The job of a superintendent includes many tasks that golfers often take for granted.
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It is an exercise worth getting up in the morning and reflecting on the things we take for granted. Friends. The family. The smell of fresh grass.
What I'm talking about: When was the last time you thanked your local greenkeeper?
This week would be a good time. Tuesday was Thanksgiving Day.
To mark the occasion, we asked David Jones, superintendent at Indian Springs Country Club, Broken Arrow, Okla., and a longtime member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, to highlight the many hidden jobs he and his team are doing. dispatching gophers and mowing turf.
1. The critics
Armadillos, beavers, skunks, gophers, moles, you name it. Animals of all kinds live in courses, bite through ropes, dig up vegetables for grubs, and cause all kinds of head-scratching damage. The Carl Spackler method is out of the question, but you have to do something. “Depending on where you are, you may be allowed to hunt,” Jones said. “If not, you will have to trap them. They stay the same no matter what you do.”
2. Fungus among us
A ring may sound romantic. Anything but. It is one of the many diseases that they deal with, from frost formation and brown spots to a necrotic ring. Then there's pythium, the Voldemort of fungal invaders, which, Jones says, is likely to affect bentgrass. “It's a nightmare of nightmares,” he says. “Once it gets in there, it almost destroys the green. And there are three or four types of it, so you also have to find out which one you're dealing with.”
3. Equipment maintenance
A well-maintained course requires well-maintained equipment, which means sharpening blades, changing rotors and repairing hydraulic leaks, among many other maintenance tasks. In clubs that don't have a budget for any equipment manager (too many), all these tasks fall to who knows who.
4. Destruction
Stolen sticks. The racks are broken. Outlaws on motorcycles make vegetable donuts. The depth of disrespect and stupidity can be surprising, and what's worse, scoffers are rarely caught red-handed. But if they are, it's usually thanks to the superintendent and their staff. “We followed the wagon tracks to a nearby garage, and sure enough there was bentgrass on the tires, so the kid couldn't deny it,” Jones said. The boy was assigned to work on the maintenance team until he could repair the damage he had done.
5. Algae
Not only in lakes. It also penetrates the green, creating very soft conditions. No matter where it comes from, getting rid of it is important. “But you have to be very careful about what products you use and how you use them,” says Jones. “You don't want to kill the fish or harm the environment.”
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6. Maintenance of irrigation
The pipes are broken. The sprinkler heads are tested. It never ends. “There's always something that needs to be fixed,” Jones said. “We call it 'watering,' not watering.”
7. Ball washers, trash cans, signs, etc.
At any time, somewhere in the course, something needs to be cleaned, emptied, straightened or repaired. Those jobs come under super employment, too.
8. Golfers
That's right. Not the gophers. Golfers. Rare types tend to believe that when the vegetables are sand, it means that the super will get it. Their gift of moaning and rebuking is unmatched, and it emphasizes the point: the job of a master greenkeeper requires the patience of Job.
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