As southeast Queensland and northern NSW braces for the full impact of Tropical Cyclone Alfred, golf course superintendents and sports turf managers across the region have been doing what they can to best prepare their facilities for what’s to come. With the cyclone expected to make landfall just north of Brisbane as either a Category 2 or Category 1 system either later tonight (Friday) or in the early hours of Saturday morning, there has been a flurry of activity across the week as turf management teams brace for the possibility of huge rainfall totals, inundation and damage caused by destructive winds.

Over the past 24 hours the Bureau of Meteorology’s Coolangatta weather station recorded in excess of 135mm of rain to go with the 53mm from the previous day. Wind gusts in excess of 90kph were also recorded in the early hours of Friday morning. The Cape Byron weather station at Bryon Bay in NSW recorded 77.8mm for the 24 hours to 9am, with a maximum wind gust of 113kph registered at 5:30 this morning.

Over the past 24 hours the ASTMA has checked in with turf managers whose facilities are likely to cop the full force of the cyclone. While it has been a waiting game for many these past few days, the next 24-48 hours are set to be the most telling. For some there is almost a sense of déjà vu, albeit a little different given that a tropical cyclone is involved this time around. It was almost exactly three years ago to the day in 2022 that the same region was smashed by huge floods. As it had done in 2011, the Brisbane River broke its banks and flooded many facilities, among them Indooroopilly Golf Club which was one of the worst affected.

Memories of that have flood event have meant this time around the club is taking no chances. Earlier this week the crew, headed by course superintendent Ben Grylewicz, spent most of their time evacuating the maintenance facility which went under in both 2011 and 2022. Machinery was moved up near the clubhouse, while office equipment was also stored safely inside the clubhouse. The course was closed on Wednesday, but with the cyclone system slowing down off the coast, three Indooroopilly staff, including assistant Dean Hardman (CSTM), went in early yesterday morning to give all 36 greens a final cut before bunkering down.

Across at Suncorp Stadium, ground manager Matthew Oliver (CSTM) has had an interesting week. At the start of the week he was in Melbourne for the ASTMA/Jacobsen Future Turf Managers’ Initiative as one of the program’s mentors but was more than a tad preoccupied as he kept in constant contact with stadium management back in Brisbane. The ground was due to host its opening NRL match of the 2025 season between the Dolphins and Rabbitohs tonight, however, the NRL made the call on Tuesday to relocate the game to CommBank Stadium in Sydney due to the cyclone.

With the game being moved, the Suncorp team put their Vertidrain, Air2G2 and ProCore across the field, removed the goalposts and applied push-through wetting agents and a fungicide for pythium in preparation for weather to come. Oliver will also be sweating a little on last week’s oversow of the surface. With eight weeks until Magic Round, the crew began their annual overseeding program, with the seed cracking as of Wednesday. “Hopefully it doesn’t get washed into the river over the next couple of days!”

At Meadowbrook Golf Club, just south of Brisbane, superintendent Luke Helm (CSTM) is no stranger to cleaning up after major flood and weather events in recent years and he and the crew are preparing for a repeat performance.

“It should be an interesting few days,” Helm told The Cut. “We’ve done all we can do pretty much, so now we just wait and see. All loose items around the clubhouse and course have either been packed away or tied down. We sprayed a fungicide and Primo across greens, aerated and cut greens, removed the pumps and control panel and cut power to the flood prone areas of the course. While we are a little nervous of what we might return to, we just hope that everyone stays safe.”

Still processing the events of the past week and what is to come is Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club superintendent Cameron Smith (CSTM). He and his crew were supposed to be in the midst of hosting a revitalised Australian Women’s PGA Championship this week, the first of three contracted tournaments the club was awarded last August.

Having got the Palms Course dialled in beautifully (as shown in the photo opposite) over the past six months and peaking in time for what was to be yesterday’s opening round, Smith was called into a crisis meeting with the WPGA and tournament officials late on Monday afternoon. At the meeting it was decided, unsurprisingly, to cancel the tournament and all events associated with the Gold Coast festival of golf that was planned around it.

“It’s such an empty feeling,” says Smith, who arrived at the club from Bonnie Doon in Sydney last May. “It’s probably been the biggest emotional roller coaster in terms of an event that I’ve had in my career. We closed the courses [Pines and Palms] on Wednesday and pretty much stripped them of all bunker rakes, bins, sand bins and flags and made sure all the drains were clear. We have a heap of sand bags around the clubhouse too. While all that was happening the tournament infrastructure was coming down at the same time. It looks like we are going to cop the brunt of it but we are as prepared for this as we could be given such a quick turnaround.”

Across at Southport Golf Cub, long-serving course superintendent Stuart Moore has been leaning on the advice of friends who experienced Tropical Cyclone Nancy in 1990 to get an idea of what to expect in the coming days. From a course perspective, Moore and his team have enacted their usual storm preparation procedures across the week including: emptying ponds to maximise drainage; cleaning all drains and pits; pruning trees (particularly eucalypts); securing machinery and equipment at the maintenance compound; turning off all unnecessary power supplies; assisting with clubhouse/golf shop furniture being secured; and being in constant contact with groundstaff before, during and after the event to provide updates.

At Byron Bay Golf Club across the Queensland/New South Wales border, course superintendent Shaun Cross is like his counterparts, just waiting for the inevitable to happen and praying that it is not as bad as everyone is expecting it to be.

“We closed everything down as of Tuesday afternoon,” says Cross. “We obviously just removed all loose furniture and items from the course and stored it. We dropped the levels of our lakes to hopefully reduce the impact of localised flooding over fairways. On Monday and Tuesday we were able to mow out the whole course in case we can’t get back on it for some time. Our main concern has been around making sure our staff and their families are safe and have had time to prepare their houses, properties and belongings, hence the early call to close the golf course and the club Tuesday afternoon.”

Up north on the Sunshine Coast it is also just a waiting game at the moment for ASTMA president and Headland Golf Club superintendent Ben Tilley. “We closed the course Thursday as did Caloundra, Maroochy River, Mt Coolum plus a few more. We’ve cleared the course of all hardware (rakes, flags, tee markers, signage etc) and the clubhouse has been battened down (furniture inside, wheelie bins tied down, flags removed). We started seeing 60+kph winds yesterday morning and a couple of decent sized limbs dropped last night. It’s now looking like sitting out there gaining more intensity now so may well not get here until Saturday. All staff are now home as gusts start getting up there.”

The ASTMA wishes all members and turf facilities the best for the coming days given the circumstances and hopes everyone remains safe.