What do you do in the Winter?

For the majority of my short illustrious turf career, I’ve worked as a seasonal employee.  The first four years worked nicely because I was a student, finishing high school then completing post secondary.  The next four were also great, as I collected earnings from the great resource we all know as Employment Insurance.

I quickly realized that as my expensive taste in life evolved, my actual income didn’t.  I soon understood the importance of year round employment.  Typically, a position within the management team offered me year round employment, or at least the year round earnings of being on an annual salary.

From general conversation it was my understanding that winter work involved as little work as possible... what??  It was a superintendent that told me this, and I can understand and appreciate what he meant.  Throughout the golfing season and throughout our busy shoulder seasons, we as a turfcare department bust our humps on a daily basis providing a product that generates hundreds of millions of dollars in recreation/tourism revenue each year.  (Sorry about the political plug, but that’s a topic for another discussion)

I assume that most of you with seasonal start ups and shutdowns look forward to that last day when the course is finally put to a well deserved rest for the winter.  But what goes on after that?  I’ve had the opportunity to work year round at three golf courses.  From my experiences, all winter work is similar, in a time varying and weather differentiated kind of way.

At Kananaskis, our off season is approximately 5 months.  Since our last goodbyes to our seasonal employees in October, we’ve continuously monitored both golf courses, checking for melt, ice build up, wildlife damage, river flow, etc..  There were many days when we cleared snow off greens in anticipation of rain and freeze periods.  Once our snow and weather forecast stabilized, we were able to prep, rebuild, customize and place orders on ground supplies and equipment.

PAINTING!!  I am not aware of too many people that enjoy this task?  I am not one of them.  However this luxury isn’t as frustrating and meticulously time consuming than painting your house.  To save a few dollars, we were able to clean, repair and touch up many of our ground supplies like flag poles, cooler containers, ball washers, bunker rakes and other hand tools.  We’ve rebuilt, greased and prepared our rotary fertilizer spreaders to be calibrated closer to the start of our season.  We also offer two left hands when our mechanic needs some help, but for the most part, he is schooling us.

A big part of our off season is staff recruitment.  We typically employ up to 40 individuals throughout the season.  On average we can get about 30% returning staff from the previous year.  For the remainder 70%, we post positions online, through post secondary sites and through word of mouth.  When the floodgates of initial applicants open up, we will sift and decide on potentials that move to the next round, typically an interview.  This process from ad posting to interviews will continue several times until we finally fill our dream team for the season.

The offseason is the much anticipated and welcomed time for continuing education and network opportunities that occur through conferences, seminars, trade shows or combinations of the three.  This year, I attended the Alberta Golf Superintendents Associations (AGSA) Property Managers Conference, and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) Conference and Trade show.

My first at either show.  Being a new turfgrass Albertan, I attended the AGSA in Canmore to take in the talks and meet new colleagues.  Most recently, I returned from San Diego, which was this years host for the GCSAA conference and golf industry show.  I asked on twitter what to prepare for when attending the GCSAA, and I was told to wear comfortable shoes!  I now understand and appreciate the individuals who complete their suit attire with a pair of comfy trainer kicks.  I’m not certain what the area of the trade show floor was, but it’s probably equivalent to walking greens every morning.

We still have another month in our off season and we are still recruiting to fill the rest of our 2013 team.  A few more ground supplies need attention and soon our focus will concentrate on upcoming weather patterns.  We are nearing day 100 for ice cover in some areas, however our most recent plugs give us great news as we’ve seen good activity.  Fingers crossed and cooperation from mother nature encouraged.

For all of you fellow turfies that also believe in doing as little as possible in your winter break, good for you!  We all deserve it, because when the time comes to ‘get er done’, we always find a way.

Welcome to 2013!!

Winter Wonderland

Welcome to the new year!  A time when some of us turf managers anticipate great numbers, wonderful compliments and a perfect wintering of our golf courses??  Okay, well at least that's something I always try and look forward to every new year.  We hope everyone has had a wonderful holiday season filled with great food, lots of drink and close company.  That time for us has quickly passed and it was back to work as usual.

We were welcomed by a 60cm snowfall our first week back.  The plow truck and the snow blowers were in full force as we cleared entrance roads, maintenance paths and parking areas.  I was always warned that it was inevitable to get our plow truck stuck and I never thought it would happen to me, until it did.  I will admit that fresh plow lines are pretty tough after a big dump of snow, almost like cutting a straight line on a green with no dew... "you gotta use the force!"  as one super always told me.




