Writing a recent blog about the future of grounds and landscaping got me thinking about how potential future changes could alter what my grounds management looks like. It then lead me to wonder about sustainability (what in the world does that mean?), and how that could change my grounds management too. The possible changes stem from the pursuit of sustainability that is being advocated by both those in our industry and those outside of it. But which pursuit the right one?
Sustainability...
For many of you summer is crazy busy and full of nothing but work on the course. So naturally many of your other endeavors regarding your career and even using communication tools and resources like TurfNet can get put on the backseat. So, I thought I would revisit a few things we've covered recently that make this month a great chance to take action on them.
Acquire Photography of Your Course
If you haven't had any images taken of your great course conditions this season, now is your
Every 35 years or so, I get a brilliant idea. (The last one was joining the US Army.)
My current brain-quake is still smoldering and forming, but here's a teaser of what might turn out to be the Greatest Golf Course Winter Project since we built our first barn Turf Care Center and came in out of the cold.
It is estimated that less than 50% of golf course superintendents are comfortable engaging consultants because they believe their employers might see this as a sign of weakness and/or their pride/ego gets in the way.
General opinion suggests that these two perceptions are mistaken because when survey-tested, the concept of engaging consultants is seen almost universally as a sign of strength and maturity. To support this premise it should be noted that:
The American Institute Of Health a
Join me for the very first episode of the Turfgrass Zealot Project with my guest Mike Kosak.
Get to know the real Dave Wilber as I tell a bit of my story and am joined by superintendent legend Mike Kosak, the first superintendent I worked for in the golf business 30-some years ago. Mike fashioned a career starting with building nine golf holes by himself, then went on to become superintendent, then general manager, then GM with an ownership interest, and then 'back to the dirt" as a superint
Fred Gehrisch of Highlands Falls Country Club, TurfNet's 2014 Superintendent of The Year, reveals one of the management techniques he utilizes to achieve Maximum Personnel Efficiency.
It has been fully recognized for some time that the better NFL head coaches possess the organizational skills and leadership qualities to become effective CEOs of Fortune 500 companies -- assuming an appropriate business education has been acquired along the way. No one doubts this.
Along this same line of thinking, I suggest that many of the respected veteran superintendents at the country's better golf course facilities possess similar skills and leadership qualities and, accordingly, qual
While preparing to shoot our summer update on Mark Hoban's Golf Science Projects, wild rumors of dead bentgrass at Rivermont swept through Rockbottum Headquarters.
We immediately rushed to Atlanta to shoot the following Emergency Hoban Report.
In this episode of the TurfNet Renovation Report, Dave Wilber chats with Tommy Naccarato, golf architecture expert, golf historian and digital artist/Photoshop wunderkind.
One of the leading voices on Internet golf discussion forums for years, Tommy talks about how he turned his passion for art, architecture, golf and the digital world into his dream job. You'll hear Tommy's story as it led up to his work with Gil Hanse on the Rio 2016 Golf Project.
Tommy also has a passion for gol
There are two kinds of success in life that we need to identify with if we are going to live unselfish rewarding lives. These are:
The Intervening Successes: The kinds that are not enduring but fail the test of time even while serving us well for periods of years during our lives; for example:
Financial Success: A necessary pursuit because we need money to sustain careers and to support families. But a pursuit that fails the test of time because economies waver and are generally define
The only way to fix golf now is to return to the days of the REAL golfer. But who is the REAL golfer? Where do they come from?
REAL golfers don't kick big balls into giant holes while riding skateboards. They don't pay a green fee just to drink beer with their buddies and hoss a tiny car around a grassy theme park without fear of DUI roadblocks. They will not divert their golf budget away from actually playing golf to a hybrid driving range/bar/bowling alley/carnival.
