Bogor, Indonesia: Welfare and the well-being of its long-serving and loyal staff is a main priority at Riverside Golf Club.

While many clubs around the world are being forced to lay off staff or cut their salaries, the award-winning Indonesian facility has been looking after each and every one of its employees during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Wee Peng Siong, General Manager at the Greg Norman-designed course in Bogor, said: “This is the time for us to come through for the staff because when we built the golf course here 25 years ago we bought a lot of land from the local land owners in the village. A lot of our staff come from nearby, living within half an hour of the club.

“We haven’t laid anyone off but what we’ve done to mitigate our risk is to reduce the number of work days and some of the senior staff, like myself, have taken a pay cut. Everybody is keeping their job because effectively we’re all in the same boat. We can’t tell how long this pandemic is going to last, but our principle is to try to make sure everyone keeps their job for as long as we can.

“As it’s now Muslim fasting month, one thing we’re thinking of doing is having the elder staff stay at home because Covid-19 will affect the older generation more than the younger ones. It’s the fasting month and it’s going to be hot and humid yet immunity goes down and we want to protect them.

“That also means we need to do something for them. One of the things we’ve done is work with some of our partners to raise money to buy essential food for them over the next five weeks.”

Although the Riverside course has remained open and in excellent condition, Wee said a decision was made to grow the rough.

Speaking in the latest in a series of Asian Golf Industry Federation podcasts with leading lights from the industry that are being broadcast at www.agif.asia, Wee said: “As far as turf grass maintenance is concerned, I rate the superintendent based on a set of key performance indices. We’ve had to reduce his workload by about 35% so naturally that index also has to go down.

“We just prioritise some things, the fairways, the greens, the areas around the greens where you need to recover, and the tee complexes. We don’t waste time mowing the rough too much so we’re leaving it a little longer.”

*To listen to the full interview with Wee Peng Siong, please visit https://agif.asia/agif-podcast/

**Riverside Golf Club is a Golf Course Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation. If you’d like to reach the Federation’s 10,000+ global audience via newsletter, website, Facebook and LinkedIn, become an AGIF member. For further details, please visit https://agif.asia/join-the-agif/