How Instagram ad helped Scot find his next move with USGA greenkeeping course

Step forward Liam Nicol, who is currently taking part in the USGA’s Greenkeeper Apprenticeship Programme (GAP) at Pinehurst in North Carolina after spotting the exciting opportunity on social media.

The programme, which is in its third year and is being made possible by a $1 million investment, has been hailed as “removing barriers” in a quest to change the culture surrounding the greenkeeping industry in the US.

Though unsure at the moment where it might lead for him, Nicol, who previously worked in the construction business, is enjoying being part of the learning experience along with one of his friends, Irishman Chris Kelleher.

“Honestly, it was the most random thing I’ve ever done in my life,” 29-year-old Nicol told Scotland on Sunday. “I’d just come back from Australia last August after being away for two years and I was heading back to Australia, having got my visa and everything else sorted.

“Though I don’t even remember doing it, I applied for the USGA GAP programme after an advert about it came up on Instagram. I think within three weeks I’d got an acceptance and, when I showed it to my mum and dad, I said to them ‘surely this can’t be legit’. I then showed it to my sister and, after she read it through, she said ‘it is legit’.

“So I emailed Carson [Letot, the programme co-ordinator], and he was like ‘sure enough, you are in’. I was supposed to go to Myrtle Beach but then got moved over to the Pinehurst programme and found myself out here in the US on 1 January.

“It’s been brilliant so far. Obviously you have some tough days but, overall, what an experience. To be able to do something like this is great and also in a short space of time as well because you don’t feel you are tied to it. You just jump into everything and do everything you possibly can. I’ve really enjoyed it and it is cool to be in a different country as well.”

Through the one-year programme, the apprentices are learning about the greenkeeping trade through a mix of on-course work - Nicol has done it so far at Pine Needles and Mid Pines - and classroom activities.

“I had worked in civil engineering construction for the last ten years before handing in my notice when I was 27 and getting a visa to travel to Australia and travel a bit out there,” he said.

“I worked in a few different jobs there, including a farm, but I always wanted to work on a golf course through having played golf and I had such a good manager - Simon Blagg - at a course when I was in Australia that it probably helped me what I am doing now.

“If I didn’t have him as the superintendent, I don’t think I’d be here now. I think he was key to it all. I was only there for six months, but he exposed me to everything to do with the job while helping him as well, which was great.”

In between coming home from Australia and heading out to America, Nicol enjoyed getting the opportunity to put his construction skills to good use at Royal Aberdeen, where his dad plays his golf. “I ended up getting a job there for a month to help them do a reconstruction of a whole new first green before I came out here and that was a great experience,” he said.

“After playing at Westhill to start with then Craibstone, I sort of fell out of love with golf in my early 20s but now every day I go to work I am interested in trying to make the course better and speak to people to do with golf. The programme is related directly to the classroom. When we first arrived, we were doing four days a week straight after work for two hours, but now that is down to just two days due to it being busier on the courses.

“I’ve done apprenticeship programmes in the past and I think it is great for people who were maybe not so great at school because it applies so directly back to your class. If we are doing something at work and it also comes up in the class it is just so relatable. It keeps you pretty invested in why you are doing the different stuff on the golf course. It’s great to know that there is so much detailed work that goes into just growing grass and making the golf course look the way it does, which I really enjoy.”

Letot, who did an internship himself at Mount Juliet in Ireland, is delighted to have Nicol on the programme. “Liam has fitted like a glove into the mix of the culture of the class,” he said of the Scot. “I hate to say a safe bet, but he’s come over and he knows what to do on the course and knows what to do in the class. He knows how to make friends, he knows how to play golf. It’s like the perfect student to start this with, which is great, and then we build on the top of it.

“It would be nice to get someone who pushes our students a bit more to think outside of the box and to see a culture they’ve never seen before and maybe had some misconceptions about that they can learn from and expand their own horizons a bit.”

As for his own horizon, Nicol is keeping an open mind. “I don’t want to plan ahead too much as I am really enjoying the fact that stuff is just happening at the moment,” he said with a smile. “I’ve always tried to be so organised my whole life, but, through being open to everything and networking with different people, opportunities can sometimes just come out of nowhere.”