Turf from a turf student's perspective

Golf course superintendents have been developing long term range plans to make continuous improvements to their golf courses for their membership and or for the general public.  An aspect of the course that superintendents often want to improve is the greens.  They want to make sure that greens are healthy and playable to tip top conditions.  Many courses are finding some of their greens aren’t growing due to reduced sunlight, are too small or even having poor drainage.  A course that has completed a greens renovation in the past few years is Mississauga Golf & Country Club.

A greens renovation is a lengthy process that requires specific planning, permitting and money.  When changing your greens courses tend to want to put in XGD systems or even have them built to USGA specifications.  Mississauga Golf & Country Club started their project in August of 2007 and it was initiated by Doug Carrick as the architect as well as a whole project committee.  The major problem was that their greens were receiving a lack of sunlight, as well as the greens were really small.  So part of their renovation was to remove some of the trees around greens and prune up others to provide more sunlight.  Also by the completion of the project they increased their greens from 80,000ft2 to 105,000ft2.

It’s not a whole course renovation but a greens renovation is great step in the right direction to improve the courses overall condition.  This past fall I had the opportunity to learn about USGA specification for greens as well as see some greens being constructed.  I saw the greens construction at Lambton Golf & Country Club which was a whole course renovation but they were building their greens to USGA specifications.  A renovation project of any type is a long and lengthy process that requires specific planning that I look forward to having the opportunity to experience in the future.

Publications Used:

Brewster, Bob. 2008. GreenMaster. August. 43(4): p. 6-9.- Going for the Greens

http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/grnma/article/2008aug6.pdf

McPherson, David. 2009. Golf Course Management. February. 77(2): p. 80, 82, 84, 86.- Taking the Long Road

http://archive.lib.msu.edu/tic/gcman/article/2009feb80.pdf

Green at Lambton Golf & Country Club

The first year turfgrass management students at the University of Guelph hosted their annual symposium at the Cutten Club in Guelph yesterday.  The student run symposium attracted a number of industry professionals and sponsorship came from such companies as John Deere Golf, Turf Care and GC Duke Equipment.  Our three keynote speakers Dr. Tom Hsiang, Ron Shiedel – President, Greenhorizons Sod Farms and Keith Bartlett – Superintendent, St Georges Golf and Country Club spoke to the attendees.

Our three speakers all provided their thoughts on how we can be doing more with less and get through these current economic times and tough times in the turfgrass industry.  Some of the turfgrass students participated in a “Beat the Clock” session and provided some next-generation tips for turf management such as hiring interns or switching to electric equipment.  Rob Witherspoon- Director of the program and the GTI said “the Beat the Clock feature was a great addition”.

The planning of a whole semester into one day and throwing of a big hit.  It was great to see the event come together even though we experienced many challenges throughout the semester in regards to the event.  Thank you to all of our sponsors and all of the attendees it was great to see your support for the turfgrass management program at Guelph.  I personally would like to thank our communications class instructors of Owen Roberts, Anne Douglas & Andrew Douglas for their teachings and assistance with the event execution.  Going into next year and the years to come I hope to be able to use the skills I have learned and to be in attendance of the annual turfgrass management symposium.

The 2009 golf course season has winded down pretty fast and superintendents and assistants are preparing their course for the winter season.  Due to the extended amount of warmth this fall, some courses have extended their closing date but they will still have to prepare very fast for the winter.  You need to winterize your equipment, your irrigation system needs to be blown out and you need to prepare your greens as well as the rest of the golf course.

The winterizing of equipment for the winter includes going through it’s components including the engines, ignition systems, cooling systems, transmissions, hydraulic systems & carburetors.  The irrigation blow out is the blowing out of the water lines, so that no water is frozen in the pipes over the winter.  Some superintendents like to cover their greens for the winter and some like the leave them be.  It all depends on where your are located and the type of winter you experience.  Ideally you want to prevent your greens and turf in general from low-temperature kill as well as  ice damage and traffic on the frozen and slushy turf.

Going into the winter I can see turfgrass professionals being very concerned about their course making it through the winter season and how it will come out of it.  I believe that if certain steps are taking such as tarping of greens & winter overseeding then their are ways to make sure that your course will sustain the winter.  I am looking forward to the experience and challenge in the future preparing turfgrass for the harsh Canadian winters.

