Got a chance this week for a chat (AKA banter, debate, even argument) with my old pal Dan Dinelli. Anyone in this business with even the slightest interest in a broader environmental perspective on golf turf management knows Dan. I know him as a thoughtful, passionate steward of a piece of land (and exceptionally fine turf) that happens to be a great old country club on the north shore of Chicago. As usual our chat left me with more questions than answers.
The topic this time was Bacterial E
Why submit job applications via the hard copy equivalent of the 'pony express' when electronic service is available? The answer is that applicants wouldn't if they wanted to maximize their job application opportunities.
Yet, in this high tech age of the Internet, roughly 90% of golf course superintendents are submitting hard copy job applications via the U.S. Mail. This doesn't make sense because submitting job applications electronically provides the following unique advantages:
Immediate
We intentionally buried this news program deep in the dungeon vault after numerous threats from committee members and our accountant, but we have experienced a sudden inexplicable desire to "tell it all, brethren, tell it all".
Or it could be the effects of a week of fly-fishing in the NC mountains, drinking an exquisite beer called "Dirt Wolf" and our new film isn't ready yet.
I had one of those rare conversations with a good friend this past week. It was the kind of chat that leaves you feeling spent afterwards, but it was worth it in so many ways. Our talk wasn't one of surface banter that we as a culture so often engage in. You know the way most of us converse most of the time; both parties say lots of words, but in the end don't really say much at all. Nope, our conversation was of a different breed, and is one that we all need to be having with our friends and fa
Traditionally, golf course superintendents have used the cover letter when applying for jobs in a very perfunctory manner; i.e.- to make search committees aware of their candidacy and to ask for an interview - little more.
This superficial use of cover letters negates candidates' foremost opportunity to take the initiative throughout the application process...
....which is what the job application process should be all about; i.e., taking the initiative throughout the entire job applicat
"The world as we have created, it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking." - Albert Einstein
I want to thank the hundreds of people who, however it worked for them, supported me as I cared for my mom during the end of her life. True earning of karma. And of course there are the few who had to be opportunists for criticism. Oh well. The many outweigh the few. And I hope no one finds themselves in the position I found myself.
For a time, there wasn
The interview process between a job-seeking candidate and a search committee can be one of the most inefficient communication exchanges known to man.
The reality is that qualified but interview-inexperienced candidates often do not present themselves well in this typically tense and highly structured sit-around-the-table interview format. Is there a better interview format that would benefit candidates? Fortunately, there is; for example:
A candidate would request a more informal (stress
Warning! The following short film contains disturbing images and poor grammar.
Do not watch if you are sensitive to split infinitives, overly simplistic problem-solving and blatant Luddism.
Over the last several weeks it seems that quite a few job opportunities have come along across the country and I have been receiving many requests on how to handle cover letters for these opportunities. So for those out there that are interested, here is a point-by-point tutorial on crafting a cover letter to your advantage that I wrote last year as a solid reminder heading into your next opportunity.
There are countless articles and tips out there about writing an effective cover letter ac
Highlands Falls CC, deep in the rugged mountains of western North Carolina, is like a fairy tale golf course. It's almost too beautiful to be real, the layout is gentle and inviting and the inhabitants of this enchanted rain forest are far too pleasant for country club members.
The air is special here, at just over 4,000 feet, and standing amidst the firs, spruces and rhododendrons, it's hard to tell what is natural and what is intensively manicured. Noisy mountain streams, towering hemloc
"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these." George Washington Carver
So much of the information we ingest on a daily basis is based on judgment. Take to Facebook, Twitter, or even your daily newspaper, and you will find no shortage of opinions on any range of topics. In our race to share, like, or tweet, someth
Just back from a week-long tour of Sweden and turned on the Golf Channel coverage of Pinehurst. Brandel Chamblee and Frank Nobilo sat with Coore and Crenshaw, then with Don Padgett II and of course the topic was the "restoration" of #2. I think rather it is a transformation in that it offers the entire golf industry a chance to transform a culture that many leaders of the game now argue has taken golf down an unsustainable path.
