‘Golf club of the decade’ manager is now a lockdown greenkeeper
By Alistair
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The manager of the club Wales Golf has named ‘Golf Club of the Decade’ has revealed that he is working as a greenkeeper at his club during the lockdown, because it has furloughed staff.
Andrew Minty, director of golf at Langland Bay Golf Club, who’s also a columnist for The Golf Business and was the 2016 GCMA ‘Manager of the Year’, said he is helping the staff who haven’t been furloughed maintain the course in preparation for the Covid-19 lockdown ending.
Only three members of staff at the club haven’t been furloughed – Andrew and the head and deputy head greenkeepers. The fact that, now, the entire workforce is operating to maintain the course, demonstrates how important this asset is at a time when golf courses all over the world are reopening, but clubhouses are remaining closed.
Andrew Minty
“At the moment it’s a question of survival for all businesses,” he said.
“My aim is to try and keep things going with our limited staff to enable us to reopen with little disruption. I’ve always been a believer that a good manager should never ask their staff to perform a task they wouldn’t be prepared to do themselves.
“For the longevity of our business, it’s all hands on deck, crack on and get through it. We are currently working to the R&A guidelines of essential maintenance and this will be sufficient to keep on top of the cutting and so on until we open back up.”
Andrew, who is also an ‘Advanced Fellow Professional’, has been arriving at work during the pandemic at 6am, he then completes necessary admin and correspondence with members and directors, before puts his boots on to maintain the golf course.
Wales Golf has also just been named Langland Bay as the first-ever ‘Welsh Golf Club of the Decade’. This is in recognition of a consistent level of excellence over the last 10 years throughout the golf club.
“It is an honour to win this award”, he said. “Our staff have worked so hard and consistently over the last 10 years and this shows with the fantastic condition of the course and the service you receive at Langland Bay. We have achieved so much over the last 10 years to improve all aspects of not only the course and club, but also the members’ experience. We are looking forward to getting back to normal to celebrate this achievement.”
Langland Bay Golf Club
Over the last 10 years Langland has introduced over 300 new golfers. It is one of only a few clubs to have a waiting list for membership and has the largest ladies’ section of any golf club in Wales for over five years. Over the last 10 years visitor numbers have increased to allow a large number of course improvements to be invested in including a new irrigation system, and other improvement projects annually. Also, junior coaching campaigns have included going into local schools to teach golf.
“Congratulations to Langland Bay, deserved winners of this new award in recognition of their consistent progress over the last decade,” said Wales Golf chief executive Richard Dixon.
“The list of achievements is long and growing for Langland Bay, which makes it a very forward-thinking club and one to be enjoyed by all levels of golfer.
“Growing the game of golf and introducing new participants has been one of their fortes.
“It takes quite something to get onto the shortlist for the Club of the Year and Langland Bay have kept coming back year after year with further improvements boosting our sport of golf and their club.
“They are a great example of what a club in Wales can achieve with plenty of vision and effort, working closely with the Wales Golf team through schemes such as New2Golf.
“We look forward to making the formal presentation of this well-deserved award at an event later in the year.”
By Alistair
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