon footprint and at several options for reducing it,” continued Gruber.

“we are taking a serious interest in wind energy and the use of bio-mass power generation. we are also considering a wind vane to create and store energy in our vehicle barn, which can then be transferred to the batteries in the fleet.

“This should have a signifi-cant cost benefit to the busi-ness, going forward.”

Accommodation at the club is in the castle’s 21 bedrooms, with an addition-al 12 lodges, dotted around the estate.

As all guest motor vehicles must be parked up on arriv-al, there are 22 e-Z-Go RXV four-seat shuttle vehicles available for guest use while at the club.

All are fitted with the latest DGS TAG monitoring system, which allows the vehicles to be programmed to avoid restricted areas and which also monitors their position around the estate using GPS technology.

research pays dividends for skibo castle

A renowned Dorset golf club is facing a £50,000 repair bill after vandals ran amok on its course.

Staff at Broadstone Golf Club arrived one morning in may to discover damage to greens, a greenkeeper’s buggy and the irrigation system.

The buggy was taken from a shed and driven around the 18-hole course, leaving two of the three targeted greens seriously damaged and police have said they are treating the attack as malicious damage.

Club manager David morgan said: “It was soul destroying for our lads who have worked so hard to get the greens looking fantastic over the past year.

“If the buggy is a write-off the total damage caused could be in excess of £50,000.

“Two of the three greens were badly damaged. They broke into a shed, stole the buggy and crashed it into a bunker. They also tried to vandalise parts of the irrigation system.”

A multi-million-pound golf complex, which has been delayed by a year, will be “worth the wait”.

The 18-hole, pay-as-you-play course is being built with private funds on land owned by uK Coal in Swadlincote, South Derbyshire.

The complex had been expected to open this year, but developer Tetron Point LP has admitted the facility will not be open to the public until the beginning of 2013 at the earliest.

Discussing the develop-ment, chief executive of South Derbyshire District

Council, frank mcArdle said: “It will be ready when it’s ready. The district council is satisfied this will be an amaz-ing recreational facility that will be fantastic for this area.

“This is the last green lung of Swadlincote and it’s important the project is done properly.”

new complex will be “worth the wait”

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10 GME june 2012

news

Following an enthralling team trial weekend for this year’s Curtis Cup, the GB & I team has praised the host venue for its prepa-rations ahead of the eagerly awaited interna-tional match this month. with less than 70 days before the 37th staging of the Curtis Cup, the final stages of a three-year improvement programme were in place for the three-day trial at The nairn Golf Club.

A new state of the art golf academy has opened at muscat Hills Golf and Country Club, oman, a Braemar Golf managed property.

The Health Club & Spa at St mellion Interna-tional Resort in Cornwall is relaunching this month following the installation of £250,000-worth of new gym equipment. Stephen Towers, resort director at St mellion said: “we are delighted with the new gym equipment, and know that the outlay made on the equipment will see a really positive effect on the member-ship.”

England Golf and the uK Golf Course owners Association have agreed to work together on a variety of important issues affecting proprietary golf course businesses.

Crown Golf has handed over a cheque for £9,718 to the national Golf Club Challenge. The 2011 nGCC event was a great success and raised a grand total of over £33,054 for The Seve Ballesteros foundation, in support of Cancer Research uK.

in briEf;

In the uK in April the heat-wave hit, in may the rain was biblical, in june – well who knows?

with this in mind how can golf clubs ensure that they make the most of their avail-able outside terrace or patio space?

with a retractable terrace cover from outside Structure

Solutions, golf clubs can have the best of both worlds, ensuring that golfers are kept dry when raining, and shaded when the sun is shining down.

waterproof, windproof and uV resistant, they are designed to be used all year round, and at the touch of a button, the roof retracts to

make the most of the sunshine and then closes when rain is at hand.

Terrace covers from outside Structure Solutions have optional retractable side walls, lighting, heating and even built-in speakers if required.

Bill Caldwell of outside Structure Solutions said: “many golf clubs throughout the uK and europe have outdoor eating areas, yet all too often due to either rain, or extreme hot weather conditions, golfers choose not to sit outside.

“our product is designed to help clubs profit from their outdoor environment all year round, and even if your terrace area is not adjacent to a building – or your build-ing is very low – it is still possi-ble to install a retractable canopy which will be entire-ly free standing.

“Your outside space can earn you money no matter what the weather, which has to be welcome news for all golf clubs.”

structured to make the best of the weather

Lumine Golf Club, a Troon Golf-managed resort, has invested in a new fleet of 70 Club Car vehicles to help its members, customers and staff manoeuvre its expan-sive 45-hole complex.

Calle Carlsson, Lumine Golf Club’s general manag-er, said: “Having previously invested in a golf car fleet, we knew how important regular maintenance and services are to ensure prod-uct safety, reliability and longevity.

“with Club Car’s track record for offering reputable

products and superior after-sales customer care – as well as being Troon Golf’s preferred supplier of electric golf vehicles – our decision to invest was a straight-forward one.

“As the world’s largest manufacturer of four-wheel electric cars, Club Car stands for absolute excel-lence, high quality and relia-bility.

“The brand is steering the golf industry, both in techno-logical innovations and in first-class customer service, maintenance and value –

and that is the type of organisation we believe we need to align ourselves with to achieve our goals.”

club car confirm fleet deal with lumine

The discovery of unex-pected wildlife may be the saving grace for a Berkshire golf club.

The Blue mountain Golf Centre in Berkshire has been earmarked by Bracknell forest Council to be converted into 400 homes in order to help meet a house-building target of 10,780 properties in the area by 2026.

The Crown Golf-managed golf club sits on land owned by Luff Investments, which has been campaigning to develop the course. Luff Investments leases the course to the council as part of a 125-year deal, which in turn sub-lets it back.

However, the course is popular with residents and two local action groups have been fighting to keep

it as it is. And the discovery of great-crested newts, adders, grass snakes and badgers has given them renewed hope the course could be saved.

A spokesman for one of the action groups said: “we think it’s a virtual zoo down there so we’re exploring whether we could apply to have it turned into a Special Protection Area.”

“Virtual Zoo” found at blue Mountain


news

enviroBunker, the bunker face and edge solution launched in january 2011, looks set to establish itself in europe, with completed projects in Germany, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and another immi-nent in the netherlands.

In April, Apeldoer Golf Club became the first course in Germany to expe-rience the benefits of enviroBunker.

The club had consulted their architect, David Krause for a solution to a problem-atic bunker with a steep sloping face, highly prone to erosion.

Krause recommended the use of enviroBunker resulting with an impressive new bunker on the 13th hole.

“Bunkers should be an attractive visual feature, and the design of the edge is vitally important,” said Krause.

“Traditional edge construction requires inten-

sive maintenance, but enviroBunker is natural look-ing, highly durable and resistant to erosion.

“This innovation provides the designer with the oppor-tunity to specify exciting bunker shapes without the worry of a high mainte-nance bill for the golf club.”

Richard Allen, director at envirosports added: “not only was this the first project completed in Germany, it was also an opportunity to work alongside David, a highly respected figure in his profession and we are delighted to hear such posi-tive feedback.”

other projects have followed including re-construction work at Quinta Da Ria and Quinta De Cima, host of the Portugese Seniors open and Ladies open in 2005 and 2008 respectively.

“The enviroBunker on hole seven (pictured) is a most beautiful bunker, in fact it is

impossible not to stop and stare when you pass by the clubhouse,” commented maryna Kol’tyakova, gener-al manager at Quinta De Cima.

Projects closer to home, in Ireland, have also been successful with American Architect Ron Kirby, one of the original architects involved in the design of The old Head of Kinsale working with envirosports to design a bunker to fit with his vision at old Head.

following a site visit Kirby declared: “The product is a winner. It has withstood heavy rainfall with no

evidence of washout on the sand flashed face.”

one of the many benefits of enviroBunker is that it requires no watering and is totally resistant to drought, a factor that lends itself to the warmer climates of Southern europe.

“The benefits of bunkers that are maintenance free and is enormous, both in terms of labour and cost,” added Allen.

“Case studies we’ve undertaken show that bunkers are costing the average golf club in the region of £20,000 per annum to maintain!”

Envirobunker continues to expand across Europe

EnviroBunker

Maintenance Free Highly DurableNatural Appearance and Playing CharacteristicsResistant to Burrowing AnimalsLife Expectancy of 20+ YearsLicence Options AvailableRange of Design Styles

Tel: 07745 778644Email: [email protected]

www.envirosports.co.uk

The Solution to Bunker Face Erosion

“On seeing EnviroBunker we immediately suspended our bunker renovation program and commissioned it’s build on our golf course – the results have been fantastic.”Jim Cockburn, CEO, Seaton Carew GC,hosts of Brabazon Trophy 2014.

