TOURNAMENTS TOURNAMENTS
The 2016 Isuzu Queensland Open was the first of three Brisbane Golf Club will host consecutively. Pictured is second assistant Josh Thomason syringing the 18th green
Brisbane Golf Club returned to the major tournament spotlight for the first time since 1991 when it hosted the 2016 Isuzu Queensland Open in October. ATM checks out preparations at the country’s only
Champion-shiptest A
fter a hiatus of 25 years, the Queensland Open returned to its spiritual home of Brisbane Golf Club from 20-23 October. The 2016 Isuzu Queensland Open was the first of three consecutive Opens to be hosted by the Yeerongpilly course, with much of the talk in the lead-up to the tournament focussing on the club’s new greens.
course to boast Champion ultradwarf couch greens.
Brisbane superintendent Mitch Hayes and his staff were religiously monitoring soil moisture levels on the Champion ultradwarf greens during the tournament 48
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 18.6
As outlined in the last edition of Australian Turfgrass Management Journal (Volume 18.5 – Sept-Oct 2016), between 2013 and 2015 Brisbane took the bold step of switching from Tifgreen 328 to Champion ultradwarf couchgrass on its greens, the first club in Australia to use the variety. For course superintendent Mitch Hayes, who took over the reins at Brisbane in August 2013, the Open was his first major PGA Tour of Australasia event in charge and despite some challenging spring conditions he was pleased with the way the surfaces performed. “We were very happy with how the course presented and the feedback we received from the PGA and the players was very good,” says Hayes. “A lot of the players hadn’t seen the course since we made the recent changes and the feedback we got was positive. Before the tournament a couple of the young Victorian guys Jason Higginbottom and Anthony Houston compared the course and the conditions to that of the Melbourne sandbelt which was great to hear. “Our preparations throughout all four days went very smoothly and the crew really rose to the occasion. Having the Interstate Teams Matches here in May certainly helped us prepare for the Open event. The aim was to have the course at the level we had it for the Interstate tournament and I think we surpassed that which was very pleasing. “In saying that, we did have a very tough early part of spring like much of the country. Temperatures didn’t warm up to the levels we expected which