Restoring valuable heathland at Enville Golf Club

Alf Padgham, Arthur Wrigglesworth, Horace Lewis, Frank Pennick, Rob Hinton – not exactly household names when it comes to golf course architecture.

Although former Open champion Padgham was consulted, when it came to the creation of Enville’s initial six-hole layout in 1935, the hard work was left to Wrigglesworth, a construction foreman who had never played golf before.

The remaining 30 holes were created over the following 50 years by various club professionals who had little experience of course design. And yet, almost miraculously, Enville’s Highgate course is considered one of the finest in the Midlands, if not England.

It’s that lack of an established pedigree that course manager Andy Wood believes is keeping both the Enville’s Highgate and Lodge courses off the beaten track, known only to a select few golfing connoisseurs.

“One of the main reasons we aren’t considered in the top 100 is we haven’t got a named architect, that alone doesn’t guarantees a good golf course and isn’t our aim, we are trying to improve all aspects of both courses  for our membership and guests to enjoy and if it happens it will because of the gradual improvement of aspects of the club ” said Andy, who has been course manager for five years.

Did you know that before Michelangelo carved David, other lesser artists had had a go at shaping the marble block? It was only the recruitment of a Renaissance master that finally enabled the world-famous work of art to emerge from the raw materials. That’s what Andy hopes will happen at Enville following the enlistment of consultant architects in the form of Clayton, DeVries and Pont.

“This piece of land deserves professional architects to take it on and move it forward. We’ve had a lot of very well-meaning amateurs do work before, but we want to move away from the ‘captain’s bunker’, ‘chairman’s folly’ concept and have a proper architect look at the site and build a plan for the next 30 years,” added Andy. “They said it’s an unbelievable site on a great piece of land, which can be enhanced further by professional and consistent approach to improvement.”

It is testament to those willing amateurs and to the Enville greenkeeping team that the courses are so well regarded. A Regional Open Qualifying venue and current host of The R&A’s Girls U16 Amateur Championship, as well as next year’s Logan Trophy with England Golf, they have clearly done many things right.

During October, the Highgate course also played host to the BIGGA National Championship, an event Andy said the team were proud to hold.

“It’s fantastic to be able to host your peers at any time,” he said. “Whether it is regional events or this national championship, it is fantastic to get people together from all over the country.”

On the course things appear to be running smoothly, with the final 9 Holes of the irrigation project due for completion this year.

For Andy though, it has been a challenging season as he was appointed Interim general manager early in the year, with recruitment for a permanent replacement getting underway this month. Balancing the needs of the clubhouse against the needs of the course has proven challenging, although he has received exceptional support from deputy course manager Robert Jones – who ironically shares the name of a course designing great who, had he lent his hand to Enville, would have removed the much of the need to recruit anyone else.

Fortunately, 20 years as a course manager has prepared Andy for many of the requirements of working as a general manager.

He explained: “I have always run my department as if it was a small business. That includes budgets, material and machinery deals, HR and health and safety.  Computer literate and  working in golf for a long period of time has also helped as I know the game and how members will react to certain things which has made it easier to adapt to this side of things.

“Having said that, there is nothing better than managing a golf course, working with a team and seeing the hard work put in day in day out improving things not only short term as in daily presentation but also long term , the heather and woodland management is a great example of long term, the work you put in can take years to show but when it does it makes all the effort worthwhile.  I’m looking forward to getting back over to that side on a permanent basis.”

Over the year Andy has gained a greater appreciation for the difficulties faced by General managers. But he hopes that as golf facilities evolve, some of that burden will be shared. For Andy, the ideal situation is not a club manager overseeing all operations at a facility, but rather sitting shoulder to shoulder with the course manager, supporting each other on an equal footing as he had at Enville and hopefully will have again.

“There is such a wide variety of things going on, on the clubhouse side of things like out on the golf course.  You can have your day planned out but then you receive a curveball and it goes out the window. But that’s going to happen when you have 900 members, 36 holes and £400,000 in green fee income. 

“I hope that we are able to recruit a club manager who is as driven to improve the clubhouse operations as I am the golf course and who will enable us to all move forwards in the same direction.”

Back out on the golf course and the topics for conversation are much the same as they are across the greenkeeping industry. Despite salary increases for the team amounting to almost 35% during his time in post, the renovation of welfare and maintenance facilities, a new fleet of modern machinery and the many opportunities for training, learning events and a structure that allows for promotion and career progression it remains difficult to attract staff.

Andy said: “I’m losing a member of the team next week to a landscape gardening company because he’s going to be paid the same but not have to work weekends. Last year I lost 85 years’ worth of experience with a retirement and a first assistant who left to become a lorry driver. Ultimately, cash is king and money is what is going to entice people to come into the industry. People can make good careers out of greenkeeping, but the issue arises when they hit a certain age and they want to buy a house or have partners who want to start a family. We have got the [CGCS] rates, but for many clubs they aren’t within reach.

“In the five years I’ve been here we have achieved a hell of a lot. If you could see our greenkeeping sheds and maintenance facility from what they were, they are probably now as good as anywhere. We’ve got a great team and they are now being rewarded. Wages are on the rise, the team are thought of highly by 99% of our members and we’re moving in the right direction. It has been difficult circumstances, but we are moving forwards.”

Andy is on Twitter at @andywoodgolf