Sunny Side Up Please

Growing grass, on it's most basic concept, is a pretty simple formula.  All you have to do is throw in some food, add some water and give the plant lots of sunshine.  If you have all of the those things in abundance the plant will go bananas and grow literally like a weed!  The problem with that formula on a golf course is that there's always a limiting factor.  It could be not enough food or an imbalance of the right foods, it could be not enough or too much water and sometimes its not enough sunshine.

When you do not get enough sunshine on our warm season grasses they do not perform very well.  Warm season grasses need a minimum of 8 hours of high intensity sunlight to survive, but really likes about 13 hours of intense sunlight.  Notice I didn't say 8 hours of sunlight equals "super awesome."  The challenge for golf course superintendents down here is trying to get "super awesome" during the winter months when temperatures and light intensity are at their lowest points.  I am trying to get the golf course to be super awesome during the times when all the factors are against me.  This is completely opposite of what happens during the golf season up north.  The golf courses up north are more or less only open when the grass is actively growing and the conditions are favorable for "super awesome."

One of the first things that happens to bermuda grass when it doesn't get enough sun is that it thins out.  In this picture of 14 green is a typical scenario played out caused by shade issues.  First comes the thinning out, then the algae sets in and then complete loss of turf.

In this picture you can see what time it is and where the shade line is compared to the red circle indicating the trouble spot.  The part of the green on the right side doesn't have any thin areas.  This green is heavily shaded from early morning sun compared to 18 green which has had full sun since 7.  Sometimes an extra hour is difference between healthy, thick turf and a sod cutter.

If there is a shade issue on a course, it's going to happen every year at this time.  The shaded grass on the putting surfaces are starting to get tired from having to use all of its carbohydrate reserves (stored food) in it's root system because there's not enough sun to produce all that it needs.  Because the sun is so low in the sky and the intense light duration is limited, the grass will literally burn itself out trying to survive.

I took this picture with my IPhone using a program called Sun Seeker.  Sun Seeker tracks the movement of the sun.  The yellow line represents today's sun path, the blue line represents the lowest angle of the sun in the dead of winter.  This should help illustrate what I mean by sun intensity.  We all know the most intense sun is in the summer.  It's the most intense because the sun it the highest in the sky, almost directly overhead.  The good news is the days are getting longer and the sun is slowly getting higher everyday.

This picture was taken looking straight up into the sky over 14 green.  The top of the picture is pointing north and the bottom is facing south.  I wanted to show you how much more the sun has to climb into the sky before it is at it's peak, where the sunlight intensity will be at it's highest.  The yellow line is today's sun pattern and the red line is the summer solstice.  Remember the higher in the sky, the more intense.  Notice the dates.

Another important angle to look at is where the sun is compared to time of day.  There's an old wife's tale about morning sun is better than afternoon or vice versa, in reality what's important is simply how long do you get sun.  Some plants have a larger light requirement than others.  Putting surfaces have a huge light requirement.  The reason has to do with the height of cut.  Our putting surfaces are cut down to almost 1/10 of an inch.  That doesn't leave much leaf surface area to capture sunlight to be converted into energy for the plant.  Simply put, the lower the height of cut, the more sunlight is needed to preserve health.  An old superintendent's trick when we've had several days of cloudy,  or not so sunny days is to raise to height of cut to give the plant just a little extra leaf surface to capture a smidgen more sunlight.  REMEMBER, LEAVES ARE THE PLANT'S SOLAR PANELS.  THE MORE SOLAR PANEL SURFACE AREA YOU HAVE THE MORE ENERGY CAN BE PRODUCED!

Shade on a green is not necessarily a bad thing.  In fact, shadows are a very distinct design feature architects use to create eye movement and character to a golf course landscape.  Like most things in life, it all comes down to intensity and duration.  The trick in managing a healthy turf is to be able to balance both intensity and duration, too much of a good thing can be detrimental too.  

Managing the business side of Green

If I had to guess off the top of my head, I'd say I have some where around a million dollars worth of machines in my building.  Some are super highly specialized like a fairway mower costing the same as a luxury four door sedan, and others as simple as a side walk edger.  Regardless, all of these machines require maintenance.  We are fortunate to have a superb Equipment Manager, Frank Novotny, who is responsible for maintaining it all. 

