• We are European Golf Design, a team of experienced people set out to make the future happen

MEET THE TEAM

The core of the company has been the same since its existence but it has evolved and grown. Our passion and demand for excellence is backed up by years of technical and hands-on experience.

Jeremy Slessor

Managing Director

Jeremy Slessor

Jeremy has been involved in the golf course business since 1976. In that time, he has worked throughout Europe, the United States and Africa.

Prior to graduating from Michigan State University with a degree in Turf Management Jeremy spent time as a Course Manager in the UK. After graduating, he worked for the design company of Robert Trent Jones Sr, first as a construction manager, following which he became a Design Associate and Senior Projects Coordinator. Based predominantly in the US, Jeremy was involved in the largest single golf course design project in history – the Alabama State Retirement Fund commissioned Robert Trent Jones to design and construct 18 golf courses under one contract. During his time with the company, Jeremy was also responsible for the company’s European Operations based in Spain. In addition to his design function, he specialised in construction management and logistics.

Jeremy joined European Golf Design in 1994, becoming Managing Director two years later. In addition to overseeing the successful day-to-day operation of the Company, his specific responsibilities include meeting with potential and existing clients, assisting in the initial analysis of projects and then overseeing the Company’s services for each of its projects. Given the wide geographic range of the Company’s business and the equally wide range of clients for whom the Company is working, Jeremy is acutely aware of current trends as they relate to golf resort development, together with the technical, financial and practical issues that result. Jeremy is a frequent speaker at international conferences and seminars as well as a regular contributor to magazines and periodicals.

Ross McMurray

Designer

Ross McMurray

A graduate in Landscape Design, from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Ross began his career in the golf course architectural practice of Cotton, Pennink and Partners. He joined IMG Design in 1990, and the company became European Golf Design two years later.
Ross has designed golf courses throughout Europe and was responsible for the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor Resort, Wales, which hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup. In the U.K. he was lead designer on The Marquess Course at Woburn Golf & Country Club, which was named as the Best New Course in England in 2002 by Golf World magazine, and three new courses for the Marriot Hotel group; Worsley Park, Manchester, Hollins Hall, Bradford and Sprowston Manor, Norwich.

Ross has worked extensively with some of Europe’s finest golfers. With Bernhard Langer he created The Dunes Course at Costa Navarino in Greece, as well as Panoramica Golf & Country Club in Spain and Schloss Nippenburg in Germany.

Working with Colin Montgomerie, Ross was responsible for The Dutch, a new tournament course in Holland, Rowallan Castle Golf Course in Scotland and The Montgomerie at Celtic Manor.

Other courses designed by Ross include Ribagolfe 1 and 2 near Lisbon, The Sandy Lyle and West Courses at Schloss Wilkendorf, Germany, and The Scandanavian Course at Fleesensee, Germany.

In addition, Ross McMurray has undertaken major redevelopments at several established golf courses, including The Old Course at St. Pierre, Wales and The East Course at Dalmahoy, Scotland.

Ross is a Senior Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects where he currently sits on the EIGCA Council in his role as Chairman of the PR Committee.

Gary Johnston

Designer

Gary Johnston

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Turfgrass Science, Gary worked in the golf course maintenance industry in both the UK and USA. Gary went on to complete a Masters degree from Heriot-Watt University and having worked for EGD briefly prior to attending Heriot-Watt Gary returned to the company in 2003. As a designer he is directly responsible for producing the golf course designs, construction drawings, specifications, and on-site inspection during construction.

Gary was the architect for the Dubai Hills Golf Club that was named ‘World’s Best New Golf Course’ in 2019 and the Irie Fields golf course at Kittitian Hill which was the first ever course to attain Golf Environment Organisation’s Certified Development Status in recognition of its sustainable design initiatives.

Gary also collaborated with Ian Woosnam on both of EGD’s courses in Bulgaria, Pirin Country Club and Lighthouse Golf Resort and with Colin Montgomerie on the Montgomerie Marrakech and the Montgomerie Maxx Royal that has hosted the Turkish Open on four occasions.

Gary carried out the redesign work at the Wynyard Golf Club in preparation for the Seve Trophy which the Club hosted in 2005 and the renovation work at Prince’s Golf Club in Kent ahead of the 2011 Open Championship Qualifying and British Amateur Championship in 2013.

