Education, education, education

I have always been a great believer in staff training. The better your staff are trained the better they can preform. 

Staff tend be more motivated and go onto have bigger and better careers. 

Once the staff move up the ladder or onto a new challenge it's easier to find quality replacements as people want to be somewhere they will get investment in them as well as the company. Either way the winners are the golf club. 

I have been lucky enough to be part of and lead teams like this. My previous team all achieved good qualifications, which not only improved our team but the course. 

We were lucky enough to win awards in Ecology, Gold medals of excellence from City and Guilds, an award from Princess Anne, Bernhard delegation award winners (trips to the USA to look at courses) and a Student Greenkeeper of the year winner in both regional and then the National final. (This meant my previous deputy got spend studying in the states at the winter turf school at one of there leading university's). The positive from all of this is a highly skilled team 

who take pride in their course. 

Richard Branson famously said 'If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients'and that sums up my philosophy! 

Now before I hear the cry of how much does this all cost... Staff training can be done for free, this could include in-house training or even course visits to other sites to gain ideas or see how they are doing things or it can cost some money but money wisely spent. 

One of the skills is knowing how to access funding, where to find the best value for money and what training investments will give the best returns for the investment for the club. For example a qualified chainsaw operator could save us as much as £500 per day with the cost of the course being around £500 including PPE! So as you can see it's a no brainer! We also need to know our limits and when it is best to bring in a specialist. 

So what have we at Stoneham started so far?

We have already started staff training daily, this could include daily tasks and how best to complete them. This can work both ways as I may have ways I would like things done and there maybe ways that work better at Stoneham that I need to know (see you never stop learning). 

One of the big things has been to improve health and safety along with looking at security. Training on the new machines has started with all staff now competent with the hand mowers for example. A full days training will be given to the spray operators when the new sprayer arrives and full certificated operator training will be given to all the new machines once they arrive in March.

We have enrolled three of the staff in college courses. Graham Hastie and Levi Pethick have started there Level 3 Diploma in Sports Turf. This is a supervisory qualification and a must for there Deputy Head and First Assistant roles respectfully. 

Steve Jones our newest member of the team is currently doing his Level 2 Diploma in Greenkeeping. This is the first stage qualification within the industry. 

Rob Patrick gained European Tour experience this year out in Turkey. This is something we will be working on as a team as experiences can be more important than qualifications as you get a real hands on approach to how others are doing the job. The benefit is you always come back with ideas for the team from these events which again will benefit the course. 

The team have been involved in the BIGGA (British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association, the greenkeepers version of the PGA or GCMA) educational days at both regional and national levels. Some of the staff have attended turf club seminars (short talks) on various subjects or day events looking at courses that are doing major renovations. 

Stoneham team visit Barton on Sea to look at bunker reconstruction project

The team are now CPD (Continuing Professional Development)  'Active' through BIGGA and are recording there development. They will now be working towards there certifications (firstly Approved and then Milestone) in this area in the coming years. This is vitally import for me as it keeps us up to date on modern practices and legislation, it also shows our thirst to learn more to keep improving not only our selves but the golf course. 

Paul Martin and Levi will be attending a chainsaw course in March to give us more options especially as Charlie has gone down to part time now after 43 years of service. Charlie is great at chainsawing and I am glad he will still be here three days a week as his experience at the club is second to none and he's quite simply a Stoneham legend in my eyes but we need to have more cover for the extra days as we move forward. 

BTME 

BIGGA Turf Managment Exhibition 

This year Graham, Levi, Rob, Paul, Steve and Myself all attended BTME. 

This is basically the greenkeepers national conference which is held in Harrogate every January at the conference centre. Over 8,000 Greenkeepers attend during the week with Seminars starting on Sunday going right through to Wednesday. 

The trade show starts on Tuesday and runs until Thursday. The show has all the latest pieces of machinery, chemicals, fertilisers, training and much, much more. 

