Now that the proposed changes to the golf course have been rejected by Members on costs grounds, perhaps it is time the Greens Sub-Committee should think about reducing costs – and, at the same time, keep the greens staff, and Members possibly, content.
See this report from the Daily Mail last week:
“Divot divas: Meet the European beauties performing the most vital task at this year's Open. By Lewis Constable
When it comes to keeping things neat and tidy, a woman’s touch is often best. And it would appear the same rule applies to top-class golf courses.
Those teeing off on the iconic Old Course at St Andrews this year have a troupe of glamorous Eastern European women to thank for its meticulously groomed fairways and greens.
After struggling to find local workers happy to brave the chilly 5.30am starts, managers turned to an employment agency for help – and they have been delighted with the results.
The ‘divot divas’, as the women are affectionately known, are busily preparing the course for this summer’s Open Championship and the arrival of top golfers such as Tiger Woods.
And they have settled into life in the sedate Scottish coastal town so well that one has married a local – while four of the others are living with members of the greenkeeping staff.
Six days a week, the ladies turn out to maintain the course’s clipped and polished landscape in the face of over-zealous golfers and the unforgiving North Sea winds. From March to October, they earn £5.80 an hour by filling the divots with sand. For the rest of the year they dig out up to 40,000 divots and replace them with fresh turf. The St Andrews Links Trust, which is in charge of maintaining the course, brought them in after finding it almost impossible to recruit reliable staff in Fife.
Gordon Moir, the Trust’s director of greenkeeping, said: ‘It wasn’t what I was expecting but it couldn’t have worked out better. The girls are such brilliant workers. Their timekeeping is exemplary and there is no such thing as sickness.’
The girls, aged between 23 and 30, all come from Latvia and Estonia.
One of the first to arrive was Estonian Ksenija White in 2006. She has since married a green keeper. Mrs White, 29, said: ‘I heard about the job from one of my friends in Estonia. If I hadn’t I would probably still be working in a flower shop.’ Another of the divas, Anetti Vene, 26, had been a trainee accountant in Estonia. She met her boyfriend in her first month on the job. She said: ‘When the weather is good, it is really nice to work outside. Also, the pay is much better here than in Estonia.’”
Play fast, swing slow!
(Republished from the “
The Daily Mail”, Saturday, 20 May 2010, with grateful thanks)