Review another turf blog: Veridescent, Turf Disease and Golf Course Business

I have been looking for a good turf blog to comment and review and I have found not one, not two, but three that I think are not only good, but also very useful information for our future profession. I like Veridescent, Turf Diseases and Golf Course Business. I am amazed at how much information you can get out of these three sites and all for free.

Veridescent is a turf blog that focuses mostly in Asia. The blog is easy to read, well organized, with many illustrations and a good source of useful information particularly in seminars, cultural practices and diseases. Also it looks like this blog is updated constantly, I would say about every 10 days, sometimes even more often. It has a lot of links to other interesting sites. Particularly, it has a lot of information on warm-season grasses since Asia is predominately warm and humid.

Turf Diseases is another blog that gives a lot of useful information, data and links to other sites that are related with our industry. Also the main topic, diseases, along with soils and greens committees, is one of the most challenging issues that a superintendent has to deal with. So having such useful and helpful information at the tip of your fingers is just great!

Another blog that I plan to follow from now on is Golf Course Business. Maybe it is just the title, but as I have always said, I believe that the future will bring more superintendents that also are able to run the business side of the course. Golf course maintenance and water management are the most expensive cost of a golf course. So why couldn’t the person in charge of budgeting the main cost, be able to run the whole operation? From my experience I have realized that running a golf course is relatively easy, but running a golf course well is not that easy. Golf courses, as any other business, are hard to make profitable, but can be possible if the main person in charge knows how well the business is going. He or she will be able to understand why budgets have to be reduced or in the contrary, knowing the expected green fee forecast could increase the level of maintenance to create a positive impact for future guests and/or members.

I would like to thank the authors of these blogs and others that are available, because it will keep all of us updated and on top of our game. Thank you.

Promotion of a Turf Association Local to my Internship: The Carolinas GCSA

Picture of Tobacco Road Golf Club

“The Carolinas GCSA is committed to providing its members the opportunity to excel professionally and enhance the game of golf through responsible turfgrass management”. This is the mission statement of the Carolinas Golf Course Association.

This association was created in 1954. From its web page LINK. I have learned that it has 1,800 members. It is a combination of superintendents from North and South Carolina and is the largest affiliated chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.

Kiawah Is. Ocean Course; Host of the PGA Championship 2012

One of its major activities is the annual conference and trade market in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This conference includes many hours of lectures. There are more than 100, according to its web page. I found this very interesting. I truly believe that this profession is young and that there still a lot to learn. The show also has more than a 100,000 square ft of commercial trade, such as golf products, show exhibits and give away totaling $15,000 in value.
The association also has a magazine publication, annual program of regional seminars, meetings to help members network, and a membership directory that it is updated annually.
For more information visit its web page at http://www.cgcsa.org

Turf management topic of my choice: Superintendents, the Rules of golf and course maintenance

This blog is about superintendents, the Rules of golf and course maintenance.

I read an article on the USGA Green Record Publication. It tries to give us an understanding of the importance of the superintendent and the maintenance department in general in order to better understand the game of golf.


The author, Bob Brame, describes a series of points, in which he explains some examples of mistakes made by course maintenance. It mentions the importance of set up tree roots, roughs, obstructions, local rules, divot filling, hole placement, liners, flagstick position, green mowing, brush and clipping piles, course marking and how the maintenance that is done may affect the playability of the game.

Some examples that the author describes are pin placement (rule 16), and how they have to comply with the rules of golf. The correct alignment of the tee markers is another example described by the writer. He emphasized on clean up cuts of certain areas of the course, such as the edges of greens, bunkers, and other hazards, so it is clear where the ball lies. He also discussed several others related to the ten points mention above.

I find the subject very interesting. I agree with his article. However some of these practices could be more a matter of budget and timing. All of these details designed to improve the fair playability, from my experience, comes with more prepared workers, that means more expenses to train golf course maintenance employees.

There is a balance that must be met at each course between course setup and the rules of golf. It is up to the golf course superintendent to determine where that balancing point lies. Golf is a more popular sport in The U.S. than in Spain, and from my experience many superintendents in my native Spain have little idea about the sport itself and its rules.

Description of my internship course and summer goals/objectives: My Internship at Pinehurst No.2

Every time I think of Pinehurst, Payne Stewart comes to my mine. He won the US Open Championship there in 1999, just weeks before he passed away in a plane accident.

Hole 9, par 3

Pinehurst Resort is located in North Carolina, and is one of the golf courses in the rotation for hosting USGA events. The next major events will be back-to-back US Open and US Women Open Championships, during the second and third week of June of 2014, just a little more than 4 years from now.

Pinehurst Resort must be a pretty big place, because there are 8 golf courses. The championship course is course No. 2. All the golf courses are named from No.1 to No. 8.

