M A Y 1967 (Gourde Superintendents OF N E W s^AAociation E N G L A N D Sponsors and administrators of the Lawrence S. Dickenson Scholarship Fund — Awarded yearly to deserving Turf Management Students. Secretary — L E O N V. ST. PIERRE 51 Fenwood Rood Longmeodow, Mass. 01 106 Phone 567-5562 Club Affiliation Longmeadow Country C l u b Educational Committee Chairman — WILLIAM A S H 9 Pafton Street No. Dartmouth, M a s s . 02747 Phone 993-8767 THOMAS CURRAN 37 Parker Street Fitchburg, Mass. 01420 Phone 342-9198 Club Affiliation O a k Hill C o u n t r y C l u b NORMAN MUCCIARONE 101 A l b a n R o a d W a b a n , Mass. 02168 Phone 332-3056 Club Affiliation W o o d l a n d Country C l u b First Vice-President — A N T H O N Y C A R A N C I JR. 22 Hillview Drive N o . Providence, R. I. 02900 Phone 723-1688 Club Affiliation Ledgemont C o u n t r y C l u b LUCIEN DUVAL 9 Rose Lane Framingham Center, Mass. 01701 Phone 872-0006 Club Affiliation Chestnut Hill Country C l u b Finance Committee Chairman '•— N. J. S P E R A N D I O Concord, Mass. 01742 Phone 369-4723 Club Affiliation C o n c o r d Country C l u b Second Yice-President — R I C H A R D C. BLAKE 211 Sewall Street Boylston, Mass. 01505 Phone 869-2737 Club Affiliation M t . Pleasant C o u n t r y C l u b PHILIP C A S S I D Y 4 5 Grosvenor R o a d Needham, M a s s . 02192 Phone 444-4127 Club Affiliation Weston Golf Club J O S E P H BUTLER 3 Ridgewood Terrace Beverly, Mass. 01915 Phone 922-1263 Club Affiliation United Shoe C o u n t r y C l u b ROBERT G R A N T 22 Patricia R o a d Sudbury, Mass. 0 1 7 7 6 Phone 443-2671 Club Affiliation Brae Burn Country C l u b Golf Committee Chairman — E D W A R D J. M U R P H Y 194 O x b o w R o a d W a y l a n d , Mass. 01778 Phone 358-7410 Club Affiliation Lexington Country C l u b Newsletter Committee Chairman — DEAN ROBERTSON 2 4 Riverview Drive Newbury, Mass. 01950 Phone 462-4540 Club Affiliation O u l d Newbury G o l f C l u b Qoif (Gourde MAY ^uperintendentd MEETING NEXT M E E T I N G The May Meeting was held at the Walpole Country Club on May 1, 1967. It was voted to make Charlie Parker a retired member. If you are a member of the N.E.G.C.S.A. and feel that you are entitled to become a regular member please notify the Secretary and he will check your classification with his records. The new proposed by-law amendment was voted on and passed. New applications to be voted on at the next meeting: JOSEPH RYBKA 974 Court Street Brockton, Massachusetts Club Affiliation Thorny Lea Golf Club 10.00 11:00 12:00 1:00 a.m. a.m. p. m. p. m. July 10, 1967 Marshfield Country Club Superintendent-Chairman Meeting August 7, 1967 — Open October — Brae Burn PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE Thomas Schofield was voted in as an Associate member at the last meeting. President St. Pierre told us of the progress that has been jmade J4dtR-the-M.G.A._ajid also suggested, that eachmember check with his club as to whether they have filled out the questionnaire pertaining to insurance for full time club employees. The M.G.A. can't get anything going unless we get all of our clubs to cooperate. RESULTS Mel Wendell Jim Diorio Wayne Ripley Ron Kirkman Directors' Meeting Business Meeting Lunch Golf Tournament DATES T O REMEMBER WILLIAM BRENNAN Larkin Road Byfield, Massachusetts Club Affiliation Bear Hill Golf Club low gross 1st low net 2nd low net The next meeting will be at the Portland Country Club, Portland, Me. on June 5, 1967. This will be a joint meeting with Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Host Superintendent Pete Ruby has planned an exciting day and we hope that all of the members will attend. Directions to Portland: Take-Route 95-North-to the Falmouth, Maine exit (Buckman Road) and follow to the shopping center and go right (Rt. 1) and at the traffic circle go sharp left (Rt. 88) and this will take you to Portland Country Club which will be on your left. JOHN K. P A R K E R 93 Washington Street Duxbury, Massachusetts