The Heritage Golf and Country Club on the outskirts of Melbourne successfully hosted the penultimate tournament of the current PGA Tour of Australasia season last weekend. It was the second year that The Heritage Classic has been part of the Tour schedule, with course manager Jordan Dunstone and his team preparing the Jack Nicklaus-designed St John Course for the week.

While Matthew Griffin ran away with the title by six shots in the inaugural tournament last January, this year it was a much different story. Tied with Victorian Nathan Page coming down the 72nd hole, James Conran, from Orange in New South Wales, hit a brilliant wedge approach to inside a metre and tapped in for a birdie for a final round 65 and tournament-winning 22-under-par. The scoring was hot all week with no less than 36 players finishing 10-under or better.

The second iteration of the Heritage Classic had a few changes from last year. The tournament prize purse was upped from $200,000 to $225,000, while in between tournaments Dunstone and his crew reconstructed 20 bunkers with Capillary Concrete which would ultimately prove handy. The big change, however, was a shift of date. After being held in early January last year, due to a reshuffle of the schedule by the PGA it was pushed out to mid-March as the second to last event of the season ahead of The National Tournament which wraps up this weekend.

Hosting the tournament in March brought about a few challenges for the Heritage team. Victoria experienced a very dry summer, with the cool-season roughs on heavy clay soils particularly impacted. Due to the prolonged dry conditions, large cracks opened up throughout the St John rough lines (which are a mix of fescue, couch and kikuyu) where the irrigation system couldn’t reach. Also adding to the challenge, March is a period where Heritage sustains a lot of corella damage, with PGA tour officials having to put in place local rules for the damage in the roughs that they had caused.

“It was a very tough summer, with dry conditions from November onwards,” notes Dunstone. “Having an outdated irrigation system, it was tough to keep a nice uniform playing surface across the whole course. We are very lucky on St John with our water source, but as we all know there is nothing that compares to a nice downpour to get your moisture levels back.”

Tournament week got off to an early start for the Heritage crew which totals 17 and includes senior staff Adam Toohey (superintendent), Daniel Woolhouse and David Spinks. On the Monday, Heritage’s second 18-hole layout – the Henley Course – hosted a qualifying event for the main tournament which featured a starting field of 55 golfers. In the two weeks leading up to that qualifying event, the bulk of the Heritage crew were brought across to start dialling in the St John course.

On the Monday of tournament week last year, Heritage copped 110mm and this time around the rain would hit again. Thankfully it was a more manageable 30mm but it still left a fair amount of work for the crew who rallied around to repair damage to the bunkers and get the course back in shape for the Wednesday Pro-Am.

“I guess that was one thing I took away from hosting the tournament last year – not to get too overwhelmed with what Mother Nature delivers us,” says Dunstone. “I have an amazing team here at Heritage and we know as a group that we can work through any conditions and get the course into tournament standard again if we all put in and work together. Certainly having the Capillary Concrete in those bunkers this time around helped ease the workload a little.”

For the Classic, Heritage’s Dominant Xtreme greens were cut at 3mm every day and rolled on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. After the greens stimped at 11-and-a-half on Wednesday and with dry and windy conditions forecast for Thursday’s opening round, in coordination with PGA officials it was decided to keep the rollers off the greens Wednesday and Thursday. The Santa Ana tees and surrounds were cut at 8mm every day, while the Santa Ana fairways were at 12mm after their heights were raised in the weeks leading up due to the hot and dry conditions.

Dunstone was grateful for the support of good friend and mentor Andrew Boyle (GTS) who came in Friday and cooked the crew a barbeque which was well received. Also assisting were around 70 members and residents who volunteered their time with various tasks throughout the tournament. Dunstone says the club is lucky to have a great volunteer group called the ‘Heritage Helpers’ who really care about the courses and want to help in any way possible to ensure the club keeps growing.

“It was a great week and I just enjoy the happiness these events bring our members and residents,” says Dunstone. “We all know the history of Heritage and it’s no secret that it has had its moments over the years where we all thought these events would not be possible. ‘Mr W’, our owner, along with all managers and staff, have worked tirelessly for five years to continuously improve the condition of both courses. These events bring us all together to showcase what an amazing venue we work at.” The ASTMA congratulates Jordan and his team on delivering another successful Heritage Classic.