Feeling Inspired

  Some of my most enjoyable days each year are spent away from the golf course, attending any turf conference that I can get my hands on all the while staying within my Professional Development budget.  This year I was able to attend both the AGSA Property Manager's Conference in Canmore as well as the CGSA Conference (#CITC2014) in Vancouver, both in breathtaking locations.  To make things even better, Brent Lees (@Brentgrassturf), Assistant Superintendent at Woodside GC, was able to travel to Vancouver as well and escape the never-ending polar vortex for a few days.  Brent has been the Assistant at Woodside for almost three years now and this is the first time that we have traveled outside the province to a turf conference together.
  We arrived in Vancouver on Monday afternoon and took the skytrain from YVR to the Fairmont Waterfront.  What a great location!  We changed into some business clothes and popped over to the President's Welcome Reception for some food and drinks with the other attendees.  The rest of the evening was spent across the street at the Cactus Club and I do apologize if I nodded off there, the Ativan that I take when I fly and a cocktail or two are not a great combination.
  On Tuesday morning the Education Program began with four streams to choose from.  I always find Dr. Tom Hsiang both very informative and entertaining and rarely miss a presentation by Matt Nelson.  I think that I secretly always wanted to be a USGA agronomist like Matt once was.  Just before noon I decided to find a quiet spot to rewrite my acceptance speech for the Environmental Achievement Award.  Unfortunately a Lufthansa flight crew had decided to meet at the same spot and I found this very distracting, but I did manage to get my thoughts down on paper.  I don't actually read what I write down but use it as a guide so I don't miss anything (#gettingold).  At the Awards Luncheon I had the privilege and honor to meet the Superintendent of the Year Jim McGarvey AGS, John B. Steele award winner Robert Heron MS and Future Superintendent of the Year Jordan Collins (@Scooter_Turf).  I must say that Jordan had an excellent speech prepared and I had a hard act to follow and I was really not happy with the Lufthansa distraction at this point.  As always, I did the best that I can and I was very happy to have Brent there as he plays such an important role at the golf course and I can't say enough about his contributions to the success of the facility.

I really want to thank Club Car for sponsoring the award as well as the CGSA staff, especially Lori and Kathryn for their help with all the details that they take care of to make the event run smoothly.  Tuesday afternoon was spent at the Green Speed Discussion followed by the opening of the Trade Show.

  On Wednesday morning I was feeling very refreshed after a great sleep and we were up early for the Annual General Meeting.  At 9am it was time for Trevor Linden to give the keynote address and that was worth the price of admission.  His thoughts on life and teamwork and his anecdotes left you with with a feeling that was hard to describe.  He was very inspiring.  I was so inspired that I decided to do something that I had never done, run the Stanley Park seawall.  What a treat it was to run 15 km in February without 3 layers of clothes on and snow and ice everywhere.  I made it back to the trade show for some pictures at the Club Car booth and the Fest of Ales.  The Wednesday Night Party did not disappoint with great food and some very funny comedians to boot.

Myself with Trevor Linden and Connaught Super and AGSA President Dustyn Zdan.

  As Thursday rolled around, everyone was keeping an eye on what was happening in Sochi and, as we all know, great things were taking place for Team Canada athletes.  I was near a TV set for the end of the ladies' Ice Hockey game and I was absolutely amazed when that puck hit the post and didn't go in and they went on to win 3-2 in overtime against the USA.  

  

The Olympics were certainly getting a lot of attention on Twitter at the time.

  Thursday was also the day that Kerry Watkins AGS did a very heart-wrenching presentation on the Alberta Floods that did so much damage to so many courses on June 20.  I don't think that anyone could have told the story better.  Well done Kerry!  He is another person that inspires so many others.  The day finished with one of my favorite presenters, Frank Rossi, who always seems to be at the cutting edge, challenging old beliefs and he certainly tells it like it is.  Although my jury is still out on Poa Cure.

  I am certainly glad that I got a 15 km run in on Wednesday as the food and drink at the BCGSA Pub Night was simply amazing.  It was so awesome to see the Olympic Cauldron lit at the Jack Poole Plaza just a couple of blocks away.  Everyone was brimming with pride for all the Canadian athletes.

Friday morning came around quickly and we were getting near the end of the line.  My Starbuck's card came in handy as I grabbed a venti light roast and watched the sunrise.  I had lived in North Vancouver for 7 years but I was young and at an age when your world was small, especially before the internet.  At 53 years old I was able to get back to Vancouver and savour what I had missed and soak in the views of the sunrise hitting the Lions and downtown North Vancouver.

