Sleaford Golf Club appoints three new greenkeepers

By Alistair December 31, 2018 14:04 Updated

Sleaford Golf Club in Lincolnshire has appointed three new greenkeepers – one the first woman to be a greenkeeper in the club’s history.

According to committee member Nick Lawson: “There have been a lot of changes in the greenkeeping team at Sleaford in recent weeks due to the head greenkeeper of nine years, Ian Batty, deciding on a career change and the longest serving greenkeeper, Arthur Simpson, retiring.

“After a lot of searching for the right staff we hopefully have recruited the best people to take the club forward with their two existing greenkeeping team of Jimmy Smith and James Bonser.”

The new head greenkeeper is Brian Sharp who previously held positions at Crail Golfing Society, The Roxburghe Hotel and, latterly, at Westerhope Golf Club in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Brian, 49, said: “I felt it was the right time for a new challenge and I wanted to get back to managing a links style course from where I learnt my trade in Scotland.”

“The golf club also wanted to take on two new apprentices to learn their trade and qualify as greenkeepers,” added Lawson. “We had a huge response to our advert. Eventually we took on Chloe Lea and Mark Payne.

“Chloe becomes our first female greenkeeper, she told us she wanted to find a job working outdoors in a natural environment in a role that was physically active – a perfect opportunity and Chloe jumped at the chance when we offered her the apprenticeship.

“Mark is a member of Sleaford Golf Club and obviously a keen golfer. For over 20 years Mark has worked on the perimeters being a landscape gardener, tree surgeon and irrigation engineer.”

Mark said: “This was a great opportunity to put all my skills to the test in one job and so far is the best move I’ve ever made and I’m simply loving the job.”