NSW supers in the spotlight

Two prominent superintendents from busy NSW courses were lauded for their efforts last month at the National Turf Industry Awards dinner.

Cypress Lakes Resort’s Craig Molloy and Eastlake GC’s Nathan Bradbury were in the spotlight as their fellow superintendents acknowledged their extraordinary efforts.

Molloy has been at Oaks Cypress Lakes for the past seven years and during that time has committed his team to an innovation mindset to embed a culture of best practice experimentation and creativity.

Through a number of excellence programs they have created something that is new, and every day he encourages his team to change established ways of course maintenance, enabling their operations to adapt and thrive. 

As Molloy puts it, he has ‘re-wired’ the way they do things and laid the foundations for a sustainable and innovative future.

One of Molloy’s major achievements over the past 12 months has been the development and implementation of a detailed Drought Emergency Plan in response to the extreme drought experienced across the south-east of Australia at the end of 2019 and early 2020.

The plan outlines comprehensive actions to be implemented during drought conditions not only for his course but also a sister property. 

In addition to that, he and the crew have also undertaken major projects around the use of effluent water, bunker reconstruction and even an organic gardening program.

Thanks to Nathan Bradbury, Eastlake Golf Club has had a continual commitment over the past decade towards the long-term sustainability of not only the golf course proper, but the environment within which it resides. 

The course that Bradbury oversees is located on a unique parcel of land in Sydney, one which not only holds considerable heritage value but is also home to two regionally rare and distinct remnant vegetation communities of state significance. 

As a result, the club has a major responsibility to preserve, protect and promote such cultural heritage and environmental surroundings as part of its daily and long-term management operations.

Molloy won the ASTMA Excellence in Golf Course Management Award, sponsored by Bayer, while Bradbury took out the coveted Syngenta-sponsored ASTMA Claude Crockford Sustainability and Environment Award.