Many of the top golf courses have been maintaining their bunkers to raise the question are they still hazards? With the sand being the same depth, the face being compacted so no ball gets plugged. They are becoming less of a challenge because of the way they are manicured. Some golf courses spend 200 man-hours a week working on bunkers. They are spending more money on bunkers than greens. By spending so much money on the bunkers something had to be cut off the budget.

 Maintenance on bunkers is in a decline based on the time and amount of money it takes to make them look so well manicured. With the challenge out of the bunkers for the players it becomes less of a hazard. By lowering the maintenance on bunkers this will bring back in some of those factors that made them a hazard to begin with. Courses cannot find the money to hire enough staff to look after their bunkers the way the PGA tour likes them. So be prepared your next lie in a bunker could be a fried egg!

      First semester will test your knowledge with the six classes you have to take. These classes include: The Turf Industry, Plant Biology, Turf Equipment, Turf Soil Principles, Landscape Plants, and Communications. Each one of these classes is unique in its own way and has plenty of knowledge you can gain about the turf industry. With this semester having gone by so quickly I can only look forward to the next year and a half that waits. Who knows what I can expect in terms of classes, but I can tell you this much if it’s like semester one it’s going to be one fun ride to the end.

      Anybody looking to get into the turfgrass field Guelph University offers one of the best turfgrass management programs. Although I have only done one semester my understanding of turf has evolved into so much more. I will no longer just look at it like grass; there are so many factors to take into account when growing perfect turf. So that’s a rap on semester one let’s hope we can keep this train of knowledge moving into semester two.

      Going into the symposium with confidence that things would turnout ok and that people would show up made for many students to be nervous. When students arrived at 7:00am to set up you could feel the anxiety in the room. Once people started showing up and the students started talking to their guests and meeting new people they started to loosen up. With a turnout of over 120 people made this successful. That was the number of guests we were expecting and it’s good to see they came and supported the symposium.

      Now that the day has come and gone the students can relax and focus on their studies. With the majority of the students meeting some of the professionals in the room really helped them for the future. They got to meet with professionals in the golf course industry, parks and recreation industtry, sod industry, etc. this really opened the world to the first year students, who hopefully gained a lot of valuable information out of it. I would like to thank everyone for coming and for my fellow classmates for helping put this symposium together.

       The six students that are taking place in the beat the clock are: Matt Nixon, Brad Anderson, Annie Vallaincourt, Michael Gainfort, Geoff Griffin, and Dave Powley. These six students were the ones chosen by the class to take part in the beat the clock session at the symposium. There are a wide variety of topics brought up by each speaker. The majority of the topics are related to the turfgrass industry. The one speaker we have Dave Powley who finishes it off will be talking about electric mowers and how they might become the mower of the future for courses built in and or around homes.

      By having the beat the clock session just before lunch at the symposium it could allow for people to have conversations over what was said. It is also a good way to kind of make people think about their situation they have at their current golf course and how this information may help them in the future. The six individuals taking part will provide new ideas relating to the turfgrass industry. So why would you miss this? November 27th at the Cutten club, hope to see you there.

      Turf Care and all its divisions have projected sales of $60 million for the year. They have over 1200 golf course customers that they cater to. The biggest thing for Turf care is selling commercial golf equipment. For them it’s about mowers. Their customers range from owner operators, to generations, to private, to resort. With this diversity in customers they have to be well aware of their products and what they can do for each type of customer. With their skilful and knowledgeable employees it makes them a tough company to beat, because they thrive for perfection and want the best for their customers it makes them a reliable company to buy from.

      If you want products that are reliable and will have a company that stands behind them 100%, why not buy from Turf Care. They only want what’s best for you and they do everything they can to provide you with the best. With all their divisions they offer a wide assortment of products for all types of people and businesses. This is has turned into more than just a golf course related company, their residential and commercial divisions has started to increase based on Turf Cares reputation.

      The Key message when communicating is important because it will either decide if someone is listening or just along for the ride. The main thing is you tell them what they want to hear. Like what can they benefit from this message? In terms of sponsorship, you tell them what they can get out of sponsoring you. What is in it for them? This is big because if there is nothing in it for the person what is the point for them to listen. They are always so busy and have plenty of other things to do. So if you can make it worth their time, in the end it can result in an effective message.

      The key message is the most important part of communications. The idea is to get the interest of the person you are talking to. Without their attention your point will not get across and you will not have a successful message. In sponsorship the key message is very important and you should always be prepared for the unexpected. The person you are talking to is only interested if it is worth their time and money.

The speakers will consist of: Keith Bartlett- Superintendent at St. Georges Golf and Country Club, Ron Schiedel- Co-owner of Green Horizons sod farms, and Dr. Tom Hsiang- Professor in Pathology. These industry professionals will be giving the problems we are facing today and the potential solutions. With having these professionals giving their opinion and also facts about the industry, it will give us a better understanding of what we can do to make our situation more promising.

By having knowledgeable industry professionals speaking at the symposium it will bring credibility and professionalism to the event. We can all benefit from their knowledge and understanding of the turf industry. By having knowledge of turf problems of the future and present we can all benefit by providing our input into potential solutions. The symposium on November 27, 2009 will be a major event for the first year turf students for them to introduce themselves to the industry and meet professionals that have been dealing with these issues.

There are six components for growing turfgrass: Air, water, light, soil, temperature, and traffic. All these components are necessary for ideal turfgrass growth. These components play a big role in how your golf course looks. Lets say that you had a green that was blocked by trees in the area and when the golfers came to the green and left they only had one real spot to enter and exit. This will affect the growth of turfgrass, because of all the traffic and not much light the grass will suffer because it does not have sufficient requirements to continue to grow properly.

These six components can make or break a golf course. If you want to keep your course in great condition than remember if you ever have a problem with your grass that there are certain factors that can affect it. You have to take in all components when analyzing your situation and make sure you identify all components that may be detrimental to turfgrass growth. Remember these six components and you will have an easier time growing turfgrass.

Scott Bowman had plenty of work ahead of him to get this course prepared to the PGA standards. With the players used to being treated to some of the best conditions in golf this meant plenty of work for his staff. For the week of the tournament their staff went from 40 to 70, almost double. Leading up to the tournament certain jobs had to be done to get the conditions perfect. They started preparing the fairways in October the year before. They would de-thatch them and get them into pristine condition. A lot of the jobs to be done had to deal with removing thatch and making surfaces more player friendly

This was a tough job for Bowman and his staff. By starting the year before they could plan out their year in accordance. They would have visits from the PGA tour to tell them what they could possibly make better and what they could just leave the same. The PGA tour players expect the best golf course when they arrive for a golf tournament. This is a tough task for any superintendent to make the players love the course.

With the no budget this meant a couple things. One was he did not have a certain budget for employees. Whatever Pete (superintendent) thought was a good number of employees that’s what they would hire. For equipment they would only buy equipment when they needed it like if a fairway mower went down tomorrow they would go out and buy a new one. This was because there was no set limit on the amount of money to spend or that was saved for the golf course.

No budget is a good thing to have. This way of doing things makes you realize that you could do more with less. You don’t need a budget to have a spectacular looking golf course. Just go look at Copetown Woods. With it being only a single owner you only have one person to report to. Also no members helps because you don’t have to listen to them complain about the golf course. This course is one of the nicest golf courses and is a model to follow for no budget courses.