The Last Post

Hello all,

Well, now that I have officially vacated Sawmill Creek for a little more than a week, I figured it was finally time to vacate this blog as well.

First of all, thank you to all of my followers, who have given me reason to write many days.  I in fact grew to enjoy updating this site, as it seemed to be a bit of a stress release on some of those taxing summer days.

But, now that I have been in full swing at Heritage Heights Golf and Curling Club, it is time to start a new site.  You can follow all of my happenings at Heritage Heights, by heading over to http://heritageheightsgolf.blogspot.com

This new blog will feature much of the same content that you have come to expect from me here, but will also include other golf business related material and multimedia.

Once my replacement has been found at Sawmill, I will be more than happy to pass the reigns off to he or she.

Once again, thank you for all of your support, and I look forward to seeing you on the links.

Sincerely,

Jamie Downton AGS

Goodbye Sawmill Creek

This is the letter which will be sent to the Membership of Sawmill Creek Golf Resort and Spa tomorrow morning.........

Dear member,

It is with mixed emotions today, that I announce to you, that I will be vacating my post as the Resort Superintendent at Sawmill Creek Golf Resort and Spa effective Friday February 10^th 2012.

I have been very proud to have spent the past 4 seasons here at Sawmill Creek.  We have accomplished much in my time, including hosting a National Championship in the Royale Cup.  The months leading up to that event, and the event in itself I will always remember, simply in the sense that the entire Sawmill Creek team pulled together including staff and members, to provide Golf Canada with an exceptional event.

I will also hold dear to my heart the generosity shown by this membership, when one of our own was diagnosed with Lung Cancer, and who eventually passed away in the fall of 2011.  When it was revealed that Jimmy was diagnosed with cancer, the outpouring of support was absolutely incredible.  When we announced a special fundraising event to help Jimmy out, we gave 4 days notice to the membership.  In those 4 days, this membership raised an astounding $7000 to aid Jimmy in his battle against cancer.  Perhaps, this outpouring of support is why Jimmy more than doubled his time that was initially given to him by his doctors.  I am so incredibly proud of this membership for this show of compassion and generosity.

I am also incredibly proud of the Turf Team that has spent much of the past four seasons with me.  These people have been the rock in this foundation, and have consistently provided you with an excellent golf course.  It is amazing how a strong, reliable team can get your through some of those stressful periods in the summer, but these guys got me through so many tight situations with not a hint of resistance.  I will never be able to say enough about the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of working with in this department.  All I can say at this point is Thank You.

I have also had the pleasure of working with some great people in other departments in my time here, including Matt, Lisa, Frank and Angela.  All of these people put there heart and soul into everything they do here, and you are very fortunate to have such people dedicated to ensuring your everyday, is a great one at The Saw.

And of course, the Pro Shop staff, and most importantly Paul have been without a doubt, the easiest Pro Shop staff I have ever had to work alongside in my 15 years in golf.  There is a general consensus in the golf industry, that it is Pro vs. Super, and that you each have to fight each other to accomplish what you need.  Well, the absolute opposite has been true with this Pro Shop in my time here, as we have had an “un-natural harmony” amongst our departments.  It has been an absolute pleasure to work alongside of them.  Thank you Paul; I'm going to miss working with you buddy!

As for where I am heading, well, as of next week, I will be taking over the new role of General Manager at Heritage Heights Golf Club in Petrolia.  I am very much excited about this opportunity which has been presented to me and my family, and look forward to the challenge that it will bring. 

Please keep in mind, that I will at some point be transferring over the blog which I have operated for the past year, to another more suitable address once I am settled in at Heritage Heights.  You can follow my action for the time being at http://sawmillcreekturf.blogspot.com

Finally, I would like to thank you, the member, for all of your support over my last 4 seasons here.  I have made many friends, and will take away many memories with me, and it is all from you making this an enjoyable place to be.  I have loved taking care of this little piece of heaven for your enjoyment, and will certainly miss many of your smiling faces every day.  Thank you for everything you have given me here at the beautiful Sawmill Creek Golf Resort and Spa.

