For the love of his links - Preview

No, except that the players seem to hit the ball further every year so we felt we had to lengthen the golf course – not dramatically but enough. But the other thing is that Turnberry had only 66 bunkers for the previous Opens, which when you compare to other Open venues is not a lot, so I thought we were under-bunkered.

We have an additional 21 fairway bunkers and that’s going to put more of an emphasis on accuracy. They are quite penal; the players won’t like them. Then the biggest change is the 16th, which was my baby. We wanted to move the 17th tee back and were trying to work out how to do that. We thought about moving the 16th green but then had the idea of moving the fairway at the 16th to the left so it played as a dogleg.

When I was preparing to tell my boss, I wrote down six positives about the idea and couldn’t come up with a single negative. Then we went to the R&A and worked with [architect] Martin Ebert on it. I don’t pretend to be a course architect but I have a passion for golf and I know what works from a players’ point of view and it was nice to be involved.

You arrived here in January 1986, just six months before the Open. That must have been quite an experience?

My predecessor died suddenly and I got the call to come up, I was at Broome Park in Kent at the time. I came and saw the course and stayed in the hotel. I looked out of the window in the dining room and thought, ‘This will do me.’ I didn’t take much persuading. But there was a lot to do ahead of the Open. We had a young, inexperienced crew and there wasn’t a lot of money about for capital expenditure or machinery. It was tough.

You grew up playing at Prince’s, Royal St George’s and at Deal in Kent. Did that experience help in suddenly having to prepare an Open course? I’m biased. People up here tend to think the only links courses are Scottish courses but you go to the Birkdale area and there are all these lovely golf courses and also on the Kent coast. There are some gems down there and so I knew what I was looking for, what the R&A were looking for.

I knew Sir Michael Bonallack, who was the secretary, and it was Jim Arthur, their agronomist, who recommended me for the job, so was we all in the same boat and knew what we wanted. I’ve worked with the R&A for over 30 years and always got on well with them, the same with the PGA, the European Tour and promoters like IMG, working on all the tournaments we have had here over the years. And I have been lucky not to have to work for lots of club committees, but for a hotel general manager who trusts you to do your job. Like anything, it is about common sense and keeping your feet on the ground. It’s not rocket science.

What were the main challenges for the preparation of the ’86 and ’94 Opens?

In ’86 it was the wind and the rough. But a few days before the Open, I remember walking from the clubhouse, there was not a breath of wind but there was a tropical dampness, my feet were soaked before I got to the first tee. I remember Seve, after a practice round on the Wednesday, saying to me: “The course is good, the fairways are good, the greens are good, it’s going to be a good Open.” Around about midday on Thursday, someone pulled a switch and the wind got up, the rain came in sideways and the next day in the papers it was “the course is impossible, it’s a joke”. The man upstairs has an awful lot to do with it. It’s in his
hands and we just have a work with him. The same in ’94. When they were building the tented village there was a dust storm, it was so dry.

I played on the Friday before with Sir Michael Bonallack and the chairman of the championship committee. We walked onto the 8th green and the spikes were crunching and the surface was shiny and Sir Michael said: “Do you think we will up the water, George?” and I said, “Well, we’ll see.” That was Friday night. Saturday we had 17 mm of rain, Sunday we had 9 mm, then 8 mm and then 9 mm. By Thursday it was an oasis, not soft but receptive. It took a couple of days to dry out. So you think you’ve got it somewhere near right and then something like that happens. That’s links golf.

You were not here in 1977 – the Duel in the Sun – but what are your memories of that encounter?

Well, It was a classic. I never tire of watching the video, which is always playing on the TV outside the pro shop here. What I like about the course, I think Turnberry is one of the fairest golf courses. You get what you see. I don’t think it is any coincidence that in ’77 you had two of the best golfers of the time battling it out, in the mid-’80s Greg Norman was one of the best golfers and in the early to mid-’90s Nick Price was one of the best. I think that says a lot for the course.

There has been some criticism that the scoring can be too easy here at times. Do you agree?

Any links, Birkdale or St Andrews or wherever, if they get calm, balmy days, they’ll shoot 12 under or perhaps even lower, and what’s wrong with that? But if the wind gets up, especially here, they will be nearer 84 than 64. Last year at the Amateur Championship, all four days the wind was from a different direction. That was wonderful. You had four different golf courses. You can’t plan to have four 69s. You have to take what you can get, whether 84 or 64.

The course has been closed over the winter. Are you pleased with its condition at the moment?

I’m delighted and that’s without having any growth yet. The soil temperatures are still low, but it will come in the next week or so. We have all the ingredients on the stove, just simmering away and hopefully we can bring it to the boil a week or two before the Open.

There must be an excitement each time, wondering what the players are going to do – we’ve got Tiger for the first time here this year?

Of course. Wherever the Open is each year, I always have a challenge to myself to make a concerted effort to make the Ailsa as good as possible, so it is as good as at the Open.
Obviously, when you know you have the Open, it’s another matter. The goalposts change each year. Last year at Birkdale was wonderful, the year before at Carnoustie was in fantastic condition. So that’s what we have to produce this year. There are new owners of the hotel, a lot of money is going in, so my head is in a noose. Expectations are going to be high.

Was it frustrating that Turnberry was off the rota for reasons which were nothing to do with the course?

No, that’s right but we are quite commercial here and we have been busy with three or four Amateur Championships, the Seniors Open a few times, the Ladies Open. There aren’t many years we have not had something. But the Open, there is that extra responsibility but it’s great for the boys on the crew. They put so much into it. Many of them are still with me from ’86 so they are very experienced now. They know the standards we are looking for so I’m not worried.

Was it a difficult decision to step down after the Open?

Yes. I’m delighted in one sense as two weeks after the Open I’ll be 71 and I’ve been working since I was 14, 15. My wife is going to be pleased and I’m going to have time to do what I want to do. But I will miss it. It’s my life. Euan Grant, who was at St Andrews, is taking over and he is very switched on and will do a brilliant job. The future for Turnberry is exciting with the hotel being refurbished. The new owners are investing heavily on golf course equipment – it’s a shame they did not come along a bit sooner…

Reproduced with kind permission of Golf International.