An opportunity has arisen for the position of Head Greenkeeper at Greenburn Golf Club located along the Breichwater Valley in the village of Fauldhouse West Lothian.

The candidate must have:

• Relevant Qualifications in Turf Maintenance/Sports Turf Management
  
• Full clean UK driving license
  
• Spraying PA1, PA2A &PA6
  
• Chainsaw qualifications will be an advantage
  
• Experience in management of Staff
  
• Financial Control
  
• Management Reporting
  
• The Ability to Work as an Individual as well as Part of a Team

Key responsibilities for the role will include:

• To prepare and maintain all areas of the golf course and surrounds in accordance with good sports turf management guidelines.
  
• Management of all fine turf areas as required, to ensure that they are in the best possible condition and to the highest standards of presentation at all time.
  
• Forward planning to include daily, weekly, seasonal and annual tasks. Planning will be recorded along with other relevant data (weather and irrigation) that will allow analysis to identify trends and developments in the course and its conditions providing better information for future decision making
  
• To carryout course construction, bunker, tees, greens etc where agreed and as required
  
• To ensure that all the golf course machinery and equipment is used as per the manufacturer’s general instructions
  
• To allocate duties to the team appropriately, ensure work is carried out in a timely manner to appropriate standards and with the health and safety of staff and Golfers a priority at all times

This is an excellent opportunity for the candidate to further develop their career in Greenkeeping.

To apply, please send a CV and for more information about the role contact administrator@greenburngolfclub.co.uk

An exciting opportunity to provide catering services has arisen at Greenburn GC.

We are now seeking expressions for interest from qualified, experienced applicants.

Our new Catering Franchise Operator must be able to provide a 7 day service to members and visitors throughout the 2020 season and beyond.

Previous understanding of Golf Club catering would be a definite advantage but the ability to provide everything from members and golfing visitors breakfast, bar snacks, lunch through to catering for team events is essential.

As well as providing a great quality service to golfers, there is a huge opportunity to gain regular custom for lunches and evening meals.

Fauldhouse has a population for around 5,000 people, and at present the restaurant at Greenburn is the only one serving the village. Along with the regular dining customer there will be a requirement to provide catering for events. There can be weekday, or weekend.

The successful candidate should be conversant with all current Food Hygiene and Health & Safety Regulations.

The closing date for applications is the 31st of January, and expressions of interest should be made in writing. Send them to Juneclose@ymail.com or administrator@greenburngolfclub.co.uk

It’s nearing the end of the traditional golfing season but that just gives you an opportunity to get out on the golf course and get a head start on getting your game in shape for next season!

To help with this Greenburn are pleased to announce a Winter Membership offer to allow unlimited golf from the 1st of October 2019 until the 31st January 2020 for the price of £90.

As an incentive to anyone taking it up and joining as an Ordinary member for season 2020/21 the £90 will be deducted from the annual subscription fee for that year.

Greenburn Golf Club is a Family friendly and welcoming club, with limited availability for new members in all categories. So here are 10 good reasons why you should join our wonderful club.

1. We have a fantastic 18-hole golf course acknowledged as one of the best in West Lothian and the Linlithgowshire Golf Association.

2. If you want to play competitive golf, we have 9 and 18-hole competitions, to suit your time schedule, which run throughout the entire year – thanks to our updated drainage systems.

3. Our golf course is set up making it possible to play any combination of holes to suit your available time or health constraints.

4. Active Men’s, Ladies, Juniors and Seniors sections.

5. Our membership golf fees are below the average in the Central Belt of Scotland, with incentives available to our members and new members when joining. We also provide attractive and competitive green fees for visitors/ visiting parties.

6. Professional shop, bar and catering services are available to all of our members and visitors.

7. A financially stable club, averaging 400 members across all categories, which is operated and managed by our Committee, full-time staff and our team of volunteers.

8. All membership categories are available including 5-day, 7-day and a
range of flexible memberships. Discounts are given to our members when introducing guests to play, as well as in the bar and for the hire of our large hall for events. Also members can get preferential green fees when playing at other clubs in the Linlithgowshire Golf Association.

9. Our clubhouse has all the facilities to meet the needs of all golfers e.g. changing rooms, lockers, bar, restaurant and hall.

10. Easy access from the main road with a large free car park available for all our members and visitors.

There are a number of social events over the Autumn and Winter at Greenburn Golf Club. Get involved!

