green master OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF CGSA ◗ LEADERSHIP ◗ ADVOCACY ◗ EDUCATION JULY/AUGUST 2013 Field of Streams Wascana Country Club Hosts the 2013 Fall Field Day PLUS ◗ Turf 2.0: The mobile apps that keep your course strong ◗ The Budgeting Revolution: A new way to look at finances ◗ Floods, Fairways and Forests: A year in the life of an island golf course ◗ A Line in the Sand: A journey to reclaim bunkers PLUS ◗ Turf 2.0: The mobile apps that keep your course strong ◗ The Budgeting Revolution: A new way to look at finances ◗ Floods, Fairways and Forests: A year in the life of an island golf course ◗ A Line in the Sand: A journey to reclaim bunkers
Transcript
greenmasterofficial publication of cgsa ◗ l e a d e r s h i p ◗ a d v o c a c y ◗ e d u c at i o n
July/august 2013
Field of Streams Wascana Country Club Hosts the 2013 Fall Field Day
pluS◗ Turf 2.0: The mobile apps that
keep your course strong
◗ The Budgeting Revolution: A new way to look at finances
◗ Floods, Fairways and Forests: A year in the life of an island golf course
◗ A line in the Sand: A journey to reclaim bunkers
pluS◗ Turf 2.0: The mobile apps that
keep your course strong
◗ The Budgeting Revolution: A new way to look at finances
◗ Floods, Fairways and Forests: A year in the life of an island golf course
◗ A line in the Sand: A journey to reclaim bunkers
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TIM KuBASH, MS, AGS Past PresidentMaster superintendentsalmon arm golf clujbpo box 1525, salmon arm, bc v1e 4p6t: 250-832-8834 f: [email protected]
JAMES BEEBE Alberta Directorsuperintendentpriddis greens golf & cc1 priddis greens drivepriddis, ab t0l 1W0t: 403-931-3391 f: [email protected]
DARREN KAlYNIuK Manitoba Directorsuperintendentst. boniface golf & country club100 youville streetWinnipeg, Mn r2h 2s1t: 204-233-2497 f: [email protected]
JAMES FlETT, AGS Ontario DirectorsuperintendentMuskoka lakes golf & country clubpo box 280, 1330 ferndale roadport carling, on p0b 1J0t: 705-765-3165 f: [email protected]
GREG AuSTIN British Columbia Directorsuperintendentrevelstoke golf clubpo box 9153 rp03revelstoke, bc v0e 3K0t: 250-837-5000 f: [email protected]
KENDAll COSTAIN Atlantic Directorgolf operations ManagerWestfield golf & country club8 golf club roadgrand bay-Westfield, nb e5K 3c8t: [email protected]
JOHN SCOTT Quebec Directorsuperintendentsummerlea golf and country club1000 route de lotbinierevaudreuil – dorion, Qc J7v 8p2t: 450-455-0929 f: [email protected]
Canadian Golf Superintendents Association Board of Directors 2013 – 2014
the folloWing coMpanies generously support the canadian golf superintendents association through partnerships on specific events/prograMs:
bayer environmental science – Fall Field DayJohn deere golf – Fall Field Day, Equipment Technician Awardclub car – Environmental Awardthe toro company – Future Superintendent Award, Classic Reception/Fall Field Day, Gordon Witteveen Award
485041_club.indd 1 6/30/10 3:13:01 PM
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 3
COvER pHOTO: Wascana golf club in regina, site of the cgsa’s fall field day 2013.
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editor ’s note ◗ BIll GARRETT
◗ Flooding has been the outstanding subject for golf course superintendents and anyone else involved in this industry as summer gets underway across the country. the devastation to some of the courses in alberta and, more recently, in the toronto area has been featured in blogs, industry newsletters and photo spreads at every turn. as the days go by and reality sinks in, it is obvious that it will be some time before the long-term effects, both human and financial, will be known. GreenMaster will examine the future of the courses involved and the lives and livelihoods of the people affected in a future issue.
While some things in this business are unpredictable, there is one constant; budgeting. our feature on golf course budgeting comes at a time when superintendents are beginning to formulate plans for what products and equipment will be purchased in the off season and how staffing will look in 2014. Marc cousineau has interviewed industry veterans who offer valuable hints to make the budgeting process more efficient. also take a look at Jim riopelle’s summary of a turf care record log that he uses as
GreenMaster is published six times a year (Jan/Feb, March/April, May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec) by the Canadian Golf Superintendents’ Association:
GreenMaster® is a registered trademark of the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. All rights reserved.
CANADA POST PUBLICATIONS MAIL PUBLICATIONS AGREEMENT No. 40025905Return undeliverable copies to:Canadian Golf Superintendents’ Association 5399 Eglinton Avenue West, Suite 201Toronto, ON M9C 5K6
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 5
bill garrett, ceM MANAGING EDITOR
greenmasterJuly/august 2013
vol 48, no. 4
a precursor to the next season’s budget presentation at oak island golf resort in Manitoba.
this issue’s cover features Wascana country club in regina, saskatchewan, home to the 2013 cgsa fall field day. participants this year are in for a real treat as they experience the unique beauty of this gem. as part of the program, the cgsa is offering a seminar on sunday morning and a chance to purchase tickets for some cfl action on sunday afternoon between the saskatchewan roughriders and the bc lions. the seminar will be presented by bill brown, cgcs, who is also featured in this issue of GreenMaster. learn about the latest apps, tools and programs that will increase your productivity.
there’s more inside including a piece on hydraulic safety from eddie Konrad and a profile on the career of george pinches, retiring gM at hamilton golf & country club, in our back nine section.
enjoy the pages ahead. GM.
COMInG EVEnTSsepteMber 23rd, 2013
CGSA Fall Field Day
Wascana golf and country club regina, saskatchewan host superintendent: Mike Kupchanko
february 17th – 21st, 2014
Canadian International Turfgrass Conference and Trade Show
vancouver convention centre vancouver, british columbia
16 Keeping You and Your Turf App-yMobile apps help you manage on the course
18 Employment ContractsFewer headaches for employer and employee
20 It Grows in the Family
22 Meeting Wascana
26 Oak Island Golf Resort Recovery from a Ruinous 2011 Flood
31 Water Use of Various Turf Species on Greens and Fairways
34 A Line in the Sand
36 Golf and the environment: Water Management
6 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
vie wpoint ◗ JOHN MIllS
John Mills, pRESIDENT
◗ As superintendents, we are called upon to deal with adversity all too often. Mother nature is usually the culprit, but sometimes adversity may stem from vandalism or resource challenges. however, when heavy mountain rains in southern alberta flooded the rivers in late June and devastated many golf courses it was definitely Mother nature at her angriest. for many in our industry, the effects were life-altering. some courses may not reopen while others will be closed for up to a year while renovating to repair the damage.
i am always impressed and proud of the way our industry pulls together to provide support for fellow members in need. i have heard many stories and examples of this support during the flooding. these examples of support are still coming, as unaffected courses and industry companies continue to lend personnel and equipment to help those most affected by the flooding.
unfortunately this is not the only example of the elements affecting golf courses in a hugely negative way in recent memory. a late winter, and with it late snow and frost, caused many setbacks and pushed back the opening of courses around the country this year. deepening droughts across the u.s have hit our colleagues to the south quite hard.
but every time harsh circumstances test the resolve of golf course managers, they ace that test, mostly due to the great dedication they have to the job and the generous and hardworking spirit of the industry’s community.
former cgsa president neil blayney wrote this about overcoming adversity in a 2006 edition of GreenMaster, “…success (is)
directly related to the superintendent and his/her ability to bring employees together as a team, and in doing so, creating a dedicated group of individuals working toward a common goal.” there is no doubt from the number of pictures and the quality of words in emails, on social media and other communications that the golf course management teams in southern alberta, led by their superintendents, have been working towards that common goal, occupied day and night with restoring their golf courses.
there is also a larger community to rely on in the time of need for golf course superintendents, one that the cgsa provides for its members. this larger community includes the resources available from the Michigan state university libraries’ turfgrass information file (tgif) as well as resources offered through the cgsa’s relationships with other golf course management organizations globally.
government is another primary source of relief and assistance during disaster scenarios that hit all industries. the cgsa, as a component of naga, is making enquiries with the appropriate federal agencies to ensure golf is included in any relief programs established to assist business. probably the most important aspect of your association involvement is long-lasting contacts made through the cgsa that can be called upon for a helping hand, a piece of sage advice or a voice of support.
learning more about yourself, your course and the community of colleagues around you is a much-needed silver lining in the face of adversity. hardship has a way of bringing people together, especially the
cgsa community, which is always there and ready to help, but not always physically visible. the hurdles that life lays down in the front of us brings others in the industry out to run the race together and in doing so, makes us better off for knowing that we are never alone in our struggles.
there are many moments that we unite as a cgsa community. sometimes it is in adversity, but at other times it is simply to share, build relationships and discover. one such opportunity for this to happen is the annual fall field day, being hosted in 2013 by Wascana country club and superintendent Mike Kupchanko on september 23. i encourage all cgsa members to consider registering for this great event that brings together the cgsa community for a couple of days of education, fun and fellowship. in that regard, i extend a special invitation to any alberta superintendent whose course has been unable to open since the flooding in June to have their fall field day registration provided compliments of the cgsa.
i also encourage you to view adversity, something we have all faced or will all face in our careers, as a time to gather together and realize your own strength and determination and the willingness of your colleagues in the industry to lend a helping hand or two. GM
“I am always impressed and proud of the way our industry pulls together to provide support for fellow members in need.” John Mills, CGSA President
Dealing with Adversity
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 7
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July/august 2013 | greenMaster 9
vie wpoint ◗ KEN COuSINEAu
◗ In his first message to the golf sector after becoming the cgsa president, John Mills spoke of the importance of a strong national association and the value of membership. he encouraged the golf community and the current members of the cgsa to recruit new members to the association, while asking current members to continue their support. his goal was to have 200 new members join the association in the next year.
that goal of 200 new members is certainly attainable, but it will require the cgsa community to contribute to the process. that type of contribution is obviously very important, since new members are vital to growing the reach and the influence of the association. each new member also provides a new perspective on the issues facing golf course superintendents and how best to address those issues.
having a national association builds a community of superintendents and also offers a great many ways for you to contribute and be part of that community. each opportunity adds value to the experience of being a member and makes the association a more vibrant and vital part of the overall golf community.
a great example of this is the cgsa national tournament program. the main purpose or objective in setting up the program back in 1995 was to recognize the superintendent members of the association that hosted prominent tournaments at their facilities. since the tournaments are typically organized by golf canada, the pga of canada or the pga tour canada, the presentation also provides profile with respect to those three organizations. that exposure extends to the golfers and fans and
helps that aspect of the industry – the customer – understand the value and the commitment of the superintendent to the game.
another way to contribute to the community is through participation. there are several obvious and visible ways to participate, such as being a volunteer for service at the board of directors or committee level or being a speaker at the conference or as part of a seminar. other ways that are as important, but probably don’t have the same visibility, include completing a survey or participating in an event such as the fall field day or the conference and trade show.
Writing a magazine article for GreenMaster Magazine is another great way to assist the association. an article provides needed content. it also gives you an opportunity to examine a task or project in detail and to discuss it with colleagues across the country through the magazine. at the same time, it provides an educational resource for many superintendents that could be facing the same or very similar situations. as a superintendent or assistant, it would also qualify you for consideration for the gordon Witteveen award for “Best Article of the Year”.
participation in an event can also take many forms. the cgsa fall field day can involve a major contribution by both an individual superintendent and the golf club. inviting 144 of your peers and golf industry personnel to your golf course to participate in a tournament is a significant contribution, which involves the entire club. the members or regular customers give up the golf course for the day, the clubhouse is taken over and the dining room, locker room and pro
shop staff are all making a contribution. as participants in the tournament, the fall field day registrants and the tee and event sponsors are all contributing to the community.
these are just a few of the ways that members contribute. as a community, the benefits that result from these contributions include collaboration on industry issues affecting the superintendent, representation of the interests of the superintendent, recognition of the contributions and of the value of the superintendent to the success of the facility and the delivery of important information to you from a reliable source to allow you to make better decisions. the larger the community, the more everyone benefits because of the increased interaction and the increased focus on the relevant issues. as a result, the biggest contribution you can make to the community probably takes the least time and effort on your part. renew your membership in the cgsa, recruit a new member, grow our organization and reap the rewards that come with a strong and vibrant community. GM
Ken cousineau, cae ExECuTIvE DIRECTOR
The Value of Community
“Each new member also provides a new perspective on the issues facing golf course superintendents and how best to address those issues.” Ken Cousineau, CGSA Executive Director
ne ws FroM tHe Green ◗ MARC COuSINEAu
◗ The Barrie Country Club and the vernon golf and country club are both celebrating their 100th anniversary this year after humble beginnings.
the barrie country club, the course of cgsa member and superintendent edward doda, was born as a nine-hole course and has grown up over the years to become an 18-hole championship course and barrie’s only year-round private golf club.
those members that have grown up alongside the course don’t find it difficult to explain the club’s success and longevity.