The REAL golfe
Here at Drury University we have several tracts of land that we want to restore. When I say restore some may say restore to what? Many people conjure up images of native meadows or woodlands. Our campus project has the meadow option in mind. In our work, restore also generally means to return an area to some previous state of vegetation, and to repopulate with some various native plant material. Restoration can be carried out for several reasons and is widely recognized as a viable option in gro
Canadian golf course architect Jeff Mingay isn't short of opinions. Neither is Dave Wilber. Listen in as Dave chats with Jeff about the state of golf today, particularly as influenced by the modern golf ball.
Just a peek: Imagine what today's ballparks would be like if the baseball had evolved in a fashion similar to the golf ball...
Check it out below, or right-click/tap here to download the .mp3 for offline listening. It's an hour of really good stuff.
Back in the heady days of the late 90s, the golf industry was all about the creation of new courses. They could not build them fast enough, and everyone (Green Keepers included) rode the wave of euphoria that was to usher in a new age in golf. Fast forward 15 plus years and that wave has crested, crashed on the beach, and sucked many of us back out in its undertow.
While the construction of new courses dwindled, the golf industry changed its focus and now the buzz words center around restora
It has been traditionally thought that pedigree (prestigious) jobs were available only to the more veteran superintendents. Interestingly, this is not the case today because credential quality now supersedes age as a primary qualifier.
The Challenge
Of course, the better things in life do not come without ultimate challenges, which in this case are:
There are fewer pedigree golf courses compared to the many worthy candidates capable of filling these jobs -- which means that only the bes
Any of you feeling the effects of the stress and strain of the "100 Days of Hell", you need to LISTEN TO THIS!
In this episode of my TurfNet RADIO show, I Speak Frankly with Paul MacCormack, Golf Course Superintendent and General Manager of Fox Meadow Golf Club, Prince Edward Island, Canada. We chat about being intentional and about pacing yourself during the stressful part of the golf season when your course is most actively used and judged. Paul gives great advice, including tips on how to
In the spring of '70, Norm, my pro golfer/supt father, was hired to operate, renovate and resuscitate a little 9-hole CC in Covington, Tennessee. This was before we discovered the small town, pseudo-country club business plan known as Hire In Spring--Fire Immediately After New Year's Party. (This happened four times before Dad caught on and switched to full-time superintendent, a process that required a difficult exorcism to remove golf pro thinking.)
When we arrived at CCC, we p
Nothing delivers a negative message to employers and everyone else on a golf course campus more directly that a superintendent has defaulted into a laissez-faire work ethic than a poorly dressed, obviously out-of-shape body.
Following is a list of personal appearance guidelines that superintendents should follow:
Physical Fitness: Superintendents owe it to themselves, their families and their employers to strive to be physically fit throughout life because: they will live longer; deliver
In this episode we are Frankly Speaking with David Huff, Professor of Turfgrass Genetics at Penn State University and the foremost authority today on the genetics, breeding potential and management of Poa annua as a greens-type turf.
Dave published an excellent article in the May/June 2015 issue of Greenmaster (the official publication of the Canadian Golf Course Supts.) on managing annual bluegrass with ecology and evolution in mind. Professor Huff outlined a mindset to managing Poa annua t
Please do not think this blog is shameless pandering to a site I am a member of. I joined TurfNet first as a user also contribute now as a blogger. I found TurfNet while looking for resources on general turf maintenance and sports turf. While TurfNet is focused on the golf industry, there is much information applicable to these other fields.
One of my main interests is in an organic-based approach to turf management that focuses on natural processes over chemical intervention. Fortunately I
One major issue seems to come up in the vast majority of references -- no diversification! What does this mean? Well, most only list their peers (superintendents) on their references page. While this might be a good idea for finding an assistant position, it really is not the best approach for a superintendent opening, particularly if you are applying blind with no connections to the hiring club.
Listing your peers may prove that you know or come recommended by industry veterans, but it doe
Come along as we visit with Brian Stiehler, CGCS at Highlands Country Club in Highlands, North Carolina.
Brian shows us "The Farm", a very special garden he designed, built and maintains for the club.
