Gary’s green, green grass from Oz

We’re talking, of course, about common or garden grass, the sort you either plant in your backyard or, as the vast majority of Gary’s clients do, use it as a soft and forgiving playing surface for all kinds of sports. So, at one time or another, most of us have probably trod on Gary’s grass when we watch or play golf, bowls, soccer, cricket and rugby, or ridden horses in a polo match. Apart from its pure practicality, this same grass, properly maintained, cut and watered, is a visual treat, bringing acres of sumptuous greenery to otherwise dull and barren pastures right across Asia.

It’s no mean achievement for the lad from Victoria, whose first job at 18 was as a humble apprentice green-keeper in his home town of Stawell. Now aged 48, Gary is unquestionably a world expert on grass, with a long list of prestigious and deeply appreciative clients.

From that simple beginning, Gary went on to become senior groundsman at the Victoria Golf Club in Melbourne (a course graced by Tiger Woods in November 2010) and later as superintendent at Mandurah Country Club in Western Australia

His first taste of Asia came in 1992 when he arrived in Thailand to work on the construction of Palm Hills golf course in Hua Hin. This led to further contracts at Windmill Park in Bangkok and Great Lake at Rayong.
 
“Great Lake was something of a milestone for me as it was a Nick Faldo-designed course, and we had to work hard to make sure it was up to Faldo’s specifications,” recalls Gary.
 
In 1996, he returned to Palm Hills for a further two years. “But as the new general manager decided to get rid of me, I took up a job offer in Indonesia.”
 
For the next five years, Gary lent his growing expertise to other golf projects in China, India and South Korea before returning to Thailand in 2003 to help rebuild Muang Kaew golf course in the eastern suburbs of Bangkok. During the following nine months, he and his team ripped up all 18 tees and all but two of the greens and replanted them to new and more exacting specifications.

 By now, Gary had set up his own company, Global Turf Consulting Co, and he began to question both the suitability and the price of the grass available in Thailand and realized that he could improve on both.
 
“It occurred to me that since Australia is one of the driest places on Earth, whatever grows there can grow anywhere. And that’s where I went to suss out new grasses.”
 
In Brisbane, he visited the government’s turf research centre and found grasses most suitable for fairways and greens. From a supplier in Cairns, he placed an initial order for half a ton of two types of greens grass and one ton of tee/fairway grass.
 
“At New Kuta Golf Course in Bali, we used a grass known as Saltene, which, although better for tees and fairways, it can also be used on the greens.”
 
With licences to sell these specialized grasses outside of Australia, GTC now supplies sports facilities and private customers in Laos, Pakistan, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Burma. To grow sufficient quantities, Gary and his Thai wife Junpen have set up a 10-rai turf farm in Ratchaburi province and another in Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok. They are now looking for more land to establish nurseries.

 Apart from four office staff, GTC employs eight workers at their farms and an additional eight to look after and maintain the quality of grass at golf clubs and polo fields around Thailand, including the old and new courses at Siam Country Club, Red Mountain in Phuket, Ayutthaya Golf Cub, Alpine in Chiang Mai and Singha Park at Khon Kaen, where it also advises on its water issues.
 
It also handles four courses in Vietnam, including King’s Island, Royal Golf and Dragon Mountain.

Among GTC’s other high profile customers are Polo Escape in Pattaya, where it is currently planting a second playing field, Thai Polo Club and the Prem International School in Chiang Mai.
 
A keen cricketer and President of Siam Cricket Club, Gary was happy to allow a slight departure from the company’s normal activities when it installed an artificial grass cricket pitch at Harrow School in Bangkok.
 
On a somewhat controversial note, Gary is adamant that golf courses do not damage the environment, as some critics have suggested, provided they are built properly “and use the correct grasses.”
 
Damage occurs, only when impure or contaminated grasses are used. “Sometimes a grass is chosen based on its colour rather than its suitability, which is idiotic.”
 
He also slams the widespread practice of using pesticides, which is also harmful to the environment.
 
GTC’s rapidly expanding range of services includes the import of zeolite, a rock that mixed with sand and earth reduces the need for fertilizers by 50%.

With new golf courses opening almost every month around Asia, it’s clear that this country’s grass man will have his hands full for the foreseeable future.