The season is in full swing and the staff of Kiev Golf Club makes every effort to ensure that players and guests of club activities can rest here with pleasure and joy. In this submission, we suggest you go back a few months to the beginning of this year tournament and to remember an event, without which today's successes of the Club’s greenkeepers would have been more modest.

In the last week of April, Elmwood College of Scotland with the support of «TORO» company held four-days training for greenkeepers in Kyiv Golf Club. Ian Butcher (Scotland), International Golf Development Officer conducted the workshop. We announced the event (link) in advance and made a short briefing on the program of that forthcoming seminar. Now, we want to invite you to take a closer meeting with the head of the training.

In his interview Mr. Butcher shares on history of the college, his impressions of the Club and new students, opens secrets of good marketing and even tries to answer some «eternal questions»...

Dear Ian, could you, please, tell a bit more about Elmwood College and this program?

Elmwood College is a land-based college for further education in Scotland and we’ve being specializing in golf course management education for 25 years. Recently we’ve broadened our curricular to cover all areas of golf education. That includes club house management, pro shop management, caddy training etc. But our core business has always been the most important asset in golf, which is a golf course itself. So, we run part time, full time and distant learning programs from Scotland. Still, in recent years, largely funded by R&A, the governing body of the game, we have embarked on developing education systems within golf in other countries. R&A, as you know, is a group of companies that invests the money received from the Open Championship into golf development. And we are very pleased to say they see education as a fundamental corner stone of golf development. That is why they sponsor Elmwood College as well.

Our biggest project to date has been in China, where we have established eight university-partners. They are now running their own golf education programs, which is how we see the golf industry in developing countries. Our core business here is training trainers, training lectures, instructors, and golf experts in how to teach in their own country, in their own language and ultimately issue qualifications. And I think with our partners such as «TORO», with whom we work very closely, we would like to achieve that in this part of the world.

In what other countries do you work, besides China?

Specifically, we are currently in negotiations with Indian Golf Union and I think R&A would like us also to work in Thailand. And we will also try to establish golf education systems in South Africa. All these projects are where we go and all these markets are developing markets. These markets are growing golf very rapidly. So we also expect to see rapid development here, in Ukraine. If that is a case, there will be a real need for professional people to be managing the business. And golf in these developing countries is the business. A big business, indeed! Managers have a lot of responsibility, a lot of expectations on them to meet international standards. Therefore, we believe that education and knowledge transfer, as we call it, is very important for establishing human resources within golf that can manage the business in the same way as it has been managed in the established golf markets such as US and UK.

How old Elmwood College is?

The college is fifty years old, and we keep a golf education for the last 25 years. Our history is that we were an agriculture college. As agriculture industry took a decline in employment numbers, we developed and specialized in golf to compensate. We find it is happening around the world. Land-based colleges, which are traditionally agriculturally based (just like Elmwood), had a potential for redeveloping themselves into sports turf, and specifically, golf course management as the golf industry developed around them.

Did you have an experience with South Europe people before this visit to Ukraine?

Personally I presented at the Polish greenkeeping conference and we are currently running a program in Slovenia for the Slovenian Greenkeeping Association. So far, that is been our experience. We are in a process of applying for European Union funding to develop colleges in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, just Northern Europe. And we would very much like Ukraine to join that.

If you are here, I infer that Elmwood College works not only with universities.

You are right, we are equally committed to helping individual private clubs. In Ukraine, we work with GolfStream Project, and I must say it is very exciting to be involved in it. Obviously, it is a pioneering project in a country of fifty million people, where there is a lot of expectation, because golf has great potential here on this beautiful landscape. I would say Ukraine is unique in terms of its culture and nature and golf should be celebrating that fact. This is something we are trying to teach. Golf in Ukraine should be special if it is going to attract tourism. If I come to play in Ukraine, I want to play on a golf course which reflects the natural landscape and culture of Ukraine. I do not want to come and play on a golf course which looks like the one I have at home.

But usually you don’t. You come to a new country and everything is new around you.

Yes, but many countries try to copy models from elsewhere. That is a natural development. Still, we are trying to establish a more sustainable form of golf development, which allows a natural environment to reflect the location. There are many different types of golf courses. Golf developers have an opportunity to build up any one they like. But I think they would make more informed decisions if they understood the history of golf, where it has come from and how it is played around the world, what are the principles of good design and architecture and why many golf courses are so different from each other. That is what our education does. And for that reason it is very exciting to be involved in its early stage in this country.

So, you are stimulating people to use their own cultural experience in this field. But is that a solvable task for you when you in fact do not know a country or its culture?

That is a very good point. It requires Elmwood College to work, as it always does, with local partners and local employers to inform us what their issues are. In this case we are collaborating with GolfStream and our sponsor «TORO», who also taught in this seminar. For instance, «TORO» came on board to specialize in irrigation, which is such a technical subject in its own right that it requires expertise beyond my comprehension. You will often find golf clubs employing a technical expert in that subject area. And «TORO» provided excellent level of expertise.

