Greenkeeper
A greenkeeper is a specialist in the maintenance and management of lawn sports areas such as B. for soccer , golf , hockey and polo . He differs from a groundskeeper in general in that he usually does not have sufficient specialist knowledge of the highly complex maintenance of lawns, especially in professional sports.
The supervisor is known as the headgreenkeeper. The headgreenkeeper works closely with the facility operator.
The professional group is represented by the Greenkeeper Association (in Germany: GvD) and its regional groups. He is the professional representation for the lawn care staff on golf and sports facilities. Its members are primarily self-employed or employed for lawn care in the broadest sense.
Typical work and tasks
- mowing
- Scarifying
- Aeration
- Top dressing
- Overseeding
- Rules of the game
- Put holes and flags
- Pull lime strips
- Machine maintenance
In winter there are often renovation measures and winter-specific maintenance measures (e.g. cutting bunker edges, maintenance of the surrounding area, building new paths, etc.).
Setting the flags in golf, in particular, requires a high degree of experience, as the position of the flag changes the degree of difficulty of the course and can influence the game strategy.
job and education
In Germany, greenkeeper is not a training occupation, but the title can be obtained after training. The staff comes from typical green professions: gardeners (tree nursery gardeners, landscape gardeners, ornamental plant gardeners, perennial gardeners and vegetable gardeners), from agriculture, from the forest, but also from non-species areas such as the car mechanic or car mechanic (or agricultural machine technician). This professional group often receives further training to become greenkeepers in order to guarantee machine maintenance on a golf course.
The staff often receives further training in greenkeeping from the greenkeeper association or a school commissioned by them (in Germany DEULA Rheinland (Kempen) or DEULA Bayern in Freising-Weihenstephan). This lasts three years. The qualification is achieved through an examination that is comparable to the master craftsman qualification. In the USA, you can also study greenkeeping for three years.
In Austria , greenkeepers are trained in a three-year apprenticeship ( vocational training ). The official job title is garden and green space design - focus on greenkeeping . In contrast to training as a garden and green space designer - with a focus on landscape gardening , the greenkeeper apprentice focuses on horticultural businesses or golf courses.
Web links
- Training regulations of the Austrian Ministry of Economics
- Professional and industry information from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce
- Vocational and advanced training information from the Institute for Economic Research: Vocational Information Computer (BIC)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Greenkeeper Association, goals and tasks ( Memento of the original from August 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
