In this Frankly Speaking podcast, Dr. Doug Soldat and I talk about late season nitrogen management in general, nitrogen management specifically to prevent leaching, and updates on Mn and K observations....
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Presented by DryJect and Turfline/True-Surface.
Because golf is played in 118 countries around the world by over 60 million people, it encompasses the deepest and most widespread fraternity known to man - recognized respectfully as The Family Of Golf.
What Is The Family Of Golf?
The Family Of Golf is the community of people who make up the core humanity of the golf world; i.e., those people who shape the playing and/or the staging of the game of golf.
Who Inherently Belongs To The Family Of Golf?
Regular playing golfers with officia
Imagine everything that you do and everything that you have depending on a 45 minute ferry ride. That's the world of Matt Crowther, CGCS, superintendent at Mink Meadows Golf Club on the famed island of Martha's Vineyard.
Get to know one of the most passionate turfgrass managers anywhere. Hear his struggles and his successes. Matt is definitely an open book.
Long time TurfNet member and a frequent contributor, Matt's position of isolation makes him have to reach out via digital media
In my continued role with the MetGCSA and their website management, I have seen some really great information and I am sure other chapters across the country have similar educational endeavors. However, this month the Met has put together a very comprehensive newsletter article that I think is worthy of more exposure as it is applicable to anyone searching for a new position.
On this blog, we cover career materials -- resumes, cover letters, websites, print portfolios, etc., and how to buil
We interrupt our normally scheduled Rockbottum chaos to issue this Special Alert Bulletin! Did you hear Chava McKeel, GCSAA's Director of Government Relations, on TurfNetRADIO? If not, you might be unaware of what is actually playing out with WOTUS, one of those "regulations" that somehow becomes law because some bureaucrat signed it.
You can hear Chava on Frank Rossi's Frankly Speaking, a TurfNetRADIO show that is really, really good. I would have never known the details of this issue or
30 years with the Denver Broncos... Ross Kurcab is one of my Turfgrass Heroes!
Join me on this episode of The Turfgrass Zealot Project with guest Ross Kurcab. Professional NFL groundsman turned sportsfield consultant, Ross spent 30 years with the Denver Broncos. And he has some stories to tell. Ross and I talk about Natural Turf vs. Synthetic Turf and how and when it can go wrong, plus other good stuff.
In my "monologue" section, I share a few words about value and perhaps what our real
Studies following World War II concluded that the one clear distinguishing element between the German and Japanese treatment of prisoners was that the Japanese intentionally stripped their prisoners of all dignity. Throughout Japanese prisoner of war encampments, personal degradation could be as lethal as a bullet. Similar studies later concluded that:
In the absence of personal dignity men and women are defined not by who they are but by what is done to them... not only as prisoners of war
Last year, my 7 year old son found a Monarch caterpillar and brought it home. We put it in a jar with some leaves and sticks, then looked up how to care for it. We found out that Monarchs only eat plants in the Milkweed genus (Asclepias). I have been a longtime fan of Common Milkweed since I first smelled its blossom in Virginia. I found some on a roadside, and also would harvest it from a patch on campus. Over the next week or so, that caterpillar ate and ate and grew and grew. Knowing little a
In this episode we are Speaking Frankly with Professor LB "Bert" McCarty of Clemson University about ultra-dwarf putting surfaces, especially late and early "shoulder season" care, as well as Professor McCarty's research with physiological response of plant pigments.
Download the .mp3 file for offline listening by right-clicking/tapping here and select "Save Target As".
Subscribe to TurfNetRADIO via iTunes and Stitcher to receive new episodes automatically.
Frankly Speaking is p
In this episode of The Renovation Report, Dave Wilber talks to Jim Alwine about his turf reduction program at Bernardo Heights Country Club.
The California water picture has been a difficult minefield to navigate. Hear from San Diego area superintendent Jim Alwine as he talks about his water situation and how his club has removed 33% of their turf to save water without throwing away playability. There's no question that we all will have to face the issue of water restrictions in some fashion
Here's one from the TurfNet Archives, a reflection I wrote back in December of 1997 during the era when I still pretended to be a golfer... before the "four hours of frustration and embarrassment" got the best of me and I parked my sticks forever. Memory tells me it was after a trip to Alabama to visit with David Pursell and family to view the early plans for what would become Farmlinks. I can't recall the name of the golf course we played that day, but reading this again reminded me that aside
In the Turfgrass Zealot Project Episode #4, I chat with Extreme Super/Athletes Thomas Bastis (California Golf Club of San Francisco) and Scott Bower (Martis Camp, Truckee, CA).
