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My Best Career Advice Came From A Rock Star

Once upon a time, during my incarceration as a teenage migrant golf worker, I ran off.  Yes, I went over the wall, leaving Dad without a cup-changing, greensmowing night waterman.   Since childhood--possibly toddler-hood--I had been mowing and swing-blading dark-to-dark every summer.  I had excavated so many irrigation holes that I felt like Charles Bronson digging tunnels in a WWII Stalag escape movie.  I feared career burnout at age 17, so . . .   "Do it for free and the doors will open.

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

Film School 101 For The GCS

Here at The Rock, we've seen a significant increase in requests for information on video production.  Video can be an important component in the Golf Course Superintendent's set of skills, especially in the area of communication.  In true TurfNet style, we want to help.     The following video is the first in a series designed to make the GCS a little more familiar with video terminology, production techniques and the range of equipment involved in producing good quality video.   There will

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

New Year?

It's mid January and we are well under way with 2014. We have shaken of the dust of last year, got out our pen and paper and are ready to go to town with our long list of New Year's resolutions. This year is going to be different, I can feel it, it's going to be the best ever (screeeetcccchhh ? insert the sound of the needle dragging across the vinyl).   Hold on. Let's take a step back and think about this for a minute. Where is your list of resolutions from last year? Does it look disturbingl

Paul MacCormack

Paul MacCormack

How to Use Cover Letters to Your Advantage

There are countless articles and tips out there about writing an effective cover letter across many industries. What works and what doesn't in our industry? It varies with every club but there are some basic guidelines to work from that give you the best chance for success. So, here's a list of things to consider when writing an effective cover letter in the golf maintenance world.   Write a cover letter! You might think this is par for the course, but many in our industry do not even include

Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

Taking stock...

I'm admittedly a little late with my year-end backward glance and look-forward prognostications.  But so it is these days... so much to do, seemingly so little time.   2014 is a milestone year, of sorts.  TurfNet turns 20 on February 1 and I turn 60 on July 4. I'm not sure which is more monumental.  Probably the former, given the odds.   As I have said many times, one of my first goals as a newbie entrepreneur slicing through the uncharted waters of a paid information service/networking plat

Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

The Wilber Agronomic Gazetteer, 2013 Edition

(gazetteer |gaziti()r| noun---a geographical index or dictionary. ORIGIN early 17th cent. (in the sense journalist): via French from Italian gazzettiere, from gazzetta (see gazette). The current sense comes from a late 17th-cent. gazetteer called The Gazetteer's: or, Newsman's Interpreter: Being a Geographical Index)   I used to send out a yearly rundown of the craziness of my travels and someone suggested that I should more widely distribute this as it was supposedly good reading. I stole t

Dave Wilber

Dave Wilber

Top Turf Tool at Rockbottum CC?

The #1 tool for great turf is almost always the mind of the golf course superintendent.  Here at The Rock, we don't have a superintendent with a great mind, all we have is . . . me.   Therefore, we must rely on our Top Turf Tool, the Chainsaw.   Watch the following Rockbottum CC training film* to learn important secrets for success with your turf.   *Note:  This video has been buried in the archival vault (an old whiskey barrel near the wash rack) and we recently resurrected, re-edited and

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

How to Secure That ‘Super’ Job: Guest post by Greg Wojick

This winter I will be diving into building great career materials, but before I do I wanted to include a nice summary of things you can do to improve your career opportunities. My business partner, Greg Wojick (former career superintendent and long-time TurfNet member), recently put together the following list, and I thought it would be a nice start to the new year for us. We will dig deep into some of these in later columns. For more on Greg and his background, click here.     Looking to

Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

It's 2014! Watch The Buddy 'n Randy Show!

Rockbottum Country Club TV is back for 2014 with The Buddy 'n Randy Show, for what was supposed to be a comprehensive look at the coming year in golf.     Somehow, Buddy knocked us off the rails with his inability to focus, so we will try again next week on the comprehensive thing.   The following VIDEO is worth negative CEUs, so I wouldn't mention it to anyone.  

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

A GCS New Year's Rez That Will Work

Repeat after me, I (your name here) resolve to get rid of that tree (or trees) responsible for the epic all day frost, the weak turf, the surface roots, the buckled path, the increased need for spray apps and the various tree stuff caught in the reels and dragged across the green.   That's a pretty attainable New Year's Resolution.  Even if you just get one tree, you win.   I know, I've counseled 'Pick Your Battles' for years, but this is one of those line-in-the-sand fights that often deter

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

Merry Christmas!

