green keepers and hi vis ?

[Tab373]

Hi all as you may no that I work in the Nuclear Industry and health and safety is high on our agenda. Just walking across from office to toilet block we have to wear a hi vis vest or jacket and hard hat. Now trust me I am not really into all this health and safety out of work and if my daughter want to climb trees or the like I will not be putting a hi vis and hat on her but my attention turns to the golf course. I have been playing this game for many a year and have never seen any green keeper with a hi vis on. Now with all the regulation on health and safety in the workplace I would of thought that the greenkeepers would be made to wear at least a hi vis vest. the green keepers do a great job but I have seen a few nearly get hit and sometimes they are hard to see specially early morning or in bad light. I wonder what would happen If one was hurt by a ball and it went to court would the fact no hi vis was worn It would be thrown out. View plz.

 

[Stub]

Our greenkeepers wear a variety of camouflage clothing to make them more difficult to spot. I noticed the greenkeeping staff at Wentworth last week were all in uniform black gear. Maybe they fancy a personal injury claim?

 

[USER1999]

Ours tend to be seen sat on huge red pieces of machinery. If I can't see them, I need my eyes tested.

 

[Tab373]

Well we are lucky to have our fringes around green and bunkers cut by hand and bunkers hand raked and grass around trees strimmed. So they are not on machinery and In the winter often wear dark clothing.

 

[bladeplayer]

At least the COG's cant blame the greenkeeper for putting them off them .....

 

[Deleted member 15717]

Surely you shouldn't be hitting your ball if you can't see where it is going to end up? With that in mind, if you can see where your ball will end up, you should see the greenstaff.

Also, I thought that it was etiquette that you called to the greenkeeper (Fore I believe) so that they are then aware (if not already) that you are looking to play your shot...thus getting out of the way.

 

[Andy]

bunkers hand raked

How else would a bunker be raked?

 

[patricks148]

How else would a bunker be raked?

Spey Valley has some fancy machine, never seen it but the bloody thing leaves Tyre tracks!

 

[bobmac]

Some courses have a little buggy with a rake type attachment and they just drive round in the bunker

 

[Tab373]

Wabinez
I have never hit my ball when green keepers are on the green or fairway that I am playing but that doesn't stop other on different holes hitting a way ward shot on to our hole. You must be a tour pro if you no where your ball is going all the time. Perhaps you could give me a lesson as I play of 6 and the ball doesn't alway go where I want it

 

[Deleted member 15717]

I didn't mean it like that...I meant it in a "that's the direction I want it to go and where I want it to land"

Surely the point still stands though. If you hit a wayward shot, and it heads towards another green or a fairway, you should still be shouting Fore....

 

[Tab373]

We do have a machine that rakes the bunker but the edges are hand raked to hide the tyre tracks and tidy it up. I think the machine compacts the sand in my opinion which is not good. As for people shouting Fore people stil do it but if geen keeper is cutting grass they won't always hear it

 

[wull]

some golf course have huge amounts of bunkers and there is no other option but to use machinery in them.when i worked at stirling there were 56(i think) bunkers and it would take me 3 hrs(iirc) to do them myself.

i don't think it's an issue with hi-viz jackets because as has been mentioned the majority of green staff are on machinery or well in view.

you'd be amazed at how aware we are of the golfers around us,i would always know where players were so i could stand back and let them play their shots without any hold up.