Getting "Schooled", Again!...Follow KGCtweets

Holy, I am still learning about Twitter.  You may be sick of how daft I am when it comes to this topic but this should be the last change.  A third party pointed out something with respect to Twitter and audiences.  I dare say none of you care about the minutia of growing grass and some other grass geeks most likely aren't interested in frost delays, aerating and top dressing days, or whatever I post as it relates to KGC.  Using the hashtag #KGC to identify posts particular to the golf course works but the tweets seems out of place when I post using my original username so I made a new one: KGCtweets.  Again, if you use Twitter you know what to do.  If you text all you need to do is send a text to 21212 and type Follow KGCtweets in the message body of your text to receive real time updates about the golf course.

Now, what's happening out on the course?  There are18 holes opening on Good Friday.  As usual, we won't be ready but any play in April is all about working out the kinks and renewing friendships.  All greens wintered well with no real problems and all will be in play.  The past couple years we've attempted a pre-opening aeration and top dressing and 2014 will be no different.  The biggest hurdle is completing the task while trying to clean up from winter.  Truthfully, we won't be done and you'll have to deal with the process until we are done.  Sorry.  As predicted, start up of the irrigation is a struggle.  We only just started the back on Tuesday this week and still the hydraulic lines on the driving range, hole 17, hole 15, hole 13, and hole 14 are frozen.  Without the control from the hydraulic lines to keep the sprinklers down we cannot pressure the pipes on these holes so, obviously, we are unable to water.  It may seem early, but with no real moisture this spring the greens have dried out and appear stressed.  It should be easy to get them back but we are at the mercy of our irrigation system.  Tank watering could be an option but without available equipment or staff it won't be happening this year.

This past Monday had the Annual Work Bee and as usual people really chipped in.  I would guess because of the day we picked, numbers were down a bit but those who showed up definitely did their part and I am grateful.  Pictures will be posted on the KGC website under the "Photo Gallery" tab so go check it out.

The only picture I want to show is this one:

Elk Tracks

For some strange reason the elk are still around.  They are a problem in the fall and are usually long gone by now but  #2 took a shellacking the other day.  The real interesting part is how the damage to the surface was the worst at the back left of the green and far less severe on the front right of the green.  Why?  Better root mass at the front is my theory.  That green doesn't have great roots to begin with but the front right of the green sees more sun and has somewhat more substance versus the left side which is weak looking and always shows disease stress first. That big fir and ponderosa are going, it just a case of when.

Annual Spring Photo and Twitter Re-visited (Revised)

(I used the wrong syntax for the directions describing how to use text messaging to access Twitter in the original post.  I've updated it now.)

1 Tee, April 2nd

One of my traditions is posting how things appear around April 1st so people can see how much snow is remaining (Go HERE for last years photo).  It's been a somewhat slow melt and as a result we are a bit behind last year.  Opening is still tentatively planned for April 18th and that may be possible but don't be surprised if winter pays us one more visit.

As usual, I suspect we will start with some version of a "9 hole" layout and open other holes as they are ready.  Right now the good news is we have very limited damage and all but one green (#14) are completely free of snow and some are even greening up.

Truthfully, number 2 green is a bit funky and my initial guess is its health relates more to how it entered the winter.  I became concerned last year with the unusual amount of growth (as measured by collecting clippings) experienced on all the greens last season.  My fear was the energy being directed to all the vertical growth (especially in the fall) was been fueled at the expense of CHO storage.  Compounded by the fact that #2 green (in the fall) becomes mostly shaded starting at noon I was concerned about the development of winter hardiness for this green.  I have it tarped and did some tree pruning (more will occur later in the season, I promise) to give it a bit of help.  As it stands now, if the green doesn't improve it will be a temporary until soil temperatures are adequate and we see some good growth.  It's not real bad but it's got a long season ahead of it so I may baby it for April.

Another developing tradition is the Member Spring Clean.  An e-mail will be sent out letting everyone know when to come and volunteer.  It really does help with preparing the course for opening and limiting early season expenses.  This year there is a few extra branches down due to all the snow so I am hopeful for a big turn out.