I even got a good shot of a Canadian flag along the docks.

  Brent and I decided to watch the first period of the Men's gold medal hockey game against Sweden, travel back to YVR and catch the third period and a bite to eat at the airport.  What a great way to end an awesome week.  Thanks to the CGSA staff for rocking another conference, all the sponsors that help make it happen, the speakers that keep us informed and all the delegates who make this the best profession there is.

2014 CGSA Environmental Award

Tee it forward...please!

Unless you have been away visiting another planet recently, you know that we have been promoting the Tee it Forward program that has been around the golf industry for several years now.  The basis of this program is to get golfers to play from the correct set of tee markers, shoot a better score and enjoy the wonderful game of golf.  Another benefit is a shorter round of golf so that you can spend more time doing whatever you like to do away from the golf course, and in some instances I don't really want to know what that is.

The first step that we took was to create a new set of forward tees, very similar to what Jason Clouston had at Olds Golf Club.  In most cases these tees were either in a fairway or a flat spot in the rough, mowed down to tee height (1/2 inch).  These silver tees at Woodside immediately shortened the course by over 1,000 yards and were a welcomed addition for the novice golfers, once-a-year tournament players and the higher handicappers.  The tees are not gender specific and it warmed my heart to see both males and females playing from the silver tees.  By the way, the tee marker color does not refer to the hair color of the people that should be playing these tees, most people color their hair anyways.  My personal preference is Just for Men - bleach blonde.

The next step that we have decided to take was to evaluate the layout of each hole and determine an ideal distance for the silver tees.  This was done with the help of some input from some of the golfers at Woodside and over the course of the past several weeks we started constructing some new forward tee boxes on the holes that needed them the most.  Prior to the bona fide arrival of winter on November 16 and the ground freezing up, we were able to rough-shape new tees on hole 2, 5, 9 and 13.  

We have developed an excellent method of tee construction that both minimizes costs and uses up all the material that we accumulate over the course of a season.  This includes twigs/ branches, sod, bunker edging debris and even some dead trees.  As part of our reduce, reuse, recycle program we have not hauled any material off the golf course for over a decade now.  Our landfills really don't need more material and we are quite proud of the fact that it is all buried back into Mother Earth.  I guess you could say that it goes full circle.  Everything begins in the soil and ends back in the same place.

Step 1 in my tee construction system is to locate a suitable area close to sprinklers but not over any irrigation pipes or wires, clear the snow away and mark the four corners of the finished tee with hazard stakes.

The dimensions of the new tees will be very close to being 30 feet wide by 45 feet long.  I would explain why I chose these distances but I can't give away all my secrets.  

Step 2 is to strip off the sod with the Bobcat and the bucket that has the big, nasty teeth on it.  This portion of the project does take some talent to remove the sod and leave the soil.

The reason that I include this step is that the pieces of sod are difficult to work with later on in the project.

Step 3 involves more Bobcat work and the topsoil is stripped off and piled to the side of the tee box.  We generally dig down one foot and leave a bit of a ramp where the dump truck will be coming in and out.

Step 4 is a relatively relaxing one as you get to listen to some tunes as you are hauling debris into the tee.  For this tee on #13 I hauled eight loads (32 cubic yards) of material in.

It looks like a lot of material but the Bobcat will compact it considerably. 

Once the debris is packed down the sod is set into some of the low areas and then the soil is laid back on over top and then it is leveled and packed some more.

Finally we have the base of a new tee box that will require some more packing in the spring after the ground both thaws out and dries enough to get the equipment back onto it.

We will purchase some screened loam and some sod to finish the project and the tee will be open  a couple of weeks after the sod has rooted.  We did add a few tree plugs (back, left of the picture) from the fall planting (24 spruce trees) that will be incorporated into the tee box.  This will be the new silver tee on the 13 hole at a distance of 315 yards out from the green.

Time to reminisce

I was just going through some old pictures for the Olds College tour on September 25 and I came across some pictures of the bridge moving event quite a few years ago.

The forklift and truck coming down the edge of the 16th fairway in January, 1998 and that was one cold day!

 

 

There was no better time to do the relocation as the ground was frozen solid.

 

The flatbed backing into place just before the bridge was pulled across the frozen pond.

 

And there it is relocated from the gulley between holes 4 and 5 to where it is now.

Sunrise

Another nice sunrise on June 17, looking over the 16th green.

Baby ducks

There were five ducks nests on the course that we knew of, and probably just as many that were hidden in the long grass of the no-mow zones.  

Another nice sunrise

Another nice sunrise, looking down the 10th hole, on May 21, 2013.