In 2010 my manager and I heard about Philip Armitage and when we learnt about him and what he could do for us we were immediately enthusiastic. It was not critical that we save money in the long term on fertilisers. It was more important that we could finally have some professional and independent support and backing to improve the quality of the greens by rearranging and optimising the greens maintenance programme”

"Many of the members who run my old course (Muswell Hill GC) are heavyweights within their own companies and so they want facts. Philip got me into recording infiltration rates, percolation rates, firmness readings, moisture content, light levels and compaction so we could start benchmarking. I was then able to put the figures into reports for the Board and this has meant that I’ve been able to justify work that I wanted to get done on the golf course"

“I can ring Philip anytime which is great as it can be lonely out here as greenkeeper and it is great to have someone who knows the situation, but who is far enough away not to be emotionally involved and who can make a sound judgement”

“Philip and I are on the same wavelength. As soon as I heard about Philip, I was keen for him to become involved. He has been a great help with bringing new ideas. His network is bigger than mine and he picks up ideas from other clubs which we push around and assess their potential benefit here”

“When we first met, Philip mentioned data collection. I must admit I nearly laughed at him, as it wasn’t a route I’d gone down before or could see real benefits from. But now I’m the King of collecting data”

“It takes years of experience to do anything half right in greenkeeping and even then, there is a lot of luck involved”

“I’m getting into a whole new thing which I never knew about when I started greenkeeping – soil science and how to get the correct balance between bacteria and fungi”

“Philip has been fantastic for me. I can bounce ideas off him and explain situations and problems. He always comes up with good answers and he listens to what I want rather than coming in and telling us what we need to do.”

“Because of the advice and recommendations, we have had from Philip we have not just saved money on fertiliser, the greens have become more consistent and the disease levels have demonstrably fallen.”

“Members don’t always believe their own greenkeeper and sometimes suspect that what I’m telling them is a load of rubbish, so they need someone else to tell them and Philip with his agronomic degree and qualifications, will be listened to when he tells them something, even if it is what I’ve told them already”

“The fact that we could reduce our fertiliser and pesticide applications in the long term, of course, helped to convince the Greens Committee, to use this agronomic support”

“I've turned into someone I didn’t know that I could be”

“Philip has shown us a way of improving the greens using specific maintenance practises and by establishing a well substantiated long-term maintenance plan. However, we must pursue the path ourselves.”