Green is July 2006 Beautiful The Official Publication of Ontario Golf Superintendents’ Association Bunkers Fit For A King The Rossi Tapes Transcribed CANADA POST PUBLICATIONS MAIL Effective Irrigation Ideas PUBLICATIONS AGREEMENT No. 40027105 Postmaster: Please return undeliverable copies to Staff Retention Tips The OGSA, 328 Victoria Rd. S., Guelph, ON N1H 6H8 Contents Green is Bunkers Fit For A King .................................................................... Above the hole.................................. 18 32 Beautiful The Official Publication of Ontario Golf Superintendents’ Association Editorial message.................................................................................. 4 Effective Irrigation Ideas ................................................................... 10 From roots to shoots............................................................................ 7 Golf course highlight - Black Bear Ridge Golf Course................. 17 Golf Tournaments.......................................................................... 20 - 23 Health & safety....................................................................................... 8 Looking back........................................................................................... 34 Member profile: Ryan Beauchamp................................................. 16 Off the fairway....................................................................................... 33 On the REEL side of things................................................................. 26 President's message.............................................................................. 3 Public Perception of Risk ................................................................... 27 Rossi Tapes Transcribed ...................................................................... 24 Staff Retention..................................................................................... 12 The way we were.................................................................................. 11 Turf or consequences............................................................................ 35 University of Guelph Update............................................................. 14 COVER PICTURE What's New............................................................................................. 4 Weston Golf & Country Club photo by PNPhotography - Plamen Nikolov Advertisers. Agrotain International....................................................................... 32 Almack Agronomic Services Inc....................................................... 6 Aquatrols................................................................................................ 23 Bartlett Tree Experts - Canada.......................................................... 9 Braemar Building Systems................................................................. 11 Burnside Golf Services........................................................................ 9 DCS Agronomic Services.................................................................... 33 Engage Agro - Senator WSB ............................................................ 30 Fast Forest............................................................................................... 7 Green Horizons Group of Farms....................................................... 29 H & M Turf Ltd........................................................................................ 3 Maple Turf Supply...................................................................... 6, 31, 33 OGSA is committed to Master's Turf Supply Ltd..................................................................... 34 Nu Gro - Business Card....................................................................... 6 serving its members, Nu Gro - Grigg Bros ............................................................................. 22 advancing their profession, Ontario Seed Company ...................................................................... 29 and P.E.S.T. Institute, The .......................................................................... 9 enriching the quality Syngenta - Subdue Maxx .................................................................. 9 of golf Skyway Lawn Equipment Limited ................................................. 34 and its environment. Turf Care Products Canada - Irrigation Div................................... 21 Turf Care Products Canada................................................................ 36 Layout, Design & Printing provided by United Agri Products Inc..................................................................... 26 G-R-A-P-H-l-C SERVICES PRINTERS & LITHOGRAPHERS Vanden Bussche Irrigation ................................................................ 8 Tel: 519.763.5745 • Fax: 519.763.9532 Wendover Construction Ltd............................................................... 15 32-34 Essex Street • Guelph, Ontario • N1H 3K8 Zander Sod Co. Limited ................................................................... 31 e-mail: info@graphicservices.ca • www.graphicservices.ca President's message SUCCESS COMES FROM WITHIN Defining “success” is always difficult, as it can be very subjective from person-to-person. The dictionary definition of success is, “a favourable result”. So how do we choose to measure our successes on and off the golf course? Some ONTARIO GOLF SUPERINTENDENTS’ people use monetary wealth or material goods as a unit of ASSOCIATION Guelph Turfgrass Institute measure. For others, it may be shooting a career round of 69 328 Victoria Road South on a 7000 yard track, winning a sporting tournament or Guelph, ON N1H6H8 staying married for 25 years. Whatever the yard-stick, we Ph: 519-767-3341 ought not to base our goals on pre-established measurements, or our view of success Toll Free: 877-824-6472 has been based on someone else’s achievements or results. If we do not drive the golf Fax: 519-766-1704 Email: ogsa@gti.uoguelph.ca ball consistently 305 yards, are we a failure? Do we need lessons? That’s a false Website: www.golfsupers.on.ca premise! In turf management, many equate success by where we are employed, how many BOARD OF DIRECTORS letters we have after our name or by our green speeds or budget size. This is indeed President : Bob Burrows unfortunate. I would submit to those individuals that their barometer for ‘success’ Past President: Paul Scenna is far too vague. In the end, we are the best individual qualified to determine if we Vice-President: Sean DeSilva are, or have been, successful. Treasurer: Jeff Stauffer One of my own goals is to be a mentor to as many young, keen students as I can Secretary: Randy Booker and to pass along a strong work-ethic and knowledge base. The allegiance to the DIRECTORS Jeff Alexander people who work for me is one of the strongest in my professional life. Ironically, I Chris Andrejicka place more value on the longer term relationships at the club than I do the short­ Jarrod Barakett term ones. Perhaps this is why, at times in my career, I have been confused or Randy Booker struggled with the shorter terms of green committee members. Let me be clear, I Doug Breen do place a high value on developing diplomatic skills needed in today’s society and Trevor Clapperton private club environment. However, it has always confused me that we may be Rob Gatto reporting to or working for someone who knows very little about what we do and has Chris Nelson a tremendous influence on how we do it. Finally, I also place a higher value on lifestyle rather than on standard of living; on simple generosity rather than on the Executive Mgr Dorothy Hills Office Staff Pat Thomas trappings of success. I can only hope that I have had a positive and lasting influence Deborah Badger on the many young interns, technicians and assistants who have crossed the path of my relatively young career I know that many of you also feel the same generosity within with a high ‘standard of life’. Thanks to Kerry Satterwhite for his inspirational comments, paraphrased above! A good example of a keen supporter is evidenced by Glen “Goodie” Goodwin, who was recently honoured at the Toronto Star Amateur “Fraz” media day tournament at Scarboro Golf & County Club. Your OGSA Executive was there to wave the flag. All other OGSA events are going smoothly, and I wish to thank all of the venue hosts for showcasing their facilities. GREEN IS BEAUTIFUL EDITORIAL I look forward to seeing many of you on July 24th at the President’s Day COMMITTEE tournament, which by pure happenstance, is at Rosedale Golf Club having been scheduled about five years ago. Let’s continue on with having A GREAT SEASON! John Bladon, Co-Editor Chris Nelson, Co-Editor Dorothy Hills, Coordinating Manager Greig Barker Tom Brain Angelo Capannelli Doug Davidson Jason Hanna Brett Murray Direct Line 416-659-1020 Scott Horsburgh Manager Fax Line 519-941-0931 Justin Parsons “Green is Beautiful” P.O. Box 218 is Printed on Green is Beautiful 2006 Orangeville, ON Recycled Paper Although every effort is made to check L9W 2Z6 material for publication, the association is not responsible for material published on behalf of its contributors. All rights are reserved by the publisher and any reproduction in whole or part without the written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Although some trade names may be mentioned in articles contained in this publication, no endorsement is intended or implied by the Ontario Golf Superintendents' brett.murray@sympatico.ca Association. Editorial message ell, hopefully W course record at Forest City, from the information needs to be continuously we have all hit that tips with an incredible 59! Nick’s communicated to our golfing mid season stride! round was witnessed by club pro Gil customers about those products. We The event and meet­ Parkinson and two members. all need to be proactive and continue ing season is up to Congrats to Nick and the entire delivering this message. Mike Slack full throttle, so check Wheeler household on this amazing gives us some REEL food for thought www.golfsupers.on.ca accomplishment! on cutting unit maintenance and by John Bladon for both OGSA Our July issue features some Doug Breen appears intent on seeing Co-Editor sanctioned and outstanding submissions. This past some superintendents on a reality regional events winter while attending Cornell television show in the very near future! scheduled. There are some brilliant University, Tom Brain of Burlington I want to briefly thank the editorial locations scheduled for 2006! Golf and Country Club, sat down with committee and our stable of regular Hot off the press...OGSA member Dr. Frank Rossi for a candid interview. columnists...your commitment and Scott Wheeler and his wife Lori are He gives us an up close and personal continued efforts during busy times do proud parents yet again! Son look at the ever-controversial turf not go unnoticed and are certainly Nicholas, who is a grounds crew guru. Steve Gomme of Engage Agro appreciated! Finally, if you have a story member at Forest City National with provides us with both some thoughts worth telling, please contact Dorothy Dad and on a golf scholarship at St. on the products we use in our or myself.. .we would like to hear from Francis University recently broke the management regimes and what you! What's new HERITAGE AWARD HUGH KIRKPATRICK 2006 OGSA SHORT The OGSA has developed this BURSARY COURSE AWARD scholarship program to recognize The OGSA, in conjunction with the Our congratulations to Debbie Dale, the scholastic accomplishments of Kirkpatrick family has developed this Assistant Superintendent at London students who are the children or bursary program to recognize the Hunt & Country Club, who is this grandchildren of members of the leadership, commitment and year’s recipient of the short course OGSA, and studying a curriculum accomplishments of assistant award, in the amount of $1000.00. unrelated to turfgrass management. superintendent members of the Debbie had the highest overall This is an opportunity open to all association. average of 95%. Debbie and all of members. our 2006 scholarship recipients will Funding, in the amount of $2500.00, be recognized at our 2007 Funding is available, in the amount will be made available to assistant conference, at the Sheraton Centre of $2500.00, to diploma or degree superintendents for the purpose of Toronto. students and also students who have industry related training or successfully completed high school education. CALL FOR NOMINATION and have been accepted into a university or college program, prior FOR THE 2006 "WILLIAM Deadline for application is October to submitting their application. 31, 2006. For complete details please SANSOM" DISTINGUISHED go to www.golfsupers.on.ca Benefits SERVICE AWARD Deadline for application is August - Education, or phone the office to The OGSA shall present an award of 31, 2006. For complete details please request info by fax or email. Distinguished Service, in the name of go to www.golfsupers.on.ca Benefits our first President William Sansom, - Education, or phone the office to to an individual or individuals, request info by fax or email. providing such an individual (s) is properly nominated and subsequently accepted by the Board Education, or phone the office to of Directors of the association. request info by fax or email. Any two members of the OGSA, currently in good standing, may LONDON AREA SUPER jointly nominate an individual(s). RECEIVES ENVIRONMENTAL Welcome! Evidence of substantiation must CERTIFICATION O.G.S.A. Welcomes accompany the nomination. Scott Wheeler, OGSA and GCSAA our newest members Complete nomination packages are certified golf course superintendent Dan Albright Class F to be sent to OGSA’s office. member, at Forest City National Golf St. Thomas Golf & CC Club, London has earned an Dale Bradbury Class F To be accepted for the Distinguished Mill Run Golf & CC environmental management specialist Service Award, a nominee must meet Kyle Campbell Class D certificate for the Golf Course the following qualifications: Orchard Beach G & CC Superintendents Association of Must have made an outstanding Barrett Darbyshire Class F America (GCSAA) for completing a contribution to the advancement of Owen Sound Golf & CC series of specialization programs in the golf course superintendent’s Andrew Hardy Class C Employee Saftey and Right-to-Know. Pheasant Run Golf Club profession in Ontario. The Congratulations Scott! Chad Hurrell Class Supt contribution must be significant in Fairview Golf Club both substance and duration. The The GCSAA is addressing the Christian Kuhn Class S outstanding contribution may be, or environmental impact of golf course Toronto Golf Club have been, national or regional in management and the increasingly Terry McKenzie Class F nature. This contribution must be Briar Fox Golf & CC complex training needs of golf held in the highest regard and reflect Brian Milani Class S course superintendents by offering credit upon our profession. The Whitewater Golf Club specialized training through its nominee must not have been a Brent Minacs Class A Environmental Management Program. recipient of this award during the King's Bay Golf Club The program consists of six preceding ten (10) years. Gord Rowland Class C specialized certification programs: Windermere Golf & CC Deadline date for nomination forms Integrated Pest Management; Peter Sinuita Class C to be received by the OGSA office is Habitat Development and Glen Abbey Golf Club Friday, September 1, 2006. Award Management; Employee Safety and Craig Thompson Class C recipient will be recognized at the Right-To-Know; Water Quality and Port Carling Golf & CC 2007 OGSA Conference Application; Golf Course Warren Vout Class D Development and Storage, Disposal Kedron Dells GolfClub For complete details and copy of and Recycling. For more Brad Walker Class