Having recently completed the redevelopment two 18 hole courses at Titanic Golf Club in Turkey and construction of the new Rixos Golf Club in Aktau, Kazakhstan Gary is currently working on another new 18 hole golf course in Dubai.

Gary is a Senior Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects and sits on the EIGCA’s Council.

Robin Hiseman

Designer

Robin Hiseman

Robin is the architect for the new JCB Golf & Country Club, in Staffordshire, England. He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Landscape Architecture and started his design career with four years at Hawtree, where he worked on many projects throughout the UK and Europe.

He set up his own Scottish based design practice in 1996 and in the following eight years established a notable client base including completed design work for many Scottish golf clubs, including Royal Dornoch, Montrose Links, Boat of Garten, Nairn Dunbar, Deeside, Cathcart Castle, Dragon’s Tooth and Balfron Golf Society. Robin also completed a new course within the Arctic circle, at Bodø in Norway.

Joining European Golf Design in late 2004, Robin designed the 18-hole course at Casa Serena in the Czech Republic, which has held a number of European Senior Tour and and LET events. Robin also designed and supervised the construction of the 27-hole desert golf course at The Royal Golf Club, Bahrain, in association with Colin Montgomerie, which hosted the 2011 Volvo Golf Champions on the European Tour, won by Paul Casey.

He designed Spain’s candidate course for the 2018 Ryder Cup and continued the association with Colin Montgomerie with the design of Plage des Nations, in Morocco. In recent times, Robin has prepared full design packages for new courses to be built in Bulgaria, The Philippines and Russia.

Robin is a Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects.

Dave Sampson

Designer

Dave Sampson

At the end of 2002, Dave graduated from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, with Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Architecture and Building Arts.

After moving back to the UK in early 2003 he spent six months working as the cricket analyst for Surrey County Cricket Club, prior to joining a London based architectural firm as a Design Associate, where he was involved in design detailing, production of working drawings, and project facilitation.

In 2002, Dave was the successful winner of the Golf World Design-A-Hole Competition, which led to him joining European Golf Design as a Design Associate in late 2004.

In 2008, he was promoted to the position of Designer, and is now directly responsible for project designs, management, supervision and on-site construction inspections.

Dave was the lead designer on the recently opened tournament course at Zavidovo PGA National Russia, a course which won the 2011 Best New design in Russia award, and was also a finalist in Golf Inc’s 2012 Best New Course in the World.

Back in 2013, he also completed and oversaw design and construction works on the redevelopment of the Evian Resort golf course, France, in preparation for The Evian Championship, the new 5th major on the LPGA tour. In association with the golf club & the LPGA, Dave is currently involved in advising & overseeing continual annual improvements.

In 2009, Dave completed design works on the Safaa Golf Couse at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia. His other project in the region, Royal Greens Golf & Country Club at King Abdullah Economic City, has recently won awards for, ‘Best in Saudi Arabia’, ‘Best in Arabia’ & ‘Best International’ Leisure Development 2016-2017’ at the prestigious International Property Awards, and will open for play in September 2017

A Senior Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, Dave is presently working on design projects in the UK, Italy, Turkey, Portugal, and France.

Tom Kelly

CAD / Design Associate

Tom Kelly

Tom was born in Nottingham and at the very tender age of three or four years old became captivated with golf, watching with his dad on the TV. Armed with a plastic set of clubs, Tom hacked the family garden to pieces just as over the proceeding years he has hacked many a proper course. After getting his first set of real clubs, he joined Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club, where he learned his trademark power push-fade and wild, oh-so-unbelievably-wild, duck hook.

It was while in his final year of his Masters degree course in Mechanical and Materials Engineering at the University of Birmingham that he realised, having spent a summer watching metal corrode as part of an investigation into new coatings for aluminium parts used in the aeronautical world, that he needed a change in direction and, with golf being his passion, further realised to his amazement that designing golf courses was an actual job!

Following graduation, and hoping to put off real work for a while longer, Tom took a gap year, travelling extensively throughout South America, New Zealand and, inevitably, Australia, where by chance he managed to persuade the good folk at Michael Clayton Golf Design to give him a job on a maintenance and construction crew on some of their projects. Clearly undeterred by that experience, Tom returned to the UK and eventually landed a job with MJ Abbott, the renowned golf course contractor, where he was to stay for six years as a CAD Technician and Surveyor.

