“IMG maintains some of the finest golf courses in the world and prepares them for professional events as demanding as the WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai.
In order to support clients, we assist in the recruitment process and work very closely with our on-site Golf Course Superintendents to ensure they have the advice and support needed in order to make those critical decisions. One of our main concerns is to really train our personnel well, so very regularly we are on-site to develop the training programmes and work on any areas for improvement identified during our audit process.
During a new golf course development or renovation project, we collaborate with the design teams from an early stage, providing mutiple agronomy services related to the construction. We often assist in reviewing construction specifications to guarantee that the course is built to the highest possible level of quality. One of these examples is Michlifen in Morocco, where we worked very closely with the Nicklaus team during the pre-opening phase. We now do regular agronomy visits to the club and support the on-site Superintendent, Jonathan Ducou, making sure the first ever Jack Nicklaus Signature in North Africa is always in pristine conditions. Standards are set very high at all IMG clubs, and if you take Michlifen for example, the course was officially opened by HRH Prince Moulay Rachid, which shows you the level of course conditions we must present at all times. The same kind of process happened with another Jack Nicklaus Signature project, but in Russia. IMG has been working closely with the owners at Raevo for many years, and agronomy has been one of the key aspects of the project. The club is set to offer the best membership experience in Moscow with unbelievable course conditions.
Golf course improvement and presentation are another important part of the support we offer to clients. Royal Golf La Bagnaia in Italy, is managed by IMG and features a stunning Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout. We’ve been working on improving the course presentation and it’s always great to hear golfers talking about how much better the course plays and looks today, compared to when we started managing the club in 2018.
Our focus is always on delivering a premium golfing experience, but doing it in a way which respects the surrounding environment, trying to limit the use of pesticides and growing healthy & strong turfgrass.” Sylvain Duval, IMG Regional Agronomist
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“IMG’s agronomic support has been invaluable, in what is a near unique climate in a country where there is no existence of a golf maintenance industry and no conferences to share ideas with, specific to fine turf management in Azerbaijan. The past experience Sylvain has as a superintendent coupled with many years of working with high-end IMG facilities allows him to understand my position well and share very accurate knowledge when it comes to agronomic direction, advice and solutions.” Martin McGavock, former Golf Course Superintendent at IMG managed Dreamland Golf Club, Azerbaijan.