Fall is here and for most superintendents it’s not only a difficult time but a very important time of the year. The difficult time is the shortage of labour to do very important work in preparing the golf course or park for the winter months.

 

Most of the golf courses that I’ve talked to have had a solid year and excellent green fee revenue. One thing I’ve found was golf is sure affordable in our province. I’ve also found that many greens superintendents are under paid, especially those that have Turf education and all the necessary licenses such as their pesticide license.Speaking of pesticide licenses, now is the time to think about obtaining yours this winter. It’s home study and an open book exam. Actually, it’s not that hard, and will probably save you a lot of grief somewhere down the road. The government has pesticide inspectors who could visit your golf course at any time in the future. I know of three courses they have visited this summer. They check sprayers, storage facilities, licenses and a variety of other areas in the safe application of pesticides.Some people are having a real problem renting air compressors to blow out their irrigation lines this fall. This is because of the construction boom in the province. People should make sure this equipment is reserved for rental a year in advance.

With some recent wet weather all the talks about West Nile Virus has disappeared. I haven’t heard of any golf course or Park employees who had contracted the disease, but I’m sure there were some. This I do know… people in the Turf industry certainly protected themselves this past season.

Remember this one – When a decision is made for an existing course to undergo major renovations, many factors must be considered and researched to facilitate a smooth renovation in a timely manner. When a golf course is renovated by people lacking in experience, major damage could very easily occur to the non-renovated portions of the course. If you are planning renovations, call me and I can suggest some members who are experts in this area.

I recently read that a well groomed 18-hole golf course produces enough oxygen to support 6000 people. I don’t think many people would dwell on this. Most people would rather condemn the use of pesticides.
The next meeting of the S.T.A. Board of Directors will be held October 18th at the Riverside Country Club in Saskatoon. If you have any questions or suggestions on how to better the S.T.A., call, email or fax me. I will present your suggestions to the Board for review.

My condolences to the family of Clinton Earl who passed away September 21st, 2006 at the age of 57. Clinton was a partner in the Riverbreaks Golf Resort.

They tell me the Northern Superintendents wind-up at Waskesiu was a good one. Eight groups played well and had a good day of golf. The boys in the South also had a wind-up at Echo Ridge and Katepwa Beach Golf Club. Rumour has it Lance Gay did the cooking for the banquet!

Everyone mark the Fall Wind-up and Annual Meeting on your calendar. It’s going to be at the Wascana Country Club in Regina November 28th, 2006. We will again have a very educational seminar in the morning and the Annual meeting after lunch, followed by a banquet at which time Member of the Year will be announced. You can help us by sending in your nomination for this award. Please get involved on this!

This summer we had friends from Florida visit us for about 3 weeks. I asked them if Florida was still bothered by those big 4 inch long grasshoppers called Eastern Lubbers. They are multiplying, especially in the central part of the state. They cause mega-damage to almost any type of plant life. If you have enough guts to touch them they eject a foul smelling, irritating foam. Control… a shotgun may be the best. A few years ago I actually saw one of those suckers. Needless to say (because I was a friendly Prairie boy), I backed away… fast. In fact, I ran like hell.

Recently I read that Fairy Ring has been around for a long long time. A popular belief during the Middle Ages was that a ring of mushrooms appeared in a pasture after fairies danced on that spot the night before. In Scotland it was bad luck for a farmer to till the land where rings of mushrooms appeared but in England it was considered good fortune to build a house on land where fairy rings were observed.

I’m out of here guys – and on my way to visit my daughter and her husband in North Carolina. I’ll see numerous golf courses, a college football game and the Montreal Canadians play the Carolina Hurricanes. My daughter and her mother will shop, shop and then shop some more.