Billy Hayes is the Course Manager at Droitwich Golf Club in Worcestershire. He took over the running of the course at the beginning of 2023.
Around then the club invested heavily in new machinery and a brand-new irrigation system too. With member support required for the latter, it’s fair to say that Billy and his team have been under pressure to produce the right sort of results, during our chat in January it soon became clear that’s a situation Billy tends to revel in.
He began his greenkeeping career as an apprentice at his then local club, Lutterworth in Leics, almost to the day that he left school, and without having much of an idea then on his career path.
“I’m a sporty lad anyway, I didn’t want to work inside, I knew that much. Went to the club had an interview, and got took on a week later as an apprentice. Ended up spending 11 years at Lutterworth, passed my levels two and three and all the qualifications I could possibly do.”
During that spell and coming as very nice early career surprise, aged just 22 Billy won himself the Level 3 Advanced Greenkeeper of the Year for the UK award from Myerscough College. From then on Billy aimed higher, the award got noticed and he was soon to be offered his first Head GK job a few years later at Ansty GC in Warwicks. After successfully restoring the fortunes of that club he stayed in the county later with a spell at Welcombe GC in Stratford before then being enticed by Leicester City FC, their state-of-the-art training ground at Park Hill and the nine hole course within.
Billy became Golf Course Manager there, a different role to what he’d been used to but what a privilege all the same. “To get to work with LCFC, their billionaire owner and the sort of facilities they provided there, and also not just look after a golf course but build it in the first place as a world class facility was a fantastic opportunity. The landscapes, the mechanics, running a team – so much learnt.”
Ironically though, Leicester City’s exclusive to the club new course turned out to be the very definition of millionaire’s golf, few played on it, even the first team weren’t encouraged to play during the season itself.
“My biggest achievement to date, I can always say that I built Leicester City’s golf course, I did it up to the standard they asked for, money wasn’t an object – yet it was under-used and that affected team morale a bit.”
With a yearning to return to a busier golf club life, Billy looked around again and found his new home over in Droitwich who were on the look out for a new CM. Club manager Tom knew Billy and had watched his career from afar so the appointment didn’t take long.
“I think the main aim from the club that came over at the interview was, we need change, we’re not where we want to be. That message was loud and clear and it immediately felt like a real good opportunity for me to put my foot down and do what I wanted to do.”
“Starting here during the winter of 22-23 was tough enough and we also had a lot of staff who had been here for many years so a change for them was the big thing, a new boss coming in and basically letting them know that as in my interview, we had to go up a level or two. That was probably the hardest part of the process, 50-50 really in reaction, some of them didn’t believe that was possible any they didn’t stay the course. But some did and we got there in the end with them and some new appointments, I’ve got a great team now and it’s always been with the full backing of the club.”
The club’s investments were already in the pipeline when Billy took over. They moved from Toro to a brand-new fleet of John Deere machinery which has produced evidential results on the course. Then the irrigation, the installation of the brand new £500K Rainbird system was being timed for his arrival, Billy couldn’t wait to get started.
“My first eight weeks at Droitwich were pretty much office bound, the previous system we had was installed in 1983, so this was like night and day. The new piping now is so much more flexible, stronger and able to hold a lot more pressure and the system now can control all that.
Previously the brains of the electrics in the system were muddled, you asked it to spray the first green for instance and the second green came on, it was aged and often they had to take over manually. Now with the Rainbird we can simply run it via our mobiles or tablets, the wiring is now via individual sprinklers rather than a block system. With the system now as another example, if we wanted to spray 5mm on a green and set that up the day before, if say 2mm of rain fell during the night the system would know to only spray 3mm the next morning.”
That sort of tech has incredible benefits, the management of the water on the course, the soil management, keeping the PHs right, improving the fertiliser programmes, all due to not letting too much water flow through the clay base. The distribution of the water rather than its amount made the readings completely different, straight away leading to better green speeds, improved grass coverage and trueness of the running of the ball.
“It’s a fantastic thing we’ve had installed, it took eight months in total, a lot due to the winter we endured that year, but it wasn’t going to be rushed. The thing was it wasn’t my budget to spend, it came from a levy paid by each member, so it was a huge responsibility to take on, we had to get it right.”
Thankfully that’s exactly what happened, and the members soon noticed the benefits during the playing season of 2024. An expert combination of human endeavour and insanely smart technology has made a significant impact on the club’s fortunes and made the golf course a must play once again.
The Droitwich Golf Club greenkeeping team L to R – Trevor Ward, Tommy Hall, Billy Hayes (Course Manager), Mark Thomas, Cameron Green (Deputy Manager), and Nathan Slater.
“We did have members who left who didn’t believe it was going to work out, but now we’ve got a few of them back plus many from neighbouring clubs who have come over as groups. That’s the best thing for me, I see a pile of new forms on the side in the office when I go in, it’s amazing it really is and a real achievement.”
My 5-year plan for Droitwich is to be the recognised club in Worcestershire, the go to place!
We have a huge uphill climb to get there. Part of the plan is to produce free draining greens. Along this journey we will have to install new drainage across all greens on the course, we can then continue to input high volumes of sand to minimize clay and thatch in the surfaces. Once we have this in place we will be a club playing on all 18 greens throughout the twelve months. This is how members want to play their golf and enjoy every penny of their membership.
When nature had something to say it’s never been too easy at Droitwich. The course on two levels and set alongside the River Salwarpe on its lowest part does contend with storm and flooding issues more than most. Yet these days they are better warned, cope with it more capably and can get the golfers back on the course faster than ever.
“I would say to any greenkeepers, you’ve got to push for this (Rainbird), it’s a lot of money but you’re investing in the sort of technology that can’t fail to make a huge difference.”
This year coming looks like a busy one for Billy and the team. County recognition has arrived in town as both the Ladies and Junior County Championships are coming to Droitwich this summer.
There won’t be any slowing down that’s for sure, we’re already now more than safe in the impression that Billy wouldn’t have it any other way.