We staggered the team to cover work back at the club but with January doing its normal the course spent most of its time under water or frozen (plus Graham B and Charlie were there to hold the fort and done a good job). 

Some of the team travelled up Monday morning arriving around midday and after a quick change of clothes, so the freshly ironed shirts, trousers and Stoneham jumpers (thanks Ian) all looked smart. We then started our seminars. These included Time management and Woodland and Habitat Managment. 

The seminar timings varied through out the week with some being all day from 9am -5pm or half day 9am-1pm etc to as little as 1 hours talks. From Sunday morning right through until 5pm on Wednesday there was always something on with over ten workshop rooms, seminar rooms, conference rooms and Royal halls! 

The greenstaff attended many different seminars including Heathland Management, Growing fine fescues, Managing soil based greens, Aeration, de compaction, Wetting agents, Soil biology all of which were agronomy based. We  also attended talks on course renovations and changes see below:- 

Remedy Oak (a great talk on how and why the changed the greens)

Oakmont (amazing seeing a course go from tree lined to almost links type for this years US Open over 30 years). If you agree or not it's amazing to see the changes. 

We also attended talks on Tournaments including the Senior Open and how they were drilled for wet weather and for four different tee starts in the planning. They ended up using them all! 

Career development talks were also attended these included Get in go far, Essential communication skills. 

I was also lucky enough to be a speaker again this year. I held a workshop on 'being promoted'. This included communication skills, CV writing, interview techniques, covering letters and how to act for the job you want. This was aimed at assistant greenkeepers and deputy's looking to progress and lasted 3 hours...(I know 3 hours of me going on and you thought these blogs were bad enough!)

On the Tuesday night the welcome celebration was held in the Royal Hall. This is the annual award ceremony with prizes going to the best team of the year (St Andrews), ecology awards, life time achievements, young greenkeeper award, two Master Greenkeepers number 66 and 67 in the world were awarded their certificates.Then around 10 greenkeepers were awarded there Milestone Certificates on stage too. 

 I was lucky enough to one of them a year after being up there to collect my Diploma. I have set the staff an aim, to get up there on stage in the next three years.

This truly is a great evening with a brass band playing you in and guest speakers and presenters. This year it was hosted by Naga Munchetty a bbc presenter who is golf mad was very funny, friendly and a great presenter (obviously). Following the awards a drinks reception is laid on and we managed to get a team photo with Naga. 

I think Rob may have even challenged her to golf match :-)

In between seminars we spent time looking around the show and looking at things that we could bring back to the club. For example trenchers to help with our drainage issues! 

Our evenings away from the conference were spent in restaurants chatting about Greenkeeping to all of those we met. You really can't get away from it with everyone in town all talking Greenkeeping. 

Summary 

We have a fantastic team at Stoneham and I truly believe that the training we are offering is essential as we look to improve the course year on year. These few days a year will make a huge difference. 

The membership will benefit from it, the course will benefit and they will benefit. 

Matt 

The Trolley Splash!

2015 proved to be another wet year following an actual summer and late spring. We had 978mmin total with 552mm of rain falling from August to December. That's averaging over 100mm a month, which is way above the norm and with only17 dry days from October to January (meaning the soil profile just doesn't get chance to dry out) and now January hitting 60mm so far in 6 days, it's easy to see why the course has got a little bit damp. 

 Unfortunately due to this abnormal amount of rain we have taken the unusual step to introduce an Trolley ban. 

I must add It always remains the intention of the Club not to have a trolley ban except as a very last resort. 

Above is picture of a trial carried out by the EGU looking at impact of trolleys, carrying and Buggies. This photo shows that carrying reduces the wear the most.

We all know that trolleys cause damage mostly because users tend to follow the same routes from tees and around greens while bag carriers are able to spread out and roam freely all over the course which spreads the wear. 

