GOLF: TEE TO GREEN:A chance decision to study horticulture has blossomed in to a career as one of Ireland's top greenkeepers, writes MARK COLLINS

I’M OFTEN asked how and why it was that I took a career path into greenkeeping and, like many school-leavers in the 80s, there was almost an accidental guidance, an element of chance or, perhaps, a touch of fate, in why it was that I followed up my Leaving Certificate by doing a newly developed horticultural course at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa on the Tramore Road in Cork.

Little was I to know at the time that the course would ultimately lead me to an apprenticeship in greenkeeping at Ladybank Golf Club in Scotland and subsequently on to work at clubs that have included Portmarnock, Faithlegg, Skibbereen, the Old Head, Sutton and ultimately to my current position as Course Superintendent at Killeen Castle, where we will stage the Solheim Cup in September.

Although I currently play off a handicap of plus-one, my own introduction to the sport had as much to do with the location of the family home just across the road from Mahon Golf Club, the first municipal course in the country, which opened in 1981.

In those days, my primary interest in the golf course related to looking for lost balls so that I could resell them to make some money and, from that, I then started sneaking onto the course and playing the odd time.

My dad had joined the club and I joined in 1982 and that’s when the golf bug really bit. I’m actually an Honorary Life Member of Mahon – as the first player from the club to make an Irish panel – and I still keep my handicap from there. The thought of being a professional never crossed my mind, as I was playing off seven or eight when I was 17 and had just finished my Leaving Cert.

To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do after finishing school. My dad suggested I do the horticultural course at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa and, after doing some work experience at Douglas Golf Club, I got an interest into progressing further into greenkeeping. Anthony Gillis of Cork Golf Club suggested I look into getting into Elmwood in Scotland, one of the most recognised colleges in the UK, and, in 1987, I applied there and went over for an interview.

For some reason, at the interview, I asked if there was any club in the area looking for an apprentice and, as luck would have it, I was pointed in the direction of Ladybank. I went down, wrote my CV on the back of a beer mat and three weeks later had moved lock, stock and barrel to Scotland. It was great, but tough at times. I’d five younger brothers at home, my parents and grandparents, and to be honest felt young and naive.

But it worked out great.

Ladybank was such a prestigious golf course – one of the qualifying courses for the British Open when I was there in 1990 – and, then, Ian Ritchie (then the Course Superintendent at Portmarnock Golf Club) gave me the chance and offered me the position as his assistant and it went from that.

I was committed to being a course superintendent.

In the period from 1987 to 1994, I was able to devote some time to improving my own golf game and, after moving from Faithlegg to Sutton in 1996, I put a lot of time into the game with the ambition of making it back onto the Munster interprovincial team which I did from 2000 to 2002.

But when I moved to Killeen Castle, I knew that was the end of my serious golf. You can’t take on a job in Killeen Castle and have a wife and three kids and make time for golf. It’s a real full-time job here and Killeen Castle is such a huge commitment from a financial point of view for the owners and with the size of the estate.

I moved to Killeen Castle from Sutton in March of 2006, halfway through construction with responsibilities to grow it in.

It is very important to be involved early in such a project, because you can see everything going into the ground, the drainage and irrigation.

“You get to know the problem areas pretty quickly whereas, if you come in and everything is already grassed over, you’re always looking out for those areas.”

Mark Collins is the Course Superintendent at Killeen Castle in Co Meath which plays host to the Irish Ladies Open on August 5th-7th and to the Solheim Cup on September 23rd-25th. He will be contributing a monthly column in the run-up to the Solheim Cup, which pits Europe’s leading women’s professionals against the United States.