Sincerely,

Jamie Downton AGS

Golf Resort Superintendent

Gearing Up For The Public Meeting

Our one and only snowfall of this winter season has now officially come and gone.  I think it lasted for all of about 3 days on the ground.  It's amazing how quickly 15 cm of snow can disappear when the mercury rises into double digits...and at the end of January no less.

So the winter of 11/12 continues to sputter along, and now comes word that the Canadian groundhogs have predicted an early spring.  I know one thing for sure, if this weather continues the way we are going, we may be back on the golf course in 6 weeks!

For those of you who follow this blog, you will know that I have been slowly picking away at complying with our IPM requirements for the Ministry of Environment.  The last step needed to complete our current requirements is the public meeting.  On Monday, if you subscribe to the Sarnia Observer, you will note there is a Public Notice listed in regards to this meeting.  As a part of this legislation, we must notify the general public, so that anybody can observe, and comment on any of our turf maintenance practices.  Being that this (to my knowledge) will be the first public meeting held by a golf course in Ontario in regards to Class 9 pesticide use, there will also be a good crowd of Turf Professionals in attendance.  There is a lot of controversy regarding these meetings, especially for those located in heavily populated golf clubs (downtown Toronto properties), and there is some fear among the industry that these meetings can get out of hand and out of control.

To be clear heading into this meeting, these meetings are in regards to the 2011 Annual Report for Class 9 Pesticides, and nothing else.  This means we are not holding this meeting to sell any products, nor are we here to talk about general course conditioning, bunkers, etc., but rather we are here to talk about the products used in 2011, and why they were used.  There most certainly will be an open question period at the end (which is not a requirement of this legislation), but if you are planning to ask a question about bunkers, you will be handed my business card, and asked to contact me at a later time.

If you are curious as to exactly what this annual report is, you can find it on the public IPM website located at IPM Council Canada , or, you may have a copy emailed to you by sending me an email to jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

The Sawmill Creek Annual Reports for Class 9 Pesticide use are available for your viewing pleasure in the Pro Shop beside the handicap computer.  In fact, we have gone over and above our legal requirement, and have included every note possible in the IPM accreditation program for both 2010 and 2011.  Both of these are in marked binders in the Pro Shop.

As a part of the public notice requirements, we must personally notify all of those residents who live within 100 metres of the course.  This has been done with the Residents of Sawmill Creek, as they received an email earlier this week.  However, as we don't necessarily have email addresses for the other 40 properties which must be notified, I must take a walk, and try to engage them in-person.  This is my plan for this beautiful morning in February!

As always, if you do have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

Another Post about IPM

Good morning everyone,

We have finally experienced a snowfall worthy of calling a snow event.  And while it wasn't "Snowmaggedon, or Snowpocalypse", it certainly brought us enough.  I estimate we saw in the neighbourhood of 15 to 20 cm, and finally gave all of our snow clearing equipment a workout.

By now, everyone is aware of the provincial legislation instituted in 2009, regarding the use of Class 9 pesticides in the province of Ontario.  It has been well documented on this blog and member updates over the past few years, so I won't go into the details of the law.  However, I want to give you an update as to where we sit with this program as of today.

Last week, Sawmill Creek Golf Resort and Spa, successfully became Level 2 accredited with the IPM Council of Canada.  To become Level 2 accredited, a golf course must successfully complete two annual desk audits, and an on-site audit with a government appointed auditor.  Last Thursday, we had the auditor on site, and after a very (and I mean very!) thorough audit of our books, we successfully received our Level 2 accreditation.   

Now starting in 2012, each and every golf course must also hold annually, a Public Meeting to present our annual report regarding Class 9 pesticide use.  This meeting will consist of a short introduction into the use of Class 9 pesticides at Sawmill Creek, followed by the total amount of use in 2011, and the reasons for its use. It will be held here at Sawmill Creek on Thursday February 9th, at 9:00 am in the banquet hall.  The public meeting will be advertised to the general public in The Sarnia Observer on Monday Febraury 6th, and all are welcome to attend.  