The world of fleet maintenance management is not like it used to be.  When I was a kid, my father was a fire fighter and the fire department's mechanic.  Every chance I got I went with him to turn wrenches and I can tell you that way back then, the sophisticated fleet management system used to maintain life saving fire trucks was a chalk board, a pencil, a pad of paper and a file cabinet.  We would do the work, write down what we did (hopefully you didn't get too much grease all over the paper while trying to write) and then put the paper in the appropriate file in the drawer.  Now however, my fleet maintenance management system is a very comprehensive computer program that tracks usage, repair costs, inventories and a whole lot more.  The picture below is a screen snap shot from our fleet management system which is 100% web based.  I can enter and access the data from any internet connection, even my IPhone.  In the picture there's a lot of information.  It shows things like when something is due for service and how many hours each piece of machinery has.  I can also look up other information about specific items like cost of ownership and maintenance costs compared to repair costs.

List of all my carts with service indicators...green is good, red square means due for service

When something is due for service, the fleet management system is programed with all the different activities and services that are required for each specific machine, at that specific time.  As a machine ages, different "things" need to be done to it.  For example: every 100 hours (we use hours of service instead of miles) the oil might need to be changed, but every third oil change the front wheel brakes might require adjusting.  Each piece of equipment has different maintenance schedules and the program has all the different service schedules built into it. 

This is how it all works.  Once a week, usually towards the end of the week, our Equipment Manager Frank takes an hour reading of every machine and enters the hours into the program.  When a specific machine exceeds it's allotted hours and requires a service, the computer automatically flags that unit for service within the program and generates a work order..  On Mondays, Frank goes into the program and runs a report of open work orders and the program generates a list of flagged items.  Within the report will be every machine that needs service based on hours used, what has to be done for each piece of machinery, what parts will be required for the service and the report will even tell the service technician in what storage bin the parts are located in the parts room. 

Yes that's right, the fleet management system also is an inventory management system.  All of my spare parts to keep the fleet running are able to be put into the programs and cataloged.  Over the past three years Frank has been working on trying to figure out what exactly was in what he called "the magical mystical parts room!"  Inventory management was so bad when I got here that it became a joke at the shop to say "don't order anything yet, let's go look in the parts room first."  It really didn't matter if it was to repair a machine or fix a broken irrigation pipe.  Frank has done a great job for us doing what he could, but to put the final nail in the bad inventory coffin I brought in one of our main vendors to do an accurate hard inventory count.  This way we can finally see what parts we still have for machines that we no longer have, as well as finish cataloging all inventory within the parts inventory piece of our fleet management software.

First we had to empty the parts room.  There was so much, well...crap (it's the most appropriate word) that a total emptying was the only was to go.  We found 5 year old candy in those blue bins in the back ground.

The next step was to count and catalog every widget, gizmo, nut, bolt, screw and spark plug we had.  Pictured here is our main vendor's service manager, parts manager and technology manager from left to right.  The guy on the left is the lead guy clearing out all of the crap from the stuff we want to keep.  The guy in the middle identifies all of the same items, counts them and finds a new home in the parts bins behind him.  The guy on the right enters all the different items, quantity, description and new bin number location into the fleet management system.  If you look at the floor you can see the outline of an parts bin that used to plug up the middle of the parts room, there was really two bins plugging everything up.  Through this process Frank was able to eliminate all the clutter and open up the space to be able to move around in the room.

Now instead of being the "magical, mystical parts room"  we have a neat, organized and computerized inventory.  Everything with a place and in it's place. 

Each item has it's own bin that is labeled with a unique number.  The computer now knows what gizmo and how many gizmos are in each bin.

How does CCN measure up to golf as a whole? Check out some recent data

Please take the time to read the results of the polling done by Golf Course Industry magazine on the health of the golf industry.  There are some interesting results and commentary.

	Look inside >
HOW DO YOU MEASURE UP?

Everyone needs to have a goal in life, mine is to just survive!