Pinehurst Nº2 is planted to Tifway Bermuda tees and fairways, Common Bermuda in the roughs, and “Penn G-2” bentgrass greens. Major renovation in recent years have been: Penn G-2 bentgrass greens in 1998-1999 and in 2004 they added 100 yards to the course’s length, as well as bunker repair.

Ben Crenshaw, Masters Champion and I

Donald Ross built Nº2 golf course in 1907. There have been redesigns over the years, but all done by Mr. Ross himself.

My goal during my internship at Pinehurst is to know as much raw knowledge as possible about the equipment, mechanics input, fertilization practices,  water management. I also hope to spend quality time with the Coore & Crenshaw renovation project.

My objective is to gather as much information as possible to learn, obviously, but also for the 50 to 70 pages internship report that I have to write next semester, as part of the requirement for the six month internship at Penn State.

The Importance of Communication for a turfgrass manager

The Importance of Communication for the turfgrass manager

Communications skills are not only important for a turfgrass manager but for any activity that involves human relationships. I would say that Obama, Reagan, Steve Jobs, and in our business, the only one that I know so far, Matt Shaffer, they all had or have something in common: Excellent communications skills!

Turfgrass managers have to learn to communicate the same way to their greens committee, General manager, board of directors or owner of the golf course the same way that they should speak to their subordinates, providers and other peers.

A good reason to have good communication skills is to be sure of what you are doing every single time, and if not, be able to manage those situations with alternative skills. Skills such as know how to delegate.

I also have to add that communication does not mean that you have to talk and speak always. Sometimes in this business world, you have to know when to listen. Even if you do not say anything, I believe that this is an important part of someone’s communication skills.

Random Topic of my Choice: Ipad

I would like to “blog” today about the Ipad, the new device from Apple. Ipad was announced this week, and if I am not wrong, will be available in stores in 60 days.

Some of my roommates may not like the idea, nor its price. While I agree that it is a little bit pricy, its fragile look, the lack of a camera and a flash might be the most negative things that I have heard and read.
On the other hand, the reviews of the specialists and analysts from around the world have been generally good.

As positive remarks, they have admired the speed of interaction with the user, its potential uses, such as a game device, browser, a book reader with the new store in itunes called “ibook”, future improved and new itouch or iphone applications and also the endless market of possibilities for reading newspapers.  Specifically, I know I am going to carry my ipad around the course, to be able to consult any kind of information about turfgrass management.  No doubt that TORO or RAINBIRD softwares will develop applications for golf managers to control irrigation in the course or outside the course.  This will help water management a whole deal.
This might be the end of paper and the cutting of trees for cellulose!  Bill Gates, during a conference in Madrid, Spain, said, a few years ago, that cd´s will disappear in some years and that paper will also tend to disappear after that. I think that Bill Gates may be right!

Since it is going to be positive for the environment and I am a future environmentalist golf manager, I will buy this device, as soon as I can afford the steep price.

Review of a professor lecture: Soils Physical Properties for Turfgrass Management

I have been thinking for quite a while on what I was going to write about in my new turfgrass blog. One of the required topics that have been assigned is to write about a Turf Club speaker, guest lecture, or professor lecture.

In this case I would like to talk about one of the many interesting lectures that we have this semester. Dr. Mcnitt, head of the four-year program is our soils professor this semester. He, as a speaker is laud and clear and does not go around the bushes when giving us lecture.

It is important to recognize that soil properties is one of the most important aspects of a healthy turfgrass or at least it is one subject that if a superintendent is lucky enough to have the right soil for the specific golf course, he will have more hours of sleep than the usual.

One of his first lectures has been sort of a review of what Dr. Schlossberg tough us in our first semester. We have reviewed:
Soil physics, such as, drainage, compaction, hydrology or percolation rate, macro pores and micro pores.
Soil chemistry, such as CEC (cat ion exchange capacity) and nutrient
Soil biology, microbiological organisms, such as, Fungi, nematodes and macro biological beings as earthworms, ants and any living creature that could affect our turfgrass.

Since the title of this class refers to the physical properties of soil, Dr. Mcnitt has focused the lecture on soil components from its physical standpoint. These components are four and they are:

1. Mineral matter, such as gravel, sand, silt and clay, from coarse to finer structures
2. Soil water solution
3. Soil air, which has near 100% humidity levels and it is very high in CO2
4. Organic matter, organisms that were alive and now are dead.

So, I am very glad that we had a previews class on this subject our last semester with Dr. Schlossberg. Even though, our general impression was that we did not learn much in that class, I am pretty sure that now we all are quite happy to have it under our belt.

It was also interesting listening to Dr. Mcnitt emphasizing on the importance of having good communication skills. It is always a characteristic that all major and most valuable superintendents tend to have as one of their professional skills.