I’d like to take a quick break from the water quality thing to share a recent experience from the field.
Everybody tank mixes fertility products. In some form or another, you put stuff in the spray tank and expect that it will come out whatever nozzles you have and do the intended job. That’s not rocket science. It’s part of Turfhead life. So when I was called this week to help a turfhead straighten out a spray mix, I was pretty excited to see what said Turf Monkey was hitting the tank with and
When job stress cranks up, the smart thing to do is to crank up the counter-stress tactics and the most successful counter-stress strategy is a good hobby.
This is Part One of a Four Part Series by Award Winning Director Ludell Hogwaller on the Top Ten Best/Worst Hobbies for Golf Course Insiders.
This Series will conclude before August, unless Ludell accepts an offer from Downton Abbey producers.
When job stress cranks up, the smart thing to do is to crank up the counter-stress tactics and the most successful counter-stress strategy is a good hobby.
This is Part One of a Four Part Series by Award Winning Director Ludell Hogwaller on the Top Ten Best/Worst Hobbies for Golf Course Insiders.
This Series will conclude before August, unless Ludell accepts an offer from Downton Abbey producers.
There is one area in golf where I find myself soapboxing, evangelizing and pounding the drums without restraint and that area is affordable golf.
My fixation on affordable golf is stronger than my obsession with classical strategic design, punishing slow golfers, or my favorite, exposing the “Clubhouse” as the fastest way to rack up debt, lose money and kill a golf course.
Why am I fixated on affordable golf?
Because affordable golf is the locomotive that drives golf, the engine that recruits
There is one area in golf where I find myself soapboxing, evangelizing and pounding the drums without restraint and that area is affordable golf.
My fixation on affordable golf is stronger than my obsession with classical strategic design, punishing slow golfers, or my favorite, exposing the Clubhouse as the fastest way to rack up debt, lose money and kill a golf course.
Why am I fixated on affordable golf?
Because affordable golf is the locomotive that drives golf, the engine that r
It’s that time of year again when panic sets it. Day after day of high heat stress brings many closer to the tipping point for areas that have marginal growing environments. Low light and poor air movement for warm and cool season grasses, even the utlra-dwarfs don’t like shade, and the ubiquitous surface organic matter that holds even the slightest amount of water all add up to increased stress and panic.
Panic is defined as a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or preve
Its that time of year again when panic sets it. Day after day of high heat stress brings many closer to the tipping point for areas that have marginal growing environments. Low light and poor air movement for warm and cool season grasses, even the utlra-dwarfs dont like shade, and the ubiquitous surface organic matter that holds even the slightest amount of water all add up to increased stress and panic.
Panic is defined as a sudden sensation of fear which is so strong as to dominate or prev
Due to a sudden spike in the level of Golf Course Superintendent Stress, Rockbottum CC has issued an emergency re-release of the original version of GCS Stress Relief.
Newer TurfNet members may not be aware of GCS Stress Relief, so we reached back into the archives, just in time for The Fourth of July.
Here at the Rock, before we abandoned bentgrass and went Ultra-Dwarf, The Fourth of July was peak stress; roasting greens, failing pumps, alienated offspring, high blood pressure and sarcastic w
Due to a sudden spike in the level of Golf Course Superintendent Stress, Rockbottum CC has issued an emergency re-release of the original version of GCS Stress Relief.
Newer TurfNet members may not be aware of GCS Stress Relief, so we reached back into the archives, just in time for The Fourth of July.
Here at the Rock, before we abandoned bentgrass and went Ultra-Dwarf, The Fourth of July was peak stress; roasting greens, failing pumps, alienated offspring, high blood pressure and sarca
I’ve really enjoyed the feedback I’ve gotten in the field and in email about the idea of looking hard at irrigation water. Thanks for that! And the really important thing I’m hearing is the need for understanding. I’m doing this post from my iPad in the field, so please excuse the lack of monkeys.