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12 GME june 2012

news

The PGA Catalunya Resort, Spain, has signed a five-year preferred supplier agreement with Ransomes jacobsen.

over the next five years, the entire fleet will become orange as the previous equipment is replaced with jacobsen equipment.

Commenting on the sign-ing of the agreement, David Bataller head greenkeeper responsible for the two 18-hole courses, the Stadium and the Tour said: “our current fleet is seven years old and as Spain’s number one golf experience, course presentation is highly impor-tant to us.

“The quality of cut we get from the 405 played a signifi-cant role in determining our choice of equipment. we mow the fairways every day as you would expect from a club of our standing and the finish it’s producing is superb.

“I’ve been impressed with the level of service we’ve received from Ransomes jacobsen’s Spanish distribu-tor, Green mowers of Burgos, following the purchase of the fairway 405 and this was

also a contributory factor in our decision to go with Ransomes jacobsen.”

miguel Girbes, golf direc-tor at PGA Catalunya Resort added: “we strive continual-ly to enhance the golfing experience for both elite players and visitors on golf-ing breaks and have recent-ly upgraded our practice facilities which will make a visit to PGA Catalunya Resort even more memora-ble.

“we particularly want PGA Catalunya Resort to become the preferred winter training camp for golf federations and clubs around europe and the sign-ing of this strategic partner-ship with Ransomes jacobsen will be a contribu-tory factor to help us achieve this goal.”

Jacobsen sign major deal with pGa catalunya

Spectators visiting Royal Lytham and St Annes for this years open Championship in july will be able to enjoy expert tuition from top PGA coaches on a large Huxley Golf all-weather putting green, which has been specially commis-sioned by The R&A.

Alison white, assistant director of golf develop-ment at The R&A, said: “The R&A Swingzone offers a unique opportuni-ty for golfing enthusiasts to benefit from world-class tuition in what is always a hugely popular facility.

“At last year’s open Championship at Royal St George’s, the large Huxley Golf all-weather putting green in The R&A Swingzone was highly regarded by both PGA teaching professionals and visitors,” said white.

“So we have asked Huxley Golf to provide this excellent facility once again at this year’s open.”

Paul Huxley, director of Huxley Golf, added: “we’re delighted to be once again supporting The R&A this year and adding to the world-class practice facilities at The R&A Swingzone.”

Sundridge Park Golf Club has improved the clubs exist-ing practice facilities by constructing a five covered bay together with an eight external bay facility.

jo Smith from I-KAn GC worked closely with Luke edgcumbe, chief executive officer, and mike Copson, builder and project manag-er, to ensure the appropri-ate equipment met their specific and exacting needs.

I-KAn GC supplied the Range Servant microLine Dispenser with the Solo Payment card system, which provides edgcumbe the management information he requires, whilst providing the membership with flexible payment options.

I-Kan also supplied the Range Servant manage-ment system, pre-soaker, washer, elevator and ball picker, giving a fully auto-mated system for the Driving Range team.

The bay dividers, indoor and out golf mats and outfield accessories were also supplied by I-Kan making this range aestheti-cally one of the best in the area.

Royal Dornoch Golf Club recently introduced a bespoke new Royal Dornoch tweed fabric, designed and produced exclusively for the club by Scottish fabric brand, Hunter’s Tweed.

Inspired by a traditional tweed design that dates back to the early 20th Century, the fabric features a broad check in the club’s house colours of emerald

green and golden yellow, with a touch of cerulean.

The tweed is available by the metre and also forms the basis for a new ready-to-wear selection of apparel and accessories.

neil Hampton, Royal Dornoch general manager, said: “The Hunters of Brora roots of Hunter’s Tweed can be traced back almost as far as our own distinguished history, and both names

boast exceptional interna-tional reputations. There is a distinct synergy between these Highland brands and collaborating seemed like a perfectly natural move.

“The Royal Dornoch name is synonymous with exacting standards and warm hospi-tality, and our new tweed is a beautiful quality fabric that represents the proud, gracious heritage of our club.”

royal Dornoch introduce tweed design

impressive new practice facilities unveiled at sundridge park


news

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when course manager, Andy wood joined Robin Hood Golf Club, it was not the difficulty of the course which concerned him, but how to prevent it from constantly being out of play due to poor drainage.

with development funds at his disposal, wood installed a new drainage system which although has improved the problem, hasn’t completely rectified all of the drainage issues out on the course.

To deal with this ongoing issue, wood has invested in two significant pieces of kit; an AfT 45 trencher and an AfT Sandbander, which have since proved invalua-ble in tackling localised flooding and potentially wet areas.

“we sand banded across the main drain lines after the initial installation but it is inevitable that changes below the surface will over time still hold the water,” wood explained.

“we needed the flexibility of targeting areas as and when they became a prob-lem, and the AfT 45 is an excellent trencher.

This coupled with the Sandbander has given us a perfect combination to keep our course in play all year round.”

with 45 years’ experience and over 250 courses to his name, golf course builder Brian Pierson shows no sign of slowing down, with the opening of his latest project, Golfpark Rosenhof, near frankfurt, this month.

The Andrew Payne-designed 18-hole links-style championship lay-out was subject to strict planning controls, including a stipula-

tion that only on-site materi-al could be used, but Pierson turned this to his advantage by sending samples back to the uK for tests, and discovering they were ideal for free-draining American-style greens.

He also persuaded a construction manager to come out of semi-retirement and travel over from Australia.

Pierson has been closely involved in construction and alteration work on courses all over the world, from Canada to macedonia and Spain to Sweden, and past projects include the PGA national at The Belfry, forest of Arden, Skibo Castle, Dalmahoy and St Pierre.

He has carried out altera-tions at seven open Championship venues,

including St Andrews, where he is the only person to have built two new courses, Strathtyrum and Balgrove – both designed by Donald Steel – as well as carrying out alterations to the eden and jubilee courses.

Pierson has overseen several projects in Germany over the past 14 years, including Treudelberg Golf and Country Club.

pierson showing no signs of slowing down

afT helps keep greens in play at robin hood

14 GME june 2012

company profile WEbLinK; SPoRTSmARKeTInGSuRVeYSInC.Com

Ignorance is bliss? Don’t you believe it.Instead knowledge is power, and know-

ing your customers (and, just as impor-tantly, potential clients) and their needs, likes and dislikes can only be good for business.

Whether times are hard or the going is good, it’s absolutely vital to be aware of who’s out there and what they really want and that’s where a company such as SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS INC. (SMS INC.) comes into its own.

It’s a focused sports research business servicing the sports facility, equipment and goods industry, formed by a buy-out two years ago of the sports goods busi-ness of the IFM Sports group by John Bushell, who was a director of IFM Sports Marketing Surveys, and Stephen Proctor, former owner of Sports Marketing Surveys, which he took over in 1984.

Based in Wisley, Surrey, the company employs a team of 12 experts in the UK, and has an offshoot across the Atlantic, SPORTS MARKETING SURVEYS USA, headed up by Keith Storey, a long term associate of chairman Proctor, and a former director in the UK of SMS Ltd.

The American side of the business, based in Florida, is owned by the direc-tors with the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association of America

(SGMA) as a key minority shareholder.Managing director in the UK, John Bushell (pictured top right )has

worked in the sports industry since 1995, initially as a market-

ing director in golf, before going on to launch Premier

Rugby as the union set-up went professional in

1999.Before that he was

in marketing and commercial manage-

ment with many years’ experi-ence with big businesses like Unilever

and SmithKline Beecham.

He stresses that SMS INC. isn’t about public relations or marketing, but provid-ing businesses with detailed information, insight and consultancy to help them make better commercial decisions.

“So, for example, golf facility managers can be aware of why, when and how people play... and that way they can cater for their current needs, as well as plan-ning for future trends.”

The company provides research and consultancy services across a range of sports, including tennis, winter sports, running and cycling... but golf is at the heart of SMS INC.

For example, a dedicated team attends every European Tour event, analysing the equipment of every player at the tourna-ment. And SMS INC. also works closely with the UK Golf Course Owners Association on its benchmark programme.

Bushell says that the old image of golf as a game for crusty colonels and retired bank managers is an outmoded stereo-type. In fact the sport is in good health, with the number of people playing the game up to 3.94m (about eight per cent of the adult population), an increase of almost a 250,000 since the slump of 2008, and closing in on the peak figure of 4.19m set in 2002.

“The trends are very positive,” says Bushell. “The sport is most certainly not stuck in the past. And there is also some strong detail behind the headline numbers.”

Here he is referring to regular golfers, defined as those playing at least once a month. These are the people that account for around 80 per cent of the money spent on memberships, green fees, equip-ment and food and beverages.

