In an interview with the BBC, award-winning greenkeeper Anna Nilsson has voiced her frustration over the fact that “not a lot of women know about this career at all.”
Last November, Nilsson won the Turfcare award in the Women in Golf Awards. The annual event celebrates the significant contribution that women, past and present, continue to make to the golf industry.
Nilsson is the deputy head greenkeeper of the Brabazon Golf Course at The Belfry Hotel and Resort in the West Midlands in the UK. The club is a four-time host of the Ryder Cup and hosts events including the DP World Tour, charity and corporate competitions.
Nilsson runs a team of 45 people but has also travelled the world through her job.
“When you go to any organisation or any events, you can definitely see that there’s not a lot of females in this industry at all,” she told the BBC. “None that are running the top-notch prestigious arenas, unfortunately.
“If we look at a worldwide scenario, we had the only female apart from me that is at a bigger golf course, and that’s Laura Arias, who was the superintendent at Marco Simone [Golf and Country Club, in Italy] for the Ryder Cup [in 2023].”
Figures from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association show that less than 1% of members are women, a figure the organisation said it wanted to see change.
Opening eyes
Backed by the Sutton Coldfield Golf Club, Nilsson now tries to open the eyes of young women to choosing greenkeeping as a career.
“I’m all for glamour and everything like that, and I think a lot of women think that you’re dirty and scruffy, but absolutely not – I’ve got my nails on.
“It is so, so funny because, I mean, I don’t look like the standard greenkeeper. I keep getting told that.”
Girls that now follow her on social media are surprised and impressed by what her job entails, she said, and “think it’s really cool.”
Her role involves logistics and planning, a microbiology and chemical aspect, along with pest control, but she said she had learned on the job without the need for a university degree.
Having a love of sustainability and nature was also rewarded in her job, she said.
“Golf courses are so good for nature. We’ve got a family of muntjacs living on [hole] 13.
“You drive out watching the sun rise and see the muntjacs just run across. And we’ve got barn owls. It’s lovely.”