Staff Outing

Typically, every winter I take our full-time staff on a winter excursion of one type or another.  Last year we toured the Twins Target Field, we've also visited Turfco Manufacturing in Blaine, Toro's Corporate headquarters in Bloomington and have also gone bowling or found other types of fun activities we can do as a group.  It's a nice way to incorporate an activity to our winter chores and take a break as a group, sometimes to learn more about a company in our industry and sometimes just to go and have some fun as a team.

Joseph Garske, Founder of Par Aide

This year we finally made our way north to Lino Lakes to visit Par Aide Products, Inc. The owner of Par Aide, Steve Garske along with Dan Brown, Scott Melling and Mike Hillard were gracious hosts.  Par Aide has a long history in the golf industry and you would be hard pressed not to find a Par Aide product on just about every golf course in the world.  Steve spent the first hour of our excursion explaining the history of Par Aide and how their business has evolved throughout the years and then gave us an in depth tour of the manufacturing plant.  Par Aide was started by his late father, Joseph Garske in the 1950's and has been a leader in the industry ever since.

Steve Garske showing us a raw cast version of the ballwashers

A traditional red Par Aid Ballwasher

Assembling ballwashers by hand.

Applying a powder coat of red paint to flagsticks

The majority of all products manufactured by Par Aide is done so right there in their 35,000sqft facility with only a staff of 30 full-time employees.  Not a very big facility for a company that has such a global influence in the game of golf.  Following our tour we were able to enjoy a nice lunch together.  Since Steve is a big race car fanatic and our Mechanic Ken Diethert drag races on the weekends, they really enjoyed the company of each other exchanging race talk for the duration of the lunch.  I have to believe this was the highlight for both of these guys :)

Thanks to Steve Garske and the guys at Par Aide for taking the time to show us their facilities.  It sure is wonderful having all of these major manufactures in the golf industry right in our back door.

No Need to Panic, It's still Winter

Typically throughout the winter I make no attempt to scout the golf course, my rule is as long as there's snow cover and it's frozen there is nothing we can do to change what Mother Nature has in store for us anyways. Last week many of us in the golf industry attended the Golf Industry Show in Orlando, Florida and for me that's my indicator as to when we need to get on the course and check it out. Since the 10th of November the golf course has been covered in snow. A lot of snow. We are at twice our annual snow accumulation for this time of year.

So with the forecast this week predicting above normal temperatures, I thought it would be wise to scout the golf course and see where things are at. But I really don't have much to report, and we should all look at that as a good thing. Snow depths are anywhere from 12-24" and over 95% of the course is covered in snow. That's a lot of snow to melt in the next 6 weeks and guaranteed we will have more snow before we see green blades of grass.

So if you're a snowbird or have vacation plans scheduled, stick to your plan, it's going to be a while before we even begin to consider when we might be open for play.

Bunker rakes almost complete!

After 1 1/2 weeks of repairing and sanding the 300 bunker rakes the time has finally come to begin the staining process. As stated in a previous blog post, Rick and Johnny take on this monotonous, somewhat monumental task every winter. The first picture shows roughly half of the rakes after being repaired and sanded with the other half shown in the other picture hang drying after the stain has been applied. It is quite the smelly, dirty job, but in the end the rakes will look like new and be ready for another season on the golf course. As with all of the course supplies, Rick and Johnny do a fantastic job!

Winter Maintenance Activities

Over the next two weeks Rick and Johnny are faced with the large task of sanding and staining over 300 bunker rakes. Environmental conditions can take its toll on our wood bunker rakes. Sun, heat, cold, rain, extended moisture, sand and irrigation water can all take its toll on the wood. Insuring we can extend the life of the rake as long as we can is important to us and if putting a little extra work into maintaining that life is what it takes, we would put our best effort forth.

Rick Krause

Johnny Jarosz

Kenny and Ryan have also been quite busy preparing equipment for the upcoming season. Ryan is currently working on the Toro 4000 rough mower, replacing bearing and various other parts that are showing wear. Kenny's in the "zone" focusing his attention on the fine turf reel mowers. The majority of the mower work will be completed by the end of January.

These guys do so much of the behind the scenes work. Without them we could not have the quality of an operation that we have.

Make the Most of Educational Opportunities

This week my staff and I attended the Northern Green Expo at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Three days of education, an excellent trade show and maybe one of the most important aspects to me, networking with my peers. For some in the industry I hear about how the classes are poor, the vendor booths are small, and the typical negative comments that we hear from these same negative individuals. But that's not me. I love the conventions, the conferences, the education and the networking.

