The crew at Devonport Country Club (pictured top) in Tasmania is helping to breathe some life back into one of Launceston’s established golf courses following a difficult period. Devonport superintendent Craig Walker, winner of the 2023 ASTMA Excellence in Golf Course Management Award, sponsored by Envu, and his team have been seconded to look after the maintenance at Riverside Golf Club and bring it back up to scratch. 

Following the resignation of their superintendent and combined with a few tough years which saw the playing surfaces suffer, the Riverside Board reached out to Walker and Devonport to see if they could assist. The two clubs came to an arrangement which will see Walker and his team oversee improvements and general maintenance of the course for the next three years. 

Arriving at Devonport as superintendent back in 2019, Walker has set about expanding the maintenance team’s remit whereby they now look after a number of other golf clubs and turf facilities across the region, as well as operating a turf renovation service. In addition to maintaining the Devonport Country Club (pictured right) precinct - which includes an 18-hole golf course, three turf bowling greens, an indoor bowls rink and two croquet lawns), Walker and his team also look after Ulverstone Golf Club (18 holes), Port Sorell Golf Club (9 holes) and the Latrobe and Ulverstone bowls clubs.

Riverside is about an hour’s drive from Devonport and located just outside of Launceston on the western side of the Tamar River. Since taking over operations there in late August, the Devonport team has focussed on a number of areas to improve the playing surfaces (pictured right). Turf health has been a high priority, with a range of measures undertaken including insecticide applications to control grubs which was leading to an infestation of cockatoos that were causing damage to large areas of the fairways.

All tees were given a double scarify followed by a heavy overseed with a ryegrass/fescue mix, while the greens were hollow-tined, double scarified and overseeded with Oakley creeping bentgrass. All fairways will also be overseeded with rye/fescue and soil amendments applied. Elsewhere, a full irrigation and machinery audit was conducted, with repairs made where required. 

For the first 12 months, Devonport employees Logan Heazlewood and Sam Omahony will share the foreman role at Riverside, overseeing operations with guidance from Walker. One apprentice also attends daily. Devonport has also employed Jess McLaren who was already at Riverside and who has fitted into the Devonport structure extremely well.

After arriving at Devonport and having just two others on his crew, Walker’s team has steadily increased over the years and now comprises 14. All but Stuart Matthewson and McLaren have completed their apprenticeship at Devonport, with the range of work the team manages providing an excellent grounding in all aspects of turf management. The team also recently won two irrigation installation tenders, with Matthewson currently overseeing these projects at Sheffield Recreation Oval and Ulverstone Showgrounds.

It is set to be a busy few months coming up for the Devonport team who in addition to the above work will also host a couple of major state and national events. Devonport Country Club is set to welcome the country’s leading bowlers for the Australian National Bowls Championships which runs across two weeks from mid to late November. Sandwiched in the middle of this, Ulverstone Golf Club, where Walker grew up playing his golf before going to represent them in Pennant, is also playing host the Tasmanian Amateur Championship. 

Story by Brett Robinson/Pictures supplied