Anyone who has been in the golf business for more than a few years knows the excitement about Masters Week. This marks the beginning of the golf season for many in spirit. For many superintendents it is also the beginning of the whining season.
It is not just the golfers who whine about the massive difference between Augusta National and their course, but many superintendents will lament that this week is the root of all the complaints they receive. It is such an important aspect of our live
Moving forward, we present Point 4 of the Rockbottum Country Club Ten Point Plan to Fix Golf.
To give you some idea of how such brilliant strategy is conceived, we recorded an entire brainstorming session, revealing our critical path method for coming up with a good idea.
(The various alphabet agencies, foundations and associations of golf would do well to study our method.)
Anyway, listen in on a high-level tactical planning meeting of the Rockbottum CC Brain Trust as they stand up
One of the main reasons I have enjoyed TurfNet so much over the years has been Randy Wilson. From the first time I read his musings to the initial video from the mythical 'Rockbottum Country Club', his wisdom and wit have been spot on. His ability to cut through the crap with humor is only superseded by his honesty about what it has meant for him to live the life of a greenkeeper. His recent post regarding the OSV (Off-Season Vacation) may be one of his best yet. It may not be the funniest or
We have all been there; upside down in a hole, trying to convince two pieces of pipe that they really were once connected. Or maybe you are in the garage trying to put together your latest purchase with instructions in some obscure Scandinavian language. The harder you try, the worse things become, until your frustration boils over. By this point the screw head is stripped or the valve is stuck harder than when you started, and you are using expletives unfit for boot camp.
Strangely enough,
What a difference a year makes across most of the US this Spring. Last year two-thirds of the continental US had already set at least three to as many five daily high temperature records. Some had even made their second app of annual bluegrass seedhead suppression. Obviously management by the calendar is not way to operate-we must pay attention if want precision.
Growing degree days (GDD) as a measure of heat accumulation is an easy way to add precision to your management. In simple terms, e
After GIS insanity and then the Sierra Pacific Spring Symposium my plan was to disappear to Mexico for a deep breath before summer Turfhead grillage begins. I don't do well with time off. It's a language I don't really speak. So this trip was designed to take my head out of the game. Week One was dropping into a small Mexican village known as a hippie escape. Yoga twice daily. Teaching what has become my new hobby, Energy and Bodywork in the evening. Minimal booze. Maximum sun. Week Two a bit
For as much as I preach the virtues of the GCS De-Stressor--the hobby or activity that releases job tension before, during or after the workday... I have only recently realized how guilty I have been of overlooking the most important De-Stressor: The OSV, or Off-Season Vacation.
I was one of those golf course superintendents who rarely took a vacation, preferring instead to squeeze in a day off here and there, letting the wife and kids go to the beach with other wives and kids, while I worke
Buddy steps up with Point 3 of Rockbottum's Ten Point Plan for Fixin' Golf.
Ease up on the average golfer -- the guy who pays the bills -- by reducing the rough, inverting a few bunkers and slowing the greens down a little bit.
Rockbottum music video follows, to help clear any unpleasant memories inflicted by Buddy's overly simplistic analysis.
I got a message from an old friend this week. I have not seen him much in the past twenty years even though we were best friends back in the day. He lives on the other side of the country now, but tells me he is coming home for a visit next weekend. I was thrilled with the news and it got me thinking about the power of friendships and the many great bonds that I have forged since becoming a greenkeeper.
Our industry is relatively unique in this regard. I have yet to work another job which ha
I posted a blog entry after the 2012 Barclays held on the Black Course at the Bethpage State Park and mentioned "set-up man extraordinaire" Rich Roble. Rich passed away on Friday after a short battle with pancreatic cancer.
I'd known Rich for almost 15 years as a member of the Bethpage State Park staff. I can say with certainty he was the grumpiest perfectionist with the biggest heart I'd ever known. Rich was a native Long Islander born and raised around golf. He started as a really good pla
The USGA is, as Buddy would say, "On the horns of an enema" in the current Anchoring controversy.
Their very existence is being challenged and the only way the USGA can remain in the driver's seat is to stiffen their spine and stand up to the rebels.
At Rockbottum CC, we're pretty experienced at standing up to unruly ruffians and scofflaws.
Therefore, we would like to offer our support to the USGA with a re-mastered training video that explains how to put an end to the whole mess.
