2000–2001
The Oxfordshire Golf Club
My first UK golf-course role placed me in a high-standard environment where presentation, detail and consistency mattered every day. It was the beginning of the professional habits I still carry with me.
My Story
Golf has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
The places changed. The lessons about people, responsibility and stewardship stayed with me.
South Africa
Where the game became personal.
I grew up in Durban, South Africa, with an early love of the outdoors. My dad was a scratch golfer, and by the time I was eight I was caddying for him, shagging balls and pulling his cart while he played local competitions.
It was there that I learned the rules, etiquette, how to play and, most importantly, the way golf connects people.
The game gave me a connection with my father. The profession later gave me mentors, friendships, opportunity and a responsibility to give something back.
The UK years · 2000–2009
Where a job became a profession.
The United Kingdom gave me my professional foundation. Four very different roles expanded my understanding of golf-course maintenance, estate management, sports turf, standards and leadership.
2001–2003
Frilford Heath Golf Club
As an Assistant Greenkeeper, I continued building the practical skills of the profession while working across an established golf property and learning from experienced greenkeepers around me.
2003–2005
Clayton House · Sir Jackie Stewart
Serving as Estate Manager and Head Greenkeeper broadened my responsibilities beyond golf. The role demanded ownership, planning, presentation and stewardship across an entire estate.
2005–2009
Radley College
As Deputy Head Groundsman, my experience expanded into multi-sport turf management and team operations. Those years reinforced that agronomy is only part of the job: people, communication and shared standards determine what a team can achieve.
More than experience
The relationships came with me.
The UK years gave me technical range and leadership experience, but the relationships mattered just as much. Many of the people I learned alongside became lifelong friends and colleagues—one of the enduring gifts of this profession.
The Texas journey · 2009–present
A new country. A new climate. A new chapter of leadership.
Texas became far more than the next stop in my career. It is where I learned American golf-course management, became a superintendent, grew into multi-course leadership, raised a family and found a professional community I am proud to serve.
2009–2012
The University of Texas Golf Club · Learning Texas
In March 2009, I arrived in Texas and joined The University of Texas Golf Club as a Spray Technician. It was a deliberate step into a new country, a different climate and a different style of golf-course management. I progressed through the operation to Senior Assistant Superintendent, learning warm-season turf management while helping lead daily maintenance, tournament preparation and course-improvement work.
Those years gave me the bridge between the foundation I had built in the UK and the demands of golf in Central Texas.
2012–2018
Omni Barton Creek Resort & Spa · Becoming a Superintendent
Barton Creek was where my responsibilities changed significantly. Superintendent roles across the Fazio Foothills, Lakeside and Coore Crenshaw courses moved me from supporting an operation to being accountable for one.
The work deepened my experience in agronomy, irrigation, drainage, renovation, infrastructure, tournament preparation and—most importantly—leading people. I learned that the superintendent's job is not simply to maintain turf. It is to create standards, develop a team and take responsibility for the entire golf-course environment.
The lesson that stayed
Teams are built on trust.
My rugby background had already taught me the value of doing the hard yards for the people beside you. Texas reinforced it. The strongest maintenance teams are not collections of individual talent; they are people who trust one another, share standards, hold each other accountable and understand that every role matters.
2018–present
Alamo City Golf Trail · Leadership at Scale
In 2018, I accepted the Director of Agronomy role with the Alamo City Golf Trail in San Antonio. Moving into a multi-course public-golf environment broadened the meaning of leadership again. The responsibility became larger than the condition of a single property: people development, consistent standards, budgets, equipment, infrastructure, agronomic planning and stewardship of public golf assets all had to work together.
Public golf also sharpened something I believe deeply: great conditions matter, but so do access, community and creating opportunities for the next generation of turf professionals.
More than a career move
Texas became home.
My professional journey brought me to Texas, but life made it home. Jennifer and I raised our family here, and in 2015 we became proud United States citizens. The friendships, communities and opportunities we found in Texas became part of our family's story.
Golf has remained woven through that story. Standing together as a family on the Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews years later was a reminder of how far the game has carried us—from childhood memories with my dad in South Africa, through the UK, to the life we built in Texas.
What the journey taught me
People make the difference.
My rugby background taught me that talent alone does not create a team. Trust, accountability, commitment and doing the hard yards for one another do.
Golf course maintenance is no different. Every team includes different experience levels, personalities, strengths and ambitions. Leadership means recognizing those differences and helping people become stronger together.
That idea sits at the heart of Leave It Better.