Sept 27th – Prize Bingo Eyes down 7.30 pm
Oct 5th – David Goldie Golf Day Presentation
Nov 1st – Junior Presentation of Prizes/ Games Night
Nov 9th – Club Presentation of Prizes
Dec 15th – Club AGM at 10am
Dec 31st – Hogmanay Party 8pm/1am

Winter programme – Update from our Head Greenkeeper

Welcome to my Winter Work Update report for January 2018, I would like to start by welcoming on board Gordon Thomson as our Greens Convenor, and we look forward to working with Gordon over the coming seasons.

Since the start of the winter we have worked our way through the winter improvements we hoped to achieve as per our winter work schedule. The weather up until the start of December had been as favourable as we could expect but since then the weather has been consistently cold with some very low temps(leading to frozen soils) and some spells of lying snow cover over the golf course. Over this period the course has been closed due to snow or severe flooding on a couple of occasions, over December 2017 until January 12th 2018 we have been closed for 10 days, December closed 8 day and January we have been closed 2 days, most of the time when we have been open we have been on temp greens due to severe frosts.

Big greens were off!

Our Winter work has gone well, and as I write this we have carried out a complete major drainage system install work on our 8th, 9th and 10th greens (we still have turf to tidy and edge etc. once the frost has lifted).  We managed to get ahead of our schedule and on 28/11/17 and it was decided by the team and the club officials at this point, that we would adjust our programme and remove the drainage work from our 7^th green (this to be done next winter) and focus our attentions on making a start on improving our 18th approach (lots of work to be done in this area over the next couple of winters) and to drain the front of our 14th green as these areas have become extremely wet over the last 5 months or so.

Unfortunately we have not been able to get to these areas as we would have hoped due to the current weather, this though has allowed us to remove troublesome trees from the golf course at our 18th green area to the right hand side (to allow better air and light into green and eventually to allow this bank to be graded better and free up the soil to regrade our 18th approach area), trees to the left and the back of our 14th green have also been removed and thinned out to allow air and light in and to remove the problem of needles being dropped onto the 14th green from the closely planted Larch trees.

18th green before tree thinning

18th green after tree thinning – some much needed light and air flow

Over this winter we have continued on with Aeration work when conditions have been suitable with all areas of the golf course having some sort of aeration work carried out on them, we have aerated the fairways twice, our tees and then we have slit, the greens have been deep tinned and shallow slit over this period, this aeration work will continue through the rest of the winter and into the spring as we prepare the course for the season ahead once the frosts have come completely out of the ground and machinery becomes available.

2nd green-side bunker remodelling project

One project we’re undertaking will put a smile on the face of most members!  The complete remodelling of the front green-side bunker on our second hole. This bunker has cost most of us a shot or two over the years. 

The shape and depth of the bunker has changed entirely, gone is the sheer drop face that has seen many a play out sideways, instead a more ‘fair’ bunker that will still protect the green from the bigger hitters. 

Water Issues

We have had unforeseen issues with a major water blockage underneath the access road at our old shed.  This area has now been excavated and cleared following an approach from the council to repair this area to stop any water entering the main roadway.

While they were on-site they also identified the entry to our top car park that has water leaving our ground and entering the roadway, this unplanned work had to be carried out immediately and we have managed to install a drain into our own land to divert this water (we still have some grating work to complete) down into to our own car park.

We have further issues with water entering our land that have to be dealt with.  Due to the extra unforeseen works carried out we now expect that one or two of our anticipated winter improvement works will have to be rescheduled due to time constraints. 

Major greens coring work will be taking place prior to the season as we need to remove excessive organic matter from our soil profile, this has built up again with the extreme wet end to the golfing season we endured.

This work will be followed up with a heavy top-dressing of sand and greens over-seeded where required.  This work will be carried out once we have better temperatures and better recovery conditions.  Hopefully this work will be carried out between middle of February and the middle of March to allow the surfaces to recover prior to the season beginning.

Over the next month we will continue to mow when conditions and growth allows as well as continue with or winter programme work.

Upcoming maintenance is as follows.

