8th April 2008
Course manager adds tour experience to team at Rockliffe Hall
Rockliffe Hall, the five-star hotel, golf and spa development, has appointed five new members to the team who will oversee the development of the golf course.
Course and Estate Manager, Davy Cuthbertson, who joined Rockliffe Hall from Northumberland’s Slaley Hall Golf Course and Hotel at the end of 2007, has added five vastly experienced, yet young and hungry new members to the growing team.
The combined CVs of the new six-strong green-keeping team members reveals they have overseen more than 40 European PGA Tour events between them, despite not one of the new recruits to Davy’s team being over 30 years of age.
Davy is excited at how the team on the golf operations is taking shape. He said: “The new guys who have all started here at Rockliffe Hall bring with them the highest quality skills and experience, as well as a hunger and passion to create the best new course in the UK. The development demands all these traits as a minimum requirement.
“We have a big challenge ahead of us here in turning these 360-acres into one of the UK’s finest courses. But it’s a vision the team and I share with Rockliffe Hall developers and one we will soon make a reality.”
Joining Davy to develop the golf course is Head green-keeper, Peter Newton. He arrives having held head green-keeping positions at some of the greatest courses in Midlands and the North West, including The Belfry, Forest of Arden and Worsley Park in Manchester.
The 30-year-old, originally from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, has more than 11 years experience. He said: “I think I speak for all the new team members here in stating that these new positions were the most talked about in the industry for many years.
“The plans and vision for the course and the whole development is so exciting. I really cannot see many courses being able to match themselves up to this, once it has been completed.”
Also joining is 27-year-old Jon Wyer from Lancaster. He will be Peter’s first assistant green-keeper. In eight years he has overseen the tees and greens of Forest of Arden, Hanbury Manor in Hertfordshire and the Limerick County Golf Course in Ireland.
Gerry Clancy, also 27 arrives having spent time as green-keeper at courses across the UK and Europe, including tracks in Austria, Wales, Scotland and England. Most recently, he was at Slaley Hall in Northumberland. His former colleague at Slaley Hall is James Bell. Based in Newcastle Upon Tyne, the qualified green-keeper has been at Slaley Hall for the past three years and arrives at Rockliffe Hall too.
Making up the new team is the youngest of the bunch, 21-year-old Adam Archibald McFarlane, who is originally from the Isle of Bute in Scotland. He qualified from the renowned Elmwood College in Fife, Scotland, which prides itself on being a centre for excellence for golf-related studies.
The course itself will be the jewel in the crown for the development. Measuring almost 7,800 yards from the back tees, it’s likely to be one of the longest courses in Europe, once complete. Its other features also include special ‘bent grass’ greens, which produce slicker faster greens, the quality of which are rarely seen in the North.
Warwick Brindle, director of Rockliffe Hall Ltd, said: “It’s staggering to think these guys have packed so much experience into relatively short careers. However, this hunger and desire to succeed shows exactly the type of attitude we are looking for in all our future staff at the development.
“Whether it’s waiting staff in the restaurants or the front of house team in the hotel, they will have to understand we are trying to create something very unique here and they will need to share our vision of that.”