GIS 2010

Most folks here are off to the GIS show, gives me more time to post here. We hope everyone has a good time send me your pictures and I will post them here.

GCM, Foley partner for equipment tech contest

If you're looking for a way to recognize all the hard work and dedication put in by your course's equipment tech, but don't have a line in your budget for a trip to Hawaii or tickets to the Final Four, I think I can help.

GCM, in partnership with the good folks at Foley United, are presenting the Most Valuable Technician awards program, which we're officially launching this week at the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in San Diego. The concept is simple -- head on over to this Web site, fill out the nomination form, and let our esteemed panel of judges do the rest.

The deadline for nominations is March 5. After that, we'll narrow all of the nominations down to three finalists and at that time, you'll be invited to return to the Web site to vote for the equipment technician you think is most deserving of this honor. Our plans are to announce the winner in the Insider: Shop column in our June issue.

Get all the info here

Oakland Hills Country Club new Blog out!

Steve Cook, the Golf Superintendent from the Oakland Hills C. C. has a new blog, Turfgrass Maintenance. He will be keeping us all updated on the goings on at his club through this new blog so go over and give Steve a shout next time your out on the web.

Steve's blog here

Golf Course Trades March Issue

We have just about finished with another magazine we have the final proofs here now and once they get a good looking over we will go to the printing, our printer is here in town. Then a couple days after that all the Golf Course Superintendents across the country can see the latest.

Lets not forget though that we do have a digital version we put up every month that can be seen here on our website www.golfcoursetrades.com. There you can search through the archives to see what you have missed.

Blogs of Note

This blog written by Michael D. Vogt, CGCS, CGIA, Golf Division Director, McMahon Group a golf facility consulting company, has many useful articles from irrigation to writing mission statements, very informative.

Michael is presenting a half day seminar at the Golf Industry Show 2010, in San Diego. "Planning and Programming the Golf Turf Care Center" The seminar will consist of step-by-step planning for new or renovated maintenance buildings.


Go Here for the blog

Teaching the Future

Our February issue is up on our digital viewer. The article written by Sean McCue Golf Course Superintendent at The Country Club at Castle Pines.

In the article Sean talks about their internship at Castle Pines He says:

"The teaching process goes beyond the interns and filters down to the rest of the staff as well. I am a firm believer that the best way of learning is to actually get the hands on experience. It is for this reason that I love taking on many in house projects that provide numerous opportunities for learning"

Good luck Sean and thank you for taking the time to write an article for us.

Visit Sean's blog here

If you would like to write an article for The Golf Course Trades just call at 931-484-8819 or email me directly at ken@thetrades.com I look forward to hearing from you.

Getting back on course

With a down economy hurting their business, local golf course managers aren’t resting on their nine irons but are instead rolling out incentives and programs in an effort to entice more players to spend their green out on the green

The trend in local golf is similar to what’s occurring nationally, with rounds of golf down slightly in 2009 from the previous year, according to the latest data from the National Golf Foundation.

“The private clubs are trying various things to attract members — from trial memberships to reduced initiation fees,” said Jim Kass, director of research for the foundation. “With public courses, the best ones are offering player development programs and lessons for beginners, and club loaners, as opposed to just offering discounts.”


Read more

Off-season marketing generates $50,000 for golf course

A marketing plan launched in December at Sierra Sage Golf Course generated $50,000 for its new management team during a time the snow-covered course is closed.

Cal-Mazz Golf Management, a partnership between longtime golf superintendent Cal Swanson and managing partner Mike Mazzaferri, took over operation of the formerly Washoe County-owned course on Nov. 1. Cal-Mazz Golf in December offered $10 rounds of golf and quickly sold out the 5,000 rounds it made available.

More important than the revenue was the number of new golfers attracted to the course, says Mazzaferri, who ran the Rosewood Lakes and Brookside golf courses for nine years.

The $10 vouchers were limited to 10 per household. About 460 new names were added to the course’s customer database.

“Our big thing was we wanted to throw some marketing at it — a lot of people didn’t even know the course was there,” he says. “We were trying to get some new faces, and we got quite a few regulars who bought them, but at least half were new faces.”

The course’s customer database is more than 1,000 names strong, Mazzaferri says, and future marketing plans include offering a free birthday round of golf to those customers.

Read More

Starting again!

I have really been behind as late keeping this blog up to date, but I am going to start it over and try to keep it updated at least once a week.

October 2009 Golf Course Trades

When Dr David G. Bronner, CEO of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, started the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail years ago he made the decision to build to a massive scale. He wanted to create something different, memorable, and awesome. First generation Trail courses were primarily bermudagrass with natural grass accents....

Read full article here or click on picture

Many thanks to Doug Tinkham for this great article in our October issue. Doug is from The Shoals Golf Club in Muscle Shoals Alabama. The Shoals has two 18 hole championship courses, the "Fighting Joe" named after General Joseph 'Fighting Joe' Wheeler, the only Confederate General to attain the same rank later in the United States Army.

The second course, the "Schoolmaster" named for President Woodrow Wilson who was responsible for getting Wilson Dam built and was also known as "The Schoolmaster of politics.

Credit to the Robert Trent Jones website for this information, which you can see at The Shoals Golf Club site here.