A nomination form please go to information visit GCSAA at Wildwinds Golf Course www.golfsupers.on.ca Benefits - www.gcsaa.org. Lakeshore Sand Co. Class E Robert VanWyngaarden OTRF GOLF TOURNAMENT invites you to the 2006 OTRF Annual Fundraising Golf Tournament Hosted by Clublink’s King Valley Golf Club, King City Monday August 28, 2006 For registration details or to inquire about sponsorship contact: OTRF office: 519-824-4120 X 56149 or email: otrf@gti.uoguelph.ca What's new continued... TURF RESEARCH & LIBRARY DONATION FUND OGSA would like to take this opportunity to thank the following members for their continued support of our Library Fund and Turf Research Fund, made through optional donations with their membership dues for the period October 2005 through September 2006. Your support helps us to provide valuable benefits in education and research to our members. Library Fund Donations Kenneth J. Patterson Centennial Park Golf Club Al Schwemler Toronto Golf Club Dan Tonkin Greenhills Golf Club Turf Research Donations Greg Aljoe Ovinbyrd Golf Club Ryan Beauchamp St. Thomas Golf & CC (Ryan is now at Glen Abbey) John Gall St. George’s Golf &CC Cecil Hoekstra Cherry Hill Club Norman B. Jenkins Cherry Hill Club Paul W. Mickalko Batteaux Creek Golf Club Al Schwemler Toronto Golf Club Tom Simpson Newcastle Golf Course Keith Stephenson Retired Dan Tonkin Greenhills Golf Club NU-GRO APPRECIATION DAY Nu-Gro Ltd. held its 16th Annual Customer Appreciation Doug Hubble Sales and Marketing Manager Golf Tournament on Tuesday, June 6th at Brantford Golf & 519.770.3157 Country Club in Brantford, Ontario. The weather provided dhubble@nu-gro.ca a beautiful day and the event was again, deemed a success by all participants. After enjoying a beautifully prepared course John Bladon IPM Coordinator / Technical Sales by Superintendent Paul Evenden and his team, the field 519.574.2013 retreated to the cooler confines of the clubhouse for dinner jbladon@nu-gro.ca and prize presentations. Each participant took home a www.nu-groturf.com personal swing analysis report so they could see exactly where they needed improvement. Mark Schneider Technical Sales Corrie Almack P.Ag. Maple Turf Supply Business: (905) 857-2000 8112 King Rd. W. Fax: (905) 857-8215 P.O. Box 370 Mobile: (519) 372-5181 Almack Agronomic Services Inc. Tel: (905) 689-6174 Bolton, Ontario 1-800-268-4425 Box 256, Carlisle, On Fax: (905) 689-8522 L7E 5T3 Email: m___schneider@sympatico.ca L0R 1H0 mail: c.almack@sympatico.ca E From roots to shoots INSECT SUMMARY SPRING On the control front for leatherjackets, there are three 2006 insecticide control trials underway at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute to determine if entomopathogenic all of you know, it has been a As nematodes or other new insecticide actives are effective at very interesting spring to say the least. controlling leatherjackets. Look for these test results at The roller coaster weather has had an the winter conferences in 2007. by Pam Charbonneau impact on insect behavior this spring. OMAF Turfgrass Specialist The main observation that I have made Turfgrass Ants to date is that over-wintering insects returned to the turf Turfgrass ants are becoming more and more of a earlier than normal and over a longer period than normal problem on golf greens. Their mounds can be unsightly, because of the early warm temperatures which were they can smother the turf and they also increase quickly followed by some very cold weather. This means maintenance costs by dulling mower blades. There are that the damage caused by these insects is going to last three products available for ant control on turf now. The longer and be drawn out over a longer period of time. two older products are Dursban T and Sevin T&O. A new product called Demand, which contains the active Black turfgrass ataenius and annual ingredient cyhalothrin-lambda has very recently been bluegrass weevil granted registration through the User Requested Minor Black turfgrass ataenius (BTA) adults were seen flying Use Label Expansion program. Always consult the label as early as mid-April this year, which is about a month for rates and directions on use. ahead of their usual flights. When the temperatures cooled down the flights stopped. Flights resumed in Turfgrass Scale earnest in mid-May. Reports of the intensity of the adult We witnessed a very strange phenomenon here in early flights in mid-May varies to lighter than normal from some June at the GTI. We were doing weeds counts on mixed areas and heavier than normal in other areas. The result stands of Kentucky bluegrass and noticed that the plots of the early flight period is that we may see damage were covered with turfgrass scale adults on the terminal occurring as early as early June to as late as mid-July from parts of the leaf blades. I always thought that they spent the first generation. The same will be true for annual all of their life cycle as adults feeding at the crowns of the bluegrass weevil. Damage could occur as early as early turfgrass plants. Now we know differently. June as well. Often annual bluegrass weevil damage is mistaken for a disease of annual bluegrass because it If you observe any bizarre or new insect behavior on your selectively feeds on annual bluegrass plants and the golf course, I would like to hear about it. damage often occurs in small to medium size patches at first. Reports for the northeast United States are If you are interested in weekly updates on turf insect reporting that there are many different instars of annual problems, you can visit the OMAFRA Turf Agriphone bluegrass even within a single fairway on one golf course. message on line at http://apps.omafra.gov.on.ca/scripts/english/crops/agriphone European crane fly /index.asp#Turfgrass Due to the mild winter, and the fact that we found leatherjackets up feeding in February when we had a thaw, Don’t forget the Guelph Turfgrass Institute Research Field I was expecting the leatherjackets to be fairly beefy first Day. It will take place on Thursday, Aug. 24th, 2006. Stay thing in the spring. In reality they were very small coming tuned to the GTI web site for more information. into the spring. They don’t particularly like it when conditions are dry, so this may have influenced their growth in April when things were dry. They made up for the slow growth in April by feeding very heavily in May. There were reports of very heavy feeding in the Niagara and Burlington area on both home lawns and golf course turf. Many superintendents are starting to spray for leatherjackets in the spring with surprising results. Usually they greatly under-estimate the populations that Phil Dickie pdickie@gatemanmilloy.com they have. Once they have sprayed they are left with a thick layer of dead leatherjackets on their greens that they 270 Shoemaker Street, Kitchener, ON N2E 3E1 then have to dispose of. Phone (519) 748-6610 • Fax (519) 748-6626 Health & safety ARE YOU READY FOR THE OMoL? Every day I am hearing about more Your colleagues are telling me that the inspectors are and more workplaces where the asking about “Fit Testing” for respirators, lock out/ block Ontario Ministry of Labour (OMoL) are out procedures, guarding, equipment inspection and visiting and conducting workplace Personal Protective Equipment rules. The inspectors are audits. Make a few calls to some of the also looking at the condition of equipment, from bench other superintendents that you know grinders to mobile equipment. They are checking things by DougJohnson and you will soon be talking to someone like auto and emergency shut offs. They want to know SAFETAID and Health and you know who has had an inspection what you and the rest of the management team (General Safety Consulting (audit) by an inspector. Manager or CEO, Chef, Club House Manager, Banqueting First Aid and Safety Supplies Last year just about this time I and WHMIS Training Manager, Golf Professional) are doing about managing mentioned that the OMoL had 100 new safety in the workplace. inspectors out in our workplaces. Well now you can A number of your colleagues have told me that they double that number. All these new inspectors have been have spent an inordinate amount of time listening to the given their marching orders. And one of those orders is inspector and basically continuously saying “yes” to the that they are required to contact every employer in their requirements being listed. And you might as well talk area of jurisdiction where the employer has had at least about this with your owner or GM because the inspectors one lost time accident in the past few years. are generally going to want them involved in the Think back to your record. Has your club submitted a inspection. The attitude of the inspector is clear. They claim in the last few years for a worker who may have lost are looking for management (owner) commitment to one or more days from work? If you have you are on the safety! list. This does not mean a lost time accident in the greens Take the time now to ensue that your club is area alone. This means a lost time accident in any part of complying. If you are not sure, then get someone in to your facility. review the documents that are in place and give you some When the inspectors are showing up they are not advice on how to proceed. The more you have in place giving you notice and they are spending, up to a day or and the more knowledge you have, the better off you will more with management and workers at your facility asking be! all kinds of questions about your safety program. They are Take the time now to be prepared! Have a great summer! looking at your training records and your safety program. They will complete an inspection of your workplace and SAFETAID write orders that you must comply with by certain specified times. Interestingly, they are also telling you that Making safety your 1st priority! they will be back to check on your progress. 519.837.0997 or doug@safetaid.ca U.S. Motors Reservoir to Rotor Flowserve Pumps Mitsubishi PLC Watts Valves Allen Bradley VFD Milton 1.800.263.4112 King City 1.866.703.KING Cutler Hammer Circuit Breakers www.vandenbussche.com Rainbird Pump Stations, Quality Components! SPECIALIZING IN PESTICIDE EDUCATION & SERVICE TECHNOLOGY Burnside PESTICIDE CERTIFICATION COURSES Serving the Needs of the Golf Industry LAND exterminator LANDSCAPE CATEGORY We can help with: • Approvals for Golf Course Development NORTH YORK and Operations December................. 11 - 15, 2006 Insects Harming Your Trees? • Irrigation Water Supply February.................... 19- 23, 2007 • Sewage Treatment and Disposal Possibly. It takes an expert to really tell. March........................ 19- 23, 2007 • Environmental Management Plans To learn which insects are on your trees • Building and Clubhouse Design Services April........................... 16- 20, 2007 and shrubs (none are completely insect • Irrigation Design and Consulting LONDON free), have a Bartlett arborist inspect them. • Environmental Impact Assessment March........................ 12- 16, 2007 There is no charge or obligation. • Drinking Water Assessment If control measures are necessary, OTTAWA Bartlett will use the safest materials March........................ 26- 30, 2007 Toll Free: (877) 799-8499 - applied properly to protect our E-mail: vcirone@rjburnside.com environment. Website: www.rjburnside.com Government exam held on Monday When it comes to pest management, following each course. or general tree and shrub care, rely on the For more information and a brochure experts - Bartlett Tree Experts! contact: Call for your free inspection today!! Paul G. Pilley, B.Sc., M.P.M. P.O. Box 1021, Lindsay, ON K9V 5N4 Toronto • (416) 657-2059 Tel: (705) 324-PEST (7378) Bracebridge • (705) 646-8733 Fax: (705) 324-9729 Gravenhurst • (705) 687-0696 E-mail: ppilley@cogeco.ca Huntsville • (705) 789-0929 www.bartlett.com PESTICIDE TECHNICIAN COURSES ALSO AVAILABLE BACKED BY THE BARTLETT TREE RESEARCH LABORATORIES AND EXPERIMENTAL Offices located throughout Ontario GROUNDS, CHARLOTTE, NC Members of OGSA, CGSA and Golfmax Suppliers to the NGCOA RESEARCH PRODUCTS PEOPLE STEWARDSHIP Fast-acting and long-lasting, SubdueMAXX® Fungicide quickly takes control of Pythium Root Rot, Working overtime Pythium Blight and Pythium Damping Off in golf course turf. Featuring Syngenta's exclusive MAXX microemulsion technology, SubdueMAXX® stops disease growth and prevents the development of new disease. So you don't have to. With a residual action of up to 21 days, SubdueMAXX® is working all the time, so you don't have to. For more information on SubdueMAXX® call Syngenta at 1-888-368-4211 x525. www.syngentaprofessionalproducts.com Important: Always read and follow label instructions before using this product. ©2003 Syngenta. Syngenta Crop Protection Canada, Inc., Guelph, ON N1G 4Z3 Subdue MAXX® is a registered trademark of a Syngenta Group Company. EFFECTIVE IRRIGATION IDEAS by Jason Hanna, Assistant Superintendent Devil’s Pulpit Golf Association Golf course irrigation practices and water management enough water. In some cases, such as localized dry spots, have become hot topics in golf course management over hand watering is often the best solution allowing the exact the past few years and will not be going away anytime soon. area to receive sufficient water to wet the entire soil profile. Every year, most courses are budgeting more and In some instances these methods may not efficiently meet incorporating irrigation into their long range or master your irrigation needs. plans, whether the decision is to install an entire new system, a pump station, or investigate options to update or expand upon a current system. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of the more common practices used to maintain irrigation systems in top running order along with some various other options to fit a broad range of budgets and time lines, to increase efficiency or simply water areas that may not have received irrigation before. Irrigation Audit Performing an audit is a good practice to ensure that irrigation heads are functioning properly (nozzles, valves, electrical/hydraulic control and coverage). Many irrigation cycles occur in the middle of the night; this can make it difficult to visually inspect the system to ensure that all components are operating properly. An irrigation audit provides the information necessary to make an informed decision on how effective the water is being delivered. The audit can help identify areas on the course where water is being under applied or over applied directly impacting turf A roller base is utilized to water new sod. health and conditioning. Ensuring that all irrigation heads are level with the Adding heads or turf valves is one of the most common surrounding grade is important to keep on top of. Often, options used by superintendents to increase irrigated areas. over time, heads can become lower than the surrounding In many cases, capabilities of an irrigation system may make grade through repeated topdressing or simply from shifting it difficult to expand. Often, the added demand for water due to regular freezing and thawing throughout the winter is not the greatest challenge. Instead, the ability to expand and early spring months. This can affect the angle the control systems to automate these added heads can be too water is projected and negatively impact head to head difficult or expensive to make the practice worthwhile. For coverage or distribution uniformity. example, if the nearest satellite box to an added head has Lastly, if your irrigation system is managed through a no more room to add additional stations, and combining central control system, be sure that the computer is up to the new station with an existing station is not an option, it date in order to reflect any changes made in the field. An may be worthwhile to add another satellite box. example of this could be installing new nozzles or switching Unfortunately, this is an expensive option considering the full circle rotors to part circles. Keeping the central control expense of the components of the satellite box and pulling current will enable it to more efficiently handle your the appropriate power and communication utilities. irrigation needs because the computer’s models will match what is found on the golf course. Backing up the information saved on your computer is a good habit to get into, as backed up information can prevent downtime and inconvenience in the event of computer failure or loss of data. In many cases, even a finely tuned system may be unable to deliver water where needed. This can be a result of improper installation or poor maintenance practices. Potential Solutions One of the simplest methods to water an area without coverage from automatic irrigation can be to set up roller bases. Roller bases are fast to set up allowing water to be distributed wherever the hose may reach from your point of connection. However, as simple as roller bases may be, there are some drawbacks to this potential solution. Hoses can be cumbersome and unsightly to golfers, staff are required to move sprinklers around, and in most cases run times for the roller bases cannot be set automatically resulting in the sprinkler delivering too much or not A remote timer has been used to control the electric valve for a zone. The way we were In recent years, wireless heads have been introduced to the market. These heads may be able to overcome some of the above challenges. Through utilizing solar technology Can you identify the person in this picture? and wireless paging systems these heads can communicate To see if you are correct turn to page 34. directly with the central control system negating the need for any wires to accompany the head. As a result, time and money can be saved. For many situations these heads may be the solution. Unfortunately, not all irrigation systems may be capable of supporting the technology that comes with wireless heads. Remote timers have been around for some time in both residential, commercial and golf course irrigation. These timers are easy to install and can fit most budgets. Timers can be coupled to the solenoids of new heads or for multiple heads a timer can match with an electric valve to control a zone. The timers are available in both analog and digital models allowing the operator to set multiple run times and schedules for the controlled area. Some timers have the ability to connect to a remote rain censor, further allowing you to control and manage your irrigation needs. As water restrictions increase and irrigation technology continues to evolve it will be interesting to see what new options and practices will be available to golf courses everywhere. In the mean time, the enclosed techniques and practices can prove to be useful tools to better mange or utilize your irrigation system. Although only a few points were discussed in this article there are many other innovative practical solutions to irrigation challenges faced by superintendents every day. It’s always interesting to share these points to allow us to improve on both our irrigation efficiency and overall job efficiency. Braemar Building Systems Custom Design Quality Buildings Competitive Prices • Maintenance Buildings • Storage Facilities • New Buildings • Wood & Steel Structures For your FREE ESTIMATES call us at 1-800-215-1996 www.braemarbuildings.com STAFF RETENTION: TEN TIPS FOR HIRING THE RIGHT PEOPLE AND KEEPING STAFF ENTHUSED! by Dr. Lynda Pinnington Pinnington Training Development www.pinningtontraining.com In a seasonal business, hiring staff is a constant fact of life rapport throughout. It is only natural for people to be which can be a very costly task. Consider advertising, staff nervous on a job interview. In fact, the more important the time to review applications, interview and train new job is to the person, the more nervous they might be. The employees, as well as the time it takes before new employees more nervous a person is, the more difficult it will be to get are fully able to perform all their job duties, and the final a true picture of what they might be like as an employee. figure might really surprise any manager. It goes without Try not to leave them waiting too long before you begin. saying, then, that it is really important to make sure we Introduce yourself and any others who are participating in make good hiring decisions in the first place. And when we the interview. If appropriate, show them around the area have hired good people, it is equally important to provide where they might be working. Start the interview with a bit good supervision to encourage them to stay and commit to of “chit-chat” about the weather or the hockey game just to more than just short term employment. Minimizing staff get the conversation going. turnover is a key component of people management in any organization. Here are ten tips that might help. 4. Ask the right questions to get the information you need. Ask specific questions related to the position and Hire the Right People the skills and qualities you have identified as being critical 1. Plan your approach. Before drawing up questions or for success in the position. There is no point in asking putting an ad in the newspaper, think about the job by irrelevant questions such as “what is the last book you read”. asking yourself a few questions. What will the person be That might be very appropriate for a job working in a doing in the job (be as specific as possible)? In the past, library, but it would be difficult to explain how that was what people have been most successful in the job? What relevant to working at a golf course. Don’t just make up a were their qualifications? What specific skills are needed to list of questions. Make sure everything you ask is directly perform effectively in the job (physical strength for lifting, related to the job. Not only will you get more relevant stamina for standing long periods of time, public relations information to help you make better hiring decisions, you to deal with customers, ability to operate equipment, math will also stay clear of any potential for charges of skills to total up bills etc.)? Will the person be working discriminatory hiring practices. alone or as part of a team? Try to ask “open” questions where possible. These are questions which require more than one word to answer and 2. Determine the best way to gather the information are generally the best type to gather information. “What did needed to make a hiring decision. Make a list of the you like best about your previous job ?” is a better question than qualities and skills you wish to assess during the hiring “Did you like your last job?” process. Then develop ways to gather information that will give you an accurate picture of each applicant’s ability. It’s 5. Remember that the hiring process is a two way important to be creative here. Just asking a question such Street. While you are trying to get a good sense of whether as, “Are you reliable?” will usually generate a “yes” response or not this person is right for you to hire, it is also important and you will have no idea whether or not that is a true to give the applicant a chance to assess whether this is the statement. Here are some ideas: right job for him or her. Don’t oversell the job or the • An applicant can be asked to demonstrate a skill such organization. Try to be realistic about working conditions, as operating a piece of equipment hours, your expectations. It is much better to give • Ask for examples from previous experience which applicants a true sense of the job rather than have them demonstrate a particular skill quit after a few days because it is not what they expected. •Use role plays to see how applicants handle typical Give applicants an opportunity to ask questions. Be customer situations courteous during the interview by listening with your whole • If math skills are important, give applicants a math attention. Make sure there are no distractions such as test ringing telephones or interruptions from other staff. • Give examples of typical problems which might be encountered on the job and ask applicants how they Keeping Good Staff would deal with them 1. Set clear, specific expectations. Often, one of the most challenging aspects of a supervisor’s or manager’s job 3. Have a plan for the interview before you start. is to verbalize expectations to staff. Too often we hear Make sure you allow sufficient time for each interview. Put comments such as, “use your common sense”, “I shouldn’t applicants at ease immediately and try to maintain a positive have to tell you that”, or “you should have been able to figure that out”. Be explicit and clear regarding your “Sorry, I can’t help you; I have to go punch in”? expectations about quality of work, quantity of work, getting along with others, punctuality, attendance, dress code etc. 4. Try to find win-win approaches that work for both It’s much easier to do this right at the beginning of a the employer and the employee. A good number of person’s employment or at the beginning of each season seasonal employees are students. If you ask students to than it is to try to correct problems after the fact. One golf describe the ideal summer job, they will often list three course manager found this out the hard way when a new factors: able to earn enough money for school, a decent way employee came to work in what the manager considered to to spend the summer, and a job to return to each year. be inappropriate attire. The employee reacted negatively When employers complain that they can’t get good help or to being told the clothes were not suitable and a stand-off that people don’t come back from one year to the next, it is resulted in the employee quitting in a huff after only a usually a good idea to do a bit of a reality check on these couple of weeks on the job. three factors. One student was offered a job at two fairly high quality golf courses. The pay was the same at each and 2. Treat employees with respect. Loyalty creates loyalty. the job duties similar. At one course, staff was only allowed If we want staff to be loyal and do a good job, we also have to play golf twice a month on Monday afternoons after 2 to treat them with respect. Many golf courses try to create pm. At the second course, staff was allowed to play golf any a sense of pride and ownership with their staff in a variety of time and as often as they wished. Being an avid golfer, the ways. Staff clothing with organizational logos, bonuses for student naturally chose the second course. He returned for staying the entire season, guarantees of a job the next three seasons, starting in the back shop and in his final season, employee discounts for purchasing products or season was a key staff member in the pro shop. The first services are but a few ideas. Asking for and listening to course missed out on a reliable, capable employee simply employee suggestions, and having team meetings where through their restrictive policy on staff playing privileges. people are encouraged to share their ideas are both excellent ways of creating employee loyalty. Recently a 5. People appreciate feedback. Most of us have had large organization found the cause of high employee experiences with poor employees; but we also know that the turnover in a particular department could be traced to one vast majority of employees are hard-working, conscientious particular supervisor whose standard response to any people who want to do the best job they can. Most people employee question was, “Don’t ask so many questions. Just also really appreciate receiving feedback about what they do what I tell you.” The seasonal staff, mostly university have done well and what they could do better. A teenage students, were just not interested in working in an hockey player was comparing coaches he had had in his organization where ideas and questions were clearly not hockey career. He said his favourite coach was one who welcomed. made some kind of comment to every player every time they came off the ice after a shift. The coach would say 3. Set fair and reasonable rules. Rules are important to something such as “nice pass” or “you should have passed ensure consistency and a sense of order in the organization. instead of taking the shot”. This teen wanted to know what However, make sure those rules make sense and are he had done well, not only as a motivator, but also to give perceived to be fairly administered. A young man recently him guidance to go out and do that again. He also wanted quit a job where he felt he was treated very unfairly. This to know what he had not done well so he could go out and particular employer had a time clock punch-in system and be better on the next shift. Notice, as well, that the coach this employee’s start time was eight o’clock. One morning was giving this feedback frequently during each game and he arrived in the parking lot about ten minutes before eight not just at the end of the game or the end of the season. in plenty of time to punch in. However, as he was getting Think about it. How helpful would it have been to those out of his car, he was called over by a customer who asked players if the coach had saved feedback for the end of the for assistance. Helping the customer took almost ten season: “Remember that game against the Flyers in minutes and by the time he got to the clock he was a minute October— you shouldn’t have taken that shot in the second late punching in. This one minute of “tardiness” resulted period”? One of the most proactive things managers and in having his pay docked fifteen minutes and a reprimand supervisors can do to encourage good performance and from his boss. The employee was upset and started sending motivate staff is to give frequent, sincere feedback. The old out resumes that very day. What’s your opinion? Do you “unless you hear from me assume everything is okay” think the supervisor was justified in punishing the approach is not effective—neither as a motivator, nor for employee? Or do you think the supervisor should have encouraging good performance. been pleased that a seasonal employee was responsive to a Managing staff is not an easy task; but leading a team of customer request? This relates directly to our first point. highly motivated, productive employees can be a very Be clear on your expectations. What is more important to rewarding experience. Hopefully, these tips will help you you and your business—is it punctuality or customer become a more effective manager or supervisor. service? Should the employee have told the customer, University of Guelph update News from the GTI Diagnostic Lab pring came fast in Ontario S amounts of quick-release nitrogen as that will and the GTI Turf Diagnostic lab allocate resources to top growth rather than roots. has been in full gear since mid­ Try to push your roots to go deeper by irrigating April. We started off the season only when needed. However, if your root system is by Katerina Jordan with the usual lingering snow already very weakened, you may have to water Assistant Professor mold samples, but as the spring lightly and frequently at first to make sure your Department ofPlant wore on, we were seeing an plants are getting what they need. You can try Agriculture, U of G inordinate number of diseased increasing the time between irrigation slowly to creeping bentgrass samples train your roots downward. If your soil is somewhat coming into the lab. The first samples in early to compacted, consider pencil tine aerification mid-April came from Alberta, but ones from through the summer to create air spaces for those Ontario soon followed. Based on what we were roots to go. seeing in the roots, and the fact that annual As for other diseases that we have been seeing more bluegrass plants were unaffected, we diagnosed recently - Pythium root dysfunction did appear in a most of these