Trapped greenkeeper makes full recovery

By Alistair June 6, 2021 10:40 Updated

A golf course manager at two Scottish venues, who spent 13 nights in hospital last year after being trapped under a machine, has made a full recovery and raised £9,000 for the charity that helped him.

Stuart Griffiths, course manager at Pitlochry and Blair Atholl golf clubs in the central Highlands, was rescued by a helicopter in 2020 after an on-course accident left him trapped for nearly two hours under a machine. Emergency surgery and 13 nights in hospital followed, with Stuart happily making a full recovery and back to work just a few months later in October.

He has now raised over £9,000 in his spare time for Scotland’s Charity Air Ambulance Service.

Stuart’s day job is split across two glorious Perthshire courses, eight miles apart. Pitlochry GC has 18 dramatic and scenic holes plus a tricky six-hole pitch and putt course while near neighbour, Blair Atholl GC, has nine holes, also with stunning backdrops of the Cairngorms’ National Park. Both courses are owned by Pitlochry contractors, RW Bell Electrical, which in the last five years has successfully harnessed positive community momentum and a resurgence of visitors from near and far, to win some prestigious tourism accolades.

Stuart Griffiths

Talking only about his job, he said: “I joined Blair Atholl in 2010 as head greenkeeper. In 2015, when Stephen Carruthers, owner of Pitlochry, decided to merge the two, he asked me to manage them together, which frankly, took a lot of heat off me, as I was caring for a nine-hole course with a large expenditure,” explained Stuart.

“So, I became course manager of both; the first couple of seasons took a little bit of sorting, in respect of taking staff and machinery between two places, but soon we were in a better routine than before. We are very lucky. Blair Atholl had a decent set of machinery prior to Pitlochry taking over, so actually, there is very little machinery swapping, only say, when we are spraying or top dressing.

“Staff wise, we work it out, essentially, everyone’s at both. We’re a team of five – full timers Billy Hoggins, Douglas Black, Sean Menzies, and Rob Coughlan, plus our long standing volunteer mechanic, and cutter of rough, Frank Brennan. Traditionally, there’s a big weekly Wednesday competition for visitors at Pitlochry, so on Wednesdays after set up, we all come to Blair Atholl.”