ASTMA international member and highly-respected Kiwi course superintendent John Spraggs (pictured middle, right) was honoured by his national association earlier this week. At a gala awards dinner held during the Fine Turf Seminar in Rotorua, the long-serving Royal Wellington Golf Club superintendent was bestowed life membership of the New Zealand Golf Course Superintendents Association (NZGCSA).
 
Spraggs becomes the 11th superintendent in the association’s 85-year history to receive the honour and it sits alongside other recent life memberships he has received from the Wellington Turf Managers Association (2022) and Golf Wellington (2025). Monday’s life membership honour caught Spraggs completely unawares and as he joked in front of a large audience it was one of the first times in his life that he was “lost for words”. The honour came after another Kiwi stalwart and a former 2IC of Spraggs', Gordon Trembath (Hastings GC), received the association’s Distinguished Service Award.
 
“It caught me off guard a little, but I was very thrilled and honoured to accept the life membership,” says Spraggs, who across his career served 21 years on the NZGCSA committee in various roles. “It was an awesome night. That’s three life memberships now in the past couple of years, but this one (NZGCSA) is special. Those organisations I really enjoy helping and giving back to and I still do what I do because I love it.”

A regular visitor over the years to the annual Australian Sports Turf Management Conference, including the recent Sydney event, this past March saw Spraggs notch up his 20th year in charge at Royal Wellington, one of New Zealand’s most traditional golfing establishments. His tenure at Royal Wellington has been a defining chapter in a career which is quickly closing in on 50 years at the coalface.

Having started out at Hamilton Golf Club in 1978, Spraggs took up his first superintendent posting at Westown Golf Club in New Plymouth in 1982 before moving to Mt Maunganui Golf Club where he spent seven years. He then moved to Wellington in 1992 where he took over at Hutt Golf Club before his dream job at Royal Wellington (pictured right) became available in 2005.
 
In presenting the award together with another NZGCSA life member Peter Boyd (Pakuranga CC, pictured above right), NZGCSA president Jason Perkins (pictured above left) said that Spraggs' record of achievement and involvement in golf and turf in New Zealand was second to none.

“John is a larger than life character who has never been one to shy away from expressing his thoughts and sharing his experiences with colleagues and offering advice where he sees fit. John has an immense passion for greenkeeping and golf and really has given so much back to us all and any association or club he has worked for. He has trained somewhere in the vicinity of more than 30 apprentices, many of whom have gone on to be leaders themselves. His dedication and commitment to everything that he has done is commendable and a measure of the man that he is.”
 
The ‘Spraggs’ name is synonymous with greenkeeping on both sides of the Tasman. Eldest son Mark has been a superintendent in NSW for the past 12 years, first at Club Taree and currently at Forster Tuncurry Golf Club where he has been in charge of the Tuncurry course since 2019. His siblings Brendon (superintendent Masterton GC) and Matthew (assistant Shandon GC) have also followed in the footsteps of their father, carving out successful careers in NZ. 

Ahead of the 2018 Australian Turfgrass Conference, which was held offshore for the first time in NZ, Royal Wellington hosted that year’s ASTMA Golf Championship. In the conference edition of ATM (Vol 20.3, pictured), editor Brett Robinson caught up with Spraggs to reflect on his career, his wide-reaching involvement in the NZ golf and turf industry (he is a former NZ Golf Eisenhower Trophy team selector) and his course operations at Royal Wellington. CLICK HERE to read the article.

The ASTMA congratulates John on his NZGCSA life membership and thoroughly-deserved recognition.