I work at North Berwick Golf Club, providing a high quality golf course that is played on by people from all over the world.
As a keen golfer from a young age, it made sense for me to move into the golf industry. I did want to become a professional, but after leaving school a great opportunity to do an apprenticeship in golf course maintenance came up, so I got into greenkeeping and I haven’t looked back since.
I’ve never been one to sit in a classroom with a pen and a piece of paper, so what I enjoyed about my apprenticeship was that your classroom was your workplace and you got to experience working hands-on to industry standards as well as going on lots of fact-finding trips.
The apprenticeship made me a better employee and helped me develop a broader understanding of my job. I loved getting paid whilst learning, as it gave me more motivation to get to that next level as well as funding my holidays all over the world!
Each day I maintain the golf course to a high standard. In Spring and Summer there’s a lot of cutting grass, keeping areas tidy and watering dry areas, while in Winter it’s golf course restoration projects such as bunker building and re levelling.
The kinds of skills I need in my job are things like problem solving, communication skills, good time keeping and being able to work in a team or independently.
There’s a huge variety of jobs needing to be done throughout the year, so I have a range of qualifications, including Chemical Spraying, Level 2 in Sports Turf Management, First Aid and Mechanical courses such as Grinding and sharpening units
As well as working with some of the latest technology to produce the results we need, we are becoming more sustainable by moving to electric vehicles, keeping wastage to a minimum through recycling and creating habitats for native wildlife.
Best thing about my job is the variety, as every day is different in terms of what we do. Seeing the final result, when people are loving the course, means you can step back and feel a sense of accomplishment.
This job has allowed me to travel to some of the best golf courses in the world, meeting a lot of good people and continuing to learn the trade.
I would recommend this job to anyone, and actually got one of my school friends to work alongside me. I told him it gets you out in the fresh air, which you can’t beat in the summer, and you’ll never get bored with the job variety we get in greenkeeping.