By Peter Owen
THERE’S one thing about Wynnum Golf Membership that draws extraordinary loyalty – not simply from the golfers who play the parkland-style course, however from the individuals who work there.
Legendary membership professional Paul King ran Wynnum’s golf store for greater than 40 years earlier than handing over to his son Matt, whose personal tenure as head professional now spans 22 years.
And Jason Adams, 54, has simply notched 25 steady years as course superintendent on the Brisbane bayside membership – a milestone that doesn’t rely the 9 years he put in earlier than heading north to play for the North Queensland Cowboys within the late Nineteen Nineties.
“It’s the members,” Adams says. “They’re simply such good folks. The members and the workers. Everyone says hi there. They pop into our shed and swap jokes. You don’t get that in different jobs.”
Adams was simply 16 when he first utilized for an apprenticeship at Wynnum. He was in yr 12 at Cleveland Excessive Faculty and, by his personal admission, was by no means a terrific scholar.
He’d grown up on a pastime farm and was way more at house rising issues than finding out literature or historical past.
“My dad got here with me for the interview,” Adams stated. “I missed out on the apprenticeship, however they have been in search of a groundsman, as nicely, they usually provided me that job. They stated I may examine in school at nights.
“And the cash was a lot better, too.
“The interview was on a Tuesday they usually requested me to begin work the next Monday,” he stated. “Dad congratulated me on getting the job, then advised me I had to return to highschool till the Friday.”
Jason Adams and the course he’s labored at for 34 years.
Later, an apprenticeship as a greenkeeper grew to become obtainable, and Adams claimed it. The pay, nonetheless, was lower than that of a groundsman and Wynnum Golf Membership made up the distinction. “This membership has at all times been good to me,” he stated,
Adams had performed rugby league with Wynnum Manly as a entrance row ahead and, in 1997, was lured north to play for the North Queensland Cowboys through the Tremendous League interval.
Spending more often than not with the reserves squad, he returned to Brisbane in late 1998, taking a job as a greenkeeper at Royal Queensland.
Although he loved his time at one in every of Queensland’s most distinguished golf golf equipment, Adams at all times yearned for a return to the bayside and was thrilled when he was appointed Wynnum’s superintendent in 1999.
He has no plans of shifting wherever else.
“The workers are nice and I like the folks right here,” he stated.
Adams brings his pet kelpie Roy to work on daily basis and says the canine is extra common with the members than he. “Individuals come into the shed on daily basis and ask, ‘the place’s Roy’?” he stated.
His workmates are additionally his greatest associates, and he speaks of the appreciation he felt once they offered him with a cake in March at a shock celebration of his 25 years’ as superintendent.
Adams heads a group of six greenkeepers, groundsmen and apprentices – quickly to be elevated to seven – and is happy with the enhancements which have been made to the course over the previous quarter century.
Wynnum is legendary for internet hosting the richest one-day match within the nation – the Bartons BMD/Wynnum Professional-Am which, in 2022, provided prizemoney of $100,000. It’s held instantly following the Queensland PGA and invariably attracts a powerful subject.
Adams and his group spend eight weeks making ready the course in order that it’s at its greatest for the massive day.
“We work laborious to get it proper, to make it one thing particular. After all, among the members at all times ask why we are able to’t have it like that every one the yr spherical.”
