Laying the framework for this story requires a bit of background, so bear with me...
About three weeks ago Team TurfNet was headed for Niagara Falls, Ontario, for our 20th appearance at the Golf Course Hockey Challenge. For those unfamiliar, the GCHC is a 2-day event every January that pits 12 teams of superintendents, assistants and suppliers against one another in (usually) good-natured but serious men's-league caliber hockey. With three common threads among players -- playing hockey, wor
The Mad Golf Prophet (MGP) has just issued a Lightning Warning for the upcoming golf season. *Note: This is not a "Lightening" warning, the spelling preferred by heavy internet users, because that would indicate weight reduction or a severe increase in pasty, pale skin . . . like when you go to one of those fashion catwalk things.
There is no science to trust behind this prediction, it simply came from a vision the MGP had last night, complete with the whole waking up screaming, running t
Yesterday was Valentine's Day, that Hallmark-perpetuated day of roses, chocolates and mushy greeting cards that gives a nice uptick to the mid-February economy. Sounds kind of cynical, doesn't it?
But no! I went whole-hog yesterday with a $6.99 greeting card (Hallmark, nothing but the best), a dozen roses, a warm cinnamon bun from the bakery, and date night by a roaring fireplace at a favorite "country French" restaurant nearby. All good, voluntary, enjoyable and meaningful.
One thing
The vast Rockbottum CC intel surveillance net has picked up increased anti-golf dog chatter while monitoring golf course board meetings.
An informant over at Prissy Drawers Country Club told us that during a recent visit to Rockbottum CC, their Green Chairman, Delbert Spores, had an uncomfortable experience with Chopper, our golf course dog.
Delbert said Chopper and friends were appallingly insensitive in their ridicule of his post round Prancersize workout.
To learn more, study t
In this episode of Frankly Speaking, Frank Rossi chats with Dr. Art DeGaetano of Cornell University about the underlying science of climate change. Dr. DeGaetano is a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University and Director of the Northeast Regional Climate Center (NRCC) at Cornell.
Art's PhD in climatology and horticulture from Rutgers uniquely positions him to understand and explain climate influences on man-made and biological systems.
Here are four bits of intel that you need to know, in order to stay happy and safe during the ongoing transition into the rapidly approaching Techno-Golf Industry of the future.
https://www.rockbottumfilms.com/
For many of you winter is the only time you are able to really spend much time in the office. So, I thought I would include a few things we've covered at different times over the last several years that you can take action on now... when you actually have some time for it. By doing these tasks, you'll quickly be on the road to advancing your career and technology skills for the next challenge your career faces.
Acquire Photography of Your Course
If you haven't had any images taken of y
Several years ago at a previous job, I became mired in a funk. This funk had to do with the politics of my organization, and with how those politics frequently seemed to force me to work in ways that I did not support. This was not a new situation for me. Many people who strive for continual improvement are frustrated by business as usual, and the lack of a team being open to new ways of doing things.
I talked this issue over with a mentor (my brother-in-law, Kevin), and he said he had jus
The Golf Industry Show is a few weeks away and I thought it time to assess the event in advance, at least in my mind's eye from my perch in the cheap seats. For what that's worth.
Nobody I've spoken with is anything more than underwhelmed with San Antonio as host city. Bad memories of travel experiences three years ago -- both to and from the iced-over state of Texas -- still linger
I never made it at all. My Monday afternoon flight was waylaid and the best the airlines could do was ge
We are well into the New Year and hopefully most of the resolution hoopla has passed us over until next year. It seems that the resolution craze has simply become yet another fabricated holiday that marketers and advertisers use to sell us things that we just don't need. They know that if every news outlet runs a story about how we all need to be better at being us, then they most assuredly have the product or service that that will help us achieve our goals.
That's not to say that there ar
In this Rockbottum Radio audiocast, the gang in the Rockbottum pro shop discuss Bad Member Discipline (especially Norbert Tuchus)... UFOs beaming up night watermen... Global Cooling... Global Warming... Golf Business Projections and... Storytime.
Plus, Ludell gives us his online dating secrets (no, not FarmersOnly.com), starting with dead malls and ice cream truck jingles.