These 1.63m regular golfers are the backbone of the sport, says Bushell, and offer hope for the future as organisations including The Golf Foundation, the amateur Unions in each market such as England Golf and the Scottish Golf

john Bushell of SPoRTS mARKeTInG SeRVICeS InC. talks to Kevin nash about how the golf industry can benefit from a little bit of knowledge.

Knowledge is power


Union as well as the PGA who do valua-ble work to get even more people involved.

Another key factor in the rise of golf is the current strength of the domestic game at the highest level, with a host of British players featuring in the world’s top 20.

“There’s a good argument that at the top end, it has never been better,” says Bushell, noting the success of stars such as Lee Westwood, Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Graeme McDowell, Darren Clarke, Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Brian Davies, Paul Casey and so on.

“It’s very important to have young, dynamic role models to get more young people into golf... and we certainly have that at the moment.”

But no matter how many role models there are, or how many Majors they win, it is vital that the grass-roots player is happy. It’s all very well watching Rory excel on some faraway fairway on your satellite TV, but if things aren’t welcom-ing, well organised and enjoyable for play-ers closer to home, then the game will ultimately be the loser.

“It’s important to enhance the custom-er experience,” explains Bushell. “So we provide a service to manufacturers on retail performance, for example, and we’ve been looking very closely at the issue of play frequency.”

The latter issue is affected by several factors, not just financial. “People only have a limited amount of leisure time, so why should a round of golf consist of 18

holes and take four hours or more? Two hours in other sports is deemed almost extreme... in squash, for instance, it simply wouldn’t be possible.

“The objective would be to try and educate golfers to play quicker and have a four-ball complete a round in around three-and-a-half hours, but if this is not possible, then the sport needs to be flexi-ble, to look at making it more acceptable to play just nine holes, or even six, if someone only has an hour to spare.”

Sometimes progress can be achieved by changing mindsets, rather than tinkering with colour schemes or investing in an expensive new logo, especially in the high-speed modern age when so many demands are placed on people who may well describe themselves as cash-rich but time-poor.

SMS INC. works closely with golf courses and resorts both new and old, and is also involved in the evaluation of start-up businesses.

The company has forged partnerships with a number of key industry players, including federations, governing bodies, the equipment manufacturers and opin-ion leaders.

It uses a whole range of techniques, from traditional to hi-tech, to assimilate and assess the very latest data, including focus groups, face-to-face interviews, phone and online polls.

The business ethos and promise is built on three things... INVESTIGATION, INSIGHT and ACTION. GME

16 GME june 2012

left hand pageadvertisement feature WEbLinK; mARSH.Co.uK

LinksMaster is a specialist insurance policy that can be tailored to the individu-al needs of your golf club, delivering covers for the course, the clubhouse and

associated buildings, members, possessions, equipment and

staff. With over 30 years

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closely with you in order to create a bespoke golf

club policy that provides a comprehensive and wide

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your current golf club insurance, or

simply want to discuss any insurance queries you may have – why not talk to Marsh today?

What does the policy cover?LinksMaster provides extensive special-

ist golf insurance cover which can be adapted to cater for the particular needs of your club. Outlined below are the key features and benefits of the LinksMaster policy.

LinksMaster provides a suite of •covers for the course, the club-house and associated buildings, members, possessions, equipment and staff;The policy can incorporate hotel •and spa exposures;All covers are fully bespoke and •can be adapted to meet each golf club’s individual requirements;

Additional benefits include a full broker service from a Marsh client executive as

Linksmaster is a specialist insurance policy designed for golf clubs as ian Grant explains.

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mediation activities only.

well as monthly payment options. Latest policy enhancements included by Marsh:

Directors’ and officers’ liability •includes cover for the legal ‘Entity’;Damage to tees, greens and closely •mown areas cover from £200,000. For links golf courses, cover auto-matically extends to include damage to revetted bunkers;Cover for compulsory course alter-•ation following local authority enforcement - £50,000;Additional increased cost of work-•ing to £50,000;Cover for walls, gates and fences •increased to £50,000;Frost damage trace and access - •£50,000;Loss of metered water increased to •£50,000.

Optional policy extensions include:Engineering insurance up to •£500,000 limit of liability – sudden and unforeseen damage;Contract works insurance over the •standard £100,000;Personal accident insurance for all •employees – 24 hour cover;Separate members’ and visitors’ •liability policy.

how can linksMaster help?The LinksMaster policy also has a

range of insurance covers that will not only benefit your current members but may appeal to new members too such as:

Personal effects of club members •and employees;Personal accident of officials whilst •representing the club away from the club’s premises;Personal liability of directors and •club officials;Member to member liability;•Members’, guests’ and visitors’ •motor vehicles parked at the club’s car park.

Why choose Marsh?As with the spirit of golf, at Marsh we

build our customer relationships on honesty and integrity, working closely with our clients to ensure they receive the best possible service each and every time.

Through working with Marsh, you will receive specialist and impartial advice; our client executives are experts in the provi-sion of insurance for golf clubs and they will work closely with you to establish a deep understanding of your needs, and the risks and issues that you and your golf club may face.

When to talk to Marsh?We would be delighted to talk to you

about your golf club insurance require-ments at any time of the year. A review of your current policy will provide us with the opportunity to assess how a specialist LinksMaster policy may provide you and your golf club with a more comprehensive and competitive offering than the policy from your existing provider. GME

conTacT;

I O G S A L T E Xshape your space Windsor Racecourse 4 - 6th September 2012

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club focusWEbLinK; onYRIAPALmAReS.Com

Robert Trent Jones II – or Robert Trent Jones Jr if you prefer – is a brand name in his own right.

Indeed, a study by the Golf Research Group – an independent provider of busi-ness information for the golf industry – showed that “…the Robert Trent Jones II name is the most powerful brand in the business…”

So, if you’re planning to redesign an already well-loved golf course, one of the Algarve’s originals in fact, with a view to attracting golfers from across the globe, it’s probably best to engage somebody whose very name acts as a guarantee of quality and the highest possible standards.

And that’s exactly what Onyria Resorts did when it acquired the company which owned Palmares in 2003.

It also invested €10m in the course redesign – the original was a popular but ageing Frank Pennink layout dating from 1976 – a figure which is around just three per cent of the projected cost of the entire Onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort

development, which when it is completed next summer, will feature a five-star hotel and a selection of villas.

Subsequently, Onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort – Robert Trent Jones II’s second Portuguese design – was one of the most talked-about new golf courses of 2011 and claimed a leading industry trav-el accolade almost immediately, with readers of Today’s Golfer voting it Portugal’s second-best course, just six months after its June 2011 opening.

And it also ended 2011 as a remarkable new entry at 26th in Golf World’s poll of Top 100 European Golf Courses.

And now, 12 months on from the day Trent Jones II officially opened the course himself, it’s preparing for a further influx of tourists after the region was named as the best holiday destination in the world for 2012 by one of the UK’s leading travel websites.

Lagos won a string of plaudits from visitors to Tripadvisor.com after it requested its readers to name its top 15

a year on and palmares racks up the awards

onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort on the Algarve is rapidly gaining a world-class reputation as Samuel Frederick reports.

20 GME june 2012

facTfilE;

onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort Apartado 74, meia Praia

8601 - 901 PalmaresPortugal

TEl; (351) 282 790 500faX; (351) 282 790 509

EMail;[email protected]

DirEcTor of Golf;Antonio Pinto Coelho

hEaD GrEEnKEEpEr;joel nunes

club founDED;2011

places on the rise. The Algarvian town, which features Onyria Palmares Beach and Golf Resort on its coastline, emerged above the likes of Hua Hin in Thailand, Cannes, Cape Town, Talinn, Stockholm, Moscow and Innsbruck in the poll.

And Onyria Palmares received its own accolades after it was named second in the list of the top 20 attractions in Lagos, beaten only by the town’s impressive array of beaches – some of the finest to be found anywhere in Europe.

Word continues to spread about Palmares, with more than 14,000 rounds having been played in 2012 already, and sales director Joao Pinto Coelho (pictured above) believes the resort’s reputation will continue to grow.

He said: “We enjoyed a fabulous first year and to be regarded so highly by two of the UK’s most prestigious golf maga-zines within the first six months was testa-ment to the work put in by Onyria Resorts and, of course, the inimitable Robert Trent Jones Jnr.

“The reaction to the golf course from visitors has been universally positive. I remember what an Irish friend said to me when he first came over to visit. He said ‘I won’t tell anybody about Onyria Palmares otherwise very soon you won’t have avail-ability for me to play anymore’. He was joking but as people are becoming more aware we are finding ourselves busier and busier.”

The three loops of nine holes – the Alvor, Lagos and Praia courses – enjoy expansive panoramic views across the Bay of Lagos, with each lay-out offering a different kind of golfing challenge in a glorious and natural environment.

While the Alvor course plays through pine tree-lined corridors with the majority of holes ascending hillsides or descending through intimate valleys, the Lagos course is a mixture of parkland and links features and the Praia is set on classic seaside dunes-land exposed to the elements.

