TURF COMMS V- s I -1 ± PURPOSE: To pass on what He learn willingly and happily to others in the profession so as to improve turf conditions around the country. TOM KITE SPEAKS - I attended the North Texas Superintendent's Association Awards Banquet January 6th and had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Kite speak to the group. He gave a rambling superintendent oriented talk that brought out the following points and comments. Tom Kite loves Colonial CC in Ft. Worth; his favorite course however, is Pebble Beach although he noted the conditioning wasn't as good as Colonial's. He said that this was due to the 
heavy play at Pebble. [Editor's comment, Pebble's play exceeds Colonial I'm sure but, Colonial is very heavily played for a 
country club and the greens are small.] Tom did okay at Pebble in the recent tournament, coming in second. It pays to love the courses you play. Mr. Kite feels that the lack of a dominate player on the Tour is due to a larger number of superior players on the Tour. Lower scores on the Tour are due in part to players training better and being in better physical condition; along with improved equipment and playing conditions. Tom plays out of Austin CC, one of Pete Dye's creations. It was obvious that he respected Pete while strongly disagreeing with his design and construction approach. Things that he objected to 
were Pete Dye's "18 Photographs" "Can't stop a ball on a 
photograph" was his comment. He objected to the small fairways and Pete's use of St. Augustine and other 'nasty' grasses in the 
roughs. Austin CC is about five years old. Tom apparently has TURFCOMMS is published at unpredictable intervals by the editor and publisher: Douglas T. Hawes, Ph D Certified Professional Agronomist Specializing in Golf Course Maintenance Consulting 2408 Roundrock Trail Piano, Texas 75075 (214) 867Š0176 Subscription cost is S15. Send Checks to Doug Hawes at the above address. been instrumental Łfairways enlarged beware! in getting the St. Augustine removed, the and the greens slowed down. St. Andrews Tom has designed one course in the Austin area and has recently joined -forces with Bob Culp to do some more design work. SPRING TRAINING SESSIONS - Some thoughts -for training new and old crew members. Start off with a positive message and a team building exercise. Why? Because learning is best when the learner feels happy and an accepted member of the group. If you can speak in rhyme you can cut your teaching time. If you can fit your stuff in a song they'll remember it all life long. If you have something important you wish them to remember have them SAY IT OUT LOUD TO A NEIGHBOR. Remember "Learning is noisy; and death is quiet." JOHN DEERE AMT 600 - Do you need a good utility vehicle but, don't have a lot of money to spend? You might consider this vehicle many superintendents have been happy with it. It is easy on the turf and pocket book (list $3400). It only hauls 600 pounds and one person so a Cushman Truckster it isn't. If you do buy one don't haul gravel with it - damage to chain is apt to occur, although that can be remedied by altering the chain guard. If you need it to carry two and have a little more horsepower, they now have a two seater. It is model AMT 622 and lists for $4200, but still only hauls 600 pounds. LETTER TO THE EDITOR - "I would like to bring you up-to-date on one item in your newsletter. Pursell is not the only company >?ith a speciality potassium product, LESC0 has a OŠ0Š28 with 147. sulfur, 7.5% iron, 6.57. manganese which has been available for two years. The Pursell material is an attempt to copy ours. The 0-0-28 is excellent for correcting potassium deficiencies or promoting root development prior to stress periods " Sincerely, Charles B. White, Manager, Fertilizer and Seed Speci ali sts, LESC0 THE ALASKAN EXPRESS, as they are calling Dallas's first winter cold snap, has stimulated me into writing an article which should have been published in 1984. For it was after the severe Winter of '83-'84 that I noted the phenomenon to be discussed here. Be-fore that severe winter was over I had concluded the 
bermudagrass was going to be in trouble in greater North Texas. I therefore began making daily trips in March and April out from the USGA office to USGA clubs in the area that had bermudagrass greens. I found only one golf course in a fifty mile area with live greens. These were common bermudagrass greens that were mowed at 1/4 inch four times a week at the most. Tees, collars and many fairways were dead at on Dallas area courses that year and much of the South. As my trips took me out further west and south I began to find less winter kill with a pattern emerging on greens that was of interest. There was more winter kill or. USGA-type sand base greens than on soil base greens. This was very noticeable at courses having greens of both materials. Why? Well as an article I was reading last night by Dr. John Hall pointed out "a sandy green will cool down quicker". We might add deeper also because as Dr. Hall points out "Sandy soils retain less moisture and therefore have less temperature 
buffering capacity." Thus even though bermudagrass rhizomes might be deeper in the better oxygenated sand they are going to 
get much colder in an open winter. Open winter reminds me of another difference observed that year -north of the Red River there was no winter kill. The Okies weren't doing anything different its just that north of the Red 
River there was a good snow cover. Hopefully the light snow 
cover we are looking at this February will be enough to save 
bermudagrass this year. PENNLINKS - I try to ignore new cultivars until they prove themselves. However, when Bob Randquist, superintendent of 
Southern Hills C.C.,. plants his greens to a new, relatively untried cultivar of creeping bentgr^s7 I'm forced to listen. For I know Mr. Randquist checked this new Penn State release out with his usual thoroughness before making his choice. He found reasonably well documented claims of improved roots, good heat tolerance, and slightly more upright grow than Penncross. Pennlinks, is less aggressive than Penncross but, more aggressive than Penneagle. (To be continued in Vol. 5, Issue 3.) TURF TECH By Jonathon L. Scott CGCS From time to time, comments are passed on to me concerning your opinion of this column, and a recent computer user thought this column would look better if "justified", or in common language, "squared off". Well, never let it be said I don't listen. I hope you like it. In this last segment on the computer, I will attempt to clarify just what is meant by "Hard Drive", and what part it plays in your selection process. A hard drive is nothing more than a data recorder that can handle many more bytes than the smaller capacity floppy drives, and it can access this data faster than the tape drives. It operates much on the same principal as the floppies except that you cannot remove the recording media for external storage. It is "fixed" in the drive unit and, thus, is called a "fixed drive". The advantages to this are much higher storage capacity, faster access, and less searching for the correct program to run. If a floppy disk program is loaded on to a hard drive via data transfer (copying), it can be accessed by simple commands from the operating system and quickly begin doing it's intended work. This saves on storage space for floppies and allows automatic menu programs to help organize your files. A capacity of 20 megabytes can hold most of the programs and files you will need, but more expensive units go five times that much. A major drawback to the hard drive is the potential for loss of data due to "crashes" or drive failures. This is not uncommon in the real world, and frequent back-up of data on either tape or floppy disks is essential to protect yourself. New drives, such as high capacity floppies and optical disks may enable users to remove the storage media as is done with the floppies, but these are very expensive at this time. I recommend purchasing a hard drive backup program, such as Fastback Plus, to assist you in data protection. This easy to use program compresses hard drive data onto floppy disks for easy restoration should a "crash" occur. What causes "crashes"? You would be surprised at how little it takes. A simple power surge while accessing the drive can do it. A slight jar from moving the unit might cause the head to scratch the media. A corrupted program might erase the directors which show the drivs he&d where to find data. A "computer virus" you havs nil h^ard so much about may cause the computer to erase the data itself. It is not hard to restore if backed up. It can cause huge cries of agony and blasphemous language if lost for good. As for a virus? It is simple to avoid. Just don't load any program you get from a bulliten board or mail-order shareware on your hard drive. Keep it on a floppy disk and use it from that drive. Chances are you will not get infected.