Australia's peak industry body for Sports Turf Management
Australia's peak industry body for Sports Turf Management
Turf industry stalwart and former ASTMA Board member Jon Penberthy (pictured) has been bestowed life membership of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Queensland (GCSAQ). Penberthy received the unexpected honour at the GCSAQ’s Annual General Meeting held at Gailes Golf Club in Brisbane on 14 August and in doing so joined a select group of past and current superintendents to have received the recognition. Penberthy, who now lives in Yamba in northern NSW, joins the likes of Queensland legends Doug Robinson, Jeff Gambin, Barry Cox, Pat Pauli, Gary Topp, Ben Tilley, Peter Lonergan and Rod Cook.
“It was a very unexpected but very much appreciated honour to receive,” says Penberthy. “As the great Pat Pauli once said, ‘You don’t go into it expecting to be recognised, but it is very nice for it to happen anyway’. The recognition of my 35 years in the Queensland golf course and turf industry is very humbling. Over the journey I have met some fine people and some interesting characters and I would like to thank all those who have supported me in my endeavours during that time – no-one gets anywhere without a little help along the way. I have enjoyed my time on the golf courses very much and my involvement in the turf and agronomy industries over all these years. I have made some wonderful friends, learnt much and laughed heaps.”
Originally hailing from Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, Penberthy’s turf management career has spanned more than 45 years. It was in the late 1970s when he got his start through Frankston Parks and Gardens before undertaking a three-year Diploma of Applied Science (Horticulture) through Burnley Horticultural College. As part of that course he did work experience at Woodlands Golf Club and after graduating would end up back there for six years.
He then moved to Mt Martha Valley Country Club as the 2IC under Nick Rennison, but just two months into his time there took over the top job after Rennison moved across to The National. After two years in charge at Mt Martha, Penberthy would also move across to The National and was part of the team when the Cape Schanck course (now known as the Old Course) celebrated its first birthday.
In 1990, Penberthy moved to the Gold Coast which was experiencing a boom in golf course construction at the time. He joined Martin Greenwood as his assistant at the newly constructed Gainsborough Greens Golf Club at Pimpama, halfway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Not long into his time there Greenwood would head off to southeast Asia, with Penberthy taking the reins and eventually spending a total of 13 years there.
In 1997 Penberthy became just the second recipient of what is now the ASTMA Claude Crockford Sustainability and Environment Award for his work re-vegetating the site following the course’s construction. Penberthy penned an article about their work in the May/June 1997 edition of Turfcraft International (pictured - click on image to download the article).
“When I first arrived at Gainsborough Greens the course had only recently opened,” recalls Penberthy, now 65. “Sanctuary Cove was only a year old, Royal Pines was under construction and Hope Island was just a paddock with a lean-to shed in the middle. Arundel had not begun and Lakelands, The Glades and Paradise Springs were not yet under construction. Palm Meadows was the benchmark, holding the Daikyo Open and attracting 130 members for a field day there. At that time the Queensland superintendents committee included the likes of Doug Robinson, Jeff Gambin, Paul Bevan, Chris Giles and Loch Leadford, so it seemed like a good idea to try to scoop up some pearls of wisdom from these luminaries, so I joined the association. They were all very helpful over the years.”
Penberthy would eventually join the GCSAQ committee as vice-president under Pauli (who was then superintendent at Horton Park GC), but would take over the reins in late 1998 after ill health forced Pauli to step down. Penberthy would remain as Queensland president until August 2004 when he stepped down at that year’s AGM, with Rod Cook taking over.
During that time, in 2003, Penberthy also changed jobs, moving north for a new challenge as superintendent at Tewantin Noosa Golf Club on the Sunshine Coast. It was during this time that he was elected to the AGCSA Board at the 2004 Australian Turfgrass Conference in Melbourne. He would stay on the Board until early 2007, stepping off after departing Tewantin Noosa to take on a role with the then Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries.
Employed as an experimentalist and technical officer, Penberthy was based at the department’s Redlands Turf Research Station where he played a key role in maintaining the many turf plots and assisted with the various industry turf trials that were being undertaken by the station’s researchers, among them Dr. Don Loch and Matt Roche. He would hold that role up until late 2012 and gave a presentation on the station’s trial work as part of a warm-season grasses workshop at the 2011 Australian Turfgrass Conference in Adelaide (pictured above) (CLICK HERE to view the presentation).
Penberthy then had a short stints with Evergreen Turf, Active Industry Training and Labosport before joining Globe Growing Solutions in 2016 as their national technical manager. He would spend more than five years in that role before joining parent company Australian Agribusiness as a product support officer in 2021, a role he held until April this year.
In addition to Penberthy being inducted as a life member, the GCSAQ AGM also saw a change of guard on the committee. Long-serving Keperra Country Golf Club superintendent Keith Johnson was elected president, replacing Mark Hauff (Palmer Colonial) who stepped down. Redland Bay Golf Club superintendent Dion Cope was elevated to vice-president, while Indooroopilly Golf Club assistant superintendent Dean Hardman is now secretary. The full GCSAQ committee for the coming 12 months is:
Over 50 attended the AGM, with 47 also taking the opportunity to play the Gailes layout which had been expertly prepared by host superintendent Taylor Wills and his team. The ASTMA congratulates Jon on his GCSAQ life membership in recognition of his wonderful service to the Queensland association and also congratulates Keith on his elevation to association president.
Story: Brett Robinson; Photos: Jon Penberthy, Dean Hardman and ASTMA