Greenkeeping Magazine interviews RHGC Course Manager, Andy Wood

Our Course Manager Andy Wood was recently interviewed by Alistair Dunsmuir for Greenkeeping Magazine. The following is an excerpt from the article...

Robin Hood Golf Club wants to be a regional Open qualifying venue, and to achieve this it has to undergo major drainage works.

Change is a difficult thing to manage at the best of times. When you’ve only been at a new club for a few months and you’re looking to develop everything from the main entrance and car park to the course layout and condition, then you’re setting yourself a major challenge – but it’s one that Andy Wood, the new course manager at Robin Hood Golf Club in leafy Solihull in the West Midlands, is very happy to accept. Andy is just six months into his new role, having been course manager at Cosby Golf club near Leicester for seven years, following a six-year spell at The Belfry, which he left as deputy head greenkeeper. Since his arrival, he has already initiated an ambitious five-year plan for the course, and ordered a new fleet of course maintenance and service equipment worth nearly £300,000.

Against the background of a tough economy and in an area with a wellpublicised downturn in the automotive market, the club is certainly showing initiative by investing in, and marketing, the club for the future.

“The club has the ambition to move forward, and this was what attracted me to the job,” said Andy. “It’s all about raising the profile of the golf club for everyone’s benefit, and building a great team as we go. “Basically we’re aiming to become an Open qualifying venue, and therefore we have to upgrade every aspect of the golf course, from first impressions on arrival, through to course improvements from the tees to the greens, and introducing proper practice facilities, which may include a driving range and chipping greens. “The first step has been the investment in new machinery, the second was bringing in the right team around me in a new deputy and first assistant, and we’re already in the middle of a major drainage programme,” Andy explained. “We’ll also be looking at relocating and reconstructing all the bunkers and greens’ surrounds, and remodelling and altering the direction of some of the holes, including some tree thinning and removal, to make the course longer.” These are obviously very big plans, but they need to be carried out without major disruption to the day to day play – there is a lot of quality competition for golfers in the Midlands, and Robin Hood cannot afford to lose membership while the work progresses.

Andy’s solution to this potential problem is equally innovative – he put out a request earlier in the year for volunteer members to work with the greenkeeping team of seven, plus a part-time gardener, to help push the project ahead. This has already proved successful in helping members to understand how hard the greenkeepers work, and what goes into maintaining and improving a busy golf course...

Greenkeeping: What changes do you think need to be made to benefit the industry sector and profession of the greenkeeper?

Andy Wood: Continuing the work done bymany of the organisations trying to make our industry as professional as possible; it canonly help the future of our profession making
it a more attractive career for school and college leavers. Once we have them involved in the industry it is then about trying to keep them and getting them through not just level
two but also level three as this would help us all. Improving training especially in specialist areas such as machinery mechanics and irrigation would also help as there are not enough courses about and this is where these particular companies could be more proactive.

Full article... Down at the Hood - Greenkeeping Magazine