Let’s continue for a quick look at three letters: TDS. Total Dissolved Solids is a really cool concept. I always have a hard time when someone says to me that water doesn’t have anything in it. It’s
Here at the GCS Rest Home and Asylum, I like to gaze out the bay window in my private room while I listen to the other inmates residents debate various topics down in the mess hall. I don’t really have a bay window, just a soft padded wall, but I like to pretend because it irritates the nurses. (Glass is verboten in the high-risk lockdown wing of the GCSRH&A.)
Today’s debate concerned the golf course problem most likely to land a GCS in the Home. I eavesdropped on the discussion for a w
Here at the GCS Rest Home and Asylum, I like to gaze out the bay window in my private room while I listen to the other inmates residents debate various topics down in the mess hall. I dont really have a bay window, just a soft padded wall, but I like to pretend because it irritates the nurses. (Glass is verboten in the high-risk lockdown wing of the GCSRH&A.)
Todays debate concerned the golf course problem most likely to land a GCS in the Home. I eavesdropped on the discussion for a
Smoking on the golf course by employees is an issue that will have to be addressed at some point. The following video essay is full of . . . pertinent information on the subject.
Smoking on the golf course by employees is an issue that will have to be addressed at some point. The following video essay is full of . . . pertinent information on the subject.
Once a year, the forces that actually make golf work, the powers behind the throne, the engines of the golf industry, all gather in one place, to attend GIS, The Golf Industry Show. The latest results from intensive research and development are on display, important business deals are negotiated, and meetings that determine the future of golf are held in every corner, aisle and restaurant.
The business of golf carries over, beyond the show floor, into the various parties that populate the nig
Once a year, the forces that actually make golf work, the powers behind the throne, the engines of the golf industry, all gather in one place, to attend GIS, The Golf Industry Show. The latest results from intensive research and development are on display, important business deals are negotiated, and meetings that determine the future of golf are held in every corner, aisle and restaurant.
The business of golf carries over, beyond the show floor, into the various parties that populate the
Every industry has its iconic characters. In the UK few would argue Old Tom Morris, Jim Arthur and Walter Woods are not icons among greenkeepers. In the US for me we have Sherwood Moore, Oscar Miles, Ted Woehrle, and my personal favorite, Wayne Otto. In Australia there is Claude Crockford.
Claude Crockford
Crockford was the greenkeeper at the Royal Melbourne for 40 years from the 1930’s to the 1970’s. In 1993 he published “The Complete Golf Course: Turf and Design” as both an homage to Royal
Every industry has its iconic characters. In the UK few would argue Old Tom Morris, Jim Arthur and Walter Woods are not icons among greenkeepers. In the US for me we have Sherwood Moore, Oscar Miles, Ted Woehrle, and my personal favorite, Wayne Otto. In Australia there is Claude Crockford.
Crockford was the greenkeeper at the Royal Melbourne for 40 years from the 1930s to the 1970s. In 1993 he published The Complete Golf Course: Turf and Design as both an homage to Royal Melbourne and prac
Coming into summer, I’d like to talk about water for a few posts. It’s the thing that I seem to get the most questions about this time of year and it’s the thing that I see the most mistakes being made with. I’ll try not to get too carried away with numbers and calculations. There are some, but this is more of an example of how I approach the agronomy of water quality.
Water Test. That’s right. Test the water. Get a great water test from a great lab. I’m going to keep saying this. Even if you
The largely unrealized goal this year was to write more blog posts. Inside of that goal has been my deep-seated desire to make Maestro Peter happy. He’d be hog slop happy with more agronomy writing from me. “Agronomy, Wilber” is often the two word email that I get from Peter. It’s fine. I think he, like a lot of people think that every day, all day, I think about growing grass and that every conversation I have with everyone I see has to do with large bore topics like how to really deal with you
Tha classic Royal Melbourne bunker complex
No tour of golf courses in Australia would be complete without a visit to The Royal Melbourne Golf Club. The RMGC is one of the nine courses in the Melbourne Sandbelt that includes some of the finest golf courses in Australia.
After visiting several seaside courses that have the “wow” factor, the Royal Melbourne required a more patient approach. The golf club was formed in the late 1800’s and the current courses occupy the same site since 1901. Howeve
