state reports gcsawa state reports
Trevor Strachan’s family were on hand to see him collect the Western Australian Golf Industry Recognition Award, the fifth person to receive the state’s highest golf honour
GCSAWA Graduate of the Year winner Chris Varty (right) with Toro’s WA representative Geoff Stephens
I
can clearly remember sitting out on my deck, Corona in hand watching the kids in the pool having fun when it started raining. It was a Saturday afternoon back on 30 November 2013 to be exact. Eighty odd days later and still not a drop of rain has hit my golf course in Bunbury and there appears to be none coming our way either. Can someone remind me again why I am a golf course superintendent? Anyhow, I digress. The GCSAWA has been pretty quiet during summer as we have all been busy keeping our courses alive. We did, however, manage to have a fantastic kids Christmas party in December where we had a special visit from none other than Bad Santa himself (a big thank you to Josh Walker for helping out there). Committeeman Neil Graham (Melville Glades GC) has been busy bringing a couple more golf courses online with the Water Wise programme which in conjunction with the Department of Water has been slow but continues to move forward. Our young up and coming committee member Adam Strachan has also been busy finalising the 2014 Super Series which will see some changes when it tees off in April. The GCSAWA Management Challenge has been locked in at The Western Australian Golf Club and a big thank you to superintendent Idris Evans for assisting with that. The newest member to the ‘50 club’, Darren Wilson (Wembley Golf Complex), has been hard at it building the new GCSAWA website which will be launched in the near future. This looks like a great step forward for the association and with Neil’s help Darren will have this completed very soon.
Night of nights GCSAWA Superintendent of the Year Nick Price (left) with MacIntosh & Son rep Michael Healy 72
The major highlight recently was the Western Australian Golf Industry Gala Dinner at the magnificent Crown Casino on Friday 21 February. With over 500 of Western Australia’s golfing community attending it was always going to be a special night on the
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golfing calendar and so it proved for one of our members (more on that in a minute). The night is held in conjunction with the General Managers Association, Golf WA, the PGA as well as the GCSAWA. Some of this year’s winners included Kwinana Golf Club (superintendent Paul Needham) which collected Metropolitan Golf Course of the Year, while Kalgoorlie Golf Course/Goldfields Golf Club (superintendent Fraser Brown) took out Regional Golf Course of the Year. This year’s GCSAWA McIntosh & Son and Jacobsen Superintendent of the Year Award was hotly contested, as it has been in previous years. The nominations were: l Matt Schwarzbach (Carramar Golf Course), l Paul Needham (Kwinana Golf Club), l Brad Anderson (Sun City Country Club), l Nick Price (The Cut Golf Course) and l Trevor Strachan (Lake Karrinyup Country Club). After much deliberation, Nick Price took out this year’s award and will now represent WA at the AGCSA Awards on the Gold Coast later this year. The Toro Apprentice of the Year Award came down to four young and talented apprentices. Bryce Pickersgill (Royal Perth Golf Club), Scott Burden (Sanctuary Golf Resort) and Chris Dane (Kalgoorlie Golf Course) were all very close, but the 2014 award went the way of Chris Varty from Gosnells Golf Club. Chris will now represent the GCSAWA in the final of the AGCSA Graduate of the Year Award. Good luck Chris. However, it was the end of the night that brought the real highlight for our association and profession. Each year the Western Australian golf industry presents a Recognition Award. This prestigious award is bestowed upon a person in recognition of their enormous contribution to the game of golf in Western Australia and, importantly, their positive impact on and improvement to the golfing industry. This year Lake Karrinyup Country Club course superintendent Trevor Strachan, who is highly regarded and respected in all areas of the industry, took out the award. The golf industry committee thought Trevor was the standout nomination this year and the unanimous vote gave me goose pimples and a sense of pride that one of our own could win the game’s highest award in this state. Trevor is the fifth recipient of the Recognition Award. Congratulations to Trevor and all our 2014 GCSAWA winners. I hope everyone had a great night. Here’s looking forward to autumn.
Des Russell President, GCSAWA