GREENKEEPING
Getting ready to tee up once again
By Karl Hansell Editor , Greenkeeping International
ad we told you two
H years ago that 1 April 2021 would mark the first in 110 consecutive days that golf courses were legally permitted to open in England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland , you would have thought it was some kind of hideous April Fool ’ s joke , and yet here we are .
The British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association ( BIGGA ) recently surveyed its members to discover how the pandemic has impacted their teams and to gain an insight into how the golf industry believes 2021 will play out .
The average greenkeeping team in the UK includes six full time members of staff , with an extra body taken on during the summer months . But during the past winter , BIGGA members told us that on average , half of those people were placed on furlough as a means of securing a vital source of income for the golf club . While a financially sound decision , it has meant that much of the work that would normally be completed during winter , such as course renovation and other improvements , could not take place .
6 GroundskeepingJournal . co . uk | April / May 2021