News

As residents and business throughout south east Queensland were left to mop up after the recent storms, golf course superintendents and their maintenance staff also faced extensive clean up operations in the wake of some of the most extreme weather to hit the region in years.

The Australian Golf Environment Foundation (AGEF) has received a major boost with the announcement that Bayer Environmental Science (BES) has confirmed as inaugural principal partner.

Struggling to come up with something to get the superintendent/greenkeeper/turf manager in your life for Xmas? Well the AGCSA’s end of year book sale may just me your saviour!

Australia betting agency Sportsbet was last week announced as naming rights sponsor of the 2008 Australian Masters, joining the Victorian Government as a major partner of the event. The Masters will be held again at Huntingdale Golf Club (superintendent Michael Freeman) from 27-30 November and will be the 30th anniversary of the tournament and Freeman’s seventh as superintendent.

The popular AGCSA Turf Management Diary for 2009 is leaving the printers today and is en route to each state where it will be hand delivered to members where possible by a small army of trade reps over the next couple of weeks.

It may be the growing season, but superintendents and greenkeepers in Western Australia will be cultivating a slightly different crop during the month of November. The GCSAWA is getting behind ‘Movember’ and is encouraging its members to grow moustaches during the month to help raise awareness and funds for men’s health research.

Another five booths at next year’s 25th Australian Turfgrass Conference Trade Exhibition were snapped up this past week which means just six booths now remain. Since going on sale a fortnight ago 31 of the 37 booths have been taken and all indications are that it will be a full house when the conference heads to Tasmania from 13-17 July 2009.

The AGCSA, in partnership with the University of Melbourne, is hoping to fund a study on the biodiversity and carbon benefits of Australian golf courses in the urban community. To help generate funds the AGCSA is offering up products donated by industry companies for online auction. The first item up for auction is two 20-litre drums of Barmac’s Nutri Gro Plus.

The Australian Masters, which for the past 29 years has been hosted at Melbourne’s Huntingdale Golf Club, is set to change venue. In a major announcement made Thursday (23 October), the Australian Masters has entered into a three-year agreement with the Victorian Government to grow the event, which includes adopting a venue rotation policy starting with next year’s tournament.

The AGCSA has officially launched the 25th Australian Turfgrass Conference Trade exhibition and within a couple of hours of booths going on sale yesterday (Monday 20 October) over half (21 of 37) had been snapped up already.