samples with Take-all patch - caused few places, but the infections were not as bad as we by the fungus Gaeumannomyces graminis. Many might have thought considering the cool, wet superintendents were surprised to find they had weather. We did see a few samples of Fusarium take-all patch as: patch (Microdochium nivale) and yellow patch 1) not all samples were coming from greens that (Rhizoctonia cerealis), but fortunately these diseases were sand-based, have quieted down with the warmer weather. That 2) many of the samples were from greens that were said, anthracnose (Colletotrichum graminicola) will more than 10 years old, and likely start showing up as the temperatures increase 3) classic patch-like symptoms were not evident on as well. If you have had a history of this disease, be the turf. diligent with your preventive fungicide applications as curative controls are much less effective. Dollar Although take-all patch is generally considered to spot (Sclerotinia homeocarpa) has been seen on a few be a disease of relatively newly constructed sand­ courses around Ontario, so be sure to keep that in based greens, it most definitely can be found on check as well. Just be careful with repeated older greens with any type of root zone. And applications of the same class of fungicide as S. although the disease is believed to decline over homeocarpa is known to develop resistance to the time as the pathogen is a poor competitor in the DMI or sterol inhibitor fungicicdes and soil, the ideal environmental conditions (cycling of benzimidazoles (thiophanate-methyl) quite readily. cool, wet weather and warm, dry spells) that were High temperatures combined with humidity will present for most of the early spring were an also likely bring brown patch (Rhizoctonia solani) overriding factor in development of the disease. and Pythium blight. Make sure you keep up with Combine the weather with the fact that G. graminis your scouting and look for any signs of fungal thrives in high pH soils as are found in this region, mycelium in the early morning hours. Also be take-all was almost everywhere bentgrass was. The careful with your irrigation practices. Water in the lack of patch-like symptoms was primarily the case morning and syringe in the afternoon as evening on the older greens, where there was more annual and night watering will promote fungal growth. bluegrass intermixed with the bentgrass. As the Finally, we have seen a number of samples of annual pathogen will not infect Poa annua, these plants bluegrass with runner mycelium on the roots, stayed healthy while the bentgrass plants withered indicating that summer patch (Magnaporthe poae) is away. That led to a more mottled appearance of the gearing up for the summer. Dr. Brenda Nailor and necrotic tissue than would typically be seen on a Tim Steen wrote an informative article in the May pure bentgrass stand. Although the season for take- issue of Green is Beautiful on monitoring all patch is just about past, keep in mind that if the environmental conditions and keeping good IPM summer is as warm and dry as predicted, then many records to effectively combat this potentially of you whose root systems were weakened by devastating disease. Refer to that article if you have infection with G. graminis may be in for a very busy had problems with summer patch in the past or summer. In the meantime, here are some tips for worry that you may have issues with it this season. strengthening your roots: Keep an eye on your One thing to remember is that if you are applying thatch levels, and consider vertical mowing (on a fungicides to either prevent or cure a root disease, cool day) to remove some of that material. Also you must apply them in at least 5 gallons of water make sure your fertility is adequate, but avoid heavy per 1000 ft2, or you’ll need to water the product in before it dries on the leaves (about 2-4 mm of irrigation should get it down to the root zone). This is because with the exception of fosetyl-Al all systemic fungicides registered for turfgrass are xylem-mobile and as such only move upward in the plant. One of the keys to preventing major turf loss is being as observant as possible. Take a look at the surrounds of your greens as you mow each day to look for any signs of fungal activity and keep good records of precipitation and temperature. A hand lens is a must for any turf manager as you can see a number of fungal signs (e.g. acervuli with anthracnose) yourself with just a little magnification. And if you are in doubt and unable to diagnose a potential disease yourself, send a sample to a diagnostic lab that you are comfortable with. For updated information on the GTI diagnostic laboratory, pest activity throughout Ontario, or general management information, be sure to visit OMAFRA’s Turfgrass Management Agriphone each week at: http://apps.omafra.gov.on.ca/scripts/english/crops /agriphone/index.asp#Turfgrass Erica Gunn and I at the GTI Turfgrass Diagnostic Clinic wish you the best this summer and please feel PHOTO OF THE YEAR COMPETITION free to call us at the turf clinic if you have any Get your photos in now for this year’s Green is Beautiful questions regarding turfgrass diseases or other photo of the year competion. The criteria for awarding issues: 519-824-4120 x 58873. Should you have any the best photo is divided into five categories: golf course, questions about our lab or need instructions on projects, landscaping, wildlife, and finally, best overall. The how to submit a sample, please visit our website at: recipient's photo is judged by the Editorial Advisory http://www.uoguelph.ca/GTI/turf_diag/ committee. This photo was recently submitted by Bill Fach from Black Bear Ridge Golf Club. - New Course Construction - Course Renovations - Water Feature Development Authorized Dis tributor/lnstaller: Shaping fine golf courses since 1972 905-876-4096 www.wendover.on.ca Member profile Interview with Ryan Beauchamp by Jason Ireton Plant Products Ryan Beauchamp, started his career as a caddy at Summerlea Golf Club in file Perreault, Quebec. While still in his teens, his family moved to Southwestern Ontario, at which time he began working at the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club in Union, Ontario. Past OGSA president, Tom Unsworth, was the Union course superintendent at the time and when Tom retired, Rhod Trainor took over the St.Thomas course operations. As long as he can remember Ryan has loved the outdoors and felt he would have a better chance at earning an income grooming the course rather than playing it. “I was fortunate to apprentice under Rhod as his assistant, for a number of years. The biggest influence on my life and career have been Rhod Trainor and Dave Jarrett, past greens chairman, supporter of my profession, and friend. “ During his apprenticeship he found time to attend the University of Guelph and later continued his education at Fanshawe College School of Business. Following Rhod’s departure to Hamilton Golf & Country Club, Ryan was promoted to superintendent at St.Thomas. Like many superintendents, every morning you will find Ryan walking the course. He feels that his greatest accomplishment is evolving the St. Thomas Golf & Country Club into a top 100 golf course in Canada, and attributes part of his success to his “Type A” personality. He insists on organization, as it is the key to success. As a manager he maintains a good relationship with his staff, maximizing productivity by emphasizing teamwork and skill development, and supports an open door policy....communication is key. Ryan has many fond memories but recounts the time Moe Norman came to visit at St. Thomas Golf 8c Country Club, as he often did. He and Ryan had their picture taken on the 15th hole during a tour around the course. Regrettably, Moe died shortly thereafter. When asked what he does to get his mind off the course, he answered without hesitation ... boating. The Beauchamp’s favourite vacation place is Florida, where they have friends and visit in the winter. After 16 years as superintendent, the completion of a 10 year long range course improvement project, the host of three provincial championships and one national championship, the opportunity to take on Glen Abbey became an attractive challenge. Glen Abbey, agronomically, is very similar to St Thomas. After 25 years at the St Thomas Golf 8c Country Club, ClubLink’s Glen Abbey offers the opportunity to apply his business skills and turf knowledge necessary to manage the environmentally difficult areas of the Glen Abbey course. “I am looking forward to the challenges ahead and thank my wife and kids for their support to move to a new community at Glen Abbey. My wife Sarah is my greatest supporter. I know I am where I am today because of her continuous encouragement. My children are Adam 10 yr & Hannah 8yr, who constantly ask when Tiger and Mike are coming to play, Chantal 18yr and Keenan 15yr.” Ryan is a 20 year member of the OGSA. He emphasizes the importance of membership in our association and others, as it pools together all areas of the turf industry and allows you the opportunity to communicate. Education and support are a must in the turf business and the OGSA organizes and facilitates numerous educational and supportive components. In closing our interview, I asked Ryan what he felt were words to live by. “You can’t control mother nature...just fix her mistakes.” "In the Hot Seat" • Favourite Major? The British Open • Best piece of turf equipment ever? Remote Irrigation 8c Central Control • Favourite golf course designer? Stanley Thompson • Ultimate foursome...you and what three? Jack Nicklaus, Moe Norman, Alice Cooper • Lowest round ever and where? 71 at Stone Tree, Owen Sound • This year’s Stanley Cup pick? Carolina • Favourite movie? Monty Python’s Holy Grail • Favourite Meal? Chinese • Favourite course outside of Canada? Pebble Beach • What’s in your CD player right now? Pink Floyd, Division Bell • Rate your home lawn on a scale of one to ten (1 worst, 10 best). 2 - but has potential. Plan on calling “The WeedMan” • What would envision yourself doing if you weren’t working in the turf industry? “I can’t envision myself not in the turf industry, it’s who I am, and I am very content in my profession Golf course highlight Black Bear Ridge Golf Course 501 Harmony Road Belleville ON K8N 5J1 Golf Course Superintendent: Bill Fach Email: bill.fach@sympatico.ca Website: www.blackbearridge.ca What county is your club located in? Size & length of driving range and range tee: 6 Jake 1200 hauler carts Hastings County 2 ranges about 18 acres each, 300+ yards 2 Jake Cushman truckster long with over an acre of teeing area each 1 Toro Workman Is your club private, semi private, public, resort or 2 Jake 4800 commander utility carts municipal? How many bunkers? 30 3 EZGO golf carts Public 2 Ryan GA- 24 How many ponds, and/or how many times 1 Bannerman fairway slicer Number of Rounds? Just opened: May had 9,000 does water come into play? 1 Toro 300 gallon sprayer 7 ponds affecting 8 holes and 1 Ryan sod cutter Typical opening and closing date creek affecting 3 holes 1 Buffalo leaf blower 3rd week in April to November 1 1 TyCrop topdresser Who was the original architect? 1 John Deere tractor How many years have you been a Owner Brian Magee 1 Massey tractor superintendent? 1 Lely fertilizer spreader 28 years What was the year of original construction? 3 Pro Turffertilizers spreaders 2003 and 2004 1 Stihl hand blower How many years have you been an OGSA 3 Stihl chain saws member? What is the size of your maintenance shop? 3 Stihl weed trimmers 27 years Working out of an old barn and shed 1 dump trailer With total area of6,500 square feet 12 utility trailers Accomplishments: CGCS since 1986 1 portable welder/generator What type of irrigation system? 1 3-point hitch roto-tiller MS since 1996 Toro Osmac CGSA Board (8 years) 2 - Toro Transpro Greens Mower Trailers CGSA President (2002) 2 - Toro Transpro Adjustable Trailers What is the size of the greens, tees & OGSA Board (6 years) 1 - Turfco Pro Sod Cutter fairways? 1.7 hectares ofgreens 7 - MTD 3.5 Tecumseh pushmowers How many year round staff? 1.5 hectares of tees 2 - Toro Greenmaster 1600 1 11 hectares offairways 6 - Toro Greenmaster 21 1 - Express Dual Grinder How many seasonal staff? What is your predominant grass? 1 - Express Dual Bedknife Grinder 16 Poa Bent with Bent on greens, tees and Fairways (dominant extreme) How many mechanics and assistants? OTHER COURSE INFORMATION Assistant Gary Stadnek How many USGA greens and how many Mechanic Rick Putman loam greens? What projects have you recently completed? California greens 3 tee decks andjust finished landscaping How many gardening staff? around new Pro Shop 1 Lesa Stadnek What is the predominant soil type? 97% sand What long range plans for renovation do you have in the next five years? COURSE STATISTICS What equipment do you have in inventory? Building clubhouse, maintenance building 6 Toro 1000 walkers and teaching centre buildings. How many holes? 4 Jake flex walkers Adding 5 sand traps 18 regulation, opening June 20 short 9 course 2 Jake tee walkers 5 Jake greens king 5 Are there any particular challenges you face What is the yardage from back and forward tees? 1 Jake tri king with your property? Black 7154 yards 2 Jake 3400fairway mower Yes, it is a very stony property, problem Blue 6746yards 1 Jake ar3 rotary doing any coring on fairways until I can White 6324 yards 1 Jake ar5 rotary build up a sand base by topdressing. Red 5644 yards 1 Jake hr5111 rotary Green 5194 yards Do you have any success stories? 