John Edge, the head greenkeeper at Leyland Golf Club in Lancashire, takes us through his average day.
What time do you arrive at the club and what is your morning routine?
I arrive at 5.40am, put the kettle on for the team arriving to start at 6am, then check the rain gauge and open the clubhouse. Once that’s open, it’s a walk around five or six holes to judge the course and the state of the day’s play. When back at the shed, I’ll then update the course status for the website and membership email before discussing jobs and plans for the day ahead with the team.
How many people are there in your team and do you share tasks?
There are currently seven of us in the team. Throughout the winter, we will generally try to work in pairs to share the workload when digging or chopping trees down. Meanwhile, through summer, we ensure jobs are rotated so everyone knows how to use each machine and does their stint on the more manual jobs like strimming and divoting.
How do you motivate your colleagues?
There are different methods we use to stay motivated. We try to foster an atmosphere where everyone is valued, listened to and appreciated. No idea or suggestion is a bad idea, the whole team wants the best for the golf course and there are many different ways to achieve this, so why should we ignore any suggestions on how it can be best achieved? Other motivation comes from praise and instilling a sense of pride, whether that be a job well done or going the extra yard without being prompted.
What aspects of your job give you the greatest satisfaction?
There are a few different aspects that give me satisfaction throughout the year. A sunny Friday afternoon in June when the team are in the rhythm of looking after the course, all the jobs have been completed and the course is dialled in. That provides a good sense of pride and satisfaction, as does witnessing the strides we’re making to improve the golf course in the winter months, whether that be solving drainage issues or building new tees. I get great satisfaction when projects come to fruition and seeing the team improving the course and growing the club year on year.
And the least satisfaction?
A full rain gauge with more forecast!
Have you attended any courses recently, and if so, what did you take away?
As a team we regularly attend BTME at Harrogate which is great – getting the whole greenkeeping and golf industry together and actually having the time to talk to each other, not just about greenkeeping and the industry or a quick chat in the sheds. The education on offer at BTME is so vast that we always find something for someone to attend, learn from and bring back to Leyland Golf Club.
What is your favourite season of the year and why?
It has to be spring. Winter in north west England can be very long and arduous, so when you finally get the sunny days, feel the warmth on your back and the grass is starting to recover, it certainly lifts the spirits and makes greenkeeping that bit easier.
Are you witnessing evidence of climate change and, if so, how has your job had to adapt to changing weather patterns?
I certainly think something is changing… when it rains it isn’t just a couple of mm anymore, it seems we get higher totals while maintaining the same frequency of rainy days. We have to adapt to this on a clay-based golf course by working not just on our greens, but also on the other playing areas as the demand for golf increases and improving water movement becomes a priority site-wide. Leyland have been great in investing in scarifying machines to allow us to do this.
Have you had to overcome any course issues with disease and / or pests?
We have been very lucky that previous head greenkeepers have done a great job in clearing trees from around the greens providing light and airflow where it’s needed most. Disease, therefore, hasn’t been too much of an issue for us.
What piece of equipment would you say is the most popular and frequently used by you and your team?
The best piece of kit we have has to be the GKB V-Strong. Being able to scarify the greens and tees in-house during optimal weather and ground conditions is perfect for constantly improving the surfaces. The GKB is such a good tool to have in the shed, being able to adjust working depths for a deep scarify or just a quick refinement. It’s so nimble and follows contours easily that it was a no-brainer for us when it came to purchasing our own scarifier for greens.
With a growing focus on sustainability, do you deploy any sustainable practices in the management of your course?
We have taken on a number of sustainable practices in the last couple of years. We have recently sown wildflowers into the golf course to provide a habitat for bugs and bees in the area.
However, the biggest change we have made has to be moving to robotic mowers. Along with freeing up over 2,000 hours of time for the greenkeeping team during the golf season due to a reduction in mowing, we have also seen a huge saving in our diesel usage and reduced noise pollution for golfers and neighbouring houses.
What do you do to support wildlife?
We have sown wildflowers this year to increase habitat for small bugs, but we also leave areas of the course to grow wild to allow for smaller mammals. Bird boxes have been built by the team and installed around the golf course. With a large industrial estate and the M6 motorway very nearby, we try to provide a quiet green space for wildlife to thrive as best as we can.
What are the technological developments that you feel have been the most important in your career to date?
The recent explosion in autonomous mowing has to be one of the biggest technological leaps the industry has had for a long time. When I first started at Leyland Golf Club in the summer of 2024, I had heard of autonomous mowers on a few different golf courses but had personally never seen them in action. The club were in the process of purchasing six Husqvarna Ceora mowers with delivery in September.
Through the following winter of 24/25 they quickly proved to be worth the investment. The team didn’t have to worry about small mowing windows through winter and the weight of manoeuvring large machinery around the golf course.
Already seriously impressed, when it came into the 2025 golf season, the autonomous mowers really came into their own. The ability to change the cutting heights on different fairways and rough by just clicking a few buttons on my phone is so easy and we increased the frequency of cuts on the rough from once or twice a week (if we’re lucky) to three times, with time to spare!
This is all while making a huge saving on diesel consumption which is great for the pocket, the environment and our time management.
The members are now commenting on how our fairway surfaces have improved with the sward increasing in density and appreciating the noise levels of the robots being significantly lower than a fairway or rough mower whilst daytime golf is being played.
Do you use social media professionally and what do you think this contributes to the industry?
I previously used Twitter but now tend to post more on Instagram. It’s a great way to be able to not only describe what is going on out on the course but also show the membership pictures and videos. A picture can paint 1,000 words after all! Being on the golf course at all hours gives us some fantastic and largely unseen views of sunrises that we can easily add to social media and reach lots of people very quickly, not just members. These images can really sell a club to visitors on the website helping to generate more interest and income for the club.
How would you improve the greenkeeping industry?
I certainly think acknowledgement and appreciation for what we do and the quality of our output is improving, especially in golf, with greens teams now featured on Sky and on most televised majors. Videos circulated on social media about courses being set up, the time and precision it has taken are helping with this.
Unfortunately, acknowledgement and appreciation alone doesn’t pay the bills. In an ever-increasingly expensive world we aren’t going to keep / attract new staff if they can’t afford mortgages or to run a car when other less stressful (and drier!) jobs are advertised at similar wages. I understand the challenges of increasing wages across the industry but there feels like there’s still more to be done.
What advice would you give to a young greenkeeper starting out today?
Say yes to everything! There are so many opportunities to learn and be part of things, whether that be chatting to other local greenkeepers on course visits or through applying for opportunities provided by BIGGA.
How do you spend your leisure time?
Leisure time has recently changed from me playing football to helping to coach my son in his football and rugby or taking my daughter to dance classes. In between running around after two children under the age of eight, I try to keep fit with actual running and enjoy spending time with my wife and our friends, meeting up for food and drink which is always a good way to relax and catch up.