Students heading for The Hills

Otago Polytechnic Sports Turf Management programme manager Gary Smith (far right) and lecturer Bob Steel (on mower), with students (front, from left) Aaron Hammond, Allan Roulston, Eric Neilson, and (back from left) Dane McRae, Todd Moir, Tom Fearnley, James Pilcher, Mark Wadsworth, Lucas Muir, Tennille Guttery, Talor Rosoman, Ben Chamberlain, Hamish Matheson and Jonny May. Photo by Rosie Manins.

Bannockburn-based Sports Turf Management programme manager Gary Smith said Mr Hill's staff approached the polytechnic's Central Otago campus about recruiting students training in the discipline for his second stint at hosting the open at The Hills.

Between 15 and 20 students will spend up to two weeks preparing and maintaining the course for the tournament, which is pencilled in for mid-March.

Mr Smith said the opportunity to prepare and maintain turf at a New Zealand Golf Open was unprecedented for most students, some of whom would have just started the course, which starts each February.

"The first-year students will be thrown straight into the top end of it, which is exciting.

"We will give them some really hands-on experience leading up to it, so they are ready."

Both first and second-year students on the two-year course will take part, with the more experienced using machinery to work on the course turf.

Mr Smith and course lecturer Bob Steel said the polytechnic programme had remained unique after it was developed six years ago at Cromwell.

"There are modern apprenticeships people can do on actual golf courses, but this is the only programme in sports turf management which can be done at a tertiary institution and for which students can apply for loans," Mr Smith said.

One of the year-two students secured a full-time job at The Hills on completing this year's programme.

"We've got a 100% employment rate for those who graduate.

"A couple of our students helped out at the New Zealand Open last year and some of our ex-students now have full-time jobs at The Hills.

"Michael Hill has always been supportive of our programme, and some of our top students go to The Hills for work experience during summer," he said.

"The beauty about this course being in Central Otago is there is a golfing boom happening at the moment, as well as the re-development of the Queenstown Events Centre, where some of our students also get work."

With demand for turf managers increasing, student applications for the Bannockburn course were being received from throughout the country.

People of all ages had taken the course, with school leavers and retirement-age students learning side-by-side.

"You have to have an eye for detail and a passion for sport and the outdoors. Turf managers are under the spotlight every day, with pressure to perform.

"Golfers have very high standards which sometimes border on unrealistic."