"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." Mark Twain
Stepping outside the norm and taking real chances in life is tough. It takes profound courage to evaluate the status quo, decide on a completely new course of action and then take the leap.
From time to time towing the line is the wisest action... but sometimes you just have to walk to the edge of the cliff and jump.
Our society is set up totally against this notion. All of
It's been a crazy few weeks.
GIS Sales Rodeo. The Resulting Post GIS Illness. Many Road Miles. Oh, and the Big One.
That's right, the Big One. The Sierra Pacific Spring Symposium. Wherein the amazing organization that I work with puts on two amazing days of education, hang time and golf.
My marketing counter-part, Dean Kinney and I pretty much do this whole thing. Administratively we each look in the mirror and tell our assistants what to do. And our assistants speak back with the
A few days ago, I heard about a course in Georgia that received 500 applications for a superintendent position. That's some serious competition, the same kind of numbers one would find trying to survive the selection process for an elite special ops unit in the American military.
There's a secret to succeeding against those odds and I know what it is. I witnessed the brutal attrition rate of the aforementioned selection process several times and eventually realized the one trait that all th
Methiozolin, currently trade named PoaCure, from Moghu Research Center in Korea could be a game changer. Doctor S.J. Koo, lead scientist and Cornell University Ph.D. may have in fact found a "cure" for annual bluegrass invasion. The question are we ready for this cure.
There is no question in my mind that it has the kind of selective herbicidal activity as both a preemergence and postemergence product to affect meaningful changes in populations on greens, tees and fairways. It appears to be
"Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less. It is a trick, no more than a shadow on the wall," George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
I could not get this quote out of my head last week while attending our local association's conference and trade show. It was a great show, but it struck me that while we may believe that the power to educate in our industry lies within the USGA, the suppliers, the salesmen, the agronomists or the university professors... it lies in our h
I love golf course maintenance workers. I mean, really, who is better than a great Greenkeeper? You take an A player Section Guy or Operator who really really knows their job and you have one amazing person who contributes to the game in the most positive ways and most golfers will never understand. Someone amazing enough to pipe a 300-yard long straight line on a mower, or to prep a green complex with absolute perfection in the near dark, is, to me, a total rock star to be appreciated in every
Ydnar, Randy's evil twin, somehow managed to extricate himself from the GCS Retirement Home and Asylum, several years before completing his sentence, and arrived at Rockbottum eager to deliver the thesis that earned him a PH.d (Post Hole Digger) while he was incarcerated at the GCSRH&A.
Ydnar's thesis is entitled, "The 10 Point Plan For Fixin' Golf" and while he personally delivers the first two points, we will have to finish it for him, as some folks in black suits came during the tapin
Have you ever noticed that once something catches your attention, similar things start popping up everywhere? When you buy a new car you start to see that model everywhere, or when your wife is pregnant, it seems as though every second woman you see is pregnant. There is a name for this phenomenon. Psychologists call it the Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon, and as Alan Bellows explains, it was exactly what happened to me following my last blog post.
"Anytime the phrase 'That's so weird, I just hear
Here we go. The GIS Show Wrap Up. Lets go aisle by aisle and row by row and take a look at the best (and worst) of the GIS.
Yawn. Seriously? No.
It's time to get Trade Show Sales Rodeo Season out of your head and Winter out of your fur. Agronomy. That's the mantra. Agronomy.
I live in an area where we have coastal, desert, mountain, transition and all the other flavors of climate. So the typical winter break for me is never typical. The 12-month season isn't for everyone. But neither i
Every year there is a theme to the commercial aspects of the Golf Industry Show. This year it was plant health. Not that anybody could actually tell what it is but rather I assume everyone figures if they keep saying plant health and we keep talking about plant health no one will need to actually say what plant health is. Plant health plant smealth.
Professor Bingru Huang of Rutgers University in the January 2012 issues of Golf Course Management said, "Healthy plants are better able to adapt
Strolling through the turf blogs can reveal a ton of useful information. Most of it is turf related, but the odd time a useful little life lesson falls from the sky. You know one of these tidbits strikes a chord when you happen to come across the same link twice.
This week both Joe Wachter and Chris Tritabaugh posted a link to a blog posting from marketing guru Seth Godin (here it is: http://sethgodin.typ...t-the-joke.html) The post dealt with the impossibility of pleasing everyone simultan
