Freelance greenkeeper provider The Relief Greenkeeper have announced a new partnership with EcoBunker to supply fully qualified and experienced staff to golf courses during the installation of Ecobunker synthetic bunker lining systems.
The partnership was agreed between EcoBunker CEO Richard Allen and The Relief Greenkeeper founder Duncan Cheslett in December. EcoBunker maintains its own construction crew and can carry out turnkey installations of its product if clients wish, but the majority of golf clubs elect to build their own EcoBunkers using a team comprised by some or all of their in-house staff.
“We offer three different levels of service – turnkey, as a main contractor, providing a project manager to supervise a job done in-house or by another contractor, or we train the golf club in the skills needed to install EcoBunker or the EcoTec liner, and afterwards, once they have learned the skills, they can install it themselves,” says Allen.
“Our construction team can install the EcoTec bunker liner, or EcoBunker revetments, but we have an established contractor partner to build drainage, handle shaping, or deal with turfing on many of our turnkey projects,” he continued. “Clubs who buy our product need to understand that the installation of EcoBunker is likely to require some addition staff – the fact that a course is rebuilding its bunkers doesn’t mean that grass stops needing mowing – and using greenkeepers provided by The Relief Greenkeeper is a simple, cost-effective way of getting the labour they will need. It is important that when the club decides to undertake an EcoBunker project, they are committed and focused on the task. Piecemeal installation, interrupted by other routine tasks, always results in an inefficient outcome.”
Cheslett said: “We have plenty of work for our guys in the summer, but at the moment we have less demand in the winter – which is when most bunker upgrade projects take place. Not all of our greenkeepers want to work in the winter, but for those that do, they can support clubs that need increased labour during the bunker building season. We are already underway with our first project – I have two guys at Wanstead Golf Club in east London at the moment, and Richard needed some extra hands to support that project during a very busy winter period, which we were happy to provide.”
Cheslett expects the level of service his greenkeepers can provide to golf clubs that are progressing with EcoBunker projects to increase as they gain experience. “Some golf clubs may well be interested in using our guys for bunker construction work, either for the golf club or supporting EcoBunker’s contractors,” he says. “With the wide geographical spread of Relief Greenkeepers, there will be more options for golf clubs to find skilled labour, close at hand, with all the obvious benefits that go with that’’.
The Relief Greenkeeper team will be exhibiting at the BTME exhibition at Harrogate later this month – they can be found on stand 520 – and say that qualified greenkeepers interested in becoming self-employed relief greenkeepers, or clubs that might need such resource, should come and talk to them.