Continuing Education comes in many forms

The off-season is filled with education opportunities. Usually I attend the conference put on by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America which rotates between a few cities. This year it was held in Orlando and for some reason i could not get myself interested in Orlando again. I have been to the GIS, golf industry show as it is now called 17 or 18 times and at least three in Orlando. Anyway there are many one day seminars as well as a regional convention of which I am now  Board member representing my local association the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Cape Cod, but more on that later. Earlier in the winter I attended a seminar at Wachusett Golf Club in West Boylston, MA and Wed this week Kevin and I made a trip to Gillette Stadium where the Patriots call home. One of our main suppliers hosts a number of manufacturers (10 this year) and gives them 35 minutes each to tell us what's new in their line or what worked the best last season. It is fast paced and very informative. The venue is a lot of fun as well. We took advantage of being off the "Rock" and decided to tour a bit of Patriot Place. Of course I did not think to take any pictures until Kev and I were outside heading into the Hall of Fame:


Kevin and Mark Santos. Mark is the son of long time Pat's Radio announcer Gil Santos.



Three, but room for many more Lombardi Trophies!!!

doing what I was told.



Only Employee Robert Kraft Calls "Mr"

  This gentleman was our first docent in the Hall. Very helpfull, informative and enthusiastic. We later learned from Mark Santos that Bob Kraft calls this guy Mr whatever his name is, sorry for forgetting. He has been employed with the Patriots for 23 years. He is 89 yrs young. On our way out we ran into him again and I asked if he was "that" guy. He just smiled. I asked him what he did for a living as I remembered Mark mentioned Grain. He told me he drove a submarine for 14 yrs in WW2 and Korea then went into the grain business locally then internationally. I was trying to take a picture of the SuperBowl rings behind him close up and he stopped me and took off his ring and told me how to pose and took my picture. I thanked him for his Military service and he said "aint no big thing, got a bunch of Bronze Stars back home can't get a cup of coffee with em" I told him if it was not for him and many like him we could all be speaking german right now to which he just smiled. A smile by the way that had a single bottom tooth from what I could tell. Classic. We should have given him 45 minutes in the seminar to educate us on a few things!

Gillette

Winter Work

There have been many little projects done as part of our off-season work that have escaped my posting. Kevin took advantage of the shop being open this week with Will's vacation and painted the ball washers. It takes a bit of work as they all have to be disassembled, cleaned and prepped before painting. The work-shop is the only heated place we have to accomplish this work so we usually time it for when Will is away.

Mike washing the trash cans

Ball washer pieces/parts

 Being vacation week we also pulled in Mike for a little help getting things ready for the season. Next in the prep area will be flag sticks and then tee markers. Also throughout the year we fill potholes on the roads. Depending how bad they are we use 1-3 or more dump truck loads of material. It is truly amazing how fast the roads can breakdown and how the potholes form in the same area regardless of what material we use to fill them.



road crew



Frost layer

I checked a couple greens last night around 5pm. It is a highly scientific process where we take an 8.5 inch screwdriver and stick it into the ground. Actually then there are other indicators we use such as how moist the greens are. Whether they are firm or soft under foot and if we can bring water up by pressing down with our feet. All of this will tell us if the frost has left the ground and we can open the greens for play.

practice Putting Green

Showing the depth. Fingers on where screwdriver bottomed out approx. 4.5 inches

nine green. about 4 inches of penetration till we hit frost layer

low area of nine green in center. Obviously standing water

We received 2.01 inches of rain over the last day or so and the course took it very well. An indication that a lot of the frost is gone or going and the soil is draining. As of noon today the only greens that are frost free are 1,5 and 15. We are very close and should be back to fully open if we can stay above freezing for a little longer. Everyone's patience has been great. After a trip to northern New England and seeing first hand the magnitude of this Winter I was happy just to see the open ground again. Most places I visited had around three feet of snow/ice and the piles in parking lots were enormous.