The Annual Report which will be presented at this meeting, can be found at the IPM Council Canada website by following the link's to golf courses.

There has been a lot of chatter about the IPM program in general within the golf community, and there are several Superintendents who have blogged about their experience and opinion's regarding this matter as well. Here are a couple of links to two blogs in particular, who have talked in great lengths about pesticide use, and the IPM program  in general:

Sandhills Golf Resort Blog

Pheasant Run Golf Club Blog

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

Go Ahead and Hit

Welcome to another blue sky, double digit day here at The Saw.  Saturday's snow fall is all but a distant memory, and we are back to what we have become accustomed to this winter - wet, and brown!

For those of you who follow me through Twitter (@TheTurfCoach), you will notice that I am back from the Ontario Golf Course Management Conference (OGCM), which was held in Niagara Falls last week.  This annual event is held for Golf Superintendents and other turf crew members to further enhance their skills, and keep us abreast of any new developments in equipment, turf care, and legislative requirements.  I have been attending the OGCM for many years, and in my humble opinion found this to be one of the most educationally informative conferences I have been to in some time. I will be reporting on this event a little more in the near future, but for today, I want to finish up a post topic that I started last week.

Amazingly, I somehow managed to squeeze in an entire blog post last week about almost nothing but hard hats.  I'm sure it was not the most interesting topic to read, but it was the pre-cursor to what I want to talk about today.  As you will remember, from last weeks post (Overhauling Our H&S Policy), I made mention of a fellow Superintendent in B.C., who has suffered many ill-effects due to an errant shot striking him in the head.  I of course then went on to talk about the new MANDATORY compliance from the golf course staff to wear these hard hats.  Well today's post will finalize this chat, and it is with the implementation of a new policy we are going to call the "Go Ahead and Hit" policy.

Essentially what we want to create at Sawmill, is an atmosphere of awareness on the golf course.  At any given time, should there be a worker present while a golfer is attempting to play a shot, we want to make sure that the staff member is fully aware of the situation.  Simply put, we are going to put the onus on the staff member, to make visual contact with the golfer.  This visual contact is going to look like this:

So once the staff member engages the player(s), the responsibility will then shift to the golfer to make a simply gesture back...

....and away we go.  This makes certain that all parties involved are very aware of who is where, and aid us in our goal of ensuring everybody goes home at the end of the day, in the same manner in which they arrived.

Are there going to be some issues with this policy?  Perhaps.  But again, to make it clear, the onus is going to be put on the staff member to initiate this contact.  They must be aware of their surroundings, and it will be their responsibility to allow the players through.  There will certainly be times when the worker recognizes a group on the tee, and they may know they only have roughly 30 seconds of this task to complete, and may in fact hold you up to wait.  Our staff numbers are very small, and these team members are asked to do a lot of things in a small amount of time, and there will be times when they need to ask you to wait briefly.  We do try and prevent a lot of work from happening through the day, hence the reason our staff start long before the break of dawn.  However, inevitably you will encounter a worker from time to time.  All we ask is that you please keep in mind that these people have husbands, wives, parents, and even small children, and we want to ensure that these people can go home the same person they were when they left.  Even if it means you have to wait for a minute, please respect these fine ladies and gentlemen for the exceptional people that they are.

We will be posting a copy of this policy as we near the start of the golf season, and will be asking our Marshall's and Rangers to educate all patrons of Sawmill Creek with regards to this policy as well.  At the end of the day, this is just one more way we want to protect the fine people who care for your golf course each and every day.

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

Overhauling our H&S Policy

Welcome to another soggy morning at The Saw!

As I write this, we have hit 5 degrees, and the rain is coming down steady - not exactly what we expect from Mother Nature in the middle of January!

As we are nearing the halfway point of the winter off-season, it is absolutely incredible to think that we have yet to have any kind of snow event of 4 cm or more.  We have had several days of light "dusting's", but nothing that we have had to put our trusty plow to work for.  

