Cardiff, Wales: Synthetic bunker edging specialist EcoBunker has made a significant expansion by appointing Hamish Crichton as its new Business Development Manager.

Crichton joined EcoBunker at the start of May, from soil surfactant and wetting agent provider Aquatrols.

Crichton said: “I come from a corporate background, but a few years ago I decided I wanted to follow my passion, and work in the golf business.

“Although I don’t have a background in golf, while at Aquatrols I took the Fertiliser Adviser Certification and Training Scheme (FACTS) qualification. It was quite a challenge to go back to school for the first time in years, but it did me a lot of good.

“I found that I love the science in soil and grass. It’s one of the first jobs where I’ve found myself reading books or watching videos at one in the morning and my wife has nudged me saying: ‘Go to sleep’.

“The thing that astonished me was the number of times I read: ‘The answer is not yet known’. It’s almost like a frontier science.

“I have a lot of sympathy for greenkeepers. On top of dealing with Mother Nature and the curve balls she throws at them, they have members to worry about!

“For me, I’m keen to expand my knowledge of the whole arena of golf. I got to know about the greenkeeping side of things, but I wanted to expand my knowledge of architecture and construction, and understand the world of the general manager. 

“My previous experience in marketing and business development trained me how to present a proposition to a general manager or a greens chairman, who are usually from a similar sort of background and that’s going to be a very important part of my role.

“I had a number of different opportunities, but I chose to join EcoBunker because I believe it is a company that has almost limitless potential. 

“When Richard Allen first conceived synthetic revetting, it was to provide a new solution to the erosion of low edge parkland bunkers. He wanted to give golf courses the option of building aesthetically pleasing, more architecturally interesting bunker shapes without the worry of introducing an increased maintenance burden.

“As it turned out, the product quickly became popular on higher faced links pot bunkers and our challenge now is to change perceptions, demonstrating that the product translates extremely well to all golf course styles.

“It helps that we now have a wonderful portfolio from the tropics to the tundra, Major venues to municipals, featuring parkland, heathland and desert courses. EcoBunker allows greenkeeping staff to spend less time on their bunkers and get on with maintaining the surfaces that really matter.”

EcoBunker is a Full Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.