Career Descriptions:
A greenskeeper is a person who looks after the maintenance of a golf course or a country club. A greenskeeper is generally employed under the supervision of the golf courses superintendent. His list of duties and responsibilities include fertilisation, irrigation, mowing greens and scouting for pests along with activities that include pruning, arranging for flags and tee marking for tournaments. Other tasks that fall within his range of work are maintaining the turf on everyday basis by aerating, topdressing, rearticulating and rolling.
How to become a greenskeeper
Green keeping is a job that deals with skills and knowledge rather than having particular educational qualifications. A greenskeeper should be at the maximum qualified at the high school level. It is always better to have a graduate working as a greenskeeper but usually this is not the case. One has to have the basic knowledge of the equipments used and materials required to maintain a golf course. To become a greenskeeper at a good golf course, one needs to have experience and expertise in this field.
Greenskeeper courses, training and programs
Though it is not necessary to have a degree to qualify for this job, but in order to become a successful greenskeeper, the applicant must have completed a course in greens keeping which has fetched him with a certificate. In case a person doesn’t have the required certificate, he should have done training under a superintendent for a certain period of time. There are training programs available at country clubs which train interested people in this field.
Top 5 colleges/universities
Keiser University
University of Ohio
Texas University
University of Iowa
University of Southern California
Greenskeeper job opportunities, salary and recruitment
A greenskeeper may not have an ample number of job opportunities but these days the culture of golf courses is increasing and hence this can be considered as an upcoming field. The salary one can earn is about $2000 per month.