The Right Stuff

This past Wednesday, our Second Assistant Superintendent quit our team without any advanced notice or indication leading up to it.  

This news came as a shock to me and the rest of our team.  Losing the third in command in the middle of May is not an ideal situation, as you might imagine.  This is our busiest time of the season, with projects on the horizon on top of daily conditioning challenges, and losing a key employee now is a bitter pill to swallow.

Fortunately for our members, the rest of our team is committed to Plum and they have rallied in support of myself and our First Assistant Superintendent, John Sabat.  Independently they have approached me this week and pledged to do whatever is necessary to get us through the season.  At a time where it would be easy to be angry or bitter, our team has risen above and crew morale is the highest it's been in my ten years at Plum Hollow.  I am excited to see where this good morale and determination takes us.  These guys definitely have the right stuff.

Finding a qualified candidate to fill the vacancy this late in the season is very unlikely, as most turf students have already graduated and settled into jobs by now.  John and I plan to divide the workload and weekends throughout the summer, knowing full well that sacrifices will have to be made on the home fronts and the hours will be long.  

We've been down this road before, most notably in 2009 when I was promoted to Greens Superintendent.  I can't speak for John, but that year was the most personally gratifying year I've had at Plum, and we performed at a very high level and the member response was overwhelmingly positive. 

I have no doubt that history will repeat itself this year.  We remain determined, committed, and driven to deliver the best course conditions to our members, now more than ever.

There's no quit left on this team.

Course Update

First and foremost, I want to thank our Assistant Superintendent John Sabat for handling our operation, including a successful greens aeration, while I was working at THE PLAYERS last week. He and the rest of the team kicked some butt last week and got a lot accomplished. 

Speaking of greens aeration, recovery is going about as expected but the cold nights and frost have not helped. We are hopeful holes will be healed up this weekend. For now, keeping things a bit on the softer side to prevent greens from drying out in the sun and wind, setting us back.

Annual flowers started going in Wednesday and will continue Friday. Becky has some great color schemes and designs this year. Looking forward to seeing things in full bloom this summer. 

Turned our attention to some of the finer details this week: line trimming creek beds, filling divots on tees, line trimming trees, and continuing stump fill and seed. Today our team is focused on edging bunkers and blowing out the debris. We will give them a proper rake tomorrow. 

Plum at the Players: Shoot Out on #17

With the tournament in the books, all that's left to do is have a little fun on #17. Playing Sundays pin and from the same spot the pros hit from.  Closest to the pin wins the flag used in tournament. 

My "easy" 8 iron shot hit the water about where Sergio's did.

At the airport now enjoying a beer and speaking broken English with Masters champ Angel Cabrera. Good times!

Plum Hollow bound.  Looking forward to getting back and implementing what I learned this week. Efficiency = success. 

Plum at the Players: Finishing Strong

The Players Championship has drawn to a close, with Tiger Woods holding off the competition in an exciting finish. 

We got lucky and had a perfect day for the finale of the "fifth major."  This morning we had to change our routing around the golf course since there were still groups that had to finish the Third Round. We started on #15, worked through #18, and then on to #1 and #10. Then when Third Round play concluded, guys were sent back out to re-rake bunkers, change cups, and re-mow tees on holes 15-18.

After morning assignments (I was with the greens mowers who mowed 13,16, and 18), we were free to enjoy the tournament action. Walked the course twice before retreating into some A/C to watch the exciting finish on TV.

Plum at the Players: Inclement Weather

Today we had to remain on property from 5am to 9pm because of the threat of thunderstorms. Nasty weather blew in around 4pm, halting play for about 90 minutes and requiring us to reconfigure the evening shift jobs and route around the golf course. To put it plainly, we had to keep distance between us and Tiger Woods.

A small army of greens mowers left the maintenance facility around 6pm. Due to the rain we already got and threat of more, we switched from the normal quad cut to a traditional double cut on greens. With six teams leapfrogging the course we got the greens done quickly. Lots of debris on them from the wind, so I was busy with a backpack blower. 

Looking forward to Sunday when the PLAYERS crowns its champion. Personally, my vote is for the Agronomy Department here at TPC Sawgrass for their leadership, planning, and execution of all phases of golf course management. 

Plum at the Players: Go Time

Made it through round one and halfway through round two. Greens continue to be mowed 4 times morning and night. From what I understand, the cool spring in Jacksonville has not been kind to the greens at Sawgrass, and we are aggressively mowing in the hopes of encouraging lateral growth on the mini verde surfaces. After 4 mowings there is hardly any clippings in the buckets, but over the last few days the thinner areas of the greens have showed signs of filling in.

The most challenging part of the tournament so far has been the hours. Early mornings, late evenings, and baking in the Florida sunshine in between takes a toll on your physical and mental abilities. I have definitely been feeling the mental fatigue from sleep deprivation, and yesterday and today I've been sneaking naps in rather than stalk Tiger out in the field so I can be mentally sharp for the evening shift. 

Saturday appears to have a chance of storms, and already the TPC staff has notified us to plan on remaining on property all day tomorrow in that event.  Two more days and this will all be in the books, but the memories and the team that took a flooded and destroyed golf course and restored it into a championship golf venue in a few days will live far beyond Sunday. 

Fairway Hydraulic Leak

Most of our equipment is hydraulically operated. In the case of our fairway mowers, they have five cutting units all hydraulically run.  That's a lot of hydraulic hoses on those units. 

Today our older fairway unit had a hydraulic hose that began leaking on #12 fairway. While our operators are instructed to diligently watch for such things, they can be extremely difficult to detect, especially in the event of a drip or a slow leak. Unfortunately in this case, fairways #12, 13, 15, and 16 were mowed before the leak was detected.  The fairways are growing rapidly resulting in lots of clippings, making it that much more difficult to detect. 

All our equipment is maintained preventatively. Hours are logged and recorded in a computer database called My Fleet. Hydraulic hoses have a certain life expectancy, in hours, and they are replaced when they get close to that threshold. In today's case, the hose in question wasn't old but rather had rubbed against the machine over time in such a way that a weak spot developed in the hose. 

In the days to come we will decide on a course of action on the damaged areas of the fairways. These options will likely include aerating, overseeding, spiking, or even potentially resodding. 

This afternoon, every hose and fitting on every piece of equipment is undergoing a thorough inspection. 

Hydraulic leaks alway result in dead grass and things are going to get ugly in the days ahead on the afflicted area.