At the age of just 25 Matthew Roberton has become the new head greenkeeper at Bradley Hall in Halifax after a three-year spell at Headingley. Matthew joined Headingley shortly after helping at the English Amateur in 2021 and, since then, he has been a huge asset to Andy Stanger’s greenkeeping team. He recently passed his NVQ3 in Sports Turf Science and Golf Course Management with a merit which is considered far harder than the levels 4 and 5 that follow it.
How did you start out in greenkeeping? My grandad was a head greenkeeper and he started at Headingley in the 60s, then went to Moor Allerton before becoming the head greenkeeper at Gotts Park 1970 where he was until he retired in 2007. So I started when I was a kid, I remember driving the tractor back to the shed with my grandad and seeing all these machines. I would do some bits when I was a teenager like cutting the practice field and I would always try and put in some nice stripes. Gotts Park wanted to give me an apprenticeship but couldn’t guarantee more than 12 months with the lease that they had at the time and I then went to Whitwood GC, which is a 9-holer in Castleford. There weren’t lots of resources – they had two little container sheds and and four machines in total – but it was a brilliant place to learn as you were expected to be able to do everything. By the end of my first week they expected you to be able to do every job so that was a great learning curve and I still go back there.
How did you end up at Headingley? I then moved to Rudding Park where I was working during the various lockdowns and I really enjoyed it there. I had known Andy Stanger (Headingley’s head greenkeeper) for a long time and he emailed me one Wednesday night to ask if I would like to help out at the English Amateur the following year. I had always wanted to work at Headingley, I remember coming in on the Saturday to see what jobs we’d be doing, and the course looked great and the staff were all brilliant. At that point I was just starting my Level 3 and I did the four days and worked as hard as I could, if someone needed something I’d go and get it or I’d wash any machinery. I did as much as I could so I would stand out. At the end of the week I was standing by the 4th green with Andy and Craig Sanderson and they mentioned that a position might be coming up. I tried to play it cool but I remember walking away being so giddy as the prospect of working at Headingley was fantastic. A couple of weeks later we had a chat about the direction that the club were going in – the short-game area was just being built as well as other projects so it was an exciting time to come in.
What is your proudest achievement in the past three years at Headingley? There are a few things; the new 1st tee was a massive job and the conditions were less than ideal. But the biggest thing is the team that we’ve built here which is full of young energetic guys who love their job and working at Headingley. It’s a great place to work, when you are working early in the day at a hole like the 15th and the sun is coming up and the fescue is looking amazing you do appreciate how lucky you are. Everyone knows that Headingley is a top course and, if you can do it here, then that speaks for itself elsewhere. So it’s a hard one to walk away from but I always knew that I wanted to be a head greenkeeper one day and follow in my granddad’s footsteps.
What have you learnt working under Andy? Andy is a thinker, everything that he does has been so well thought through and everything is on a spreadsheet, every last detail. He’s brilliant at that side of it, there’s nothing off the cuff and it’s all planned. He’s a perfectionist which takes a little bit of getting used to and then it all clicks into place and I now see things more like he would which has been a great lesson. He can see if a mower isn’t quite cutting right, nobody else will notice it but he will – his attention to detail is incredible and I’ve really learnt a lot from that.
How involved is the Level 3 qualification? There are 10 units and every one consists of a university-style essay. Thankfully there was so much happening at Headingley that I could tie my work in to helping with that and there there is a written exam. It covers so much and you need to have so much knowledge so it’s quite an undertaking. The final assessment should take a few hours but mine lasted from 6.30am and he didn’t leave until 3.30pm. They properly made sure that they got all the information out of me and it was so intense but I managed to pass it with a merit. The biggest piece of advice that I could pass on to get as much education as you can. Every step that I’ve moved forward has been through proving myself in my education.