“it is an all-year-round venue where we can gather as a family, host our celebrations, or just have breakfast,” says long-time member anne arksey.
“We feel very fortunate to have been part of the barrie country club for so many years.”
vernon g&cc, and its gcsa member superintendent ray popoff, are commemorating the same milestone, having been a mainstay in the vernon
area of b.c since 1913. the semi-private, 18-hole championship course was moved three times in its first 10 years of existence, but finally found a permanent place to call home in 1922, on the same grounds it is on today.
“rich in history and dedication from its members over the years, the club would not be what it is today without the hard work and perseverance of the people,” says Julie Knobloch, vernon g&cc’s golf course general manager.
“the people are what make the club.”
Bizarre theft at English course shocks staff◗ The staff at Crane Valley Golf Club in dorset, england, came to work in late May to find their course looking a little bare after 91 trees were stolen from the grounds overnight.
the staff arrived early in the morning,
only to realize that every one of the course’s 91 leylandii trees had been dug up from its roots and taken.
the extraordinary heist involved the culprits breaking through the main gate with bolt cutters and capturing the dozens of seven-month-old trees, all standing between five and seven feet tall.
the local police estimated that the value of the stolen trees totaled less than $1500 in what is maybe the most perplexing part of a bizarre story.
a police spokesman said that this was the second case of tree theft in the town in the past month. previously 50 trees were stolen in a raid on a private address. however, local media has said that police are not linking the two crimes.
B.C golf course rebounds from tough times◗ A British Colombia golf course is back
Pair of Member Courses Celebrate Century Mark
golfers WalK doWn the fairWay at barrie country club. the club is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.
10 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
on its feet and ready to welcome golfers after being closed for the past four years.
saratoga beach golf course used a $300,000 cash injection and months’ worth of extensive facilities upgrades to once again open its greens to visitors.
“last fall we began working on getting the greens, tees and fairways back into prime condition and we did extensive renovations to much of the infrastructure,” says manager Keith ‘gibby’ gibson, “including rebuilding the driving range and renovating the clubhouse and maintenance building.”
the course, situated between comox valley and campbell river, plays to 2,316 yards over 33 acres, including a full length driving range. the course even has one sand trap that players won’t mind stepping into; there is 200 yards of sandy beach on the property that golfers can enjoy before or
after a round of golf.“saratoga beach golf course and driving
range is a great community asset and we are excited that this 9-hole par 33 executive style golf course will once again add to the region’s robust outdoor recreational activities,” says gibson.
“our goal is to provide affordable golf for
people of all ages and to be able keep the golf course open 12-months of the year - weather permitting of course!” GM
the 13th hole at vernon golf and country club, another course that is MarKing its 100th year in business.
above insets: saratoga beach golf course opens its greens to visitors after a four-year closure and extensive renovations.
Quali-pro ....................................................... 4the toro company ................................. 2 Western root Zone ............................. 25
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 11
12 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
Feature ◗ MARC COuSINEAu
◗ Veteran superintendent Bill Fach spent many hours in university learning about agronomy and class after class studying the complexities of turfgrass to prepare him for his time on the golf course.
but after all these lessons, he still says the most important time spent in university was learning how to budget.
“When i was in university, we had a course about budgeting for a project. My project was running a golf course. so i put down on paper what tasks i would need to do to run a golf course, using people, not money. everyone thought it was the stupidest course, but when i got out and working, i thought that it was one of the best courses i ever had at the university.”
fach, the superintendent at black bear ridge in belleville, ontario, is not alone in believing sound money management is one, if not the most, important tool in a golf course superintendent’s toolbox. as management and golfers raises expectations, while at the same time lowering budgets, superintendents have had to adapt. the result has been new and
innovative budgeting systems that make financial planning more efficient. this has led to the development of task-based budgeting methods being heralded by superintendents across canada.
fach compares this task-based approach of budgeting to building a house.
“you’d have to dig the foundation first and then fill the foundation and so on, so you do a task every day to build the house,” says fach.
“i do the same thing for the golf course. i take all the tasks we need to do on the course and i assign each one of these tasks a person and a certain number of hours to do this task.”
fach uses Microsoft project Manager to turn these tasks into dollar signs. by inputting all the resources and costs needed to complete the activity, such as wages, fuel for vehicles and machines and any products or tools used, he comes up with a price.
fach uses this example to explain the system; it takes one staff member, paid $10.50 an hour, six hours to spray greens with a chemical that costs $86 per application. the employee has to spray the greens eight times a year and uses two litres of gas every time they spray, which costs $2. after inputting all these numbers into project Manager, a superintendent can figure out that the cost of spraying greens for an entire year would be $1,288.
greg austin, the superintendent at revelstoke golf club in revelstoke, b.c., has a similar outlook on budgeting.
every year, austin looks to break down his budget into tasks and assign costs to every resource used for those tasks.
“instead of just a broad scope of how much money we’re going to spend in a certain month, i look at what each activity is going to cost right down to the amount of fuel used and the depreciation on a specific vehicle,” explains austin.
While austin uses a slightly different system than fach, excel spreadsheets instead of project Manager, the approaches are similar; something austin says is all about spending efficiently.
“the goal, ultimately, is to maximize efficiency,” says austin, “mainly because we are a non-profit society and every dollar has to be stretched and spent as wisely as possible.”
creating a detailed budget means having pages of financial information available at your fingertips. this information has several benefits for superintendents. Jeff stauffer, the superintendent at credit valley g & cc in Mississauga, ontario, says showing a firm grasp of financials and budgeting can go a long way with club management and members.
◗ continued on page 14
$86 $63$2
Redrawing the Bottom Line
Un élément essentiel à revérifier
Superintendents are starting to revolutionize the way they budget
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 13
◗ pendant qu’il était à l’université, M. bill fach, surintendant chevronné, a consacré de nombreuses heures à l’agronomie et aux complexités des sciences du gazon pour se préparer à son emploi futur sur un parcours de golf. Mais parmi toutes les matières au programme, celle qui a compté le plus, selon lui, a été d’apprendre à établir un budget.
« pendant que j’étais à l’université, nous avons appris à budgéter un projet. le mien portait sur la gestion d’un terrain de golf. J’ai donc mis sur papier les tâches qui devaient être accomplies par les divers employés pour faire fonctionner un parcours. nous pensions tous qu’il s’agissait d’un cours absolument stupide, mais quand j’ai commencé à travailler, j’ai réalisé qu’au contraire, il avait été l’un des plus utiles de toutes mes années passées à l’université. »
Maintenant surintendant du black bear ridge de belleville (ontario), M. fach n’est pas le seul à penser que la saine gestion financière est l’un des outils les plus précieux d’un surintendant de terrain de
golf, sinon le plus précieux de tous. la direction et les golfeurs ont des attentes de plus en plus élevées, alors que les budgets diminuent. les surintendants doivent donc s’adapter. en conséquence, il faut mettre en place des modes de budgétisation innovateurs afin de rendre la planification financière plus efficace. ainsi, bon nombre de surintendants au canada utilisent aujourd’hui des méthodes budgétaires centrées sur les tâches.
M. fach compare cette approche budgétaire innovatrice à la construction d’une maison. « il faut tout d’abord creuser et couler les fondations, et ensuite élever la structure jour après jour, tâche après tâche », déclare M. fach. « Je fais la même chose sur mon parcours. Je dresse la liste des tâches à accomplir et je désigne un responsable pour chacune de celles-ci, et un certain nombre d’heures pour la mener à bien. »
M. fach utilise le système de gestion de projet project Manager de Microsoft pour convertir chacune des tâches à accomplir en dollars. en entrant toutes les ressources et les coûts nécessaires à l’accomplissement d’une tâche, tels les salaires, le carburant pour les véhicules et la machinerie, et tous les produits et outils utilisés, il arrive à un prix.
pour expliquer ce système, M. fach donne cet exemple : « un membre du
personnel, payé 10,50$ de l’heure, prend six heures pour vaporiser des substances chimiques sur les verts, au coût de 86$ par application. l’employé doit vaporiser la surface huit fois par année et utiliser deux litres de gaz pour chaque application, ce qui coûte 2$. après avoir entré toutes ces données dans le logiciel project Manager, un surintendant peut déterminer que l’arrosage des verts coûte 1288$ pour toute l’année. »
M. greg austin, surintendant de revelstoke golf club de revelstoke (c.-b.), a un point de vue similaire sur la budgétisation. chaque année, M. austin ventile son budget par tâche et attribue des coûts à chaque ressource utilisée pour chacune de ces tâches. « au lieu de donner un chiffre global des sommes à prévoir au cours d’un certain mois, je chiffre le coût de chacune des activités, y compris en ce qui a trait au carburant utilisé et même à la dépréciation de chaque véhicule », explique M. austin.
Même si M. austin utilise un système quelque peu différent de celui utilisé par M. fach, à savoir les tableurs excel au lieu de project Manager, la manière de procéder est similaire.
◗ suite À la page 15
$86 $63$2
Une nouvelle manière de préparer le budget gagne du terrain
14 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
◗ continued froM page 12
“When you arm yourself with data and historical information, you gain credibility when you start to speak towards the viability of meeting (the management’s) requests,” says stauffer.
“if the finance committee is asking for something to be completed over and above what we’ve done in the past, i can reasonably tack a man-hour number to that project and turn that into a dollar figure.”
“for example, i can calculate that to add a double cut of the greens, four times a week, equals so many man-hours based on previous averages. from that i can easily tell them how much money it will take to incorporate that request.”
golf course management and members are paying closer attention to how superintendents spend money, says austin. the approach to budgeting has changed with these evolving attitudes.
“With reduction in revenues comes a tightening of our budgets and expenses and, with that, more accountability for how we spend that money,” says austin.
“ideally what i’m trying to do is show responsibility and that i’m not just spending money and trying to find out later how much i spent, but that i’m on top of my expenses before i’ve spent them so that everything is accounted for.”
technology has quickened the pace of change among golf course management professionals. new systems, applications and devices have shifted the way superintendents track staff hours and resources used on specific tasks. this up-to-the-minute reporting has revolutionized the way some superintendents budget.
“technology is changing so rapidly and it comes at a perfect time,” says austin.
“it comes at a time where we need to be more accountable for every expense and tracking those costs can be done almost to the minute by any one of my staff, wherever they are, using their phones.”
austin points to the mobile application turf profit as being a great tool for golf course managers. the app is used by staff members on the course to input data about a certain task, which is all maintained in the course’s database. so austin can be half-way across the country and know exactly what is happening at his course, minute-by-minute.
Knowledge of this rapidly-advancing financial technology is becoming increasingly attractive to employers seeking to hire tech-savvy staff.
“My son and one of my assistant superintendents used the project Manager system and when they went for job interviews, the general managers of the courses were impressed by how they could control their budgets,” says fach.
even though money sense is becoming more valuable by the day, superintendents still need to be experts about the day to day tasks of running a golf course in order to build a task-oriented budget, says fach.
“every superintendent should know every task they need to do for every day of the year,” says fach.
“if you asked me what i was going to do on, say, august 10 and it was a Wednesday, i could tell you exactly what i need to do that day on the course because i know what needs to be done on Wednesdays.”
putting that knowledge into practice to make a budget isn’t always easy, especially when navigating around other factors such as taxes. but austin has some advice for rookie superintendents who are sitting down to do their first budgets.
“reach out to a colleague or a mentor for assistance or help,” says austin.
“i think the key is to double check your numbers and stay up-to-date on taxes, such as what fertilizers are taxed and which ones aren’t, to make sure pre-purchase numbers are correct.”
stauffer also encourages others to double check their work and be confident in their budgets.
“carefully review the components of the budget, make no assumptions and make sure that you firmly believe you can stand behind what is down on paper.”
as for fach, he is making sure that university students learn the same important lesson he learned all those years ago in school.
“i’ve gone to guelph university about five or six times,” he says, “and every time i go, i tell them about project Manager and how useful and crucial budgeting is to being a superintendent.” GM
Technology has quickened the pace of change among golf course management professionals.