The trolley routes have become worn (see above) from the constant traffic - thus the use of more widespread traffic control measures have been introduced to try and to divert them away from sensitive or crucial parts of each hole using white line or ropes. 

Please follow the traffic control measures. Short cuts being taken normally result with areas getting very muddy, wet and slippery for the season ahead. 

The main reason is that our soil does not drain so readily being clay, often leaving it very wet and easily damaged. The grass cover begins to thin as ground temperatures fall and growth comes to a virtual standstill for several months during which it is easily damaged and slow to recover.

TROLLEY DAMAGE THOUGHTS

Do electric trolleys cause more damage?

Yes is the answer... Some careless use of electric trolleys causes additional unnecessary damage due to spinning wheels, particularly when starting on a slope and the greater impact on the ground due to their weight. 

Golfers with medical certificates could also do there bit to help-  It is hoped they will use the lighter weight pull trolleys to help preserve the course or once the ban is lifted we will be encouraging everyone to do this until the course is fit for Electric trolleys (obviously our aim is to be back to normal ASAP)

It is generally hoped that everybody who is physicallyable to carry will do so, and encourage their regular playing partners likewise this is when we ask 'Please make every effort to carry your bag'. 

(If you have a medical certificate you may use trolley once you have permission from the Office or Pro shop). 

For those of you who need to use a trolley please could you follow a few handy hints to protect the golf course. 

Go around the greens following the white trolley lines.

Please keep the trolleys away from the areas marked in yellow in the diagram (on the aprons, pictured above) 

Keep away from collars 

And green surrounds (Be especially careful around these as they are very steep at Stoneham and vet slippery)

What are we doing to

Improve winter traffic problems ? 

As a club we have invested in pathways over the years to help improve the winter traffic problems. 

The pathway at the 9th was rubber crumbed this year.

The use of honey cone matting and areas getting re turfed have been ongoing. 

 The use of road plannings to give a much more stable base has already been started also this year.

We as a club will continue to improve the pathways, either by extending, improving surfaces and adding drainage to the areas. This will be done year on year to improve the course during the winter months. 

Hints

•Try to reduce the weight in your bag

•Be careful on banks and slopes

•Spread the wear if possible

•Follow the traffic control measures 

•Once trolleys are permitted again thing o the different styles and how using s pull trolley for a couple of weeks could save damage 

My final message would be that as soon as it is practical we will remove all bans of this nature. 

Please remember any type of trolley ban or course closure is always our last resort and it’s our way of protecting your golf course for the season ahead.

Our intention, as always is that members can enjoy their golf!

Matt 

Happy New Year

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year for 2016 from all the Greenstaff 

Merry Christmas to you all

Merry Christmas to all of our Stoneham members. Hope you have a great Christmas break and manage to get some Christmas golf in during the festive season from Matt and all the greenkeepers. 

Playing the numbers game!

Golf is one of those sports that's all about the numbers. It's normal 18 holes numbered 1-18, it has a Par, Stroke index, scores, number of players, numbered balls and even rules by number!! Driving stats, greens in regulation, putts taken and ball trajectory are all parts of the game now. We even use GPS to know our exact distance from the flag so we can hit that 132.5 yard shot we have in our bag!!

Anyone who's played with me will know there is always potential for a high number to appear on a score card too

 :-) 

So it should be no surprise that we the greenkeepers are obsessed with numbers too. 

Some of these maybe obvious things like the speed of the green using a stimp meter. This is tool for greenkeepers use to set the speeds up for the golf of the day. (I will blog more on this as its a big subject). It helps us give more consistent greens. It's important we don't use this as a weapon to just drive speeds as this can have a detrimental effect on the grass plant itself. I mean the golf is meant to be played on grass not soil. Always remember the saying 'the quick and the dead!'.

Another number count we are collecting is grass density. This is carried using a 1 inch square on the green and me on my hands and knees counting. This helps to show me if fertilisers are giving what we want (too much or little). 