We are into day 60 with a 2-5mm ice cover on some greens.  Some ice more porous than others, but most have a reassuring dormant colour underneath.  Early in December we did some trial melts with a GreenThaw machine.  For those unfamiliar, glycol is circulated through lengths of hose at a warm to warmer temperature.  The hose is extended and laid across the green to promote ice melt.  In our trial, we completely cleared one green and three quarters of another with different patterns in laying out the hose.

Glycol hydraulic attachments

Working from the centre out

For our own purposes, we recently pulled plugs on several green sights, each selected by amount of Poa infestation and exposure to elements.  We will monitor the plugs over some time to see what activity happens and then we can make decisions later.  As a control sample, we will pull a few plugs from one of our newer bentgrass greens, that was installed this past spring.

Mostly Poa, pulled from different greens

James removing a plug

Some of the other tasks keeping us busy are:  ordering new tools and supplies, repair and paint older supplies, team recruiting, and of course blogger.  As you can see from the lack of our updates, I was only joking about our blog keeping us busy.  Our goal is to recruit a team of 40 individuals for the season.  This ensures that we can complete many of our planned projects and produce a product that our guests can all enjoy and appreciate.  If you are reading this and you have an interest in working for a turfcare department at a great facility please visit the website or inquire by email to assistantsuper@kananaskisgolf.com  (a little recruiting plug never hurts...)

We are really looking forward to this new season and we hope that you are to.  Take care and happy wintering!!

Front, middle, back… easy, easy, easy!!

There are many informative blogs. We are spoiled with many cooperative Turfgrass professionals sharing ideas and providing insight into their own trials, studies and experiences. It's a hard act to follow, but I've realized that there's always something I might learn, reconfirm with, or even appreciate and enjoy no matter how basic.

How does your golf course change pins? Do you cycle through rotations? locations? or a combination of both? Is the decision made by the discretion of your pin setter? I have worked at courses with all these different pin setting programs and I guess the decisions are based on the standards, goals and mission of each individual golf course. Courses with large staff, high turnovers and frequent training might benefit with set locations. Courses with smaller greens might choose area rotations.

The first golf course I worked at allowed me to setup pins wherever I wanted, as long as I was consistent with three front, three middle and three back locations per nine. I believe the main criteria to consider are: traffic, pace of play, and healthy turf. With that said, I understand there are many more unique factors to consider depending on the golf course; greens size, undulation, rounds per day, turf health, design characteristics, and whether or not the course is private, semi-private or public. The list probably continues for many of you.

I've always believed in using all the real estate you're given. Some design flaws don't allow this, however is it feasible to beat up smaller, flatter and easier spots to try and pump more rounds through in a day? I think it's important to train someone who golfs, someone who understands playability, and someone with an eye for health and quality.

Regardless of where we set pins, it is inevitable that there will always be some complaining on any given day. Other than ourselves, how come we hardly here guests complaining about the architect? I am still waiting for the day where I get the call on the radio…"there have been several comments today about how wonderful the pins are"… Lol, I'll keep you all posted when that day arrives.

Continued success and growth!

The long road… a bittersweet grind?!?

The last few months have been busy as usual. Both courses are busy and course conditions continue improving as our turfcare team works hard with continued maintenance and project work.

I've decided to write a reflection piece that I've been pondering for the past few days. My new experience at K-Country has given me great rewards, but not without challenges. The obvious would be the challenges in course conditioning we've faced due to a difficult winter season, but those challenges come with the territory for all turfgrass managers. The less obvious challenges are the lifestyle changes that I've been adapting to since moving here in April.

I live on site at the golf course. For now, my fiancé Shelley, and my two animals, Baxter and Levi, still live in Kelowna. Being away from my family is hard. Before the move to Kananaskis, we lived together and shared many great memories for five years.

The choice was always mine and the decision was made over several long nights of consideration with Shelley. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and hopefully with hard work, patience and some sacrifice, the decision to be apart for a temporary period of time will grow us closer together and put me into a position where I can provide and live happily with my family. Cliche I know, but I'm sure many fellow turfies have made similar sacrifices and decisions.

A colleague of mine, whom I consider a mentor, once told me that I should be willing to relocate and keep my options open so that I may eventually run my own show. My road to being a superintendent has been bittersweet. Many long days grinding out my time trying to keep myself motivated. However in the end, I can look back to my last post, the results can be so rewarding.

I give much respect to all my fellow colleagues and everyone else that is passionate in pursuing a better product no matter what kind of a grind it takes. Good conditions and continued success to you all!