“If I could have just one person to support me in any project, especially catering, it would be Jayne Devlin! 

Jayne and I have worked together on previous projects, including global sporting events looking after hundreds of thousands of members of the public right through the very highest level of fine dining. She is an exceptional person with a great insight into the catering industry and people skills that can bring any team together. 

It was extremely relieved therefore, when Jayne agreed to come and be the saviour once again, but this time, it was not a temporary event, but a permanent build with a catering opportunity that if positioned appropriately, could set a new standard in golf and lead the way as the sport looks to modernise. I need to stress that Jayne and I recognised immediately that the project that we had inherited was in need of significant management. 50% of the build complete and in the middle of a hard winter (remember the beast from the East…yep!) and a very tight timescale, the project that was already significantly behind and we had an enormous and emotional job on our hands! Jayne was my rock and was there day and night to make sure I had what I needed to make this critical project a success. 

One of the main points concerned the catering offers. When we arrived, the intension was to outsource catering in return for a management fee. After reviewing the requirements brief and offers received from the market, we knew almost immediately that an in-house approach to this project would be a much better fit. The reason being that I was determined to strengthen the Carnoustie brand and use its amazing heritage to become a flagship of the modernisation of the game of golf. By owning and operating our own catering offers, we could control the experience and ensure that our passion and delivery of service would be consistently applied and involved as few layers as possible when it came to adjusting and making agile and immediately responsive decisions. This was definitely the hardest approach in an already difficult situation, but the best decision we ever made, and I would advocate this approach in most scenarios where possible. 

It is very difficult to fit our story with The Rookery into a concise executive summary. Our story took a stressed project (way behind schedule) with a very average outsourced catering offer to delivering service to the Worlds Media and then the World’s Best golfers within the space of 9 months. Our result was a world-leading catering offer by a dedicated and motivated team, with a culture that did things ‘The Carnoustie Way’! The players who experienced our restaurant during The 148th Open Championship said it was the best they had ever experienced on Tour (including Phil Mickleson, who knows!). We continue to this day offering our visitors (both golfers and restaurant goers alike) the very best of Scottish produce from Land and Sea. 

Quite simply, The Rookery is Jaynes restaurant. The team and I at Carnoustie are proud to call her our mentor and friend.”