At the opening, Trent Jones II said: “The Algarve is a renowned golf destina-tion, much like Pebble Beach or St Andrews. So when I first came here I said ‘Well I have to play up here, we have a lot of good golf courses in this region’. But when I saw the land I thought ‘Wow! Maybe once a decade I might get a piece of land to work with like this’.

“We studied the land at great length, in order that the golf course would have the minimum impact upon it. In fact Mother Nature is the best master and the best architect, so we follow her. Never fight with Mother Nature. We follow the land, and let the land evoke a response to us.”

He added: “Rather than imposing a so-called ‘signature’ look upon this gorgeous parcel of coastal land, we let the land itself determine what the course would look like. As we’ve done through-out the world, we fit the golf holes into the topography so they look as though they’ve been there for centuries.

“We like to think of Palmares as having multiple personalities – in a good way. We were given land with great variety, and we used it to create a golf course that expresses different moods and characters, just as the land does, and so therefore it feels natural, and whole.”

You can tell by his descriptions that Trent Jones II is as comfortable with words as he is with architectural plans –


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indeed he has been known to write his own poetry. But it’s easy to see what he means – and hard to disagree.

Members of the English Golf Union’s regional training squads also lavished praise on Palmares recently following a visit. More than 70 players from the EGU’s Under-18 East Midlands and Thames Valley region squads travelled to the resort for a five-day, warm weather training camp, and they had no hesitation in giving the award-winning venue a glowing endorsement at the end of their visit.

Carmen Lester, performance coach with the Thames Valley training squad, said: “The practice areas are fabulously maintained, the courses themselves are challenging, superbly maintained and the sea views are both stunning and inspiring. All the resort’s staff were very accommo-dating of our needs and were keen to offer advice when asked. We had excellent customer service and will be back, I am sure of it.”

Until its acquisition of the Palmares site in 2003, Onyria Resorts operated at Quinta da Marinha, Cascais, where it developed – in association with Robert Trent Jones Sr – and managed the resort and golf course and, from 1999, the Hotel Quinta da Marinha Resort. The Marinha development is the blueprint for Onyria projects – unique locations, exceptional golf courses and luxury tourist and resi-dential housing, with the added benefit of outstanding five-star hotel service.

Owner Jose Carlos Pinto Coelho is determined to bring championship golf to Palmares. And not just any old champion-ship – he wants the Ryder Cup. Although Portugal lost out to France’s Le Golf National in the bid to host the 2018 competition, Coelho believes Palmares is ideal for the biennial event.

He said: “We did not succeed with our bid (for 2018) but I still hope that within 10 or 15 years I am sure we will have a Ryder Cup in Portugal and with the work Robert has done, I am sure that in the middle of this 27 holes we have a choice for 18 holes to do that.”

Trent Jones, who described the land as “St Andrews south”, went on to say “the links park, with natural dunes land, it’s very rare... it’s a kind of soft Scotland. A much warmer Scotland…”

He also believes the venue will host championship golf and allowed his romantic nature to run wild when contemplating Coelho’s dream of Ryder Cup glory.

He added: ““I think it was Lawrence of Arabia who said most people are night dreamers and they wake up in the morn-ing and their dream has effervesced. But the daydreamers are people who dream when they are awake as they will fulfil their dreams. Mr Coelho is a daydreamer and I am happy to join him in his dreams.”

It may be a dream, but, looking back over a successful year, the Coelho family have cause for great optimism. GME

22 GME june 2012

environmental issues WEbLinK; TImRAGK.Se

Construction of Timrå Golfklubb began in 1985 and it took three years before the course had grown in sufficient-ly to open for play, and it was certainly worth the wait!

Timrå is located on the Gulf of Bothnia, in a heavily wooded area and of the 18 holes, 17 have water as a feature. It’s a stunningly beautiful course, cut through stands of birch and fir, and I was fortunate to visit it on pleasant day.

The first person I met was Hakan Blusi, the course manager. He joined the club in 2003, having spent the previous eight years at Öjestrand Golflubb, which is located about 30 km south of Timrå. He began his career in golf in 1992, having previously been a painter and teacher.

Explaining the club’s environmental philosophy he said: “The project was a community initiative and from the very beginning the environment was upper-most in all aspects of the design.

“Very little fertiliser is applied, we now use electric ride-on mowers – the first in Sweden – to mow the greens and tees and photovoltaic panels are used to generate electricity around the course.

“We manage all the refuse and recycle right across the club; all departments are involved and it’s an expense to the busi-ness, but it’s something we believe in and is worthwhile.

“We use minimal fungicides and herbi-cides, on a reactive basis, not preventative;

for example we were previously using 3.5 kg of nitrogen per hectare and that’s now been reduced to 1.7 kg.

“In the winter we put plastic tarpaulins over the greens to help prevent ice damage. This involves a team of club members and other volunteers who work really hard to help my small team manage the course through the winter months.

“We put up many bird boxes to encour-age the wildlife and the two toilet facilities we have around the course are powered by small photovoltaic panels on the roof. We also have a Waste to Water wash off system and recycle the grass clippings.”

Blusi is a very quiet and unassuming character, a gentle giant, and I have to prise out of him the fact that he was Sweden’s course manager of the year in 2007 – Timrå was voted golf club of the year in 2009 and last year he won the top environmental award from the Swedish Greenkeepers Association.

He manages a small team; just three in the winter months, when the course closes under a blanket of snow, increasing to ten during the summer season which lasts from the middle of May to the first week of November, depending when the snow arrives and when it thaws.

Blusi insists that all golf is played on the regular greens, so the course remains closed until that is possible.

With access to a large population and just three other clubs within a 35 km radi-

Timrå Golfklubb is europe’s northernmost 18-hole coastal golf course and Kevin Marks was fortunate to visit the picturesque Swedish course.

Timrå leads the way


us, there is no shortage of members at the club. Over coffee with club manager Ove Bostrom he provides me with some inter-esting statistics: “We have a membership of just over 1,400 and of this I would say 300-400 are ‘passive’ members; they enjoy the facilities, but don’t play a lot of golf,” said Bostrom.

“We also have a waiting list of 400, which at one time stood at close to 700. The pressure on the course in summer is immense; we have 40,000 rounds in six months and as many as 350 rounds per day on some occasions.

“We had 8,000 guest rounds in 1999, but this has now halved and that’s because the membership are playing more regu-larly. This amount of activity puts a lot of pressure on Hakan and his team and that’s why they are out on the course by 5.30 am in the high season.

“With the golfers arriving for a 6.00 am start, they have to keep in front of them with the mowers, which can be quite chal-lenging. When we begin our aeration programme, they start even earlier, at 4.00 am.”

After finishing coffee, we walk outside the clubhouse to meet up with Blusi, who has two golf cars ready for a tour. We travel around the course, through the stands of birch and fir, across the many bridges dotted around the course that traverse the creeks and water hazards, before arriving at the 12th green.

Cutting the green is a ride-on triple, but there’s no noise coming from the engine!

“Ah,” Blusi explains half smiling, “that’s one of our electric Eclipse greens mowers. We mow our greens Monday to Friday using the pedestrian hybrid versions, which have a Honda engine and electric motors driving the reel and roller, but now we have two of these ride-ons.

“They’re from Jacobsen and everything about them is electric. We use them to mow tees and approaches during the week and the greens at weekends

“They are ideal for us here at Timrå and they fit nicely with our environmental policy. They provide the perfect environ-ment for the operator; the seat is very comfortable and all the controls are oper-ated from the armrest that you see to his right.

“Having two of them gives us flexibili-ty; and being electric, if we can’t get ahead of the golfers, then we can still mow while they’re playing, but without any noise interrupting their game. That’s a huge benefit.

“Again, because they are all electric, another great feature is that we can control and adjust the cuts per metre. Once I have defined the best number, I can lock it in and get consistency across all the greens.

“It’s a very clever piece of machinery and it doesn’t matter who’s driving it, as the cuts per metre will always remain constant,” boasts Blusi.

“I was going to buy the hybrid version; it’s exactly the same but has a small diesel engine providing the electricity from an onboard generator, but once this all elec-tric was launched we decided to go with these. They are the first of their type in Scandinavia, so you could say we’re lead-ing the way.”

I noticed that it had a panel on the top of the roll over bar and, half jokingly, asked Blusi if it was a homemade sun canopy.

“No,” he replied, “it’s a solar panel and we’ve had it retro-fitted by a Swedish company to increase the range and productivity. It is working extremely well and I hear Jacobsen are talking to the manufacturer to see if it can become a factory supported option.

“We also have an electric greens iron and our small fleet of buggies is electric; they’re E-Z-GO buggies and we’ll need at least three more next year as they are always in demand.”

