Magazine: Hats off to Hatton! Part 1: Early days to the Olympics
By Sarah Gibson in Best of the Rest on 27th Jan 2010 6:00
The drive to Cobbity farm once away from the sprawl of Sydney is a pleasant one. Cruising through quiet roads surrounded by green rolling hills Pitchcare pulls into the tranquil turf farm. We made the trip down to meet one of the turf industry’s well known names.
Geoff Hatton is one of the most recognisable figures in our industry. He’s a straight talking man with a wealth of experience. Cobbity Turf Farm south of Sydney is home to Geoff’s businesses Sustainable Renovations and Manoeuvre Equipment Pty Ltd, the sports field construction arm of the business. Geoff received the year 2000 Australian Commemorative Sports medal for a life time dedication of 40 plus years to the sports turf industry, a prestigious award voted for by his peers. In this two part article we talk with Geoff about those years, the ups and downs with a few juicy stories thrown into the mix.
Geoff’s got his start in the turf industry at East Hills Golf club. He apprenticed there and did a Tech College course in Greenkeeping. Prior to that he was a trainee manager at Woolworths for a spell but, “He didn’t want any ulcers” and decided to leave his position and continue a career in Greenkeeping- whether or not this was a wise career move in preventing ulcers is arguable!
Reflecting on when he started out in Greenkeeping Geoff refers to “the bad old days” of the 1960s. He remembers sitting at the front gate of the club as an apprentice and looking out for the water board inspector, and turning the water main quick smart if he was spotted, so the boys on the course had warning that the hoses were off and had a chance to scarper!
Geoff recalls the use of mercury and cadmium in treating turf diseases. In the 1950s and sixties Greenkeepers often used treatments that were saturated with arsenic, lead cadmium or mercury. Geoff remembers colleagues that have died or been scarred with mental illnesses through the use of these now banned lethal substances. He counts his robust metabolism and a dose of luck for escaping from any lasting detrimental heath effects, despite working with them.
Geoff’s first job as a Golf Superintendent was in 1963 when he took on a job to build Penrith Golf Club West of Sydney. He recalls the experience with a sense of pride.
Building Penrith started Geoff’s love of Golf Course construction. “Ever since building Penrith as a young fella I had an urge to build another golf course and opportunity knocked when I had the chance to work with Campbelltown council and Macarthur development board in 1976 and build the Campbelltown Golf Club.”
The Campbelltown project allowed Geoff to work with a young civil engineer who was completing his thesis on golf course construction and design. That engineer was Bob Harrison, who has gone onto become lead architect for Greg Norman golf courses. Bob made a lasting impression on Geoff, who remembers the fantastic job Bob did at Campbelltown and the passion he had for his work.
In the 1980s Geoff was poached by New Brighton Golf club. It was a hop and a skip from where Geoff grew up which attracted him to work there. However not all of Geoff’s memories were happy at the club, “By 1983 they broke me. Building a new golf course whilst maintaining an existing one with a staff of eight was too much; the pressure was too great. Geoff’s passion for the industry was too strong; he walked out turning his bac
k on Greenkeeping, and swore he would never work for another committee as long as he lived!
Geoff recalls it was a leap into the dark leaving New Brighton with a mortgage, a wife and two kids in tow and no job lined up.
Geoff branched out into landscaping and took on whatever work he could to try and earn a wage, picking up a few small construction jobs on golf courses. He completed a major construction at the Australian Golf club in 1985. This proved an exciting opportunity for Geoff allowing him to consolidate his portfolio in course construction. However despite enjoying this work Geoff had always wanted to own a turf farm. Acting on this, he leased a farm that’s today the premises of Sydney University’s Turf Institute plant breeding program. The farm was also originally owned by Eddie Seary one of the original turf growers in Australia. Eddie’s nephew Gary Lousick has maintained the family tradition. Gary’s a top quality turf grower in Cairns and Cooktown in north Queensland.
Still pursuing his goal, in 1987 Geoff bought Cobbitty Farm, a 40 acre block of land. The following years were very busy and productive for Geoff. As well as establishing the turf farm on his own land in the 1990s Geoff built the house the family still live in. Enjoying the fruits of his labour today, Geoff admits it was as a hard road during those early years, and he had to be resourceful. He recalls trawling auctions for old gang mowers and whatever he could find to use on the farm. The recession of the 1990s saw Geoff continuing with the golf course construction side of his business, taking on whatever work he could. He obtained a Sir Walter Buffalo turf license in 1995, at about the same time rebuilding the back 6 holes at Bonny Doon Golf Club- that was a vintage year!
In 1997 Geoff re built the short course at the Royal Sydney. These jobs were a real boost for Geoff, and firmly established his name and reputation in the industry.
With the Sydney Olympics fast approaching Geoff won the job to rebuild the home ground of the Campbelltown West Tigers. This was a huge job with the team involved in the profile design, construction and site management. They installed the athletics field as well as the main football field using turf grids. Geoff explained it was about this time that he was introduced to turf reinforcements.