This is ice debris from last winter at Mississauga Golf & Country Club. This is what will be considered ice damage

It seems like now, more than ever there is lots of training and education opportunities for turfgrass professionals.  The Canadian Golf Superintendents Association will be hosting their annual Canadian International Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show this coming February.  The five day conference & trade show will take place February 26, 2010 – March 2, 2010 at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel in downtown Toronto.  The trade show & conference will feature a number of education programs and seminars as well as a number of banquets and social events.

With the trade show expected to attract over 1800 professionals in the industry a number of key industry partners will be speaking.  The keynote speaker for the event is Peter Mansbridge, the chief corespondent of CBC Television News.  Some other speakers to name a few  include, Scott Bowman- Superintendent: Glen Abbey Golf Club, Dr John Kaminski- Assistant Professor: Penn State University & Dr. Eric Lyons- Assistant Professor: University of Guelph.  These education & seminars vary in topics from Golf Course Analytics to Effective Use of Water on Golf Courses.

So the question I would like to ask turfgrass professionals, is whats your excuse not go?  There is so much more education outside of the post secondary institution, and this is an example of an event.  Our program is putting on a symposium ourselves on November 27,2009 as well, the Ontario Turfgrass Symposium is also happening this February at the University of Guelph.  This shows that there are ample amounts of learning opportunities.  So turfgrass professionals get out there, interact and learn some new techniques and practices.

The 2010 RBC Canadian Open will be hosted at St Georges Golf and Country Club in Toronto, Ontario.  The PGA event will take place July 19-25 2010.  St Georges is a Stanley Thompson design built in 1928 and currently ranked #3 in Canada according to Score Golf.  Keith Bartlett, St Georges superintendent and his crew are actively preparing for the course for the open and the major controversy is the third green.  The problem is the slope of the green and the difficulty to find an ideal pin position.

This third green is will prove to be one of the most challenging projects leading up RBC Canadian Open.  Bartlett had this to say about the third green “the slope is about 4 per cent to 5 per cent, while 2 to 3 is ideal”.  Brad Klein an architecture editor for Golfweek magazine has studied green speeds for awhile and said “that when slope gets above 2.5 per cent, a green is essentially unpinnable”.  This isn’t the first time a golf course has had problem green speeds, the 2001 PGA Championship had troubles with the 18th green.

Green speeds are one thing that PGA officials normally insist on being as fast as they can.  What will St Georges do to fix the third green and satisfy PGA tour officials?  One off the suggestions I read was raising the green height so it’s a different height than all the others.  One of the thoughts that I had but it may be to time consuming would be rebuilding the whole green.  This is an obstacle Keith Bartlett and his staff will have to over come in preperation for the open this coming July.

Some information from http://www.ontgolf.ca/

This week myself and other first year Guelph Turfgrass Management students were able to connect and listen to a golf industry professional not from the turf side of the business.  Our guest in our communications class was Tim O ‘ Connor,President of O ‘ Connor Golf Communications.  Tim, the owner of his own company has over 20 years of experience as a journalist and began working in the communications side of the golf business in 1998, as a Director of Communications for the Clublink Corporation.

Since starting his own business in 2000, Tim has written a few of books including, The Feeling of Greatness: The Moe Norman Story & The Ladies´ 1924-1999: A History of the Ladies´ Golf Club of Toronto.  O’Connor Golf Communications has a number of big clients including, Nike Golf Canada, Canadian PGA & Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday.  In his presentation Tim expressed the importance of communication and how phone calls is the best method of communication.  He suggested that we should all make phone calls regarding our symposium.

I learned that good communication is going to be a major step in the right direction moving forward in the turf industry.  One of the methods we are doing and learning in school is blogging and it has been successful allowing for industry professionals to read our blogs.  Based on Tim’s recommendations to make phone calls, I have done so regarding invites to our symposium and it has proven to be successful.

Now more than ever the turf industry is facing tough times due to the current economic recession and the limitations of the pesticide ban.  The first year turfgrass diploma students at the University of Guelph will be hosting the symposium as part of their communications class.  The symposium is on November 27, 2009 at the Cutten Club in Guelph, Ontario.  The theme for the symposium is “Doing more with less: Turf in tough times” which will cover the many issues facing the industry presently and in the future.

The turfgrass students are bringing in three important professionals from the industry to speak.  These three speakers include, Ron Scheidel – President of Green Horizons Group Farms Ltd; Keith Bartlett – Superintendent at St. George’s Golf and Country Club and Dr. Tom Hsiang – University of Guelph, an expert in Pathology.  The event is being actively advertised through social media and a number of invites have already been sent out to the industry.  With speaking with a number of students and guests they are excited for the event and are eager to listen to the speakers information.