We continue on our tour of the course with the low autumnal sun casting long shadows adding definition to the fairways and dappled shade across the greens. On glorious day like these, it’s no wonder Blusi has a smile on his face and you can tell that he clearly loves his job.

“We work hard to keep Timrå as natu-ral an environment as possible; I like to think we are working in partnership with the natural surroundings, not fighting against it,” Blusi adds.

“As you can see it’s a great place to come to work and is a wonderful asset for the community.” GME

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The De Vere Group has a long-stand-ing history in the game of golf and its recent expansion has been the result of success in several departments on-and-off the course that have had led not only to a host of awards but the substantial growth of its core golf team.

The group also continues to have a significant presence in tournament golf with several of its venues hosting high-profile European Tour and European Seniors Tour events. It’s most notable success however, has been its innovative De Vere Club membership.

There have been several innovations introduced over the past couple of years aimed at not only providing affordability to the golfer but bringing new people into the sport.

Arguably none have been more successful than the De Vere Club, which was introduced by the award-winning

group in March 2010. The membership is completely unique, incorporating all elev-en venues and sixteen championship golf courses in the De Vere Golf portfolio and has welcomed over 10,000 new members in just two years.

The De Vere Club is not just a golf membership however, as it also incorpo-rates spa, practice and leisure facilities that make it more a lifestyle membership.

Undoubtedly, many have been attracted by the relatively low cost of membership, which at £295 is far less than most people pay to join a traditional golf club.

However the De Vere Club allows golf-ers the greater flexibility of playing 16 different golf courses as part of their membership, including the likes of European Tour venues Slaley Hall and Wychwood Park, as well as The Carrick on Loch Lomond, Oulton Hall and Carden Park.

hodson defining De Vere success

The De Vere Club has been an unqualified success since its launch two years ago. Michael brookers talks to De Vere’s director of golf, leisure and spas, Daniel Hodson.

26 GME june 2012

Therefore members are not only taking advantage of affordable championship golf courses but world-class leisure amen-ities. With Freddie Flintoff and Harry Redknapp as the face of the membership (pictured left) it’s certainly relating more to the needs of the everyday golfer than the archaic pretentiousness of clubs from yesteryear.

There will be retractors of course; however the De Vere Club is exactly what the golf industry needs in terms of intro-ducing new people to the sport, evidenced by the sheer volume of members it has attracted.

“The De Vere Club has exceeded all expectations and is essentially changing the way that many golfers look at their golf club memberships,” noted Daniel Hodson, De Vere’s director of golf, leisure and spas. “Given that there are multiple courses in our golf portfolio, our makeup is different from that of regular clubs and that enables us to explore opportunities that most others can’t.

“We try to cater to a wide variety of customers and use extensive feedback from our members and guests to gauge areas for improvement. We aim to meet the desires of the everyday golfer by providing value for money without sacri-ficing quality or service.”

Hodson, a native of Wigan who has almost 20 years’ experience in managerial positions in both the hotel and golf indus-try has driven the membership since its inception alongside Jamie Carroll, De Vere’s group membership sales manager.

He has therefore been central in estab-lishing the De Vere Golf brand as one of the UK’s leading resort chains. His influ-ence is underlined not only by the De Vere Club but a host of individual awards for several De Vere venues during his time

at the helm of the brand and is largely a result of his continued focus on excel-lence in service and quality despite a diffi-cult economic climate.

Slaley Hall is arguably De Vere’s best-known facility but the luxurious five-star Cameron House Resort, home to The Carrick on Loch Lomond, was voted ‘Scotland’s Best Hotel’ in 2009.

The Carrick has hosted Ladies European Tour events, as well as the PGA Cup matches against the USA, underlin-ing its rapid development since opening in 2007. Overlooking the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond, The Carrick is unques-tionably one of the most picturesque courses in the UK and has hence received rave reviews from media and guests.

A host of awards for other De Vere venues highlight the strength of the group’s entire portfolio, including being named ‘Golf Group of the Year’ for the second consecutive year at the annual ‘59 Club’ Awards Show, which identifies the UK’s leading golf service provider.

No fewer than six De Vere venues picked up awards on the night and among the winners were European Tour venues Wychwood Park and Slaley Hall, as well as Carden Park, Dunston Hall, Heron’s Reach and Oulton Hall, all of which won the coveted ‘four-star service’ award, the highest standard awarded on the night.

“I’ve got a fantastic team of committed golf sales and golf operations behind me that were rightly recognised as the best in the business,” commented Hodson.

“We work tirelessly at each of our venues to ensure that every guest’s expe-rience is a special one and for six to be individually recognised, as well as to be awarded ‘Golf Group of the Year’, is testa-ment to the high standards that we are striving towards.


“A special mention must go to Steve Dacre, our group golf sales manager, who has been the driving force behind a stand-out couple of years. Alongside our indi-vidual venue sales managers and directors of golf, Steve has created a fantastic atmosphere and work ethic at De Vere and I’m very proud that their achieve-ments are being formally recognised.”

Headlining the quality of the courses in the De Vere portfolio is Slaley Hall (pictured above right), host venue of the PGA Seniors Championship since 2008 and the flagship event on the European Seniors Tour.

The event continues to be the premier tournament in the North-East of England and welcomes a plethora of golf stars year after year. In 2011 the event was spon-sored by the De Vere Club and was one of the most exciting in recent memory.

Ryder Cup captains Sam Torrance and Mark James headline a stellar field this June alongside defending champion Andrew Oldcorn, who completed a unique double with his runaway victory last year by adding the PGA Seniors Championship to the PGA Championship title he won at Wentworth in 2001.

Like many of its guests, Oldcorn was quick to praise Slaley Hall as a venue saying: “This is a very special moment and it couldn’t have happened at a better place.

“This is a magnificent tournament and it’s been a real pleasure to play and stay in the hotel this week, so a big thank you to De Vere for their hospitality.”

De Vere’s recent growth and success is therefore highlighted by its excellence across a number of criteria. There has been an unrivalled attention to detail that has seen 35 new faces added to the golf division in just two years.

Furthermore the expansion has led to the team’s involvement in the IAGTO Asia Golf Tourism Convention in Kuala Lumpur. Clearly, Hodson is leading a golfing revolution at De Vere and has stressed that it is all down to their contin-ued focus on service and quality.

With over 10,000 new members joining the De Vere Club, a host of service awards, a flagship professional tour event at Slaley Hall and a growing team of skilled golf industry professionals behind them, it seems that De Vere has all the parts in place to set a significant standard for golf resorts in the UK. GME

“The De Vere Club has exceeded all expectations and is essentially changing

the way that many golfers look at their golf club memberships”

28 GME june 2012

soil analysis WEbLinK; eTL-LTD.Com

Constructing a golf course is often an expensive and highly technical affair, and with many important decisions made from the onset, it’s imperative that the project is undertaken to a high standard from the beginning.

There are many tools available in the sportsturf industry to aid in this process, although perhaps surprisingly, the role of the laboratory is often underestimated.

Lab analysis, in particular can be used to provide a valuable insight into the selection of the correct materials for golf course applications or constructions, as testing can have a good, positive impact on the profitability, playability and longevity of a golf course.

Physical soil testing laboratories provide a variety of soil testing to assess the current condition of the existing turf, and the use of an independent and accredited laboratory is always recommended.

Currently there are only ten such labo-ratories in the world – mostly based in North America – with European Turfgrass Laboratories (ETL), located in Stirling, Scotland, being the first laborato-ry outside of North America to become accredited to the A2LA (American Association for Laboratory Accreditation.)

The USGA recommends that only A2LA-accredited laboratories are to be used for testing and analysing materials for building golf greens to their guide-lines.

As Sharon Bruce (pictured opposite), lab manager/director of ETL explains, there are many benefits for choosing an A2LA-accredited laboratory: “These laboratories have strict policies and proce-dures which must be followed to ensure consistency, accuracy and reliability of the test results.

“Every two years, an assessor visits each laboratory to assess the competency of the staff to complete their testing tech-niques, and the quality management system is reviewed as is the laboratory’s compliance to the international standard for testing and calibration laboratories – ISO/IEC 17025:2005,” added Bruce.

“Laboratory equipment is calibrated on a regular basis and must be traceable to national standards. Reference standards are tested alongside samples to ensure that all equipment is functioning correctly.”

Laboratories are used in obtaining results for maintenance and monitoring of existing courses, selecting the appro-priate materials for renovation and new construction projects – these analyses are used by the decision maker to provide assurance and act as a reliable back-up to the decisions taken.

“Laboratory analysis can help provide data for many usages including new and existing courses, new constructions, selecting top-dressings and sourcing suit-able construction materials,” suggested Bruce.

“Analysis is also useful for establishing nutrient levels in the rootzone, ensuring sand and gravel are compatible and iden-tify potential new bunker sands.