After Campbelltown, Geoff went onto to win Olympic work. His company built the Olympic Equestrian Centre at Horsley Park, comprising of 25 acres and 18 different arenas. Geoff recalls this as an interesting and intricate job as the profile on the main Olympic arena consisted of 5 layers of different densities, meeting exact specification of tolerance for grades and compaction. The final finished surfaces provided stability and cushion. An expert in the field who had worked on seven previous Olympics, flew over from Denmark and advised Geoff on the construction. The project was a big success with the finished surfaces touted as the best in Olympic history.
Geoff was then approached by Strathayr and the builders at Multiplex Australia to install the profiles at Stadium Australia, the main Olympic Arena. Geoff did the gravel and sand profile and Strathay installed their 100mm turf profile and reinforcements on top. It was another interesting job. The team was faced with a challenging curved profile and surface. As Geoff explained the five metre survey grids showed it was plus or minus 10mms over the entire field. “Getting those curved surfaces was great for us we finished that job in just over 3 weeks which we were really excited about. We became experts at putting surfaces down, and that job really helped establish our reputation.”
Geoff then tendered for the Olympic baseball/softball field at Blacktown, and won the job, which involved maintaining the softball field during the Olympics.
Work has kept coming. Geoff recently did the profiles at Redfern Oval, home of the NRL’s South Sydney Rabbitoes. At Redfern Oval Geoff used LoKsand reinforcement. This nifty material has a crimped fibre profile which increases interlock between fibres, sand and roots, which in turn gives the turf a more uniform surface. It’s extremely useful for turf that experiences a lot of wear, such as ovals and pitches. Geoff is a big fan of LoKsand, however despite all its positives he mentioned it can prove more difficult to spread and level.
“ I think as a medium for reinforcement it’s an ideal product as in my opinion it’s better than what’s out there.”
Geoff still carries out sports field construction, and minor construction work. His team has this work down pat; they can go in and do a resurface of a field at low cost and in a short time. He prides himself and his company on being able to install surfaces quickly and efficiently with the best non compacting equipment that’s available. Geoff often works with Dr Jim Hull, who owns and runs Independent Turfgrass Consulting, he offers sound impartial advice.
When Geoff wanted to find out more on the installation of pitches, he was willing to travel. In 1999 he took a trip to America with his wife Phyllis. They paid a visit to Michigan state university, later touring round to several different states. Walking through the field day at Michigan State University Geoff spotted a man on top of a blue tractor with a Koro field top maker on the back he’d just done a demo with. The machine was parked up and Geoff said to his wife Phyllis “I’m going to buy that machine, “she replied but you haven’t seen it work yet” Geoff replied “No, but I can see what it does!”. Geoff recalls the impression the machine made on him, it was a revelation. He could see the possibilities of what a field top maker could do!
That visit began Geoff’s association and friendship with Richard Campey-he was the man sitting on top of the tractor.
Field Top Makers are useful machines. They can de-thatch, and renovate turf areas. Geoff wanted to get his hands on one of these top makers but there were no agents that sold them in Australia. Not being one to sit around Geoff didn’t any waste time and contacted Van Der Poles in Holland the distributor of the machines and offered to be distributor here in Australia.
Geoff is enthusiastic about all the Koro machines, but one machine really hit him for six, it was The Recycling Dresser. Geoff explains “it was the Holy Grail in Greenkeeping” what he’d been looking for during his career. “The concept with the recycling dresser is to maintain your profile with your soil at your depth.” When asked if the machine is suitable for use on golf greens Geoff feels it hasn’t been perfected enough for this purpose, as they “can’t tolerate the slicing action the recycler has, as opposed to the normal coring action” that is the norm in Australia . Yet this isn’t an issue in the northern hemisphere, the Recycler Dresser is used on some European greens and sports fields. Geoff has been working hard developing machines for conditions down under and has subsequently patented his improvements to the machines actions results and performance
Geoff took another trip overseas to meet Van Der Pols in Holland to consolidate the working relationship he was to have with them. He went on to meet up with Richard Campey again and his company Campey Turfcare in the north of England. Since this visit Geoff has fostered a good relationship with Campey, one built on trust, with the two respecting each others extensive experience in the industry.
The UK trip was an ideal opportunity for Geoff to explore his English roots. Geoff’s Dad was an immigrant to Australia he was originally from Middlesborough in the north east of England. He jumped ship in 1926 when he came to Australia, and never left. Geoff had a tour round his father’s home town in the middle of winter. He saw where his parents met and then married. Geoff remembers this as an emotional time.
Geoff has a close family, his wife of 42 years, Phyllis, has been an enduring support for him throughout the years. Family is important to Geoff, being one of nine children there are often 100 people at family gatherings all the right ingredients for a great party!
Next week Part 2 - The Recycling Revolution and “Lefty Socialist” Geoff!
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k on Greenkeeping, and swore he would never work for another committee as long as he lived!
