A day in the life: Stuart Bowman

By Alistair July 8, 2021 08:53 Updated

The deputy course manager at New Zealand Golf Club, a Surrey venue that regularly features in top 100 lists of golf courses in England, takes us through his average day.

What time do you arrive at the club?

I try to get to the club 30 minutes or so before our start time, which in the summer is 6:00am and 7:00am in the winter.

Can you describe your morning routine?

I’ll normally double check the weather to see if it has changed much from the previous day’s forecast, and then check the start sheet for any last-minute additions to make sure we can still do our planned work or make adjustments if needed. Once that’s done, jobs will go up on the white board and I’ll have a chat with the guys until everyone’s arrived. Then, myself or the course manager will run through what we are trying to achieve for the day / week and then we’re off to our first jobs.

How many people are there in your team and is it a fair number for your collective workload?

We are currently running with a team of seven, but we normally have a team of eight for 18 holes. This does include a greenkeeper / mechanic role and a gardener / greenkeeper role. With this number we cope comfortably with the day-to-day maintenance, but it would be nice to have a another one or two so we could raise the standards further.

Do you share tasks?

We do. I think it’s important for everyone to be able to do everything, even if they don’t end up doing it that often, it’s still important that, if required, they know how to do it.

We are quite lucky that we have a decent training budget, so anyone that we can’t train in-house we can send off to do the relevant training.

How do you motivate your colleagues?

I try to lead by example to set the standard. I find that listening to the team, asking them questions, being supportive and having direction helps to keep them motivated.

What’s your favourite season of the year and why?

I don’t really have a favourite season. Around May / June time, our rhododendrons are in flower so we are a mass of purple, come late summer our heather is in bloom and we have a carpet of pink, purple and mauve.

My absolute favourite is any day when it’s cold, crisp and the sun is shining.

What aspects / functions of your job gives you the greatest satisfaction?

It’s nice training people and seeing them progress. I also enjoy the organisation / preparation side of things and seeing everything come together.

And what part of it gives you the least satisfaction?

Not being prepared for things.

Have you attended any courses recently?

No.

What seed mixtures and / or cultivars do you use for your greens, tees, fairways and roughs?

We’re predominately poa / bent on the greens and we overseed those with Johnsons J All Bent. Our tees are a fescue / rye mix so here we use Johnsons J Multi Sport. For our fairways and roughs which are mostly fescue, these are oversown with J Fairway.

How would you improve the greenkeeping industry?

It would be nice if there was a bit more understanding of the role from the golfers-side of things. I don’t want them to necessarily know how we do things, but why we do them. It would be really nice to be thought of as the ‘other’ professional at a golf club, rather than just the grass cutter!

Has a golfer ever deliberately directed a ball at you?

Not yet!

Have you ever had any mishaps with lakes on the course or had to undertake a rescue of a daft golfer?

We don’t have any lakes here at New Zealand, but at a previous club I did end up retrieving a golfer’s shoes when they were ball collecting in a lake we had drained down and ended up getting stuck in the mud. It was as if the bright orange barrier fence we put up was invisible!

What is the most interesting animal you have seen on your course and how do you do support wildlife?

We are fortunate to have a whole host of wildlife on our course including green woodpeckers, red kites, deer and so on. I’m fascinated by the wood ants we have, watching them at work is incredible! To support wildlife, we have put up bird boxes and we have half a dozen beehives around the course.

Are you seeing any evidence of climate change?

Definitely. Winters are milder than before, the growing season is longer and we have more extreme weather events than before too. Right now, the short-term impact on us is that we need to use more of our resources – more fuel for the machinery, more water for the irrigation and so on. Going forward is a concern too, especially water consumption. We are located in the south-east, we are a dry heathland site and, unfortunately, there is only so much water to go round.

What advice would you give to a young greenkeeper starting out today?

Listen and learn are the biggest things. After that I would say gain as much experience as you can, try and work at different types of golf clubs, volunteer for things and be interested in what you do. Playing golf helps massively too, especially when you can get out and play at different courses to see how they do things.

How do you spend your leisure time?

I like to have a project on the go, nothing major, but some sort of DIY. I like to play golf (fair weather only) at different courses to see what others are up to, I enjoy reading or having an audiobook on the go and meeting up with my mates for a couple of drinks and a curry!