Chamblee stated, "maybe we should call them putting surfaces, i
We recently visited with Super-Sod's Ben Copeland, Jr., in Fort Valley, Georgia. Ben is another of those forward thinkers, one of the sharp minds driving the leading edge in the turf business.
Like Mark Hoban, Chris Cupit, Mark Esoda and Anthony Williams, Ben Copeland is helping the turf industry to develop an aggressive defense mechanism by taking a proactive environmental stance. Testing new techniques and implementing successful variations customized to individual operations could res
Continuing with the theme of 'preparing now for career opportunities later' I started in my last article, consider this:
Spend more time networking and playing golf with members and business people instead of your superintendent peers.
Why do I say instead of your peers? Because your free time is extremely limited and you have to put effort where it will be most valuable to your career opportunities. I am not saying to abandon colleague communication at all, I mean we are all on TurfNe
In Part 3 of 'Chasing Rivermont", Megan Hartman from the University of Georgia Experiment Station in Griffin, arrives at Rivermont early one morning to implement test procedures.
Aided by Robert Nelson, Megan begins work on over 200 plots, using commercial products and Mark's special brew at varying rates.
The Rockbottum crew was there to record the initial phase and will report back on UGA's findings.
Ludell, Rockbottum Films' producer/director, tested Mark's compost brew and qu
On the morning of May 18th, 2014, I awoke to find my mom on the floor. She was unconscious. She had a pulse and she was breathing. She was face down next to her bed. From what I could figure she had tried to get out of bed on her own and passed out. I rolled her onto her back and tried to get some kind of response. None. At all.
I knew this was coming. I didn't know how or when, but I somehow I knew. Signs? Plenty of them. But still, there are things that just don't put themselves on the cal
'Chasing Rivermont' is a Rockbottum film series about a country club near Atlanta with a practical, comprehensive plan for facing the future of golf.
Chris Cupit, Owner/GM of Rivermont, grew up in the golf industry, thoroughly grounded in realistic golf management. Cupit is not one of the wild-eyed money people that burst into golf during the artificial growth spurt triggered by a foundation. He is very aware of the difference between the game of golf and the corporatocracy of golf.
As superintendents, we are masters of the plan. We are constantly generating schedules, programs and standards for our courses. We work with our management, architects, arborists and agronomists to chart the course for our properties and make them all they can be. But then life happens, nature happens, and our best laid plans go astray. It is at this point that the best greenkeepers shine. They are able to take the hiccups and trap doors and use them to their advantage. Whether it is a major ra
Last weekend, in the lounge of the GCS Rest Home and Asylum, we were watching a TV show about sunsets and separate outdoor bathtubs on the ED Channel, when they interrupted regularly scheduled programming to show a golf tournament.
We watched in horror as a skinny fellow in bedroom slippers marked his ball repeatedly, obsessively changing the alignment of a magic line on his ball. His behavior was apparently contagious, as we all began to flinch, twitch and squirm.
Nurse Diesel, our com
With the "hot 100" days of summer approaching, I thought it would be a good time for a post on preparing now for the inevitable job searching season that follows in the fall and winter. As we all know, the three summer months in most areas of the country are extremely busy on the golf course, demanding long hours and focus on saving turf conditions.
Year after year, the same thing always happens come September... a great job opens up and I get a multitude of calls to see how quickly a caree
I enjoyed watching last week's coverage of the PGATour's Major Event-The Players Championship. As a Turf Geek - a'la Dave Wilber - I am obsessed with any talk of turf conditions and especially when they ask for player comment and now with Shotlink Data - It is a GEEKS Dream! I wish the discussion included how nimble the Tour Officials and Agronomy Staff were at adapting to the situation at hand.
The focus of the talk was the weak putting surfaces. The commentary had so many angles to it from
There are times when wisdom dictates one must capitulate to the pressures created by the irrational Cult of Customer Service--so we shot this instructional film:
"How To Woo Your Members".
