St Andrews ‘keeper of the green’ Jon Wood says the impacts of climate change are already being felt across the town’s famous courses.
Jon is the 10th ‘Keeper of the Green’ to be appointed since golf legend Old Tom Morris in 1864.
His team, who look after the Old, New and Jubilee courses, overcame some of the most challenging weather in recent history last winter to rebuild 49 bunkers, the 13th tee on the Old Course and restore Hell Bunker.
Data collected by Jon shows that more rain fell between October and March than they normally get in a year, causing a wide range of issues.
Then there is sea level rise and coastal erosion, also linked to climate change.
The St Andrews Links Trust is taking the issue very seriously. It has already bought nearby farmland with a view to boosting its coastal defences.
The Trust is not ruling out expanding the courses at some point in the future, although members say they have no immediate plans.
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Jon is focused on the challenge.
“One thing about greenkeepers is we’ll always find a way one way or the other,” Jon tells The Courier.
“We’ll do what we need to do. But I can’t see the Scottish Government allowing this to go under water, given how much it brings into the country with tourism.
“Look at countries like Holland where land below sea level is protected. Maybe in 100 years’ time we’ll be looking at things like that? We can only do what we can do.
“But work over the last 10, 15 years has helped. There were a lot of storms at the beginning of the winter, and we did lose dune systems during those storms.
“But if we hadn’t spent 10 years building these dunes up, what happened this winter would have been a hell of lot worse.
“What we do now is we start all that again and hope we don’t get more and more storms like this.”
‘Keeper of the green’ Jon met his Estonian wife on St Andrews golf course
Jon has a lot to thank St Andrews for.
He met his Estonian wife Eleanora on the golf course there when he was put in charge of the divot squad she was working on.
Their son Phillip, now 13, was born while they were working there.
Jon also cut his teeth in St Andrews as a depute golf course manager.
But more than eight months after the Old Course welcomed him as manager, the 46-year-old still gets “goosebumps” when he turns up for work each morning and feels the weight of history on his shoulders, dating back to golf legend Old Tom Morris.
“I don’t know how to sum it up really,” laughs Jon in the headquarters of St Andrews Links Trust.
“When I first hit a golf ball as an 11-year-old and went to college to study greenkeeping, did I ever think I’d be working at the Home of Golf thinking about all the people that have played on the course?
“It’s an honour.”
Career choice took keeper of the green all over the world before St Andrews
Jon grew up in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, where, in his own words, he didn’t do very well at school. His maths teacher told him he’d end up in a “dead end job”.
However, as he played golf and enjoyed the outdoors, he trained as a greenkeeper.
Keen to “see the world” at the start of his career, he gained experience at Trevose, Portmarnock, Doonbeg and Pinehurst.
He served as deputy course manager at the Old Course from 2006-2011 before becoming course manager at the Castle Course for St Andrews Links Trust in 2015.
After nine years at the Castle, a recent restructure resulted in him taking over the running of three golf courses – the Old, New and Jubilee – based out of the Jubilee Sheds.
‘Eyes of the world’ on St Andrews
Over the three courses run by Jon, there are 42 greenkeepers at peak season – including recruits from Canada, New Zealand, England as well as local people.
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to recruitment is skyrocketing house prices, meaning it’s increasingly difficult to recruit locally.
Young people in general also seem less willing to do 4am starts and weekend work, he says.
When it comes to managing the Old Course, Jon is in no doubt that the “eyes of the world are always on you”.
Whenever they make tweaks to the course, “people are always watching” – and nowadays it can be all over social media within minutes.
Take the row over the so-called Swilcan Bridge ‘patio’ on the Old Course, which was before Jon’s time in post.
When the links trust put down paving as part of renovation work, it led to a furious social-media led global backlash against the “horrible” changes and a u-turn in February 2023.
Jon says they were genuinely trying to find a solution to a problem which requires the turfing of that area four or five times a year.
This maybe wasn’t the right solution, but they were trying to do the “right thing” in terms of sustainability.
Data proves that climate change is already affecting St Andrews golf courses
Greenkeepers sometimes have to be reactive. Techniques range from more aeration over winter to selective watering using a state of the art irrigation system.
As concerns focus on storms and rising sea levels, Jon says the data they record on the courses certainly records a “steady” annual temperature rise.
Gone are the days when greenkeepers would throw covers over their machines in October because they wouldn’t cut a blade of grass until springtime due to frost.
“From a greenkeeper point of view, everything we do is now data driven,” he says.
“As an industry, we are only small fry in a bigger world. But as an industry we are trying to do the right things. We are looking a lot more at electric technologies now. We’ve got six mowers that are fully electric on the Old Course.
“We’ve been GEO certified – the most widely regarded and credible sustainability distinction in golf.
“That takes into account everything we do and it’s about standards. We’re at the forefront of trying to do the right things and be as sustainable as possible.
“That sets us up as best we can for the future.”
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