◗ suite de la page 13
en résumé, il s’agit d’utiliser les fonds de manière efficace, selon M. austin. « nous avons pour objectif de maximiser notre efficacité parce que nous sommes une société à but non lucratif et que chaque dollar doit être utilisé au maximum et dépensé judicieusement. »
la préparation d’un budget détaillé met à votre portée de nombreuses pages d’information financière. cette information présente de nombreux avantages pour les surintendants. selon M. Jeff stauffer, surintendant de credit valley g & cc de Mississauga (ontario), une solide connaissance des finances et des composantes du budget est très utile lors des rencontres avec la direction et les membres.
« Quand vous avez en main toutes les données et l’historique, votre crédibilité est renforcée dans vos pourparlers avec la direction », déclare M. stauffer. « si le comité des finances me demande d’entreprendre une nouvelle initiative, je suis en mesure de bien évaluer le nombre d’heures-personnes qu’il me faudra et chiffrer le tout en dollars. par exemple, je peux calculer que si la coupe des verts se fait deux fois plus souvent, quatre fois par semaine, il me faudra ajouter un certain nombre d’heures-personnes d’après les moyennes antérieures. ensuite, je peux facilement évaluer les coûts pour répondre à cette demande. »
selon M. austin, la direction et les membres des terrains de golf portent maintenant plus d’attention à la façon dont l’argent est dépensé par les surintendants. en conséquence, la manière d’établir le budget s’est transformée. « la diminution des recettes a entraîné des coupures de budget et le resserrement des dépenses, ainsi qu’une plus grande obligation de rendre des comptes. en fait, je veux démontrer que je suis responsable, que rien n’est laissé au hasard, que je sais exactement où je m’en vais et que tout est bien calculé d’avance. »
la technologie a accéléré le rythme des changements dans la gestion des terrains de golf. les nouvelles méthodes, applications et manières de faire ont transformé la façon de superviser les heures et les ressources
nécessaires pour exécuter des tâches précises. pour plusieurs surintendants, cette possibilité de suivre de très près tout ce qui se passe a révolutionné la manière d’établir leur budget.
« la technologie se transforme très rapidement et arrive en temps opportun », poursuit M. austin. « en effet, ces nouvelles façons de faire arrivent au moment même où nous devons justifier dans les détails toutes nos dépenses, et tous mes employés peuvent maintenant suivre ces coûts à la minute près, où qu’ils soient, à l’aide de leur cellulaire. »
selon M. austin, l’application mobile turf profit est un excellent outil pour les gestionnaires de parcours de golf. À l’aide de cette application, les membres du personnel peuvent entrer les détails d’une tâche et les sauvegarder dans la banque de données du parcours. ainsi, M. austin peut savoir exactement ce qui se passe sur son parcours, à la minute près, même s’il est à l’autre bout du pays.
les employeurs s’intéressent de plus en plus aux personnes qui connaissent ces nouvelles technologies financières en pleine évolution. « au cours de leurs entretiens d’embauche, mon fils et mon adjoint ont beaucoup impressionné d’éventuels employeurs grâce à leur connaissance du logiciel project Manager et à leurs méthodes de contrôle du budget », poursuit M. fach.
« la maîtrise des questions financières devient de plus en plus précieuse tous les jours. cependant, les surintendants doivent tout de même rester des experts de la bonne gestion quotidienne d’un terrain de golf pour être en mesure d’établir un budget orienté sur les tâches à accomplir », précise M. fach. « tous les surintendants devraient savoir exactement ce qu’il faut faire tous les jours. par exemple, si vous me demandiez ce que je vais faire le 10 août par exemple, et que cette journée-là est un mercredi, je pourrais vous le dire exactement, parce que je sais ce qu’il faut faire le mercredi. »
Mettre en pratique les connaissances acquises pour établir un budget n’est pas toujours facile, particulièrement en raison d’autres facteurs qui entrent en ligne de compte, comme les taxes. Mais M. austin a quelques conseils à prodiguer aux jeunes surintendants qui préparent leur premier
budget. « adressez-vous à un collègue ou à un mentor pour obtenir de l’aide », leur dit-il. « il est crucial de revérifier ses chiffres et d’être à jour sur les questions entourant les taxes, à savoir quels engrais sont taxés ou non par exemple, et de s’assurer que les numéros de préachat soient exacts. »
M. stauffer encourage également tous les surintendants à prendre le temps nécessaire pour bien établir leur budget. « il faut en revoir minutieusement toutes les composantes, ne rien laisser passer, et s’assurer d’être en mesure de bien défendre ce que vous avez mis sur papier. »
en ce qui concerne M. fach, il voit à ce que ses étudiants apprennent la même leçon importante qu’il a apprise il y a bien des années à l’université. « Je suis allé à l’université guelph cinq ou six fois, et chaque fois je leur parle du logiciel project Manager et de l’extrême utilité pour les surintendants de savoir établir un budget. » GM
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La technologie a accéléré le rythme des changements dans la gestion des terrains de golf.
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 15
Feature ◗ BIll BROWN
16 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
◗ Technology and its uses have grown exponentially in the last 10 years. i can recall my years as an assistant golf course superintendent when cutting edge was email, weather stations on the internet and the nextel push-to-talk phones (which doesn’t exist anymore). if you wanted any kind of mobile computing power, you were stuck with a large blackberry that didn’t do much more than check your email. however, i have always been a tech guy, and at the time, with my blackberry and nextel push-to-talk phone, i considered myself cutting edge, and i was.
in 2007, there began a major paradigm shift in mobile computer power with the release of the first iphone. this phone truly did change everything, as apple would say.
in 2009, i was asked in an interview with a media company, where do i see things
going in mobile development? i told them that i saw the world of application development for devices, like iphone and android, becoming big. i saw developers harnessing the power of these devices and giving us applications that would truly change how we did things.
fast-forward to today and there is no doubt that statement was and is true.
so what apps are we using to manage our courses? Well, i am going to talk about a few applications that can be used on iphone, ipad and android devices to hopefully help create some efficiency in your operation.
the first app, which i believe really gets overlooked as a useful app, is reminders on the iphone. have you ever left your clubhouse or shop with a goal, a simple to-do, and have been pulled in 10 different directions before getting there,
forgetting to complete your to-do? or have you awoken at night only to think of something you need to do upon arriving at work in the morning? reminders for iphone is a fantastic app to help with that for one simple reason; it is smart enough to remind you to do something at a location. When entering a to-do in reminders, you simply ask it to “remind me at” and set a location. you can also tell it to remind you when you leave a location. our day is built around to-dos and this application is often overlooked as one that can really help organize your daily activities.
having a gps map of your course was once a high-priced luxury. now, for pennies on the dollar, you can have your golf course gps-mapped and can have that map right at your fingertips on your smartphone or tablet. i used a
Keeping You and Your Turf App-yMobile apps help you manage on the course
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July/august 2013 | greenMaster 17
specific company, coursevision, to have my course mapped and an app called arcgis to display that map on both my iphone and ipad. arcgis allowed me to measure course features for spraying or fertilizing and even the occasional project. having my irrigation system within the map allowed me to use my iphone and/or ipad to find that buried valve box or sprinkler head using the built in gps on these devices.
if you don’t have your course already mapped and getting it completed just isn’t in the plans for the future, MeasureMap is the next best thing. this application costs $1.99, but don’t let the price tag fool you. MeasureMap is a powerful gps app that allows you to measure distances and areas directly from your phone or tablet. this app is packed full of features, but one in particular, with a little bit of sweat equity, can go a long way. MeasureMap allows you to save any feature you measure as a .kml file. to put it simply, this is the file type used by google Maps to define gps layers. if you took the time to measure all the features of your course and saved them as .kml files, you would have a complete gps map of your property within google Maps.
using either of the map programs above can really make your scouting reports interactive. When scouting your golf course, you can create maps of what you are seeing, so instead of creating notes and bullet points about where you might have seen dollar spot, you can display the dollar spot on the map program right from your smartphone. this can then be shared with other employees via email or you can simply print out the maps.
tree management can be one of the most political issues a golf course
superintendent has to deal with. so let’s try to take the emotion and subjectivity out of the next tree you need to prune or take down with an app called sunseeker.
this app was originally developed to determine solar panel locations. Many superintendents and arborists are using it as a shade management app. this app can provide you with objective information on shade issues in both 2d and 3d. utilizing the 3d augmentation feature allows you to use your smartphone or tablet’s camera to see the path of the sun for any given day of the year. standing on a green and using this app will objectively tell you which trees, or maybe just tree limbs, are causing you shade issues on a particular green or turf area.
there are endless amounts of applications that could be used on smartphones and tablets to assist golf course superintendents and it’s hard to pick just a few. in 2009, i started iturf apps, which has become the top technology resource for turf professionals. recently we have launched our own app store which provides the best applications for turf managers to use. our app store provides descriptions of apps so you can understand how they fit into your operation. We also have our own review system, so if you have used one of the apps we feature and want to provide information on how you use it, send us
a review. the iturf apps app store also directly links to both the apple app store and android Market, so if you see an app you would like, you can download it directly from our site.
there is no doubt that using a tablet or smartphone can add efficiencies to your operation. some applications can bring a significant roi to your operation as well. it is great to see manufactures in our industry beginning to turn to app development and providing us additional tools for our turf manger’s tool belt. GM
Bill Brown is the founder iTurf Apps. He is nationally recognized for his use of technology in the golf industry and frequently gives speeches across the U.S with the Golf Course Superintendent Association of America. His use of technology as a Certified Golf Course Superintendent has also been covered in national media.
MeasureMap SunSeeker
“I saw developers harnessing the power of these devices and giving us applications that would truly change how we did things.” Bill Brown, iTurfApps
◗ One of the best reasons for starting employment with a written contract is that the parties can define the manner in which it will end. this can occur without the pressure of an actual dispute. the rules can be set at the beginning.
to set the rules, a number of considerations must be agreed upon. all jurisdictions have some statutory employment standards. in many provinces, notice after three months of service equates to one week for every completed year, to a maximum of eight weeks. in ontario, an employee with more than five years of service is also entitled to statutory severance pay of one week per completed year of service, to a maximum of 26 weeks. the precondition is that the employer must have at least 50 employees and a payroll of at least $2.5 million annually.
both these basic statutory standards are minimums. they are included in the amounts for reasonable notice that an employee may expect under our common law. these are the precedents coming from judicial decisions. generally, under the common law, one wants to assert that all contracts for senior employees, like superintendents, should allow at least three months of notice or pay in lieu. for every completed year of service, one month of notice is often regarded as reasonable. these considerations form the bargaining backdrop.
other matters, like total years of service, re-employability, seniority, special skills and status of position, are relevant too. a younger, lower-paid, highly skilled assistant superintendent at a mid-sized club may be expected to find work faster than a very senior, highly-paid person at a top club.
employers may like contracts for a set term, like three or five years, because they avoid notice pay. the contract just ends. usually, employees insist that decisions about renewal be made well in advance so the employee knows well ahead if he or
she needs to search for a new job. be clear, it is acceptable to be given working notice that the contract will end.
there are three kinds of termination to consider: just cause, no notice; no cause, proper notice; and termination at the end of a contract.
if there is cause at common law, no notice is required. some employers try to define cause by using examples in the contract. this creates problems for both sides because there are always grey areas. some definition may make matters more confusing. it is better to leave questions of cause to be decided on the particular facts under review. there are many example cases to help. this more vague approach makes sense because there are very few cause terminations in this industry. detailing the subject is unwarranted.
notice provisions for without cause terminations need to be defined in case the employer wants to end employment during the contract, rather than at the end. it is best to declare how much notice should be given. also, employees should ask that the contract provide for benefits coverage throughout the notice period. in essence, without cause notice is like continuing to work while the notice runs. the employee should be treated the same.
timing of a termination can be significant. for the terminated employee, finding another good job is the goal. that is nearly impossible during the golf season. all clubs fill their openings by March so that preparation for the new season can go on efficiently. terminations are often executed in november, when the clubs close. certainly, the five month winter period is the best time to search for employment in this industry and for employers to have the most choices. ideally, every contract should set its end date for some time in november. this approach protects the interests of both parties.
sometimes, a superintendent is
Employment Contracts Fewer headaches for employer and employee
18 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
This article is the second in a series to introduce a prototype employment contract for members to consider in the future. The goal is to inform all members of some of their basic employment rights to permit more informed negotiations of future contracts. Since employment laws are provincially regulated, these comments will not replace the need for local legal assistance in individual cases.
Feature ◗ ROSS DuNSMORE
employed without a set term. in a contract of indefinite duration, notice is determined by common law rules unless defined in the agreement. Which approach is better? usually, the more short-service employee prefers precise notice while the long-service employee likes the proposition that the common law may dictate; one month of service up to 24 months based on years of service. of course, if the parties seek clarity, they define their terms. if they are more comfortable with each other, the common law works fine.
