Alastair Higgs’s first day in the world of greenkeeping was hardly inspiring. Not that it needed to be to ensure his complete diligence and dedication to the role as an assistant.

“I was 16 years and a month when I left school, and I went straight into a greenkeeping apprenticeship at a private members’ club called Calcot Park in Reading. I remember my first day,” he says with a chuckle. “They handed me a rake and said, ‘off you go’!”

And off he went, into a career that – for 25 years – has been driven by a boundless passion that led him to become a head greenkeeper, course manager and then in 2016, a role with Rain Bird, the global leader in irrigation, where he is approaching the end of his first year as International Sales Manager.

“I remember being offered the [first] job,” he continues. “I was with my dad on the way up to the Millennium Open at St Andrews and we had stopped somewhere near Newcastle when the phone rang. I was offered the position and ran around the car like a lunatic.”

More fanatic than lunatic, one suspects. Higgs, a low single-figure golfer in his mid-teens, accepted that a career as a Tour pro was an unrealistic aim and instead committed himself to a professional life devoted not to improving his swing, but the condition of the course.

“Once you are a turf manager and fall in love with turf management I think it stops being a job and your professional challenges just continue to grow,” he says.

“I was very lucky that people gave me chances in the industry at a young age to be a supervisor and then to lead a team.

“It had responsibilities that went with it, but for me that was the challenge I enjoyed. Not just about turf, but also another thing that I’m very passionate about is developing people and helping others be successful.

“Greenkeepers I employed as apprentices are now course managers themselves, that’s something to be pretty proud of.”

He can also take immense pride in being an example to fellow dyslexics that it need not be a barrier to pursuing a successful career, and he reveals it was the disability that prompted him to leave school and step straight into the workplace in his teens.

“I am severely dyslexic. Academically it was not that I was stupid, but I struggled to write enough on the page, in the time that was given, in a constructive way.”

A further testament to his unwillingness to succumb to the disadvantage, besides his high standing in the world of turf management, is the fact that he recently submitted his dissertation to complete his MBA.

“I‘ve undertaken two years of remote study, doing 16 hours each weekend, so I am really looking forward to getting my weekends back,” he smiles. “I’m delighted with that.

“I’ve learned so much, pushing myself to do this, as formal education is so far out of my comfort zone. It has really helped me communication-wise as a professional, but also as a person to appreciate things in a slightly different way and to try to understand other people’s businesses and challenges, as opposed to just your own.”

It is the challenge of helping not just their golfing customers but also those in other sports alongside domestic, municipal, agricultural, and industrial arenas, to which Higgs’s working life is anchored.

“Rain Bird Corporation’s guiding philosophy is ‘The Intelligent Use of Water’,” he comments, “so it’s not about using necessarily less or more, it’s about using the right amount in the right place at the right time.”

To this end, Rain Bird – founded in 1933 in California – provides golf clubs with sophisticated systems that enable turf managers to control remotely every aspect of irrigation with user-friendly software complementing the hardware out on the course.

“You’ve effectively got a computer at every [sprinkler] head, talking backwards and forwards to and from the server. If you’ve got a high-end system you have control over every 18-metre circle of the golf course from anywhere in the world, at any time, for an unlimited number of people. When I began greenkeeping, we still had a digital timer.

“Effectively, Rain Bird has two types of core product: one that applies water and one that controls the application of that water. Those technologies work hand-in-hand and that’s what we continually develop for engineering marginal gains.

“Because that’s what we’re talking about, marginal gains that give greenkeepers greater control, enable them to deliver high-quality playing surfaces, and optimise the use of water, energy, and human resources.

“A UK course with a system that covered greens and tees invested in a new system with full fairway coverage as well as tees and greens, and used 30 per cent less water overall, even though they had added the fairways.”

Rain Bird has a principal partner in each of the countries in which they operate with a network of staff available to support customers and grow its business.

“The most important aspect in any seller’s process is to listen. You’ve got two ears and one mouth, so you have to find out what the customer’s problems are and then we have a fleet of solutions that can help them solve their problems or enhance their benefits.

“It could be a small thing that is easily resolved with technical guidance or a simple upgrade, or it could be that their infrastructure is failing and we need to work on a way to introduce them to people who can help with that.”

Former National League football Match Official Higgs – “I had a few TV games and a few high profile appointments” – now lives in France with his wife, 14-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, where he is able to indulge his interest in running. The erstwhile Windle Valley Runners club member has completed multiple marathons.

“In this part of the world there are a lot of fantastic trails,” he says. “There are two things that draw me to running: one, I either don’t think about work, so it’s a complete freeing up of space and it’s you and no technology, or two: it’s a great way to think things through and avoid making knee jerk reactions.”

The latter scenario of using his running as another adjunct to his job seems more likely with turf management never far from his thoughts.

“There’s not a turf manager out there that doesn’t want to improve,” he insists. “As an industry, turf management – whether that’s in golf or in sport in general – you will not find a group of professionals that are as passionate about their environment.

“There are many jobs out there where people sign in at 9 o’clock, sign out at 5 o’clock and they don’t think about it until the next day. That is just not the case in the turf industry.”

With golf enjoying a boom that appears to be ramping up, Higgs says Rain Bird “is here to support the industry to be strong. We know we have a role to play and solutions that enable other people deliver results.

“Whatever we have today won’t be the same in five years’ time – products evolve and customer expectations will change – but from a Rain Bird perspective another core value is Timeless Compatibility.

“If a new software version comes out tomorrow it will work with hardware from the 1990s, so customers can confidently stay with us, benefitting from the latest innovation and expertise.”