“It’s even possible to use the analysis to help establish a top-dressing program through the testing of organic matter from the existing rootzone. We can also determine the best mix ratio for the construction rootzone on a club’s course”

Testing prior to any renovation or construction work could potentially save a project a significant amount of money should the wrong selection of materials be initially made resulting in rootzone failure as Bruce explained: “All too often, ETL receive samples for testing after they have been placed in the golf green. The cost of having samples analysed is a mere frac-tion to the cost of replacing a failed green at a later stage.”

Having been at the forefront of testing materials from all over the world, ETL have tested all types of products ranging from conventional silica sands used in rootzone mixes and topdressings, gravels and topsoil to more unusual materials.

“Years ago, we received a package containing elephant dung which was picked up from the trail the elephants frequented – the idea was to use this instead of peat when making a rootzone for golf greens,” smiled Bruce.

how science can play a key role on your course

As many course managers will tell you, its important to know what’s below the playing surface in order to ensure that your course is kept in the best condition as Aidan Patrick reports.


“Another unusual material was chicken waste – the lab was a pretty smelly place for a few days!”

As well as analysing a range of prod-ucts, ETL have tested different types of construction throughout the world and in the UK from courses such as Wentworth and Gleneagles to links-style courses such as Kingsbarns and the new Trump International course in Scotland.

ETL also work closely with many lead-ing golf course architects, and president of agronomic services at Nicklaus Design, Jon Scott, said: “We at Nicklaus Design depend on independent testing laborato-ries to verify that soils, irrigation water, and sands meet the qualifications for construction and maintenance established for such use by expert scientific research and experience.

“European Turfgrass Laboratories have been one of our most trusted companies in the performance of such testing. They strive to quickly process samples submit-ted and render both data and recommen-dations in an easy to read format.

“Further to that, they respond quickly to questions and are very easy to work with when clarifying complicated results and opinions. Our clients and their contractors find ETL both friendly and reasonably priced, and the results of their work have been first class all the way.

“I do not hesitate to recommend ETL for any project where precise analysis is required to insure high standards of construction and maintenance.”

Having worked in the sportsturf indus-try for 17 years, Bruce has noticed that financial restraints are becoming more evident in all areas of the industry.

“Constructions are few and far between compared to ten years ago, and budgets for importing high quality, well-refined products have been tightened,” she said.

“It’s more noticeable than ever that sites under development are more often than not, testing on-site materials to see whether anything can be used in the construction process. High transportation costs are sometimes prohibitive from choosing the ‘ideal’ product but unfortu-nately some projects have to adapt their original plans to fit in with the availability of the materials.”

Laboratory analysis can be used to check the physical properties of the on-site sands (or topsoil) for their suita-bility in making rootzones for the greens or tees.

“Properties such as saturated hydraulic conductivity, air-filled porosity and water-filled porosity and water retention are all influenced by the depth of the rootzone in the profile – called tension within the laboratory.

Ideally, for grass to grow there should be a balance of both air-filled pores and water-filled pores in the rootzone profile – testing materials at different depths can help determine where that balance occurs.

“Golf courses are altering management practices to be more environmentally aware,” concluded Bruce. GME

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ryder cup 2018

With five nations vying for the greatest prize in golf, last year’s Ryder Cup deci-sion was a tense affair.

The strain was clear as the dignitaries gathered to hear who had been selected to host the 42nd running of the event. The bigwigs, celebrities and bureaucrats had all done their bit to impress, influence and cajole but for all but one, their efforts would be in vain.

A year on from that charged day at Wentworth, the jubilant French team has had time to digest the mouth-watering prospect of hosting golf ’s greatest team event. For only the second time, the Ryder Cup will be held at a continental venue, which coincidentally happens to be one of Europe’s most prized inland courses – Le Golf National on the outskirts of Versailles.

“Any victories any Frenchmen have had, won’t match up to the Ryder Cup coming to Paris,” said Thomas Levet proudly after the announcement.

“The Ryder Cup is seven years away, so we have seven years to work on it, but we need to make sure we start working on it now.”

The Ryder Cup star’s message is clear – if France is to make the most of this once-in-a-generation opportunity it has to do so from the word go. After all, golf is a peripheral sport in France with the likes of football and rugby taking overwhelm-ing precedence in the public’s eyes.

Golf is a poor relation in sporting terms and this minority status is reflected in disappointing participation rates that have dropped to 0.65 per cent in 2011.

To recreate the excitement and passion of Celtic Manor, the French public would have to fall helplessly and universally in love with golf. And for that to happen, the golf industry would need to lead from the front.

“I knew we would get it,” says Oliver Villaeys, golf director of the Château de Taulane, a Gary Player-designed golf

host of possibilitiesThe question of how best to capitalise on hosting the Ryder Cup is rarely resolved. Mark Alexander finds out how golf clubs in france are coming

to terms with the possibilities surrounding their host-nation status.

32 GME june 2012

course located between the Gorges du Verdon and the idyllic French Riviera. “We have never hosted it before, so it was time for us!”

Like many in the south, Villaeys is opti-mistic that the Ryder Cup will provide a timely boost to the region’s golf market.

“We hope clients coming to the Ryder Cup from the US or Europe will come to the south of France for a holiday as well,” he says hopefully. “We know it will be a fantastic experience to have the Ryder Cup in France, so we want to do it well. We have six years to get ready for it, so now is a good time to start preparing.”

Villaeys’ preparations will not only include managing the impressive18-hole course at Château de Taulane, but also masterminding a ten-year project to develop a new championship course and a five-star hotel near Mougins. “We hope the Ryder-Cup effect will work for us and help us build this course,” he says.

With plenty to keep him busy, Villaeys will be one of many in the golf industry to find their schedules filling up as the inter-national media ultimately turn their gaze towards France and 2018.

If only the same could be said for the domestic press, says Marion Saltiel, direc-tor of communication at Terre Blanche, a luxurious two-course resort located 30 minutes from Cannes.

“Towns, councils and the state need to help us promote golf because the media in France was not that interested in golf,” she explains. “Golf wasn’t considered that important – it’s not football after all – but now the Ryder Cup is coming, there is definitely a new interest in it.”

Following on from last year’s celebra-tions, Saltiel believes one of the first issues to tackle in the Ryder Cup build-up is the lack of awareness of golf within France.

“The Ryder Cup was great news,” she says. “We all hoped it would come, but most of us didn’t expect it to come here.

“France is not well known for its golf courses, so for tourism and golf, it was great news. But winning the Ryder Cup will also mean developing golf with the French people and, in particular, letting the young people know about golf.”

Terre Blanche is certainly doing its bit by pro-actively opening its doors to local schools and offering free classes to bring more kids into the game. However, these initiatives are part of a much wider set of changes taking place at the resort, none more significant than a move towards self-management.

“The Four Seasons brand has been managing the hotel and spa, but we made a joint decision to cease the contract so the resort will be self-managed,” Saltiel explains. “It’s a big change. We are going to market Terre Blanche more to golfers than before, which is good for the golf market.”

In a move no doubt spurred on by the Ryder Cup decision last year, the re-alignment of Terre Blanche’s marketing strategy will undoubtedly be repeated across France as clubs try to capitalise on international interest and, more impor-tantly, the latent domestic market.

“In France, the offer is bigger than the demand,” Saltiel says. “The directors of golf clubs are aware of the great opportu-nity presented by the Ryder Cup, but most commercial golf courses need more golfers to start using their facilities and become members now.”

The rich variety of golf courses in France, and their chronic under-utilisa-tion, is best illustrated by figures released by KPMG in its latest summary of golf participation in Europe.


Outside the UK, Ireland and Germany, France has the most courses of any European country (578), yet has the lowest participation rates of the top ten. Indeed, although 407,530 golfers in France registered to play golf in 2011, that figure is a 0.7 per cent drop from the previous year.

While the public’s passion for golf is still to be roused, preliminary course design work is already underway at the French Ryder Cup venue.

Working with the European Tour and the French Golf Federation (Fédération Française de Golf (FFG)), Sunningdale-based European Golf Design is working on a masterplan for Le Golf National as well as the logistics and facilities needed to make the venue a major global sporting arena.

Elsewhere, the more pressing campaign to win the hearts and minds of France’s sporting public is slowly gathering pace. But with so much ground to cover, the governing body’s efforts are already draw-ing some criticism.

“The French people are very proud and excited about the Ryder Cup,” says

Carole Robert, (pictured right) sales manager at Saint Donat Golf and Country Club, “but I hope there is a change in attitudes towards golf in France. We hope customers begin to look more closely at what we have to offer.”

The elegant layout at Saint Donat makes it one of the country’s top courses and an ideal showpiece for French golf and the south east region. Yet Robert says, so far, the fallout from the Ryder Cup has been a promotional focus on the country

as a whole rather than showcasing target-ed areas.

