Groundskeeping is a challenging profession. We are impacted and affected by horticultural limitations, weather and environment, organizational imperatives, laws and regulations, budgetary constraints, seasonal influences, etc. We are in a constant battle of managing inputs, stressors and outcomes. In all of this grind, we must occasionally factor in a crisis of the now, where we focus on where our operation currently is and what lay immediately before us.
Recently I had an opportunity to st
July.
If you have ever held a hose in your hand in just about any climate, you know that July can be tough. It comes with all kinds of abnormal life habits. It surely signifies the end of Spring and the warm swampass revelation that Summer is actually here. You are now going to bed when it is light. Getting up when it is dark. Dressing quietly and slipping out of the house, apartment, tent or teepee trying not to wake anyone else up. A 3 or a 4 still on the clock. The neighbors hate you as
Cooperation with the pro shop can be fairly simple. In this short film, we show you how to establish a pattern of cooperation and solve membership problems at the same time.
As we have previously discussed, it is important for the Golf Course Superintendent to play golf or maybe just be seen playing golf. (But not bad golf.) Members want to be assured that their GCS belongs to the same cult and knows the course in the same way they do—not just the way a Turf Scientist interacts with the course.
But there are problems with playing your course. Like when the Green Chairman four-jacks #18 green and starts ranting: “Every time I see our superintendent, he’s p
I am writing this on July 2nd. Looking back at my calendar, I have pretty much been on the go since March, and at full throttle since May. Today, after a driver brake-checked me and I got out of the car at a stoplight to have a little face time with the driver, I realized I am overwound like a rubber band on a balsa wood airplane. You want it to fly so badly that you just keep winding and winding that prop.
I’ve also been fighting with Yahoo Small business because their email servers have b
There has been a theory forming in my mind for a while now. It’s one of those connections that I have been subtly observing for a while now, but it wasn’t until this spring that it has emerged fully formed. The idea explores the overlay and the similarities between turf departments and restaurant kitchens. It may seem like an odd theme for a blog post but bear with me.
Over the last couple of months our kitchen staff has suffered tremendously. We have been dealing with devastating personal
On June 27 this year I turned 55. Now this isn’t a defining age as much as say 21 or 65, but is significant. I am not a person who puts all my stock in chronological age. I definitely think there can be an old 30 or a young 70, but again I say 55 is significant. I am now seriously contemplating retirement although I can’t see how I won’t have to work until 70 (or longer) if anyone will have me. I have been in commercial grounds management since I was 23. I know there are many people who have mor
Back to the inbox we go. This one, a special request.
Ok so, first off, there are two stories that I just cannot tell. Can't. It could involve jail time for my crime and the crimes of others... and we just wont go there. That leaves us with this one, my favorite.
It was the summer of 1984, the summer before I was to start college. I I was working on the crew at Pole Creek Golf Club, and also three nights a week on air at the local radio station. And I was deeply involved in 4-H Horse
During daily golf operations at Rockbottum CC, film quotes often slip into conversations with golfers, management and the crew. It's like some odd form of verbal shorthand that delivers a message in the most minimal form.
There are probably hundreds of these and we deeply regret that we had to leave out some great quotes, like "That's my stapler" and "I'm gonna have to go ahead and ask you to work this weekend" . . . but it's June and we have to keep these films short, because you have oth
A few years back, we examined the pros and cons of crew phone use. Since things continue to change--with phones now serving as cameras, music players and surveillance devices--we thought you might want to revisit Momma's solution for irresponsible phone use.
But be careful . . . I had an entire high school football team threaten to quit if they couldn't have a "phone break" during practice.
Yeah, I know . . . get off my lawn.
Back to the inbox, as it is the sluice box that keeps on giving little nuggets. This one from the commercial world.