Club Affiliation Duxbury Yacht Club TOURNAMENT ^^idociation 79 67 73 73 John Ereitas, Pro at Walpole, said that he would donate a putter for the closest to the pin on the 150-yd. eighth hole. Len Blodgett won: 18' 11'' " I N S T A N T GREENKEEPERS" — A PLAGUE Every golf club locker room has a round table full of instant turf specialists. After all, haven't they just finished reading Burt Musser'-s book on "Turf Management", and the question and answer section of the U.S.G.A. Journal Green Section. To round off their turf background, they have just made pilgrimages to Pinehurst and the hallowed Augusta National, for the tournament of the Masters. Armed with this sort of background, the self-appointed connoisseurs of golf course construction and maintenance are ready to take the home club apart, and put it back together again, to conform with the information they have just picked up, in their winter readings, and their conversations with the superintendent at some resort club they wintered at. Fortunately, the majority of country club Board of Governors view the locker room turf specialists with OF amusement, however they can be a very dangerous group for the superintendent. It is irritating as well as frustrating, and, perhaps our age is showing, when you have spent close to 20 years trying to learn some of the ins and outs of a profession to have someone who knows nothing about the science of agronomy and turf management, suddenly, by an election, become Chairman of the Green Committee, and dictate on turf practices to the superintendent. The field of Lurf management has never tried to put itself on the equality with other professions. However, one does not obtain a workable stature in the field of turf management by merely completing a course in turf management at some college, and I suppose the same thing is true of other professions. Experience and good judgment are prime factors in any profession. It makes you wonder when this fascinating and tremendously imjjortant field of turf management will wake up, shake off the longhairs and, come up with some real honest-to-goodness workable formula, so that everyone in the field will be accorded the plateau of distinction indicated by his learning and experience. Leon V. St. Pierre President The folloiving is an article written the Springfield Union, Springfield, THE C R A N K Y by Gerry Finn of Massachusetts. SEASON If you have an ounce of compassion in your soul, you'll join the movement. It is sort of a love-in, a vague display of sympathy called . . . "bring a greens superintendent home for cocktails and dinner week." This is, after all, the cranky season for those downtrodden serfs of the soil who — hour after hour — are under the gun of anxious country club members, often forgetful of the fact that this is April in New England and not springtime in Pinehurst. 'I-Spy' Treatment Most of the " I - S p y " treatment is reserved for those green-thumb artists who toil in the shadow of moredemanding private country clubs. Such members are accustomed to slide-on-a-shovel service. If they think the N E W E N G L A N D golf course is ready for play, no one else's opinion matters. When you're peeling off 500 or so bananas a season to take up golf residence, you expect the sun and other conditioning factors to arrive on time. If they don't the greens superintendent must produce a reasonable substitute . . . even if he has to stand there with the sun lamp until he hears the grass growing. So what does this three-paragraph prelude mean? It's simple. Greens superintendents, and their phantom staffs which are shady in the flesh because of low-budget policies on many fronts, want their story heard. In the first place, they dread overanxious openings of golf courses. They take a don't tread-on-me attitude as far as the putting greens are concerned. Footprints, gouged by unintentional but impressive brogans too early in the spring, turn into haunting ghosts later on in the height