Golf Course Staff

Dear Members,

I hope your all well and survived the lockdown. It’s exciting to again smell the salt air back out on course seeing so many people out enjoying a game of golf! Welcome back to all our Members, who due to the restrictions, were unable to travel to Flinders and our Great Club.

Most of our Members would be aware through previous website articles of Colin Morrison’s resignation late July, finishing his 21 years of loyal service with us on the 27th August. Colin has taken on the Superintendent role of a local property. I again wish to recognise Colin’s efforts and skills that have transformed our course into the tremendous course we have today.

Following an extensive application process we appointed Tom Hogan for the position of our Course Superintendent. Tom had previously held the position of Assistant Superintendent at Barwon Heads GC for the last 10 years. Tom commenced with us on the 20th September, please welcome Tom to our Club when you see him around course. I can personally account for his passion of Golf Course agronomy and his new found love, The Flinders Golf Club.

Late September, Lachlan Hays, having applied for a position earlier at RMGC was appointed to a position on their Course. An exciting employment position for Lachlan. We wish Lachlan the very best in his new environment and career path.  

Mid October, Braden Hyde advised of his resignation to T Hogan. Braden having worked at The FGC for 12 years has taken up employment with a friend in another industry outside the golfing community. We wish Braden all the very best in his exciting career choice.

Mid October, Tony Hopcraft gave his resignation to the General Manager of The FGC. Tony has secured the Superintendent role at another Peninsula golf course. Tony has worked for The FGC for 36 years from the start of his apprenticeship. Over that time he has amassed an enormous amount of skills and qualifications including diversification into mechanics. Tony has shown true dedication throughout his years of employment and on many occasions has lead our staff as acting Superintendent. I personally wish Tony all the very best in his exciting new role as Superintendent.

I strongly urge all Members to stop and wish Tony the very best when they see him over the next few weeks.

Our Ground Staff Member, Brad Moon having worked at The FGC for many years now, has a wealth of knowledge and experience of our Great Course that is invaluable for incoming groundskeepers.

Staff issues are a major problem on the Peninsula generally and foremost in the hospitality industry which has been affected with a significant number of staff looking for alternative employment in other industries due to extended periods of lockdown.

Whilst our Horticulture industry hasn’t stopped, it too has been affected and some staff have looked to other industries for employment, thus making retention and new employment opportunities a challenge.

Appointing a new Superintendent at Flinders Golf Club was always going to create some discomfort among the existing course staff, all of whom had been with the Club for many years, and it was expected that at least some of them would seek opportunities elsewhere.

Whilst none of the course staff resignations were forced or even encouraged in any way will create some issues in the short term, it was critical for the Club to aspire to adopt best practice maintenance processes. Our Superintendent identified that our procedures fell short of best practice.

The staff changes are unfortunate and disruptive but present an opportunity to put together a new team committed behind the Superintendent to achieving the best longer-term condition of the Golf Course.

This must be in the interests of Members and we believe the benefits will become apparent over coming months.

We have recently advertised for various staffing positions on Course and I am pleased to advise we have some good response. We have reviewed applicants and following interviews I am pleased to advise we have some recent appointments to our staff.In addition we have advertised for an Apprentice and are in communication with our local Secondary Colleges in anticipation of employing one of their graduates.

I will keep all Members advised regarding the appointment of ground staff and invite anyone with any queries directly relating to our Course & Course staff to contact me directly.

Yours Faithfully,

Dean Burrows

Captain.

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