I'm still not sure if I'm off my rocker or not, but I signed up to do a Tough Mudder challenge with three of my buddies.  It's 10-12 miles of hills, ropes, mud, water, electricity, walls and fire designed by British Special Forces.  If you still have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this short video.



The race is Dec 1, 2012 in Tampa.  Anyone want to join in the fun?!

Turf Management, how do you look at the job?

I really don't think anyone thinks I'm sleeping, but thought this was pretty funny.

Of Turf or Tulips...from one of my turf columnist friend's latest article

My buddy Pat (the guy below), writes for Golf Course Industry magazine and is known for his colorful, straight to the point style.  Although he's sometimes comes out of left field with stuff, I think he's got this one dead to rights!

Of Turf and Tulips
Columns - Parting shots
Golf had its version of the tulip craze in the last couple of decades of the 20th century.

Pat Jones | February 10, 2012 |

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Pat Jones

Allow me to tell you a tale of tulips to illustrate my take on the current state of the golf industry. In the year 1637, there was a unique moment in history when the most valuable commodity on earth wasn’t gold or diamonds or Apple stock or five blissful minutes without seeing a Kardashian on television. For a brief time, tulip bulbs were as coveted as any object known to man. Go figure. For reasons that elude most modern historians, people went briefly gaga for tulips and the Dutch – being smart sonsabitches – created an entire economy around them that boomed like crazy for short time. Massive fortunes were made and then lost as interest waned, circumstances changed and tulips went back to forever being just something your teenager ran over when she backed the mini-van out of the driveway too fast. Golf had its version of the tulip craze in the last couple of decades of the 20th century. Golf had grown along with the suburbanization of America and, in the mid 1980s, we stood at about 10,000 facilities. About half of those were traditional private clubs and the other half were a mix of mom-and-pop facilities, resorts and munis. Then, along came a whole bunch of things that led us down the tulip-lined garden path. Developers became convinced that every subdivision needed a course as an anchor. The National Golf Foundation released a report suggesting there was enormous unmet demand for golf. Private and public entities decided to build courses as money-makers to keep up with the “endless” demand for corporate customer outings. Tiger came along and got us fist-pumping about the potential growth from minority participation. Finally, futurists told us how the looming retirement of the baby boomers would line all of our pockets with gold as affluent oldsters headed to the Sun Belt to play golf all day, every day. Our bubble quickly grew large. We added 5,000 new courses and dramatically increased expectations for conditioning and quality in just 20 years. We all had stars in our eyes as everyone threw money at the game. Only a handful of cynics noted that supply (courses) seemed to be growing faster than demand (rounds), but we ignored that gloom-and-doom stuff. But unlike the Dutch example, the madness didn’t end suddenly with a loud, devastating “pop.” Instead, our bubble deflated slowly and in phases. First came the end of another fad; the Dotcom Boom that created much of the fake money that flowed into golf. Then came 9/11 and a drop in travel golf and outings. Then came publicized reports about overbuilding in Myrtle Beach and elsewhere, political embarrassments like AIG hosting lavish golf outings with federal bailout money and a growing corporate perception that golf-based marketing was distasteful to shareholders who worried that their 401(k)s were funding playgrounds for the elite. Combine those historical factors with ongoing cultural changes that make it harder for our traditional core customer – a guy in his 30s or 40s with disposable income – to allocate time and money for golf. So, we find ourselves overbuilt, under-valued and facing a future that looks kind of crappy. Yet, there has been no crash and there probably won’t be. Rounds are only down about 10 percent overall from the high water mark a decade ago (revenues are a different story). And, for a whole bunch of reasons, even the 30 percent of facilities that are consistently unprofitable continue to operate. In short, the state of the industry today is “limping along in limbo.” Compared to collapsing like the Dutch tulip market, that’s not such a bad thing. In my opinion, golf will endure this self-inflicted, smoldering crisis. The core values that attract people to the game – a challenging physical experience in a beautiful outdoor setting – will continue to keep a lot of people interested. But not enough to support 16,000 facilities. Anyone sitting around at a badly managed operation waiting for “the old market to come back” or for some dumbass to pay them an inflated price for the land is in for a bloody long wait. The only winners will be those who follow the Marine Corps motto: improvise, adapt and overcome. And they better get busy doing it soon. This is survival of the fittest time, folks. The smart will live and the dumb will die. And please God, let the dumb die soon for they hurt all of us through discounting, poor service and turning people away from the game by treating customers like crap. So, my advice to those pondering the state of this business is to get smart or get out. Otherwise, a lot of us are going to be sitting around someday staring at a pile of worthless tulip bulbs disguised as the golf market.