"I'm really confused about this whole selling thing. I figured as an ex-superintendent, I would be treated fairly or at least with some respect. It's got me down and I just don't know what to do. Can you give me any advice"
I was fortunate enough to spend 7 years with Sierra Pacific Turf Supply as their Director of Agronomy and handling a sales territory as well. And of
Purely apocryphal, but my Bio-RAM can recall a time when golfers weren't so picky and whiny and demanding about things that didn't matter in real life. Although I have previously fixed the blame on color TV and 50 weekends a year of Las Vegas Showgirl grooming standards, I think I might have isolated the true cause: The introduction of the portable sofa to what was once a rugged adventure sport.
If I rewind back about 50 years, to a time when it was more about playing the game than the c
For your entertainment, we present, from deep in the bowels of the Rockbottum Films vault, our second major production: "Customer Service".
The audio in this historic film is clippy at times, even glitchy, (it was pre-Sennheiser) but we didn't think you would mind. After all, where else can you watch a GCS push a mean old lady golfer into a deep bunker?
You know you've been tempted to do the same thing.
Let's go back to my inbox for this post...
"I need your help. As you know, it's been a cold, damp spring. The golf course wasn't great for Memorial Day. And as I write this on July 4th, it's just barely starting to come around. The comments I am getting from golfers are really bad. "When are you going to fix this place", is the tone of their gripes. I've talked to everyone, blogged about it, written about it and I'm still getting hammered. Any tips?"
This has been more common in the sp
It’s June. Most of the tv addled golfers have forgotten April, thanks to a severely damaged attention span, one of the gifts of the modern technocracy. But the stress merely continues to build through June and then the heat of July. Some areas will suffer from freight-train rain, while others endure a seemingly endless hot, dry bubble of desert air. Add in a few members just back from a member-guest with all sorts of ideas they picked up in an entirely different budget climate--or my favori
I love my job. I don’t love it the way I love my wife and kids, or even my dog, nor do I love it all the time, but on a whole, I love it. Being able to say this puts me in a significant minority in the workplace. A 2017 Gallup poll found that 70% of workers in the U.S. hate their job (hate may have a spectrum of intensity, but I am splitting hairs). There are many strategies we all know to combat job-hate, and any job-hating individual must shoulder some responsibility, yet job-hate continues. L
Working for a big urban muni in the Deep South with monthly floods and a constantly changing command structure had a negative effect on my health. While the chain of command at a high dollar private course can often be a pressurized environment, the sudden and bizarre reversals of policy on the municipal facility I inhabited regularly produced staff meetings worthy of a Polanski film.
At one point, I was stripped of my authority to issue cart path only edicts, as that power belonged in th
Don't miss this year's Turf Field Day at Rivermont, because even if your job requires doing things "the way it's always been done" . . . eventually you will need to be familiar with other ways to get it done.
Mark Hoban is the tip of the spear. Come see what he's up to now.
How does Rivermont CC look so good and play so well on a such a minimalistic spray regimen? Learn one of Mark Hoban's secrets by watching this short film.
Some great questions flow through my various inboxes and DM's. I'd like to share a recent one that was really from the heart.
"I just had my Annual Review with my GM. And his biggest issue with me is communication. Especially my written communications. I feel judged harshly. I have never been a very good writer. Can you give my any tips to help? It's sad that the golf course is good, but he has this problem with me."
My Answer:
This is SO COMMON. It really is. Relax. I'm going to
Like many of you I sat transfixed as Tiger Woods made his way to his unprecedented fifth Masters title. It was hard not to be swept away by the culmination of this archetypal hero’s journey and cheer him down the 18th fairway. It was great to see him don the green jacket once more, but more importantly it was really nice to see him happy.
It wasn’t until after a recent conversation with my dear friend (a former Assistant Superintendent of mine) Robert McGregor a few days later, that the arc
If any TurfNet reader were asked what is the most important aspect of your job, I imagine there would be a wide variety of responses. This variety would stand to reason because although TurfNet followers gravitate towards Golf Course Management, they actually represent a variety of green industry segments. I am a Groundskeeper for a university which is different than a golf course superintendent, which is different again from a landscape contractor (I won’t even get into irrigation people who ar