Having said that, this has been a great off-season to get our operation fine-tuned and organized.  The main focus point has been our Health and Safety policies, and the manner in which we approach each and every task.

There are thousands of laws that pertain to a golf course operation, or even golf course maintenance for that matter.  The Ontario Ministry of Labour is responsible for checking in on us, like every other business in this province.  As such, we are subjected to random site visits and inspections by these inspectors (something I consider a good thing).  Golf course maintenance operations are targeted quite often for these random visits, as historically these operations contain a lot of first-time, young workers, operating heavy machinery.  This of course puts the operation at a greater risk for workplace related accidents.  Now I am proud to say in my time at Sawmill, we have yet to have a lost-time injury on my staff, and I fully intend to keep it that way.  

During the thick of last season, we had a visit from one of the MOL's inspectors, who was doing a random inspection to ensure that we were abiding by our Joint Health and Safety Committee requirements.  Of course we were, however, during this inspection, it became evident that we had yet to complete a new requirement by the province to have a Workplace Violence and Harassment Policy put into place.  This was Bill 187 for those who enjoy watching the Ontario Legislative Assembly Channel!

Anyway, after bringing in a Consultant from CE Safety (Bill Godkin), he set us on the right path to ensuring that our safety culture exists throughout the entire resort.  Now this is not to say that we have not had a hiccup here or there, but he has certainly cleared any fog that had surrounded us with regards to this and several other requirements.  Essentially he left us a thousand page binder on everything we need to have available to staff, and patrons of the golf course.

Now, there will be several changes coming up in 2012, one of which will include a set of House Rules.  This will be delivered to each member, and will be posted in the Clubhouse so all patrons are aware of the manner in which we expect our staff to be respected.  

We have in the neighbourhood of 25 policy and procedure manuals (PNP's) for the various tasks on the golf course, and each one of these contains the safety procedures involved, as well as the different protective equipment required.  Contained in almost every single PNP, is the requirement to wear a protective hat.  Our hats looks a little like this:

In 2011 we obtained the mesh helmet on the right, as a new alternative to the heavy, and cumbersome hats that we had in seasons past.  However, in 2012, we will be moving to the solid safari hat on the left.

Protective hat use been sporadic at best.  Each and every season, we start the year by reminding all staff of this policy, and the importance of its use.  The season always starts out well, and we have full compliance....that is until we reach the dog days of August, and complacency begins to set in.  Now I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am not a part of the problem when it comes to the use of a protective hat. I am just as guilty as the next for not having the hat on 100% of the time, but there was a very disturbing story emerge from B.C. about a very distinguished superintendent who has suffered immensely after being struck by an errant golf ball.  

Superintendent Warns all of Golf Course Danger  

This story strikes a cord for me on several fronts.  The first and foremost being the fact that I have two, very young, very wonderful children at home.  Much like everyone else in the world, it is my goal to go home at the end of the day in the same condition as I had left.  Certainly, the potential is present on a golf course for injuries such as these, even with the use of all protective devices and equipment; but it is certainly not worth the risk.

So let it be known to all of the members, and staff of Sawmill Creek that these hats WILL BE WORN BY ALL STAFF ON THE COURSE AT ALL TIMES.  

I will elaborate on this topic a little more in my next post, as we will be instituting a new policy to further enhance the safety of all employees on the golf course.

As always, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please contact me a jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

Getting Started on the 2012 Season

Good sunny morning!

I know it has been said a million times over the past few weeks, but let's face it; how can you not talk about this absolute crazy weather pattern we have experienced?  We are to see a high of near 6 degrees C today, and near 10 degrees C tomorrow!  The amazing part of the pre-dominant weather pattern we have had the past month, is that it is continent wide.  Through Twitter, I am seeing golf superintendents from Minnesota, Indiana, Texas, California and B.C., all talking about nothing but the weather.  It is amazing how much change we see from one year to the next......

