IF anything ever goes wrong with the golf course at Mt Tamborine, high on the hills overlooking Queensland’s Gold Coast, Graeme Andrews has nobody to blame but himself.
Andrews, a laid-back former Kiwi, is the superintendent of a delightful nine-hole gem of a course. Not just the superintendent; he’s also the entire grounds staff. In fact he’s the only paid employee at this community-owned facility perched 500m above sea level in the Gold Coast hinterland.
And, for the record, things seldom go wrong with anything Andrews touches – evidenced by the Superintendents Achievement Award he picked up at this year’s Queensland golf industry awards.
Despite the fact he’s a one-man band, responsible for an annual budget of less than $35,000, the affable Andrews has an impressive record as a greenkeeper.
He began his career at the Inglewood Golf Club, close to his Taranaki home, under the supervision of green-keeping guru Nigel Lloyd, then followed Lloyd to the Wairakei International Golf Club, just outside of Taupo, as his deputy.
Graeme Andrews at work on Mt Tamborine’s lovely golf course.
Andrews crossed the ditch 21 years ago, swapping the cold and rain of the Waikato region for the balmy climes of south-east Queensland. He became a senior greenkeeper at Kooralbyn, and later at Sanctuary Cove where he was 2IC.
He joined the little Mt Tamborine club as a member, then two years and 10 months ago, he took up the role of superintendent.
“It was exciting,” he said. “It was really a blank canvas and I was given the chance of putting my own mark on it. I just love it. There’s nothing else like it.”
While he was still settling into his new role, Andrews’ skill was tested when the Mt Tamborine course was savaged by floods and a tornado.
The tornado, which ripped through last Christmas Day, knocked out power, uprooted trees and dumped tonnes of rubbish. But, with the help of members and volunteers, Andrews had the course open for play within three days.
It was a similar story a few weeks later when two metres of rain fell in a four-week period. Only another three days of play was lost, as Andrews and his team of willing volunteers picked up the pieces.
He says it’s because of his New Zealand background, where greens staff ‘learn to make stuff,’ that he’s been able to achieve so much with so little at Mt Tamborine. “I’ve always been a ‘hands-on’ bloke and you don’t always have the money to buy things,” he said.
So, instead of purchasing expensive pesticides, he opted to grow plants and bushes which attracted the sort of wildlife that feasted on turf pests.
And he planted trees – 600 of them, many the result of club members cashing in vouchers for native trees at the local council, then handing them over to Andrews. Some were koala feed trees, which attracted koalas, along with turkeys, cockatoos, rabbits, wallabies and other birdlife and wildlife.
So captivated at the variety of trees lining the fairways, members arranged for plaques to be erected on them, featuring the name of the tree and its characteristics.
“I think they got tired of visitors pointing at the trees and asking what they were,” Andrews joked.
One of the nine rolling fairways that Graeme Andrews lovingly cares for.
Andrews is proud of the way he manages his modest budget, celebrating when he’s able to give back a thousand or two of his $34,500 annual allocation – cash which can then be spent on urgently needed capital items.
He’s thrilled, and grateful, for example, that the club has been able to provide $160,000 towards the cost of replacing its 35-year-old irrigation system.
He says he loves what he does. “If you love your job it’s really quite easy,” he said. “I’ve never been a clock watcher. If there’s a job to be done you just do it.”
Andrews says he’s ‘old school’ and is proud of Mt Tamborine’s kikuyu fairways and bent grass greens, an ideal combination, considering the course’s location and the weather.
He’s also proud and thrilled that the superintendent of a small, community-owned, nine-hole course should be honoured by receiving a golf industry award.
“I thought I must have won the meat raffle,” Andrews said when his name was called out at the presentation dinner. “Honestly, I couldn’t absorb it. And then some of the Cairns group said we should celebrate into the night.
“How could I do that? I had to be up at 4am to help install that irrigation system.”