3 Workhorse utility carts Staying a superintendent for 28 years. Bunkers Fit For A King Weston Golf and Country Club’s 2005 Bunker Renovation by Justin Parsons, Assistant Superintendent Trafalgar Golf & Country Club photos by Magdalena Ciecierski he task of completely overhauling every single bunker central. The following year, Ackermann’s team replaced all on your golf course in just a handful of months seems the pipe from the feed to the green, complete with new daunting enough. Consider that the construction is to begin isolation valves and independent head control. The club also amongst recovery from severe damage suffered from the improved its watering abilities by upgrading and adding heads devastating spring we had last year. While you are at it, throw for both greens and surrounds. in the fact that the project has to be completed on time since one of the most revered golfers the game has ever seen is coming to play in the biggest event your club has ever hosted. If you can wrap your head around all this, you can begin to understand what the Weston turf team, headed by Superintendent Rob Ackermann, faced last season. The flexibility that these changes provided the club was essential for Ackermann. Having no perimeter water led to an overall decline in the quality of turf for all of their green sites. Not only had bunker faces dried out, but annual bluegrass had infested surround areas causing perpetual issues with poor lies. The other consideration is being able to Bunkers, like any other area on a golf course, are not control the way your bunkers play on a daily basis without immune to the changes that time inflicts on a piece of land. affecting the green itself. As Ackermann says, “you need water At Weston, the shape had been lost, the depth had been to maintain firmness; I don’t care what kind of sand you have”. compromised and over-aggressive edging had left them feeble and in desperate need of an overhaul. The plan to address the bunkers had been in place before Ackermann took over as superintendent in 2002. But the focus and spirit of the project shifted once Ackermann realized what he was dealing with. To call this simply a bunker renovation is a serious misread of the size and scale of the project. After all, if you are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars upgrading your golf course, you had better make sure you have the infrastructure to maintain the integrity of those upgrades. Ackermann calls this, “looking after the investment”. For the club, this meant a significant irrigation system upgrade. As a result, this project actually started three years prior to With the infrastructure in place, Ackermann and his team the 2005 season with the club upgrading their satellites and of Carrick Design and Turf Drain International were ready to move forward with the renovation. The next step was gave me confidence. I was rock solid on the budget because removing the old material and digging into the ground the numbers were mine.” Ackermann stresses the value of further to recapture the character these bunkers had lost over being able to trust the numbers. “Ultimately, this is important the past 90 years. This stage of the construction turned out to because the superintendent holds final responsibility and be a bit of a surprise. Getting rid of the old material was a accountability”. huge expense and one that Ackermann reminds other Having confidence was critical for Ackermann who was on superintendents not to underestimate. a strict deadline. Construction had to be finished by Ackermann admits he would have liked to have removed even more material. “I wish we had dug deeper because you would not believe how the sand and sod soften the look of everything”. Nevertheless, once the depth was achieved, the shape of the bunkers was roughed in, topsoil was added, and the edges were hand-tamped. Drainage was also installed, with one main line of socked tile in a 12 by 14 inch trench, running down the center of each bunker with an outlet to an appropriate location. In some cases, this meant trenching hundreds of feet or more. In total, 15,000 ft. of drain tile was used. The next stage was painting lines and cutting out material to give them their character. The classic, Hugh Wilson designed, Merion Golf Club, in Pennsylvania was a source of September 10th, because the following day Arnold Palmer was inspiration. Ackermann calls it the “knuckle look”, where a to return to the site of his first ever PGA Tour win. In 1955, series of triangles, squares and rectangles are cut into the he won the Canadian Open at Weston and the club was edges with the grass folding over into the bunker. All the celebrating the 50th anniversary of his victory with an event while a smooth ridgeline runs across the face of the surround called “The Return of the King”. In many respects, this was providing an engaging contrast as one approaches the green the driving force behind the entire project. from the fairway. This classic look is enhanced by the shaggy With all eyes on the golf course, Ackermann and his crew height of cut around the capes and bays of the bunkers which wanted the place to be shining. A three year renovation is achieved by using a flymow with a ring on the bottom. project was indeed complete and ready for the 62 time tour champion. Well, almost. Ackermann chuckles as he admits that three truck loads of sod had not actually rooted in time for Palmers arrival. But the King, none the wiser, was impressed. When the pro at Weston, Herb Holzscheiter, asked him what he thought of the changes, he simply said, “I like what they’ve done”. Ackermann is quick to share the praise with the many people involved in the project. “A renovation like this couldn’t happen without great people - everyone on my team has HUGE shoulders!”. He believes that having a committed board is crucial to the success of any major project. Indeed, he has high praise for the other two members of the club committee which oversaw the project, Holzscheiter and the Ackermann and the design team of Doug Carrick and Ian Greens Chairman Leo DiMarco. Andrew had a few goals in mind when recreating the look. His maintenance staff also played a huge role in the “We wanted to be sympathetic to the original design, but efficiency and success of the construction. Whether it was bring back the aesthetic appeal. The concept was a parkland cutting through old 8 inch steel pipe, adding sand, hand­ course with smooth lines.” The end result is a boldness and watering, or the countless hours hand-digging their locates, sense of intimidation that is restored to the green site. Indeed his staff was right behind him every step of the way. Perhaps the strong ridgelines not only help define the green but they one of Ackermann’s staff put it best when he modestly said, also, in some instances, hide the green, which helps taunt a “for every grain of sand there’s a bead of sweat behind it”. golfer’s sense of depth. The last step was adding angular sand; 1600 tons to be exact. Once the bunkers were complete, the surrounds were stripped, prepped and sodded. From there, it was a matter of keeping the sod wet until establishment. Ackermann is quick to point out that keeping 600,000 sq. ft of sod wet is no easy task, especially considering how hot last summer was. Ackermann strongly believes in preparation. He says that estimating is one of the biggest keys to success. Rather than relying solely on the contractor or architect, Ackermann feels it is crucial that a superintendent do his own homework. He went to every bunker, including the surrounding construction site area and worked out the numbers himself. He even drove to London to investigate the sock for the drainage tile. “This 2006 CAN-AM CHALLENGE by Chris Andrejicka OGSA Director of Golf Events The 2006 CAN/AM contingency. Canadians in the red hats and the Americans in the blue hats The 24th annual Can-Am Challenge took place on reigning champs from 2005, and they were able to retain American soil at Westwynd Golf Club in Rochester Hills, the “Cup” for another year. Michigan. It was a beautiful day as temperatures reached Chris Andrejicka, of Essex Golf & Country Club, was the 70-degree mark. The wind was up a little which did proud of his Canadian teammates and stated: “I could not affect the playing capabilities of numerous be prouder of how our team performed in this situation. superintendents, yet Fritz McMullen of Forest Lake The competition is and has been intense between our Country Club shot a low gross score of 77. Darren countries and next year with this same effort and O’Reilly of Oakland University posted a net score of 70 to competing on our own soil I feel we can win the “Cup”. lead the field of stiff competitors. Mike Jones of Lochmoor Club said of his American The “Cup” Competition was fierce. There were a total superintendents: “We (Americans 8c Canadians) look of 15, 2-man best ball matches. The Canadians battled the forward to this competition each spring. The Canadians partisan American fan base and came as close as possible came to play this year and could have easily walked away since 1993 to win the cup back, but instead they came away with the trophy that we have had for awhile. We will be with a 7.5 to 7.5 point match split. With the Americans as ready to defend our title in 2007.” A beautiful spring day at Westwynd The Can-Am “experience”, competing for your local association and your country as well There were a number of awards available to those participants that could display their talents on the golf course. Closest to the Pin #4 Darren O’Reilly USA Oakland University Closest to the Pin #13 Jerry McVety USA Davey Golf/Oakhurst Longest Drive #3 Kelly Barnet CAN Fox Glen Golf Club Longest Drive #14 Aaron McMaster USA Orchard Lake C.C. Four Competitors out performed others on the following holes in order to win skins, they were: #1 Birdie 3 Kelly Barnet CAN Fox Glen Golf Club #3 Birdie 4 Greg Anderson CAN Podolinsky Equipment #6 Birdie 2 Wayne Rath CAN Magna Golf Club #14 Eagle 3 Paul Brown CAN Sarnia Golf & Curling Club We want to give thanks to our fine hosts at Westwynd. Darron Crouse, Superintendent, and his staff had the course in tournament condition for this group of professionals. Their efforts and those of the pro shop and food services were greatly appreciated. Thank you again for hosting this great event. If you have not played in this event you should. Hopefully we will see you next year in Canada.! TURF CARE Introducing the 835S and 855S Series Sprinkler with TruJectory™. You know that bunker that’s always getting wet? Or that tree branch that’s always in the way? Now you can address trouble spots with TruJectory, exclusively from Toro. Simply adjust the trajectory of the spray from 7 to 30 degrees and get better head-to-head coverage. Plus there’s part- and full-circle operation in one sprinkler. Add these new features to the great ones already standard on the 800S Series sprinklers and you’ll gain the flexibility you need for better results. And you’ll get it all for the same value as your current part-circle fixed trajectory sprinklers. For more information, contact one of our sales representatives at Turf Care or go online to www.turfcare.ca. Out of the bunker and under the trees, to water the turf we go. Turf Care Products Canada 200 PONY DRIVE, NEWMARKET, ONTARIO L3Y 7B6 • PHONE (905) 836-0988 • FAX (905) 836-6442 London Mississauga Scarborough Gloucester Ph: (519) 668-7664 Ph: (905) 890-6290 Ph: (416) 298-2101 Ph: (613) 822-1881 Fax: (519) 668-3722 Fax: (905) 890-5598 Fax: (416) 298-8758 Fax: (613) 822-2099 PRO/SUPER CHALLENGE by Chris Andrejicka OGSA Director of Golf Events photo courtesy of the Weston greens crew The 2006 Pro/Super Challenge held at Weston Golf and Country Club was a huge success. Sixty two teams survived the oppressive heat and humidity for a enjoyable day. Golf course conditions were superb. Host Rob Ackermann should be congratulated for providing a fair but challenging playing experience. Head Pro, Herb Holzscheiter was a gracious host and his staff did a wonderful job. The heat didn’t seem to have any affect on this year’s champions from Parry Sound Golf Club , Superintendent, Jeff Alexander and Golf Professional, Scott Cowx. Congratulations to both for a great round. The standings L-R Parry Sound Winning Team Superintendent Jeff Alexander & Golf were as follows: Professional Scott Cowx With Chris Andrejicka, OGSA Director 1st Jeff Alexander/Scott Cowx Parry Sound 2nd Darrren Little/Mike Moniz Cedar Brae 3rd Mark Prieur/Frazer McIntyre Trafalgar 4th Chris Dew/Keir Smith The National 5th Neil Acton/Frank Campanelli Deer Creek Closest to the pin — Owen Russell (super) Doug Lawrie (pro) Longest Drive — Thom Charters (super) Chris Jones (pro) There were no skins awarded and the tournament committee decided to have a team blind draw to distribute the purse. Many thanks to Dorothy Hills and the office staff for all their efforts in making the Pro/Super challenge a great success. instant gratification Only Grigg Brothers Foliars promise TRU Foliar™ Technology for better absorption, for truer greens - faster. TRU Foliar™ Technology is a unique and superior foliar nutrition system found only in Grigg Brothers foliar fertilizers. We have been dedicated to the research and understanding of natural nutrient chelations, uptake, absorption, and translocation processes. The resulting products hold nutrients in their proper ionic form for optimal plant utilization. Rely on Grigg Bros TRU Foliar™ Technology for safe, and timely results every application. Make foliar feeding part of your total IPM program. www.griggbros.com 1-800-461-6471 www.nu-gro.com Distributed by Nu-Gro Corporation, 10 Craig Street, Brantford, ON N3R 7J1 Grigg Bros. is a registered trademark. THE FRAZ by John Bladon, Nu-Gro Ltd. Canadian golf and golfers lost a great friend and supporter in 2000 when the Toronto Star’s veteran golf writer Rick Fraser, known to the golfing community as “The Fraz” passed away. To perpetuate his memory, the Greater Toronto Area Golf Association has named it’s annual Media Day, which promotes the Toronto Star Amateur and the Toronto Star Women’s Amateur, in Rick’s honour. This year’s event was held at the beautiful Scarboro Golf and Country Club and L-R Jarrod Barakett, Randy Booker, Glenn “Goodie” Goodwin and host Superintendent, Keith Rasmus, presented us with a Chris Nelson superbly conditioned product. The day, organized by Glenn “Goodie” Goodwin of the Star, salutes the sports January, by outgoing President Paul Scenna, as a lifetime journalists who have helped make the Greater Toronto honorary member of the OGSA. Glenn was unable to Area the number one golf market in North America. attend the conference for health reasons and so OGSA Glenn has been a long and ardent supporter of the director, Randy Booker, took a moment at the OGSA and our continued inclusion in this event allows us microphone during the ceremonies to recognize Glenn’s the opportunity to communicate with the top writers and new designation within the OGSA in the presence of his broadcasters from the golf and sporting community. media peers. The applause was thunderous! Often we talk amongst ourselves and our industry about Some of the representation at the 6th annual “Fraz” our successes, however, this event represents a significant Media Day included; The Toronto Star, The Toronto Sun, opportunity to see some of those stories reach beyond and The National Post, The Hamilton Spectator, The potentially facilitate a greater understanding of our Peterborough Examiner, The Barrie Examiner, The KW profession. To that end, Glenn was recognized at the Record, Ontario Golf, Fairways Magazine, CITY-TV, recent Ontario Golf Course Management Conference in Rogers Sportsnet, Global Sports, TSN and CBC. - Optimizes uniform soil moisture - soil is not too wet or dry - Better turf survival during drought conditions and summer stress periods - Controls soil water repellency, the cause of localized dry spots - Convenient spreadable formulation When You Expect Nothing But The Best Canada s Leading Surfactant 1273 Imperial Way • Paulsboro, NJ 08066 U.S.A. • 1 -800-257-7797 • www.aquatrols.com THE ROSSI TAPES TRANSCRIBED by Tom Brain, Assistant Superintendent Burlington Golf & Country Club In January 2006, I had the opportunity to attend the Turf I teach four classes here at the University in turf. That’s how I Management Short Course at Cornell University. got here. Unquestionably, one of the appeals of attending the course was the chance to learn from Dr. Frank Rossi, one of the most GisB: Are you more interested in teaching, research or consulting? highly regarded and more controversial turf researchers in North America. During that time, I had a chance to sit down FR: I would have to say if I had to rank each of those things, my and talk with Dr. Rossi about his history, his research and life in favourite would be doing research. I love doing research. We general. have a very active applied research program because of my time as a superintendent. I would sit at meetings, watch professors GisB: Could you share a little history with us and elaborate on how you talk about their work and would say to myself why did he do arrived where you are now? that? He mows at 3/16”, four days a week and he calls that putting green research??? That’s not how we mow our putting FR: Sure. I grew up in metropolitan New York City and started greens. I really got a passion early on to do practical problem pushing a lawn mower when I was a kid. Although we didn’t solving research. I wanted it to be meaningful to the have a lot of grass where I grew up, I immediately became superintendent. So far and away, I think that’s my favourite enamored with it and how it grew. When I was 13-14 years old thing to do. My next thing is teaching of any kind. Teaching I gravitated to landscaping crews and worked on a couple of adults, we call it extension, the turf short course is extension different ones. The owner of one was a member at Westchester work. Consulting for us is a private enterprise. I like teaching Country Club and as he was going out of business, suggested and it is fascinating teaching adults! It’s a totally different that I contemplate golf course work. I was very young at the animal than teaching young