Back in December last year (go HERE) I decided to try and see how Twitter could work for me, you, and KGC.  What did I discover?  If you're not disciplined, it is a huge time waster!  However, I have found it useful in certain aspects so I've decided to try and emulate what other golf course geeks are doing.  The hardest thing is wading through all the posts.  Truthfully, that's only a problem if you decide to create or already have a Twitter account.  If you choose to just follow my feed with your cell phone via text message you will only receive "tweets" from me and no other persons feed.  How do you use your cell phone to follow my feed?  Assuming you text, all you need to do is type the number 21212 in the "To:" window and type "follow KGCtweets" in the message body of the text and then press "Send" and you're good.  When I send a tweet that relates to the club I will preface any message with #KGC.  Any time you receive a tweet from me that doesn't start with #KGC you can pretty much ignore it since the lack of the hash tag and the KGC mean I am posting on matters that don't specifically relate to the course.  Like I said before, I plan to use Twitter to inform in "real-time" the happenings at KGC such as when we will definitely open, frost delays, or days when we aren't allowing carts, or stuff like that.....I think.  I promise not post my opinion on topics outside of KGC, no pictures of empty beer bottles, and no photos of other local superintendents in compromising positions.....well I am not so sure about that last one, some of those guys need to be knock of their perch!  Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Look! I see Grass!

Slowly, very slowly the snow is disappearing from around the course.  Those greens that I sped up the melt on are all open and appeared to have wintered well.  Realistically, an official "we are good" comment won't come until I start to see some growth but I am in an optimistic mood.  I still haven't removed the tarp on 15 green but I am at the mop up stage and the tarp should be off soon.  I did get 7 Green cleaned off and was able to look under the tarp and saw how it wintered.

7 Green 

Similar to last year (go HERE) I messed around with the Enkamat product and saw positive results.  In the picture above the upper left corner of the green was covered with just an ice shield alone while the obviously greener turf was covered with both Enkamat and ice shield.  As I've said in earlier posts we didn't really have any ice this year so the ice shield wasn't necessarily required but based on this picture it would be tough to ignore the benefits of the Enkamat.

If you remember last fall I also used Enkamat under the semi-permeable tarp on 6 green ( go HERE for reminder) and, as luck would have it, the results were similar.

6 Green

As usual, the picture somewhat distorts how the turf really appears but trust me when I say it wintered well.  Aside from trying to give the weak part of this green a head start I also wanted to see the impact of the Enkamat in conditions other than under an impermeable (i.e. ice, slush, and water).  Again, it's tough to ignore the apparent benefits.

One final experiment I did with the Enkamat was using it directly on a green surface without any cover to see if results were similar to last year.  The green was 9 but it still has snow so we'll have to wait to see what has occurred.

For the next week or so I will shuffle tarps around to those greens which appear slow to get going and start to clean up a few loose ends in anticipation of the Spring Volunteer Clean-Up and, dare I say, opening!

A Quick and Dirty Spring Update....Revised

(Oops! I accidentally posted before I was finished writing and editing.  Read this one and forget anything you may have seen earlier with the same title)

The last couple of weeks have seen more and more snow melt allowing me to access more areas.  I am doing the usual messing around and trying to speed the snow melt by spreading either straight sand or other materials on select greens and miscellaneous areas.  We are lucky this year since ice appears to have never developed on any greens surfaces.  The greens which I have chosen to melt snow are more on the shadey side or, for whatever reason, have more snow than typical.  Why do some greens have more snow?  I referenced a situation two years ago when comparing 12 green and 13 green snow pack.  You can go HERE for my unproven theory.  After 6 days I can tell you that by using a medium rate of dark organic fertilizer there was conservatively 50% more snow melt versus areas left "au naturel".  Take a look:

After 1 Day

After 2 Days

After 2 days the snow dropped about 3" (for both those days overnight lows were -10 C and daytime highs were +6...but nice and sunny).  As of today, on #6 green for example, there is 5 to 6 inches on the front shadey portion of the green while the middle/back still has almost 10".  A slow sustained melt is nice. There seems to be only a limited amount of moisture on the green surface and despite the overnight lows of -10 C there still must be enough insulating properties remaining in the snow as the moisture isn't freezing on the surface overnight.  It's funny how these same conditions would be the kiss of death in December or January but now it's OK since the wet surface seems to slowly thawing the subsurface (I guess as the snow pack get more and more funky warm air temperatures are probably getting to the ground as well).  But elsewhere:

