TIIR F rOMMS uMt, % 887-0176 SUBSCRIPTION COST IS $10 - MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE T0= DOUG. HA WES Fro« the April, 1986, issue of Mid-Atlantic Association of Solf Course Superintendents Newsletter there is the following arti-cle by a forser student of nine with a few added consents. SPIN GRINDING - AN IDEA FOR ANOTHER WAY by Steve Nash, Superintendent International Country Club, Virginia We've all heard the expression, "While the cat's away, the mice will play." While I was away at Turfgrass 86, Lowell Meyer, the mechanic here at International Country Club, decided to play around with an idea he had come up with -for spin grinding. At a seminar Lowell attended, he heard a theory from the Express Dual people, and his idea involved adapting our Foley grinder into a spin grinder. He mounted our backlapping machine on one end of the Foley and used it to spin the reel while at the same time he manually moved the spinning grind wheel across the reel. By the time I had returned from Baltimore, Lowell had ground two greens mowers and the tee mower and had them put back together and ready to go. I was a little hesitant at -first about the idea o-f spin grinding without the real thing until he showed me how well a -fairway unit that he had just finished would cut with the bedknife just laying across the reel. Each blade cut the piece of paper from end to end as clean as a whistle. I've seen reel after reel do the same, so it's working for us« If you decide to try it yourself, here are a couple of things to remember. When aligning the stone to the reel, the stone must come into the wheel from the lowest possible angle. This seems to keep the stone from jumping, especially with rough units or units with fewer blades. When using this method, the person adjusting the grinding wheel cannot adjust for a heavy grind because the grinding wheel will bounce all over the tracks. Therefore, adjustments will be very fine, and this makes for a better grind overall. It is my opinion that the reason we often do not get a good match between the reel and the bedknife is that while grinding, the adjustments are made too heavy. With the new method, it's impossible to adjust too heavy; the stone and the blades just barely touch. There is very little relief to the reels when you're done, and if you want more, you could go back and put some on the regular way. Take an old reel and give this method a try. I think you'll be surprised. COMMENTS Only one of the courses I visit has a spin grinder, they have had it for two years and have been very happy with it. It has been a big time saver over backlapping which it -page 2-completel y replaces, article is that you compound. A big plus not mentioned in Steve's no longer have to clean up lapping ANOTHER SUPER MAKES THE NEWS The "master of the grounds" at the site of the Bryon Nelson PBA Tournament was quoted by name as saying the new stadium course was "right on schedule". This was in a March 5, column on golfing The Dallas Morning News. Not only was he mentioned by name but his name started the paragraph. April 16, he is quoted again in the same newspaper "The greens look like they have the chicken pox." You would to, if you had been lying out in the open the night, of April 10th. A hail storm hit the greater North Dallas area and did that damage. On my side of Dallas we had 1/2 inch diameter hail. The greens Mr. Barley is worrying about got hit by golf ball size hail I'm told. COMPUTER USE IN THE GREEN INDUSTRY The 'Bits and bytes at work' article below caught my eye in a news release from Dick Nugent Associates. To do what he has done would take a more powerful (more memory) computer than I have. But, it is something the computer is very useful for. That is checking a lot of figures against a standard and finding out quickly whether you have accomplished what you hoped to. If you haven't it can also very quickly show you where you have gone astray. Number handling (number crunching it is sometimes called) is something the computer does extremely well, if well programmed. I recently obtained a copy from a friend of "Design Your Own Home - Landscape" which is a piece of software for the Apple. The software was borrowed because I was preparing to teach a course in home landscape design. The ability to do original site drawings using a joystick I'm not impressed with, using a mouse with it is better. After having spent many hours working with the program I can not recommend it. It is the least expensive landscaping pieces of software available. It would be easier to use if two disc drives were available. Neither machine I used had this convenience. The documentation was either poorly written or I was not interpreting it correctly. Documentation is the written material that goes along with the disc that contains the program. Ideally, documentation makes it easy to use the program. Bits and bytes at work Bruce Borland, we are able to put the co«puter to work to analyse our course design, hole by hole. With this type of analysis, we can sake sure that we have achieved a design balance for each hole. He analyze the layout for the playing factors we've built in (sand, dog legs right, dog legs left, water, yardage, prevailing winds, and angle of terrain uphill, downhill, sidehill, etc.). He anticipate what the club selection sequence tight be and then design the hole for that sequence so it will be challenging for the player. Using a Database 11 prograa adapted by example, we'd probably expect the player to carry a hazard, at least part of the green, and we'd not pitch the whole green fro® front to back but, rather, we'd break the green in a nuaber of directions to sake the shot »ore demanding. The target is set up to reflect the value of the shootŠ if it's a wedge shot, for Putting all these factors into the conputer, we can analyze each hole to make sure we're building into the course as »any varied options as we can, to «ake it interesting and challenging, yet fair. We're trying to create courses that don't disadvantage any particular player. We want to pace the play and spread out the difficultiesŠstart easy and finish tough. AND FOR MY OWN COMPUTER I have purchased some software which enables me to obtain better print quality from my Epson RX-80 printer. You won't see the change on page one, but the last three pages will be double struck which should help. Had the pleasure of playing Indian Creek Golf Course. This municipal is run by the City of Carrollton, TX. That makes three great daily fee golf courses to play in greater Dallas. The two at D/FW Airport and this one. Bring some golf balls, a 20 or less handicap, a love for a challenge and allow 5 hours to play. It took me a few too many strokes to play this course. My strokes included one lost ball and one in the water. Be sure to check the signs at the tee which show where all the water is. Some of it is hard to see. You'll never believe though that the original land was flat (unless you play it the day after a rain) or that it was built for 1.25 million. Why a good irrigation system is costing 1/2 of that. This was done by Richard Phelps of Colorado. He has done a fairly large number of daily fee golf courses. The quality of his work is very commendable. Next, I found myself touring Clear Creek Golf Course at Ft. Hood, Killeen, Texas. Did not get a very long look at this course, nor did I play it. But, what I saw was certainly not HO HUM! If you know a retired person with exmilitary experience(so they can get on it) tell them to give this one a try. Leon Howard, mentioned in the last issue designed this one. A very low budget has slowed maturity but, it now appears to be coming into its own. TEXAS GOLF COURSES DO OFFER A CHALLENGE END