I've been fortunate to be in the golf industry a long time (this year will be my 20th year) and I still find there's always something new to learn. After 20 years there's a lot of information I've heard before, but to hear it again is always a good reminder, a good refresher and a good way to reflect on the past year and reevaluate our programs and philosophy's for the upcoming season. Sure there are some seminars that don't meet your expectations from time to time, but for me I typically will use that time to reflect and take notes. It's amazing what pops into your head. Thoughts I can't always get my head around in the office where there are a hundred distractions.

When attending a conference or seminar I always have a pencil and notepad. Thoughts regarding the presentation, tips, websites posted, or heck even personal goals, visions or even a reminder to get milk on the way home tonight. Use that time to be productive. Your clubs not paying your way to make it a day off and waste the day at the bar. Take every opportunity to meet with vendors and visit with your constituents. Make the most out of every opportunity.

Now that our local educational opportunity this week is complete, it's time to reflect on my notes, follow up on my thoughts and do my best to meet the goals and thoughts I was able to reflect on during the seminars. In a few weeks Nick and me will be headed to Orlando for the Golf Industry Show. Another excellent opportunity to meet with local and maybe more importantly national friends and colleagues, renew old friendships as well as network and develop new friendships throughout the industry. All in all I enjoy using these educational opportunities to grow personally and professionally and bring new ideas back to the golf course to utilizes in a way which make the golf course better for our members.

Maintenance Shop Upgrades

We take great pride in keeping our facilities here in great shape. Every year we look for new ways to improve the facilities to make them more environmentally friendly. This year we have made two improvements so far. The first being replacing the service door that goes into the paint booth room. The old door had no insulation and rotten weather stripping, which did a poor job of keeping the heat inside while our crew refurbished course supplies during the winter months. The new door (pictured below) does a much better job of holding in the heat, as it is insulated and has a dual-pane window.
The other upgrade was the replacement of both toilets in the main shop bathrooms. The two old toilets were replaced with new "dual flush" option toilets from American Standard. The new toilets have the option of using a 1.0gallon flush for liquids or 1.6gallon flush for solids. This is a great reduction in water usage as compared to the two old toilets which used 4.0gallons per flush. As you can imagine with a staff of 30 employees during the golfing season, the water savings will add up quickly.

Managing for the Greatest Common Denominator

Over the last few years much of our turf management philosophy has focused on managing for the greatest common denominator. It’s a topic I have spent a lot of time discussing with a friend and fellow Golf Course Superintendent, Chris Tritabaugh of Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minnesota. During these discussions we have both concluded that many of us manage for the lowest common denominator. This is to say as superintendents our ultimate job is to maintain the golf course in such a manner that we never lose turf. No matter what the species, no matter what the cultivar, our job is to see that no turf is lost.

So what does that really mean? Basically there are two types of turf that Superintendents in the northern region of the country manage, creeping bentgrass and poa annua. We all know that creeping bentgrass is the stronger species of turf and poa annua is the weaker species. However, on average most Superintendents will manage for the weaker grass type, poa annua. Why? If poa annua is the weaker grass why do we manage it, support it and spend thousands of dollars keeping it alive when a stronger species is also present?

Many in the golf industry know that for the past 3 years we have been working with the consulting firm of Greenway Golf and have been implementing many ideas and concepts from Marc Logan, all in an attempt to promote and manage for, on our greens, tees and fairways, creeping bentgrass. Many of the concepts have been around for decades, Marc has just been able to incorporate some old concepts with new technology. The philosophy is based on cultural and nutritional concepts that encourage the promotion of the greatest common denominator, creeping bentgrass. Good, solid, practical greenkeeping.

It’s quite interesting if you really think about it. Superintendents go out of their way every day to make sure they don’t lose the weakest strand of turf on their fine turf areas. Extra water required to keep the plants alive during the heat of the summer, or additional fertility necessary to feed and maintain the weaker species and frequent fungicide applications insuring disease does not kill the less healthy plant.

Over 15 years ago I worked for a Superintendent by the name of Scott Austin. Scott had been the Super at Midland Hills Country Club in St. Paul, MN for 20 years. His greens were firm, fast and made up of a majority of creeping bentgrass. Greens were single cut with Toro 1000’s at .125”, never rolled and stimped around 10’ to 10.5’ daily. One thing we never did in the 4 years I worked for him was hand water greens. His theory…"if we start to syringe greens in the afternoon, that plant is then going to become conditioned to receiving this water and we don’t want that to happen.” Deep infrequent watering cycles was how he managed. Sure there was poa in his greens, but even the poa was conditioned and evolved to accept those conditions.

