Consulting
CONSULTING
The African Turf Academy was created in 2011 and is the only internationally accredited Turf Grass Academy in Africa. ATA has produced many of the next generation of Sports Turf Managers over the years and has developed and acquired a considerable support structure from the leading role players in the sports turf industry. It is now time for ATA to give back to the industry by bringing together four of the best professionals in their fields in a unique world class opportunity for clubs and facilities to get advice and support from the ATA Consulting team. ATA Consulting will now offer a golf club and course consulting service through the support team and will cater for golf clubs and sports turf arenas in Africa and the Middle East.
WE WILL ADVISE ON:
Club management
Maximizing staff efficiency, analyzing operational and budgetary planning.
Agronomy
Assessing golf courses for optimizing, irrigation and water management, developing cultural and nutritional practices and programmes for warm and cool season grass species.
Workshop
Machinery and infrastructure auditing.
Golf course design
Laying out new courses, evaluating existing golf courses, their design, their safety and identifying opportunities to reconfigure courses to maximise returns through possible property development.
The prime focus will be to assist golf clubs to manage their property in a sustainable manner whilst still being in a position to add value and deliver on the service expectations which members and guests will expect. The aim will always be to ensure that each individual golf business is structured carefully to be in a healthy financial, operational and environmental position for the years ahead.
The team consists of:
Andrew McKenna
The founder of the African Turf Academy and is a PGA qualified professional with the PGA of UK and the PGA of SA. Having played on the European Tour, Challenge Tour and Sunshine Tour. The ATA is based at Silver Lakes Golf and Wildlife Estate, and he operates The McKenna Performance Academy in conjunction with the African Turf Academy. He brings to ATA Consult a wealth of experience in his profession and will focus on advising clubs relating to club management, golf participation, player development and performance and education and training of those in every aspect of golf and sports turf. His passion is in growing the game and enhancing the opportunities for those who play the game to become employed in the golf industry as a whole.
Craig Haldane
An expert agronomist and golf course manager, with experience throughout the world, including Africa, Asia, the Middle East and currently based in Scotland. His expertise covers all aspects of turf management both in golf and other forms of sports turf. He has been responsible for the course management in clubs like Fancourt Hotel and Country Club Estate, Emirates Golf Club and the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht Club and is currently Golf Courses Manager at The Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. He is an expert in the cultivation and maintenance of both cool and warm season grasses and has an unrivalled reputation for his management skills in leading teams of greenkeepers and groundsmen to achieve the highest of technical and environmental standards. His contribution to ATA Consult will be in his expert analysis of the agronomic challenges of golf and sports turf and his ability in formulating management programmes for the better health and improved performance of all surfaces.
Nick Brown
Nick has a wealth of experience in the golf and sports turf industry having forged his career working with the leading suppliers of maintenance and vehicle equipment over the past 22 years. He has worked throughout the world and is an expert in aspects of capital provision for clubs and facilities in all climates. His expertise is globally regarded as one of the most experienced and accomplished in the field of turf machinery. He brings to ATA Consulting the ability to advise clubs and facilities on how best they can improve their mechanical operations and how to maximise their efficiency and their performance with, always, the sustainability of the natural environment in mind. Nick’s strengths lie in his understanding of the acute awareness of customer needs and has formulated a strong network of key leaders and influential professionals within the sports turf industry to engage in strategies for future successes and business partnerships.
Howard Swan
One of Europe’s most senior professional golf course architects with almost 50 years experience in the field in four continents, 40 countries stretching from United States and the West to China in the east, to Iceland in the north and South Africa in the south. He is in the second generation of the Swan dynasty in the profession, now working with his son, William. Is expertise in the natural framework in which the golf course should be developed or, if it already exists sit, is paramount to his philosophy of laying out or redesigning golf courses as naturally as is possible as if “God and mother nature I created them themselves”. He brings to ATA Consulting his passion for his professional work, particularly his expertise in appraising existing golf courses and reconfiguring them or redesigning them to meet the expectations of today… and tomorrow in satisfying the players and in their efficient and economic maintenance management. He is particularly focused on the development of facilities which enable more people… of any age, advantaged or disadvantaged, however that may be, to join the game and have golf reach out to communities to achieve that.