38 Putts

Green Keeper pulls of miracle, members demand another !

Much to my surprise the golf course ws in impeccable conditon for our tournament this past weekend. Tees smooth, lush and fresh. Fairways frim and fast. And the greens smooth and quick. After my last post it was like walking into the twilight zone as I walked around some of our greens. No holes, limited burn spots and small patches of near perfect sod. All through out the tournament the green committee heard praise for the conditioning and the green keeper who just last week had recieved a vote of no confidence from a very senior committee member who prior to the tournament was both shocked and dismayed at the condtion of the 15th and 16th greens as well as the committee for "tolerating such lack of effort" on the green keeper's part. When I approached the committe member on Sunday his only reply was " it should be like this everyday" and the chant began as one after another amatuer argronomist stepped forward with the same or familiar demand.

With this in mind I arrived at the green keeper's barn early Monday and as I was expecting I found our new green keeper in a mild state of shock. You see the, the week prior to the tournament he personally put in about 70 hours and had an additional 120 staff hours as well. And now attached to each compliment was the "everyday" demand. The truth betold even if the board provided the extra funding (LOL) our course with its 18 postage stamp greens simply could not with  stand the stress.

Storm clouds.....

Burnt greens in May ? Plug holes from aerification not filling in ? 2 Day tournament this coming weekend. Best pack a set of ear plugs.

Let's now ask for flowers ??

Not to many years ago our club grounds were stunning. Not Butchart Gardens mind you, but the gardens were in fact beautiful enough to bring in wedding business. The person tending them was not only meticulous in the daily maintenance but was both knowledgeable and creative as well. Like so many people who have greater skills than their new boss her employment was promptly terminated a few years by our then new green keeper with an off the cuff "Anybody can grow flowers".

Two years later we're pushing him to at least weed the existing beds or hire an outside service which was greeted with "You want a golf course or a flower garden". Well the gardens slowly deteriorated along with our wedding business and surprise the green keeper finally pissed some one off enough and was fired.

The new green keeper happen to run into our former horticulturalist and low behold she is once again working for us. Of course no one could have foreseen this turn of events so there was no money in the budget for new plantings. When the greens committee went to the board and asked for some flower funding it was declined overwhelmingly. So here we are back to square one. "We want x but we are not going to pay for it. And if you don't give it to us your ass will be on the street so fast you won't know what hit. And oh by the way Mr. Green Keeper you are under contract until December"

Well the new chair remembering the recent success of member clean up day posted a plea to the members for flower donations. Hmmmm....maybe.....

Member clean up day a great success !

To my surprise 37 members showed up for member clean up day and each put in a solid 3 hours work generating over 3 man weeks of clean up labor and man does it show. All the beds around the club house are clean and need waiting for there spring plantings, the leaves around the fences are gone making an a crisp appearance. The garden along the hill to the right of the 1st fairway looks fresh and attractive. In short the new greenkeeper was/is surprised and pleased that the greens crew can focus 100 % on the golf course right out the gate and the course looks it. Now if can turn that hook into a draw early the golf season will be off to a very good start indeed.

Let's have a Member Clean Up day, we can save some $ and ....

When I first joined the green committee our then 2nd year green keeper suggested we have a member clean up day. Ou chair at the time thought that would be a good idea and plans were launched for a Saturday afternoon in March. There would be free beer and hot dogs in the grill for those that helped out after the afternoon's labors were complete. Various tasks the members would be asked to perform were raking tees and green surrounds. 

When member clean up day arrived Mother Nature co-operated with her final blast of winter with cold, damp  and cloudy day. To the surprise of myself and the 5 other members that showed we were the entire turn out. ( The green chair was unable to participate)  The green keeper said he was pleased with the showing handed us ll rakes and sent us off for 3 hours of raking. When our labors were complete we retreated to the warmth of the grill room where we found 2 dozen drunken and hot dog stuffed members enjoying NCAA basketball on the big screen TV. Feeling like a bunch of chumps the 6 of us had a hot dog, a drink and departed. The best part though was yet to come, and come it did.