Study: Florida’s golf economy generates $7.5 billion

From the most recent economic impact study done about golf.......

The sport of golf drives some $7.5 billion into the state’s economy each year – a number that one study says is on par with the combined revenues of all other major spectator sports in Florida.
And that’s just the money spent directly on golf, according to researchers for SRI International. Factor in tourism dollars, new residential construction, retail sales and other categories, and the total economic impact rises to $13.8 billion.

The results were cited this week as Florida legislators issued proclamations honoring “Florida Golf Day” and the sport’s contributions to the state coffers.

“Golf has a dramatic impact on our state,” Gov. Rick Scott said. “Florida is the Number 1 golfing destination in the world; everything that we are doing to draw people and promote our state involves golf.”

The raw numbers from Florida’s golf snapshot in 2007, the most recent year for which figures have been vetted:
• 1,128 golf courses,
• 75 stand-alone practice ranges,
• 84 miniature golf facilities,
• $4.7 billion of wage income, and
• More than 167,000 jobs.

“We want elected officials and agency personnel in Florida – whether they’re making the decisions on legislation or writing a law for this country – to recognize that we have a very good economic model,” PGA of America chief executive Joe Steranka said.

The survey estimated golf-related tourism spending in Florida to amount to $1.71 billion, ranging from 2.03 million day trips with average spending of $62 each day. Five days was the average length of the trip.

The state plays host to a dozen prominent tour stops in 2012 – six on the PGA Tour, three on the Champions Tour, two on the Nationwide Tour and the LPGA season finale. In addition, both the PGA Tour (Ponte Vedra Beach) and LPGA (Daytona Beach) keep their headquarters in Florida, as do the PGA of America (Palm Beach Gardens) and World Golf Hall of Fame (St. Augustine).

Email Subscriber Alert

If you have subscribed to the auto-notification system and you are having trouble viewing the latest post or viewing a video posted in the latest post, please go directly to the blog, It appears that the video in the posting about the #15 fountain problems doesn't work in the notification email, but it does work if viewed directly from the original blog.

Sorry about that, not sure what the issue is. 

The South's Version of Ground Hog Day

Have you recently walked up to your car an thought to yourself "When did my car get painted yellow?" As many of you know, and I'm guessing probably is the reason why so many come to SW Florida during the winter, our "winter" season here is very short. An 'Ol Florida Cracker told me once that the sure fire way of telling winter is gone is when the whole world down here gets a dusting of yellow. He called Pine tree pixie dust!

Spring time in Naples is accentuated by the blossoming of all the yellow and pink tabebuia trees, the days are filled with white puffy clouds, blue skies and everything is covered in Pine pollen. Believe it or not, back when I was a kid, pre Naples building bonanza, it was worse.  Yet, unlike the annual ground hog day where we are waiting for Punxsutawney Phil to tell us if winter is over, when the pollen shows...up there's no uncertainty.

So start putting away your winter coats and your cozy night time socks, pop an Allegra allergy pill and get ready for some out of this world great weather. Oh, and don't forget to come on out and play some great golf while your at it!

Tony, your car is dirty

Problems with the fountain on 15

After a much anticipated return, at least for some, the fountain on 15 had a small issue....it wasn't running.  I did some snooping around inside the control box and found the problem.  Watch the short video to see what it was.

Should be easy enough to fix.

Superintendents....jacks of all trades!

Random Pictures

It's another one of those truly bluebird days on the golf course this morning. Spring fever has hit the flora and the fauna. The bird activity this morning has been incredible. I've seen an aerial battle between two red shoulder hawks and an osprey on 7, bluebirds in the cypress hammocks between 10 & 13, I saw a red bellied wood pecker flying around so fast I thought he was on speed. I also saw mocking birds, anhingas, great blue herons and ibis just to name a few.

