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Greens Beach Golf Club tas
After working as assistant
superintendent at Barnbougle Dunes during its formative years, for the past six years Kurt Wheeler has been improving the reputation of the small nine-hole Greens Beach Golf Club located north of Launceston.
Above: Green Beach Golf Club is a picturesque nine holer located on Tasmania’s northern coastline. A redevelopment plan by Thomson Perrett, which will see it increase to 18 holes, is still in the throes of being finalised. Pictured is the 7th/16th 56
Superintendent: Kurt Wheeler. Age: 37. Family: Wife Megan and two sons Jacob (6) and Benjamin (3). Years as a superintendent: Six. Association involvement: AGCSA (six years) and TGCSA. Qualifications: Diploma of Agriculture (TAFE Tasmania), Cert III Horticulture (Turf Management). Turf management career: Greens Beach Golf Club (superintendent, six years); Barnbougle Dunes (assistant superintendent, four years); Roberts Limited (farm/crop consultant, 10 years) Where in Australia is Greens Beach? Greens Beach is a beautiful seaside hamlet on the northernmost edge of the Tamar River overlooking Bass Strait, about an hour north of Launceston. In the mid-1940s, local residents carved out six holes using farming machinery and named it ‘The Folly’. The golf club was officially formed in 1951. Tell us a bit about your background in turf management and how you came to be at Greens Beach. I started out in agriculture carting hay on a local farm before working as a storeman for Roberts Limited. A year later I became a farm field consultant and for the next nine years the job involved sitting down with dairy, crop and beef farmers working out full farm plans. This encompassed everything from fertiliser and chemical applications, pasture types/ selections and feed programmes through to general animal health. This gave me a very good grounding for the turf industry.
Australian Turfgrass Management
Towards the end I wanted another challenge so I spoke to a good friend and ex-professional Brett Partridge who was working on the construction side of things at Barnbougle Dunes. I dropped my resume to Richard Sattler and the construction manager and started my turf career two weeks later. A year later Nathan Macdonald (superintendent) offered me the assistant superintendent position which I accepted. I then worked under Danny Brown, who now runs Blue Canyon Country Club in Thailand. He taught me the majority of the really important things in turf management – signs to look for, weather conditions and the advantages of forward planning – so I owe a lot to Dan who was also a terrific bloke both on and off the course. I was then offered the Greens Beach position which meant I could be closer to my wife (who was pregnant with our first boy at the time) and also the possibility of being involved with an 18-hole development proposed for the golf course which will hopefully come to fruition in the next 2-3 years. What are some of the unique features about Greens Beach from a turf management perspective? Like all country courses with staff numbers being low, it is sometimes a hassle but I have a selected band of volunteers that do a lot of the time-consuming jobs which allows me to concentrate on the more important things. Without their help I would be under pressure to get things done. I wouldn’t say it’s an easy or hard course to manage. I suppose it’s like all things, you have days where you are under the pump and other days where you can sit back and enjoy seeing the results from your hard work. Since I started we have had some proactive boards that have allowed me free reign on most