With all these considerations in mind, the following language can be considered: the employer may terminate the employee without cause upon providing a minimum of three months of working notice or pay in lieu, thereof including benefits continuation. upon the completion of four years of service, an additional month of working notice or pay in lieu thereof shall be added and one more month shall be added thereafter upon the completion of each year of service until the total is twelve months of working notice or pay in lieu thereof.
one last issue: an employer cannot
change the contract from indefinite, undefined notice to a set term or limited notice, unless the employee agrees. for example, the 15-year employee with no defined notice is entitled, in a non-cause case in ontario, to eight weeks statutory notice and 15 weeks severance pay at a bigger club and perhaps up to 15 months under common law. if the employer proposed a new term contract and a six month notice period, the employee can reject the proposal. if the employer insists on implementing the change, the employee may treat that action as a form of wrongful termination and sue for common law notice. in those circumstances, the employee usually leaves. a duty to seek other similar employment applies, but the
employee can ignore jobs which are lower status or pay or far away. because all these issues are troublesome, parties often work out some common ground. the key point for the employee is that the discussion is two-way. the employer is not able to dictate fundamental changes without employee agreement. GM
Ross Dunsmore specializes in change management, reorganization and amalgamation. He has worked with many employers on procedures to avoid third party intervention. His practice encompasses analysis and resolution of work place disputes from grievances and human rights complaints to wrongful dismissals. His focus is economical strategies to avoid expensive disputes.
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 19
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Employers may like contracts for a set term, like three or five years, because they avoid notice pay. The contract just ends.
20 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
It Grows in the Family Superintendent Jason Hooper’s family tree has deep roots in the industry ◗ One of the most common questions i receive after i tell someone what i do for a living is, “how the heck did you decide to become a golf course superintendent?” My response is simple, “i didn’t have a choice, it’s in my blood.”
okay, the reality is, i did indeed have a choice, but i can’t think of anything i’d rather be doing for a living.
My dad and grandpa were both superintendents, so i grew up on a golf course, so to speak. i remember as a kid, practically begging my dad to take me to work with him on the weekend so i could ride around the course with him on his golf cart. being from a family of eight kids, we all had to take turns going to work with dad, so i had to make the most of my opportunities.
i remember setting out my work clothes the night before and getting everything ready to go so i wouldn’t wake the rest of the family as i quietly maneuvered around the pitch-dark house in the wee hours of the morning. for me, it was very similar to the excitement you feel as a kid on christmas eve. i hardly slept those nights as i couldn’t wait for “me and dad” time.
the fun began right away on the drive to the golf course. My dad and i always played a game i like to call, “Who’s this?” i’d be quizzed along the entire drive, asked to try and name the band that performed the song playing on the radio. it’s clear my passion for classic rock came from being a regular contestant of this game. side note: if i was unable to name the band, my dad
Feature ◗ JASON HOOpER
Jason hooper and his father, both superintendents, stand by the historic Well at baldoon golf club, the course Where hooper’s grandfather started his career, also as a superintendent.
hooper’s children, bella and lincoln, on a ride-along at Quilchena golf and country club.
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 21
would help me out and 90 per cent of the time his answer was, “c’mon Jason, you know this is ahh… umm… what’s his name.” i was convinced that “What’s his name” was one of the greatest rock bands of all time and that they must have had an entire catalogue of greatest hits albums.
i always wondered what it was that my dad really did, as we drove around the property where he worked. he’d stop and chat with golfers and introduce them to me. i remember him saying to them, “got my number one helper with me today,” or they’d beat him to it and say, “i see you’ve got your assistant with you today.” now that i think about it, i wonder if these subliminal messages also contributed to my chosen career!
We’d continue on our drive and often, without warning, he’d stop the cart, get off and just stare at a spot on the ground. sometimes he’d even kneel down and pick up some grass or dirt (which is what i called it back then, before i learned to call it soil) and would smell it! i never knew why he would smell it, but he looked like he really knew what he was doing, so i didn’t ask.
We’d carry on with our drive until we came upon someone mowing grass. again, he would stop, sip his coffee and simply stare at the mower for a while and then we would continue on our way again. i was beyond puzzled at this point. it was all a mystery to me, which is why i was so fascinated by it.
there’s a lot of pressure that comes along with being a third-generation superintendent. both my dad and grandpa were very successful, so i have big shoes to fill. When i came to the full realization that this was what i wanted to do for a living, i knew i had two great mentors to learn from.
i began working for my dad when i was in high school and, before long, my grandpa joined the crew as a retired superintendent/rough mowing specialist. i knew how lucky i was to have them both at my fingertips to mentor me. i began going to work even earlier for “coffee time” and staying extra late to ask as many questions as i could. it was great to hear my grandpa tell his “back in my day” stories about turf maintenance and compare them to how we were currently doing things. there were so many similarities, yet so many differences. What always stood out to me was, although the equipment and techniques had changed so much over the years, the overall goal and intent of what had to be accomplished had not. What had changed, and is still undoubtedly changing, are both golfer’s expectations and demands, but that’s a whole other ball of wax that many have already written about.
i never felt pressure from either my dad or grandpa to follow in their footsteps and become a superintendent. in fact, when i told them i was going to enroll in a turf education program to ultimately become a superintendent, they both looked at me like i was nuts! i could see right through it though; i knew that they knew i was about to embark on one of the best career paths imaginable.
i am lucky enough to have the opportunity to bring my kids, bella and lincoln (aka link, pun intended) to the golf course to ride on the golf cart, see some wildlife up close and to get a
better sense of “what daddy does all day.” they even get to help out sometimes by filling divots, repairing ball marks or, even better, feeding our resident swan. Just like my grandpa and dad never pressured me into become a superintendent, i won’t ever pressure them to do so either, but i won’t talk them out of it. however, link may feel compelled to do so with his golf related name.
the most important things my dad and grandpa have taught me are that hard work and patience, along with the ability to adapt and the willingness to continue to learn, is what makes a good superintendent. i was very fortunate to learn these important traits of becoming a successful turf manager during the early stages of my career. More importantly, i was able to learn these lessons from two of the best in the industry. GM
Jason Hooper is the superintendent at Quilchena Golf and Country Club in Richmond, B.C. He is a third generation superintendent and is driven to provide the best possible playing conditions to members at Quilchena.
This article is eligible for the Gordon Witteveen Award
designation for the author.
“There’s a lot of pressure that comes along with being a third-generation superintendent. Both my dad and grandpa were very successful, so I have big shoes to fill.”
596118_Buffalo.indd 1 7/11/12 9:43:18 AM
22 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
◗ Mike Kupchanko has been at Wascana country club so long that he’s seen just about everything it has to offer, including a strange birthday present one year, courtesy of the golf course’s bizarre climate.
“it was around my birthday at the end of July and it was 32 degrees celsius out one day and the next day it snowed!” says Kupchanko.
the moody climate is one unique feature of Wascana, the host course of the cgsa’s 2013 fall field day, but there are several other elements that make the location world-class.
one of them is the extraordinary
wetlands that line the holes. these wetlands are home to all sorts of flora and fauna that make a round at Wascana a unique experience for all.
“We are right along the Wascana creek and there are a lot of wetlands involved in the view as you play. you see a lot of cattails and bulrushes, water birds, muskrats, beavers and swans,” says Kupchanko, who has spent almost 10 years at the course, seven of them as superintendent.
Wascana has experienced almost constant renovation during Kupchanko’s decade at the course.
“since i’ve started here… we’ve been
Feature ◗ MARC COuSINEAu
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July/august 2013 | greenMaster 23
under partial renovation and it’s been a bit of a cycle since i’ve come aboard,” says Kupchanko.
“it’s very challenging, but it’s very rewarding. you see the changes and you see the benefits they have for the course.”
all these renovations can keep a superintendent on their toes and that is why regina’s temperamental climate come in handy. Kupchanko says he is glad the saskatchewan winters are long and give enough time for staff to recharge their batteries and arrive ready to keep the course looking and growing great in the springtime.
the ongoing projects are also helped
by the fact that Wascana has 20 holes in total, which allows for golfers to put in a full round of play while renovations are happening, says Kupchanko.
the signature hole at Wascana is hole 11, according to Kupchanko. the hole was renovated in the mid-90s and follows the Wascana creek, bending around the green which is flanked by three bunkers.
another prominent feature on the course is the trees that Kupchanko says “frame” many of the holes and provide a spectacular view in the fall.
however, one of Wascana’s greatest attributes is also one of Kupchanko’s biggest worries.
he says that while the fall foliage looks great, it can also result in leaf litter that creates problems on the playing surface, although after years of handling the obstacle Kupchanko has come up with some solutions that keep the disruptions to a minimum.
◗ continued on page 24
hole no. 11CREDIT: TROY FlEECE
Feature ◗ MARC COuSINEAu
24 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
Q&AMarc Cousineau: What is your
favourite job to do on the course?
Mike Kupchanko: Cutting the greens and walking greens
MC: Other than snow in July, what are some of the strangest weather events you’ve seen or experienced on the course?
MK: We’ve had some crazy lightning strikes on trees that absolutely exploded them, with shrapnel in the fairway, two fairways away and two feet in the ground.
MC: In a golf tournament, playing against other superintendents, how do you think you would do?
MK: Oh, I would be on the bottom end. I’m not a player, let’s just put it that way. I only play about five or six rounds a year.
MC: What’s your favourite thing to do on your day off?
MK: If I get a day off, it’s usually going to be at an archery tournament with my sons. We’re a huge archery family. We’re heavy into archery and competition. That’s one of the reasons I don’t golf very much.
MC: What are your goals for the course over the next couple of years?
MK: I’d say just to be a great place of employment for our staff. We just joined the Audubon Society as well and we’re working towards being certified with them.
◗ continued froM page 23
Wascana has a long history, stretching back to its founding in 1911. Kupchanko says that this has resulted in another unique feature of the course; greens that bare the marks of several different eras of design and golf course architecture.
“We have some original, hundred-year-old greens and then we have some greens from 2008,” says Kupchanko, “so it’s a challenge to keep them all consistent.”
but for all the unique features, interesting experiences and thrilling obstacles to overcome, Kupchanko says that the best part of the course is the people.
“the understanding membership is the best thing about the course,” he says.“they allow us to make the decisions to put the golf course first and they are very understanding with our cultural programs.” GM
the 2012 grounds creW at Wascana country club. absent: second assistant rebecca dola.
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• ASSOCIATION • CANADIENNE DE S SURINTENDANT DE GOLF •
Hole #7, Wascana Country Club
◗ Initial observations after spring melting were very promising, although we did have some snow mold and ski-doo damage present on the course. although water levels were rising, it wasn’t until sometime around april 23 when the dyke between oak and plum lakes breached and the flooding began. We were able to control the flooding on hole 3, but succumbed to the water levels on holes 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 13. Water levels and water table were so high that it even came up the 15th fairway and flooded the rough. all waste areas were lakes for the entire summer, with only two drying enough to allow for restoration. the back nine access culvert was pumped daily until late July through the use of a permanent sump pump.
during and after temporary dyke construction, staff pumped water for approximately 121 days and we utilized 2400 man-hours keeping the water at bay. this amounted to an additional $12,000 in fuel costs for 2011. in a normal year, approximately 90 man-hours are utilized pumping water. the flooding temporarily delayed the course opening until May 13 with 12 holes in play all year. We closed the course on october 7 for the season (146
days). in contrast, the course opened for play in 2010 from april 23 to october 17 (176 days).
it wasn’t until June 16 when we started seeing death of the grass plant under the water. seeding commenced on July 12 and was completed by august 30. small areas remain to complete in the spring. all areas were seeded with either a fults alkali grass mixture or an elite bluegrass mixture. growing conditions were excellent after seeding. our first mowing of the earliest seeded areas took place on august 31 and we continued mowing regularly up to mid-october. We used a total of 2150 pounds of fults alkali seed and 2250 pounds of our bluegrass blend.
i am very pleased with our turf cover heading into winter dormancy.
rainfall for the golf season amounted to 447 mm (17.88 inches) with significant rainfall events (+25 mm) on 5 occasions.
in contrast, 614 mm (24.56 inches) of precipitation fell in 2010 with significant rainfall events (+25mm) on nine occasions.
the course was closed on only one occasion (June 2) due to 100 mm of rainfall over two days.
temperatures over the course of the golf season averaged 21.52 degrees c and we
Oak Island Golf ResortRecovery from a Ruinous 2011 Flood
The following is an excerpt from a more detailed golf course document provided for the owners after each season. It summarizes our 2011 Turf Care records and is a precursor to the next season’s budget document. It just so happens that in 2011, Manitoba experienced a 300-year flood, so only 12 holes were open for play the entire season. After the daunting clean up and inter-seeding, all 18 holes opened for play on April 23, 2012. It is now 2013 and the course has fully recovered from the 2011 flood.
an aerial vieW of oaK island golf resort.
