The 19th hole with Jalbert

Time management

jalbert1 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:41:43 +0000

Working and going to school depends on time management. In order to get anything done at a reasonable scale in time and not cramming it to the last-minute depends on time management. When becoming a super intendente at a golf course you need to be able to look to the future, maybe even a couple of years, and plan out what you want to do with this course. in order to find the money and convince the stake holders of your company/course you need to know how to tell them in 5 years this is what i would like to do and this is hoe much it will cost.

For a golf course superintendent is imperative to have a plan for each day and each week and the goals you want to obtain in that week. If the goals are not met then you need to know why and work on those goals. Writing things down and putting a hard copy to your thought will enhance the progress of them to get done. By writing things down you are not only making a mental note of things that you need to do but when you finish them you can also cross them off your sheet and feel a sort of satisfaction.

Time management is something that everybody can work on, i am still trying to work on it especially with exams coming up. Having 4 exams in one week is the perfect time to test the time management skills, i have put together a chart for when i should study and what times i can relax and take it easy. Over studying can be even worse for you then studying a little bit because your brain can go to overload. Working on things last-minute is nobodies choice, it kind of just happens and when it does you have to run with it and just try to do the best you can. Thank you.

Interships

jalbert1 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 20:10:26 +0000

Finding an internship is never an easy task. For our class we need to find a 15 week internship job at a course related site. This means we can go anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world that interests us and that has to do with turfgrass management. When choosing a place you might want to consider will they give you enough one on one treatment? At some courses or places they can have over 10 interns there, this is not the ideal place. The ideal place is where you can retain the most information and learn the most because when we come back to school in the fall we need to be able to tell everybody about our internship.

Finding the ideal place will not be easy but it will be fun. Sending out your CV to numerous of places is not a bad thing it will only help your situation and help your picking of what place you want to work at in the summer. When choosing the place you need to consider getting there and getting accommodations to live there. While choosing a place you will also need to see if they are doing any renovations while you are there this would be a huge plus for your learning curve.

When i started looking for my internship it was not easy for me because i didn’t know what i wanted to go into. I was thinking about sports management, working on a baseball field or a soccer field at a professional level. The thing about these internships is that it can be anywhere in the world and it is such a great opportunity for us to jump on. This is why i think i’m going to go overseas or to europe because i might not have the chance to got here in a while and i would love to go there to work and learn some new techniques that maybe are not practised here.

Turf Management Course

jalbert1 — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 19:56:58 +0000

The turfgrass management course is an amazing experience. this course can be fit for almost any age or at any point in your career. It is a 2 year course that tests your ability to succeed. By taking this turfgrass management course it will give you a chance to look at all your options in this field. Every thursday of our first semester we went on field trips to different places and from there we met people who owned their own businesses and have graduated from Guelph in our program. By meeting them it gave us an insight in what they had to do to get there and what their challenges were.

To become a manager of a company or a superintendent at a golf course is a lot of hard work, it won’t happen over night. By finishing this diploma program it will help our reputation and our name in our business to get our name out there to these managers and superintendents that we have the new knowledge that they are looking for. making key contacts at these meetings is a huge part of our business because you want to keep in touch with people who make a difference in our industry because someday you will be asked to make a difference and you need to be able to stand up to the challenge.

First semester is winding down, only exams left. After this first semester i feel very confident with what i want to persue in my career. In this business it is always changing and there is always new ways of doing things to improve quality or to save money. in our course here at Guelph we are being taught these new methods of dealing with problems and such and i would like to think that companies and courses want us or think of us as assets to their organization.

Now that was a symposium

jalbert1 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:18:42 +0000

As the turfgrass management students gathered together in the morning before the morning of glory you could tell there were some nerves in the air. This symposium was a huge success, not only for the students but for everybody. It was very professionally done and ran smoothly from the moment it started to the second it finished. This symposium brought people from all over Ontario meeting with each other and talking about our turf tough times.

One of the best parts of the afternoon was having Keith Bartlett from St. Georges golf course come up and talk to us about is upcoming challenges from the PGA. It is very exciting to see what this superintendent is thinking about when he is going through every hole of his course and going through every fine detail with us. Having Keith speak at our symposium was educational and exciting for everybody because it is pretty rare that you will have the chance to host the PGA, or to get to see what kind of qualities they are looking for.

This symposium was a huge success not only for the students but for everybody who walked in the door. Students alone could not have put this on we had a lot of help from our teacher Owen Roberts, Andrew Douglas and Ann Douglas without their guidance we would have not met our goal. This event was very well planned and very well set up in a way for success. Good job everybody!

Going Organic

jalbert1 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:17:29 +0000

Going organic on a golf course? Can it be done? The answer is yes, Blackburn meadows is all organic not one drop of pesticides are used for this golf course. Using pesticides not only is bad for the environment but is also bad for the us the players and workers on these fields. If there is a way to go all organic shouldn’t we take it? One of the main reasons why this golf course has become organic is because where they are situated right near the water, which pesticides would flow into.

With the pesticide ban 64, we are always looking for new ideas and new ways to become more environmentally friendly. This 9 hole golf course in BC has become the first in Canada to make the switch and become fully organic. Becoming fully organic doesn’t mean you will have to do more work it simply means that your going to have to be more conscious better smarts at what you are doing. “ the turf may be a bit rougher looking than you may be used to, our many golfers assure us that the quality of play is always high” (from Blackburn meadows site) this show you that there is not really a difference in using pesticides for the golfer.

In my opinion before learning about this all organic course is that golf courses needed the pesticides to become this high quality course. After reading about this course and comments on it seems like this course still has a high quality ratio and is keeping up with courses that do spray pesticides. Do golfers care if their playing on pesticide free courses or not? For the most part i don’t think so they are there to play golf and they don’t really care about the effects of the chemical use. I hope that a lot of those people change their way and learn from this one course in BC and become at least 75% organic.

