The team of professionals that manages golf services at the Marriott Breadsall Priory in Derbyshire has scooped the coveted ‘Team of the Year’ award at the 59Club awards dinner. The glittering ceremony is dubbed the golf industry answer to the Oscars, with this year’s event being presided over by BBC sports presenter Dan Walker.
Steve Turner, who heads the Breadsall Priory team as golf operations manager and collected the award on the night, commented: “It gives me great pleasure to accept this award on behalf of all the members of the Breadsall Priory golf team that helped win it. Anyone who works around golf clubs knows that the hardest thing in this business is to keep golfers happy all of the time, and this goes some way to showing we’re running our courses, shop, range, cafe and everything else in the best way possible. The 59Club assessments are a great way of benchmarking performance in our industry, and for our golf operations team to be the best performing in the country pays testament to all of the hard work that goes in at the Marriott Breadsall Priory.”
Unlike many industry awards, 59Club accolades are won based purely on real performance rather than a judge’s opinion, as Simon Wordsworth, chief executive at 59Club and a fellow of the PGA, explained: “The awards are all objective and based on real data collected throughout the year – so the evening is a unique opportunity to reward those truly outstanding performances within the golf industry.”
The Marriott Breadsall Priory is the oldest Marriott Hotel & Country Club in the world, dating back to the 14th Century. Golf there is played on two courses spread across 300 acres of parkland, with both being Par 70 and offering contrasting challenges to players of all abilities. The Moorland Course is a gently rolling design through the heart of the countryside, whereas the Priory Course features tree-lined fairways leading to small well-protected greens. Both courses are part of the Audubon International Programme for Golf Courses, dedicated to the preservation of the natural environment and wildlife – another plus when corporate responsibility is so high on the business agenda.
Marriott Golf UK www.marriottgolf.co.uk
The 59Club www.59club.com