Thomas Pihl, Chief Greenkeeper at Furesø Golf Club, just north of Copenhagen, is the new greenkeeper representative on the STERF board. He takes over after Stefan Nilsson, Vallda Golf & Country Club, Sweden, who has been on the post since 2014.
What would you like to contribute on the STERF board?
- I want to help influence the research so that the greenkeeper gets more tools to deal with the reality with lower budgets and higher wishes and demands of the players. I have always kept track of the research and interested in it. Several times, I and Furesø Golf Club, have participated in STERF funded projects, each time to great advantage. I am familiar with the work that is going on in STERF and have previously been in the reference group which recommends projects for STERF. I think STERF's work is incredibly important, given that our work is more rooted in knowledge, which helps us make better and smarter decisions. These decisions have a bearing on both the finances of the clubs, the environment, and our overall reputation as an industry.
STERF is a research foundation that supports existing and future R&D efforts and delivers ‘ready-to-use research results’ that benefit the Nordic golf sector. STERF was set up in 2006 by the golf federations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Nordic Greenkeepers’ Associations.