Cochrane Golf Club’s new manager knows how to keep grass green.
With the unpredictable weather of the foothills, that’s good news for the town’s golf enthusiasts.
Eric Kauffmann, who has two decades worth of golf course turf building experience, joined the club as manager on March 4. He was born and raised in Calgary and has worked at several Southern Alberta golf courses since graduating from Olds College, where he studied turf grass management.
“I’ve played this club for years, so I know it very well,” Kauffmann told the Eagle. “It’s a fun course.”
Kauffmann started out in the golf business at the Country Club of the Hamptons in Calgary 20 years ago and helped build the back nine at that course while working his way up to the foreman position.
He served as superintendent at Wintergreen Golf Course in Bragg Creek from 1998-2003, then held the same job at the Sundre Golf Club from 2004-05.
Kauffmann was also golf course construction superintendent at the new Silverwing Links layout near the Calgary Airport before moving onto a sales position for Winnipeg-based Brett Young Seed production and distribution company, covering all of Southern Alberta and the Kootenays.
Kauffmann will work alongside current course superintendent Tero Pylvainen. They worked together at Silverwing and have known each other for 12 years.
“From a maintenance stand point this course is very well taken care of,” Kauffmann said. “The focus is customer service and taking care of people.”
The public course is also undergoing changes in its lounge and restaurant services. Renovations are underway to replace AC’s Restaurant and Lounge with Killarney’s Irish Pub under the ownership of businessman Michael Pyne, who runs a similar establishment in Airdrie.
The course typically opens for play in early April. In 2012 first tee shots were struck on April 9.