For the next 3 years we heard from the green keeper, when ever he needed it, that it was very difficult when to care sometimes when it so apparent but the clean up day turn out that the members didn't much care and they won't increase my budget to boot. After about the 3rd time I listened to it that this was the real purpose behind member clean up day. Because you see the following Monday morning the 4 man grounds crew equiped with blowers and vacums knocked off the 16 tees and greens the member clean up crew with lawn rakes was unable to accomplish.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, our new green keeper asked our new green chair for a member clean up day, (funny as senior member on the committee I don't remember being asked my opinion) and low and behold it's set up for March 22. Wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us that day ? I do know that the NCAA basketball tournament will be in full swing and there will be 20-30 guys that will say they'll be there to do 1/10th the job the ground crew will do in 1/8th the time.

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When I first joined the green committee our then 2nd year green keeper suggested we have a member clean up day. Ou chair at the time thought that would be a good idea and plans were launched for a Saturday afternoon in March. There would be free beer and hot dogs in the grill for those that helped out after the afternoon's labors were complete. Various tasks the members would be asked to perform were raking tees and green surrounds. 

When member clean up day arrived Mother Nature co-operated with her final blast of winter with cold, damp  and cloudy day. To the surprise of myself and the 5 other members that showed we were the entire turn out. ( The green chair was unable to participate)  The green keeper said he was pleased with the showing handed us ll rakes and sent us off for 3 hours of raking. When our labors were complete we retreated to the warmth of the grill room where we found 2 dozen drunken and hot dog stuffed members enjoying NCAA basketball on the big screen TV. Feeling like a bunch of chumps the 6 of us had a hot dog, a drink and departed. The best part though was yet to come, and come it did.

For the next 3 years we heard from the green keeper, when ever he needed it, that it was very difficult when to care sometimes when it so apparent but the clean up day turn out that the members didn't much care and they won't increase my budget to boot. After about the 3rd time I listened to it that this was the real purpose behind member clean up day. Because you see the following Monday morning the 4 man grounds crew equiped with blowers and vacums knocked off the 16 tees and greens the member clean up crew with lawn rakes was unable to accomplish.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, our new green keeper asked our new green chair for a member clean up day, (funny as senior member on the committee I don't remember being asked my opinion) and low and behold it's set up for March 22. Wonder what Mother Nature has in store for us that day ? I do know that the NCAA basketball tournament will be in full swing and there will be 20-30 guys that will say they'll be there to do 1/10th the job the ground crew will do in 1/8th the time.

I think we're trying to please......NOW

Pins in playing to the greens. Ground is so soft on 5 we left sole deep footprints. For the 6 of us playing it makes no sense to damage the greens now. Temptation was there to pull the pins and stick them in the mud in front of the greens. Hope we are not sorry come May and June.

With this budget you expect what ?

At our most recent committe meeting the 2009 budget was revealed. Down close to 35%. No surprise as that is about the decline in membership. What was a surprise is that the committee put forth some of its "priorities" for course maintaince that make no sense what so ever and you could easily read the gree keeper's mind. With this budget you expect what ?  I think course conditioning is going to take a big hit this year, not only our club but other places as well. This post from eagleparbirdie.com pretty much sums up the state of golf for 2009.

Can one line tell a story ?

At our golf club one of the golf course superintendent winter jobs is snow removal. We have had quite a bit of snow so far this winter (about double last year). But this is New England and this can happen.  Today we heard "You know this snow plowing is a lot more than I bargained for, green keepers usually get most of the winter off. " Oh boy. Can't wait until the irrigation system goes in the fritz come a nice hot and steamy July Sunday.

The budget is in and we are getting slashed big time

Just recieved notice of our next grounds meeting where the budget for the 2009 season gets presented. At lunch today heard a "rumor" from a unidentified source with close contacts on the finance commttee that can't stop crying that the green committee budget has been cut by 1/3. Looks like another year without Augusta National conditions. My first question to the new green keeper what area's of the course can we STOP maintaining (not cut back, but STOP) that in your opinion will have little or no impact on play. Yeah, that ought to fly.

This just in !

It is 3 F and the golf course is frozen which means we can now play to our regular greens instead of the temps. Only problem is the golf course is covered with 8 to 10 inches of snow. Got to admit I've never had a super communicate to the committee quite like this one.