Name:  Terra Waldron

Club:  Desert Highlands Association

Description:  The Agronomy calendar is an annual publication of the Desert Highlands agronomy practices and scheduling for staff and member use.  Our entire staff has benefited in having a clear golf course maintenance schedule which allows for better scheduling around club events.

Implementation:  As a result of Summer Agronomy Transition Seminars in conjunction with other area clubs and agronomy experts, the agronomy calendar was developed and is now compiled annually to be an information source and guide for Agronomy practices.  This calendar is distributed to members and staff annually with monthly updates and is also posted on the monthly calendar and member’s website.

Name:  Wayne Hall, CCM

Club:  Farmington Country Club

Description:  Farmington’s Golf Course Maintenance staff uses rotary mowers to cut the roughs on the golf course.  These mowers have cutting units that are heavy and cumbersome to clean under, thus they were rarely cleaned completely.  The lack of clean machinery led to part failure.  TO eliminate the difficulty of cleaning these units properly and to prolong the life of these costly parts, an equipment cleaning wand was created.

Implementation:  The cleaning wand is made from a power washer wand similar to one you would find at a self serve car wash.  The wand was heated and bent to a 45 degree angle.  It was then attached to a normal wash hose via a quick connect coupling.  With these few modifications, staff can easily clean grass clippings and dirt from under these decks safely and efficiently.

Name:  Ted Bartlett

Club:  Hermitage Country Club

Description:  The “Hose Rack System: organized our inventory of hoses very nicely.  We can always see with a quick glance how many hoses and parts we have and stay on top of such an important item.  It also cut down dramatically on reaction time.

Implementation:  Each 18 hole course has their own hose rack far apart from each other.  Members never see hoses laying around which they appreciate greatly.

Name:  Richard Cromwell

Club:  The Country Club of Virginia

Description:  Greens Aerification Cup – During greens aerification, the hole always collapsed.  We took a Styrofoam pool flotation device, cut it into sections, and plac3ed it in the hole prior to aerification.  The Styrofoam is left in the hole until aerification is completed.  When the Styrofoam is removed, the hole is intact and much easier to repair for play.

Name:  Richard Cromwell

Club:  The Country Club of Virginia

Description:  Golf Cart Rotation – Rotating carts equally extends battery life and usage.  This also allows us to service the carts, checking water, cables, and tire pressure, on a weekly basis without disruption to members.  We use small colored stickers and park carts in groups according to color.  They are then used according to color group assigned each week.

Name:  Wayne Hall, CCM

Club:  Farmington Country Club

Description:  Farmington’s Golf Course Maintenance department created a daily task record to document task completion times for its employees.  The daily task record is useful in budgeting payroll and justifying expenses.  This tool is especially helpful when communicating needs to decision makers.  Daily logs are available in Spanish and English to support the multicultural staff.

Implementation:  At the end of each day, staff fill out their log; documenting hours spend performing each specific task.  Hours are tracked on a weekly basis.  The information is inserted in an Excel spreadsheet which is accessible and easy to maintain.  The Greens committee members are very satisfied with the physical evidence the record provides and are able to make sound financial decisions.

Name:  Craig Martin

Club:  The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club and Spa

Description:  Utilize the turf nursery as a training center and chemical research facility.  All golf course staff are highly trained and confident, therefore reducing accidents.

Implementation:  Standard operating procedures were defined for utilizing the facility for mowing, chemical, and golf course maintenance.  Members have voted the course as one of the finest in the country as a result.

Name:  Richard Cromwell

Club:  The Country Club of Virginia

Description:  Pretreating with Herbicide – Spraying Revolver herbicide two weeks prior to overseeding eliminates the germinating poa annua and allows our overseeding to be poa-free.  This enhances the playability and aesthetics of all of our overseeded areas (tees, fairways, etc.)

Name:  Wayne Hall, CCM

Club:  Farmington Country Club

Description:  TO improve communication between operators and equipment maintenance staff Farmington’s Golf Course Maintenance staff developed a system to minimize use of faulty machinery.  The communication system includes a form, a corresponding bulletin board, and an equipment tag-out system.  This simple, yet effective, system is easy to implement and requires very little administration time.

Implementation:  When an operator has a mechanical problem with a piece of equipment they fill out a form and post it.  The equipment staff then will either fix the problem or tag it as unusable until the problem is fixed.  If a machine is tagged staff know it can not be used.  Faulty equipment can lead to damage on the course and costly repairs.  Properly maintained equipment helps ensure the golf course is manicured to members’ expectations.

Name:  Richard Cromwell

Club:  The Country Club of Virginia

Description:  Core Aerating Timing – Altering core aeration practices an enhance golfer satisfaction without sacrificing putting green health.  Traditionally putting greens have been aerated with a ½” hole in April, May, and September.  These holes take two to three weeks to return to normal putting conditions.  April, May, and September are typically nice weather months with high golfer rounds.  In the traditional aeration schedule the greens were disrupted during peak golfer activity.  Core aeration must still be utilized to maintain healthy putting greens.  However, the timing was changed to March, and the number of holes was increased two to three times.  Under this method the recovery time is not affected by the number of holes.  The recovery time is influenced by the size of the holes and the weather.  This changes has reduced the total surface disruption time from six to nine weeks to three to four weeks total for the year, and it has reduced the frequency of disruption.  Plus, the core aeration is done during a time when golfer activity is slower. 

Name:  Ted Bartlett

Club:  Hermitage Country Club

Description:  Communication with the membership about course care is of the utmost importance.  Special reminders everyday can only help persuade the membership to do their part.  Out of sight, out of mind, but in sight they just might.

Implementation:  This program started when we reopened our Manakin golf course.  Every day when a cart is housed a new bullet reminder is put on the steering wheel.  Members have been supportive and actually some can’t wait to see what our next message will be.

Name:  Richard Cromwell

Club:  The Country Club of Virginia

Description:  Sprinkler Leveling Tool – We made a sprinkler “leveling” tool to help raise low sprinklers to the right height with the surface of the ground.  We used 10 feet of one-inch angle iron to make a three-piece device to hold the sprinkler while we back-filled the hole.