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Feature ◗ JIM RIOpEllE
reached or exceeded the 30-degree mark on 12 separate occasions. there were a total of 91 days of sunshine while we were open for play.
overall, it was a pretty good year for the growth of turfgrass.
our winter protection fungicide program commenced on october 18 and was completed on november 2. all fairways were treated with a two-way fungicide combination. the rough on seeded holes were also sprayed. no fairways were left unprotected against snow mold in 2011.
all tees complexes were treated with a three-way fungicide combination (instrata) and snow fence installation was required. We would have liked to have topdressed all the tees, but ran out of time due to snowfall and staff layoffs.
greens and some surrounds were also treated with a three-way fungicide (trilogy) with an added application of heritage fungicide in early october. due to some snow mold problems experienced at the start of 2011, our fungicide program was adjusted to add the early october application. this ensures that we go into winter clean before applying our final fungicide.an application of medium to heavy topdressing was applied to greens not protected by a cover and snow fences were installed on selected, open greens. covers were utilized on greens 4, 5, 7, 9 and 10.
Naturalized Areasnaturalized areas took a little bit of a beating this year as we could not allocate enough time to their care. spraying for weeds in 2012 will be required. We were able to burn some of these areas this fall with the dry conditions and will continue our burn program in the spring. as per les furber’s recommendation, we will naturalize some of the rough on the right of 11 and a small area on the left of 18.
i would still like to enhance these areas with nesting boxes for purple martins and other species of birds. this may aid in keeping our mosquito population down to acceptable levels and reduce our use of pesticides for their control.
Staffingattracting quality staff is an issue for oak island golf resort. our close proximity to the high paying oil industry makes it difficult for us to compete. i will continue to post advertisements at turf schools and commence searching for retired or semi-retired individuals to round out our maintenance staffing needs.
our core employees are very good, although getting quite near retirement age. having replacements in place before this happens is very important if we value continuity at oak island resort.
Green ComplexesWe were pleased with the wintering of greens, although there was some snow mold present. as stated earlier, we adjusted our fungicide program to take this into consideration and should come out disease-free in the spring. during the golfing season, we apply approximately 1/10th lb. n/1000 per week along with required macro and micronutrients. in total we apply approximately 4 lbs. n/1000, 1 lb. p/1000, and 4 lbs. K/1000 for the year.
once again in 2011, fungicides to control disease on greens were used very sparingly. shaded greens (11, 12) on the course do require a higher level of management than do open greens or those that receive morning sunlight and natural air drainage
(hole 3). We definitely should consider thinning out the tree canopy around 11 and 12 greens to improve growing conditions. this would involve selective pruning and possible removal of some trees in order to achieve the desired results. if we choose to not perform this work, then these greens are destined to fail over time. off-types (poa annua) will begin to out-compete the a4 bentgrass. these annual grasses are very susceptible to summer stress, disease and wintering due to their inherent physiological weaknesses.
heights of cut range from a high of .180” (4.5 mm) during fall and spring to a low of .100” (2.5 mm) during peak golf season. oak island greens are smooth and fast, something the golfing public craves, and is a major drawing card for our facility.
control of organic matter content in our greens is very important and is the main reason for yearly aeration, vertical mowing and topdressing during the spring and fall of the year. We prefer to keep our organic matter content below three per cent in the upper two inches of the profile or we will experience detrimental effects such as increased disease, physiological oxygen stress, summer root decline and softer greens.
due to the flooding this year, aeration was performed only once with mini-tines. very little topdressing was applied because we could not get a quality product to our site. We will be very aggressive with our aeration and topdressing program next year to make up for lost time.
although we planned on an increase in our greens rolling program, conditions and fewer employees this year made this impossible. our greens were rolled on 25 occasions or an average of 1.2 times per week. last season, they were rolled on 35 occasions or 1.7 times per week.
next year, a high level of management will be reinstated on our beautiful greens for the enjoyment of guests to oak island golf resort.
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oaK island experienced Massive flooding in the spring of 2011. Most of course rebounded and by 2012, all 18 holes are open for play.
2011 Season Rainfall and Average Temperature
MonthRainfall (mm)
AverageTemperature (ºC)
April 15 6.36
May 165 14.96
June 130 20.00
July 32 27.41
August 50 24.74
September 55 20.50
October 10 12.48
This article is eligible for the Gordon Witteveen Award
designation for the author.
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 27
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fairways
bunkers
ponds
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Tee Complexestees took a beating this year due to the double rounds played on only 12 open holes, but our divot mix program was there to fill the voids.
organic matter content on tees has increased from .3 per cent to .5 per cent. We would like to get this percentage up to around 1.5 – 2 per cent.
tees receive approximately the same amount of n, p and K as do greens.
our divot mix program (divot boxes and regular filling by staff ) works very well and provides a constant seed bank and fresh rootzone. divot boxes are presently located on par 3s and selected short par 4 tees.
Fairwaysfairways wintered beautifully, but the flood came and destroyed a few of them. these flooded fairways have recovered, but we have a lot of work to bring them back to their former glory. fairways that did not get flooded were gorgeous and very playable. i have been very happy with the progress of our fairways over the last three seasons. they are definitely some of the best fairways in Manitoba and probably would rank very highly across the country.
We continue to spot spray for broadleaf weeds rather than waste time and money on blanket spraying of all fairways. density is always a key factor in keeping weed populations down and our fairways are very dense.
our height of cut commenced at .650 inches (16.51 mm) and was later reduced to .500 inches (12.7 mm). this is our regular playing height throughout the golfing season and produces a fantastic playing surface.
as of this writing, i have not received soil sample results, but expect them to be not much different than last year’s results. We have taken additional samples from flooded fairways as a precautionary measure in case there are special requirements for next season. We still have a requirement to flush salts through our rootzone on specific fairways during extended dry conditions. Mother nature usually provides us with sufficient heavy rainfalls at times during the year to aid with this flushing procedure.
our fairway aeration program will change slightly. We will no longer be pulling cores to the surface due to our heavier soil conditions and amount of time required to complete this task. We will utilize deep-tine aeration, utilizing our verti-drain, and continue with our verticut program. organic matter content on fairways is presently at 3.5 per cent.
Rough Areasrough areas on the course are maintained at a height of 2.0 inches with one mower taking on most of the responsibility. treed areas are mowed with our toro 328d and green and tee surrounds maintained with our two toro sidewinders. during the summer of 2011, we reduced our sidewinder operation to one mower because we only had 12 holes open. We will bring this back up to two mowers next year.
in general, our rough conditions are very good throughout the course. rough is fertilized twice during the growing season with controlled release ag-grade products. inherently weak or highly trafficked areas of rough receive additional applications of fertilizer plus deep-tine aeration and slicing.
Bunkersvery little edging or bunker maintenance
was performed during the 2011 season other than general raking. We’ve got a lot of edging and general bunker cleanup to perform in 2012. there is also some bunker work to complete on previously flooded holes in the spring of 2012. bunkers will be assessed in the spring and a plan formatted to complete necessary work. our goal is to provide four inches of compacted sand above our sub-grade.
our waste areas took a beating this season due to the flooded conditions. We just could not get access to them. We have our work cut out for us in 2012 getting them back into a playable condition. les furber believes that we should define these as hazards and i would tend to agree with this assessment. other than spraying for unwanted weeds, it would be very costly for us to maintain these like we do our bunkers. We will kill the growth left over from the flood and groom them back into shape, but i would recommend we reduce our maintenance inputs for waste areas.
standing water and washout issues remain with the traps on hole 14. We will attempt to alleviate these problems with the installation of new drainage tile covered with a geo-textile material. during the 2010 season, we replaced tile in the greenside trap on hole 4, utilizing this method with very acceptable results.
Pondsalthough we had lakes everywhere this year, we continued to utilize pond dye as a photosynthesis inhibitor and utilized a new biological product for algae growth. the biological product worked well, but required high temperatures for maximum effectiveness. deep ponds are very clean while shallow ponds are a little dirty with much more algae bloom and weed growth.
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ponds
We may use diquat (reward) in the pond on hole 12 to control duckweed and watermeal. duckweed is an important food for wild waterfowl and fish, both directly and as a source of food for small creatures that are in turn eaten by the birds and fish. as it grows, duckweed absorbs nutrients from the water. thus, it has a useful role in controlling the growth of algae, both by removing nutrients and by shutting out sunlight as the duckweed covers the water surface. algae absorb oxygen and as it decays, it further reduces oxygen levels. algae blooms can thus severely affect aquatic life. by shading the water, duckweed also keeps it cool and allow for more dissolved oxygen. and by covering the water surface, it minimizes water loss through evaporation. none of our other products are effective against this weed. We presently utilize a buffer zone of 30 feet around water features where no fertilizer or pesticides are used. this aids in reducing weed and algae growth in our ponds. shallow ponds less than 6ft/2m in depth tend to be very warm allowing for the entire water column to be productive with weed and algae growth. a minimum of 9ft/3m is suggested for the depth of the basin. by allowing for reasonable depths, it will help minimize the impact of solar radiation and the related heat on the pond. both vertical and horizontal circulation is important in creating and maintaining a balanced ecosystem.
i would like to see an aesthetic pond fountain for our first hole. i have previously had the opportunity to utilize pond fountains at club de golf outaouais and they perform admirably. three hp would be the minimum i would recommend for aesthetic beauty and movement of the water column.
Cart PathsWe did our best this year to keep paths smooth, but it is a constant battle. additional edging was installed on holes 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. it has great aesthetics in comparison to ropes/stakes, reduced man-hours for upkeep and retains material within the confines of the path. the entire path, from tee to green complex, was completed on hole 5 and i am very pleased with its aesthetics. this will keep carts completely off this fairway as it recovers from 2011 flood damage. additional material will be required next year on paths that were flooded for an extended period of time.
ForestryWe continually assess our tree canopy for overall health and identify trees requiring removal and/or hazard branch removal to reduce the possibility of liability issues. trees requiring removal are either dead or pose a significant risk to our guests.
pruning of our tree canopy in close proximity to tees and greens is a yearly maintenance program to ensure safety and improve sunlight penetration and air movement.
We will continue to clean up downed trees in the forested areas visible to our guests for improved aesthetics and firewood for the campground.
during the architect’s visit, it was recommended that we initiate some tree plantings in specific course locations. i am hoping to start this process in 2012 and have allocated funds in the forestry budget for this purpose.
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Shallow ponds less than 6ft (2m) in depth tend to be very warm, allowing for the entire water column to be productive with weed and algae growth. A minimum of 9ft (3m) is suggested for the depth of the basin. By allowing for reasonable depths, it will help minimize the impact of solar radiation and the related heat on the pond.
opposite page: the rough, bunKers and ponds at oaK island needed special consideration after heavy flooding this page: fairWays and greens that Were not flooded caMe out strong and very playable, according to riopelle.
Course FixturesWe will continue to replace selected course fixtures (ball washers, flag poles, greens cups, hazard stakes, bunker rakes, etc.) on a yearly basis. by replacing some fixtures every year, we can keep costs down and keep our fixtures in top condition.
EquipmentWe will be entering the final year of our equipment and cart lease, ending on november 1, 2012. as per our lease agreement, we do have an option to purchase and we must notify the lease company 60 days prior to this option (august 31, 2012). also, if we choose the purchase option, we must pay the purchase price and applicable taxes 30 days prior to the option date. if we do not state our intentions by the specified dates then our option to purchase terminates. our purchase option for the entire equipment fleet is $70,358, plus taxes. i recommend that we exercise our purchase option and take the equity we have built up. We will retain low-hour equipment and trade the rest for new units. if we do not return the equipment at the end of the term, the lease would be automatically renewed on a month to month basis.
our rental fleet of carts is also up for renewal on the same date as our equipment. terms are the same as the equipment lease and our purchase option is $80,000 (20 per cent) plus taxes. once again, i recommend we exercise this option, keep some of the “low unit” carts and lease an entire new fleet. after discussions with dave, if we kept 15 carts, we would no longer have a requirement to bring in carts for our large tournaments as our fleet would increase to 90.
it is important to note that another option for us is to consider acquiring slightly used equipment either from online auctions or through global turf equipment (globalturfequipment.com). gte has a very extensive inventory of rebuilt and used equipment at reasonable prices. all equipment is refurbished and you can view this process on their website. it may save us money rather than purchasing new. a lease option is also available through gte.