Connection

jalbert1 — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:54:29 +0000

Connecting to people is not the easiest task when you do not have the skills to be able to. Interacting and putting your name out there for people to remember and for them to want to remember is the first step into getting a job. In the turf industry knowing how to be able to talk infront of a group and get your message across is crucial. After going to Turf Care i have learned the advantages of knowing how to speak infront of a crowd.

Turf care is a company that services the Toro company, in doing these services it generates sales for them because they are 90% of the sales. Turf care represents a connection to a quality product, not only just for golf courses but for many other aspects on landscapping. As Gary Morris spoke to us at the turf care center he told us when he wwent to guelph and his struggles of public speaking and that he took a a course to help him overcome and become what he is today.

Public speaking, being able to control a group of people and keep them interested into what you have to say is a very hard task to do. Taking a course or seminar about public speaking would inhance your ability to talk at buisness meetings, meeting new clients or even giving a sales pitch. To do these tasks you need to be able to speak confidently, which will come with practise, in our industry. You need to be able to communicate the message to your employs because if ur not telling them clearly what they need to do then it wont be done then way you want.

Symposium 09

jalbert1 — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:53:51 +0000

The turf industy is in a downslope. The industry has to do more with less. In doing with less the industry has taken on the the Bill 64 which is against pesticicides. This Bill makes the industry come up with new ways to get rid of weeds and such. These new ways will be more environmental, which is a good thing! But it has shaken the industry and some people dont know what to do about their pesticide problems. It is the new comers of the industry that will teach new ways to improve playing surfaces.

On November 27th the Turfgrass Management class of 2009 will be holding a symposium to bring people together in this turf tuff time. This event will have 3 very educated industry related speakers who have first hand knowledge of what the cutting technology is. The spekers are Keith Barlett (Superintendent at St. George’s Golf and Country Club), Ron Schiedel (co-owner of Green Horizons sod farms), Dr. Tom Hsiang (University of Guelph turf researcher).

This event is going to be a chance to meet new people and hear their perpectives on the industry. Meeting new people in this industry can be the turn of your carreer. Meeting the right person can save you money because wuite possibly they have a better way of doing a task then you do. This symposium will be educational for all people that come and listen.

Private Or Public

jalbert1 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:29:16 +0000

Choosing a course is always a tough decision, do you want to play for one day or do you like the course so much that you want to become a member and pay the expensive fees. Private and public courses have their pro’s cons. At a private course you have the security of playing times and being put into a stable membership also making connections with other members. At a public course you are free to come and go as you want because you don’t have a commitment to the course.

Private courses are losing members yearly due to people switching to public courses and with the fall of the economy, few people have money that they are willing to spend to go to a private golf course. It makes it hard for private courses to maintain their courses due to lack of money coming which means there is a deficiency in money for the whole organization. Public courses can make money from day to day and which keeps a money flow. Based on the public course we went to, which was doing great, public courses appear to be thriving.

Attending a private or public course for me is an easy question. I only play at public courses because it’s all I can afford but later on in life hopefully the economy will flourish and I will find a golf course that I can become a member at because to earn money you have to spend money. The economy acts in a up and down manner meaning it will turn around eventually, giving those who save an opportunity to spend their money wisely.

How Technology is changing sports

jalbert1 — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:08:43 +0000

Technology can make a sport or break a sport. Technology has the ability to change the rules of games or even change the way you play the sport. At St. Andrews golf course in Scotland they had to change a hole because the professionals were hitting it exceedingly close and it was becoming an straightforward hole. The technology in the clubs and balls currently has become so advanced that the distance has become a problem for one of the most prestigious golf courses St. Andrews , I think we have a problem here.

Golf is not the only sport where technology has become a factor, also in swimming the swimsuits have become so advanced that the swimmers are being lifted on top of the water by their suits, records are being smashed. There are many other sports that have made changes to their games because of technology, we have to adapt. Is it about the athlete anymore? Or is it about what he can afford to pay the scientist to make for him?

I think technology is doing more bad then good in sport because we are always going to have to adapt to the latest in advancement. As the golf industry evolves just like every other sport, it gets more technology seekers that want to get an easier shot or an easier way to hit the ball. People search for easier ways to surpass obstacles. If we we’re still playing with wooden clubs and clay balls the game of golf wouldn’t have evolved as it did and would not have a fan base as it does now but where does the technology stop?

Getting ready for the Open

jalbert1 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:36:32 +0000

Getting ready for a PGA Open Tour is never an easy task. Glen Abbey golf course is no new comer to having the worlds best golfers take the field. Glen Abbey golf course is also home to the ClubLink Academy, the Canadian Golf Museum and Hall of Fame, and the headquarters of the Royal Canadian Golf Association. PGA tour preparation is very attentative to detail there is hired professionals who come to your course and make it so that it’s perfect. These representatives will give knowledge to the staff of the golf course and give suggestions as to what to make the golf course more distinguished.

The PGA tour has been going around from golf course to golf course making sure that the playing field meets to their standards and to the standards of the professionals. To make these courses in tip top shape they have a lot of staff that comes in and brings their knowledge to the course. Somethings can’t be fixed as glen abbey saw last year for the PGA tour, they had a heavy rainfall and basically stalled the whole tournament.Also the bunkers were completly swamped but the workers couldnt work on them becasue the match had already started and it wouldnt of been fair if they raked it for the next golfers.

Having your golf course on tv is a lot of pressure to the staff and the super intendent, having it rain and bring down the tournament is nobodys fault and cannot be avoided. Having the PGA tour staff come in and help structure the golf course must be a real treat, because there must be so much knowledge coming from these individuals and they know exactly what is going to look nice or bad.