Tom joined us early in 2018 and has been a hugely valuable member of the team ever since. He is currently taking part in the European Institute of Golf Course Architects two-year education programme, which he says is time-consuming, but highly valuable. He also explains that his advice to anyone considering taking the course would be to get as much construction, course maintenance and/or design experience as they can prior to starting the course. He remains a passionate golfer and a member at Liphook Golf Club. When he’s not working, or playing, he enjoys all sports, live music, films and would like to see a bit more of the world. His favourite possessions are a Scotty Cameron putter, which exemplifies his interest in engineering, sport and art; his music collection and a map showing all the places he’s ever visited which gives him constant reminders of all his experiences.

If he could ‘be’ anything, he would like to be a professional golfer and play in The Masters (there’s no chance of that until the hook is sorted).

Matt Sturt

IT Manager

Matt Sturt

Matt is a Microsoft MCSA/MCSE, A+, NETWORK+ and Cisco CCNA qualified, he has nearly 20 years computer experience, specifically CAD and Graphics.

Matt began his career at a consulting engineers/architects practice at the end of the 80’s, the company was one of the first in the industry to fully embrace CAD and Earth Modelling software, Matt went on to head the department.

After a time in Malaysia Matt joined European Golf Design in 1995. He gained Microsoft and Cisco accreditation and went to work as a Systems Engineer for a large Telecoms company.

He later rejoined European Golf Design and is now responsible for all things IT.

As well as producing tournament graphics for the European Tour Matt also designs and maintains some of IMG’s leading golf client websites.

Shara Reedman

Accounts

Shara Reedman

Shara joined the company in February 2002 having spent the previous 12 years as an Education Senior Adminstrative Officer with Surrey County Council.
Her financial experiences are now being put to use in her role as Accountant with European Golf Design.

Robert Birmingham

Chairman

Robert Birmingham

Robert was appointed European Golf Design’s Chairman of the board in January 2021.

An actuary by profession and golfer by inclination Robert was managing Director of Xafinity Consulting Ltd for more than 20 years before also taking on the position of Executive Chairman when the company was acquired by CBPE, a London based private equity firm, in 2013. Robert remained as Executive Chairman of Xafinity until 2017 when the company was listed on the London Stock Exchange. He continued in a senior role with Xafinity after its listing and retired from the firm at the end of 2018.

Robert is currently Chairman of the board at West Byfleet Golf Club.

Keith Waters

Director

Keith Waters

Keith Waters joined the European Tour’s administration in 1995 and became Director of International Policy in 1999.  In 2010 he moved on to become Chief Operating Officer.  Currently, he sits on the board of the Official World Golf Ranking and European Tour Productions.Keith started as an amateur golfer and represented England and GB Youths.  In 1978 he turned professional and gained his Tour card at the Qualifying School.

During his 17 years as a Tour professional he won the News of the World Under 23 title in 1980 and in 1991 beating the then World Number One, Nick Price, in a play-off for the Zimbabwe Open and tied second behind Seve Ballesteros in the British Masters.

Keith sat as a Member of the Tour’s Tournament Committee from 1985-95 and was a board Member from 1993-1995.

Ben Cowen

Director

Ben Cowen

Ben joined The European Tour in 2006 as a Sales & Marketing Executive before being promoted to Deputy Director of International Policy in 2010.  In 2016 Ben was promoted again to Director of International Policy where his role is to manage the relationships with the other members of the International Federation of PGA Tours (US PGA Tour, Asian Tour, Sunshine Tour, PGA Tour of Australasia and the Japan Golf Tour) as well implementing the annual schedule of tournaments and The European Tour’s international strategy.  Prior to joining The European Tour, he was Chief Operating Officer for the Tour de las Americas (what is now called the PGA Tour LatinoAmerica) and Head of New Business for Parallel Media Group.  He is a graduate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne with a BA Hons in Geography.

Ian Knox

Director

Ian Knox

Ian Knox is Head of European Tour Destinations, a network of high-end golf and real estate venues locate across Europe, Middle East and Asia with a close association to the European Tour.

Prior to joining European Tour Destinations, Ian held Director of Golf positions at The Belfry as well as within Marriott Golf, along with sales roles within Marriott and at St Andrews Bay. Ian’s affinity for both golf and hospitality came from growing up in Portrush, Northern Ireland and he completed an Accountancy and Finance degree at the University of Dundee.