How the Kingston Heath greens staff come together to pull off hosting duties at one of the oldest golf tournaments in the world. 

Later this month when you walk into Kingston Heath Golf Club, the primary host of this year’s ISPS Handa Australian Open, you’ll no doubt be gobsmacked by the sheer rustic, Australiana beauty of one of the most famous courses in world golf. The reason this Melbourne Sandbelt icon will have both the form to impress golf fans and the function to host a mixed-format Australian Open is thanks to an army of paid staff and volunteers from across the country – and even overseas – working tirelessly in the months leading up to the event. Come tournament week, each agronomist is like Santa Claus – working late at night and early in the morning to ensure the next day is special.

Here, Kingston Heath superintendent Hayden Mead speaks about how greens staff come together to pull off hosting duties at one of the oldest golf tournaments in the world.

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During the Australian Open, we will have just over 20 paid staff and about 35 volunteer staff. It’s a really big week and a big honour for the turf industry; all these dedicated people fly in from a variety of places. We will have a greenskeeper representing every Australian state (except the territories), with six or seven staff travelling over from New Zealand. They’re giving up their time. While a lot of the golf clubs pay their usual wage to come and work here for 38 hours, the reality is they’re doing more than 38. Many of them are also paying for their own flights, and so we have [Melbourne-based greenskeepers] house them and feed them. They all do it for the love of golf and for the turf industry.

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During tournament week, including practice rounds, the 50-plus greenskeepers we’ll have get together and cut the entire property every morning in about two or three hours. During this week, we sort of live in the dark – cutting grass in the early mornings and preparing the course for the following day each night. No one sees us [laughs].

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With that said, tournament week is really the fun part. Nothing can really go wrong from an agronomy standpoint. My nerves come during the applications [of turf management products] about six months out. Every application we do, from six months to two weeks out, makes you wonder, How’s this going to affect tournament week? Tournament week, though, is the exciting time. We get into a really good groove with all our staff, paid and volunteer. Everyone’s enjoying it, and the course is in the best shape we can get it.

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In the weeks leading up to the Australian Open, we don’t want to make the greens too firm. We just nurse them along, then start to dry them down – weather permitting – as we get into the week prior. We don’t put too much pressure on them. We keep them at the same cutting height and ease them into hosting the tournament. As for the couch [fairways and around the greens] surfaces, the soil temperature is a bit higher than this time last year, so we’ve had additional growth, which is really good. Most of the turf management is done before the event.

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The greens are the easier surface to prepare for the tournament because this time of year is optimal for bentgrass growth. For a November/December tournament, the more challenging surface to prepare is the couch grass, as it’s just come out of [winter] dormancy. The months leading up to the Australian Open, as the weather warms up, is when you want to push the couch grass for full coverage.

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You might be wondering what’s involved in preparing a course for both men’s and women’s tournaments held simultaneously. Again, the hard part isn’t tournament week – it’s the six months leading up to the Australian Open. Preparing two sets of tees and protecting them through the winter is key. We have plenty of tournament tee options, so we’re pretty comfortable with the men’s tees, which aren’t used in winter. But most of the women’s tees are in the middle of the tee boxes used by our members during winter, so we really work hard to protect those areas while allowing member play. Balancing this over such a long period is a juggling act.

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The DP World Tour and Golf Australia work closely with us in setting up the two courses for the event. We don’t set the pin positions, but sometimes they ask our opinion about specific placements each day. We cut the holes and set markers where they request. As for firmness and speed, with Kingston Heath and The Victoria Golf Club sharing host duties, I’ll sit down with Steven Newell, the superintendent at Victoria, every day after our morning work to compare notes. We aim to keep our greens as close in speed as possible, usually around 11.5 to 12 on the Stimpmeter. The firmness of the fairways, however, depends almost entirely on the weather.

Photos by Gary Lisbon