“The FFG is doing a lot of advertising for the Ryder Cup, but this doesn’t include courses around the country,” she says. “It is a national promotion. It is promoting France altogether, not through specific courses like Saint Donat.”

The prize of hosting the Ryder Cup comes with responsibilities. The unprece-dented international platform it provides is one on which few countries tread. For France, the challenge will be combining this worldwide sales push with a more targeted and arguably more momentous campaign closer to home. GME

“The French people are very proud and excited about the Ryder Cup, but i hope there is a

change in attitudes towards golf in France. We hope customers begin to look more closely at

what we have to offer.”

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34 GME june 2012

from the r&a

Sustainable development and manage-ment of golf courses is all about preparing quality playing surfaces that support a viable golf business whilst protecting the environment and the concerns of wider society.

Golf and nature can live in harmony and you can find out more about the issues related to golf and sustainability on our the weblink at the top of the page.

The R&A encourage others to follow this path, but what of its own showcase, The Open Championship?

July 19 to 22, 2012 will see The Open returning to Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club for the 11th time since it first hosted the Championship in 1926.

One of the world’s premier links, Royal Lytham is also of significant historic land-scape and environmental importance, so what makes the championship course at Royal Lytham so special?

At first glance it might seem like any other golf course in an urban environ-ment; surrounded by housing and, one might think, with little apparent wildlife interest. The Lytham site is, however, an

excellent example of fixed dune grass-land even though it lies over a kilo-

metre from the sea. In effect, it is a relic of how

the landscape used to look here before the expansion of the town and the surrounding housing was built and, as such, it

protects the wildlife associated with this relatively rare ecosystem.

Royal Lytham and St Annes Golf Club was founded in 1886 with the present course constructed in 1897. At that time, the site of the championship course contained all the botanical variety which characterised this part of the Lancashire coast.

The local flora consisted of over 500 recorded species, including dwarf silky willow, dewberry, bramble, evening prim-rose, eyebright, bird’s-foot trefoil, sea pink, wild mint, thyme, strawberry and heartsease. Many of these plants can still be found on the course.

Sheep grazed on the course from the early 1900s but were removed after the Great War before being reintroduced during the Second World War to keep the rough down. Although the sheep have gone, today’s rough management attempts to replicate the beneficial effects of grazing.

This involves physical removal of any unwanted regenerating scrub, together with selective cutting and scarification to maintain thin and open grasslands. As a consequence, the grasslands remain fine examples of their kind and support strong semi-natural unimproved fixed dune characteristics.

Lancashire County Council has listed the golf course as a Biological Heritage Site; a non-statutory designation which gives recognition to the nature conserva-tion importance of the site to the region.

The rough at Lytham varies from the finer wispy and more playable grasslands running along the edges of the fairways

WEbLinK; RAnDA.oRG/THeGoLfCouRSe

an open invitation to sustainability

with Royal Lytham and St Annes scheduled to host the open Championship this summer, Steve isaac,

director of golf course management at The R&A

takes a look at what makes the course so special.


(particularly through the outward holes), to the dense and tussocky grasslands dominating the deeper rough.

Such variation allows both wild flowers and ground-nesting birds to flourish. Skylark and meadow pipit, which can be seen over many areas of the course, provide a natural soundtrack to golf during the spring and summer.

Many other species of small bird, such as linnet and yellow hammer, benefit from the significant areas of gorse which are found across the course.

The dunes to the left of the 3rd, 8th and 10th holes, and those on the 9th, are wildflower species-rich. Dewberry, hare-bell, rough and autumn hawkbit, common mouse ear, bird’s-foot trefoil, restharrow and yarrow are all quite common.

These provide a good environment for butterflies such as the small copper and common blue.

The grasslands further offline, though less tidy in appearance, are extremely important with taller plants including mugwort, common thistle, large-flowered evening primrose, bladder campion and yarrow providing an ongoing food source through the spring to late summer for a diverse range of wildlife including seed eating birds such as goldfinch and polli-nator insects including bumblebees and butterflies such as gatekeeper and mead-ow brown.

They are also a home to smaller rodents which in turn provide an important food source for birds of prey such as kestrel.

Too often, such areas are cut down on courses but at Lytham they have been retained and are of great value to wildlife.

Royal Lytham also serves the local community well in terms of conserving landscape and wildlife. It also makes a notable financial contribution, particularly when The Open comes to town.

An independent study commissioned by The R&A forecasts that this year’s championship will deliver a total econom-ic benefit to the regional economy of the North West of close to £90 million.

Welcoming The Open Championship economic impact forecast, Fylde Borough Council chief executive, Allan Oldfield said: “Having The Open Championship in town is clearly beneficial to local people and businesses in Fylde and we look forward to welcoming the many thou-sands of spectators destined to attend this year’s event.”

Commenting on the wider legacy of The Open Championship, Lancashire County Council chief executive, Phil Halsall said: “The Open this year will be the Championship’s third visit to the North West in just seven years.

“In hard times the cash injection that comes with hosting the event can make a real difference to the economic outlook of the region.”

The Open is a great sporting event. It is, however, a lot more than that, as it delivers tangible economic, environment and social benefits, and this is what sustainable golf is all about. GME

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175 anniversary

When 175 years ago, a 33-year-old blacksmith from Rutland in Vermont, USA, relocated to Grand Detour, Illinois to start up a new business, little did he know that the company that still bears his name would grow to become one of the

world’s largest companies.Born in 1804, John Deere was the

third son of William Rinold Deere and Sarah Yates Deere, and was raised by his mother on a meager income after his father drowned at sea when John Deere was just four years old.

After finishing school, Deere decided to embark on an appren-ticeship as a blacksmith, a career which saw him remain in the Vermont area until, in 1837, facing depressed business condi-

tions and with a young family to care for, he travelled alone to Grand

Detour to make a fresh start.

Deere’s new blacksmith business was in high demand, and he would soon stum-bled upon a solution to a problem which would eventually make him his fortune and his name famous the world over.

At the time, the new pioneer farmers struggled to turn heavy, sticky prairie soil with cast iron ploughs, and Deere was convinced that a plough that was highly polished and properly shaped could scour itself as it cut furrows through the sticky soil.

A friend gave Deere a broken saw blade made from English steel, and Deere set about forging the steel into a plough that would eventually revolutionise farming in the mid-west.

Sales were initially slow to take hold, with just ten ploughs built in the first two years. But word soon spread about his revolutionary scouring plough made from English steel, and within five years he was selling over a hundred a year.

forged from steelTo celebrate john Deere’s 175th anniversary, publisher

Michael Lenihan paid a visit to john Deere’s worldwide headquarters in the united States as well as the place

where it all began – Grand Detour, Illinois.

WEbLinK; joHnDeeRe.Com

38 GME june 2012

In 1848, just 11 years after moving to Grand Detour, Deers’s growing plough business relocated to Moline, Illinois where by 1849 he was employing 16 staff and building over 2,100 ploughs a year.

To this day, Moline is the worldwide headquarters of John Deere, with Deere and Company globally employing some 61,000 staff and currently ranked 98th in the Fortune 500 list of America’s best companies.

With an assessed brand value of US $3.6 billion, little did Deere appreciate that his company would, 175 years later, grow into a global leader in agriculture, turf, construction and forestry.

The company has always remained true to its roots however, and for many decades was managed by a Deere family descendant. When, back in 1858, Deere passed the day-to-day management of the company over to his 21-year-old son Charles, John remained as president until his death, aged 82.

Charles ran the company for the next 49 years – overseeing the incorporation to Deere and Company in 1868 and the design and trademark registration of the now world-famous ‘leaping deer’ logo in 1876 – until in 1907 Charles died and was succeeded as CEO by William Butterworth, his son-in-law.

Two other Deere family descendants ran the company (Charles Deere Wiman and his son-in-law William Hewitt) until in 1982, Robert Hanson became the first ever CEO of Deere and Company to have had no family ties with the founder.

Today, Deere and Company, under the stewardship of Samuel Allen – who became only the ninth chief executive officer in 2009 – operates 64 factories in 18 countries around the world with a reported net income last year of US$2.8 bilion.

During my trip to the United States, I had the pleasure of visiting a couple of manufacturing plants – Horicon in Wisconsin and the turf care factory in Fuquay-Varina, North Carolina – and it was plainly evident talking to both office and factory workers at both sites, that everyone working for John Deere has a sense of belonging, as if part of a large close-knit family.

This was reinforced at the Horicon Works site where they manufacture the Gator utility vehicles as well as greens mowers. For a tiny town which has a population of just 3,775, John Deere employs almost half of the Horicon’s population at this one factory alone – over 1,700 staff work on site.

Generations after generations have been working at the site since Deere and Company purchased the factory in 1911, and the immense pride that staff relayed in telling us their stories was clear for all to see.