Imagine spending 9+ days biking, treking, kayaking, orienteering and scrambling over 450 miles with an hour of sleep every 24 hours. And imagine calling this fun. Thomas Bastis and Scott Bower (along with Scott's wife Susan) don't have to imagine this. They lived it. And lived to tell about it. Hear about the adventur
Uncle Virgil was killed by a golf abomination. A team of doctors were stymied by his mysterious illness, yet our family knew exactly what happened: Uncle Virgil, partnered with Norm, had racked up 30 straight losses versus Mike and Randy in the annual Wilson Thanksgiving Golf Ritual, "The Great Gopher Feast of Gluttony and Boasting Tournament".
It was just too much for him. Of Dad's seven brothers--three in golf, two in bowling and the others in useless, non-essential work like business--
There are a lot of things you may not know about Randy Wilson and the famed Rockbottum Country Club. And while I may not expose all the secrets in this podcast, I certainly get to a few of them.
"I did spend time as a superintendent, about somewhere between 12 or 14 years, but it damaged me because it was on Bentgrass in Atlanta," says Randy. "I was forced to work on golf courses at a young age."
Randy goes on to explain his world as a concert roady, camera operator, Army Special Forces
In this podcast we speak frankly about topdressing and fast firm greens with Norm Hummel, retired founder of Hummel and Co. soil testing lab (now a part of Turf and Soil Diagnostics). This conversation focuses on improving your understanding of sand physical properties, especially size and shape of particles as well as turf growth and organic matter accumulation.
To download the .mp3 file of this podcast for offline listening, right-click/tap here and "Save Target As".
In this episode we are Speaking Frankly with Chava McKeel, Director of Government Relations for the GCSAA about the latest implications of the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) issue and how it might and now might not affect the golf course industry.
In addition to the the WOTUS discussion expect a lively interaction over the implementation of BMP's for water quality protection and how the BMP's and WOTUS might intersect.
McKeel has been with GCSAA since 1997. She is also a registered
In this week's film, "Tea and Biscuits with Berkeley", we check in with Mark Hoban and the progress of his various unconventional projects.
On a related note, a recent email suggested I was "unconventional". I was happily composing a thank-you note in reply when Momma pointed out it was intended as an insult and therefore required a duel, or possibly even a feud. (As a Southerner, I am familiar with the rules of both, so I chose 8oz gloves--but my challenger has not replied.)
I wasn't
A few posts back I touched on thankfulness. It is a powerful tool we can use to not only connect to our inner selves, but to those around us that matter most.
It can also be very helpful to reflect on those things that bring us true joy. I'm not talking about things that make us happy... I mean those things in our lives that create those moments that make life worth living. Those things that only we know; the ones that strike a chord deep inside and bring us both lasting peace and contentmen
In this episode of the Turfgrass Zealot Project, Dave Wilber talks about dedication and then interviews Jon Scott, one of the most dedicated people in Turf.
Jon Scott shares one of the most interesting careers in Golf. Fifteen years as a Super. Two tours with Jack Nicklaus as Director of Agronomy. Director of Agronomy for The PGA Tour. Jon has made some things happen and seen some things happen.
The Turfgrass Zealot Project is brought to you by Klingstone, the original liquid-
Jack Nicklaus offered golf the most logical, realistic and achievable strategy for the future of the game and golf "experts" pooh-poohed it.
Instead of Jack's sensible concept, today we have turf skateboards, gyro-balanced scooters, commode-sized putting cups, golf-themed singles bars/driving ranges, hybridized soccer-golf and big-budget recruitment programs that probably benefit ad agencies more than golf.
The result: A splintered approach that leaves actual golf in fragments, with clu
Back in the mid-1990s, I was invited to GCSAA headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas to attend a series of meetings for the purpose of addressing superintendents' job security issues. No matter how the conversations went at these meetings, I was consistently told by GCSAA Board members, staff and chapter leaders (all acting in good faith) that . . .
"It would not be prudent for superintendents to take the initiative when negotiating job security issues because it would anger/offend their employers
Father of the Bride is undoubtedly the best gig to have on wedding day: all pride and no pressure. August 1 of this year was one of the two proudest days of my life, as I walked Daughter A down the aisle at Old North Church (of "one if by land, two if by sea" fame) in Boston. The other proudest day was when I did the same with Daughter B in Vermont, back in October, 2013.
Prouder than my own wedding... births of the girls... graduations... starting TurfNet*? Yes. I'll explain in a bit.
