“We have done 59 bunkers to date”

By Alistair July 30, 2024 07:57

As he marks ten years as course manager at West Surrey Golf Club, located in the tranquil Surrey Hills countryside, Alec MacIndoe talks about how he earned the trust of the board, the importance of nurturing apprentices and the wide-ranging advantages brought about by a successful bunker renovation project.

Could you tell us about how you got into greenkeeping and your development in the profession?

My father was golf course manager at Killarney Golf and Fishing Club in southern Ireland and so, on failing to become a professional footballer, I knew I had a job to go to! I worked with him on the golf course in all of my school holidays, from about the age of 14. I was then full time for a year from 1993 and after that my dad sent me packing to get more experience over at Stockley Park near London. I worked there for European Tour Courses under Cameron McMillan, which I loved. My dad had been his dad’s apprentice in Scotland many years ago, so our families have been linked for a long time. I left there to become a deputy course manager, but 18 months later Cameron rang me up and asked me if I’d be interested in coming back as his deputy.

He didn’t tell me until I returned that he actually wanted me to take over from him. That was my first job as a course manager. I loved the challenge of it, but looking after the grass was the easiest bit. Looking back, I can see how difficult I found staff management and time management then. It was a great experience and probably if I hadn’t had that experience at quite a young age, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in now. I did about four years at Stockley Park and we got sold three times in about two years, so I knew I needed to find another job. I went to a new golf course near Newbury called Donnington Valley. It was a great job and they looked after me there. I stayed for three years before I was approached by the nearest private members’ club, Newbury and Crookham, where I stayed for 10 years, and I’ve just passed 10 years here at West Surrey.

How big is your team and how have things changed on the course in the 10 years you’ve spent at West Surrey?

There are eight of us working full time. The budget is for nine, and in the next 18 months, we’re hoping to build that up to a minimum of 10, maybe 11. We’ll also take on three university students for the summer. I enjoy working with apprentices. One of my best greenkeepers started as an apprentice when he was 16 and he’s now 22. He was very shy when he started out but he’s changed a lot and takes such initiative and is so knowledgeable. I feel proud that we’ve nurtured that. I like to have a mixture of qualified greenkeepers and novices. I’m more than happy to give people a chance and train them.

When I took on the role here we had no money in the bank, a poor golf course and low membership numbers. Now we have money in the bank, we’ve refurbished the whole clubhouse, done so much work on the course, including installing a £1,000,000 irrigation system, we have more staff, better machinery and we have 150 on the waiting list. Investment has been very important, but we needed a business model that worked. My job was to sort the business end out on the greenkeeping side of things, and ensure we had good deals on new machinery, alongside training the staff. Little by little the golf course has improved so much and now we’re a relatively prominent golf course in the area and we make a nice amount of money each year to reinvest in the club. Although we were already on an upward curve, the pandemic helped us to take stock and utilise the time to improve the course even more. We’re very lucky to have a good, strong board. Most of the board members have been in position for six or seven years, so there is stability and we have a continuity plan. I think one of the reasons West Surrey is doing so well as a club is that we’ve got continuity in the board and continuity with me. Of course, problems come up, but because of the positive relationship we have they are never insurmountable. Right now, we have a very successful club that’s got all the pieces of the jigsaw in place.

I should also mention that I have a great relationship with my course director, Steve Polkey. He’s brilliant, and without his support it would all be much more difficult.

What do you enjoy most about the job and what would you say is your biggest achievement in the role so far?

I get asked a lot if I still enjoy my job and I honestly love it. It is hard getting up at 4:15am, but I love coming into work and watching the sunrise over London. I look forward to having a chat with my team, who are always happy to be there. It’s important to like your team when you spend most of your time at work. I also really enjoy seeing the guys blossom because I do guide them but I also give them a lot of autonomy, so they take massive ownership of their work. I love watching that process happen. We don’t have a big turnover of staff, so hopefully that’s a good sign.

I think my biggest achievement is earning the board’s trust. To persuade them to invest in me and my philosophies and to believe we could turn things around. It’s a great thing to have that trust and be able to take big projects forward, such as irrigation and bunker renovation.