We also look at how many boxes we have cut off certain areas of the course almost daily this is called clip rate. It can be measured into jugs and weighed or just a simple counts of boxes. 

I measure GDD (growth degree days and Growth potential). These help us to show how the growth is changing on us and helps us correct it. This is based on a maximum v minimum air temperature, then we get the mean and minus the base number. 

The base number is set by the temperature the grass plant starts to grow at. 

Growth potential helps to show when the plant is going to grow and its rate on the day. It could be 10% or 100% depending on the figures but it's always best practice to apply when the plant is more likely to take the product (food) on through it cells as it grows. Above shows the growth potential since from October- December you can clearly see we have only had one cold spell so far this winter. 

Soil temperature are measured for growth rates and how to aid them if possible. 

Rainfall figures are collected daily. This gives us a good comparison day on day, week by week, year by year. We know for example that we had 82mm of rain in November 2015 compared to the average of 76mm but compared to last years 104mm it wasn't to bad but we ve had 380mm between August -November, now that's wet but it's still none stop as we head to Christmas!! 

This data also shows us how many rain days compared with previous years or months. Remember sometimes the amount of rain days can be more of a problem than rainfall. This is because the plant/soil doesn't get time to dry out causing more issues. 

November was also the dullest on record for the last 80 years with a total of 36 hours of sunshine total for the entire month. Light levels is one of my next data collection list.

Moisture levels are measured too. All year round. This helps us to keep the plant alive in the summer (at that point we look at ET rates, evaporation) to get an even number throughout the day. In the winter this can indicate poor drainage, when work is required to increase air in the profile and where our problem areas might be. 

Below you see photos taken while testing  the green. After getting a high reading off the surface I wanted to test the soil profile to see where the problem area was. This showed the moisture content at the bottom of the hole cup to be 22% (dry) the middle section was 36% (medium) the top 38% (still medium but slightly high) the surface reading was over 50% which is very, very wet indeed. 

The results of the test showed the moisture was holding at the surface rather than in the soil. This was good to find out as wet soils need drainage but wet surfaces need OM removed or deep aeration. 

We then decided to slit tine as this would allow a deep aeration but wouldn't open up the surfaces allowing more rain into the profile. This reduced the moisture level instantly giving us breathing space from any problems. This just showed how using the data can improve our surfaces and how it helps shape our decisions. 

We measure infiltration rates (the speed water moves into the soil profile) & percolation rates (the speed it goes through the soil profile). 

Things you might not have thought of...

Our machines are measured in hours not mileage. These are recorded daily as part of the pre start check sheets and these hours are monitored for servicing and life expectancy of machines. 

The machines have a different number of blades, different thicknesses and a number of different units. Depending on the area to be cut. Our greens mowers have blades like razors with up to 15 blades, tees and aprons use 8 blades and so on and on to our rough mowers that use rotary blades. 

Our heights of cut or HOC are measured in mm. We look at heights of cut in the terms 'bench' (bench set) v 'actual' heights (on the greens using a prism).These can be adjusted daily if needed and adjusted on greens to 0.05 of mm and that can make a difference to the ball roll. Madness I know!! 

The changes can be made for performance or weather reasons. The quality of cut is monitored daily. This is checked in the mornings as part of our starting checks and we also use magnifying glasses to check the quality. If needed cutting blades are sharpened using grinders or back lapping (another whole blog to come but they are spun in different directions one is ground off to sharpen the other spun the other way and paste added to get an edge to cut from. They have the correct cutting angles checked hoc checked and put back together each time. 

Staff hours- simple yes but we record details of where we spend our time and how long things take. This helps us to plan better and to keep working to be more efficient and effective. 