Most equipment is in relatively good condition. breakdowns and parts replacement were more frequent in 2011 and this is normal as our fleet ages.
operators are responsible for the
inspection, operation, greasing and cleaning of assigned equipment, with our equipment Manager responsible for service, reel adjustments and repairs.
Irrigation SystemWe continue to have issues with our irrigation system and pumphouse each and every year. the motor on pump 1 was rewound at the start of 2010 and again in 2011. our variable speed drive control also required repairs near the end of 2011. pump shaft bearings are water lubricated and wearing quickly due to our water quality. When they require replacement, i would recommend oil-lubricated bearings. they will last much longer than our current water-lubricated bearings.
We have made progress on our electrical issues, but still have problems on hole 4 and other areas of the front nine. We will solve these issues next season. We now have a separate electrical line that feeds the back nine, making troubleshooting that much easier.
debris out of plum lake continues to be an issue and results in inefficient operation of our rainbird irrigation heads. plans are to install filters in the wet well over the foot valves rather than in the lake. pump shafts may have to be shortened to achieve desired results and, hopefully, we will be able to utilize our existing filters. We have been able to retrieve one of the filters, but have yet to find the second filter. hopefully it is still attached to our flexible pipe. in any case, with filters on the footvalves we will not require a discharge filter and will alleviate our debris problem. this particular installation method has been used at a couple of ontario courses with success.
ConclusionWe know that the 2011 season was not very good financially due to major flooding. We not only survived the storm, we persevered because of owner and staff commitment to bring our course back. even though we only had 12 holes open, conditions were excellent on those holes. rather than throw in the towel, we pushed forward, and that makes me very proud to be a member of this team.
i am very enthusiastic about the upcoming 2012 season. We will provide our guests with excellent playing conditions and david belling will provide our guests with personalized service that will keep them coming back time and again. GM
Situated between Oak and Plum Lakes, Oak Island Resort offers a variety of amenities such as a 400-site, fully-serviced campground, marina, restaurant, store, real estate, and one of Manitoba’s best golf courses. Designed by Les Furber, one of Canada’s most prolific golf course architects, Oak Island Golf Resort exemplifies all the best Manitoba has to offer. The A-4 bentgrass greens provide one of the best putting surfaces available in the world today. Combine this with a course that is completely surrounded by beautiful prairie wetlands and you have a perfect setting for memorable round of golf. We are pleased to report that as of the 2013 season, we are fully recovered from the flood two years ago.
Jim Riopelle is the Superintendent at Oak Island Golf Resort in Virden, Manitoba.
perseverance, hard WorK and passion drove the recovery of oaK island after flooding Washed aWay a third of the course.
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Feature ◗ JIM RIOpEllE
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July/august 2013 | greenMaster 31
Feature ◗ TRYGvE S. AAMlID, TROND pETTERSEN & AGNAR KvAlBEIN, BIOFORSK TuRFGRASS RESEARCH GROup
Save irrigation water without sacrificing turf qualityWater Use of Various Turf Species on Greens and Fairways◗ lack of irrigation water is the foremost limitation to further expansion of golf worldwide. in the nordic countries, surface water for irrigation is generally abundant in finland, norway and most of sweden, but many danish golf courses have to pay for ground water and are only allowed to use between 5-7000 m3 per season. regardless of country, limited capacity of water distribution systems often limit irrigation during dry periods and pumping of water is usually a major item in energy, co2 and cost budgets for golf course maintenance. is it at all possible to use less water while maintaining turf quality on golf course greens and fairways?
the sterf project, ‘evaporative demands and deficit irrigation on golf courses,’ started in 2009 and is now being wrapped up by the publication of scientific papers and a turfgrass irrigation handbook. this is the first
of two articles presenting the major findings of the scandinavian project to the canadian golf industry.
Turfgrass evapotranspiration (ET) and crop coefficientsevapotranspiration (et) from surfaces with 100 per cent turf coverage is mainly due to transpiration from turfgrass leaves, as soil evaporation is negligible. the reference et rates (et0) were formerly measured by the evaporation from an open water surfaces. nowadays, et0 is calculated from irradiance, temperature, wind speed and relative humidity recorded by automatic weather stations. the average daily et0 from May to september in the nordic countries is usually in the range 2.5-3.0 mm, but values between 4 and 5 mm often occur on warm and sunny days in midsummer. the crop coefficient (Kc) is defined as the
ratio between actual et (eta) from the turf canopy and reference et, Kc = eta/et0. for cool-season grasses, this has often been assumed to be a constant value in the range of 0.8-1.0. however, our research showed that this is an oversimplification
in order to measure the eta from various grasses, we installed metal cylinders into four species/subspecies on a usga-spec. green and a golf course fairway situated on a silt loam soil (64 per cent sand, 29 per cent silt, 7 per cent clay). the green was mowed three times per week to 5 mm for fescue and 3 mm for the bent grasses, and the fairway twice per week to 15 mm for all species. the cylinders had a diameter of 10 cm and were 30 cm deep, corresponding to the depth of the usga root zone (photo 1).
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cylinder installed for MeasureMent of actual et on green (1a) and fairWay (1b)
CREDIT: TRYGvE S. AAMlID
1a
1b
Table 1
Green Fairway
Velvet bentgrass ‘Legendary’ 77
Creeping bentgrass ‘Independence’ 91
Colonial bentgrass ‘Barking’ 98
Chewings fescue ‘Center’ 100 = 32 mm
100 = 21 mm
Kentucky bluegrass ‘Limousine’ 109
Strong creeping red fescue ‘Celianna’ 113
Perennial ryegrass ‘Bargold’ 128
table 1: relative Water consuMption of various turfgrass species/subspecies over a seven day period assuMing tWo WeeKly irrigations to field capacity on green and one WeeKly irrigation to field capacity on fairWay. values Were calculated froM the Kc functions derived for various species and an assuMed daily et0 of 3 MM per day.
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◗ continued froM page 31
for this depth, soil physical analyses showed a plant-available water holding capacity of approximately 30 mm in the green trial and approximately 40 mm in the fairway trial.
during five periods without rainfall in 2009 and 2010, each period lasting between 5-14 days, the cylinders were pulled out of their sleeves and weighed on a daily basis to determine eta. there were six cylinders (replicates) per species, of which three were irrigated to field capacity before reinstallation into the sleeves, while the remaining three were allowed to dry out.
Finding #1: Turfgrass water use as a function of day number after irrigation to field capacityfigure 1 shows actual et from chewings fescue and creeping bent grass growing on the usga green during the first observation period in 2009. the high water consumption of turf that received daily irrigation to field capacity surprised us, but the pattern repeated itself during the following periods, on greens as well as fairways. in other words, if the turf has free access to water, it will use it!
based on data from all registration periods, we described crop coefficients for various species on greens and fairways as hyperbolic functions of day number after irrigation to field capacity (figure 2). this shows that Kc values in the range 0.8-1.0 were only valid at soil water contents
corresponding to days 3-4 after irrigation to field capacity in the green trial and days 4-6 (depending on species) in the fairway trial. on the condition that irrigation replenished the total water holding capacity of the soil, Kc values were always 2-3 times higher on the first day after irrigation.
Finding #2: Water use on greens depends on turfgrass density and thus microclimate velvet bent grass was an exception to the general pattern in that the water use on the first day after irrigation to field capacity was not as redundant as in the other species. this may be due to a more humid microclimate that limits transpiration from extremely dense turfgrass canopies (photo 2).
based on the Kc hyperbolic functions (figure 2) and an assumed daily et0 of 3 mm, table 1 shows the weekly water consumption on golf greens decreased in the following order: chewings fescue > colonial bent grass > creeping bent grass > velvet bent grass.
Many scandinavian greenskeepers using the traditional mixture of fescues and colonial bent grass have been surprised by this ranking as they have seen their greens dominated by fescue after dry periods and by bent grass after wet periods.
there is, however, no conflict between these observations and our finding that pure fescue greens, with open canopies cut at 5 mm and minimal amounts of
higher density and finer leaves result in More guttation droplets and a More huMid MicroenvironMent over a velvet bent grass canopy (2a) than over a creeping bent grass canopy (2b)
CREDIT: AGNAR KvAlBEIN
2a
2b
a) Chewings fescue ‘Center’ b) Creeping bentgrass ‘Independence’
ETa for turf irrigated daily to field capacity ETa for non-irrigated turf ETo calculated from weather station
Figure 1:
Feature ◗ TRYGvE S. AAMlID, TROND pETTERSEN & AGNAR KvAlBEIN, BIOFORSK TuRFGRASS RESEARCH GROup
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 33
thatch, will consume more water than denser and more thatchy bent grass greens cut at 3 mm. the fact that root dry weights were 410 g m-2 in chewings fescue, 429 g m-2 in velvet bent grass versus 329 g m-2 in colonial bent grass and 244 g m-2 in creeping bent grass may help to explain why the former species were able to maintain higher Kc values towards the end of the dry-down period.
the potential for velvet bent grass as an alternative and a water-saving species for northern golf greens will be discussed in a separate research update for the canadian turfgrass research foundation.
table 1 shows the relative water consumption of various turfgrass species/subspecies over a seven day period assuming two weekly irrigations to field capacity on green and one weekly irrigation to field capacity on fairway. values were calculated from the Kc functions derived for various species and an assumed daily et0 of 3 mm per day.
Finding #3: Highest water use from most deeply rooted species in fairway trial
assuming one weekly irrigation to field capacity, table 1 presents the relative water use of various species/subspecies in the fairway trial. here the results are perhaps more in line with what most turfgrass managers would expect, i.e. decreasing water consumption in the order perennial ryegrass > creeping red fescue > Kentucky bluegrass > chewings fescue. the fact that perennial ryegrass was able to uphold water consumption and retain colour during dry periods better than chewings fescue, strong creeping red fescue and Kentucky bluegrass is illustrated by photo 3 and reflects that perennial ryegrass had a significantly higher dry weight of roots in the 0-30 cm topsoil layer; 617 g m-2 as opposed to an average of 342 g m-2 in the other species.
these results on root development and colour retention must not be interpreted as a recommendation of perennial ryegrass for scandinavian golf courses that do not have irrigation on their fairways. overriding
disadvantages of perennial ryegrass continue to be high growth rates and poor winter hardiness and, especially for the latter, there has, in our experience, been little improvement in new varieties coming from european breeding programs. on the other hand, photo 4, taken in an earlier fairway variety trial, suggests the advantage of strong creeping red fescue vs. chewings fescue during dry periods is often more pronounced than this project. to improve drought, we therefor usually recommend strong creeping red fescue as a component in fairway mixtures otherwise dominated by chewings fescue and Kentucky bluegrass. GM
Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation (STERF):STERF is a research foundation that supports existing and future R&D efforts and delivers ‘ready-to-use research results’ that benefit the Nordic golf sector. STERF is set up by the golf federations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland and the Nordic Greenkeepers’ Associations. More info: http://sterf.golf.se
Figure 2:
drought tolerance of KentucKy bluegrass ‘liMousine’ (3a), cheWings fescue ‘center’ (3b), strong creeping red fescue ‘celianna’ (3c) and perennial ryegrass ‘bargold’ (3d) as indicated by color retention after a tWo WeeK drought period in the fairWay trial. there of six MinlysiMeters in each plot received daily irrigation to field capacity. the reMaining three lysiMeters and the surrounding plot area Were not irrigated.
CREDIT: TRYGvE S. AAMlID
3a
3c
3b
3d
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Feature ◗ BRuCE CONSTABlE
A Line in the SandWoodside Golf Club’s journey to reclaim its bunkers◗ Everyone who works as a golf course superintendent or assistant superintendent wears a lot of hats.
on any given day we are teachers, accountants, mechanics, irrigation repair technicians, spray technicians and so on. in order to succeed in all those roles, the turfgrass manager needs to be an excellent communicator. communication, in the form of conversations, is constantly taking place with staff members as well as customers.
Most of the good, intense conversations between some of the golfers and i at Woodside golf club in airdrie, alberta, revolve around the length of the rough, the pin locations and the condition of the bunkers. surprisingly, the speed of the greens doesn’t get a lot of lip service, so i suppose people are either happy with the conditions or just plain speechless. of course, if all of the above are in adequate shape, the ball washer odour can become an issue. i have one member who likes to have a conversation with me on a daily basis and when the ball washer smell comes up, i give him a big smile and a high five, knowing that things are pretty good at Woodside.
like every other golf course on the planet, we have high expectations from the customers and we enjoy the challenge of trying to meet these expectations. We maintain the golf course with a fairly small staff, comprised of five full-time and five part-time seasonal employees as well as a mechanic, an assistant superintendent and myself.
the key to our success is getting 100 per cent out of every person with a synergistic approach where everyone does everything and everyone helps everyone. all the employees are taught to multi-task. those that are moving along quickly during the morning preparations will often double back and help the slower crew members. the entire operation spends a lot of time on customer service training, with the goal of providing the best day ever for everyone at the golf course. for everyone to have
the “best day ever” we need to make sure that our house is in order and this includes daily bunker preparations.
