The Meadowbrook golf course has repeatedly gone underwater, been buried in silt and, after one flood, even had a cow pay a visit.
The man responsible for repeatedly dragging it back into shape has now been recognised as one of the best in the country.
Meadowbrook Golf Club course superintendent Luke Helm has won the Australian Sports Turf Managers Association Excellence in Golf Course Management Award.
Mr Helm arrived in 2018 when the course was “extremely run down” and hosting about 48,000 rounds a year.
“It really was like starting again,” he said.
Eight years later, the course hosts more than 130,000 rounds annually despite Mr Helm counting 52 minor, moderate and major flood events during his tenure.
The worst came in 2022, when every green but one went underwater.
“When you stood on the back of the clubhouse, it literally just looked like you were down at the beach or at a lake, and it just had trees popping out of the top,” he said.
When the water receded, his crew faced silt, mud, logs, dead fish, snakes and, once, a cow.
“You’ve got to disconnect from the emotion,” Mr Helm said.
“You’ve just got to get on with the job, get it done and get the course back in play as fast as you can.”
Mr Helm and his six-person crew, including four apprentices, do most major work themselves.
Since 2018, that has included rebuilding fairways and tees and resurfacing about 11 greens.
“We try to do pretty much everything in-house,” he said.
“It’s very rare we get a contractor in. It’s generally me and my crew that do it.”
The national award follows Mr Helm’s Queensland superintendent title last year and Meadowbrook’s turf crew being named joint ASTMA Sports Turf Management Team of the Year in 2022.
Mr Helm said joining previous winners he had long admired was an incredible feeling.
But he said the award also belonged to his crew.
“Without my staff, none of it happens at all,” he said.
“They’re the number one part of all this.
“They absolutely work their butts off every day.”
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