While the world’s leading female golfers were showcasing their skills in last week’s HSBC Women’s Champions, the Asian Golf Industry Federation (AGIF) was doing its bit to raise agronomic standards on the region’s courses.
Held in conjunction with the HSBC Women’s Champions (February 27-March 2) at Singapore’s award-winning Sentosa Golf Club, the AGIF and Sentosa Agronomy Education Programme was hailed as a resounding success.
Syngenta’s Sowmya (Shoumo) Mitra, one of the driving forces behind the event, said: “We’re delighted with the turnout and also how the event was received. The responses we received from participants was exceptionally positive and some of the attendees are already talking about wanting to make it bigger and better next year.”
Along with the AGIF, Sentosa Agronomy hosted an Open House involving Tournament Preparations, Continued Education and an AGIF Field Day Series.
A total of eight AGIF Members supported the event – Atlas Turf International, Centaur Asia Pacific, Jacobsen, Jebsen & Jessen Technology, Rain Bird, Syngenta Asia Pacific, The Toro Company and Wendell Trading Company.
Mitra said: “The support we received from AGIF members was fantastic and I’d particularly like to acknowledge the efforts of Danny Potter (Centaur Asia Pacific), Chris Gray (Rain Bird) and Doris Wee (Wendell Trading).
“Also we’re indebted to Andy Johnston and his top-class team at Sentosa Golf Club. Without their backing and involvement this would not have been possible.”
The AGIF Education Committee was responsible for organising the Volunteer Education Programme. Andy Johnston (Director of Agronomy and General Manager, Sentosa Golf Club) and John Holmes (Atlas Turf and AGIF Vice President) were instrumental in lining up Dr Ron Duncan and Tim Hiers as keynote speakers.
They led education sessions on the Development of Paspalum Grass and Environmental Responsibility of Golf Course Maintenance.
The AGIF Education Committee is headed by Richard Walne (Toro). Other Committee Members are Peter Morison (Jacobsen), Steve Wilson (Bernhard) and Syngenta’s Mitra.
This was the first time the Volunteer Education Programme had been sponsored by the AGIF. Certificates of appreciation were handed out to all 71 volunteers who attended.
The volunteers were mainly golf course superintendents, assistant superintendents, representatives from distributors and manufacturers of inputs for golf course maintenance. Most of the volunteers were based in Singapore with a few visitors from Indonesia.
The education event also included a field demonstration of equipment and products by the major sponsors. The field demo day gave the volunteers an opportunity to be close to all the equipment that was being demonstrated.
AGIF www.agif.asia
Sentosa Agronomy http://sentosagolfclubagronomy.com