If your given to opportunity to meet with other industry professionals, learn and discuss what strategies they are taking to cope with the current industry problems, why would you turn it down?  Interacting with others is a great way to learn new techniques and practices to improve your own operation.  Personally I am very excited to be running this event and being able to listen to what information the speakers have to give, as well as interacting with professionals for the future.

For more information check out our website, http://turfintoughtimes.weebly.com/index.html

Who knew that with over 800 golf courses in Ontario there would be more developing.  This year there were six new golf courses that opened in Ontario stretching from Newmarket all the way to Campbellville.  According to Teeing It Up there is already 20 more golf courses that are already under construction, in the planning stages or just on paper.  These are courses stretch from Fort Erie all the way to Sault Ste. Marie.

The six new courses that opened up in Ontairo this year each have a specific design and each are unique.  Turtle Creek Golf Club in Campbellville is a course that is built using the rolling top of the Niagara Escarpment and have incorporated the 1835 farmhouse into the course.  Baxter Creek Golf Club is another new course that is in the Kawartha Lakes region.  Baxter Creek is a championship 18 hole facility developed by David L Moote.  Mr. Moote said he wanted to keep the character of the old farm which used to exist on the property.  These are just two examples of the six courses that opened in Ontario this year.

The first though that came to my head was look at the potential and by this I mean in terms of employment.  I mean say that these 20 courses do end up going through with construction they all need skilled and knowledgeable individuals, so looks like they will be calling on turfgrass students and existing professionals.  When I first started in the industry I though that the competition was tough and I still think that it is but now I believe that there is  an abundant amount of opportunity.  I am looking forward to being done school and looking into future career opportunities that will exist.

Part of the construction of the pond at Turtle Creek Golf CLub

The 2009-2010 super bowl is coming to Miami this winter and Toro and the NFL have partnered up for the eighth year to  have the Toro Super Bowl Sports Turf Training Program.   This is a program open to turfgrass students who are in their second year of study or in their junior year of a four year program.  One lucky student will have the opportunity to work from January 31- February 7 working on athletic turf maintenance, logo painting, field preparation for media day, halftime preparation and clean-up.  Interested students must complete a 500 word essay and complete an application form.

Toro is showing that they are committed to helping students within the turfgrass industry get experience.  Dale Getz the sports fields and ground manager at Toro said “This program reflects our interest in helping students in turf programs learn what it takes to maintain safe playing conditions at all levels of competition”.  He also goes onto say that they are excited to be able to partner with the NFL and provide this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Toro is showing that they have committed to providing students with learning opportunities and are committed to helping the NFL produce top notch playing conditions.  I ask myself who wouldn’t want to apply and work on the grounds crew for the super bowl?  I have been in contact with Toro myself asking if I could still apply for the program even though I am in my first year and I am anxiously waiting to hear back.  If I am unable to apply then I will just have to apply next year.  I believe this is a life changing experience and I would jump on the opportunity in a second.

One of the most important things to do is keep solid partnerships with your business partners, this  is what Toro and St Andrews Links in Scotland did late last year.  Lucy Ohsten of Toro released this information in a press release.  Toro is a leading worldwide equipment provider for landscaping and turf equipment as well as irrigation systems.  St Andrews the home of the Open, requires optimal course conditions day in and day out because they have seven courses that see over 200,000 rounds played each year.

Photo: (L-R) Andrew Brown, Toro; Darren Redetzke, Toro; Lodewijk Klootwijk, EGCOA; and Christian Grisard Van-Roey, Toro.

With the 2010 Open fast approaching already using Toro equipment will already better prepare their conditions with the new equipment.  Gordon Moir the superintendent at St Andrews says “Toro has proved extremely reliable and has allowed the Links Trust to present the golf courses to the high standard golfers expect.”  Gordon also goes onto say that because they have created such a strong partnership with Toro they have been able to plan in advance for events like the Open.  With the planning and the strong partnership it allows them to have the right equipment when they need it.

Toro and St. Andrews Links have shown to created a long term partnership within the industry and are being professional as well.  I have had the opportunity to operate a variety of different equipment from a variety of different brands and Toro stands out as the best in my mind.  Toro equipment gets the job done and is very operator friendly.  I would suggest Toro to an industry professional in a second and in the future I would like to make a partnership with Toro myself.