Starting from this week’s edition and continuing as we countdown towards the 2025 Australian Sports Turf Management Conference and Trade Exhibition in Sydney (23-26 June, Sydney Showgrounds), The Cut will regularly highlight some of the expert and engaging presenters that have been confirmed as part of this year’s speaker line-up.

The ASTMA is delighted to kick things off by confirming that two of Sydney’s leading sports turf managers will be delivering presentations across the Golf and Agronomy Streams on the Wednesday and Thursday of conference week – New South Wales Golf Club superintendent and NSWGCSA life member Mark Parker and senior manager of asset and facility management at Sydney Showgrounds Steven King.

Parker (pictured right) needs little introduction and over the past four decades has helped to guide two of Sydney’s elite golfing establishments. For 32 years, up until June 2018, he was course superintendent at Concord Golf Club, which incidentally hosts this year’s ASTMA Golf Championships (more on that below). He was appointed superintendent there at the ripe old age of 21 and across his tenure would oversee two major course reconstruction projects, the most recent in 2017 under Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design.

Having seen through the completion of that project, Parker took over the superintendent role at New South Wales Golf Club, replacing the long-serving Gary Dempsey. That theme of reconstruction has continued at NSW which last September embarked on a greens and bunker project under the auspices of UK-based firm Mackenzie and Ebert in what was their first design assignment in Australia.

In the words of Parker, “NSW has always been a brilliant course – you don’t get inside the world top 50 if you’re not special, and this place is – however, one thing that it lacked when compared to the other great golf courses around the world were the greens.” Following the recent project, which saw all greens fully reconstructed and converted to 777 bentgrass along with changes to a number of bunker complexes and sandy waste areas, that has well and truly changed (as the photo of the new-look 6th green below shows).

At the Sydney conference Parker will discuss this significant project in detail and what it has meant for the club and its members. He will discuss some of the unique design features that lead architect Tom Mackenzie has created, the methodology used to construct the new greens which feature a variable depth sand profile and the decision behind their use of 777, becoming the first course in Sydney to do so. Parker's presentation will feature as part of the Golf Stream on Wednesday 25 June

The ASTMA is also excited to confirm Parker’s cross-town sports turf management counterpart Steven King (pictured inset below) who will feature as part of Thursday’s Agronomy Stream (26 June). Employed by the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW, King’s role involves managing the 30-hectare Sydney Showgrounds site that includes 26 buildings ranging from exhibition halls and administrative facilities in addition to Engie Stadium, home to the AFL’s Greater Western Sydney Giants franchise. As well as hosting AFL Premiership matches, the multipurpose venue annually hosts Big Bash League cricket (it is home ground for the Sydney Thunder franchise), concerts and the annual Royal Easter Show.

It is an all-encompassing role for King and his team and one that presents multiple challenges throughout the year, not the least of which is the transition of the playing surface after it is hammered during the Royal Easter Show back to an elite standard for AFL. With a skill set that spans elite sports turf management through to comprehensive building services, King will delve into the unique challenges his team faces and the logistics required to manage the surface at Engie Stadium.