of the campaign when the courses are supposed to be pool-room slick and hothouse lush during the showcase of the year •— tournament time. In the second place . . . and there are more to follow . . . club members tend to second-guess trained technicians in a specialized field. Some are blinded by the fact nearby public courses throw open their gates as soon as the last traces of snow have turned into quicksand-sinking turf. There is, for example, an energetic layout in Western Mass. which looks like the first tee of the National Open every April. A week ago some 300 golfers took a cruise around the moat on one Sunday. Private club swingers hear of such outpourings and wonder why their courses sit idle. They don't realize April is a make or break month for most public ventures. Players may sink over their shoetops on a typical, young spring day but owners will be swimming in black ink come the end of the year when the accountants play 18 holes with the books. Another factor, apparently ignored by most of those who are sick of lifting weights in the cellar and spilling putts all over the living room rug, is the weather pattern of the last five years. Golfers have been spoiled in that span as far as invading the courses before a young man's fancy turns to more logical things. The great Northeast drought has produced record, early-openings. This year, though, with a late-winter snow drop which had the good people of Aspen viewing this section with envy, the water table has charged its way back to normalcy. In a word, it's been a wet spring. And all the sun lamps in creation aren't going to bring about race track-fast conditions. Nature is boss man in this situation, and there hasn't been a button or switch invented to control its mind. NMfTCR FRIENDS OF THE ASSOCIATION Abbott Spray and Farm Equipment Co. Waltham Street Lexington, Massachusetts Larchmont Irrigation Co. Larchmont Lane Lexington, Massachusetts Dr. Burton R. Anderson Golf Course Architect Turf and Golf Course Consultant Route 5 Augusta, Maine J. F. Aveni Lu Soil — Soil Conditioner Minerals & Chemicals Philipp Corp. 25 Concord Street Belmont, Massachusetts The Clapper Co. 1121 Washington Street West Newton, Massachusetts Magovern Company, Inc. Lawn Acre Road Windsor Lock, Connecticut Geoffrey S. Cornish Golf Course Architect Fiddler's Green Amherst, Massachusetts New England Engine & Parts Co. Inc. The Pacer Distributor 884 Commonwealth Avenue Boston, Massachusetts The Charles C. Hart Seed Co. Wethersfield, Connecticut Fuel Activator Chemical Corp. C. F. Barbour — Regional Director 43000 Prudential Tower Boston, Massachusetts Gaflny Enterprises, Inc. Irrigation Specialists North Main Street Middleton, Massachusetts Sawtelle Brothers Jet. Routes 128 and 62 Danvers, Massachusetts Richey & Clapper, Inc. 28 Rutledge Road Natick, Massachusetts Philip A. Wogan Golf Course Architect 21 Budleigh Avenue Beverly, Massachusetts Grounds Equipment Co., Inc. 383 Boylston Street Newton Centre, Massachusetts Kerr McGee Chemical Corporation P. 0 . Box 790 Waterbury, Connecticut Irrigation Consultants Inc. 251 Harvard Street Brookline, Massachusetts Wyandotte Chemical Co. 709 Salada Building Boston, Massachusetts D. L. Maher Co. Water Supply Contractors Testwells — Gravel packed wells Byron Jackson Pumps P. O. Box 274 Woburn, Massachusetts Tom Irwin Co. Bennett Hill Road Rowley, Massachusetts Karandrew Turf Farms, Inc. Sam Mitchell, Sales Representative 18 Old Randolph Street Canton, Massachusetts Johns-Manville Sales Corp. 150 Causeway Street Boston, Massachusetts Newsletter C o m m i t t e e C h a i r m a n Stanley S. Philipkoski Sales Representative Stauffer Chemical Co. 380 Madison Avenue New York, New York Alfco Rokeby Co., Inc. Fertilizers and Chemical Specialties P. O. Box 267 Marietta, Ohio Ken Minasian Scotts 6 Amelia Court N. Providence, R. I. — DEAN ROBERTSON 24 Riverview Drive Newbury, Mass. 01950 Phone 4 6 2 - 4 5 4 0 Club Affiliation Ould Newbury Golf Club b 4 20