34: Royal St George's Paul Larsen discusses the postponement of the 149th Open - a podcast by Karl Hansell

Welcome to this week’s edition of the podcast. I hope you had a decent Easter. 

 

It’s quickly been back to business for the association as this week BIGGA has been working alongside the R&A to produce revised guidelines for what constitutes Essential Maintenance on the golf course.

 

This has been adapted to recognise that we’re three weeks closer to summer and that golf courses have seen reduced maintenance levels for almost a month now and so some practices may need to be reintroduced.

 

Last week also saw the postponement of the 149th Open Championship for a year. Although we aren’t sure what the world’s going to look like in July with regards to whether golf clubs will be open for business and tours able to resume, the R&A decided that it’s within the current spirit to hold off hosting the event until 2021. With the R&A keen to hold the 150th Open at St Andrews, it was decided that the 149th would still take place at Royal St George’s, just a year later than expected. To find out what that meant for the greenkeepers, I gave course manager Paul Larsen a call and we had a catch up about how he and his team have reacted to the news and also how they’ve been maintaining the course and following the essential maintenance guidelines.

 

Following that conversation we’ve got the latest Continue to Learn Extra webinar. Steve Chappell is the former superintendent at Gleneagles for the 2014 Ryder Cup and is now plying his trade at Royal Bled in Slovenia and he gave us a talk about why now more than ever it’s important for greenkeepers to understand their role within the golf club as a business enterprise.

 

Steve has worked in the greenkeeping industry for 30 years managing a wide range of golfing facilities from traditional member owned clubs to single owner commercial operations. Steve has been involved in four Ryder Cups including the hosting of the event at Gleneagles in 2014. In 2018 Steve moved to Slovenia to become the Golf Course Superintendent of Royal Bled Golf Club.

This webinar will discuss the notion that a greenkeeping management role is about more than just producing a great playing surface and managing the greenkeeping team. It’s about recognising who the golf course ‘belongs’ to and how, as the main asset, it has to perform for the benefit of the business. With the current challenges that face us all, now more than ever greenkeepers will have to adapt to the new normal and the challenges of keeping members, committees and the club management satisfied by learning to manage expectations and be adaptable within the limitations of the resources available.



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The Green Room Golf Course Podcast is produced by Karl Hansell on behalf of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association.

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