In the olden days at a recent alberta golf superintendent’s association conference, “Jungle” Jim hunter, in his very entertaining keynote address, said it takes 10,000 hours to master anything. this means, you only get out of something what you put into it. guilty as charged.
in past years, we have been doing a minimum amount of bunker maintenance and focussing our labour on other areas of the golf course. don’t get me wrong, the condition of the bunkers was adequate, but not spectacular. the bunker maintenance programs were pretty good, but there was plenty of room for improvement. i know some superintendents, such as Keith blayney at the edmonton petroleum club, have software that tracks hours spent on various tasks and it is not uncommon to spend more hours on bunker maintenance than putting green maintenance. i am certain this is the case at Woodside, although i don’t track my labour to that degree. We have always committed to daily raking and the addition of new sand every season, but a bona fide edging program never materialized. along the edges, the sand was pulled up to the grass and a quick edging was done with roundup several times each season.
Time to kick it up a notchin 2012, we had a bunker epiphany and set out to reclaim the edges that were a little obscure after years of neglect. this process, although very painstaking, elevated everything to the next level and helped accentuate the overall course conditions.
at Woodside gc there are 18 holes, 55 bunkers, two sand pros and six to 13 maintenance workers on any given day. everyone, including my mechanic John MacKeeman and my assistant brent lees, participated in the morning preparations and after the course was ready for play
the results of a year-long proJect to reMaKe the bunKers at Woodside.
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 35
It was amazing to see the quick transformation from plain to spectacular. It was also amazing to see how much sand had accumulated in the low areas over the years.
we would tie into another bunker and begin the search for the old edge or simply create a new one. a $35 half-moon edging tool from ufa was my tool of choice and i simply went around the bunker on the edge between the living and the dead grass and cut a 5-inch-deep slit in the ground. one or two of my staff members came in behind with shovels and rakes and removed the material that was inside the bunker edge.
every bunker was different; some needed several feet of excavation and some needed very little. the lower edges needed most of the work as, over the years, the sand had poured over the edges and created a false lip. some of these were so severe that the surrounds mower had difficulty mowing around the bunkers and we had to resort to some hand-trimming with weed-eaters.
With a new edge in place, sand was moved back so that there was a one to two-inch lip around the entire bunker. i call this the country club look. it was amazing to see the quick transformation from plain to spectacular. it was also amazing to see how much sand had accumulated in the low areas over the years. this led us to reconsider how much sand was added to the bunkers each year. ultimately the amount was reduced by 50 per cent. We even needed to take some sand out of a few bunkers as the sand depth in some areas approached 30cm, a little more
than the depth recommended by gord Witeveen or James beard.
of course, as with any changes that are made, there were golfers who either loved it or hated it, but one thing was for sure, it did add a different level of playability to the course. there are now some bunkers that golfers should avoid at all cost.
this edging process took up our spare time for most of the summer and our one-day record was four bunkers. the material that was removed will eventually end up as the base for a new tee that will be built on the 6th hole, as we try to recycle, reuse and reduce wherever possible.
Where do we go from here? now that all the bunkers have been edged, except for one big, nasty one, our goal is to retain the current conditions. employee training is going to be needed so that everyone knows the proper techniques needed to achieve this look. More frequent depth measurements and sand relocation will also help us to keep the proper sand levels throughout the bunkers. each bunker will just need a quick edging and some will be hand-raked.
i was just thinking back to my first days on a golf course back in 1978. i was working at earl grey golf club in calgary for ron hume and one of my first jobs was hand-raking bunkers. i wonder if i now have 10,000 hours under my belt in bunker maintenance. GM
left: a bunKer at Woodside before WorK Was done. right: the saMe bunKer after edging and other WorK Was done.
This article is eligible for the Gordon Witteveen Award
designation for the author.
Feature ◗ ERIC lYONS
36 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
◗ Growing up in a small city surrounded by agriculture, as i did, leads to an interesting world perspective. Most of the industries were reliant on the nearby agricultural endeavors and there existed an almost innate understanding that the land provided for our needs. in order to survive, we had to use the land to produce food and other agricultural-based products. finally, we had to develop and improve our management in a way that would allow future generations to also rely on the land.
this led to an environmentally-based view that humans are reliant on the land for survival and, for that reason, should protect the land from degradation so our children’s children can also reap the benefits of the land.
this view of the environment is described well in aldo leapold’s A Sand County Almanac, where it is argued that responsible management of the land must dominate human interaction with the environment. the book is often lumped together with rachel carson’s The Silent Spring as one of the cornerstone books of the modern environmental movement.
While both books have influenced the movement, the “land ethic” theory that leapold outlines is one that inherently realizes that humans interact with the environment and therefore change it. this is readily apparent when the upshot at the end of the book is read in the context of the entire work, but this idea is often lost when the land ethic is taken out of context. the realization that we, as humans, must interact with the environment, and also that we often create situations that are detrimental for future use of the environment, is important for creating a better world for future generations.
the game of golf, with its unique placement of facilities near and within metropolitan centers, has great potential to minimize the detrimental impact of urban landscapes on the surrounding land and
water resources.the vast majority of golf courses are
located near or in urban centers, primarily because this is where the golfers are located. older golf courses are often located along rivers and creeks. this is not for esthetic reasons, but because these areas were sections of land susceptible to flooding and too precarious for agricultural, commercial or residential uses.
Many golf courses built before 1940 sit in a river’s flood plain and have one or two holes on top of a hill located next to the clubhouse. the clubhouses were purposely placed on hilltops in order to protect them from the periodic floods associated with the rivers and streams. golf became a sustainable economic endeavor in these areas because of the ability of the golf course landscape to resist erosion and, over time, create the beautiful, diverse settings we see today.
one argument against golf course construction is that golf courses are built on what would otherwise be natural landscapes. however, for the majority of golf courses this is not the case. Most modern golf courses are built on former agriculture land or land that would otherwise be occupied for industrial or commercial use.
the previous example of older golf courses occupying the flood plains in our cities is a good example of how golf courses have preserved green spaces in areas that would now be buildings and roads. With modern engineering, cement and steel, previously precarious lands prone to flooding can now be used for commercial endeavors, such as strip malls, in our metropolitan centers. When viewing satellite images of most large north american cities, the largest green space buffers around our rivers and streams are being preserved by golf courses.
in areas without golf courses, the urban landscape has encroached right to the bank
Golf and the environment: Water Management
of the river with possibly only a few meters of green space buffering the waterways from the urban industrial complex. in a few cases, these buffers are larger because they have been zoned as a public park. unfortunately this is not a common practice as the economic pressures associated with maintaining and preserving urban parks make them susceptible to loss by commercialization.
one of the largest problems facing today’s cities is effective water management. golf courses are major contributors to positive water management in urban environments.
an individual driving past the golf course can only see water consumption in its general form, that of irrigation systems. they also see areas consisting of green grass with healthy trees during summer drought periods and assume that golf courses must use large amounts of water. in some cases they are correct. it is difficult to justify the use of potable water on desert golf courses beyond the economic benefit they provide the community as any other industry using
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 37
the water might. however, most golf courses in north america are not in deserts. rather, they are near urban centers where rainfall and storm water management are major concerns. it is in these places that golf courses can provide a large benefit to the urban landscape.
to understand how golf courses have a positive impact on water management within cities, urban water management and the urban water cycle must be understood. While the urban water system varies from city to city, there are some basic tenants of urban water management that are common to most cities.
first, there exist two water management systems that, ideally, work independently of each other, although when things go wrong they are designed to interact. the first system is the storm water management system, composed of storm sewers. these systems are primarily designed to take water from the impervious surfaces that dominate urban landscapes and direct them away from industrial and residential areas into streams and rivers so they can flow
away from the city with minimal damage to property. before urbanization of the landscape, this water would have hit both agricultural and other green spaces and the plant density on the landscape would have minimized run off and increase infiltration of the water through the soil and into below ground aquifers.
the result of the storm sewer system is to funnel water that previously may have ended up in below ground aquifers and direct it to surface water. this often occurs without the benefit of filtration by a plant soil interface, leading to salts and other pollutants reaching rivers and streams. a major concern with our storm water management is that, as our cities grow, the proportion of impervious landscape increases while the number of outlets for our run off water does not. this may result in the system backing up and potentially interacting with the wastewater management system, causing a large increase in potential pollutants.
to overcome the potential pollutant increase, some cities have legislated green
roof technologies that reduce the amount of flow in the storm sewers by holding it on top of buildings. this overcomes some of the issues regarding excess flow, but it does not help to recharge belowground aquifers because the water from green roofs ends up transpiring and evaporating into the atmosphere.
a solution that will help recharge belowground aquifers and help with storm water management is to increase and maintain the maximum amount of green space in our urban environment to allow for the infiltration of rain water as opposed to its run off.
◗ continued on page 38
above: urban golf courses are often placed by rivers and creeKs as buffers betWeen residential areas and potential floods.
38 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
Feature ◗ ERIC lYONS
a course is flooded in calgary in June. golf courses often taKe the Worst of floods, but help prevent erosion in these scenarios.
Golf courses provide a number of functions
that constitute responsible use of the land..
◗ continued froM page 37
golf courses are often the largest contiguous green spaces in our urban environment and provide a benefit with regard to not only storm water management, but also recharge of below ground aquifers. a question that has yet to be answered is how much net water does a golf course use? it is difficult to quantify because golf courses not only use water for irrigation, they also filter and recharge water sources by acting as an infiltration area within a largely impervious urban landscape. the liters of water used for irrigation are easy to measure, but the benefit with regards to recharging our water resources is much harder to quantify. despite these unknowns, with regards to storm water management, golf courses increase the responsible relationship between human development and the landscape.
the second water management system associated with cities is the wastewater sewer system. the water in the municipal water system generally originates from below ground aquifers, from wells or from surface water sources, such as a pipe off the shore of a large lake or river. this water is tested, and if necessary treated, and used for both residential and industrial purposes. Wastewater (more commonly referred to as sewage in the past) is then collected in the municipal sewers and treated in a wastewater treatment plant. the resulting treated wastewater (sewage) is then directed into rivers that carry any remaining pollutants away from the city into surface waters such as lakes and oceans often just downstream of the next city, on the banks of the river.
the degradation of rivers in our urban centers is not only due to storm water management and pollution, but is also a result of an increase in salts that are remaining in treated wastewater. another issue facing urbanization is ensuring sufficient water flow to carry the treated wastewater away from municipal wastewater treatment plants. golf courses
can also help with this aspect of urban water management.
not all water that lands on golf courses is used by the plants or moved into below ground aquifers. some of the water ends up in the streams and rivers flowing through the golf course. due to the lack of surface run off from golf courses, this is a form of subsurface run off, where water infiltrates through the plant-soil matrix before finding a below ground path to surface water. this water then makes its way to the river and helps dilute the nitrates, salts and other pollutants that are added to the river by wastewater treatment plants.
golf courses have also been used as ways of directing treated wastewater away from the rivers by applying the water as irrigation water to the turfgrass. this allows the plant-soil matrix to filter the water and can often result in potential ground water recharge, returning the water back to where it was originally pumped. this is not without its issues, as the treated wastewater is often too salty for many plants, such as trees, that make up many of our golf courses. using treated wastewater can also result in a decrease in the biodiversity of plants that golf courses provide to our urban landscapes.
golf courses are often misconstrued as detrimental uses of land that destroy otherwise natural landscapes. actually, the vast majority of golf courses serve as buffers between the urban residential and industrial complex and waterways, agricultural
lands and the few remaining naturalized landscapes in our urban landscape.
golf courses provide a number of functions that constitute responsible use of the land. they do this economically, socially and in an environmentally sustainable manner when managed properly. this is evident by the large green space buffers golf courses provide around urban waterways. Water management is just one example of how golf courses have a positive impact on the landscape. to maximize the benefits of the game of golf on the landscape, golf course superintendents, keepers of the game and of the land, must continue to look not only to how they can reduce any potential negative impact of the game, but also to maximize the positive impact of the game on our urban landscapes.
for the game of golf to have the maximum positive impact, golf courses must be located in reasonable areas, be built and designed by individuals with understanding of environmental management, maximize functional diversity in the landscape and, finally, be managed by individuals who take pride in the positive aspects of the green space the golf course provides to our landscape. the sustainability of golf is reliant on not only golf course superintendents’ understanding of both the potential negative and positive impacts of the courses on the urban landscape, but is also reliant on the golfer to respect and understand these elements. GM
A. “A TDR. i also use my iphone a lot to take video and pictures. after work i go through what i shot. it’s easier than writing things down.” “Sharpeners and someone who knows what they are doing with them.” “I use the Evernote app to snap pictures of my whiteboard to create a notebook of daily activities. i use the teamviewer app to securely access all
of my computers and devices from my phone remotely and run irrigation from my phone! i use google maps to gps map areas of my course to determine actual area for fertilizer/chemical applications and accurate data collection. i use google calendar to set up notification reminders of events and important dates. i never miss an anniversary or ladies event! “The Turfpath app is awesome!”
talk back ◗ FROM OuR READERS
Letters“ i’ve always felt that
understanding golf course architecture and the history of the game is important to both playing the game and managing golf course facilities.after 35 years of being involved in golf… i have noticed a change in those involved in the game of golf in terms of their knowledge of golf course architecture and the history of the game. having knowledge of the game, its history, golf course architecture or golf course maintenance are not prerequisites for being on a board of directors of a golf course. in fact, a business background is often desired as golf clubs across north america struggle to be profitable in a fickle economy. as with many things, we need balance. We need to encourage a greater balance between architectural history and the history of the game. this of course still needs to be accomplished while meeting the needs of turfgrass management students and the financial priorities of golf courses. anyone looking to further increase their knowledge of this subject is free to contact me about the many books i have and am interested in parting with.
