Collie Golf Club course superintendent Douglas Bayley has been acknowledged for his hard work over the past year.
After a bush fire devastated the club’s grounds last February, two of the greens were left in an unplayable state and four others were left with major damage.
The blaze also impacted the tees for holes 12, 16 and 17 as well as the bushland areas through the course.
The affected area extended from the Collie River through to the 15th hole.
“It closed a few areas off and they had minimum shortage on fairways from the tees, temporary greens while we had these out of play,” he said.
“[It took] lots of top dressing, over sowing and seeding of different varieties of grass, lots of granular fertiliser, liquid fertiliser, wetting agent, water and then implementing the perfect nutrients program which can be hard to judge at times but we’ve nailed it.”
Mr Bayley moved from assistant superintendent at Bunbury Golf Course to Collie in May 2016.
He had started off with six temporary greens and large areas of fairway to work on.
Between his introduction and the start of growing season (September 2016), Mr Bayley – along with the Collie Golf Club volunteers – worked to get the greens back in play and cover over barren areas on the fairways.
Mr Bayley said he and the volunteers worked together to return the course to its original standard.
“It was basically just letting the seed grow from where the volunteers had sowed it and implementing the new nutrient program to get it back to a playing standard,” he said.
“The standard that I like to produce is just short of what you see on TV, that’s what I want to do.
“I think the biggest change to the course has been plant health, I think it was in a struggle period there for a bit and implementing the new fertiliser program that we’ve put in place has obviously paid dividends.
“Overall things have been great and members are loving it, I’ve got their full support so it seems to be good.”
He said the regrowth period helped the course and surrounding bushland.
Mr Bayley worked to rebuild and redesign the tee box at hole 19 in August.
The project included developing a new pathway separating the men’s and women’s tees, levelling out both tees with new turf and removing the steps leading up to each tee.
His work also involved establishing the new greens nursery, removing over 100 invasive trees and replacing them with 400 native trees, replacing seats around the course and upgrading the fuel storage and handling facilities.
Mr Bayley has worked for 20 years in the industry, serving on golf courses in Wembley, Joondalup and Mosman Park prior to his nine year stint in Bunbury.
The club reached the finals of the WA Golf Industry Awards’ Regional Golf Course of the Year.
Trevor Lawrence and Bev Moyses were also nominated for Volunteer of the Year.