Golf and Dr. James Beard to Speak at August 10th Meeting Meeting at The NMTMA is proud to have Dr. James Beard as our guest speaker at our August meeting in Gaylord. As you know, Dr. Beard is a world renowned scholar and researcher in turfgrass Grayling C.C. management, and has written definitive books on this field. Dr. Beard will present a slide program and will address numerous topics, including: August 10th Turfgrass stress management, environmental considerations in turfgrass management, and more. Brian Conklin is the host Even if you will not be playing golf, you will want to attend this meeting and dinner at the superintendent for our Grayling Country Club. Reservations for dinner only are required: call Brian Conklin at (517) August meeting. Michael 348-6853. See details at left. Hoffman is the golf professional. The day will begin with a 1:00 p.m shotgun start. The NMTMA Mechanics Meeting August 12th game will be best two balls A meeting of the NMTMA golf course mechanics will be held at Crystal Downs Country of four (with handicaps). Club on August 12th. The speaker will be Ron Gillison of Gillison Variety Fabrication. Ron Golf is limited to 80 will speak to the group about sprayer maintenance, hydraulics, welding and fabrication. players, so reservations are Please call Dan Stratton if you plan to come: (616) 352-4241. a must. Call Brian at (517) The meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m., lunch will be served at noon, and then there will be 348-6853 to reserve your an open house/discussion after lunch. Please bring $5.00 cash for lunch. spot in the golf event. Crystal Downs is located 5 miles north of Frankfort on M-22. Drive past the main entrance, Our meeting will follow and turn onto Sutter Road. The maintenance building is just off Sutter Road, 1/4 mile from the golf at 5:30, Dp, Beard will corner of Sutter and M-22. speak on selected topics, and dinner will follow at 6:30. Cost for dinner only will The Game of Golf is Played on Grass By Stanley J. Zontek, Director, Mid-Atlantic Region, USGA Green Section be $10.00; Golf and dinner When the Golf Course is in good shape, everything at the club seems to go well. How will be $20.00. Please obvious. . . or is it? make checks payable to the Why is it, then, that todays golf course superintendent must compete - perhaps struggle is a Northern Michigan Turf better word - for the machinery, manpower, materials, and the budget to do his or her job? Managers Association. The Grayling Country Sometimes clubs and courses appreciate the obvious. If the golf course is in good shape, the club is located 1/2 mile rest of the facility hums. People bring guests who pay guest or green fees. This factor impacts north of the Holiday Inn on favorably on the food and beverage portion of the club, and it helps the facility's cash flow. Business I-75, just south of Members and guests buy logo shirts and sweaters, benefiting the golf professional. Everyone is downtown Grayling. happy and the club or facility is healthy. See you there! Consider what happens, though, when several greens or fairways are lost, tees are divoted and devoid of turf, the roughs and stream banks are not well cut, and trash, tree limbs and litter are scattered about the course. Who is happy then? Would you bring guests or sponsor business outings at your club or course? Probably not, or only with a multitude of apologies Next Meeting- and excuses. With less play, food and beverage sales suffer and golf carts go unrented. Golf shirts remain September 22nd at the on the shelves and everyone begins to grumble. Attention is then focused on, you guessed it, new Fazio course at Sylvan the golf course superintendent. Resort: Bruce Wolfrom, Do you think a golf course superintendent wants to present a shabby golf course? Is that superintendent. individual, as a professional, pleased with what he or she sees out there? No, not in the least. So whay does it happen? (Continued on Back Page) “Represent your organization with class. Nice sport clothes are required for all golf outings no blue jeans, t-shirts and the like. Sweaters or jackets with ties are recommended for all dinners and meetings. Good golf etiquette, fairness and sportsmanship are expected at all golfing events.99 Tire Wholesalers Co., Inc. New Products and Services in cooperation with Dunkel Excavating, Petoskey, Mi As our name implies, we are a wholesaler Soils Services of tires. 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Thomas Bennett Scott Kuhlman 4175 Bluff Lane 3788 River Road O9RLISL Cedar, M, Boyne Falls, Ml (616) 228-6257 (616) 535-2506 Sales/lnformation Sales/lnformation 19240 West 8 Mile Road 303 1/2 Hawthorne St. Installations/Design & Construction Kuhlman's Nursery Owner Southfield, Ml 48075 Cadillac, Ml 49601 Free estimates on various services Many varieties and sizes of trees to sod customers, or nominal fee grown from seed with continuous Phone: (313) 354-5644 Phone: (616) 775-6666 rebated on first sale. care; licensed and guaranteed. Golf is Played on Grass.. • (Continued from front page) I submit it ofterF is a question of budget priorities. The golf Only you can know. It bothers me that golf course course is not given its fair share of the golf course income. maintenance budgets often do not receive their fair share of the Specifically, what percentage of golf course income is being club income, and when the course isn't perfect, the used to maintain the golf course? Do you think it is 20%, 33%, superintendent is criticized. I submit the real culprit is the or 50% ? budget policy . Figure it out. If the club has an income of, say, $2 million Perhaps a better sales pitch is needed. Hopefully, these per year and the golf course maintenance budget is $400,000 comments will help people realize the obvious. . .the game of per year, then the maintenance budget is 20% of the entire club golf is played on grass, and providing properly for it's or course income. 20% does not sound like much, and often it maintenance should be a course's number one priority. isn't. Where is the other 80% going? Northern Michigan Turf Managers Association C/O Tom Reed 3733 Apollo Drive Traverse City, Ml 49684 RECYCLED BEARD COLLECTION ® PAPER