“Trying to measure in ounces, pounds, quarts and gallons confused me at first, but I adapted quickly”
on in June and not turned off until early September, running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I was able to use the hand watering hose I had tied round my waist all summer in conjunction with the fans. When you water into the fan it directs a mist across the greens. This is a much quicker and more efficient way of cooling the greens. The irrigation system that is used at
Robert Trent Jones is a Toro site pro system. This uses satellite radios to control the system, which is coded so that the heads can be turned on from any location. When the weather gets really hot and our hand watering crews cannot keep up, this is a great way to keep the golf course cool.
Management
Having worked at Woburn Golf Club I knew what standards were expected of
me. What I hadn’t seen was what such a large crew could do on a daily basis. RJT has a crew of forty five people. The greens are cut everyday and the rest of the course every other day. Bunkers are edged once a week and every single job you can think of is carried out on a weekly basis, even down to hand picking weeds in pathways or edging heads. The crew is mainly made up of Hispanic personne. The golf club also provides housing and transport for these workers. They are very well trained and most come back every year, so they fit in with the running of the maintenance department very well. Working with different cultures is a
great experience and making an effort to learn their language earns their respect. Once you get to know these guys they are good to have in your crew. They are very reliable and hard working. My arrival at RTJ coincided with
‘aeration week’. I had been warned that this would be a very long and arduous week. It consisted of renovating the whole golf course - hollow tining, verti- draining, fertilising and top dressing. Each day we would start at dawn and finish at dusk. This is so we could complete certain assigned tasks on each day. Two of us were trained to operate a Toro Pedestrian Coremaster on the greens with 1/4 inch hollow tines. We completed this task in six hours, having everything cleaned up on all greens, including all nine putting greens; we were then ready for the next stage. We had to apply the amendments; Gypsum, Renovate, So-Po Mag and Hard Rock of Phosphate. We had four people spreading product. Be the end of the day we were finishing under lights so we were ready for the next day’s plan. Observing how the Superintendents kept such a huge crew on schedule was a great
Introducing the NEW...
TriCure
Treats the complete soil profile – soil, sand, thatch and organic amendments
Visit
www.headlandamenity.com for full details of TriCure AD AND the full Headland range of turf and amenity products
Headland Amenity Tel: 01223 597834 E-mail:
info@headlandamenity.com 10
AD The new generation soil surfactant
Prevents hydrophobic soil conditions and cures localised dry spots Improves drainage efficiency and reduces excesswater retention Aids surface dry-down after rain for a quicker return to ideal playing conditions. Optimises use of irrigation water Allowsoptimum moisture availability for plantuse – increases rootmass and length
TM
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100