Now is the Time!

It's that time of year again ladies and gentlemen, time for the process you've all been waiting for...The Punching of the Greens!

As you all know, the spring aeration is one of the most important practices there is to ensure healthy and resilient turf throughout the growing season. The important thing is the greens and surrounding areas are firm enough to hold up to the heavy traffic that takes place during the process. The slide below depicts the effect of aeration in the soil and to the turf.

We appreciate the flexibility given by the membership to properly perform the spring aeration. When putting the club calendar together late last year, much thought was given to the timing of these aeration's and a decision was made to block off a four week period starting March 12th for weather dependent aeration. This is an important step in putting the golf course first as this time of year, the weather will dictate how and when we can implement this all important practice. Looking at the forecast we feel that now is the time.

The putting green and BACK nine will be closed Wednesday the 21st.

The FRONT nine will be closed on Thursday the 22nd.

Thank you for your cooperation with this process and we'll see you on the course!

Golf Industry Trade Show and Conference

Last week, Randy Gai and I had the great fortune of attending the Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas. The Show is put on by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America  and  despite this years conference location being known as Sin City, the focus of our four days in Vegas was on education, new equipment and technologies and the many networking opportunities that are available at any Golf Industry Show. The following details my week at the show.



Tim Powers on the right; Superintendent at Crystal Springs GC in Hillsborough
National Award Winner for Environmental Stewardship
Congrats to my Friend and former Boss
























The week started early Monday with an all day seminar titled Reducing Chemical Use on Golf Course Turf. Professors Frank Rossi and Jennifer Grant from Cornell University put on a very educational and entertaining seminar with much of their talk focused on alleviating the amount of stress that our turf encounters at different times of the year thus reducing the need to treat chemically. I'm all for the reducing the amount of chemical use on our course and intend to seek out any methods that will help us do so.

A Plan Based Budget Will Help You Succeed was the title of my class on day 2. Full of much needed info and advise especially for the greenhorn Superintendent, the best aspect of this seminar was continual discussion between the more than 60 Superintendents from all over the world.

Wednesday the doors of the Trade Show opened at 9am for all the Superintendents, Assistants and Course Owners and Builders to look at the many new products and equipment available. The trade show floor is massive and it's quite difficult to take in everything in just a day. Much time was spent re-connecting with industry friends and networking with other Superintendents and we ended up walking the floor all day Wednesday and half of Thursday.

Thursday morning was the highlight of the show for me. The GCSAA hosted a general session for all attendees and the keynote speaker was none other then David Feherty. Click the link below for a short interview and highlight clip from his time with the GCSAA. Beware, the language is colorful to say the least.  In listening to Feherty for over an hour, we all came away having laughed, cried and feeling very lucky to be American.

http://www.gcsaa.tv/lasvegas/?obj_id=2013&gis_filter=1

I will say that I'm very happy to be back home. It's always nice to come back to California and back to Claremont and I intend to apply the many lessons learned in our department. We Superintendents are truly fortunate to be part of such a special profession and I want to thank the membership at Claremont for their continued support. I leave you with this: "What They Think I DO" as a Golf Course Superintendent.

Thanks to Brian Boyer, Superintendent at Cinnabar Hills for turning me on to this. So funny and so True!!

Thanks and we'll see you on the golf course....