Because of that local expert, it was easier. We then can work together to deliver a program of education which most importantly is relevant to that particular country. So you see, it is not a question of Elmwood College coming to a country and telling everybody how it should be. Far from it! It is a question of Elmwood helping people to establish a high quality learning environment, which is innovative and modern, and feel relevant issues to that particular client.

Now let us speak about the seminar you had in Kiev Golf Club. There were four days and theoretical and practical sessions. Could you tell a bit more about topics and main ideas you shared with our people?

As it is our first visit to Ukraine, we began with a presentation about the sustainable development of golf. According to R&A, sustainable development is a combination of high quality playing services within a natural environment, which is socially responsible to the local community. So, we discussed that and then with a limited time we have here we focused on the first of those three principles – the playing quality. Namely, we investigated what a golfer here, in Kiev Golf Club, would expect, what he wants.

To understand that we led a discussion on the international standards of turf quality. Then, with a view of local greenkeeping staff, led by Ron Kennedy, we explored ways of achieving that quality, using the golf facility, which happily was on our door step here. «TORO» was responsible for the equipment and we tested it on a golf course. By the way, that is exactly what we have at home in our college: a combination of theory and practical sessions on a golf courses.

Probably you would now open to me a little secret of «what golfers want»?..

It’s a fascinating question! I think golfers don’t know what they want. Too often they don’t understand a definition of a good quality. They see it on the TV screen, but that is not the same as playing. You would not judge restaurant meal by looking at it on TV screen. You would go and taste it. And I think it is true of golf courses. To really judge them you have to play. I am biased here because I live in Scotland and play there and I think local people of Scotland do understand what is quality of a golf course. So I can only encourage golfers all around the world to pay that country a visit almost as a pilgrimage in order to understand what quality is.

How do you feel about the audience? Did they ask any interesting questions?

Oh, very much! They were very keen to learn and asked a lot of good questions. They have enough practical experience now to understand what some of the problems are. They are facing to achieve high quality, although there seems to be no recipes as every course in the world has its own environmental and customer satisfaction issues. They were very attentive and interested to learn more. I think they are dedicated to do a good job and it was a pleasure to work with them. Certainly, in the end of the week there was a desire to do more.

Probably, there were any unexpected questions?..

You know, as I travel around the world (and I am lucky to do that), I noticed one thing. Some of the most basic simple questions are often the most interesting to try to answer and create from that debate, a discussion among a class group. Besides that, it was refreshing, as it always is, to have questions from people who are coming to golf the very first time. And one of our sessions within the week was to actually go and play golf on the new course that has not opened yet – the Club Course, just to get the class used to the idea of a ball moving and landing on turf. Everybody in golf business should understand the game. So, it is really heartening to see the staff being pleased to play. And I think GolfStream seems to have a very positive action towards encouraging the staff to play and I think it is a very important initiative.

What did you learn about Ukraine and Ukrainian golf during these four days you spent here?

Well, I learned that it is new and exciting. I admit that construction standards in GolfStream are very high, although Ukraine is new to golf. And also I am glad to see very modern standards of presentation and maintenance.

As for Ukraine itself, it has been very interesting experience of staying in Kiev. This is my first time here and it was fantastic. Your country has will and character. It must take me longer to fully comprehend this new culture, which is obviously different from ours. You have a deep and rich culture and I hope to have an opportunity to learn more about it.

Finally, may I ask you a sort of personal question: what is golf for you?

That was the question asked in the class and it took a lot of time to answer. But now I will try to keep it very brief. Golf to me is a way of getting closer to nature. It is a way of experiencing beautiful landscape and testing me by trying to control that little white ball. That challenges me! It challenges my intelligence, my imagination and athletic level and also my character. Every time I play a game of golf my character is being tested. I love the game for that and always anticipate playing.

You are now very welcome to play at Kiev Golf Club!

Definitely, I will really look forward to see the outcome of Championship Course. It looks as an exciting development. When I was here I had a privilege of meeting Peter Chamberlain, the architect, who talked about how proud he was of the work. He is very experienced in building golf courses. So, if he thinks he has a very good project here, it must be. And hopefully it will inspire other golf developers in Ukraine to meet these standards.

We hope that is true because our goal is to develop not only GolfStream Project but also Ukrainian golf in general…

Yes, and we discussed this issue in terms of golf marketing. You need clusters of golf courses, as market experts call it, to attract people to the game. One golf course will not do. There must be mutually supporting network of golf courses, which attract by different playing experiences. That is exactly what we have in St. Andrews. There are a lot of golf courses, which will keep you entertaining a whole week still not having played them all. Then, you want to come back for more! And that is exactly what good marketing means. Hopefully, GolfStream will be able to succeed in it.