The "hole" left #11 Fwy

It's been a few years since we have to deal with this but, as mentioned in older posts, the ground is frozen so any moisture from melting snow will run to low areas and sit there until the ground thaws.    One other area of note when it comes to water is 15 green.  One of reason we tarp 15 is because of this:

Water "Thundering" off 15 G

The whole green slopes right to left and both the front and back slope towards the swail in the middle, left of the green.  Compounding the water problem on 15 green is the huge bank on the right side.  As a result, melting snow always causes water to puddle on this green. Obviously the more water that runs off the green the less the chance ice will develop and the less chipping I will have to do.  I am hoping another week will have the snow to a manageable level and then we can get the tarp off.  It's a huge job for 2 guys (go HERE) to do in a day so it would be an astronomical job for one guy....me!  As usual, stay tuned to find out what happens!

Conference Time

Part of a herd of Elk on #11 Fwy

Luckily the winter has been pretty slow, hence the lack of posts. More snow is always welcome if for no other reason than the possibility that an increasing snow pack in the mountains may prolong the flow in the St. Mary throughout the summer (as of February 1st, the East Kootenay is 93% of normal and the snow survey sites around Kimberley are 100% of normal).  We now have close to 22" versus the 12" we had before the last 10 days of snow.

I just got back from 5 days of education sessions, trade show, and seminars. Attending allowed me to accumulate continuing education credits that are tracked and aid in the renewal of my pesticide applicators license (truth be told I struggle with this aspect of the renewal process mostly due to the fact that CEC's replace a written test but that's a discussion for another time and place). A new format for this years conference had learning seminars bookend the “meat” of the conference. I chose to take a full day leadership seminar (that one opened my eyes to how much I've limited myself and what a chicken sh*t I am) and a half day seminar on maintenance standards and budgeting (got some great examples that I will be implementing...stay tuned!). Although the energy and offerings at the conference were great there was a definitely an aura of trepidation surrounding the industry. There are small pockets of growth in certain areas as well as established courses in larger markets that don't appear to be feeling the pinch like we are at KGC but most everyone else could relate to our situation in one form or another.

Education is usually one of the first things to take a hit during lean times but the information relayed at these types of conferences is put to good use back at KGC.  Examples of ideas I took away from previous conferences are regular greens rolling, using moisture meters to cut back on irrigation and improve playing conditions, tarping of the greens, brooming greens for grain and density, the development of a maintenance standard, even some of the personnel strategies I use with my staff are only a few of ideas that have been implemented at KGC (to some degree of success, IMO). That being said I feel that if associations include educating members as part of their mandate they need to keep finding economical ways to allow all members to experience meaningful and quality education.  For me, I belong to certain associations for many reasons (advocacy, promotion and recognition of the profession, an industry resources, and networking just to name a few) but continuing education is one of the most important.  The reality of the present golf economy means many educational opportunities are missed since the cost associated with travel and lodging are difficult reconcile with need to control expenses.  I am seeing more offers to access educational webcasts via some of the larger associations, certain on-line education companies, and through some industry representatives.  If provincial or territorial associations dabbled more in providing long distance opportunities (e.g. webcasts or internet access to recorded educational opportunities) their value would be that much greater and that much easier to justify when budget time rolls around.

Hmmm... there I go again.   Not sure what my point was but obviously something was on my mind.  You probably only really care about whats happening on the course.  Like I said at the outset, not much.  I nosed around before I went to the conference to see what was happening under the snow and did not see anything that concerned me.  No real ice, not even on the usual suspects (the upper putting green developed some but just recently).  The ground is still frozen which bodes well for limited incidences of disease on untreated areas (sorta depends on spring, to be fair).  Taking a look at things from all angles, frozen ground might mean something if we have a quick melt (standing water and possible washouts) and may mean a slow start for the turf (low soil temperatures means turf is slow to start growing) and quite possibly a boat load of irrigation hassles (especially with respect to the hydraulic system on the back nine) but we'll see.

Oh Boy, Here it Comes!

The past month has seen a fairly relaxed schedule with not much happening on the course.  With this year being the 90th anniversary of KGC it would have been nice to plan for something extraordinary but not much has really been budgeted for.  I am sure something will come up in discussions during meetings before the season gets going.  After all, 90 years of history is the one thing KGC can bring to the table that no other golf course in the area can offer.