students. You have to wade time and the thought had never crossed my mind. Anyway, he through all the misinformation that adults have received over ended up getting me a job there. It turned out to be my time and try to get a good piece of information in there. With haven!!! I took the train up to the golf course and worked every younger students they soak it up like a sponge. By nature, being day from 6 to 3. I would work on the course during the day, go attracted to this business, I’m a problem solver and like to home for a few hours and then come back and park cars in the believe that I think like a lot of superintendents. This is one of evening then patrol the course for vandals at night. Coming the common threads between us...we like to solve problems. from the city, and not being a golfer, I was awed by the open We see problems and tend to be very imaginative in the way green space. Anyway, I continued to work on courses through they get solved. I do some private consulting as well. I consulted high school. While in high school I was directed to a junior on the reconstruction of Yankee Stadium, on Lambeau Field college here in New York and I thought I’d complete a two-year for the Green Bay Packers, a lot of golf course construction stuff degree and become a golf course superintendent. Back in the and Audubon stuff. I have done a lot of natural resource early eighties it wasn’t like it is today, you got a two-year degree, management plans working with Audubon International for worked as an assistant for a couple of years and you got a job. environmentally compatible golf courses. In the end though, There were jobs everywhere. I went to school for two years then research is my favourite thing. my adviser, Bob Edmonds, encouraged me to get a four-year degree and I went on to the University of Rhode Island. During GisB: What really interesting research are you doing now ? that time, I was an intern at different golf courses in the northeast. I finished my Bachelors degree and became an FR: Hmmm. I would say what’s interesting to me, well, what assistant superintendent at the Greenwich Country Club in interests me most is the real basic work that I am doing with my Connecticut. I worked there for a little over two years but grad students that you don’t hear a lot about. We just finished became disillusioned. I didn’t like the superintendent. I didn’t a four-year research project on potassium fertilization of sand think he was very professional. So I began to wonder about based greens and looking at soil testing methodology as a other avenues. I had a lot of respect for Jim Snow at the time means to determine potassium needs as well as plant responses. who was a regional agronomist with the USGA and I remember Far and away the biggest thing we learned is that we know less thinking how great his job was. Of course, I wouldn’t have to today than we did before we started this research because we put up with golfers and those kinds of things! I went on to ended up disproving a lot of things that the industry accepted graduate school at the University of Rhode Island and got my as fact prior to the work having begun. I think we’ve done some Masters. When I graduated, there were no jobs at the USGA great work on getting people to rethink soil-testing and I really didn’t know what I was going to do. Ironically, I had methodology and particularly, potassium fertilization. I think a job offered to me in the Napa Valley, Sonoma County to be a we’ve really kind of turned that on its head. One of the reasons grape extension specialist and a professor here at Cornell saw we keep applying potassium is because of the current soil me speak at a meeting and asked if I would be interested in testing methodology, which is flawed. It’s always saying we need getting my Ph. D to which I promptly told him no. He bugged it and yet we never measure response from adding it. That’s the me and bugged me about it and being as I didn’t feel like I had most interesting to me but, I think the most interesting to the anything better to do, came here, and did my Ph. D. from 1988 industry, is our project where we have been evaluating to 1990. For two years, I was on the faculty at Michigan State biostimulants, organic and microbial products for their then took a tenure job in Madison Wisconsin which lasted for performance relative to standard management practices. We four years before I came to Cornell in 1996. I have been doing have found that they are great products, but they don’t seem to extension and research here for the last decade and more perform very differently from ammonium sulphate, recently, since I have been tenured here, have started teaching. monammonium phosophate, potassium sulphate and iron. So we are not seeing, what we believe, to be a huge benefit from Canada, I don’t come up there saying “We do it in the states this using a lot of these products over standard grade fertilizer way and that’s the way you should do it.” I think there are a lot mixed with water. of good ways to do things we end up doing them a specific way I think the other exciting work we’ve been doing is this mower just because we have more money half the time. I suppose the study we started a few years ago. We have been evaluating the other reason is a lot of our research has been focused on different walk behind greens mowers available from the reducing pesticide use and the European Union is deeply different manufacturers with various fixed and floating cutting concerned about pesticide use. They are banning pesticides heads. We found that when we released some of the data about throughout Scandinavia and so were really fascinated by our how the different company’s mowing products performed, Bethpage research project. That project has gotten a lot more there was some controversy about it. The first year we had a interest outside of the country than it has gotten in the United really wet year and so it biased really heavy fixed head mowers States. So those are the biggest reasons. They really are like the Toro 1000. They were devastating to the putting green. interested in having nice looking golf courses but will never Of course research cannot account for the human spend the money we spend here. They really want to be smart element.. .would a good superintendent have adjusted the about the way they do it and they don’t really have a university mowing height up so they weren’t getting that injury? My education program for turfgrass managers or superintendents. answer would be yes but the fact is that initially many superintendents don’t make that adjustment on soft greens and GisB: Do you think we will be using chemical pesticides in ten years all you have to do is scalp once or twice and you get anthracnose time? And if so what do you think we will be using? like crazy. With that particular mower, there is very little margin for error. We have looked a lot at the discrepancies between FR: For sure, I think we will still be using chemical pesticides. I bench height and field height, in other words to mow at 1/10th think they will be very different though and we are already of an inch in the field we have got to set the Toro 1000 to seeing that evolution to the new products now. In the US we 137/1000 of an inch. So it is about 40/1000 on an inch have a product called Emerald from the BASF Company. It’s discrepancy between the bench and the field. That was another almost primarily a dollar spot product used at about 5 grams to eye opening thing. Once we start talking about this mowing the acre. I think we will migrate to very target specific materials work, superintendents got really excited. It’s funny it is like that, no more broad spectrum products. I think they are something so fundamental.. .think about anything you do more going to be short lasting, much more biodegradable and more than mowing...maybe watering... I doubt it...you mow every often than not, like Emerald and Heritage, are going to be day. My interaction with these mowing companies has told me naturally derived from some other biological process. I think at that they haven’t been doing research in the mowing area the same time what we are going to see is a shift to more probably for twenty years. I think all the innovations are integrated management where these biologicals and microbial coming from the superintendent talking to the equipment guy. products start getting used in an integrated fashion recognizing The reel mower hasn’t changed in 175 years. What we are doing they are not going to give 100% control all year long. I think is bringing an evaluation technique, a scientific evaluation the future of pesticide use is going to be extremely low technique to evaluating how mowers perform. I thought it was application rates but with an integrated approach using something they were already doing but it turns out not. Those biologicals. Here’s the bottom line. Golfer expectations are not are the three projects we’ve been working on that have been going down. I don’t believe it is a viable strategy to effectively very exciting for us. try to ratchet down what golfers expect. We’ve screwed ourselves in delivering what we do and I don’t think we are GisB: You mentioned you are taking a sabbatical and going to Sweden. going to turn it back. Why Sweden and what are you going there to do ? GisB: On a more personal note, what is most important away from FR: I got invited to speak in Sweden in September 2004 and I turfgrass? Do you have any hobbies? had a wonderful trip. I visited with the agronomists, with the people and toured the country. I was eligible for a sabbatical Oh yeah. My biggest hobby is my 3 kids. I have a teenager, a here at Cornell and I basically had such a good time there, such sophomore at the University of Utah, a 10 year old daughter in good interaction, that I floated the idea past the national the fifth grade and my son is five. He is in nursery school and director of their operations division. I asked if they would ever is going to start kindergarten next year. So I would say my consider hosting me for a few months to work with the biggest outside of work hobby is family. Then with each of them university people, their agronomists, travel around and man, I I have hobbies. My teenage daughter and I have always traveled hadn’t pushed the send button on an e-mail and two seconds a lot together. I do like to travel. It is one of my passions but I later he was all over me to do it. So they were very receptive and don’t like to travel for work. My middle daughter, our hobby is it was a timing thing. It looked like I might go work in England the theatre, dance and music. So, we download music together; with a soil testing company or end up in New Zealand but the go to see plays and musicals. She studies acting and dance. best option ended up working with the Swedish golf federation. With my son, the latest hobby is model rocketry. He has always I’ll be providing seminars, traveling with agronomists, meeting been fascinated with space so we go to this hobby shop in town with golfers to get them excited about turfgrass research and get these model rockets. They come with these little because the Swedish golf federation are now doling out a charges like tiny motors but they are actually gun powder. We million dollars a year for turfgrass research coming directly have built five since we bought our first, which, was pre­ from the golfer. I’m going to help them kick this campaign, this assembled. We’ve slowly graduated up and just built a two stage new funding initiative off by traveling around talking about rocket that is two feet high with two motors in it. We launched research, interacting with the agronomists. There were two a bunch off at Christmas time so I do that with him. For me, I reasons they were really fond of me, #1 as you guys know in am an occasional trail runner, cross country skier, golfer but my latest hobby inside has been transferring all our old analog THE ROSSI TAPES TRANSCRIBED continued... family video to digital tape and dumping it into my computer. I have been making DVDs for the family of the last fifteen years of our lives and that consumes a lot of time. It’s been great fun doing it. GisB: Do you have a favourite golf course? FR: I ’m not an avid golfer, so I would have to qualify any answer. Let me say this, far and away the most spectacular golf course I have ever been on is Bandon Dunes in Oregon. I would say for me, an every day, kind of play around course. I actually really like our Cornell golf course. It is a fun little place to play because you can take chances. You can rip the ball and not get into too much trouble. GisB: Hockey orfootball? FR: I’ m a baseball guy!! I grew up in New York in the shadows of Yankee stadium so I’m a die-hard New York Yankees fan! • Flexible Application Timing • 3 Types of Surfactants Although I followed the Giants and the Jets being from the city, - Soil Penetrant I didn’t take on a passion for watching American football until • Easy to Use we lived in Wisconsin and I got to go to Lambeau and watch a - Wetting/Spreading Agent • Safe on Turfgrass game. You’ve got this football team in this rural market, like and Soil Microbes - Re-wetting Agent 70,000 people live in this town, and it’s just a real passion so I have become a big Green Bay Packer fan. About hockey, let me say this, I don’t think there is a better sport to watch live than 3 in 1 Combination = RESPOND2 SUCCESS hockey. It just doesn’t translate to TV very well. I can’t see the Available from your local UAP distributor damn puck. or call UAP Canada 1-800-265-5444 www.uap.ca On the REEL side of things by Mike Slack Slack Reel Service Backlapping-ls it a lost art? ere is a maintenance term that we don’t hear a lot about as possible, even a touch on the snug side. Proceed with starting the anymore. Has backlapping become a lost art? Likely one of the best lapper and begin by having the bedknife facing toward us, or, our tools we have at our disposal throughout the reel grinding cycle, and reel standing on its back. By doing this, we can read what the reel it may not be used to its full potential. Why? edge is doing and identify problem spots on the cutting unit. To Arguably, the most significant reason backlapping has fallen out expand, once we start with a liberal amount of compound, the of favour is the choice to spin grind versus relief grind. A spun lapping compound will begin to ‘spill’ over the problem areas of our ground reel lacks leading edge surface area, which is the key bedknife. The compound is allowed to pass, unobstructed, through provision if backlapping is going to be considered in an equipment the gap between our reel and bedknife. From there, concentrate the management regime. Secondly, it may not be a consideration compound on the good areas as we need to lap, or, wear down to the because of lack of knowledge. Perhaps a few points will re-open this bad areas. If gaining an edge is a challenge, start at the beginning lost art as a potential tool. and repeat all steps again. Firstly, we need to be doing some sort of relief grinding to be Perhaps backlapping deserves our consideration. With all the successful with our lapping. Secondly, we need to choose the newer mowing equipment in the marketplace today coming with appropriate backlapping compound grit sizes. There are a number backlapping option, more maintenance operations ought to be of compounds available ranging from 50, 80, 120 to 180 grit. contemplating it to save the precious time required to sharpen. In Generally 120 and 80 are all any golf course maintenance operation the end, it will not replace our sharpening, but I believe it plays an needs. When selecting the appropriate compound, we must invaluable role in our daily maintenance routines. establish where the reel & bedknife wear pattern are. They may just need a light touch up and so a 120 grit compound is appropriate. A Mike will be happy to answer any of your