REGIONAL PROFILE REGIONAL PROFILE
Blue Lake Golf Links is located in Mt Gambier and since 2015 has proudly hosted the SA PGA Seniors Championships
Blue Lake Golf Links, SA There aren’t many golf courses in Australia that can lay claim to residing on the side of a dormant volcano. Blue Lake Golf Links in Mt Gambier is one of them.
Improving course definition as well as the health and appearance of the playing surfaces has been a major focus for Hutchings since arriving at Blue Lake
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Superintendent: Andrew Hutchings (53). Family: Partner of 23 years Michelle, two sons Keenan (22) and Aram (18). Years as a superintendent: 7.5. Association involvement: AGCSA (2.5 years). Turf management career: Mt Compass Golf Course (six months); Adelaide Shores (construction team, one year); Millicent Golf Club (superintendent, five years); Kooyonga Golf Club; Echunga Golf Club; Blue Lake Golf Links (current superintendent). Qualifications: Cert 3 and 4 Horticulture (TAFE SA). Where in Australia is Blue Lake Golf Links? The course is situated just outside Mt Gambier, SA halfway between Adelaide and Melbourne. The town is famous for the Blue Lake which is a body of water that is hopefully a dormant volcano. The water really does appear to be a deep blue colour depending on the time of day. Tell us a bit about your background and how you came to be a superintendent. I started playing golf when I was about 11-years-old, got the bug,
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 19.3
practised hard and improved pretty quickly. I dreamed of turning pro and at 16 was offered a three-year traineeship to become a golf professional. To keep it short, I left before my time was up and started playing as an amateur and loved every minute of it. My first chance to work on course came when I was approached by a secretary manager offering me some hours to assist the ground staff at the course I was playing. I loved it, started studying and it went from there. I have always loved all things golf and being involved as a player you can certainly form an opinion of what the greenkeepers aren’t doing rather than what they are. When you start working on a course your perspective certainly changes when you experience what it takes to get even the basics done. I have played events at courses and been involved at the high end of golf course presentation and came to realise pretty quickly you cannot be a pretender in this industry as your work ethic is on show every day. Who were some of your early mentors? When I was employed at Adelaide Shores as part of the construction crew building 12 new holes, I worked under Wayne Dale. What I quickly observed from Wayne’s expectations was he wanted people to go about their daily tasks never compromising on attention to detail; that has really stuck with me to this day. A turf representative and good friend of mine from Victoria also once said to me, ‘Don’t drive past that Coke can son’. That also stuck and to me says a lot about going that extra yard. When I volunteered at the 2015 Emirates Australian Open at The Australian Golf Club I took away the importance of how vital it is for staff to find