With the absence of snow removal this year, it has been nice to get a few items checked off of the to-do list's.  Items such as equipment repairs are currently underway, as are the painting and replenishing of course materials. Policy and Procedure Manuals for the Turf Department are also being reviewed, as I constantly look for ways to improve our efficiency, and productivity.

However, something that I am working on currently, which I am extremely excited to get off of the ground for 2012, is an employee recognition program for the awesome staff here at Sawmill Creek.

One of the greatest parts of the position I hold here at the Resort, is the opportunity to hire, as well as work with some very talented individuals.  Often, these individuals are students who move onto accomplish some fantastic things outside of golf.  But I am also personally very fortunate to have a lot of these people stick around with me, and as such will be entering their 4th season of duty in the Turf Department.  Now, this extends to the other departments as well, but I know I have been very fortunate to maintain a very skilled, very hard-working staff as I enter my 5th season of service at Sawmill.

Of course it is our goal to have people not only provide you with an exceptionally conditioned golf course daily, but it is also my goal to make sure that they enjoy their time here as well.  And after some discussion with various parties, we will be introducing to our staff this spring, an employee recognition program.

After talking with his daughter about our plans, we will be appropriately naming this award The Jimmy.

As you are all well aware, we lost one of our hardest-working, most trustworthy teammates this past October.  Jimmy was at Sawmill Creek for more than 7 years, and in that time demonstrated the will and desire to make Sawmill Creek what it is today.  We will never, ever be able to replace the kind of dedication and work ethic that he exhibited, and as such, we want to preserve, and encourage that type of behaviour here at the resort.  Now, we have not yet finalized all of the details of how we will honour individuals, but we will introduce this to all of our employees at their 2012 season orientation.

In the next few weeks, I will continue to fill you in on some of the finer details and plans for the 2012 season, and how the Turf Department carries out its operation.  Health and Safety is another big item to be addressed, and I most certainly will be talking about this with you shortly; as there is much you can do to help our team stay safe!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

Let's Talk About the Weather

I hope everybody had a safe and happy holiday season, and your 2012 is off to a fantastic start.  I wanted to include a little teaser shot of something we would all like to see soon....not to worry though, the "winter season" is already a third of the way done!

And speaking of this winter season, what is going on with the weather!?!?  At this time last year, we were already about half of the way through our snow events for the season, and your's truly was aching and begging for a refuge from the constant barrage of snow which had been falling.  Suffice to say, this season has been quite the opposite.  In fact, yesterday was the first "snow event" in which we required any kind of removal around the resort.  I say "snow event", in that we never even accumulated an inch of the white stuff....

Funny enough, it appears as though The Saw has been sheltered in some kind of bubble over the past week or so, as our neighbours to the east, west, and north have been pummeled with several decent snow events; while we simply have not.  Lake streamers are an amazing thing!

Of course today's forecast continues the warming trend, as there is not a single forecasted high in the next ten days that drops below +2 degrees C.  I stand by my claim that I would prefer frozen temperatures, and an insulating blanket of snow for the golf course, as this warm/cold up and down trend is very confusing to the turf.

And to wrap up today's weather chat, followers of this blog know just how often I referred to 2011 being a wet year.  There was always conversation aroudn the club about how thick and healthy the rough was, as well as the fescue.  And of course, how often there were many bunkers on the course with standing water in them.  Well, the word is official from Environment Canada; 2011 was the wettest year in the history of Sarnia-Lambton.  We received on average, 51% more precipitation than we do in a normal year.  


Here is a link to the article posted today in the Sarnia Observer : 2011 Wettest Year Ever

It seemed as though this wet trend was isolated to the Sarnia/Windsor area of the province.  As climatologists with Environment Canada pointed out, there were areas of the province which experienced record drought......

Of course the wet year effects everything that we do in the Turf Department.  Everything from mowing schedules, to fertilization and pest control product applications, to course setup; everything is directly related to the weather.  The fescue was very thick, and unplayable in many areas (that might be the understatement of the year!).  The bunkers held water far more than they ever had.  Simply put, 2011 contained many challenges from a course maintenance standpoint.

