Hoiana Shores Golf Club – a stunning new golf facility in Vietnam

Seamus Rotherick
By Seamus Rotherick March 14, 2020 10:44

The club has its own in-house school to teach staff how to maintain the course, and supporting this via both education and the donation of equipment to ensure the mowers remain sharp, is Bernhard and Company.

One of Vietnam’s newest golf facilities, Hoiana Shores Golf Club in Hoi An, has taken a revolutionised approach in the training and retaining of staff who tend to the golf course.

Hoiana Shores Golf Club is the first Robert Trent Jones Jr’s golf course in Vietnam. Set right on the shoreline of Hoi An in central Vietnam, the Hoiana complex is comprised of luxury hotels, entertainment outlets, residential communities, retail complexes, as well as the world-class golf club.

The championship Hoiana course is a links design with limited vegetation and rolling dunes. The golf experience is first-class with facilities and service characteristic of a five-star luxury resort, or better.

Hoiana Shores Golf Club created its own in-house school to teach its staff. Rob Weiks, the course superintendent and a six-year Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) member, is the turf expert who supplied an international standard syllabus for the course maintenance curriculum at the Golf Operations and Maintenance Vocational College (GOMVC) in Quang Nam.

Bernhard and Company, through Sports Turf Solutions (STS), its distributor in Asia, had the fantastic opportunity to support this great initiative, bringing education home for Hoiana Shores. Bernhard and Company donated both a reel and bedknife grinder for the mechanics and equipment personnel to train and gain experience on. The head mechanic was the only mechanic who had previous golf course experience, so this was a vital piece of their development considering Hoiana Shores is using Zoysia grass – which means there is constant requirements for the course machinery to be sharp.

Bernhard and Company has also provided training directly to the mechanics’ team and STS is providing ongoing support. Bernhard and Company, STS and Rob Weiks share the same passion for ongoing staff development in this industry.

We took the time to ask Rob Weiks a few questions.

What’s your view on the importance of training / education at all levels?

“We base our syllabus on core skills and knowledge. Essentially from the ground up. All our students have come to us with a zero to very little knowledge base, which is great as they have no preconceived notions to begin with. Without knowledge, tasks simply do not get done to the same level. Understanding the result allows someone to deliver higher quality workmanship. Training and education are vital in greenkeeping as there are so many varied tasks / skillsets required.

How did you come up with the syllabus you provided? What was the idea behind it?

I wrote the syllabus based on my experience and knowledge in the industry. I set it out based on my own educational experiences from an apprentice greenkeeper to a diploma holding superintendent. Bouncing ideas off industry professionals was key to the syllabus content and evolution as this was the first time I had sat down to complete this task in my career. The idea originally came from Hoiana Shores upper management to give back to the local community whilst gaining trained accredited staff for the roles we required here at Hoiana Shores Golf Club.

What improvements / changes do you see in your staff and productivity?

Confidence and efficiency, staff have clearly shown a difference in both after receiving training. The biggest improvements I see is the staff’s ability to complete tasks without the need for remediation, not having to go back and fix items or redo certain things helps productivity and triggers confidence in their own ability.

A specialist in sports turf technology, Bernhard and Company is committed to providing leading turf care solutions to golf course and pitch care specialists worldwide. From blade sharpening systems to sports surface air movement and moisture control solutions and supplementary lighting solutions, the Bernhard product portfolio is focused on providing its global customer base with championship turf and world-class playability. Bernhard’s turf health solutions are used at top 100 courses and famous sporting venues around the world. For more information, visit www.bernhard.co.uk

 

Seamus Rotherick
By Seamus Rotherick March 14, 2020 10:44
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