Marsh Mellows
8 | GrAHAm mArsH
He may be semi-retired but
Graham Marsh is not about to
while away the time in a rocking
chair, writes David Newbery
Graham marsh has been heavily involved in the
golf industry for more than four decades, mostly
as a touring professional, followed by successful
career as a golf course designer.
But at 66, the man who started life as a
mathematics teacher has started to slow down –
just a little.
marsh, affectionately known as ‘swampy’, may be
semi-retired from tournament golf, but he won’t
be taking a back-seat approach to his golf course
design business.
“i took retirement from the Champions tour in
the Us, which means i’m only eligible to play 11
tournaments a year,” said marsh, who has been on
the tour for 17 years.
He had plenty of success on the regular tours (Us,
europe, Japan and Asia) winning more than 60
tournaments.
“i still find it enjoyable to play and i still find it
enjoyable to travel in the Us and visit many of the
golf courses.
“i’m not disappointed at all, but there is a time
to say goodbye to these things and that time is
virtually now.”
What has disappointed marsh is the closure of
Palm meadows – a golf course he designed in the
1980s.
“it saddens me because i think Palm meadows
structurally is a very good golf course,” he said.
“it certainly was built extremely well and
engineered extremely well.
“remember, a lot of this goes back to
management and marketing of the golf club.
“What could have been done to save it? i don’t
know the answer to that.
“Could it have been converted to a private
members’ golf club with the right kind of
packages?
“But maybe Palm meadows was never going to be
saved.”
despite the closure of Palm meadows and a
number of other golf facilities, marsh believes the
Australian golf market is in a sound position.
“the reason for that is golf courses in Australia are
built for the right reason and that is to play golf,”
he said.
“in the Us in recent years, certainly in Japan and
other countries in south-east Asia some have tried
to profit from golf and use golf as only a means to
an end to enhance their residential development.
“Generally speaking developers in Australia have
been extremely savvy in det