• General Maintenance Work
• General Course Tidying of branches and weeding work etc.
• Continue to apply Soil Improvers and Nutrients when required to encourage a healthy plant growth on greens and tees.
• Mow tees and surrounds. 
• Light Verti-Cutting of greens when conditions allow prior to coring work. 
• Weed Reduction control to path edges.
• Begin edging work to bunkers.
• We hope to carry out Vee-Mowing off fairways prior to the new season, again following an inspection of the soil profile we are building up thatch quicker than we are controlling it and this will lead to wet soft unplayable fairways over a short period of time, ideally we need to get back to applying sand when possible and soil amendments over all fairways but due to cost this operation has been restricted for some years now.

Chainsaw Work

We continue to carry out chainsaw work when needed, as mentioned earlier in the report we still have many areas of trees to be removed to reduce unwanted needle/leaf drop, open up air/light movement and save labour on endless tidy up work required year on year and reduce damage caused to our cutting units.

Education

 The greens staff continue to develop our education on a regular basis through BIGGA and online courses/webinars and through networking through Facebook closed groups and being one of the founder members of the Compost Teas Association Group.  Michael continues his education through GOSTA Training and is on course to be Level 3 qualified in Greenkeeping come the end of April.

I will be attending Harrogate BTME event where I have taken 4 days Annual Leave to further my education on areas such as Fairway Thatch Management, Developing a Comprehensive Golf Course Master Plan, Recognising and Rectifying Fairway Drainage Problems, Thatch Reduction and Root Mass Development by Using Wormpower and Continued Research in Soil Microbiology. During this event I will also be able to connect with all the industries major suppliers and catch up on all the new innovations and developments within the industry and in turn network with many fellow greenkeepers also.

Staff Levels

During the playing season we will be on the look out for a bunker boy/girl to help out every other weekend and I will shortly be posting a small advert to help fill this position.

Volunteers 

Our volunteers continue to help over this winter period when they are available, these people are a great help indeed, our volunteer group and staff had a good afternoon at our Christmas lunch, and we look forward to next year’s event already.

Scott Corrigan

Head Greenkeeper

This season saw the biggest technological advance at Greenburn since medal woods replaced persimmon clubs, in the activation of the online tee booking system. 

We have seen over 250 of our members register to use the online tee booking system, and it’s being used; a lot. Over 2,000 rounds of golf have been booked by our members so far this season.

The feedback has been very positive in the main.  One of the only negatives we’ve seen was the way that the system displayed on mobile devices. Unlike our own website it was far from mobile friendly.  

Screenshots of the old system

 

Screenshots of the new iPhone app

The user experience is much improved, and I would urge any one who has an iPhone to download the app. You can thank me later!  There is no timescale for the launch of the Android version of the app, however given Golfnow has Android versions of their other applications I would imagine the launch will be imminent.  

Members should be aware of the dat for this years Silloth. The draw will place in the club on during a date in May TBC .

The entry fee is payable on the night. 

As per last year, the Silloth is now a one-day event and is being held on Saturday the 1st of June. Don’t miss your chance to get a tee time.

This week sees the World’s best golfers gather in Georgia for The Masters.

We’ll all be glued to the TV to see if Rory can complete the Grand Slam, DJ can continue his amazing run of form or Speith who has never finished worse than second can regain the green jacket and complete the sequence of 2-1-2-? 

This is all very well however, the real golf starts this Friday Evening with the official opening of the season at Greenburn.

The opening weekend fixtures

Friday: Opening Ceremony – 5pm followed by a 10 Hole Shotgun  Texas Scramble for the Macintyre Trophy. Registration for the texas scramble closes at 4.30pm. 

Junior induction day. 1pm in the main hall.

Saturday: Gents opening day with a number of trophies to compete for.
 
1st Class – Russell trophy

2nd Class – Greenhorn trophy

3rd Class – Chalmers shield

The Committee trophy is also up for grabs. 

Sunday: Ladies opening day. Thomson trophy

• General mowing of all areas and tidying of leaves and twigs of golf course to keep the course looking it’s best. 
• We’ll be undertaking aeration work on all surfaces from slit tine to solid tine work.
• Chainsaw work to trees on 2nd, 15th and 16th holes to remove leaves dropping and allow light and air into areas to create better growing conditions.
• Some key drainage work to problematic wet areas throughout the course and important drainage works to be carried out on the 12th (rough to the left-hand side) and 16th (again rough to the left-hand side).
• Verti-Drain and sand work being carried out on 8th, 9th and 10th greens to help firm playing surfaces up without undergoing intrusive drainage works at this point.