AN AMBITIOUS golf course manager who one day hopes to prepare the venue for The Open has scooped a top prize for his greenkeeping skills. Huw Morgan, 35, from the Bradbourne estate, East Malling, will be jetting off to three destinations across the United States after winning a competition run by the British and International Golf Course Greenkeepers' Association.

Mr Morgan, who manages the Wildernesse Golf Club, Sevenoaks, said: "Although I've won this award I wouldn't class myself as being at the top of the profession. But it could be a massive step up for my career as long as I go with the flow and keep on doing what I've been doing for the last couple of years.

"I'm ambitious and anyone with a passion for the job would want to be standing on the 18th green at the presentation to a new Open champion with the television camera on my face having prepared an Open venue. Long term I'd like to do that."

Mr Morgan has always wanted to be a greenkeeper. He was encouraged by his father, who was an honourary secretary of the Pontardowe Golf Club in Swansea and a former chairman of its greens committee. Since moving to Wildernesse Golf Course in 1993 he has assembled what he describes as a "fantastic team" who will share a £250 cheque which was part of his prize. Mr Morgan, a keen golfer who plays off a single figure handicap, is looking forward to an all-expenses-paid trip to the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Conference in Orlando, Florida, in February.

From there he will fly to the headquarters of the competition sponsors, turf machinery manufacturers Toro, in Minneapolis and its irrigation division in California.

The prize also included a £10,000 multi-purpose Toro vehicle which the greenkeeping team will be using on the golf course.