Meet Our Team

We are very fortunate to have a number of highly skilled individuals who are just as passionate about building great golf holes as we are.  

Our best work comes as a result of collaboration with other members of the team as ideas are formed, refined, scrapped, only to be picked up again, twisted and turned until the right result is achieved.  These collaborations typically occur in the field…as the holes start to materialise and come out of the ground.  Designer with designer, designer with shaper, shaper with shaper, designer with client and of course everyone working with what Mother Nature has given us. 

Founded in Melbourne, Australia, OCM is the combined effort of industry leaders, directors Geoff Ogilvy, Mike Cocking, and Ashley Mead: a multidisciplinary team of experts that offer a unique lens on course design and construction. Over the last decade our team has grown to include some extremely talented individuals.

Geoff Ogilvy

Director

A veteran on the fairways, Geoff remains one of Australia’s most revered professional golfers. A keen and skilled runner as a junior, Geoff’s interest in golf came a little later than most, but his natural talent expedited his progress. Joining the 9-hole course Cheltenham as child, he then moved next door to Victoria Golf Club when he was 16 and was soon winning club, state and national amateur championships.

As a Victoria member he also became exposed to some restoration work in the late 1990s, which sparked his interest in design. After turning professional this interest continued and as Geoff became exposed to many wonderful courses in Europe and then later in America it fuelled his passion.

Winning his first major championship at the 2006 US Open, where he reached #3 in the world rankings, Geoff’s extensive, diverse on-course expertise gives him a unique perspective on course architecture, allowing OCM to ensure that today’s elite modern golfer is also catered for.

Mike Cocking

Director

As a youngster Mike didn’t think much of golf, being forced to walk the fairways behind his parents who had decided to learn the game. A decade later though he became obsessed and his interest in history and the origins of the game ultimately led to an interest in design.

Mike played to a high level as an amateur and was fortunate to travel extensively but more often than not the most exciting part of the travel was arranging to see other, usually better, golf courses in the region. Whether playing, walking or taking photos it sparked an obsession.

After completing an engineering degree Mike started his career in design in 2000 and rather fortunately was exposed to some wonderful projects including St. Andrews Beach and redesign work at his home course Peninsula Country Golf Club.

In 2004 he got the chance to be the lead designer on the RACV Healesville project, a quirky, fun little 5000m course in the Yarra Valley, which he still quotes as one of his most memorable. “How many 27 year olds are given free reign on a project and the chance to test pour a decade of ideas into a really pretty site with a good budget and a great client.”

This ultimately led to other major projects including Bonnie Doon and Royal Canberra and more recently the five-year redesign of the North and South courses at Peninsula Kingswood and our first American project at Shady Oaks in Fort Worth, Texas.

Ashley Mead

Director

Ashley’s first exposure to golf was through the mysterious and much revered “Millionaire’s Club” in Frankston. A 9-hole course influenced by Alex Russell – Alister Mackenzie’s Australian partner. Ashley would rake bunkers after school and whether deliberately or simply through exposure to great design, a love of golf and architecture was born.

His pathway into design was through the turf industry, an invaluable education as so often the lines between maintenance and design become blurred.

Like all architects starting in this industry, his early work was based in the field, helping design, build or manage works at Barnbougle Dunes, Royal Queensland and The Lakes. Ashley would then go on to lead and design many of our biggest projects including our first Asian project at Yangtze Dunes in Shanghai, China and currently the new course at Point Lonsdale.

Rob Swift

Design Associate

Rob’s love of golf led him down the maintenance path, a fairly common thread for our associates. It was his exposure to St. Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula as the assistant superintendent that fuelled his interest in design. Upon leaving this role, he joined a large construction company to get further experience building golf courses. One of his earliest projects was the redesign of RACV Healesville where Mike Cocking was the lead designer.

In 2014 Rob joined our company to project manage the redesign of Peninsula Kingswood and after four years helping in all aspects of design, construction and project management, moved to Lonsdale to undertake a similar role. With OCM also maintaining the golf courses Rob has come full circle, again becoming involved with all aspects of turf grass management, as well as aspects of design, construction and project management.

Jason McCarthy

Design Associate

Jason first got a chance to run an excavator while working on the golf course at the National Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula. As someone who had always been handy running machines, and as a keen single figure golfer, it was the merging of two passions. He quickly gained experience on small local projects on the Mornington Peninsula before getting his chance to do some shaping on major projects at Barnbougle Dunes and St. Andrews Beach in the early 2000’s. Jason has developed into one of the most experienced shapers in the country and also brings with him a good knowledge of turf, design and project management. He has travelled extensively including relocating to all corners of Australia, Yangtze Dunes in China, and recently has been the lead shaper on our project in Texas at Shady Oaks.

Paul Goss

Every construction team needs a Paul Goss! 'Gossy' has a wealth of experience and a diverse set of skills...everything from playing professional football as a teenager through to carpentry and golf course maintenance. Paul worked at Peninsula Country Golf Club (now Peninsula Kingswood) for almost 20 years and in the last 5 worked closely with our team on the construction of the two courses. Once completed he wanted to continue in this area and so joined us at Lonsdale where he has been splitting his time between construction and maintenance.

Heath D’altera

Course Superintendent

Heath was a terrific amateur golfer in the late 1990's and early 2000's and for a number of years he plied his trade as a professional on the Australian and Asian tours. As he pulled back from the competitive side of the game his love of golf drew him to maintenance and construction and he was lucky enough to work his way up the ranks at Kingston Heath Golf Club where he was the leading hand. This senior role saw him involved in all aspects of maintenance and tournament preparation but importantly also drew him to construction. In 2019 he took the position of course superintendent on our project at Point Lonsdale. Here he has had the chance to be involved with every aspect of construction, grow-in and maintenance and is looking forward to Christmas 2020 when our collective efforts will be on display for the course opening.

Peter Bessey

Peter first got involved in golf working in a pro shop in Rhode Island after quitting his NYC investment banking job at the ripe old age of 27! Putting his snooty college economics degree to one side, he soon managed to wrangle a job working as a ‘gopher’ following the PGA Tour for ABC Sports TV; fetching coffees and looking up stats for the On-Air talent. A chance meeting with Ernie Els in the early stages of the South African’s career at the PGA Tour Qualifying School led to Ernie kindly helping him with some contacts to caddy in Europe and off he went.

Peter spent several years traversing the world with a golf bag on his back for players like fellow New Englander Peter Teravainen and current Champions Tour Player Michael Allen, however his second ever gig was filling in at a pro-am on the then world number one, five-time major champion Nick Faldo’s bag when his caddie Fanny Sunesson was injured. While in Europe caddying Peter met his future wife and moved here permanently in 1995. Quickly realising he couldn’t make enough money caddying he decided to do something in wine, which had like golf been a lifelong passion. In 2010, while I was running a small winery on the Mornington Peninsula, the boys from OCM, who I had known since my golfing days, approached me to see if I was interested in assisting setting up their new Golf Course Design business. Well TEN years later, here we are! I am also a partner in a great little wine store www.finewinemerchant.com.au

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