Matt Crowther, CGCS, a TurfNetter of great power, prestige and influence, took a recent vacation to Rockbottum CC.
Matt not only discovered how to relieve the stress from a tough summer, he also gained valuable insights into southern golf operations, skeletal greenkeeping and the meaning of life.
Oh, and he left without his luggage, so if anybody knows his whereabouts, let us know--he won't answer our calls.
Firmnicity is the science of measuring firmness in order to attain a number that allows the golfer to compare his firmness against others.
This is not a new science, it has been used to assess baseball fields, mattresses, surgical augmentation and a quality of life somehow related to sitting in separate bathtubs while watching a sunset.
Be careful with the numbers in this area. As is the case in DeathMeter stats, the golfer may demand a particular number, but not actually want to play t
Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything Thats how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen, Anthem
I was walking through a dense grove of older spruce trees the other day. By all appearances, most of the trees were on the downward slide of their life spans, and not looking very healthy. Its an eerie sight, rusting branches, old mans beard, and lichen as far as the eye can see. But then I came upon a clearing, no more than a dozen fee
I'm a huge fan of hydromulch.
I'm not sure why it hasn't caught on as much as it should. Perhaps due to the strength of the sod industry or perhaps the fact that hydroseeding/hydromulching is labor intensive. I'm not anti sod by any stretch of the imagination, but there are a few instances where it just doesn't work. And while there is some degree of instant gratification with sod, it may come with challenges that aren't needed.
The first is when we need to be using grasses or are workin
Although the inhabitants of Rockbottum seethe with cool sophistication and exude an urbane, erudite image, we have our less genteel side.
We must confess, there are things in golf that irritate us.
We thought it would be good to cathartize exacerbate exorcise ourselves and get a few of these things off our chest.
It's almost Autumn. My career as a "Bad Golf Course Fixer" would not have been possible without the existence of Homelite, Jonsered, Sachs-Dolmar, several Husky 268s . . . and Autumn.
In late summer, I always had a tendency to dance around like a madman released early from the asylum, in anticipation of the real work: Surgical removal of turf-strangling, golf-suppressing large woody vertical golf hazards.
Success in this area requires preparation, before the leaves fall. Covert markin
No sooner had I written my last blog post on the decision to repair or replace an item was I confronted with the situation again. I walked into the kitchen to grab my iPad to do a quick search about something and, struggling to get the just-a-bit-too-magnetic Zagg keyboard cover off, both slipped from my hands and tumbled to the tile floor. Oops. Spiderweb cracks all across the iPad screen.
By no means am I a power iPad user, but I do need it to test new website layouts and configurations..
Yesterday I was fortunate enough to have one of those great conversations with my assistant/mechanic/brother-in-law/great friend, Finn. We do it quite often and it is one of the best parts about working closely with someone you really enjoy being around. The talk revolved around a recurring theme with us: having a plan.
Our chat centered on the tale of two courses in the area. Course A has been around for a long time and is your typical country club in your typical town. Like many private cl
Just dropped off my daughter for college this past week. In and amongst the tears I shed as we left our little girl I thought about the importance of "letting go". For a proud father this meant watching your child fledge knowing great things lie ahead. As parents we all go through some pain in the short run to help our children succeed in the long run.
Oddly for me, I see a strong parallel for golf turf managers. I thought about "being a parent" to annual bluegrass surfaces that have struggl
One of the advantages of having Multiple Personality Disorder is the ability to look at things from different angles. Currently, the "Mad Golf Prophet" has control and he just won't shut up about the potential weather extremes.
In order to survive weather patterns that go on and on and on, the "Mad Golf Prophet" recommends indoor activities for the crew. These may include sanding, painting and 'helping' the equipment manager.
Not all of these activities should be work related. When ca
A couple weeks back our intrepid Maestro penned a thoughtful piece (Information overload and sensory flashbacks...). It was full of a lot of the wisdom and down home honesty that we have come to expect from Peter, but for me, it was also interesting to read between the lines a little.
I have been picking at a fascinating book called The Introvert Advantage, Making the Most of Your Hidden Strengths, by Marti Olsen Laney, Phy.D. The basic premise of the book is that once those who crave solitu
Here comes fall and after a summer of giving up the process, our turfgrass babies are getting ready to make some Carbos. I really love this time of year, because if you really pay attention to how the plant works and what the plant really needs, then some key decisions can pay off huge. This counts for recovery now, and emergent later.
