We often find bad runs on rinks or bad rinks on greens and we can guess or hypothesise as to the causes of these effects, but at many clubs the science stops there and they reach for the top-dressing. Given that we have seen the negative side of making greens too sandy, shouldn't we explore the possibility of a different answer to the apparent overnight appearance of bad areas on greens?
My upcoming ebook, The Tyre Lever and the Golf Ball, making green performance objective, puts forward a suggested way forward in green performance measurement. Until now assessment of turf performance has been open to suffering from human error due to the tests used being somewhat less than objective.
Back at the beginning of the month I announced that I would be releasing a new ebook dealing with the evaluation and measurement of bowling green performance called the Tyre Lever and the Golf Ball.
You might have noticed that I have updated the post about the ebook to say that it will now be available on the site on 28th November instead of the earlier date I first promised; let me explain.
In this new book I will reveal how we bowling greenkeepers can adopt some of the methods being used by the golf industry in order to make green performance management more objective and replicable. To do that I will explain a few tricks currently being employed in the golf world and describe some of the hi tech (and expensive) equipment being used to perform those tricks. Ultimately, the book’s purpose will be to describe a series of tests and measurements that can be used to help us decide what maintenance work needs to be done to keep the green on a trajectory towards greater and more consistent performance, without blowing the budget on consultants and measurement equipment, hence the title.
Now the reason for the delay in bringing you this book.
When I first wrote the bulk of the content and made the original announcement on the site, I wasn’t aware that a project was about to come in that would let me add a lot more detail and real world findings to the book’s content.
So I’m writing this update at Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam on my way to Hainan in China where I am about to undertake two weeks of teaching on this very subject with two groups of Chinese students who are studying an HND in Golf Course Management.
Over the next two weeks I will make regular updates on the subject of Green Playing Performance with live findings and anecdotes from my classes in China and the updated book will be released on the site on 28th November.
Meantime if you have any questions about any aspect of greenkeeping or club management it’s business as usual so just ask any questions using the Help link, via the contact form or leave a comment on any of the articles that interest you.
The Scandinavian Turfgrass and Environment Research Foundation (STERF ) invited greenkeepers, turf grass agronomists, consultants and all others to probably the most interesting turf grass seminar this year. Researchers from US, UK, Norway and Denmark presented the latest from fine fescue research, and experienced greenkeepers from Ireland, France, Sweden, Scotland and Denmark revealed their thoughts and experiences with fescue.
The group visited Elisefarm Golf Club, established in 2005. It was the first golf course to bring back fescue to Sweden in recent times, situated in Höör, just north of Malmö. After that the group visited the more than one hundred year old Copenhagen Golf Club, resided just north of the capital of Denmark in the wonderful open, mature woodland with hundreds of deer walking about the course.
Day two was a presentations and discussions day at the University of Copenhagen.
More information about the outcomes of the event here.
Now that the green is closed for winter (but not forgotten I hope!), thoughts inevitably turn to the condition of the club itself.
How is your club doing?
How are the membership numbers looking?
How can we get people in to spend some money in the winter months?
I’m a bit of a Twitter enthusiast and I find that it’s a good barometer for seeing how things are going in the bowling world, even though only a tiny percentage of clubs seem to be using it so far. Same goes for facebook; not many clubs using it for club communications and/or marketing.
Yesterday on Twitter I saw this tweet:
That seems like a terribly good deal. Membership for a whole year for just £20 or £40?
But is it a terribly good deal for clubs to be giving away membership for such low fees? Let’s speculate that an imaginary club with similar fees to this one has 50 Ladies and 80 Gentlemen members. That’s a total membership income of just £4200 for the year. Now I know that I’m dreaming here because a high percentage of clubs have far fewer members than that, but even allowing me my poetic license this is barely enough to cover the costs of maintaining the green and having the lights on in the clubhouse of an evening. Of course there are other income streams, like the bar and social events but many clubs are in borderline survival mode.
I know the pressure is on to keep membership fees low and I know that many members view these fees as if they are for the summer only. I also know that members have to bear additional costs to participate in the sport such as petrol, equipment, competition fees etc, so I’m not advocating any drastic increases to membership fees.
So what does that leave? It leaves the fundamental way in which we think about our club’s role in the community. Is it the damp, cold place that the old fuddy duddies go to in the summer, to be avoided at all costs, or is it a vibrant, bright hub of the community where the members will welcome you to participate in their sport or even bring your own interests along to share with others? Is it a place that seems off limits to me as a non-member or that seems to be closed up all winter long, or is it a magnet for locals, who relish the warm and buzzing atmosphere in the dark, damp days of the closed season?
At this time of year many clubs slip routinely into survival mode. Put the green to bed, batten down the hatches, set the radiators to “snowflake”, cross fingers and hope all the members come back next year.
It doesn’t have to be like that.
Let me know how things are going at your club.Meantime I’ve popped two of our most popular winter reads into a special offer so that hopefully clubs can make a start on getting the ball rolling on change.
Get them now and start the march to abundance for your bowls club this winter.
