Chairman Message to the Members
Posted on: 21 June
Course Superintendent – Peter Fitzgerald
Members will be aware that our course superintendent, Peter Fitzgerald, has been on leave since early November last year. This week, Peter submitted his resignation to the Manager and left the company on Thursday.
Peter first worked at Magenta as an employee of Turnpoint, a course management company originally engaged by Mirvac, and was instrumental in the construction of the course and in its early development, and then became our course superintendent. After the departure of Mirvac, the management contract continued between Turnpoint and the Club. When the Board decided to bring the course maintenance in-house, Peter and his staff transferred to the employ of the Club where he continued to lead the staff under the new Management Agreement that came into effect in February 2016.
Many Members have expressed their appreciation of Peter’s commitment to the course, spending long hours ensuring that Members had the best possible surfaces to play on while easing yet retaining the challenges of Magenta.
On behalf of the Board and Members, we extend our thanks to Peter for his long period of service to the Club, the course and our Members, and wish him well for the future.
New appointment
During the past 8 months the course staff, led by Trent Gilmore and Dan Wheeler, have managed our course well, and we are grateful to them for the extended hours and hard work they have contributed. They were assisted in the process by reports from Martyn Black and the Living Turf organisation, the latter providing a programme of treatments to bring our greens and collars to an improved condition as well as various fertiliser and herbicide treatments required. This arrangement will continue until a new Course Superintendent is appointed.
As always in moments like this we have to consider the future of the course and how best to ensure its conditioning meets our expectations. With that in mind the Manager will immediately commence a detailed search for a suitably qualified senior person to take up this position. In accordance with the Management Agreement the Board must approve the appointment of a new course superintendent and we will be working with the Manager to secure the best possible outcome for Magenta Shores.
Peter Gaydon
Chairman