Meet the head greenkeeper: Scott Reid

By Alistair July 30, 2022 09:14

The head greenkeeper at East Kilbride Golf Club talks about his career to date and some of the products he uses that are improving the course.

How long have you been head greenkeeper at East Kilbride and what has been your career path to this point?

I’ve been head greenkeeper for three years now. I started off as an apprentice here in 2001 and I worked my way through the ranks. I took up training in various different things and went up to first assistant under the deputy. I stepped into the deputy role for a bit and did well with that so I started looking for a head greenkeeper position. The position came up here because my boss, Brian, sadly passed away. I applied for it and got it and it’s three years down the line now. I think it’s going well so far. This is the club I’ve always looked after and I’ve found it to be a good employer, the team is well looked after too.

Which aspects of the job do you enjoy most and what do you find most challenging?

I’d say the best thing is just the satisfaction of waking up in the morning and being able to see the results of all your efforts, seeing the finished article when everything is done, the results of your chemical applications and so on. I like that you can just get your head down and get on with it and you can achieve a lot in a day, especially when the sun is shining. There’s a lot of job satisfaction in greenkeeping.

The most challenging thing is probably the membership I would say. They are friendly but they have high expectations. I think there are more and more expectations of greenkeepers now and in some cases the greenkeepers are blamed for things when the ins and outs of the situation aren’t fully understood. Probably because the members know me so well it’s made it a bit more difficult for me sometimes. I do have a bit more of a rapport with the members than someone newer to the club would so maybe they have even higher expectations of me, but that’s par for the course. You’ve got to have a thick skin in this job!

What’s been your proudest achievement at East Kilbride so far?

I think seeing the progression of the greens. We’ve tried a lot of different things and got them to an even better standard than we had before, and they were already good. We got a lot more definition into the course and grew in a lot of rough areas and I’m really pleased with that. We also tried a few different cutting routines and some different products, such as soil biology products and ICL, which are very good. I like experimenting and working on improving the greens has been the best thing for me so far.

The club invested in a Tru Turf RB70 greens iron recently. Why did you select this piece of equipment, what areas are you using it on and what results are you seeing?

The thing that attracted me to it was the size because the greens here are bigger and the golfers are out seriously early so it really helps that it’s wider, it’s very productive. It’s taken a lot of time off our roll time, approximately 40 minutes, which is great because we really need to keep ahead of the members who obviously don’t want to be interrupted. I can’t believe how quick it is, it’s such a good machine. We’ve had really positive feedback from the members already so that’s been very satisfying. I really like the Tru Turf product in general; we had an RB48 greens iron before this which was a great machine and lasted about 15 years. The RB70 is a lovely bit of kit and very easy to use. It’s also economical when it comes to fuel. We can do 18 greens and our putting greens on a tank of fuel, and it’s only a small engine so I’ve got no complaints at all.

What projects are you planning to work on for the rest of the year?

We’re going to be working on aeration on the greens and we’ve got a bunker renovation project coming up in the winter. Some of the bunkers are still in their original shape and they were built in the 1960s, so we’re going to try to modernise things a bit. I’m hoping to put my own stamp on the place.

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