Golf Industry Show Key Note Speaker, David Faherty

It was a packed house Thursday morning at the Golf Industry Show as David Faherty took the stage to discuss topics such as his past, golf, and little quips and experiences that have happened around golf.  In the video below he talks about his thoughts regarding golf superintendents, living in America, and a few anecdotes about his life.  Please click on the embedded video, enjoy, and check back for more about what I took away from the show.  Cheers!

Busy, but very rewarding week.

A week ago tomorrow we held our annual SLO Golf Card member appreciation 2-person scramble event at Dairy Creek Golf Course.  In 2007 we decided we wanted to have more card holding members and we set out to aggressively increase our brand.  That year ended with roughly 1850 card holders and we knew we could do much better.  Last year we came up a few cards short of 3,000...that's a 40% increase in three seasons and more than exceeded our expectations.  Needless to say we had 80 of our 128 player event filled within 4 days of the email blast and we ended with about 25 people on the waiting list trying to get in after we were able to accommodate 2-3 twosomes.

The event went extremely well as it should, given this is our third annual, but pace of play is something that we plan to address next year.  With the re-routing of the course it does take a bit longer as yardages are often not familiar.  Participants had a great time anyway. 

Golfers arrive to the sounds that hearken back to the land of the games roots...Scotland!  The pipes are complements of the lungs of Paul "Piper O' the Pines" Dunn and he is magnificent.  The day starts off with our continental breakfast registration and range balls for warming up.  Players return to the putting green to test their stroke on our miniature golf course as a challenge to see who can post the best score from our putting course complete with trees, sand hazards, out of bounds, lateral hazards, and boulders.  It pays to be creative, yet thoughtful on this course, as the risk reward is substantial.  The winning score was -1.

The golfers then head out to their hole assignments where there were many surprises in store like 8" cups on 6 of the greens along with another 4.25" hole for them to chose from.  There were bottles of wine given away for closest to the pin, hats for longest drive, free buckets of balls for inside of the circle, and three re-routed holes that played differently than John Harbottle designed back in 1996.

After the round, players were greeted with a free lunch featuring chicken coquin, or roast beef with all of the fixin's.  Toward the end of lunch the fun really got started as everyone took out their raffle tickets and about $2,500 worth of freebies were given away.  The items ranged from golf balls and clubs to hotel get-a-ways and spa packages.  The tallied scores are announced and the 1st and 2nd place teams from the gross and net divisions are awarded with free golf passes and golf course gift certificates.

"What is the cost for such an event," you ask?  How about the price of your green fee and optional cart.  Yes, that's right $26 or $29 dollars plus $17 optional cart rental for range balls, mini golf, 18-hole tournament, lunch, approximately $4,000 worth of freebies, and Net and Gross winners.  If you are a SLO Golf Card holder and are interested in this event next year do not delay and get your entry form in right away and don't let another year pass by.  If you do not have a SLO Golf Card, get yours today at www.slogolfcard.com or at Dairy Creek, Morro Bay, or Chalk Mountain golf courses.

Enjoy the time lapse photography from Mikael Culala.

Last night I returned from the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas, so stay tuned as I will post some things I learned and saw at the greatest show on earth.

Come on guys, turn the water on!

We have been sending out customer surveys for the past 4-5 months to each of our customers as they play our courses.  The feedback has been tremendous (mostly positive with some welcomed constructive criticism mixed in to keep us humble).  We are using Survey Monkey and no I am not receiving compensation for the plug, but the best thing about this service is that you can provide feedback to the customer if they provide their email contact.  I try to stay current with the submissions and people have replied to my emails thanking me for taking the time to explain situations or agree with them as to why things are the way they are or seem.

Dairy Creek #1 Approach and Green

Dairy Creek #2 Tee Box

A comment we have received a few times this winter is the title of this post.  Most of the comments have come from customers in the Bay area or from Southern Cal.  Our turf species in our roughs and fairways are Common Bermuda, Hybrid Bermuda, or Kikuyu grass.  All of these species are termed warm season grass or C4 grasses.  This year has been unseasonably cold and we have had 17 frost delays at Dairy Creek so far and even one frost delay at Morro Bay, ON THE OCEAN FRONT!!  It's not supposed to be cold on the coast right?...WRONG, at least this year.  Our greens and green surrounds are nice and green, but if you are not wall to wall green some customers just are not satisfied regardless of playing quality.  I guess this is probably why the 2010 motto of "Brown being the new green" did not stick in the golf industry. 

DCGC #9 tee box and #8 green

Well the fact is that warm season turfgrasses go dormant during the winter months especially after a frost.  These cold temperatures significantly reduce the chlorophyll production of these plants and they begin to shut down to conserve energy and survive the next season.  This creates a landscape of gold, tan, and brown hues.  Unfortunately, this is not what golfers expect when showing up at a property and why golf naysayers chastise golf courses for being environmental polluters.

