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From Australia: You Get Less for Murder

Close-up of pure MacKenzie Bentgrass with no surface organic layer due to light frequent dusting. I’m in Australia speaking at the 2012 Australian Turfgrass Conference.I was collected at the Sydney Airport after 22 hours of flight time from Syracuse, NY by Mark Couchman, past president of the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association. Immediately we began our jaunt around Sydney and our first visit to New South Wales Golf Club (ranked #35 best golf course in the world by Golf Magazine
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From Australia: You Get Less for Murder

Im in Australia speaking at the 2012 Australian Turfgrass Conference.I was collected at the Sydney Airport after 22 hours of flight time from Syracuse, NY by Mark Couchman, past president of the Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association. Immediately we began our jaunt around Sydney and our first visit to New South Wales Golf Club (ranked #35 best golf course in the world by Golf Magazine)  and Superintendent Gary Dempsey.   Like a kid in a candy store I bounced out of the car, grabb
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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The Sound

After thirty years of walking on putting surfaces all around the world my feet can tell a firm green. I wear very soft soled Muck Boots that put my feet in close contact with the putting surface so as to assess the feel. A firm putting surface is truly a thing of beauty but what makes it so is that hollow sound. I often use a stimpmeter to get a sense of ball roll distance on surfaces. For ease of measurement I simply flip the stimpmeter, roughly three feet in length to determine distance. It a
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The Sound

After thirty years of walking on putting surfaces all around the world my feet can tell a firm green. I wear very soft soled Muck Boots that put my feet in close contact with the putting surface so as to assess the feel. A firm putting surface is truly a thing of beauty but what makes it so is that hollow sound.   I often use a stimpmeter to get a sense of ball roll distance on surfaces. For ease of measurement I simply flip the stimpmeter, roughly three feet in length to determine distance. I
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Clippings

Over thirty years ago I told Father McGuire, my NYC-metro area high school counselor, that I liked working outside. He replied, “Well, Frank, we have good farming schools here in New York state. You should learn to be a farmer.” So I enrolled in the Dairy Farm Management program at SUNY Cobleskill, where I quickly learned that dairy farming is half about cows and half about growing grass to feed them. After meeting Bob Emmons, professor of turfgrass science there, I quickly realized that I wante
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What Is Your Number?

I know no subject more disparate around the country than water management, especially of golf putting greens. In the desert southwest every drop is accounted for when water can consume up to $1 million annually. While in northern states water is applied gratuitously measured in minutes (not inches) with little regard for cost or precision. Recently the use of moisture meters such as Spectrum’s Field  Scout 300, provide an easy to use method for determining soil moisture and a defacto increase
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What Is Your Number?

I know no subject more disparate around the country than water management, especially of golf putting greens. In the desert southwest every drop is accounted for when water can consume up to $1 million annually. While in northern states water is applied gratuitously measured in minutes (not inches) with little regard for cost or precision. With the simple poke of the meter into the ground golf course superintendents now have a number. Recently the use of moisture meters such as Spectrums Fi
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Be True

Not only has the season progressed rapidly in the Northern climate but the golfer expectations are ramped up as well. Often the pressure for peak performance is the greatest around US Open time. Now it seems with the weather a month ahead, the pressure is also ahead of schedule. DON’T GIVE IN TO IT. Be True. When I’m talking about pressure to peak it is code for fast greens. You start pushing the greens now you are going to pay later. Do not push for speed now when you are pounding them with P
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Be True

Not only has the season progressed rapidly in the Northern climate but the golfer expectations are ramped up as well. Often the pressure for peak performance is the greatest around US Open time. Now it seems with the weather a month ahead, the pressure is also ahead of schedule. DONT GIVE IN TO IT. Be True.   When Im talking about pressure to peak it is code for fast greens. You start pushing the greens now you are going to pay later. Do not push for speed now when you are pounding them with P
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Imagine There is No Poa