Below are just some random pictures I took with my IPhone this morning. The phone has an incredible camera, but I also use an app called Camera+ to edit and enhance some pictures.

Enjoy your day!

What your golf balls sees on a hole-in-one

The result of all the warm weather

Spring is in the air

Another full tee sheet

before enhancement

after enhancement

dew drops from heaven



Training Day!

Today the golf course has a full 18 hole shotgun tournament and the golf maintenance staff needs to be off the golf course.  Instead of sending everyone home, let's do some safety training.  Pictured below is Scott Bills, the Loss Prevention Director for our insurance company.  Part of the benefits our insurance company provides is access to their loss prevention programs and professional training.  I have been working with Scott ever since I arrived at CCN 4 years ago.

Scott is here today to do our annual Material Safety Data Sheet training.  Other training being covered today will be electrical safety and a generalized topic of "safety attitude" which will cove things like proper lifting and hand safety.  Once all of the inside power point training is completed, Scott does a courtesy walk around inspection for me to make sure we do not have an obvious safety issues that need to be addressed.  As many of you know, sometimes it gets hard to see the forest from the trees when you see the same thing day after day.  So by bringing in a fresh set of eyes to look for areas of concern is a great way for me to help protect the Club from any potential liability exposures.

Bunker Etiquette

The group ahead of me forgot to rake out their foot prints. Shame on them!

Here's an Florida Regional update from the USGA

The 2012 Winter Season - So Far, Not Too Bad

By John H. Foy, director, Florida Region
January 20, 2012

(L) Peak winter season play and recent frost is having an impact on roughs and other areas of South Florida golf courses. (R) At courses where firm and dry conditions are desired, spot watering is necessary to prevent the onset of drought stress.

The winter golf season in Florida is now in full swing. Unlike 2010 and 2011, enjoyable mild to warm temperatures have kept golfers on the course. However, rounds continue to be down and some clubs are still struggling to achieve desired membership levels.

Until the second week in January when a cold front came through and frost was experienced, bermudagrass remained green and continued to grow a little. This growth helped mitigate the impact of winter season traffic and wear. Now, at all courses, roughs have gone off-color, and, especially in locations where concentrated cart traffic occurs, the turf has literally been beaten down. It will be six to eight weeks before sustained, active bermudagrass growth resumes in Central to South Florida so it is essential to intensively manage cart traffic to limit the damage as much as possible. For more on this topic, read Todd Lowe’s November 16, 2011 regional update, Dealing with Cart Traffic.

The front page headline “Drought’s Return May be Imminent” in the Tuesday, January 17^thPalm Beach Post

If we do go through a period of very limited or no rainfall, an initial concern will be a progressive buildup of salt in the upper rootzone of putting greens. This is true even at courses with good quality irrigation water sources. It is not too early to begin checking for salt buildup with an EC meter to determine if and when initiation of flushing irrigation cycles and other measures need to be undertaken.

Through fairway and rough areas, limited rainfall, in combination with low humidity and windy conditions, has resulted in localized dry spots at many courses. Where firm and dry playing conditions are desired, the golfers are starting to accept a little bit more off-color turf, however in another month or two when temperatures begin to increase, the rapid onset of drought stress will be much more of a management concern, and spot watering of large areas a less practical proposition.

At a later time, a regional update on drought management strategies and options will be posted if this becomes more of a concern. Hopefully, this is not the case, but, as always, the Green Section regional agronomists are available to be of assistance.

Feathery Competition on Golf Courses

The Brown Nuthatch or the Bluebird?  Both are beautiful little feathered friends, but which one is going to use the nesting box?  The prime real estate of a custom made bird house can often be very attractive for many similar sized birds, and just because one species got there first doesn't mean that will be the species who get to stay there.  Here's a link to a great article about nesting box competition amongst or feathered friends.  It explains why entry hole sizing is very important when targeting a particular species.
Feathery Competition on the Golf Course .

Nesting box results

Although this picture isn't from our course, it shows what we can expect.  This nesting box was installed yesterday afternoon and on today's morning ride around the Superintendent took this picture.