Soil Scout Sensor 7

INTERVIEW
The sensors are one thing that
reassures my decision-making
processes and gives me that ability
to justify the spend
Stuart Langhorn
the greenkeeping side of the job. But, coming
in at 20 years old, there are a lot of guys
ahead of you for promotion at clubs like that.
“So, after speaking to people within the
industry, I went and joined Burhill Golf and
Leisure as a Deputy Head Greenkeeper.
Within a year, I quickly got promoted to
Course Manager, and that was the learning
curve I needed for the next six years.
“Straight away, I was building and running
budgets, ordering materials, stock sheets and
running health and safety. The kind of things
that I’m not sure everybody does in every
golf club, but when you’re part of a group,
they do take a bit of a punt on you, but they
do ask you to do everything.
“For me, it was amazing. It was a bit like
an academy where you learnt everything.
Aldwickbury Park was my course, and it was
a private members club, but it was also a big
visitor destination. And that’s where I learnt
about having to be good 52 weeks a year.
“At Woburn, we peaked for the
tournaments. Whereas at a visitor venue
that relies on repeat spending, if you give
someone a bad experience, they won’t
return. We really focused on that in the
52 weeks; you can’t have an off day. I liked
that because I liked the challenge, it was
competitive, and they made it competitive
throughout the group and from my sporting
background, I really enjoyed it.”
Coming to his peak at Burhill meant Stuart
looked for a different challenge. Ultimately
Beaconsfield was his opportunity to combine
his ethos of providing European Tour quality
with the repetitive attention to detail of a 52
weeks a year visitor site.
Benchmarking and self-auditing were
his chosen methods, and the results speak
for themselves ten years on. Initially, he
encouraged his team to play golf and visit
courses they aspired to be. Quickly, the
quality of those courses increased until they
were visiting clubs like The Berkshire, Woking,
Swinley Forest and Sunningdale.
Stuart explains: “Once a week, we make
sure we walk out of the front door of the
clubhouse and walk to the first tee how
the golfer would, and not do the typical
greenkeeper thing of coming through the
woodland from the lefthand side.
“That’s probably the biggest thing we do
with our team, and that leads to the leaving
no stone unturned. And the little things like
making sure the tee blocks are pointing down
the hole, making sure on a par three, if the
pin is on the left of the green, the blocks are
on the right of the tee, so there is a clear
line of sight. That’s what I think it is. It’s that
repetition, and it’s that constant auditing and
benchmarking yourself.”
As someone who appreciates detail, taking
moisture readings is something Stuart did in
the past, but with the common issues of the
time it takes and the data arriving too late
for morning hand watering.
Another issue he had with manual
methods is not knowing the trend. For
Stuart, knowing whether the moisture
level is trending up or down is crucial, and
with the Soil Scouts, he can easily get this
information.
“We introduced PCD rope drainage into
the greens six years ago, which has been
great, and we’ve been moving forward
with products, but since the rope Soil
Scout has been the biggest thing that
has revolutionised our approach to
greenkeeping,” Stuart said.
“Say our target is 20%, the team can come
in, and it’s 21%, but for me, I don’t know what
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