EOIN REVEALS HIS TOUGHEST CHALLENGE

It’s a milestone year for Royal Dornoch’s highly regarded courses manager Eoin Riddell.

Dornoch born and bred, it was 40 years ago, in 1986, that he joined the local golf club straight from school as an apprentice, taking the greenkeeping staffing complement from six to eight, along with Embo lad Andrew Mackay.

Down the decades, Eoin has witnessed far-reaching changes in the way the courses are tended, protected and enhanced, along with the technological developments embraced by the team.

In the latest series of our “Monday Memories” interviews with past captain Willie MacKay, Eoin – who is also celebrating 20 years since his elevation to leading the greenkeeping team caring for the Championship and Struie Courses – reflects on the club’s behind-the scenes investment in maintenance facilities, a modern irrigation system for the Struie and the accolades coming Royal Dornoch’s way for its work on the sustainability front.

He also reveals the toughest assignment he and his personnel have been handed over the 40 years he has been working on the links.

Laying down 30 hefty rolls of turf to create the new 8th tee while a snowstorm raged around them came close.

But Eoin admits being invited to replicate the old 7th green down to the last millimetre tested the skills of his greenkeepers to the max. But it was an examination they passed with flying colours, as anyone playing the Championship Course in recent years will confirm.

The team worked hand in hand with architect Tom Mackenzie, of Mackenzie and Ebert renown, as the alignment was changed to take advantage of previously obscured views towards the Dornoch Firth.

“That was probably the hardest thing in all the years I have been at Dornoch, trying to replicate that green,” said Eoin.

“Luckily enough, when we were laying the new green we still had the old one. We made a grid and took all the measurements, heights and levels and transferred them to the new green, trying to get it as close to the original as possible.”

The greenkeepers’ key role in protecting and even enhancing the natural environment and wildlife has been acknowledged with a string of awards in recent years.

Eoin, who relishes sightings of otters at play with their young within pitching distance of the Championship Course, provides an insight to the work of the team which goes unseen by members and the many visitors welcomed warmly every season to the cherished and historic linksland.

“It’s a massive area of land,” he noted, with two courses – and a third currently going through the planning process – Academy holes and practice areas, turf nursery, nearly 400 acres of leased farmland and even the town’s grass airstrip all coming under his command.

Throw in the vagaries of the Highland weather and it becomes clear why 4.30am starts are the order of the day for the oft unheralded heroes who ensure the courses are in tip-top condition whether it’s for members and visitors, or for high profile international competitions.

Enjoy Eoin’s contribution to “Monday Memories” below: