First Green: So good Prestonfield did it twice

When Prestonfield Golf Club approached two local schools about hosting a First Green event, Course Manager Shaun Cunningham did not expect both to say yes on the same day.

The result was two events on consecutive days, with 19 pupils from Prestonfield Primary School visiting first, followed by 29 from Parsons Green Primary School the next day.

“I couldn’t really get out of it,” Shaun joked. “Doing two wasn’t a problem at all. It was actually easier because once you had done the first one, you knew what you were doing. The first day was like a trial and the second day went even more like clockwork.”

Shaun’s interest in First Green came from a desire to open up the club and show young people there is far more to golf than they might realise.

“I’ve always looked at a golf club as being part of the community,” he explained. “I don’t want people to think it’s just for middle-aged men playing golf. I want everybody to feel they can enjoy it, because we’ve got a lot to offer here.”

The pupils rotated around stations led by Shaun, his deputy, a senior greenkeeper, and the club’s assistant professional. Some of the most familiar parts of the job made the biggest impression.

“Hole-changing seemed to be the most amazing thing they had ever seen,” said Shaun. “They thought it was like brain surgery. One of them asked where the hole goes when you move it. The things we use every day, like measuring wheels and tools, were magnificent to them. We just let them enjoy themselves and get involved, and if we managed to make an impression on just one of them so that they might consider a career in golf, that would be amazing.”

The event linked directly to classroom learning, as Shaun spoke to teachers beforehand and discovered the pupils were studying the area of squares and circles, so he used that to show how maths is applied on the golf course.

“I said to them that they might think school is boring, but the things they’re learning are things I use in my work,” he said. “They had been doing area in books and on boards, so we took that outside and showed them how we use it on the golf course.”

The sessions also helped challenge assumptions about greenkeeping, with one teacher surprised by the amount of science and decision-making involved.

“A lot of people still think we just cut grass,” said Shaun. “But when you show them how we measure, calculate, set mower heights and make decisions, they see there’s a lot more to it.