Interesting: the data shows we spent over 27% of our total staff hours on greens since June which isn't surprising as its the main playing surface. The data showed we spent more than 500 hours cutting greens in the last six months (helped by the mild Autumn) and over 300 hours on aeration. I don't expect either of them to change in the coming years. If anything that figure will increase as we look to increase performance. The purchase of new machinery will aid better quality surfaces as the modem machines have a better cut quality. Aeration recovery will be quicker as the machines on order will speed up that process. For example the top dresser can carry twice what had before but the same weight per wheel as before. Meaning less time filling up. So the hours are going to be spent better. 

 Bunkers come in a close second with 19.8% of our time. 160 hours were spent just edging bunkers (that's one member of staff edging bunkers for 40 hours a week for a whole month since June!) and this is a hazard. To help us improve this next year we have purchased some new Strimmers to allow more of us to help spread the load and get finished before the golf. We lost a lot of time this year waiting on golf as we didn't have enough Strimmers to stay ahead. We will also be using growth regulators on these areas too. 

Another interesting note is Course at 12%. Course is just time spent clearing leaves either by blower or trilo off the course. That's roughly 800 hours of picking up leaves. That's 100 working days since October spent by the team on that dreaded leaf wars. 

Now what would have been interesting would have been the data from leaf clearing in the past. Now the woodland project has been carried out and the purchase of two machines which are used for leaf clearing that I know from previous experience are much quicker than the older versions. How much time have we saved? Is there anywhere or way we can improve further? 

We have recently measured noise and vibration on our machinery. This is for the health and safety of staff as vibrating machine can cause life changing illnesses. These tests can indicate how long staff members can do various tasks and when they will need to break and rest. 

We also use data tags on any of the machines that have high exposure limits so the operators know how long they can be exposed to before swapping tasks or resting. 

Other testing includes soil analysis and planning of nutrient inputs. These give us a snapshot of what is going on in the soil and with the thatch levels. From this we can plan our fertiliser programs for the coming year. We can then look at the club diary and plan our applications around that. 

We do this so the growth rates are dropping away when the major tournaments are on so greens play better  on the day as the growth isn't slowing them down. We aim to spoon feed (little and often) the greens to try and minimise flushes of growth and give us an even growth. For example this year our data showed straight away we preformed better during the club championships with less Nitrogen being applied in our mix. Moisture levels were also slightly lower than other tournaments (due to rain) so I got to see an ideal set up and one we have set as our target. 

Aeration also is a numbers game. We plan and look at tine sizes, styles and spacings to workout how much top dressing we need to get on or surface area we wish to hit. This coming year for example we wish to carry out two big hollow cores, six smaller ones and two deep scarifications. This will effect 86% of the surface area. Now that's a high target but it can be done in a way to minimise disturbance but the results of we achieve our target will be amazing. 

Even our sands for bunkers, top dressings and rootzones are all checked. Particle sizes, depths and bulk density are taken into account and planned into our schedules to achieve our goals within budget. 

Sprayer set ups are also number intensive. Chemical mixes, pressures, nozzle selection, area, speed, wind, drift and jug tests (I will explain in another blog) are all taken into account before we start to spray. Calibration sheets are done and records of what has been sprayed recorded. This is a legal requirement for some sprays but also good practice. We also have trial areas at various parts on the course where we will or won't apply things and test to see if they are working. From this decisions can be made to see if the investment was worth it and we got what we required from it.

I hope this little blog has given you an insight into some of our numbers that we the greenstaff are constantly dealing with to improve the course. I know talking numbers isn't always fun but the data we are collecting now will shape the future. 

One thing this winter has already taught me about Stoneham is where our next projects need to be (for example draining the 17th fairway)  and how we improve areas year on year. I have some data to start now and have already started to use it to improve us as a team. 

The greenstaff are great at collecting information and are using it too. 

There is so much more I could add to this blog but it might bore you even more. Like so many jobs there are hundreds of parts to our job (including health and safety and that's an even bigger blog to come) but I will still get asked the question I always get asked. 

What do you do? I am a greenkeeper... Oh you just cut grass then... At this point I laugh with them and just say YES... It would take to long to explain :-)

Matt