Behind the scenes: Getting Royal Auckland tournament ready

This week's ISPS Handa Japan Australasia Championship is showcasing one of New Zealand's best and most storied layouts, Royal Auckland and Grange GC. We talk to the man charged with making it tournament-ready.

When you arrive on the property of RAGGC this week, the conditioning is immediately striking; this writer was taken back to the 2023 Australian Open at The Australian, plenty of similarities. It is immaculate; there isn't a blade of grass out of line.

For the first time in two decades, high-profile professional golf is back in New Zealand's biggest city, and it has been showcased accordingly. The course will play tough, but fair, and the pros are already singing its praises.

This sort of conditioning doesn't happen overnight; it takes countless hours, often logged while the rest of the city sleeps. Once you hear RAGGC Head of Agronomy, Mark Hooker, outline the processes, the effort, and the attention to detail, the way the composite layout presents, be it over the ropes or on televsion, comes as no surprise.

Hooker has had an extensive background in turf, which has taken him across the globe, with stints in Malaysia, Dubai and Bahrain.

Not a blade of grass out of line. PHOTO: Australian Golf Media.

"After about 12 years away, it was time to come home, so I've been with Royal Auckland since November 2012," Hooker tells Golf Australia Magazine while we overlook his pride and joy from the Clubhouse courtyard.

The quality of the course isn't a one-off for this week. Hooker and his 21-person team keep it pristine year-round, which helps when preparing for a top-quality international event.

"We maintain the course to a very high standard year-round, so turf quality is always good," Hooker says.

"As tournament week approaches, it's about monitoring greens and increasing mowing frequencies on fairways, approaches and surrounds.

"The rough is lush and has benefited from a wet summer. It certainly isn't a spot the pros will want to spend much time in this week.

"We had a lot of rain in January, which kept the rough healthy and green. It's starting to burn off now with a couple of dry weeks, but I like that seasonal change because it makes the fairways stand out.

"For greens, I run an audit process testing firmness, smoothness and speed. That gives me a scorecard to track where we're at.

"It's hard work working tournaments, but the excitement builds, and I've seen it in our team. They're really relaxed because they're confident." - Mark Hooker.

"During the event, it's about moisture and speed control. The tour wants to use all the green quadrants, and our greens are very undulating, so we have to be careful with speed," he adds.

The early wake-ups for the team are intense during tournament week, but Hooker says the team relish the opportunity to show off their fantastic work. Oh, and the coffee is always flowing down at the ground staff's headquarters.

"[It's] just about having lots of coffee, having some food there for them, and I guess just reminding them of, you know, key things in the morning and the afternoon sessions.

"We had the pro-am yesterday [Wednesday] with two shotgun starts, the first at 7:30am. That meant the team had to be off course by then, so they started at 3:30am.

"We have separate crews mowing greens, tees and fairways.

RIGHT: The tee boxes in perfect condition at RAGGC. PHOTO: Australian Golf Media.

"In the afternoons, we repair pitch marks, divot fairways, check ropes, and manage moisture. Hand watering becomes more important as the week goes on because we're not irrigating."

A huge part of making big tournaments possible at any venue is the help of volunteers, who have come from around the world and across the country for this week's championship.

"It's huge [the help of the volunteers].

"It's really good for learning because they'll come in and like see different ways of doing things, ask a lot of questions of our guys and hopefully come up with some ideas on how they do it."

There are volunteers from rural domestic courses like Ngaruawahia in North Waikato and even some from blockbuster international layouts like The Australian.

The big stage and television are where any turf professional wants to see their course. And for Royal Auckland, the past few months have been huge for events.

Chasing the Fox was broadcast to a huge audience across New Zealand (over 700,000 domestically) and Australia. The Ryan Fox Invitational was another big event played on the property recently.