Over 500,000 Gator’s and five million lawn tractors have been produced at the Horicon Works by a small town commu-nity which bleeds yellow and green.

As a company, John Deere are of course well known for the tractors and agricultural equipment which they sell the


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world over, but many may be surprised to learn that it was only a recent as 1997 that Deere and Company took the decision to move into the golf sector, when on July 8 that same year, a light fairway mower was wheeled off the production line at Fuquay-Varina.

The site, which is home to the turf care range of products, boasts a brand new Product Verification and Validation labo-ratory as well as a ‘virtual’ test lab where

users can virtually see for themselves new product enhancements and changes on new or proposed product lines.

All of the products that many green-keepers are familiar with – mowers for tees, fairways, greens, surrounds and roughs – plus aerators for greens, are all manufactured at this modern, state-of-the-art 335,000 sq ft site.

Arguably one of my personal highlights from the six-day trip, had to be the visit to TPC Deere Run in Moline – just a short drive from Deere’s worldwide headquar-ters – which the company built on the site of a former Arabian horse farm and has, since 2000, hosted the John Deere Classic every July.

Director of golf course maintenance and operations, Paul Grogan, proudly

showed us around not only the stunning 7,256-yard, par 71 course but also the modern maintenance facility which Grogan also uses to test John Deere equipment out on the course.

Grogan, who has been at TPC Deere Run since 2006, has embarked on a long-term tree replacement program, part of which was prompted by major thunder-storms in 2008 that resulted in major tree damage on the course.

“It’s a great honour to work here at TPC Deere Run and we have a good staff,” Grogan said. “We have a lot of guys who have been here for many years and who take a lot of pride in the place.”

There’s that word again... pride. If anything struck me more from my trip to the US, it has to be the sense of pride that everyone seems to have working for Deere.

As the current chairman and CEO, Samuel Allen, said: “Our recognition of this special anniversary reminds us of the many thousands of John Deere employees who came before us to make this compa-ny a world leader.”

From very humble beginnings, Deere and Company has kept true to its roots, and I’m sure John Deere himself would be justifiably proud. GME

“Our recognition of this special anniversary reminds us of the many thousands of John Deere

employees who came before us to make this company a world leader.”

40 GME june 2012

my view WEbLinK; GoLfLIVeeVenT.Com

For three days the London Golf Club opened its doors to the golfing world as it hosted Golf Live’s third outing.

More than 12,000 visitors flocked to the prestigious venue to see Gary Player and Colin Montgomerie head an impres-sive line-up of players from both the men’s and ladies’ Tours as well as a host of celebrities including BBC presenter Chris Evans.

But aside from the chance to meet and learn from the greats of the game and be entertained by various displays and competitions, more than 150 golfing companies and brands chose the event as a platform to showcase their products.

Among those exhibiting was a good cross-section of golf clubs and resorts from within the UK and further afield, and while it might seem unlikely they would grab people’s attention away from Player and co, it would seem quite the opposite is true with a record attendance on the opening day prompting nearly 50 per cent of companies to secure their place at the 2013 event there and then.

Sean Clancy, golf sales manager for Celtic Manor, was the first to agree his place at next year’s event, doing so shortly after the event opened.

He said: “I wish it was more than once a year. This is our third year at Golf Live and we’ve had a really successful event yet again.

“It’s a chance to network with our colleagues in the industry and tour opera-tors and also a chance to meet the public at large and explain to them the many offerings that we have.

“We value the role that Golf Live plays in allowing us to meet our customers. As the show grows year on year so do our expectations of how much we can benefit by being here at Golf Live.

“I’m quite envious of the people who come here to spectate and enjoy the event. We’re busy at our stand, which is fantastic for us as exhibitors, but I would love to see more of the event itself.”

Celtic Manor enticed visitors to its stand with a blindfolded putting competi-tion, and interactive features were a successful tactic for a host of exhibitors.

Golf Tourism Scotland had an extreme putting challenge and attracted attention from a number of the big-name pros in attendance.

Lee Derrick, the organisation’s chair-man, explained: “It captures everyone’s imagination, and it’s good interaction with them. Colin Montgomerie came down and he was great on the stand. People are watching them having a go and they’re not finding it easy.

“It’s been a successful three days for us. The show is very different to anything else there is. It’s very creative and, for Scotland, having a big presence here and

for the third consecutive year, golfers from all over the uK flocked to the London Golf Club to visit Golf Live. Samuel Frederick reports.

crowds flock to Golf live


a lot of interaction gets the awareness of the Scottish product out there and we’ve enjoyed it, it’s been very good.

“It’s a very good quality of visitor coming through and there are a lot of club members who are knowledgeable about their golf and the tourism product.

“We’ve been talking to the organisers and I think we’re going to be committing to being here for the next couple of years. In the, UK from a consumer point of view, Golf Live is the only show for us.”

Overseas destinations were equally impressed with Golf Live. La Manga Club’s associate director of sales, James Bryan, said: “As far as getting in front of UK golfers is concerned it can’t be beaten and, as Spain’s flagship golf resort, it has become a key part of our strategy in promoting the resort.”

Golfbreaks.com has been a partner of Golf Live since its inceptions and Kate Brewer, the company’s offline marketing manager, said: “It’s been really good, bigger and better than last year. Customers have been really engaged, interested in the show and interested in golf breaks.

“Quality of visitors has been much better and quantity’s been really good – we’ve been really pleased overall. Being a partner of Golf Live has provided great exposure to our core customer base of avid golfers in the south-east.

“It’s certainly the best consumer show out there and we’re always keen to align ourselves with the best in the industry.”

But it wasn’t only the travel sector receiving attention. The major manufac-turers present at the three-day event were a big draw for many visitors and unsur-prisingly the huge driving range was packed with golfers testing the latest clubs from start to finish each day.

Leigh Fletcher, Wilson Staff ’s techni-cian rep for the UK, said: “This year’s show was really good for us. There was a lot of interest in our range of CR11 clubs and the drivers also did really well. For us, it’s all about getting the product into the hands of people and letting them see for themselves what the clubs are like, and this is one of the best ways we can do that.”

Organisers had ensured everything within the golfing spectrum was repre-sented from the household names to newly launched products from Dave Hicks Putting, Shamir Lens’ ophthalmic lenses for golfer, Golfersskins specialist sunscreen, Sligo funky golf clothing and trolley manufacturer Rolley Golf.

Golf Live’s sales manager, Chris Secker, was delighted with the feedback received and pledged to make next year’s event an even bigger success.

He said: “It’s been a hugely successful event and we’ve had some fantastic feed-back from exhibitors and visitors alike.

“Our team is already focused on next year’s event. We’ll be tweaking the layout to maximise footfall throughout the venue and making sure Golf Live 2013 is an even bigger success for everyone involved.” GME

42 GME june 2012

Are there any budding screenwriters out there in golf land? If so, I believe there is a golf screenplay just crying out to be written. Allow me to elucidate.

I’m currently reading The Phantom of The Open, the story of ‘Maurice Flitcroft, the world’s worst golfer’ – the author’s quote, not mine.

Those of a certain age may recall the name of maurice Gerald flitcroft, the man who, in 1976, scored a record high 121 in open qualifying – it was hardly surprising, as it was his first time on a golf course.

The book chronicles not just his 15 minutes of warholian golfing infamy, but his entire life – though it is his ongo-ing battles with the then R&A secretary, Keith mackenzie, that provide much of the humour.

A crane driver from Barrow, flitcroft was a fantasist and a dreamer; a former touring diver – oh yes – who decided to turn professional to

achieve his dream of winning the open Championship. And he didn’t just try his luck in 1976 either; using a number of aliases he was a constant thorn in mackenzie’s side. But I don’t want to give away all the plot.

It is a story lovingly told by authors Scott murray and Simon farnaby, who resist the temptation to mock a man who was clearly, at best, eccentric. It has everything you could want in a film: comedy, drama, romance, the pricking of pomposity and a little guy ‘sticking it to the man’.

That the man ultimately wins out is neither here nor there. It’s just a fabu-lous tale.

what maurice flitcroft would make of golf today I’m not quite sure but he’d be proud to know that his legend lives on – and even prouder if some-body were to put it on the big screen. I’d do it myself, but, you know, I have neither the time nor the talent... GME

the last word

flitcroft deserves his place on the silver screen

“it is his ongoing battles with the then R&A secretary, Keith Mackenzie, that provide much of the humour.”

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But credit where credit’s due. Superman Trump and mild-mannered martin Hawtree appear to have created a stunning new lay-out at THAT new course which opens in july.

The pictures I’ve seen show it to be a truly great golf course. I’m just disappointed my invitation to the press opening was lost in the post. It was lost in the post, wasn’t it…?

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GME/AP4/06/2012

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