questions, on a regular heavier lapping would require the 80 grit compound. A sound rule weekly basis, through the OGSA web site forum, “Turf Talk”. To of thumb is as follows; if you are lapping a greens mower reel and the post a question or comment go to the Members Only Section of landing edge of the reel is one-third or less of the blade width, then www.golfsupers.on.ca click on “Turf Talk” and start a new thread or usually 120 grit compound will suffice. Should your reel land be click on an existing thread. If you have a problem using “Turf Talk” greater than one-third, then we ought to begin with the 80 grit first call the OGSA office at 877-824-6472 or 519-767-3341 and they will and finish with 120. Prior to starting, set the reel to bedknife as best assist you. THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF RISK by Steve Gomme Technical Representative - Turf Products ENGAGE Agro Corporation In recent years, the debate over the use of pesticides The Dose makes the Poison has grown dramatically within the Greater Toronto Area Measuring the toxicity of a compound becomes very and other parts of Canada. Anyone associated with important when trying to determine the level of risk that compound presents to the public or environment. agriculture or turf maintenance has endured public or However, this measurement only takes into consideration political pressure about the use of pesticides, most notably half of the equation. the “cosmetic” use of pesticides. When golf course superintendents are with the public or speaking with Risk is defined as: members, questions often arise about pesticide use on the golf course. Of course, this question comes only after the usual “what do you do in the winter?” question! RISK = HAZARD x EXPOSURE Superintendents may feel like our industry is under a Toxicity tests only determine the hazard a compound microscope due to comments, questions and actions by presents to an organism. The model does not take into concerned citizens, environmentalists, health officials consideration the “exposure” to these chemicals. Without and/or municipal political figures with respect to the exposure, there is no risk. An analogy that could be pesticide use on the golf course. Decisions made by used is if you never drive or are driven in a car, you will superintendents to use pesticides as well as the acceptance never have a car accident. of new technologies are often coloured by public There are several important factors to consider when evaluating the risk a compound may have on an organism perceptions (Stephenson, et. al., 2000), which is an or the environment. These factors include: important factor as everyone has differing opinions on what presents a “risk” to humans and the environment. • Workers who make the product (the chemists, engineers or manufacturers who may be exposed to the active LD50 ingredient during the formulation and manufacturing People are exposed to different chemicals and toxins of a compound). everyday, and some are known carcinogens and mutagens. • People who use the product (the golf course spray New technology and equipment can detect very small technicians, agricultural spray technicians or the applicator for a lawn care company who may be exposed concentrations of chemicals in our bodies and even in the to the active ingredient during mixing). environment. Toxicity is measured in terms of the • Bystanders (golfers, home owners, pets, children, etc.) amount of the compound per body weight (usually in • Consumers of the food or product (the general public, mg/kg) while considering that there will be variation in animals or pets). the reaction of the organisms in the test group. Thus, the • Environment (water tables, wells, rivers, streams, lakes, LD50 is the dose that is lethal to 50% of a test population. non-target organisms, soil). Essentially, the LD50 indicates the potential hazard of the • Route, manner or duration of exposure (inhalation, oral, product. dermal, chronic or acute). Putting the Risk into Perspective The following is a list of commonly used products from Although most superintendents and industry the most acutely toxic to the least acutely toxic, rated by representatives understand the toxicity levels of pesticides their LD50 values: and the inherent risks associated with using them, relaying 1. Vitamin D this information is often difficult, and at times is not 2. Acetaminophen in Tylenol perceived well or understood when speaking with the 3. Caffeine in coffee general public. The issue of pesticide use has become emotional, and therefore, discussion about the science of 4. Cream of Tartar food ingredient pesticide use does not alleviate the concerns (Kenna, 5. Comet disinfecting cleaner 1995). An excellent article can be found on the USGA 6. Diazinon insecticide website (www.usga.org) titled “What’s Worth Worrying 7. Table Salt About in Life?” The article describes a model designed by 8. Killex herbicide (2, 4-D, mecoprop, dicamba) Dr. John Paling entitled The Paling Perspective Scales. THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF RISK continued... These scales measure the relative risks in an easily with familiar risks (falling down the stairs at home). understood form, yet uses sound risk assessment practices. Understanding - a person tends to be more concerned The ’bottom line’ is that we should not stop living our lives about poorly understood activities like exposure to X-rays because we encounter risks, rather we should use this or power lines vs. something well understood (slipping on model to simplify and measure the risks we face in life. ice). The most hazardous activities that pose a risk to life expectancy are listed below: Scientific Uncertainty - if it is better understood then people are less concerned (recombinant DNA vs. car 1. Smoking crashes). 2. Alcoholic beverages Controllability - risks under personal control (pesticides on 3. Motor vehicles food vs. riding a bike with no helmet). 4. Handguns 5. Electricity Voluntariness of exposure (very similar to above) - Imposed 6. Motorcycles risks vs. voluntarily accepted so that you can accept the 7. Swimming outcome of the risk. 8. Surgery 9. X-rays Impact on Children - people are more protective of 10. Railroads children because they believe the risk to be different to a 11 .General aviation child. A woman will drink alcohol, coffee and smoke until 12. Large construction she knows she is pregnant. 13. Bicycles Institutional Trust - Examples of misrepresented or faulty 14. Hunting products in recent history have led the public to question 15. Home appliances the experts, scientists, large corporations and the 16. Contraceptives government. 17. Commercial aviation 18. Nuclear power Media attention - Often new, interesting developments 19. Vaccinations make the news. People will hear about an incident over 20. Food preservatives and over, and that will skew how they perceive the risk. 21. Pesticides For example, we saw coverage on 13 kids in Columbine 22. Prescription antibiotics High School who died when a fellow student shot and killed them. However, every day guns kill 10-12 US The perception of risk will vary with the level of children (aged 0-9). The media has a tendency to take the expertise or knowledge of the activity (Slovic, 1980). facts out of context. Although knowledge plays a critical role in how a person Accident History - The probability of a certain kind of views what presents a risk to their well being, another accident happening and your personal knowledge of the aspect that cannot be forgotten is their controllability of a frequency of an accident. The person may think “It has situation (Morgan, 1993). An example of this would be never happened before, so it probably won’t happen now” aspirin vs. pesticides. People have more control over their or “it is bound to happen sooner or later”. exposure to aspirin than they may be exposed to a herbicide in a park; therefore, the aspirin is perceived as Clarity of Benefits - Pesticide use is okay if it is to keep a being less risky, because they have control over the cockroach out of your kitchen or control malaria in medication. Africa, but they are not okay to control a weed on a perfect The following is a list of what influences the general lawn. You personally interpret the benefits, and there is a public on their perception of risk: lot of room for interpretation. Reversibility - Can we fix it? Ozone depletion is very slowly Catastrophic - fatalities and injuries that are grouped in reversed, so we are less likely to want to take the risk of time and space. E.g. Approx. 2800 people died on Sept. harming our ozone layer. 11, 2001; in 2002 in Canada, 5400 women will die from breast cancer. How does that make you feel? What are Dread - will you die from it or just get sick? People are you more afraid of? more afraid of things that are likely to kill us. Familiarity - this influence is inversely proportional in that one tends to be more concerned about something they The issue of pesticide use and public perception on are unfamiliar with (ozone depletion) than something the use of pesticides is a persistent and controversial topic. This topic has become an emotional one; however, to minimize and control the environmental impact from another issue relates to the lack of information and pesticide use on golf courses. education disseminated to the public on how these References products are being used and ultimately their inherent risk. At this time, risk of using pesticides is based on a personal Kenna, M. P. 1995. What’s Worth Worrying About in Life., perception, which creates an emotional climate not based USGA Green Section, Vol. 33(4): 10-12. in science and education making mitigation of any Slovic, P. 1980. Societal Risk Assessment, P. 181-216, In: R. potential misconception difficult. It is imperative that we, Schuring and W.A. Albors, Jr. (Eds), How Safe is as stewards of the industry, provide the public with sound Safe Enough? Plenum Press, New York. information about the exposure and hazards of chemicals used on the golf course. A continued focus on the IPM Stephenson, G. R., K. R. Solomon, R. Frank, T. Hsiang, accreditation program and the involvement of the OGSA and D. G. Thompson. 2000. Pesticides and the and CGSA in public forums will also help in creating trust Environment. p. 1-1 - 1-9. Department of and will facilitate education on the risks of using Environmental Biology, University of Guelph, pesticides. Sharing with our communities that the role of Guelph, Ontario. the superintendent is to not only maintain healthy turf for players of the game, but to be an environmental steward, This article makes reference to the presentation entitled “The one that is devoted to protecting the safety of workers, Perception of Risk” by Dr. Brenda Nailor, Research, Development players and visitors on the golf course is key. It is the and Registration Manager, Engage Agro. responsibility of each superintendent to effectively communicate risk to members and/or the general public, Steve Gomme is the turf technical representative for Eastern identify what is perceived as a risk, and to continually Ontario for Engage Agro. He can be reached at reiterate that the golf industry does everything in its power stevegomme@engageagro. com. 330 Phillip St. Phone 519-886-0557 Waterloo, Ontario Fax 519-886-0605 N2J 3Z6 Toll Free 1-800-465-5849 www.oscturf.com Our product is GROWING Check us out! 110 Years of Continued Service . . . our strength is SERVICE Dave Schmelefske - Central Region 519-897-4423 turf@bell.blackberry.net Trevor Hunter - Niagara Region 519-897-8873 thunter@bell.blackberry.net Kent McDonald - Southwestern Region 519-870-6724 kent@bell.blackberry.net Kenny Graham - Greater Toronto 416-570-7333 kennyg@bell.blackberry.net Victor Freiberg - Eastern Ontario 416-200-3029 victorf@bell.blackberry.net Turf Seed, HAMILTON SOD COMPACT SOD MOUNT HOPE CAMBRIDGE Fungicides, Insecticides, 905-389-1315 519-653-7494 Herbicides, ONTARIO SOD OAKVINIAG ARA SOD LLE HALTON SOD Bayco Golf, ST. CATHARINES MILTON 905-849-1764 905-984-8448 905-878-1011 Umaxx Fertilizer, Wetting Agents. SENATOR WSB SYSTEMIC FUNGICIDE EASY TO USE Water Soluable Bags Quick dissolving package makes mixing, measuring & loading a quick and easy job! • Cost Effective Dollar Spot Control • Great Rotational Product • Systemic - won’t wash off! ® Senator is a registered trademark of Engage Agro Corporation • Broad Spectrum Disease Control • Proven Chemistry Rediscover the benefits of this broad-spectrum, systemic turfgrass fungicide. Always read and follow label directions 848 Gordon Street, Guelph, Ontario, N1G 1Y7 Call us at 1-866-613-3336 or visit www.engageagro.com ENGAGE agro Maple Turf Supply Is pleased to announce the addition of the Maple Evergreen Foliar Program For complete Turf Nutrition: • Agronomically sound • Cost effective • True Foliar Program Photo submitted by Don Crymble, Property Manager, Keeper of the Markham Green Golf Club For further information call: You won’t find Spruce or Douglas the Moose roaming around the golf course. Markham Green assists the Toronto Zoo by providing browse (small Simon George branches with leaves) as a dietary supplement for moose, giraffe, elk, camels, Technical Sales beaver, porcupines and gorillas. Shannon and Michelle, nutritionists at the Central Ontario, GTA & Toronto Zoo also play golf at Markham Green. They noticed the abundance Niagara Region of willow shrubs in many of the naturalized areas and explained that many 1-519-841-3378 of their animals required vitamins, salicylic acid and other nutrients contained in the willow browse. Since Markham Green usually trims the Mark Schneider willow shrubs in sight lines on golf holes, they were pleased to provide this Technical Sales service to the Toronto Zoo. Georgian Bay, Lake Simcoe & Muskoka Region 1-519-372-5181 Maple Turf Supply SUPPLIERS OF TOP QUALITY TURF PRODUCTS FOR OVER FORTY YEARS 8112 King Rd. West No. 1 Kentucky Bluegrass Ontario Distributor of Pre-grown Bolton, Ontario Dense turf with great colour Five varieties of Bentgrass (877) 727-2100 L7E 5T3 Grown on USGA spec, sand or native sand Erosion Control System (905) 727-2100 1-800-268-4425 Extreme Fescue Drive on it—Park on it Drought resistant—ideal for naturalization Without damaging turf www.zandersod.com 1-905-857-2000 Above the hole by Ian Boyd, Student & Intern Carruther’s Creek Golf & Country Club The Right Stuff There is a very steep learning curve in the turf industry Creek, we took possession of a brand new fleet of once a worker makes it past ‘grunt’ status. For myself, that equipment composed mainly of one machine for each task; progression was faster than normal because of both my fairways, greens, tees, roughs, spraying and the implements intentions in the golf business and the small number of staff for our cultural programs. While this was similar to the old at Carruther’s. fleet, these new machines are much better suited for our You began to notice quickly the array of equipment operation and the staff is now better equipped and able to operated on a golf course. The models are specialized and complete tasks that much faster. With a staff of twelve, we numerous. Stepping into a new arena, say a fairway mower now have little problem with keeping an 18-hole course. or triplex for the first time, can be a daunting experience. From my standpoint, there seems to be no need for “Drop your reels”, “Make sure you don’t scalp the collar”, multiple machines to do one task. At a course like “Turn the blades on”, “Straighten out those lines”, “I told Carruther’s, realizing efficiencies and keeping costs down you not to scalp the collar!!” are just a few things every while still maintaining aesthetic appeal and playability is trainee has heard from a supervisor over the sound of a paramount and we have found that other management screaming engine. After the initial shock and with some practices have reduced our mowing requirements. practice