I am finishing a conference call with some key superintendents from the NY Metro area when I ask a simple question about early season annual bluegrass seedhead suppression. At least three of the seven superintendents chime in saying, I wouldnt know Im bentgrass. Immediately my mind began racing, what if everyone was bentgrass, what if there was no annual bluegrass. It is hard to imagine the differences, but as John Lennon said, its easy if you try. Immediately my mind began racing, what if ev
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Imagine There is No Poa

I am finishing a conference call with some key superintendents from the NY Metro area when I ask a simple question about early season annual bluegrass seedhead suppression. At least three of the seven superintendents chime in saying, “I wouldn’t know I’m bentgrass”. Immediately my mind began racing, “what if everyone was bentgrass, what if there was no annual bluegrass”. It is hard to imagine the differences, but as John Lennon Said, “it’s easy if you try”. We would spray fewer pesticides with
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Are You The Man with a Plan?

The flooding of September 2011 in upstate NY is one that Rocco Greco, Superintendent at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, NY, site of the Dicks Sporting Goods Open Senior PGA event, is unlikely to forget anytime soon. “Having lived in the area most of my life, I knew there was flooding”, Rocco said, “but I never imagined 16 of my 18 holes would be submerged under 15-20 feet of water.” Aerial view of En-Joie Golf Course September 2011. Note only two greens NOT flooded. Sometimes I forget the u
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Are You The Man with a Plan?

The flooding of September 2011 in upstate NY is one that Rocco Greco, Superintendent at En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, NY, site of the Dick's Sporting Goods Open Senior PGA event, is unlikely to forget anytime soon. Having lived in the area most of my life, I knew there was flooding, Rocco said, but I never imagined 16 of my 18 holes would be submerged under 15-20 feet of water.   Sometimes I forget the unprecedented access I get to not only fascinating operations but dedicated and unique
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Supply and Demand

As a member of the National Golf Foundation and also a subscriber to Pellucid Corporation operated by Jim Koppenhaver I have access to enormous amounts of information concerning the business of golf. Recently I have found this information fascinating as it seems since the crash of 2008, the economy has exerted the strongest influence on golf turf management I have ever seen in thirty years in the industry. it seems since the crash of 2008, the economy has exerted the strongest influence on go
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Timing is everything

My email and phone are blowing up these days with golf turf questions, comments, reports, inquiries about the record early Spring conditions. Golf course superintendents are asking about seedhead suppression timing with Proxy and Primo,wondering about soil temperatures and summer patch preventative control, and most importantly in the northeast US, annual bluegrass weevil sitings. With each of these issues, the old saying holds-timing is everything.   Seedhead suppression is among the most tim
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Are You A No-Show?

As budgets have tightened many golf course superintendents have forsaken their professional development line items. Often when this pinch occurs it is the National Show that gets cut as I have found most superintendents are loyal to their local, state and regional associations. I certainly understand the impetus to cut a fairly big number when not attending the "National Show", but it makes me wonder if there is no longer any perceived value to attending. I am fortunate to be involved in the ed
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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Minimalism

A few weeks ago I was speaking in England at the annual British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association Conference in Harrogate, about an hour and a half from Manchester in the Yorkshire Dales. Outside of the US and Canada it is the one of the premier golf turf educational events in the world.   I was presenting in a few sessions on Sustainable Golf Turf Management, Reduced Chemical Pesticide Use and my overall theme of resource efficient golf turf management.  An Irish Greenkeeper app
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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The New Normal

Mark Twain once said, "climate is what we expect, weather is what we get". The last two seasons are among the warmest on record nationwide. It looks like we getting more than we expect.   These warmer growing seasons demonstrate tremendous departure from the historic averages. It is not uncommon to be two to three weeks ahead of normal for growing degree days, meaning while the calendar states one date, the biological organisms (i.e., your turf) are acting as if it were much later in the seaso
Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

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