I admit it. I am a sucker for this time of year. Once the snow starts falling, the tree is up and the eggnog starts to flow, it can be the very best time of the year.  For most of us, the general business of the golf season is wound down, so it can be a great time to sit back and relax.   Yet the holidays can get away from us if we let it. If all we focus on are Black Fridays, Cyber Mondays, and all the shopping days until Christmas eve, it can be easy to lose focus. The marketing machine is i

Paul MacCormack

Paul MacCormack

Me Wish You A Merry Christmas

I absolutely can not believe that it is Christmas 2013. Can't. Because it seems like just 28 days ago it was March of 2013 and Christmas 2012.   Clearly something happened this year in what seemed to be fleeting days filled with fun, hassle, joy and abject stupidity.   It seems like this time of year polarizes lots of people. (see what I did there...Polar...). Be it family stuff or religious stuff or weather stuff or just plain stuff, the Holidays put people to the act of decision of some so

Dave Wilber

Dave Wilber

Christmas Can Be Tough

This Christmas, as you enjoy the warmth of bright lights, colors, grand feasts and fleeting moments of memories of childhood, take a moment to remember our active-duty military out there far from home.   Even for hardened troops, Christmas can be a rough time; loneliness tends to creep in, no matter how many others are nearby.   For military families with young children and a loved one on deployment, a feeling of emptiness stands ready to overwhelm the festive aura.   Let's remember our ac

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

End of Year Thanks, Handwritten to You

This past week I have been working on getting end of year notes to clients and friends in the industry ready to send out, and I wanted to do something similar for all of you Turfnetters reading this blog.   It has been great to write these past couple of months and I hope that it has assisted you in your career. I am really honored to be associated with TurfNet and special thanks to Peter for all his efforts in the industry.   It would be easy just to type out some thanks to you guys, but af

Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

Billy Jack is Dead

A few days ago, my aging dumb-phone was overwhelmed with a barrage of text messages, all worded the same:  Billy Jack is Dead.   There are quite a few folks aware that the character of Billy Jack was my hero and role model and they wanted to sympathize with me.  Joe, my best buddy from high school, (Known as Jo-dell in Rockbottum Land) assured me he was handling the news in an honorable way, by wearing a black tee shirt, blue jean jacket and walking smartly around the house singing "One Tin So

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

The Mystery of Mowing

In addition to being a "science blogger guy" for TurfNet, I am also a TurfNet Member. I'm a TurfNet member because I learn a ton of stuff from the webinars, the forums, and of course my fellow bloggers as well as Randy's Vlog!   I am personally psyched about the upcoming "Quality of Cut" week. I can't wait to hear the scheduled industry leaders try and explain the mystery of reel mowing. I researched and read about the history, development, and latest innovations of the reel mower in the mid-2

Frank Rossi

Frank Rossi

Forgive and forget...

"One forgives to the degree that one loves."  Francois de La Rochefoucauld    I had planned on a different post this week, but the recent death of Nelson Mandela changed my mind. I am not sure if there has been another person in my lifetime who has effected as much positive change as he did. He was many things to many people; a revolutionary, a saint, a shrewd politician... but for me personally his greatest lesson came in his ability to forgive.   Mandela spent 27 years of his life imprison

Paul MacCormack

Paul MacCormack

Report Card Time

I'm pretty sure that the whole "what do you do in the winter?" thing has pretty much been beaten to death in the popular turfgrass press. After all, pretty much everyone knows that you spend your winters spinning tunes in the shop and inventing new ways to mow, blow and go. Right? Wrong!   It's almost like we have to tell each other that we really do actually do things. Sadly, we leave out the whole southern part of the US (and the world, really) when the notion is constantly entertained that

Dave Wilber

Dave Wilber

Has The Lust For Hi-Tech Injured Golf?

The Powers-That-Be in Golf do not want you to see this video.   We stumbled across this film while preparing to celebrate the anniversary of the date TurfNet first told us to shoot a video.  The date was 15 December, 2005, and the video was Golf Car Control.   That first short film ended up getting over 100,000 hits and without thinking clearly, TurfNet asked for more.   The video you are about to see followed Golf Car Control, but was quickly suppressed and buried deep in the vault, due t

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

How To: Using TurfNet & Forum as Webapp from Devices

Recently a thread in the Forum was started relating to its use, and I offered some advice on mobile devices. I really enjoy viewing TurfNet from my iPhone due to the mobile version of TurfNet, which I had saved as a Webapp. In fact, it makes browsing the Forum just as easy as pulling up the Twitter app and viewing my feed from others in the industry. After thinking about this, I thought I would put together a tutorial in case very few out there knew about it. If you already use it, great... If n

Matt Leverich

Matt Leverich

The Night Belongs to Charlie

Momma has a standard method for dealing with NTV events.  (Nocturnal Teenage Vandalism)   I've never figured out how her method works, but I do know it dates back to her military service.   Momma was in one of those PSYWAR/PSYOP units and refuses to do things in a direct manner.    

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson

The devil is in...

I was fortunate enough to take a few days off last week and take a fall trip with my extended family. This trip has grown into an annual family ritual that we all enjoy. This years edition took to the beautiful town of Mahone Bay, located on the south shore of the province of Nova Scotia.     While it was great to get away and recharge a wee bit, there was something else that caught a great deal of my attention while in this town. Mahone Bay is an old town with a rich shipbuilding heritage.

Paul MacCormack

Paul MacCormack

Rockbottum Training Videos Rise Again

A few months ago, our training videos suffered a drastic drop in sales.  We quickly determined the cause to be that McCord fellow's golf-specific safety training videos.     He has usurped our share of the market at the top of the training video world, so, in true info-mercial form, we are retaliating with a veritable blizzard of marketing, propaganda and borderline untruths.       

Randy Wilson

Randy Wilson


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