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Take The Official Golf Aptitude Test

Are you sure you're working in the right job?  Take the Official Rockbottum CC Aptitude Test and find out exactly where you belong in the golf industry. Scenario #1    You are repairing an irrigation break in the middle of the fairway on a crowded Friday afternoon in the heat of August.  Several greens are burning.  Golfers repeatedly demand that you move, as you are in great danger.  Do you:    A.    Move to the left rough and cower behind a tree.    B.  Fearlessly remain in the cente

Carlton Henry, Dedham Polo and Country Club

Carlton Henry was well prepared when he earned his first head superintendent position three years ago at Dedham Country and Polo Club just outside Boston. A native of New York, Henry first prepped at golf courses in his home state, home to the nation’s strictest pesticide regulations. A graduate of the Rutgers turf program, he eventually spent several years working for another Rutgers product, John Zimmers, at both Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh and later the Inverness Club in Toledo,

Countering "Stressure" With The Wayback Machine

"Stressure"     That's what happens when you combine job stress with August.  In order to counter stressure, we look forward to autumn, early winter and family time during the upcoming holidays. Here at The Rock, we have a tradition that involves looking back in order to survive the last few weeks of summer:  We reach into the vault and share video artifacts from way back.  Not only will this stabilize your brainwaves, but folks brand new to golf can learn what to expect during a typical da

Leap Year...

A short time ago, I was catching up with a superintendent friend at an association event. It’s still peak season for us northern turfers, and I could see the fatigue in his eyes. We spoke about the demands of the job, the hours, and the exhausting, never-ending and unobtainable pursuit of perfection. “I’m tired,” he confessed. “Then do something else.” “I don’t know what else I would do,” he shrugged. I’ve heard the same thing from so many other superintendents over the years. Peop

Sleep Easy...

We all do it. We can’t live without it. We’ve been doing it since the day we were born and will continue to do so until our final breath. What I am talking about here is sleep. When you think about it, we spend slightly less than half of our lives practicing this craft. We each have our own idiosyncrasies and habits when it comes to what works best for us to hopefully achieve the proper amount of rest each day. It’s a part of our lives that is so completely undervalued and misunderstood, an

Lightning Strike Detection

Have you noticed an increase in rainfall amounts?  Here at Rockbottum CC, we are convinced it's due to cloud-seeding carried out by companies like SOAR or Seeding Operations Atmospheric Research.  Just like steroids have side effects, when a storm gets all artificially jacked up, stuff happens:  Heavy rain, more wind damage and  . . . lightning. That's why we at Rockbottum CC are leading the way in the area of Lightning Detection.  

Trailing Thoughts: The Death of Etiquette?

Is etiquette dead? At times, it might seem that way. An increased number of ball marks, divots, cart traffic, unraked bunkers, and golfers behaving badly in the last four years have pushed superintendents—and, at times, their sanity—to the tipping point. Poor etiquette on the golf course is nothing new. For as long as golf has existed, there have been people who don’t abide by the rules. The infractions are just more amplified now, as superintendents take to social media for the “airin

Little Flags, Big Headache...

Utility locates are a common and essential part of any groundskeepers’ work. Contacting the locate entity for whatever state you are in is standard before any digging on site. While I understand and wholeheartedly support the rationale for utility location, the actual results have a significant impact on my operation. This impact is rarely acknowledged by the locate entity or my own stakeholders. For every locate request the usual result is a yard full of flags. The purpose of the flags is fine

Trailing Thoughts: Stayin' Alive

We spend so much time focusing on turf health during the summer, it’s easy to forget that we must take care of ourselves in the process.   With much of the country experiencing record heat this summer, it’s important to keep your body hydrated and your electrolytes replenished when you’re working under the sun all day. In the United States alone, each year more than a half million people are hospitalized for dehydration. Of those, nearly 10,000 of them will never walk out of that hospital al

Kate Phillips: "The world is our oyster..."

Have you heard the opinion that Gen Z'ers are lazy and unfocused? Meet Kate Phillips: driven, entrepreneurial, aspiring golf course superintendent who knows where she wants to go and how she is going to get there. She shows up. Has conversing via social media and communicating via thumbs prevented young adults from developing confidence, poise and tact? Meet Kate Phillips: calm, cool and collected, poised beyond her years. Can Gen Z'ers hold their own in an interview situation? Meet Ka

We Don’t Get No Respect...

“I don’t get no respect.” Many people are familiar with this adage from comedian Rodney Dangerfield. This sentiment was the lead to his routine lamenting the difficulties he faced when no one gave him his due. Our grounds crews are often in the same boat. While people seemingly appreciate our work, we are consistently forced to subordinate our objectives and viewpoints for others. I recently had a dispute with another employee where our work overlapped and was in conflict. I tried to explai

Trailing Thoughts: Lost in New York

When the golf season really gets cranking, sometimes we lose touch with our center — the things we hold most dear, and those things that keep us balanced and grounded. Let’s face it, the further we get into peak season, the more time we end up spending on the golf course, and away from our centers. We become off-balanced the more the course calls to us louder than our family, friends, and passions. In this episode of Trailing Thoughts, I drives into the heart of New York City on a pict

Jeff Whitmire, CGCS, Williamsburg (VA) Golf Club

When Jeff Whitmire was 12 years old, his request for a birthday/Christmas gift was not the usual. He wanted a copy of Dr. James Beard's now-classic textbook, Turf Management for Golf Courses. One might say Jeff's direction in life was pre-ordained at an early age. Jeff started working at Williamsburg Country Club at age 12 as a cart attendant.  He took over as superintendent when he was 25, with no degree and still working toward a turf certificate. He is still there, 27 years later, surviv

Mornings...

If you ask anyone who works within the turf industry to give you a reason why they love working on a golf course, the answers may vary. Teamwork, dedication to the craft, the sense of pride in what a crew accomplishes, and attention to detail are common responses. But if you look across the spectrum of turf professionals, from Superintendents and Course Managers, to Assistant Superintendents and foremen/women, to Irrigation Technicians and yes, even Equipment technicians, one answer comes throug

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