Anna is new Grove director of golf
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The Grove has announced the appointment of a new Director of Golf at the five-star luxury golf and hotel resort in Hertfordshire.
Anna Darnell, 29, is a fully qualified PGA professional with over 10 years’ experience in the golf industry, and takes over this key management position with immediate effect from Declan McCollam, who has been responsible for overseeing the golf operations at the world-renowned venue for the past two-and-a-half years.
Darnell, who has worked at The Grove since 2005, boasts an impressive golfing pedigree, which contains teaching professional positions at some of the world’s most prestigious golf clubs, including Loch Lomond and the The Royal Golf Club in Bahrain, before she switched her career ambitions from teaching to golf management.
Darnell joined The Grove six years ago, beginning her commercial career in the golf sales department, where she helped build the corporate side of the resort’s business before being appointed events manager, where, among other achievements, she played a key role in overseeing the extremely successful staging of the American Express Championship in 2006, which remains the only World Golf Championship event to be held in the UK.
Since 2007, Darnell has been golf operations manager at The Grove, ensuring high standards of service and performance were attained across all golf departments, as well as introducing a wide range of innovative new coaching programmes and competitions.
The Grove operates a ‘pay-and-play’ policy on its 7,152-yard Kyle Phillips’ Championship course. Rated one of the finest inland layouts in the UK since its opening in 2003, the par 72 course has received consistently glowing reviews for the outstanding year-round quality of its playing surfaces.
Essex-born Darnell, who is married and lives in Aylesbury, said: “I joined The Grove back in 2005, and have loved every minute working here over the last six years with such a professional, dedicated and above all, fun group of people.
“I hope that my PGA training and knowledge of golf from the ground level, mixed with my experience of what makes The Grove such a special place to play and to stay, will help me and my team to continue to improve The Grove’s standing in the UK and global golf market.”
The Grove is a shining star of 2-FORE!-1 and recently came fourth in the scheme’s latest Top 100 Courses list which recently appeared in Today’s Golfer.
