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Can any old Tom, Dick or Harry produce a Performance Bowls Green?

 

In a previous post I was talking about the 4 barriers to success that I regularly encounter at bowling clubs. These were Desperation (for a good green), Traditions (that aren’t as traditional as we think sometimes), Myths (not dragons and wizards, but greenkeeping myths) and of course Consistency or rather the lack of it.

Well today I want to tell you a story about a typical bowling club. Just for the record this isn’t based on any one club, but is a very common pattern of events. If you are a bowling club member, you might instantly recognise this pattern and think I am talking about your club, but I assure you I’m not. If you are a bowling club member and this doesn’t ring any bells, then I would put money on your green being the best in your area, that you have a thriving membership and everything at your club is rosy. If that’s the case you are to be congratulated. To the story then:

Back in the late 1970’s our bowling club was doing ok, membership was thriving and the green was playing well. The greenkeeper, who we’ll call Tom, was an enthusiastic amateur and up until that point he had the full backing of the membership, he was Read more

Noxious Chemicals and Performance Bowls Greens

The English language has a habit of dressing things up to make them more palatable.

I wonder if meat would be so popular if we called beef, lamb and pork “dead cow”, “baby sheep” or “pig carcass”.

Sometimes of course if something is particularly hard to swallow we have to resort to French; I don’t think even the big 4 banks could sell many “death pledges” regardless of how desperate we were to get on the property ladder!

However, I have decided not to play along when it comes to producing Performance Bowling Greens and I now lump herbicides, insecticides and fungicides (pesticides) into my newly coined phrase “noxious chemicals”.

So it might come as some surprise that I am now going to advocate the continued use of these products.

The long term plan for any bowling green should be to wean it off of these products, but I still come across clubs who jump in with both feet too early and make their green even worse than it was.

Although done with the best of intentions, this can torpedo the whole program as members rebel against the new program.

If you have a thatchy, compacted, sour smelling green, you will need pesticides for the foreseeable future. However, the plan should be to move to spot treatment only whilst you undertake the real work of aeration and soil improvement.

Eventually, you can become smug like me and call them noxious chemicals, the use of which will never be entertained again.

Maybe we will eventually promote the opening day BBQ with a poster covered in dead baby animals!

Much more info on weaning your green off pesticides here.

Mowing Height and the British Weather

It can be very tempting to get the mowing height on the green down as quickly as possible when the new season starts.

However, the weather can  be very unpredictable at this time of year with sudden and welcome warm spells being chased by almost winter conditions in a very short time frame. As a result there is a need for caution at this time of year when deciding on how quickly to reduce the mowing height on the green.

Performance Greens readers and regulars on this site will know that I generally recommend a mowing height of around 8mm through the winter months.

This should be reduced gradually to the summer height of 5mm with 4.5mm being the lowest recommended height for fine grasses.

At  this time we can sometimes be enjoying temperatures that we will be lucky to see even in July, and with a deft change in the wind direction our little island can seem like a completely different place and we are plunged back  into winter without notice.

Grass that has been chopped down quickly will suffer and I recommend that you stay up at 6mm even for opening day, aiming for 5mm in May, unless it’s snowing of course!

The Pursuit of Excellence and…economy.

Now that the new season is upon us, we’ve been getting a lot of enquiries asking two basic questions:

What is the ideal maintenance program to ensure an excellent bowling green surface this year? and…

How can we reduce costs for maintenance without compromising the performance of the green?

Well, although both of these questions are fairly easy to answer, the actual solution depends a lot on what has gone before and at what stage your green is at, in terms of performance at the moment.

The pursuit of excellence on a sensible budget is very much the theme of Performance Bowling Greens.

In the book you will find a step by step blueprint in layman’s terms where John explains the reasons why most bowling greens don’t perform to the required standard, or if they do, why they don’t seem capable of perfoming consistently over the long term.

Also in the book John talks about his philosophy on high performance bowling greens, what makes them and how to achieve a tournament quality green on a reasonable budget, consistently.

John said ” I decided to write this book to detail in layman’s terms the exact formula needed for a great bowling green. A formula that is based on thorough scientific research and experience”

He went on to say: “I also wanted to alert bowling club officials and greenkeepers to the 4 major obstacles that stand in their way, the 4 obstacles that repeatedly stop them from producing the green they desire, so that hopefully they can learn to spot these and avoid them in the future.”

You can get hold of your copy of Performance Bowling Greens here.

Teamwork

This week we have been looking at growing club membership and retaining current members.

One of the most important requirements for a project of this nature to be successful is a cohesive team where every member is aware of the goals and is committed to achieving success.

To work effectively and for one common goal within the club it is very important for all involved to share the same vision. This vision should be clearly defined so that all involved understand the direction in which the club is heading.

The key to achieving this level of commitment is Read more