Course Superintendent Announcement Coming Soon

Whilst not currently able to announce the name of our successful applicant, I’m delighted to announce that our preferred candidate from the interview process has accepted the position of course superintendent, and visa application process is underway to bring him and his family over from the UK. 

Having spent some time here within the last week looking at the club, course, meeting some of the team, we feel that we have found someone who will fit in well and sees the potential of North Shore Golf Club.  Whilst it is nice to be able to make this announcement, we also need to recognise the work of Lee Horton and his team during this ongoing interim period. We are close to filling the two other vacant green keepers positions and look forward to being back up to a full complement of staff in the coming weeks and months. 

Course Conditions

With winter now here we are once again seeing our course struggling to cope with the levels of water that is coming our way. I’m always amazed at how quickly we transition from ‘running out of water’ to ‘saturated’ and this year has been no different. We had a relatively dry start to the year with low rainfall and a dry course.

At this point the lake was nearly empty, bores were working hard to top up the levels, however we spend around $50k on supplementary water from the town supply. The good news is that we had a 100mm rain event that effectively topped up the lake to capacity.

We have a great catchment, and this does bode well for the future. What we now must do is to consider ways that we can store more water on the course for when we need it, to negate the need to ‘buy in’ water. It’s also worth remembering that accessing council water may not always be possible. At times of drought and when restrictions are in place we will not be a priority. 

A further consideration in terms of water is the future grass types we want on the course, effectiveness of the drainage etc. All of these things have knock on effects, better drainage will mean a greater requirement for water in the summer months (depending on the grass types). 

Having spent a significant amount on drainage (both traditional and hydrowicking) in the past couple of years to address some of the wettest areas of the course, it would be irresponsible not to assess the effectiveness of this spend, and whether it provides a good return on investment.

My current take on this is that I have my doubts about this approach. Ultimately, we are putting drainage into very poor soils, and whilst this might buy us some extra time on the course and hopefully aid recovery, ultimately it is unable to deliver what we all want which is a relatively dry course throughout the year.

Whilst Sand capping seems to have become a no go for some after the proposals last year, I’m increasingly convinced that this what is required to get us back to where we need to be. This doesn’t necessarily have to come with the more dramatic changes to the course layout that were proposed last year, or with the same levels of disruption, however if we want to see significant improvements, we need to address the key issues. 

Members in recent weeks have once again expressed their frustration at course closures and restrictions on carts. Implementing these restrictions is not done without much debate and consideration of the impacts on members, staff, income streams and damage to the course.

Having taken the decision to stay open following prolonged rainfall throughout the week, I was then contacted by a number of members saying that we should have been closed and that the course was too wet. From my perspective, allowing people to see and experience the wet course is not a bad thing. It’s easy to forget the underfoot conditions when looking out of the window and seeing blue skies - a beautiful day for golf!

The below table highlights the monthly rainfall on the course since 2015 which makes for interesting reading:

*to 10th June 2025