We also saw some record breaking extreme temperatures as well.  We saw highs reach a whopping 37 degrees C in July, right around the time the rains returned.  This in turn creates a disastrous scenario where disease development explodes.  Dollar spot ran rampant, and we even struggled with something at The Saw, which does not make a regular appearance: Anthracnose.  I posted this picture at the time, but here is what Anthracnose can do to turf.....

Rain and heat is a dangerous combination.  Our only saving grace at Sawmill is the constant movement of air. Although, not that I have evidence on this one, but 2011 sure felt like the winds died down a bit here.....

Finally today, I want to thank the 20 or so ladies who joined Angela, Paul and myself last evening for an information gathering session. We asked these ladies to join us, to help give us their feedback on everything from the course conditions, to setup, as well as golf related topics such as handicaps and league play.  There was a lot of great information come out last night, and gave us a base to begin working on some improvements, and we greatly appreciate your feedback.  Thank you!

As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

New Toys

Good morning to another balmy day here at The Saw!

After the longest break of my "Blogging Career", I'm back!  It has now been exactly 24 days since my last post, and there is certainly much to tell.  So sit back, grab a nice warm drink, and enjoy this little "Christmas Story" I have to tell!

So first of all, I apologize for the delay.  Yes, I swore to several of you that I would spend a good amount of time this winter discussing some of the finer details of the Turf Operation here at Sawmill Creek.  And you are absolutely right, I have no excuse.  In fact, I have missed spending some time in front of this 300 pound, 14 inch monitor I have sitting on my desk.  (In reality, I couldn't take the abuse anymore from a couple of you, who have been bugging me for some details.....you know who you are!)

So why do I have no excuses?  Well, quite simply, it has yet to snow.  That's right, we have not had to perform any kind of snow removal operation so far this season.  Not once.  Which is a far cry from this time last year when we already had a month of snow removal under our belts, including a famous State of Emergency Storm.  Selfishly, this has been a nice break as it has allowed me to tend to a few things around the Turf Care Centre that I have had on my list since we moved up here more than 3 years ago.  However, for the golf course itself, a hard freeze, followed by a nice insulating blanket of snow would have been nice.  The weather of the last 6-8 weeks really has not properly allowed the turf to harden off as much as we desire.  In fact, even this morning you could see some varieties of turf still not completely dormant.  We have had a couple of days reach the low teens', and an abundance of moisture which has caused a bit of confusion to the turf plant.  Hopefully, we will see some cold temperatures arrive, followed by a nice insulating blanket of snow. 

The good news despite the weather, is that the flood waters have seemingly dropped, and the course has had a chance to drain .  There have been several days this month where the course looked more like a water park than a golf course, so it is certainly comforting to know that the water has receded before we do see some freezing temperatures.  Ice is one of the worst things to deal with on a golf course....

So to get to the point of the title of  this blog, we have spent a considerable amount of time this past month, in negotiations with a turf equipment supplier, in regards to our operation.  It is no secret that our equipment is certainly getting up there in terms of age and hours, and we have been battling with a few pieces over the past year or so.  Fortunately, the past two seasons have seen us replace some our most tempermental pieces such as one of our rough mowers, and one of the fairway mowers.  But this year, Christmas came a few days early!

I am very happy to report that we will be seeing two, brand new pieces join our fleet for 2012.  The first piece is a Jacobsen Greens King IV. 

Now this unit is set to take over the reigns of our primary greens mower.  Our current Toro Greensmaster 3150, is sitting at 4200 hours of use, (which I equate to a car having about 400 000 km).  The issue with this is that the greens mower is relied upon every single day when the course is open.  When we start using a machine with this many hours on it, on our most precious of assets (greens), we are simply playing with fire.  In the golf course maintenance world, there are basically three main equipment brands used for the daily maintenance.  And at the end of the day, most of the pieces that these three companies provide, will perform the job needed for what that piece is designed for; much the same as a Ford vs. Chevy comparison.  And of course, we all have our preferences....which when it comes to greensmowers, this GK IV is certainly my preference!

