Be careful what you ask for....

Ever since I decide to pursue a career in golf course maintenance, I have been "chomping at the bit" to become Superintendent. Be it to show what I learned from The Institute of Applied Agriculture at UMCP or to improve and expand on what I took from the Superintendents I worked under.  The title is something I coveted more than a World Series for my beloved Chicago Cubs.  After my first week of being named to the position here at RedGate, I was re-thinking my life decisions.

I'm not short on confidence when it comes to my education and work experience.  I know how to maintain a golf course, manage a crew, and stay on budget, etc...  That knowledge has been acquired over my 15 years of working in this industry.  What I wasn't told was that my irrigation system will go down at the worst possible time.  No class prepared me for my sprayer(the most important piece of equipment in the fleet) not functioning properly in the month of July.... in the Mid-Atlantic Region, the most difficult to grow turf at greens, tees, and fairway heights during the summer months!!  The only saving grace has been the unseasonably mild temperatures for this time of year.

But what my education and some previous Superintendents have taught me is that everyday is a new challenge.  One of the reasons I chose this career is because nothing is scripted.  Look  at whatever obstacle you are faced with, decide how to conquer it, and execute your plan. That applies to all walks of life, not just golf course maintenance.

Until the irrigation system was back to functioning properly, I came in a couple hours before the first tee time (3am) to manually turn on sprinkler heads, for the fairways and tees.  Greens are watered by hand 90% of the time during the summer months so the crew is used to maintaining the proper moisture with hoses. An unfortunate by-product of that is that other areas of the course are not as manicured with a small crew already occupied.  But I would rather have to catch up on mowing than have to seed dead areas because we were aggressive when we shouldn't have been.

Any piece of equipment is expendable in a golf course maintenance fleet except for the spray rig.  We have two at RedGate. One is an older model Cushman used primarily for herbicide applications.  It broke down last month but I wasn't in a rush to fix it because of the cost and the newer Toro was operational.  My worst nightmare came true when BOTH were inoperable at the same time. We applied granular fungicides to try and help suppress any diseases that occur at this time but they efficacy is not as accurate as foliar sprays. Proper preventative maintenance is the key to avoiding anything like this happening in the future. $3500 later the Toro sprayer is finally functioning properly, I was able to make an application on greens today without the pressure going through the roof. Good thing, because the greens were definitely hungry for some fertilizer and fungicide to keep  going for these last 30 or so days of the "90 days of Hell" maintenance crews in our region endure. 

It's never easy to take over management of a golf course. There is the transition period affects everyone at the course. The new Superintendent and his new staff, the GM and Pro Shop staff, the members/daily-fee golfers, to the course itself.   But I was the Assistant Superintendent at RedGate for a year before taking over so at least I have that advantage.  Hopefully I can hire someone who was as anxious to become a Superintendent as I was so I can teach them.... Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it!