Rob Officerred river college, Winnipeg
This is an excerpt from a letter by Rob Officer. Please visit golfsupers.com for the complete letter. Rob Officer is an instructor in the Greenspace Management program at Red River College in Winnipeg. He can be reached at [email protected]
What do you think…
SUPER SnAPShoTS: Course Visitors
Q. What is your favourite piece of technology or mobile app to use on the golf course?
clocKWise froM top left – the sun shines doWn on this eagle at Quinchela golf course (Josh Webb), this buMblebee enJoys a floWer at KanaWaKi golf course (MiKe lecavalier), this deer shoWs off his profile at credit valley golf and country club (Jeff stauffer), a snapping turtle craWls out of a bunKer at trafalgar golf course (MarK prieur).
40 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
hydraulic Safety
MecHanic ’s corner ◗ EDDIE KONRAD
◗ In the last GreenMaster, i wrote about force and motion to familiarize you with pascal’s law. pascal’s law states that pressure applied to a confined fluid at any point is transmitted, undiminished, throughout the fluid in all directions and acts upon every part of the confining vessel at right angles to its interior surfaces and equally upon equal areas. let us do some in-depth examination of how this can apply to our jobs as equipment managers.
hydraulic circuits and components used in turf equipment include gear pumps, spool valves, gear motors, and hydrostatic systems. in order to make hydraulics work for us, we need hydraulic fluid, a motor to drive a pump, a reservoir containing hydraulic fluid, a filter to continuously clean this fluid, a cooler or heat exchanger to prevent the fluid from overheating and pipes or hoses to build hydraulic circuits. the purpose of the fluid we are using is to cool internal parts, transfer power, lubricate moving parts and carry contamination to the filter.
Most of our equipment uses hydrostatic transmissions because it makes things simpler. there are no gears or clutches and the transmissions are easy to install and can be operated with a single lever control or pedal. therefore, hydrostatic transmissions have a faster response than other transmissions and we can use the system for dynamic breaking and rapid reversals, which increases maneuverability.
since hydraulic systems must store fluid under high pressure, three kinds of hazards exist: burns from the hot, high pressure spray of fluid; bruises, cuts or abrasions from flailing hydraulic lines; and injection of fluid into the skin. important safety measures include the proper coupling of high and low pressure hydraulic components, having pressure relief valves and conducting general maintenance. once a person acquires a thorough understanding of hydraulic safety, the principles and laws that govern hydraulics, the purpose of the primary components in a hydraulic system and, finally, the theory-of-operation of hydraulic components, he/she is ready to advance to learning and
understanding diagnostics.one fact that is commonly overlooked
is that double-acting, single rod hydraulic cylinders, which are used to a great extent on our equipment, not only provides the means to lift heavy loads, but is also a device which converts fluid energy into linear mechanical energy which makes it a pressure and flow “intensifier.”
looking at the cylinder’s rod-to-bore ratio of 2:1, meaning that the major area of the cylinder piston is 10 square inches and the rod area is 5 square inches, pascal’s law tells us the following: because we have 3000 psi pressure in an area of 10 square inch (force = pressure x area) the force created is 30000 lbs. if the area is reduced to 5 square inches, (pressure = force ÷ area) then the 3000 psi 10 inch pressure is intensified to 6,000 psi (414 bar). anything
not withstanding this pressure becomes a safety hazard.
pressure intensification is shown with two gauges on a lift cylinder. the main area shows 2400lb and the minor area shows 3000lb. the major area is 12.5 square inches and the minor area is 10 square inches. pressure = 2400, area = 12.5, force = 30000, Minor area is 10, pressure = 3000.
operating a portable, hand-operated, high-pressure pump, commonly known as a porta-power, without a proper pressure gauge can cause severe injury. this porta-power is attached to a ram via a high pressure, flexible, rubber hose. using the porta-power to pump high pressure oil into the ram to press a bearing into its housing could cause the threaded connector, attaching the hose to the porta-power, to unexpectedly fail. this means you will never know what the pressure was before, or at the time of, the failure when you are sprayed with oil or hit by the flailing hose. the forces generated by a porta-power and its attachments can be extraordinarily high. thus, it is imperative, for the sake of safety, that personnel using a porta-power, and its
porta poWer attachMent
exaMple of a cylinder rod-to-bore ratio
July/august 2013 | greenMaster 41
You’ve read it. Now be a part of it!
GreenMaster is looking for your ideas and original articles on golf course management. No story or idea is too small. If you have a story you have written or an idea for one you would like to see in the pages of our magazine please send it to [email protected]. We welcome all submissions. Your stories and ideas will make the magazine come alive and help golf course professionals across Canada. Those stories written by superintendents and assistant superintendents that appear in GreenMaster will also automatically be considered for the annual Gordon Witteveen Award. Grow with the CGSA!
attachments know what the pressure and force limitations of the devices are.
for example, a porta-power, with the appropriate attachment, is a useful tool for pushing/pulling a bearing off a shaft. the pressure gauge can be used to determine if and when the bearing breaks loose.
the following is a step-by-step guide to disassembling a large hydraulic cylinder.
NoTE: I recommend that you always wear safety glasses while conducting this procedure.
step 1 place the cylinder on a suitable table and secure it with the ports in the vertical position.
step 2 remove the locking device from the rod/gland assembly (refer to cylinder manufacturers information for guidance).
step 3 pull the rod out (if possible) all the way until it stops against the end of the cylinder.
step 4 place a suitable support under the rod to protect it from falling and causing possible injuries. it
will also prevent it from getting damaged when it comes out.
step 5 place a suitable receptacle under the cylinder (rod/gland area) to catch the oil when the rod/gland comes out.
step 6 plug the port in the rod-end of the cylinder with a suitable plug (proper pressure rating).
step 7 tilt the closed-end of the cylinder upwards slightly and place a suitable spacer (approximately one inch) under it.
step 8 fill the cylinder (through the closed-end port) with hydraulic oil.
step 9 connect a 3000 psi (207 bar) manual hand-pump, with pressure gauge, to the closed-end port.
step 10 gradually pump the hand-pump while observing the pressure gauge. the rod/gland assembly should begin to move. Keep on pumping until the rod/gland is
pushed completely out of the cylinder tube.
step 11 if the rod/gland assembly does not move by the time the pressure reaches the maximum pressure rating of the cylinder, suspend pumping and release the pressure.
step 12 call the cylinder manufacturer for guidance.
following these procedures will make sure you’ll go home healthy. More about hydraulic components and safety in the next issue of GreenMaster. GM
Eddie was the head mechanic at the Ladies Golf Club of Toronto for 22 years, regularly contributes to GreenMaster magazine and is a contract professor at Seneca College in Ontario teaching Reel Technology.
for safety, alWays pay attention to the pressure liMitations When operating a porto-poWer.
42 greenMaster | www.golfsupers.com
◗ From his “Wild-West days” in fort McMurray to his current 10-year reign at one of canada’s top golf courses, george pinches has had a long, sometimes strange, but always fun trip.
i meet the affable executive on a grey, mid-May morning. We settle in a quiet corner of the clubhouse at hamilton golf & country club. behind us, sweeping views of the 18th fairway provide the perfect backdrop. this is the golf course pinches has called home for the past decade. he’s led the private club to a good governance model and watched it host a pair of successful canadian opens. come october 31, the chief operating officer retires to join global golf advisors as a senior associate.
a friend to superintendents and a champion for their causes, pinches admires the integral role these unsung heroes play.
“if somebody said to me ‘george i’ll write you a blank cheque and i want you to start a golf club,’ the first and the most important hire would be the superintendent.”
gMs tend to change jobs more often, whereas superintendents, pinches jokes, “can put down roots.” over a 33-year golf career, he’s worked in three provinces with a handful of greenkeepers.
flash back to 1980. fort McMurray, alberta is booming. pinches gets a call from Miskanaw golf club who wants him to manage their club. during his five-year tenure working with Ken MacKenzie, the club went from nine holes and sand greens to 18 holes with grass greens. Money was no object. the oil companies gave them whatever they needed.
“the standard operating instructions were: i don’t care what you have to do or how you have to do it, just get it done,” he says.
pinches moved on to edmonton’s royal Mayfair where he worked with debbie amirault, who would later go on to become the cgsa’s first female president. Working with debbie provided an opportunity to expand his knowledge
of turfgrass and course maintenance best practices.
pinches’ stay at royal Mayfair was brief. the next stop was vancouver’s point grey golf & country club where he worked with colin softly and frank “the bull” vargas.
vancouver, with its climate, provided a new host of challenges. “We had to take bold actions to get bold results,” he recalls of a multi-million dollar project to overhaul the drainage at this prestigious private club where 60 per cent of the course was below sea level.
“We had to convince the members it was in their best interest to close the course for one week in the spring and one week in the fall when we verti-drained, topdressed and overseeded from dripline to dripline at a huge expense,” pinches explains. “the alternative was to basically rebuild the whole golf course which would have cost millions. doing it the way we did, members lost one week in spring and one week in fall, but could play golf year-round and the conditions improved gradually every time we did it.”
this mammoth project took five years to complete. “it was the most fun i ever had,” he adds. “i kept rubber boots in my office and i would go out there in the winter and find areas where the
water was ponding… i’m certainly not a greenkeeper, but i love learning about it.”
in 2003, it was time for one more job on this wondrous career journey and one more superintendent to meet. according to pinches, hamilton’s head greenkeeper rhod trainor is one of the best he’s ever worked with.
“being a superintendent is part science and part art and rhod does both,” he explains. “he knows all about agronomy and all the latest products, sometimes he won’t try them because he’s done his research. he understands the role of being a greens superintendent and the technology behind the golf industry needed to maintain and develop a golf course.
“but, he also has this intuitive skill that i call the ‘art’ of knowing when to do something and knowing what is going to happen with the weather,” he adds.
for his part, trainor says he’ll miss pinches.
“george is a big picture man and a great supporter for what is the right thing to do,” he concludes. “the golf course is at the top of his list as that is what most members are at a club for. if the golf course is good, somehow the hamburgers taste better too.” GM
Diplomat and Friend to Superintendents Bids Adieu to Life as a GM
back nine ◗ DAvID McpHERSON
george pinches
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55173JohnDeere.com/Golf
It’s why Shawn Emerson uses us on every one of his 108 holes.
Trusted by the best courses on Earth.
Six courses. 200 employees. To put it mildly, Shawn Emerson, Director of Agronomy
at Desert Mountain, has a lot on his plate. Which is why he counts on John Deere
to keep this collection of Jack Nicklaus courses in perfect shape. From our hybrid
fairway and greens mowers to our heavy-duty utility vehicles, Shawn and his crew
use only John Deere equipment, sun up to sundown. Says Shawn, “There’s a lot
of things I worry about. But John Deere isn’t one of them.”
Desert Mountain, Cochise Course
55173 GOLF TRUST Test FP SE Ad.indd 1 4/9/13 10:58 AM
