Golf - Brits Abroad
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The next few months would be brutal, as temperatures soared into the nineties. It was the hottest July for fifty years in Columbus
The 18th at Scioto Country Club set up for the US Open qualifier
Virginia. It was a fantastic road trip across the USA - and Bob paid for Mexican food when I arrived back, so it was worth it. I was back at Scioto where it had all began. I was excited at the new challenge and to be back at, what was slowly becoming, my second home.
The first big operation was to Graden the
greens. Some of the new staff had never seen the Graden in operation before, so it was a challenge. At Scioto, we worked to achieve the maximum efficiency in the time limits given. We pencil tined the greens first, then used the Graden, which removed around 12% of the surface organic matter. The next few months would be brutal, as
temperatures soared into the nineties (mid to high thirties Celcius). It was the hottest July for fifty years in Columbus. The main difference between the States and the UK is water management; with these types of temperatures - too much water or not enough can kill grass. Most people back home won’t understand why too much water can kill grass, so I will explain. With high humidity, water doesn’t evaporate with the water moisture in the air already being high.
So, if you imagine excess water on a green’s surface in high temperatures, it heats up and, in severe circumstances, cooks the grass plant. With this in mind, watering becomes the most important daily routine on the golf course. We had two guys checking greens all day with moisture meters and another two guys on tees and fairways. This was an important learning curve, watching the science behind our watering programme. Keeping turf alive in this heat would be an important tool if I ever took a job in a climate with high temperatures. The job was made easier by the fact we
had just installed a new pump station. Bob had only one functional pump the season before and worked wonders running the system until the new one was installed. The new pump was installed the first month I was back; I got to see the whole installation. It was a great insight into how it works - never seen anything like this in my career. The Toro Lynx system was the control
programme that we used for our irrigation. We had Toro sensors in four of the greens that measures moisture and temperature. All
this information was transmitted back to the main computer; it was a great tool to show what was happening on the greens. Bob sent me on a two day training course on the Lynx system. This gave me a great understanding of how it worked. I was very grateful, as not many interns would get sent on this course. We next had to set the course up for a US Open qualifier; there were some top pros looking to progress to the championship. Now, in my career, I have worked on many Tour events, and getting the course ready for each was always a challenge, but not at Scioto. The course for general members play is to such a high standard that you could play a Tour event every week. The average green speed is 12, which is higher than most Tour events! That said, we wanted to make the course a challenge for the pros. After all, the US Open is normally the toughest of the US majors.
We set the course up in excellent
condition; the greens were the best surfaces I had ever seen. The morning of the qualifier, I was checking the last green, after the guys had cut it, when Bob walked up. “What do you think?” he asked. “Well,” I replied, “they
Some of the new staff had not seen the Graden before 22 I PC FEBRUARY/MARCH 2015
A new Toro Lynx system is now in use at Scioto
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