John Odell resigns from Royal Sydney GC

One of Australia’s most accomplished, admired and respected golf course superintendents John Odell shocked the industry just before Christmas by resigning from Royal Sydney Golf Club. Odell will pull stumps at the famous Sydney course at the end of January 2012, bringing to an end a 24-year career as ‘custodian of the links’. Odell, who only recently stepped off the AGCSA Board at the 2010 Adelaide conference, informed the Royal Sydney crew on Thursday 22 December before breaking the news to friends and colleagues within the industry.

Talking briefly to The Cut, Odell says he will be leaving Royal Sydney on the best of terms and that the decision to hand in his resignation was one he had agonised over for some time. Upon finishing in January, Odell intends on taking some much deserved and needed time off before deciding what his next career step will be.

Odell was appointed Royal Sydney Golf Club course superintendent at the start of February 1988 following the sudden death of Kim Melville, a Scottish agronomist who had been at the club since the late 1970s. Odell, who had served his apprenticeship under the legendary Pennant Hills superintendent Vince Church, arrived at Royal Sydney after stints as superintendent at both Manly and Concord golf clubs.

Over the next 24 years Odell would oversee maintenance of the club’s 57 hectares of turf and landscape areas which include two golf courses (the 18-hole championship course and the nine-hole Centenary course), bowling greens, 18 tennis courts (of which 11 are turf) and a croquet lawn. During that time he hosted five Australian Opens (2008, 2006, 1999, 1994 and 1988), a Federation Cup tennis tie in 2001 and most recently the 2011 Davis Cup tie between Australia and Switzerland. 

As well as major international sporting events, Odell also played an integral role in significant changes to the Rose Bay club’s famed playing surfaces. Perhaps the biggest of these was the 2002-03 remodelling of Royal Sydney’s championship course under the auspices of course architect Ross Watson. That redevelopment saw significant changes to the greens in terms of contouring and soil hydraulics, while numerous bunker complexes were also dramatically remodelled and more added to return the place back to its links origins, thus reinventing the course and making it a far greater strategic challenge.  More recently, Odell was involved with the development of a new multi-million dollar leisure centre at the club and the construction of a new Tifdwarf bowling green which will be opened in 2012.

The AGCSA congratulates John, a long-time member and passionate supporter of the association, on a stellar career at Royal Sydney and wishes him all the best for his final month in charge and for the future ahead.