The Grange Golf Club foreman Jayden Pearce made the most of a golden opportunity to showcase his expertise at the world’s oldest and most prestigious tournament, The Open in Northern Ireland from July 17-20.
The Adelaide-based rising turf management star volunteered at the tournament, held at the iconic Royal Portrush Golf Club in County Antrim, Northern Ireland after being selected by the R&A Agronomy Team for his outstanding work during LIV Golf Adelaide. 
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience with Pearce (pictured at the tournament) admitting it was like a dream to work at a tournament steeped in tradition after 153 years. He spent two weeks helping the crew prepare for the occasion and get the Dunluce Links course into world-class condition. 
For Royal Portrush, it was the third time the club hosted The Open after previous tournaments in 1951 and 2019.
“The first day we kind of did some divot work on the fairways, hand weeded fairways to kind of help do that one percenter kind of jobs prior to tournaments,” he said.
“During the first week, I also hand mowed tees for all the championship tees. From there I was lucky enough to be able to paint holes so to be involved in painting holes and changing holes was a bit of a shock to the system. That’s an important job.
“I painted holes and I also did that for LIV so I knew how important that role was. To do it over there, knowing how big Sky Sports is and how big the British Open is, is pretty cool.”
Pearce said it was a proud moment seeing his course work being showed in all its glory all over the world.
“I was told by multiple guys that my work is being showed on TV as the cameras are being zoomed in on the holes so that gave me a lot of motivation to try even harder,” he said. “Having that motivation to do my best I can is amazing.”
He said he took a lot of important lessons from his experience and was amazed at the level of detail and pride the team took in preparing the course for a tournament.
“The courses they operate are pretty similar to home, machinery wise it’s pretty similar too, but the biggest thing I probably took away is how the R&A set-up a course for championship level,” he said.
“They have a crew of around 10-15 guys and that’s just all guys taking stimp readings, firmness readings, multiple guys doing course set-up and how each little thing is checked in such detail. Every bunker, every divot on fairways is checked and cuts on fairways too.
“To see how they prepare a course for a championship is next level.”
The 153rd edition of The Open was won by world number one ranked Scottie Scheffler, who clinched his fourth major with a score of 267. The American won by four strokes over American Harris English.

Story by Nick Creely/Pictures courtesy of The Grange GC