“It’s always good to put one over the Aussies no matter where you are in the world”
and half a day to spray tees. It took four days to spray all the fairways because we had to spray after play and a further four days to spray all the rough for the same reasons. The greens were sprayed twice inside three days about four days before the competition. One example of a tank mix was, Inisigna, Pervade (wetting agent) 15:0:0 and Humate acid. The second tank we mixed contained Manicure and 15:0:0. The second competition was the National
Pro-am. This involved a lot of CEO’s playing with golf professionals who are not yet on the PGA tour. This was a one day competition for my golf course but they also played the two private courses down here at Sea Island. The course was prepared in exactly the same way as for the Invitational. The only thing we didn’t do was spray greens as much because they were still looking good.
These two competitions, coming so close to each other, got me used to some long hours - there was only one week in a five week period where we got time to rest, so it was hard on body and mind. But I kept pushing and was proud of the results and the positive comments we got at the end. At the moment we are just going with the flow and not pushing the course because we do not have another competition for five weeks. We are seeing some of the Bermuda grass coming through the overseeded grass, especially on the greens and tees but also a little bit on the fairways. It’s good to be able to see it happening as the weather warms up and presents perfect conditions to activate the Bermuda’s growth.
AWAY from the course I was lucky enough to go down to Jacksonville in Florida to
watch an ‘English’ sport. It was a Rugby League game between Leeds Rhinos and The Queensland Knights from Australia. The venue was the University of North Florida and it was a sell out crowd. It was amazing and it felt like I was back at home. The game took place on Australia Day and there were lots of Aussies there to support their team but, sadly, not many Brits. The good thing was the Rhinos won the game - it’s always good to put one over the Aussies, no matter where you are in the world! Many of the watching Americans said
they preferred Rugby Union to American Football which was good to hear. If I were still here next year I would put it on my ‘things to do’ list because they are trying to make it a yearly event. Maybe they should look at a bigger venue next year? I also went to the GCSAA’s Golf Industry Show in Orlando, Florida. It is one of the largest trade shows in North America. This year’s event was the largest ever with 965 companies represented and exhibits covering 300,900 square feet. The show attracted close to 26,000 visitors. I was also lucky enough to attend the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Golf Club It was great to be able to look at the design and the maintenance with a critical eye to see what I might have done differently and what I thought was good about it. It was a fun, challenging golf course in my opinion, with a lot of water. The greens were suffering from nematodes. I was impressed at the way they handled this problem. They were up front about it and explained their only aesthetic option was to paint the greens, but that would not have lasted, so they accepted a little brown and the players made the best
Rob Jones with Jack Critchley by the 17th at TPC Sawgrass
of it and everyone was happy. I also went to see the TPC Sawgrass. This
is where The Players Championship (the unofficial 5th Major as it is often called) was held in May. I got a tour of the course by a fellow Ohio intern, Jack Critchley from Jersey Island, who is placed at Sawgrass. It was good to get first hand information about the course.
The course is fantastic and is much hillier than it appears on television. I particularly liked the well thought out layout. Of course, I had to see the famous 17th green and what an amazing sight it is close up. I guess many of you will have ‘played’ it on your computers or games consoles, but you cannot imagine the wind currents that blow around that green from the nearby Atlantic Ocean. And, visually, you could never imagine how tiny that green looks from the tee. Jack explained that the total area of the greens on the course is four acres (which is big) primarily so they can have lots of pin positions. It has been an action packed few months. I have really enjoyed what I have learned over here and it has been a wonderful experience. I hope you have enjoyed reading my diaries. It seems so long ago that I was a homesick lad at my first course in the States. Finally, I just want to say thank you to everyone who has emailed with questions and comments about my articles. I really appreciated it. It was especially good to hear from my old friend from Carden Park, Craig Parry, who is now at St Andrews working on the newly remodelled, Dukes course. Rob can be contacted by email at
robjones_69@hotmail.com
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