It was 45 years ago today that we entered the biggest and baddest of Atlanta's winter storms, The Great Ice Storm of '73. With little warning, icy rain fell for hours and then froze like clear steel on Atlanta's trees, roads and power lines. Big pines began to crash down on houses, splintering utility poles and blocking roads. Transformers exploded like incoming artillery and lit up the Atlanta night with freakish blue arcs of hot light. Everything went dark. Black ice covered sidewalks, st
In this Frankly Speaking PopUp Podcast, I chat with TurfNet's Jon Kiger about the recent TurfNet Members' Trip to Scotland, the upcoming trip to BTME/Harrogate in England (where space is still available), and the TurfNet Members' Trip back to Ireland next October.
Presented by DryJect and Civitas.
Another year has come and almost gone, and like many of you I am taking stock of the past 12 months. Groundskeeping closely follows the clock and calendar, and our jobs are greatly influenced by both of these factors. December (or more broadly, winter) is a viewed by many who care for grounds or the landscape as the end of one period and the start of another. I realize that this is the end of the year for our whole society, but not in the same way as for us in the green industry. The solstice is
Watch this special "Mystic Order of Greenkeepers" film and discover one of the more satisfying ways to stabilize the game.
https://www.rockbottumfilms.com/
Every now and again we all have moments that force us to tune in. It can be an achingly beautiful sunrise, that profound stillness that accompanies watching a child sleep, or the moments of reflection that come with the death of a loved one. Such events are so poignant and so groundless that we have no choice but to pause and pay attention.
For all of us in the TurfNet family these past few weeks have placed us square in the midst of one of these moments. The sudden passing of long time Tur
With each passing year, the golf industry is changing. Gone are the days of new course construction and crazy numbers of rounds. However, at the top clubs most of you are aspiring to work at, something different has happened these clubs are transforming their course through large-scale master planning, and at a very high rate.
In order to maximize your value to these clubs, it is imperative to be knowledgeable in the game of golf, its history, architecture and network. You need to be
In this podcast on Rockbottum Radio, I provide some Christmas Tips from Rockbottum, including:
dealing with kids at Christmas
speeding up play (hint: "Fill 'em, sod 'em, mow 'em")
making golf affordable and fun
doing something with the "r" word
PLUS: Skeletal Golf Predictions and Projections!
Lastly, I wind it up with a golf course Christmas story in Storytime.
Presented by our friends at VinylGuard Golf.
A great friend of TurfNet, Jerry Coldiron, needs to be remembered as the wonderful, amazing man that he was.
Peter McCormick, founder and Maestro of TurfNet, chats with me about the passing of a great friend and Turfhead. To so many, Jerry was a light of positive influence... and his untimely and unexpected passing will leave a huge hole in the industry.
We speak candidly about what relationships mean and how the relationships that last are formed and maintained. And we tell some good st
After writing a monthly column in our now-retired print newsletter (TurfNet Monthly, for those not around then) for 17 or 18 years, I sort of ran out of things of import to say on a regular basis. No sense contributing to more milquetoast, editorial drivel or fill-up-space pontification... there's plenty of that elsewhere.
Occasionally something starts the gears whirring and prompts me to sit down and write. Yesterday was one of those occasions.
I finally caught up by phone with an ol
*Note: This week's guest columnist is Ludell Hogwaller.
There are three things "they" are hiding from you, so I guess it's up to us Ludditians to fire a warning flare, since half our day isn't consumed with all that social media mutual admiration society fawning and gushing and smoke blowing.
First, there are dark rumors going around about veteran superintendents supposedly being terminated for making mistakes like having the audacity to disagree with the new wave of "M" board members
I love being the Head Groundskeeper at Drury University. This job is invigorating, challenging, thought provoking, and even most usually, exhausting. Grounds maintenance (and of course golf superintending!) challenges us both mentally and physically.
One of the aspects of my job, and our larger profession, I find fulfilling is the idea that I am participating in a time-honored human endeavor. Much of our work in the green industry has to do with fulfilling some kind of commercial purpose. In
In this week's Skeletal Golf Theory, we focus our cameras on The Leading Killer of Golf.
SGT is part of Rockbottum Country Club, Deep in The TurfNet Zone, where you'll find straight up, non-cupcake golf course operations analysis, on golf's longest running webisode.
The passing of seminal artists always has an effect on those fans who remain behind. With their deaths, we are confronted with a review of the full reach of their creativity and contribution to society as a whole. The magnitude of their contributions can easily be taken for granted while the artist is alive and creating, yet as in many things, it isn't until we posthumously acknowledge the power of their legacy, that we fully appreciate their artistic impact.
Recently, TurfNetters from nort
In this episode of Rockbottum Radio, I have a serious chat with envelope-pusher Mark Hoban, superintendent at Rivermont Golf Club in John's Creek, GA. One of the true "mad scientists" of the golf course maintenance world, Mark is constantly applying his holistic view of soil/plant management to new endeavors on the golf course. And he always keeps one eye on reducing inputs and subsequent c
Mark fills us in on his current delvings into biochar, compost extracts (as opposed to compost tea...
We have covered various resume topics throughout my time here at TurfNet. This time around I'd like to look at a somewhat different angle. Usually I recommend that you have a professionally built website and portfolio to complement your resume. But for this blog, let's consider how you can use just a resume, nothing else, and still garner attention from employers.
It's not ideal, but if you are in a jam and haven't had your materials built, here are five things that are critical to include
For our annual Halloween tale of horror, we present "Never Say Dye".
Long ago, in primitive golfland, I stupidly stepped into the shoes of a superintendent who escaped resigned from a haunted economically stressed golf course and subsequently ran off accepted another offer.
Before he left, he told a horrifying story of being tricked into attempting a resurrection of a zombie country club; the terror began the moment he stepped foot on the course. It was built on floodplain, the bent g
In this episode of the TurfNet Renovation Report, presented by Golf Preservations and Jacobsen, host Jon Kiger chats with Butch Sheffield, long-time superintendent at North Ridge Country Club, about the recent practice facility renovation there.
In this episode of Living Legends, presented by the Nufarm Insider, host John Reitman chats with David Stone, retired superintendent at The Honors Course in Ooltewah, TN. Stone had been at The Honors Course since construction in 1982 (that's 35 years for anyone counting) and until his retirement was the only superintendent The Honors Course had ever known.
Spend a half hour getting to know David and gain from his wisdom garnered over his career as a golf course superintendent.
Watch this short film for a quick glimpse of some of the fun at this year's Highlands Cup. You'll probably want to try and qualify next year.
For actual details, check out John Reitman's story in TurfNet News.
Sustainability as relates to the landscape is difficult to define. I mostly know what it is, but at the same time I'm not really sure. The word itself seems to ask, "Can my landscape sustain itself?". However, if sustaining is the question, then any landscape that can be perpetuated for whatever reason, and consuming whatever resources required, is necessarily sustainable.
Sustainability also seems to have an ecological component of harmony with the environment. This attribute seems very wis
I don't do many speaking gigs.
That seems weird for a guy who loves and eats and drinks communication. It's not that I'm afraid of public speaking. That fear went away long ago. It's not that I don't love the actual events. I marvel at the quality of the education that is presented to Turfheads and how good the interactions can be.
What makes me take on just a few of these every year and be very picky about who I am speaking to has to do with the mental side of preparing for these very
Modern smartphones, social media, and digital task boards are leading the way toward a Techno-Utopia in golf operations.
Except for one minor glitch . . .