DCGC #9 tee box

As a turf professional I am always trying to educate golfers and non-golfers (hence this blog) about what we do and why we do it.  I understand when you look at a regional landscape like the one we live within here on the Central Coast of California, given our 13-17 inch annual rainfall average, seeing a vividly green golf course looks like a waste of resources as compared to the dry tan colors of the native landscape 9 months of the year.  However, we have done and continue to do what we can to minimize our impacts to the environment.  We irrigate with reclaimed water on all three of our courses and try to let mother nature control the reigns of our courses by using appropriate turf species, encouraging wildlife and their habitat, and working towards a goal of Zero Waste.  Many of these objectives lead to our golf courses looking more "off-color" this time of year as we are not over seeding areas to promote a green landscape, but rather allowing nature to happen to provide good golf conditions by utilizing  "green" practices.  These practices include reduced water usage, reduced fertilizer use, and minimal pesticide usage.  These reasons are why we created our Zero Waste Park at Dairy Creek so that we can accomplish all of these goals by using our waste streams to create organic fertility products that also eliminate our waste from reaching landfills where it has exponential impacts on the environment.

I would encourage all golfers to enjoy their favorite golf course with an eye towards a bigger picture and realize that the grass may not be as green as you might like, but most times there is a beneficial reason as to why.  Not to mention that your ball will probably roll an extra 20 to 30 yards farther and we can all use a little extra distance ... at least I can.

"I've got mae God and mae gowff to see me thro'."

                                          ~ Old Tom Morris  

2012? Already?!

I am sorry for the long hiatus that included the end of 2011 and the entire first month of January 2012.  My time has predominantly been spent preparing budget documents and reports for our fiscal year 2012/13.  This process seems to encompass more elements each year and the bureaucratic process of budgeting is, well we will just say exhaustively tedious.  Everything has been submitted and I hope that is the end of budgeting until next December (fingers crossed).

My staff on the course have been equally busy.  Coots continue to keep us busy in our effort to harass them enough to leave...yeah that's not working too well.  And our staff knows about harassment as we are trained how to prevent harassment every year so we just employ the opposite tactics.  These birds are persistent and have not gotten the hint.  We have used flares, noise makers, lasers, remote controlled boats, border collies, golf carts making laps to keep them in the ponds.

Coots grazing like cattle on a golf course.

Our Central Coast Chapter of the Golf Course Superintendents Association recently had the pleasure of listening to Pat Gross, our Southwest representative from the USGA, present information about happenings from our region and tips about how different people are dealing with issues.  Guess what coots were on the list!  Seems like many people are experiencing record numbers of these uninvited pests.  I am not sure what their natural predators are, but from my studies in Biology and Zoology in college, the predator/prey population curve must be favoring the prey right now with predator numbers slumping as these guys are out of control.  When you call Fish and Game to inquire about help their phone line states "please do not leave more than one message ... someone will be in touch with you in 5-7 business days due to large call volumes."  Some local superintendents have been experimenting with mono filament fishing line across their ponds to deter the birds.  This has shown minimal success.  In Santa Barbara another superintendent stated that he had purchased pink construction string (it was all that was left when they went to buy string) and made a big "X" across their pond.  They are not sure if the color is unappealing to the birds or what, but this seemed to work well.  We will be experimenting with this tactic very soon.

American Coot

For those of you unaware of the type of bird I am referring to they are the puddle duck looking black bird with red eyes and white beak.  They are a migratory species that is protected by the migratory bird act and they wreak havoc on golf course turf.  They love the tender leaves of our grasses and they will devour them right down to the crown which results in the need to apply additional fertilizer or in the worst cases reseed.  The worst result may be for health reasons as these birds will drop up to 4 ounces of feces per bird per day.  We have estimated that we have had as many as 2000 birds at any given time ... that's 500 pounds of bird crap per day!!  Most of this ends up around or on our greens as they love these tender leaf blades that are more easily digested.  The end result is something that is not extremely ideal for our golfers or my staff.  Rest assured that we are constantly trying to get rid of these birds so stay tuned.  Luckily their nesting season will be over soon and they will be off to cause trouble somewhere else.

GCSAA's very own Greg Lyman!

Greg is the Director of Environmental Programs for the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America.  In this video footage he is a guest on the Morning Drive, a talk show on the Golf Channel.  The message he protrays is relemvant to anyone that enjoys the game of golf because he discusses some of the regulations that golf course operations are governed by that many golfers do not even know about and that anti-golf individuals consistently pursue.  Now many of these regulations are valid, but should not only pertain to golf courses, but homeowners and place of business as well.  Things like water usage and chemical regulations.

There is not a great deal of statistical information in this video or even reference material in general, but hopefully you will gain some awareness about some of the challenges facing your favorite course.  And also how golf course superintendents are managing the playing surfaces in an effort to promote environmental awareness across the globe.  Many golfers flock to courses across the world, but how many know where the turf maintenance facility is, let alone the person entrusted with the upkeep of the turf.  Get to know your golf course superintendent and ask him/her what he/she is doing to improve the environement at your course.

Click on the link below and enjoy the message!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=2842137780972&set=vb.88819872477&type=2&theater

"Being in a links bunker is a little like sitting in a rigid pew at the village kirk on Sunday.  'You're noot here to have a good time, lad.  Yer here to atone fer yer sins.'"

~Donald Steel, British golf architect, quoting a Scottish friend.