Jacob's journey from greenkeeping to The Open
Jacob Skov Olesen is going to have a great Open. But if he doesn’t – if the putts don’t drop or he gets caught in one of Royal Troon’s 98 perilous bunkers – then he’s offered to stick around at the weekend and lend a helping hand to the home greenkeeping team.
Because Olesen isn’t just the reigning R&A Amateur champion, having earned a starting spot at The 152nd Open following a tremendous victory at Ballyliffin in June, but he’s also a dab hand on the tools, having worked as a seasonal greenkeeper at Royal Copenhagen before heading out to play college golf in the States four years ago.
“I honestly sometimes really miss it,” said the 25-year-old Dane. “I sometimes really miss just sitting on that fairway mower, listening to the radio and the early mornings.
“I don’t miss when it’s bad weather and it’s pouring rain sideways, but when it’s nice with the sun coming up and you can smell the fresh grass in the summer, I do miss that.”
Of course, if things go really well for Jacob, he could find himself with a late tee time at the weekend and with time spare to squeeze in some early morning maintenance before limbering up among his multi-millionaire playing partners.
The amateur, ranked 23 in the world, was paired for the opening two rounds alongside Rasmus Hojgaard and Henrik Stenson, who won The Open at Troon back in 2016.
Should they strike up a conversation, Olesen might just educate his illustrious playing partners on some of the features of course set up that make Royal Troon a popular feature on The Open roster.
“I do notice it a lot when I’m playing, especially in the States when it’s super green, I’m like ‘that’s some banana right there, he’s cutting the snake out of the fairway’ or if they’re halfing it, I’m like ‘they’re doing the time saver here’.
“I did notice on the putting green, someone had taken a pizza slice off the fringe and my brother who’s caddying, he had the same job as well and he was noticing it too. We named that after one of the guys that got me the job, we used to call that a Lomholt because he could be kind of lazy and take a little edge.”
He’s certainly got the jargon down, but in his time rubbing shoulders with the game’s elite golfers, does he wish more players appreciated the effort it takes to prepare golf courses for both championship play and casual enjoyment?
“I don’t think people realise sometimes how hard it can be to get a course to be in championship condition, or in great amateur field condition. You can’t just do that on the daily with 6, 7, 8 guys. It’s easier to knock down the conditions when they’re bad than to hype them up when they’re good.
“When they’re really good you’re like ‘oh that’s how they’re supposed to be’, but I also feel that comes if people haven’t been in it and seen how it is. I remember, you’re cutting the fairways every morning and you hear the members moaning and we’re like ‘well if we cut them any lower you can’t get the ball off the ground. I think that’s what people forget as well, you can’t just set the course up for that 1 per cent of really good players, because then the other 99 per cent are not going to have that much fun. If you’re putting them out here right now they’re not going to get it off the ground because the fairways are so tight and firm.”
Olesen’s greenkeeping career began when he was in high school. As an elite junior golfer, greenkeeping gave him the opportunity to earn some pocket money, while the early finishes and convenient location meant he could head out soon after clocking off and get some practice in.
“It fit in really nice compared to having to go out to a supermarket,” he said. “The work schedule fit in really nicely with me over the summers. Obviously getting up early was a little hard, but you were done at 11.30 and have all day to practice. If I wasn’t doing that work I’d be waking up at 10 and be done working in the afternoon.
“I already knew about golf, so I knew about how they would want things to look. When you play golf for a long time, you can pick up on the things a lot easier and faster.”
And his favourite job on the course?
“Fairways, that’s the best. Just sitting there, cutting straight lines. Music in my ears. Fairways is a lot more chill than some of the other stuff because you don’t have to be as precise as you do on the greens and in bunkers.
“[At Royal Copenhagen] we had a really good group of guys. There were four or five guys my age where were doing a summer job and all the more experienced greenkeepers were really funny and they liked following our golfing. There was a lot of banter and they’d be like ‘Oh you played terrible last week, what are you doing?’. Then when you did good there was cake and stuff.”
Olesen still remembers his time as a greenkeeper fondly and although this week he’s swapped the maintenance facility for the champions locker room – he’s right beside Jordan Spieth and first met his hero while changing and down to just his underwear – the time may come when he sits back on a mower and starts laying down some stripes.
“I’ve thought many times, ‘can you just let me cut these fairways this morning and go play in the afternoon?’ I wouldn’t mind going out there tomorrow morning, cutting hole one!”
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