Spring was exceptionally wet this year, has this caused you any problems and, if so, how are you coping with them?

We haven’t had too many problems coming out of winter this year. My whole process and philosophy is about preparing a year or two in advance. Everything we do is for the future, for support and protection. We do so much aeration work and, yes, we have had more rain than usual over winter and spring, and there were some really wet places on the course, but actually we didn’t have a bad time. I think we had fewer closures than many parkland courses. We just try to promote positive cultural practices so when the weather does come good we’re in a good place.

You’ve installed Capillary Bunkers on the course. What problems did you have with the bunkers beforehand and why did you choose this system?

The bunkers were definitely the most difficult part of the course to maintain, but I was reluctant to redesign them initially. In my second year here the club asked if I wanted to think about lining the bunkers, and I said no. I didn’t feel there was enough research done into the different types of lining. I also didn’t feel we were in a position where we had that type of money and we didn’t have the extremities of weather we have now, so I didn’t think it was a priority at first. More recently we realised the number of man hours we were spending on bunker repair was just unbelievable, at one point we spent over 400 hours working on them in two separate weeks over summer, so we had to revisit the idea. I did my research and sought recommendations from a lot of good clubs. I spoke a lot with David Cole at Loch Lomond Golf Club, who recommended the Capillary system. At first, we did two practice bunkers with Capillary, and had them in place for a year, and the members absolutely loved them. So, this winter we did all 12 par three bunkers, and we were going to wait a year to see how the feedback was. They’ve been such a success; the board has already given the go-ahead to do the rest of the course.

How many bunkers have you installed Capillary Bunkers on? Was the installation process straightforward and how did Border Sports support you through the process?

We’ve done 59 bunkers to date and the installation has been pretty straightforward. Neil Thompson at Border Sports was especially superb and gave us some very clear instructions about what we needed to do and told us exactly what he was going to do to support us. We were going to try and complete all the construction work ourselves in-house, but he put us in touch with some great contractors that have done some work for him at the Burhill group, which worked out brilliantly. Border Sports have been excellent and I can’t speak highly enough of Neil. He was on the end of the phone whenever I needed support. They have contributed to making a huge difference at West Surrey, because bunkers were probably our weakest area.

Are you pleased with the results and have you had any feedback from members about them?

I didn’t expect it to be this good. For example, the sand in the new bunkers stayed completely white and clean while elsewhere on the course, the same type of sand is contaminated with the ground conditions and looks tan-coloured. We’ve also had some major storms in the last couple of months and the performance of the bunkers has been tremendous. I haven’t even had to rake them the next day, there’s no wash down or puddling whatsoever. It’s a huge relief. We aren’t blessed with loads of staff, so if we have to spend a lot of time on bunkers, other things are going to be compromised. I think we probably have an extra 25 percent of time per week to spend on other things now. There’s no higher recommendation for Capillary Bunkers than that. The members love them and tell us to hurry up and get the rest of the course done! There have been no negatives whatsoever.

What other projects are you working on at the moment and what other improvements have you got planned?

I think the big issue we have now is that the golf course is good, and we will be moving forward with the bunker project, so we’re now looking to work on some of the periphery areas, which are a bit poorer. The pathways are particularly poor, so we’ve just started a process with Redlynch, putting in some of their rubber crumb TigerTrak material on a fairly long pathway. Over the next five years, we’re going to work through every path on the course. It’s another sign of investment by the club and the board and has been really well received. We’re still on that upward trajectory.

How do you think the industry has changed since you joined it?

I think the expectations of the golfer are way, way higher now, which everyone accepts. I also think the industry lacks mentors, to some extent. Some managers now are very young, and that doesn’t make them bad or poor, but potentially makes them more susceptible to members’ pressure. I also think the need for producing pretty-looking turf instead of sustainable turf is maybe a factor that’s creeping into the industry more and more.

What advice would you give to someone hoping to get into greenkeeping now?

I would advise to go to bed early, get stuck in, listen and watch. Be observant, study and take your time. It’s a physical job, so you’re going to have to do a lot of bunker raking and divotting to start with. But I think the more you can accept that, and show your dedication to more menial tasks, the more chance you’ve got of climbing the ladder and doing the better jobs.