Golf


“ “ 18 I PC APRIL/MAY 2017


Next to the payroll, the cost of chemicals is clearly the biggest expense every superintendent in America faces


Aeration week at Robert Trent Jones


the back nine holes that run along Lake Manassas. It is stunning, to put it mildly; the views and the way the golf course sits right next to the lake. RTJ is a members-only golf course and it has some very exclusive members, I can’t name names, if you know what I mean. When we arrived, the work crew consisted


of twelve people, quickly growing to forty- five in the peak of the summer. On our first week there, we learned to do ‘course set up’ which would consist of two people, one on the front nine and one on the back nine. We would cut the hole, do a full roll on the greens and move the tee markers. Green and tee mowers would require at least four people each to get through the golf course before the first tee off. This was all done under the clock as we had to be done and off the course by first tee time. Due to the extreme heat and humidity, we


seem to be constantly spraying greens fairways and tees.


We had some problems with dollar spot


and brown patch. We would normally spray once a week, regardless of the weather (the summer of 2016 went down as the hottest on record for close on one hundred years) They spray what is called ‘preventative spray’. This is something I have learned that we are very fortunate not to have in Ireland. The cost of chemicals is massive in America and it blows their budget; next to the payroll, it is clearly the biggest expense every superintendent in America faces. I have learned a lot of new fungicides and herbicide since starting my training in America and it’s great for me to experience. Again, this is a total misconception that I


had before coming to America; we were told they spray excessively, we were told they had massive budgets, but everyone I talked to here, if they had a choice, would spray less, spend less and would love Irish growing condition, but the extreme weather dictates that they have to preventative spray,


otherwise, they would lose greens in a matter of days. 35O


C and 80% humidity can


do that in one afternoon if you are not on top of your greens and your fairways. This makes for great Assistant Superintendents and Supers, and they were certainly great at RTJ, or else they would lose their jobs. So, as you can imagine, coming from a


small work crew in Ireland, this was a big change for me, but great experience. I have learned so much over the last six months from different ways of doing certain jobs and always being part of a team from many different cultures, to dealing with the extremes of temperature and how to handle disease pressure. Living in Gainesville Virginia and working in this area we had a lot of different cultures, from Americans, to Mexicans, Australians and English. We were learning something new every


day, learning a little Spanish from the Mexicans at work, who I have to say were a


We were learning something new every day, learning a little Spanish from the Mexicans at work, who I have to say were a great bunch of guys


Denise with RTJ’s Scott Furlong, Lara Arias from Spain and young Englishman Jack Rank


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