(This podcast has been archived. Please contact us if you'd like to listen to it and we'll restore it.)
It was 45 years ago today that we entered the biggest and baddest of Atlanta's winter storms, The Great Ice Storm of '73. With little warning, icy rain fell for hours and then froze like clear steel on Atlanta's trees, roads and power lines. Big pines began to crash down on houses, splintering utility poles and blocking roads. Transformers exploded like incoming artillery and lit up the Atlanta night with freakish blue arcs of hot light. Everything went dark. Black ice covered sidewalks, st
In this Frankly Speaking PopUp Podcast, I chat with TurfNet's Jon Kiger about the recent TurfNet Members' Trip to Scotland, the upcoming trip to BTME/Harrogate in England (where space is still available), and the TurfNet Members' Trip back to Ireland next October.
Presented by DryJect and Civitas.
Another year has come and almost gone, and like many of you I am taking stock of the past 12 months. Groundskeeping closely follows the clock and calendar, and our jobs are greatly influenced by both of these factors. December (or more broadly, winter) is a viewed by many who care for grounds or the landscape as the end of one period and the start of another. I realize that this is the end of the year for our whole society, but not in the same way as for us in the green industry. The solstice is
Watch this special "Mystic Order of Greenkeepers" film and discover one of the more satisfying ways to stabilize the game.
https://www.rockbottumfilms.com/
Every now and again we all have moments that force us to tune in. It can be an achingly beautiful sunrise, that profound stillness that accompanies watching a child sleep, or the moments of reflection that come with the death of a loved one. Such events are so poignant and so groundless that we have no choice but to pause and pay attention.
For all of us in the TurfNet family these past few weeks have placed us square in the midst of one of these moments. The sudden passing of long time Tur
With each passing year, the golf industry is changing. Gone are the days of new course construction and crazy numbers of rounds. However, at the top clubs most of you are aspiring to work at, something different has happened these clubs are transforming their course through large-scale master planning, and at a very high rate.
In order to maximize your value to these clubs, it is imperative to be knowledgeable in the game of golf, its history, architecture and network. You need to be
In this podcast on Rockbottum Radio, I provide some Christmas Tips from Rockbottum, including:
dealing with kids at Christmas
speeding up play (hint: "Fill 'em, sod 'em, mow 'em")
making golf affordable and fun
doing something with the "r" word
PLUS: Skeletal Golf Predictions and Projections!
Lastly, I wind it up with a golf course Christmas story in Storytime.
(This podcast has been archived. Please contact us if you'd like to listen to it and we'll
A great friend of TurfNet, Jerry Coldiron, needs to be remembered as the wonderful, amazing man that he was.
Peter McCormick, founder and Maestro of TurfNet, chats with me about the passing of a great friend and Turfhead. To so many, Jerry was a light of positive influence... and his untimely and unexpected passing will leave a huge hole in the industry.
We speak candidly about what relationships mean and how the relationships that last are formed and maintained. And we tell some good st
After writing a monthly column in our now-retired print newsletter (TurfNet Monthly, for those not around then) for 17 or 18 years, I sort of ran out of things of import to say on a regular basis. No sense contributing to more milquetoast, editorial drivel or fill-up-space pontification... there's plenty of that elsewhere.
Occasionally something starts the gears whirring and prompts me to sit down and write. Yesterday was one of those occasions.
I finally caught up by phone with an ol
*Note: This week's guest columnist is Ludell Hogwaller.
There are three things "they" are hiding from you, so I guess it's up to us Ludditians to fire a warning flare, since half our day isn't consumed with all that social media mutual admiration society fawning and gushing and smoke blowing.
First, there are dark rumors going around about veteran superintendents supposedly being terminated for making mistakes like having the audacity to disagree with the new wave of "M" board members
I love being the Head Groundskeeper at Drury University. This job is invigorating, challenging, thought provoking, and even most usually, exhausting. Grounds maintenance (and of course golf superintending!) challenges us both mentally and physically.
One of the aspects of my job, and our larger profession, I find fulfilling is the idea that I am participating in a time-honored human endeavor. Much of our work in the green industry has to do with fulfilling some kind of commercial purpose. In
