Advisory Panel*

The renowned Golf Architect, Donald Steel worked with Frank Pennink and joined the highly successful ‘Cotton, Lawrie, Pennink’ Partnership, welcomed the launching of this website and kindly offered to join our Advisory Panel.

Donald Steel

Donald Steel is not only the UK’s leading living golf architect, is also a brilliant golf author and was the Daily Telegraph’s golf correspondent for many years.  His book “Classic Golf Links of Great Britain and Ireland” published in 1992, containing Brian Morgan’s wonderful photography, is simply the finest book on running-links courses in GB&I ever published. His enjoyable autobiography has been reviewed by FineGolf and See his FineGolf  Running-Golf Day YouTube video

Gordon Irvine MG

Gordon Irvine (Master Greenkeeper), was Jim Arthur’s protege and is nicknamed ‘Jim Arthur’s heir’.  he has a hands-on educational approach, and he is simply Europe’s leading advisory turf consultant in helping return courses from weed Poa annua to fine fescue and browntop bent grassed surfaces. These include Royal Cinque Ports, Hunstanton, Ganton, Hollinwell (Notts), Luffenham Heath, Royal Worlington, Broadstone, Sheringham, Pennard among many others. He was behind the idea of The R&A’s greenkeeping Scholarship and led the recovery of Askernish. FineGolf has gained enormously from his down-to-earth and trustworthy advice.

Jess Stiles is an historian of the Golden Age, between 1900 to 1930s, of golf course architecture when all the finest GB&I inland courses were developed using the ‘strategic school’ of design that replaced the ‘penal school’. His writings emphasise the need for golf courses to return to the ‘running-game’ in contrast to ‘target-golf’. He is a founder member and secretary of the Tom Simpson Society.

Fintan Brennan

Fintan Brennan is one of Ireland’s most famous and best known fine grass greenkeepers and has been course superintendent at Jameson’s Golf Links (previously called Portmarnock Hotel & Links) for 25 years, where he has developed the most wonderful fescue fine grasses agronomy.
He has shown his outstanding leadership skills in both working with Nick Park and his brother to bring on to the market the Greenstester, giving golf clubs the independent opportunity to objectively measure the performance of their greens, without outside advice.
He was also chairman of the Irish Links Initiative the independent Irish fine grasses greenkeepers organisation from 2018 to 2022.

Philip Truett at Brancaster

Philip Truett, the doyen of modern hickory golf, a founding member of the British Golf Collectors Society, is a visionary for classic, traditional golf and has publicised the iconic concept of the ‘Three-Dimensional Game’. He has played an influential part in golf behind the scenes, and has been a committee member of the Royal & Ancient and Walton Heath.

John Philp in full flow

John Philp MBE, is Europe’s most respected living, fine grass greenkeeper. After an apprenticeship at St Andrews, he was appointed Carnoustie’s Superintendent in 1985 at a time when the course had reverted through bad policies to 100% weed grass Poa annua. Nicknamed “The hero of Carnoustie” his team re-established fine grasses and allowed The R&A to return The Open Championship in 1999 after a 24 year absence. He is one of only three greenkeepers in the UK to have a hole named after them, the eleventh at Carnoustie. (The others? Tom Morris – the eighteenth at St Andrews Old and Muir – the seventh at West Lancashire). See John Philp’s  FineGolf  YouTube Video

Norbert Lischka MG

Norbert Lischka (Master Greenkeeper) is a leading independent, continental based, greenkeeping consultant of 30 years experience, who is nick-named ‘The Turf Fox’. He has promoted a campaign for the creation of respect between golfers and greenkeepers, while is a prolific author and lecturer Europe-wide.

John Nicholson

John Nicholson, Europe’s leading independent habitat and landscape golf course consultant, has 30 years experience of making a difference in the attitude to woodland management on golf courses. He is brilliant at educating committees and members that management is required to create sustainable woodland and that trees often conflict with the agronomics and strategy of golf. READ the trees article he and FineGolf wrote, a well as articles on heather, gorse, friend or foe?, and downlands.

Martin Ward

Martin Ward has been at the forefront of developing the science of healthy soil biology. He started Symbio, the environmental biotechnology company, thirty years ago, which is now European golf market leader in soil health. He has helped Conservation Greenkeepers to increasingly recognise the importance of healthy soil biology in transforming annual meadow grasses to perennial fine grasses. See the story of Symbio HERE

Malcolm Peake

Malcolm Peake, was Chair of Green at Temple GC during the difficult early years in the nineties, while they were pursuing fine grasses against the fashionable trend for target-golf around London. He is a leading advocate of natural conservationist (low input, lower costs) policies and is the author of two influential, STRI published, titles ” A natural course for golf “ and ” The confessions of a Chairman of Green “.

Nick Park

The late Nick Park, who as a member of The R&A’s ‘course committee’ (now called the ‘sustainability committee’) for 25 years promoted Jim Arthur’s approach to greenkeeping within The R&A. He developed with Fintan Brennan the Greenstester to give course managers an independent, low-cost tool for the objective measurement of the performance of their greens. He led the launch of the RealGolf website based on the philosophy contained in articles he and his father wrote on greenkeeping having both been Chair of Green at Lindrick GC.  He worked closely with FineGolf before dieing tragically early at only 62.

Mark Parsinen

The late Mark Parsinen was a revolutionary golf entrepreneur who broke through in 2000 in building Kingsbarns to be the first of many new build courses using the ‘running-golf ‘ format of the game rather than the 1980/90s new build ‘target-golf ‘ format. Mark then created his dream at Castle Stuart with a minimalist design centered around subtle green complexes using a pure fescue agronomy throughout a site with views to die for.

The late Ted Dexter CBE  who joined the Advisory Panel, was perhaps the greatest cricketer-golfer Britain has ever produced. Not only influential in changing cricket’s structure but developed ‘speedier’ Rules of Golf that he published on FineGolf in 2010. They were subsequently taken up by golf’s authorities, The R&A and the USGA, when they changed golf’s rules in 2019 in an attempt to increase the pace of play and put the emphasis back on the integrity of the golfer. READ MORE.

Roger Green

Michael Evans and Anthony Ramm, the most brilliant website designer and programmer created the website ahead of its time in 2008. We are now pleased to be working with Roger Green of Spa Web Design who has led a rebuild.

Lorne takes full responsibility for all editorial comment, while I thank  John Harris, the golf historian ( see Dunbar GC review) who has been a great support with his proof reading, intelligent comment and knowledge of English for the first fourteen years of the website.