Speaking of other courses in the area, you may have heard of the recent sale of one of the newer courses.  I am glad the sale went as it did with an outside group acquiring the property.  Fresh minds and a fresh perspective might be able to develop a different golf business model for the East Kootenay.  At the risk of alienating people, I going to speak my mind a bit.  There is concern that there is not enough local players to support all the courses between Kimberley and Cranbrook.  A director at another local course commented once that he only sees two courses in Kimberleys future.  Within the context of the conversation during which this statement was made the implication was KGC was headed the way of the Dodo bird.  I definitely do not subscribe to that view.  The changes implemented last season and the success they brought show just how viable KGC can be in a ridiculously competitive golf market.

The "glut" of courses in this area is great for the local player especially since all courses seem to be competing for the same "value orientated" golfer demographic.  A "new player" in the golfing game could price their course at such a level that they could be seen as "raising the bar" (green fee wise, that is) and in turn take some pressure off with respect to having to lower rates to try and continually attract the same group of golfer.  Obviously, the idea of raising rates is not very popular with locals.  But, at the risk of sounding rude or elitist maybe not everyone should be able to golf at every course at rock bottom rates.

I obviously sound self serving (as some of my cohorts have indeed suggested) but I sometimes think opportunities are missed by the projection of our own financial situation, our personal bias, and our perceptions of what we feel a round of golf is worth.  A $250 or $400 dollar green fee seems insane when you look at course like KGC but when looking at a modern, high end course designed and built like no others in a spectacular location a $400 green fee is not that unrealistic; especially, when you consider that less than a 40 minute flight away is a province that is "home to the highest percentage of those with incomes in the top one per cent (of Canada). One in every 50 Albertans is in this $191,100+ category, with almost one in 30 Calgarians reaching that level" (go HERE for CBC news article).

Re-reading this rant makes me sound like I am promoting other golf courses over and above KGC which not true.  What I am promoting is the development of green fees that reflect the true value of a course (or more accurately, the development of greens fees that reflect the true value of operating a course).  A very vague statement that could spawn another whine about pass books or season passes offered by courses that promote themselves as "daily fee" or "resort" courses.

Now that I got that out of my system I'll make sure to focus on the golf course and write about more important things next time out!!

Nothing Makes Me Happier Than a Big Dump...

Take that to mean whatever you want but specifically today it's a reference to the snow!  Overnight and for most of the day we've had 30 cm of good, dense snow.  As I've said before, the stretch of cold weather up until now is good news with respect to tarps (not a lot of soil activity with things frozen this deep so not much opportunity for anoxia via CO2 build up) but not the best for greens without tarps since any liquid moisture on the green the surface will become ice.  However, the amount of snow we now have is good and offers some protection if the "Pineapple Express" comes through in January.

With things being obviously slower in the winter I sometimes go to a book where I enter ideas or items I want to investigate further.  Some entries are impractical and mean nothing now but others keep surfacing.  I've never really understood the idea of "Twitter" but I spent sometime looking into how other golf superintendents use it as a tool and I think I get it....sort of.  I created an account and began following a few guys I know as well as some professional associations and the information available definitely runs a broad spectrum.  One good use as it may relate to players at KGC during the regular season would be supplying relevant information about the course in a quick fashion.  Think frost delay, for example.  Instead of having to call the golf shop to see if there is frost you would, if you're following my Twitter feed, receive a text providing information about the delay as soon as I know there is going to be one.

At this point I am going to hover around the perimeter of the "twittersphere" and observe and by the time spring rolls around I hope to have a idea of how to effectively use it.  If you're already subscribed Twitter you can click the "Follow" button just below the archived posts on this page.  If you're not on Twitter and have no interest in Twitter but still want to "Follow" my feed (and assuming you have a cell phone) go HERE and follow the instructions ( basically you type 21212 in the "To:" window and then type "follow KGCtweets" for the message part and press send.  You would then receive a text of anything I post on Twitter).

For me, most of social media tends to come across as a bit narcissistic.  But assuming I keep the tweets relevant to the goings on at KGC, I hope Twitter will really just be another way to keep members/players informed.