Judge Smails: Ty, what did you shoot today?
Ty Webb: Oh, Judge, I don't keep score.
Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers?
Ty Webb: By height.
This is one of my favorite quotes from Caddyshack & how appropriate right now. Everybody is not happy with what Mother Nature has done to their turf & wants to know how they compare. Unfortunately, this takes away from the focus what needs to be done & how quickly can we stop the bleeding & get the patient back on his feet.
Here are some comments I've heard this summer (& the flawed reasoning behind it).
Golfer to Golf Course Superintendent
"This is the worst course in the area" (I just played your course recently & it looks nothing like the other golf course I played the member/guest at in early June)
Owners/Members to Golf Course Superintendent
"This is the worst this course has ever looked" (Having the worst summer in 20 years, the fact that the maintenance budget has been cut, you have less people than before, we've never done the capital improvement we all agreed needed to be done, etc cannot be an excuse for the way the golf course looks)
Golf Course Superintendent to Traveling sales rep
"How does my course compare to the others you've seen?" (Should we look better based on other courses with different budgets, grass types, amount of labor, age, products used, employee compensation levels, etc?)
The one thing universal: no two situations are the same. The focus should be on knowing the weaknesses of your site* & allocating the tools to optimize the resources best. If soil structure is the problem, don't spend anymore money in N-P-K fertilizer next year. If water movement is the problem, don't waste time looking at different fungicides. Because if this year teaches us anything; we now know the weaknesses of the programs & properties we deal with everyday.
IN SUMMARY
Identify your challenges
Prioritize your efforts to solve those challenges
Implement & Communicate the plan.
Let me help you in anyway I can & good luck!
LIST OF POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES (Please feel free to add on. Remember every course is different)
* quality of initial construction
* irrigation systems that have gone done at the worst times
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Poa: The friend you can't rely on
Saw a lot of turf professionals this week & a universal theme keeps coming up; Poa is unreliable. We all know how difficult it is to keep it away (it's everywhere!), but when the times get tough; it leaves. You cannot guarantee truly consistent conditions when poa is part of the plan.
The people that seem to have the most success are those that get the leadership of their golf course involved in implementing a long term grassing plan. Maybe there is not much you can do, but one thing is clear: what is happening to the poa right now is not entirely the superintendents fault (i.e. June members guest, greens that have outlived their lifespan, fertility budgets that have been cut, etc). But if you ask the members, pro shops, or the guys who pay for Saturday morning tee times & I will bet 90-100% of them say that golf maintenance should do something about it. I say this because as bad as this year is; this summer is more normal than last year (ask any person whose lived in the mid Atlantic for more than 20 years). Knowing that, what will you do so this does not happen again? And whose fault will it be if it does?
The people that seem to have the most success are those that get the leadership of their golf course involved in implementing a long term grassing plan. Maybe there is not much you can do, but one thing is clear: what is happening to the poa right now is not entirely the superintendents fault (i.e. June members guest, greens that have outlived their lifespan, fertility budgets that have been cut, etc). But if you ask the members, pro shops, or the guys who pay for Saturday morning tee times & I will bet 90-100% of them say that golf maintenance should do something about it. I say this because as bad as this year is; this summer is more normal than last year (ask any person whose lived in the mid Atlantic for more than 20 years). Knowing that, what will you do so this does not happen again? And whose fault will it be if it does?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
- Greetings
As always, I find that it's better just to jump in with 2 feet (thanks to some prodding by a good friend). Welcome to my venture into blogging. I will try to keep it short and sweet.
How quickly we go from dry to wet! Unfortunately, one thing has stayed the same..... the heat (I'm not counting 92 degrees as a "break" in the weather). Keep an eye out for those problems caused by cumulative stress.
Hang in their turf professionals. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Air, water, sunlight, soil & nutrition is the way to stay ahead of this weather.
Also, if things don't look right, do not hesitate to call me or to send out samples. I've seen some answers that were not so obvious at first.
I wish you all the best! Here's hoping that fall gets here sooner than later!
- Steve
As always, I find that it's better just to jump in with 2 feet (thanks to some prodding by a good friend). Welcome to my venture into blogging. I will try to keep it short and sweet.
How quickly we go from dry to wet! Unfortunately, one thing has stayed the same..... the heat (I'm not counting 92 degrees as a "break" in the weather). Keep an eye out for those problems caused by cumulative stress.
Hang in their turf professionals. This is a marathon, not a sprint. Air, water, sunlight, soil & nutrition is the way to stay ahead of this weather.
Also, if things don't look right, do not hesitate to call me or to send out samples. I've seen some answers that were not so obvious at first.
I wish you all the best! Here's hoping that fall gets here sooner than later!
- Steve
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)