I am extremely pleased to introduce to you the new head of the maintenance team, Mr Krzyztof Misiaczynski, starts at Jõelähtme next week. Kris is 47 and he has worked at 5 different golf courses in England, Switzerland, Poland and Germany. He has passed the first level of the Polish PGA and he plays golf with a HCP significantly under ten.
Besides being the head of the maintenance team in golf, he has done the same in football stadiums where during 2012 Euro playoff his Baltic Arena in Gdansk was voted as the best quality stadium and the practice pitch by Spain as the best practice pitch by UEFA and the players. Kris has also been voted in as one of the World Top15 greenkeepers by 2006 TORO.
More importantly, I think it’s necessary to point out that Kris is extremely good and friendly as a person and very demanding as a boss. He loves golf and the greenkeeper’s job even more. There are millions of people who have one of those qualities, but very few who have both. If we add people and financial management skills, then these people are extremely hard to find.
I’ve been searching for someone for a long time who could improve the quality of EGCC for at least 5 years. We first tried that in 2012 and 2013 when we changed the head of the maintenance team. Looking back, it didn’t work then, but with hiring Kris I think we have found the pearl we’ve been dreaming about.
I haven’t been in golf for a long time, my eight year started with the management of EGCC. During this time I’ve played on more than 100 different golf course around the world and thanks to the European Tour I’ve had a chance to play on the some of the best courses. I have a clear picture on how our club members would like the course here to look and I won’t accept any less myself.
Kris is a very social and a simple person (in a good way). At his present (still) workplace at Kolner Golf in Cologne, Germany he organises meetings with the club members every month to discuss the field’s maintenance questions and everything else that the team does. These meetings are often very successful, because members get many good ideas and players get a lot of information, too. We at EGCC are also starting with monthly meetings from the third week of May with members and the Head Greenkeeper.
Our greens look pretty awful at the moment, but in addition to our agronomist who visits us from Scotland once a month, Kris also confirmed that new grass is waiting to come out, it just has been really cold so far. But the weather should be good for the next two weeks even during the night, which gives the plants a chance to finally grow faster. You can see the improvement every day, but it will definitely be a couple of weeks till the greens are green again.
It’s really good to start the season knowing that we’re stronger than ever before as a team and a club. Kris is looking forward to coming here and his wife and kids will join him in the summer, too. I hope we can give you a positive surprise every time you come playing during this season. Not only because of the smiles of our caddiemaster, but because of the quality of the course which in the end, is actually the most important thing in any golf club.
