4 minute read
Grange Golf Club | Course Superintendent, Rowan Daymond
from Clublink 2023 Annual
by Clubs SA
Leadership in the Club industry includes many areas beyond traditional hospitality and Rowan Daymond, Course Superintendent at Grange Golf Club is a perfect example of this. Overseeing the day to day management of 22 course staff, he provides leadership, supervision, training and support for his team. He is responsible for the care and maintenance of the golfing surfaces, developing and implementing course maintenance programs and providing significant input into the Club's strategic and annual business plans.
Rowan has gained invaluable insight into all aspects of his trade, beginning at Grange in 2009 as a leading hand, working his way up to his present position. The knowledge gained and skills acquired were supplemented with a 12 month stint in country Victoria where he learned the course superintendent’s role He then used this experience back at Grange where he took on the role permanently in 2017.
Unsurprisingly, the golf Club’s management speak very highly of Rowan: “Rowan has an extremely strong work ethic, engaging personality, well developed interpersonal skills, initiative and a passion for presenting superior golf courses He is extremely positive, brings a wealth of experience to the role, can solve any problem that arises and has a great relationship with members, staff, colleagues, Committee and suppliers. ”
I don’t think there’s a single person in SA who is not aware of the event hosted by Grange Golf Club earlier this year: the inaugural LIV Golf Adelaide tournament. April 21-23 saw the Club welcome capacity crowds. With an official attendance of 77,076, LIV Golf Adelaide firmly cemented its newly carved out position in Australia's landscape of major international sporting events It would be reasonable to expect an event of this size, particularly one not held here before, to take many months of planning In fact, most golf courses have two years notice to plan an event of this size but Rowan and his team only had 4 months to create a world renowned layout and golf course. Not only was Rowan required to create and develop a course suited to test the world's best golfers, enable the epic construction of corporate facilities and grandstands but allow for the course to remain playable for the 2000 Grange members, and of course not forgetting that the whole thing would be watched by a global audience. No pressure then!
Rowan worked endless hours in creating the composite course with a configuration that provided arguably the strongest combination of holes on the property. Anyone who has been in charge of running events will know that things don’t always progress smoothly and it was no different for Rowan. “In the lead up to and during the event, Rowan stay calm and collected no matter what chang challenges were thrown at him and there would many people that would have been able to take challenge with the professionalism that showed ” The event was a great success an placed the Club, Adelaide and state of Australia on the world map.
“Without our Course Superintendent Rowan D at the helm, this event would not have ha Rowan helped put Adelaide and The Grange G on the map bringing a huge amount of people and money to the South Australian economy. The event provided hundreds up jobs and an unforgettable experience for everyone involved including those 77,000 spectators that attended the event. A week everyone will never forget.”
It is no small achievement to have the following said about you by such prominent and highly respected people in the sport:
"Now these are the best bunkers in the world. Why can't other countries copy this? Perfection." (Ian Poulter on his Instagram account with 600,000 followers).
“I would go as far as to say this is the best event I've ever played. I think I'm probably biased a little bit being from Australia, but this is what LIV Golf is about." (Cameron Smith).
Rowan is proud of his 13 year tenure and his relationship with all the staff He prides himself on creating a family feel with the staff, no matter their level. He clearly goes above and beyond the call of duty and the Club says, “Rowan is loved by his peers, staff, Committee and members He is a valuable member of The Grange Golf Club Management team and has a wealth of experience which would be hard to replace. ”