Despite what some people try to hang around my neck, I'm a minimalist. Which means that first and foremost, I follow something that Dr. Mackenzie said years a
In the final attempt to 'Fix Golf' before we grow it, the most important message to ever emerge from Rockbottum CC is presented in the following Commentary . . . Rant . . . Wild-Eyed Tirade.
Unlike most offerings from Rockbottum, this message is not a subliminal point wrapped in diversionary goofiness, this is serious material.
Although the script for 'Our Balls' has been ready for months, we waited until after The PGA Championship to release it. The reason: While the tournament was an
The question of whether to 'repair or replace' rises to the surface as any product ages, be it a household item like a washing machine or dishwasher, a vehicle, or a piece of turf equipment.
In our increasingly disposable culture the answer is most often 'replace'. Products manufactured overseas in countries with economies very different than ours keep the cost of replacement artificially low. Rates for service technicians ranging from $50 to over $100/hour further sway the decision toward
Tiger Woods has become the modern day E.F. Hutton, i.e., "When Tiger talks people listen". A week before the PGA Championship, successfully hosted by Jeff Corcoran and the folks in Western NY, Woods commented offensively on the quality of the putting surfaces.
Quote
Corcoran get's the mike stuck in his face and explains without being defensive about defensive agronomic management
"They don't have much thatch to them, so it'll be interesting to see what they do for the tournament and
Based on a true story pulled from the 'Greenkeeper Tales' collection, Rockbottum CC Television presents a film packed with drama, intrigue and embarrassing Southern family lore.
One of the things we wordsmiths often do is ask someone else to proofread a column or article before we hit the publish key. That's one reason why newspapers have editors, of course.
Other than correcting grammatical errors or catching typos, the real benefit of a second set of eyes (SSOE) is determining if the piece reads well or otherwise makes sense. You see, when one is intimately involved in writing or creating something (or tending to a golf course for that matter), everything makes s
The following Rockbottum CC Commentary contains an URGENT MESSAGE for Adam Hertzog, the producer who recently escaped from ESPN and has now been ordained as a VP at The Golf Channel.
Okay, maybe it's not really all that urgent, but it does include a suggestion that will help us all . . . or maybe just those of us who watch golf on TV.
For this week's post, I am going to turn it over to Callum Haughn, fellow TurfNetter and assistant superintendent at Mill Ridge Golf Course, located in Nova Scotia, Canada. Callum helps out writing for our local associations quarterly magazine, and his last submission was good enough to share here...
The Human Element
By Callum Haughn
It takes a lot of different people with a lot of different personalities to make up a successful workplace. Managing these personalities can sometimes be
The subject line of a somewhat curious email I received last week caught my eye. Regarding an impending local chapter meeting, it was titled "Sad state of affairs", and went like this:
"I was wondering if anyone can help me. As I'm sure to be asked, please help me with the answer to 'why do we have 12 class A members signed up for the July meeting'? and of that, more than half are board members. Luckily with others we have almost 50 total. Sad.
That's right. A great venue with educa
Once upon a time, there was a strangeness that crept into golf course land.
No, this isn't the story about the olden times when the club pro was paid more than the GCS, that wasn't strange, that was just crazy.
This particular strangeness happened not long ago and somebody at Rockbottum CC might have been neck-deep in the whole mess . . .
Watch this short film if you want to understand The Twiffer.
I recently got the opportunity to work on one of the most interesting projects I've ever had a chance to be a part of.
You may not know about Claremont Country Club in Oakland, California, and that's a shame. Claremont is a cool old Mackenzie design that is short, but one of the funnest rounds you'll ever have. And challenging too. I'd play there every day if they'd let me. They never will, but it's a nice dream to have. Recently restored to amazing original glory at the hands of Jim Urbina
As the staff at Oak Hill Country Club, outside of Rochester, NY prepares for the PGA Championship under the leadership of Jeff Corcoran, there is a smile on Bob Emmon's face. Mr. Emmons as we all knew him was the turfgrass professor for almost 30 years at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill, in Cobleskill, NY.--try and google that place!
Corcoran will join a long and growing list of superintendents who have hosted Majors. Mark Michaud at Peb
