A day in the life: Vince DeMarzo

By Alistair December 29, 2022 09:49

The first assistant at Wildernesse Golf Club in Kent, which was laid out in 1890 and is an Open qualifying venue and a host for England Golf events, takes us through his average day.

What time do you arrive at the club?

Start time tends to be between 6am and 7am, but it changes throughout the year dependent on day light so we can be more efficient with our working hours. Start times can also be brought forward on a particular day to account for any large events or shotgun starts.

Can you describe your morning routine?

The day always begins with a team briefing. This outlines the day ahead, allowing the whole team to understand the tasks being carried out throughout the day and their roles within them. Notification of competitions, matches or special guests throughout the day will be given so that we can avoid any disturbances. We will then discuss any other matters concerning the day before all heading out and conducting the setup.

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

At the moment we are a team of 10, including one mechanic and three apprentices. For 18 holes and a collection of practice facilities our number is enough to keep us competitive and remain one of the more premier clubs in the area. However, as I’m sure everyone would say, we could always do with more. An extra set of hands would really help us drive those standards to the next level!

Do you share tasks?

Of course! I feel it’s vital for keeping all staff happy and motivated. No one is above any task when it comes to our industry, a manager who still gets their hands dirty and leads from the front is the best kind in my opinion.

For the more junior members of the team, it’s important to keep them interested and constantly developing. The more a member of staff can do, the more useful they are to you as a manager. I was thrown in at the deep end when I began my career because of this methodology and it served me well, as long as the new / less experienced members of the team apply themselves correctly and show the right attributes when performing some of the more basic tasks, there’s no reason to hold them back!

How do you motivate your colleagues?

Greenkeeping for me is a profession in which to be successful, you yourself have to possess your own high levels of motivation. The motivation should come from seeing the results of producing and presenting high standards on the golf course, as well as the development and encouragement of staff members around you.

To add some fun at work in our department we have created a light-hearted game known as ‘The Battle’ to encourage staff to take responsibility in all of their actions and reflect on them for educational purposes. In which all above and beyond work is rewarded with a green line, any mistakes, laziness or bad punctuality is punished with a red line. The lines are handed out during committee meetings held every lunch time, with the whole team taking a vote. At the end of each month the person with the most green lines is rewarded, and the person with most red punished.

The rewards and punishments are agreed at the beginning of the month by all staff and have in the past included £20 worth of McDonalds or having to jump in the pond!

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

My favourite season of the year is spring – seeing the culmination of all of the hard work that has gone into winter projects over the previous months really start to take effect on the course.

Knowing the dark mornings are drawing to a close and summer evenings behind a mower, or on the end of a hose are on the horizon, brings about a slight little buzz I always enjoy.

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

I think for simple satisfaction turning a bunker from a bomb site into looking pristine is always quite rewarding and tends to be a daily reward, along with laying down some lasers in a fresh morning’s dew. For me, I also always enjoy learning something new, whether it be a skill, further knowledge, or operating a new piece of machinery, I guess the big kid within me always likes a new toy!

And what part of it gives you the least satisfaction?

Seeing the hard work we put in as turf managers across the country undone by things out of our control, such as animal damage, vandalism or just ignorance from golfers.

Have you attended any courses recently?

I haven’t attended many courses recently to be honest, but I did attend one of the Origin Amenity ‘Golf Research Week’ events that took place in September at their technology centre in Essex. There were a few very interesting workshops within the day, giving great insight behind the scenes of some of our most used products and what processes they go through before arriving at our sheds.

Do you have a feeding programme for your fairways? How do you ensure your greens have good colour?

With fairways we tend to have a monthly foliar approach for most of the year. Our usual mix includes Headland Elevate Fe or soluble fe accompanied with SoA. Throughout the growing months we tend to add Clipless to the mix to help keep on top of our clip rate. Every few years, as and when needed, we also apply a slow-release granular fertiliser via our Vicon spreader across all fairways to give them a kickstart to the season. For this, we tend to use Multigreen which we also apply to weaker fairways throughout the standard year to help boost recovery from things such as drought damage.

With greens, again like most places, a wide variety of products are used to ensure good healthy turf first and foremost, with a good colour coming as an added bonus. With granular applications we tend to go for Sustane organic products. Headland’s C-Complex has also been helpful for us to use for increased recovery post renovations.

How would you improve the greenkeeping industry?

The most obvious thing I think the industry needs to improve on, is getting salaries up to a level whereby it competes with other industries of a similar nature. We’re losing far too many good greenkeepers at the moment to other industries due to financial reasons.

Another part of our industry within the UK I feel could improve is to change the opinions and levels of respect from golfers. Overseas, in places such as Australia and the States, our job is seen as a much more respected profession, and it would be nice for that to be similar here.

Has a golfer ever deliberately directed a ball at you?

Not that I know of but having witnessed the ability of many golfers in my time, I’d probably be safer if they were aiming for me!

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

Fortunately, I am yet to have any mishaps myself (involving water anyway!) but I’ve worked on golf courses with plenty of water hazards in the past, so I’ve witnessed the floating ability of a wide range of machinery! From utility vehicles to bunker bikes, fortunately to this day no serious injuries or harm done, just a few dented egos and less than pleased mechanics!

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

I was lucky enough to spend six months in Australia working in Sydney, so I’ve worked alongside some pretty weird and wonderful creatures. The ibis or commonly known as a ‘bin chicken’ in Australia was quite popular but very unique looking bird! I also managed to catch an eastern water dragon during my time, which was an entertaining five minutes to say the least!

At the Wildernesse we are a predominantly woodland-based course, which leads on to plenty of woodland management projects throughout the winter. We try to create as many habitats as we can with the trees we fell for the local wildlife.

Are you seeing any evidence of climate change?

I think the most obvious change is the inconsistency of seasons and the change to what our normal work schedules are. We’re still seeing good growth heading right through the Christmas period and consistent periods of heavy frosts up until May.

Adapting the work calendar to this hasn’t been overly challenging, however, with the golfing calendars of most clubs all but set in stone, having the course ready for events early in the calendar is where the new difficulties lie.

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

My advice would be to get your head down for the first few years and graft, learn your trade. Ask as many questions as you can, the experience and knowledge will follow, and with that, comes higher positions and the better salaries. Don’t go chasing them too early!

I would also encourage them to go out and experience as much as possible. Explore the highest echelons of the industry both within golf and other sports to really gain an understanding of our industry as a whole. This will help make sure your own standards are set to the highest they can be, for you to take back to your own workplace.

How do you spend your leisure time?

Outside of work I still spend time on the golf course in a playing format and golf has been my main hobby since childhood. I’m also a big football fan and waste lots of my time and money following Millwall and England home and away!

Besides sport I enjoy socialising at music events. I should also mention to avoid any trouble that most, if not all, of my spare time outside of work is spent with the Mrs!