the curve levels off significantly. Eventually, you no For someone who is still fairly new to the turf industry longer sit on a new piece of equipment everyday but do it has been an eye opening experience moving to new and begin to pick up on the intricacies of how the machine more modern equipment. As the spray technician at behaves both in the field and in the shop. Never are the Carruther’s I’ve noticed the most difference with our new quirks of certain machines more apparent than sprayer compared to the old model. As my superintendent immediately following the delivery of the new replacement says, it’s the “Cadillac” of sprayers and it is easy to see why. piece. Slowly, you begin to forget how you got by cutting Both accuracy and efficiency has gone through the roof with a fairway mower that was on the shop floor more than with the combination of a larger capacity tank, larger swath it was on the turf, or put down chemical with a sprayer that and a foam marking system. Now there is no question if the had no suspension and would occasionally catch fire due to spring leaf spot fungicide application covered the entire faulty wiring. property, it did, plain and simple. That’s the way everything When deciding to buy or lease, choosing both the right has been so far this year with the addition of our new fleet. machines and the right number can greatly increase the Not only are things getting done, it is getting done well and productivity of a maintenance staff and decrease the cost I don’t remember seeing the course in better shape. associated with running a course. This spring at Carruther’s UMAXX® StabilizedNitrogen doesn’t rely on microbial You Can’t Control the Weather. action or specific weather conditions to start working. And Why Let It Control Your Nitrogen UMAXX doesn’t stop working after heavy rains. The patented Stabilized Nitrogen technology in UMAXX keeps nitrogen in plant-available form for a longer period of time, reducing or eliminating the potential for volatilization, leaching, or denitrification. UMAXX provides consistently better results in every category. When comparing nitrogen fertilizers, demand the research results. Talk to your peers. Run your own trial. See the UMAXX difference! Greener, Faster, Longer™ University research findings are available online: www.stabilizednitrogen.com UMAXX is a registered trademark of AGROTAIN International, LLC. Off the fairway ... DECIDUOUS SHRUBS Doublefile viburnum (Viburnum plicatum var. tomentosum) is more compact than the more common high-bush cranberry or nannyberry and is well suited for the smaller ornamental Deciduous shrubs add tremend­ garden. It has an interesting horizontal branching habit and ously to the beauty of the landscape. large flowers in the spring. Dark green leaves and furrowed They fill gaps, provide beauty and habitat veins become reddish-purple in the fall. The red fruit attracts and are ready willing and able to occupy the birds. the space between the upper canopy of trees and the herbaceous plants beneath. Shrub roses (Rosa sp.) are remarkably self-sufficient and Here is a list, by no means complete, of colourful in shrub beds and perennial gardens. There are some of my favourites that you should quite a few to choose from but some of the most reliable and try, if conditions are right. versatile are Bonica, Morden centennial, Rosa rugosa and by Daisy Moore Therese Bugnet. For woodland edges and shade: Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis) is a fast-growing beauty that Diablo cinquefoil (Physocarpu opulifolius) has intense reddish- is native to our region. Within one season it will grace the purple leaves when grown in full sun. White flowers are landscape with arching stems that support clusters of white produced in early summer. This is a selection from our native flowers, followed by ample, edible berries. Elderberry reaches ninebark and has proven to be reasonably pest free. 3m in height and is excellent against screens and fences and adaptable to many habitats. It also comes in purple! For scent: Common Lilac (Syringa vulgaris) grows to 4m in height in a vase­ Botdebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora) is a beautiful specimen shaped form. . The flowers and scent are classic. Lilacs are shrub for the shade garden. It is a relative of the horse chestnut useful for screens or hedges and are long-lived in the landscape. tree with similar leaves (palmate) but a shrubby habit (up to Older stems are quite shapely and decorative. 3m). The flowers are produced in July on cylindrical 8-12inch long, 2-4inch wide panicles. The buckeye is amazing when in Beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis) is a fast-growing bushy shrub flower and very handsome at other times. (up to 3.5m) that flowers soon after the Lilac. The flowers are pink, highly fragrant and cover the entire plant. The older Serviceberry (Amelanchier sp.) Provided you protect these from stems ex-foliate and this adds an additional interesting feature. rabbits, they are beautiful in every season. They are native to our region so we must surmise that golfers and humans have Golden mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius) has fragrant, replaced the predators that keep the bunny population down. single white flowers that are produced in June. This is a Nonetheless, they are worth protecting. They inhabit popular shrub in the landscape because it is small (1m or so) woodland edges and are one of the first white flowers we see and has contrasting golden foliage. Not highly ornamental before the trees leaf out. The bark is smooth and grey and when not in flower but a suitable shrub to tuck in places upwind looks good through the winter. The fruit is edible and the from public gathering places. leaves turn red in the fall. Deutzia is a charming shrub with masses of white, fragrant For beauty: flowers on slender arching branches. It grows to over 1m and American hazelnut (Corylus Americana) may appear to be very requires little to no care. ordinary but has ended up being one of my favourite plants in the garden. It is a multi-stemmed shrub that grows up to 3m If you would like guidance or assistance in choosing shrubs or and is native to our region. The stems and branches are sturdy other horticultural concerns, you can contact me at and self contained (they don’t need pruning) and the leaves daisy@daisymoore.com Visit my website www.daisymoore.com are elm-like. It flowers in the spring with drooping catkins (the Listen to The Gardening Show on 570 news males), followed by the more subdued female offering, (www.570news.com) Saturday mornings 7-8 followed by rather fantastic-looking fruit that contain the hazelnut. Blue-jays love them. The leaves turn bright Daisy Moore PAg., is a horticulturist. She operates a garden design and yellow/orange in the fall and linger until snowfall. It stands out consulting business from her home in Elora . from a distance. Simon George Technical Sales David C. Smith, A.Ag., c.g.c.s. 185 Oriole Crescent Soil & Turfgrass Consultant Gravenhurst, Ontario Maple Turf Supply Business: (905) 857-2000 P1P1C6 8112 King Rd. W. Fax: (905) 857-8215 P.O. Box 370 Mobile: (519) 841-3378 Office (705) 687-SOIL (7645) Bolton, Ontario 1-800-268-4425 Fax (705) 687-3518 Toll Free 1-888-607-TURF (8873) L7E 5T3 sg142@hotmai1.com Cell (905) 512-6004 Email dave@dcsturf.com Looking back 35 YEARS AGO TO-DAY by Barry Endicott, Project Manager Gordon Wendover Construction Ltd. In 1971, the Board of Directors were as follows: John hosted by Kimmo Salonen and at the Summit hosted by Arends (pres.), Bill Hynd (vice.), Ross Haines (sec.), Bob Bob Lamb. Heron (treas.), R. Allen, Frank Dunn, Bernie Macdonald, The Pro/Superintendent Day was held on August 22nd at Bob Lamb, Helmut Kopp, Jim Wyllie and John Grightmire Meadowbrook Golf Club with 33 teams competing. Whitey (past pres.). The newsletter committee consisted of Bill Jones and Pro Bruce Butterworth from Aurora Highlands Hynd, Dave Gourlay, Ross Haines and Bob Heron. won the event hosted by Arther Uens. An interesting point A meeting was held at Thornhill Country Club on noticed at this tournament was that a power rake was used February 22nd and Dave Gourlay was the host. The winning in the sand traps with favorable results. It was also noted in curling team of Al Beeney, Roy French, Bob Hall, and Jack that year that the tri-plex greens mowers were here to stay Koslegin defeated John Stoughton, Paul Dermott, Bob but the problem of burst hydraulic hoses must be rectified Heron and Doug Heron in a close game. or we are likely to have shattered nerves. Surely a bright On April 20th, there was a meeting held at Port Colborne coloured dye could be added so an operator could notice a Country Club hosted by Bill Robertson. The guest speaker leak immediately or better yet an alarm system with a red was Bert Henning from the Niagara Parks Commission; 27 light to prevent this catastrophe. played golf after lunch and the low gross winner was Bob On November 9th, there was a meeting at Uplands Golf Hall of Georgetown Golf and Country Club and the low net Club hosted by Helmut Kopp. On December 14th at Aurora was Keith Nisbet of Westview Golf Club. 1st low gross, for Highlands, the annual meeting was hosted by Whitey Jones. associates, was Doug Heron and low net went to Jack Bill Hynd (pres.), Jim Wyllie (vice pres.), Bob Heron, Ross Wilson. Haines, Paul Dermott. John Stoughton, Ed Charman, Paul On May the 10th, there was a meeting held at Donalda Scenna and Roy French were elected. Club hosted by Ron Allen. On June the 10th, the OGSA and The Tam O’Shanter Club House was wiped out by fire on the Western Greenskeepers Association had a meeting October 3rd . Doug Suter, at Credit Valley, was clearing hosted by Paul Scenna at the Galt Country Club and at the brush in the valley in preparation for a new 18 hole golf University of Guelph turf plots, with 48 playing golf. 1st low club. The 13 holes in the valley and 5 on top will be gross winner was Bill Bond followed by Bob Heron, Bill completed in two years. Don Coles of F. Manley and Sons Hynd and Whitey Jones. Low net winners were Dan Uzelac, died as a result of a car accident on October 15th. Gordon Lloyd Reilly, Vince Piccolo and Keith Nisbet. Commercial Witteveen was nominated as director of the GCSAA. low gross was Doug Heron and low net was E. Tremble. New members were Don Nason, Glen Abbey Golf and The 4th Annual Greenschairman Superintendent Day Country Club, Dave Holmes, Derrydale Golf Club, Kimmo was held at the Chinguacousy Country Club on July 22nd, Salonen, York Downs Golf Club, Tom Simpson, Newcastle hosted by Paul Dermott. Mr. Bruce McLaughlin was the Golf Club, Albert Kooper, Rio Glen Golf Club, John guest speaker and the cost of the day was $25.00 per person. Konarowsky, Grandview Golf Club, Tony Wozniak, Malton Low superintendent was Bill Bowen and low net was R. Golf Club and Rusty Warkman, Stratford Golf Club. Reilly. There were also meetings held at York Downs The way we where... answer from page 11 Gorden Witteveen. 154 Upper Centennial Parkway (HWY 20) Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada L8J 2T7 Telephone 905-662-2663 • Fax 905-662-2253 CAN-USA1-800-263-8606 Express Dual 890 Fairground Rd. R.R. #4 Langton Ont. N0E 1G0 & AngleMaster Phone (519) 875-4094 Fax (519) 875-4095 Reel Mower Sharpeners Website: mastersturfsupply.com email: mastersturf@uniserve.com Turf or consequences by Doug Breen, Superintendent Golf North Properties Reality TV I really hate ‘reality TV shows’. I have quite enough and the winner played in a pro event. They would have reality every day, thank you very much, and I really wonder gotten better ratings if they’d tied two of them together in about people who want to sit on their couch and watch a crate. other people’s lives unfold on television. The formula is But I think that we need a Superintendent reality pretty simple. You take people, more or less at random, show. Well, we really don’t need any of this drivel, but at stick them into unusual, stressful, ‘realistic’ situations and least I’d watch a superintendent reality show. Remember film the inevitable train wreck. When I was ten, I knew a how INXS had a contest to find that Elvis impersonator guy just like this. He’d take a cat and a raccoon, put them who replaced the original lead singer? Next time there’s in a crate together, and watch the mayhem through a a really good job out there, they ought to televise the crack in the boards. One of his favourites was to randomly interview process. We could convene a panel of salesmen tie two animals together and let them go. There’s some (since they ultimately get half the jobs for us anyway), and wholesome family viewing! He also seemed to have a they could pick the new superintendent. constant supply of fireworks - enough said. I lost track of I’d be pretty happy if I went away for the weekend, this one when he started riding the short bus to ‘special’ and someone cleaned my office. How about “Pimp my school, but I guarantee that he’s either in jail, or Golf Cart” or “Survivor - Bunker Renovation” or “Queer producing this stuff for the networks. Eye for the Turf Guy”? There’s about a hundred of them on every channel Swapping shows are all the rage. Two courses could now, and it’s no secret why. They cost absolutely nothing switch staff and grind each other’s reels. Or just trade to make. There’s no writers, actors, make-up people, mechanics and call it “Canadian Idle”. I’d like to see a sound recorders, musicians, or anyone else with talent to mechanic who’s never worked on anything that didn’t still be paid. All you need is a couple of guys with beta-max have a warranty on it weld a frame back together. Or swap cameras, and a few people desperate enough for their 15 assistants for a season. Or budgets. Now that would be minutes of semi-fame to humiliate themselves publicly. entertaining! There’s one show where they take someone out for a night I’ll be pitching these ideas to the Golf Channel this on the town, and while she’s away, two guys throw out half summer, and with any luck we’ll be in production next her stuff and rearrange her closet. People are paying season. I know exactly the right guy to produce it, and if seventy-five bucks for the upgraded cable package to the ratings are going badly, we’ll just stick a Canada goose watch other people throw out crap and clean up their into a crate tied to a muskrat. room. If people are that desperate for entertainment, I’ve got a whole house full of crap that they can clean for real! And this gem is on an educational channel. I’m sure that this is exactly what they told the CRTC that they’d be doing when they applied for their license. “We’re going to present the finest documentaries from all over the world, and have simulcast discussion groups with experts that can be used in the classroom. Either that, or we’ll follow around a dysfunctional family with the emotional maturity of a grade three class, who customize snowmobiles and throw wrenches at each other.” I guess the network must have shot down the producer’s original idea of tying weasels to fireworks in a crate. There was even a golf reality show. They took a bunch of amateur golfers, followed them around with cameras, TURF CARE Funny how the courses that use Toro® are always the hardest places to get a tee time. TURF CARE PRODUCTS CANADA 200 Pony Drive, Newmarket, Ontario L3Y 7B6 Tel: (905) 836-0988 Fax: (905) 836-6442 London Ph:*(5T9) 668-7664 • Fax: (519) 668-3722 • Mississauga Ph: (905) 890-6290 • Fax: (905) 890-5598 Scarborough Ph: (416) 298-2101 • Fax: (416) 298-8758 • Gloucester Ph: (613) 822-1881 • Fax: (613) 822-2099 From the first tec to the last green, Toro helps keep your course in top form. And when a course plays as good as it looks, goiters have a way of coming back week after week after week. For more information contact your local Turf Care Representative www.turfcare.ca