The second unit we will see arrive shortly, is something which is long overdue for an operation such as ours.  As you all know, the Turf Team at Sawmill is also responsible for the landscape and snow removal contract in the Residences of Sawmill Creek.  And as you loyal followers of this blog also know, snow removal can become a very labourious, and tedious task; especially when it comes to getting all of the driveways cleared.  So, keeping this in mind, when we started shopping around for a new utility vehicle to be used on the golf course, we made the decision which would allow us to essentially kill two birds with one stone. 

Say hello, to the Cushman 1600XD..........

This now becomes the first piece of turf equipment we own, which packs 4WD; something which even our tractor does not have!  This Cushman will be outfitted with a front plow blade, and a rear salter to aid us in the process of removing snow.  There are millions of utility type vehicles n the market, but this unit should help us out in more ways than one.....

I for one am very excited to see some fresh pieces enter our fleet, which will surely aid us in keeping Sawmill Creek as beautiful and pristine as we have all come to expect.!

This will be my last post until the New Year, and I wish you all a safe and happy remainder of the Holiday Season, and I look forward to serving you in 2012.

Of course, if you have any questions, comments or concerns, please feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie

The Wet Year Continues

We're into the last month of the calender now, and the trend of 2011 continues; it is very wet out there!



As you can see by this the shot of 18 tee, all of the ponds are overflowing, and there is water lying all over the property.  The waterfalls at both the clubhouse and the pump house, have been running very rapidly, as the course tries to drain away the estimated 5 inches of precipitation we had this week.  Even navigating the course today was difficult....unless of course you are a 39 pound Border Collie....

As we enter December, it is time for equipment maintenance to begin, as well as budget preparations for the 2012 season.  There was a time in this industry when the budget process was exciting, as we all planned, and prepared for what projects might lie ahead, as well as any other improvements could be made to the course.  Unfortunately, with the economic turmoil the world has been in for the past few years, as well as the golf industry alone, the budgeting process can be frustrating to say the least. 

Along with the budget process, comes the expectations we have for the golf course.  Now, to pat the Turf Department's own back for a second, the Turf Crew has done a fantastic job over the past three seasons to do more with less.  Basically, these people have managed to maintain a world-class golf resort, on a shoestring at times.  And for that, my hat goes off to them. 

However, there are certainly concessions which are made at times, to provide the best possible product that we can.  What does this mean?  Well it may look something like not having the ability to piece our bunkers back together after a storm in record time; it simply may take a day or two, or even three depending on the circumstances.  With having a smaller sized crew, with many tasks to complete, this is simply a concession which sometimes may need to be made in order to provide an enjoyable round of golf.  As much as the entire crew would love to provide you with conditions such as those found at The London Hunt Club, or Royal Melbourne, or even Augusta National, sometimes, it is simply beyond our reach.  I hope you trust me when I say, this is what every one of my crew would love to give each and every day.

Now speaking of the golf course, and the budgeting process, I came across an article published by the USGA this morning, speaking of this very topic.  In essence, what the author Darin Bevard (who is a senior agronomist with the USGA) was trying to get across, is how did our perception of how a golf course plays, evolve into a judgement on nothing other than how it looks?  And he is right!  Do we spend a good amount of time in the Turf Department hand watering dry areas of turf, so that it looks good?  Absolutely!  Do we need to be as diligent on this task as we currently are?  Probably not.  The turf certainly is not dead when we start hand watering, nor is it close; but we do it to make it look right!  What I really liked about this article was determining the rate of return on performing these tasks, and whether we are getting the most bang for our buck.  And more often than not, the answer is no; we could certainly be shifting our priorities to more beneficial tasks.....

Here is a link to the article: Golf Course Aesthetics

Now, I'm not here to suggest that we let things get to this point by any means.  Will I continue to hand water dry spots on green 2, 4, 14 and 16 next season?  Absolutely.  But it certainly gives one some food for thought.....

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me at jamie.downton@sawmill-creek.com

Jamie