Dr. Phillip Ford
Dr. Phillip Ford completed a degree in Agricultural Science (University of Melbourne, 1979), and initially worked as a turf agronomist at the Australian Turfgrass Research Institute (Sydney, 1981-84). He then taught turf management at trade and diploma level (1984-2008) at NMIT (now Melbourne Polytechnic), and accredited and ran the first Turf Diploma course in Australia, which started in 1987. As well as his teaching duties, he conducted research for the Victorian Golf Association on fairway grasses, couchgrass establishment methods, pest control with entomopathogenic nematodes, sand dusting and other topics. He completed a Masters Degree in Turf Management under Dr. Peter Martin at the University of Sydney (2005), with a thesis comparing evapotranspiration rates of C3 and C4 turfgrasses. In 2009 he was awarded the Victorian Golf Course Superintendents Association industry award, and in 2011 the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association Distinguished Service Award for his contribution to turf education. In 2013 he completed a PhD at Ballarat University (now Federation University) researching the link between non-contact football injury and grass traction and surface hardness. He currently works part-time as a research agronomist for PGG Wrightson Turf, based in Ballarat, and part-time teaching at Melbourne Polytechnic in the Turf Diploma program.