After my time at Midland Hills, I made the move to Minikahda, this was 15 years ago. The poa plants on our greens had been conditioned to the point if the sun was high and shining, you better have a hose in your hand or you were going to lose some turf. My goal in the first 5 years I was the Supt. here at Minikahda was to try and find a way to condition the poa to not be so weak. Find a way to reduce the dependence on daily hand watering and nightly water cycles. Find a way to reduce the dependence on high fertility inputs, namely nitrogen.

Now fast forward to the past 3 years. Out goal since hiring Greenway Golf is to slowly transition our greens to a predominately creeping bentgrass stand. How are we doing that? We are doing this by favoring the stronger grass species through cultural and nutritional practices; managing for the highest common denominator. Acid based fertilizers, deep infrequent watering cycles, and reducing surface disturbance to the finer turf playing surfaces are all a part of our philosophy.

This past summer through no one’s fault but my own, I got a little aggressive in trying to force the growth of the creeping bentgrass population. In the process we lost some poa annua. Did we lose it all, no, but we did lose bio-types of poa annua, which were typically the ones which we had to “baby” to make it through the summer. We lost the bio-types we always worked our butts off to keep alive. We lost the lowest common denominators.

As we progress through our journey to manage for the stronger species, I know there are many out there who are nay sayers, they shake their heads, they think to themselves, what we are doing can’t be done. You’re always going to have poa to deal with. I say fine, your right, poa annua will always be around to deal with. In fact we have some very strong and resilient bio-types of poa annua in our finer turf areas. Great, if they are the strongest type then they deserve to be here right along with our stronger bent varieties. In the meantime as we transition, there may be times when we may lose some poa annua. If by chance those bio-types can’t handle what we are doing, then they probably don’t belong to be in the mix with the greatest common denominators.

The evolution of turf species on a green can be quite interesting to watch. If the turf is over managed, meaning over-watered and over-fertilized, it’s my feeling that those plants then become dependent on those inputs to survive. Reduce or remove those inputs and those plants will struggle to survive under the same maintenance regime. If those same inputs are slowly weaned from the system those plants adjust and evolve to accept those changes and during the process, the greatest common denominator (creeping bentgrass) begins to become the dominant species as it requires less inputs than poa annua.

Our ultimate goal of a dominant stand of creeping bentgrass on our greens and fairways will take time. There is no magic formula, just persistence and patience. But in the long run through our change in philosophy we will continue to provide excellent playing surfaces as well as provide a sustainable managed golf course.

Cross Country Ski Trails

As with every winter here at Minikahda we try to provide the very best for a cross country ski trail. Late last winter we were able to get an upgrade in grooming equipment, making the grooming process much more efficient. Below is a picture of the new snowmobile and Ginsu groomer, capable of laying a cut track for inline skiing and a corduroy track for skate skiing.

This year Mother Nature has provided us with more than enough snow so far to have some great trails. With close to 4 miles of ski trails, there is more than enough room for inline and skate skiers to enjoy the trails. See the map below for the available ski and walking/snowshoeing routes. (click on the map for an enlarged view)
There are three entry points for the ski trails:
A. lower parking lot
B. bath house parking lot by #18 green

C. cartpath by #9 green tee

ENJOY THE TRAILS!!!

Chimney Swift Tower

As environmental stewards, we always look to continue and improve upon our Audubon program. Joining Minnesota's Audubon "Chimney Swift Conservation Project" would be another great addition.

The bird, Chimney Swift (Chaetura pelagica), often called the "flying cigar", has seen a 50% decline in population over the past 4 decades. The Chimney Swift typically has only one brood per season in our area beginning sometime in May, with most clutches having 3-5 eggs. After an incubation period of about 3 weeks, the hatchlings are practicing flight inside the tower and flying outside the tower by the 4th week. Although a tower will only house one nesting pair per year, many other Chimney Swifts (up to the hundreds) will use the tower as a roost. We have routinely seen Chimney Swifts flying around the grounds of Minikahda during our annual "Bird Watch", mostly during the dawn and dusk times of day.
Since 1995 the Texas-based Driftwood Wildlife Association has been in charge of monitoring and promoting the conservation of these birds throughout North America. Our contribution to the project would be to construct a Chimney Swift Tower and install it somewhere on the grounds of Minikahda. After doing some additional research and talking with several other people who have already installed a tower, a site was chosen here at Minikahda and the construction process began. With some luck we'll have a nesting pair next spring.

More information about the project and Chimney Swifts in our area can be found here: at Minnesota Audubon Chimney Swift

The link below has some great photos of the entire nesting cycle from an inside the tower view, hopefully this will occur in our tower at Minikahda next year.

Cornell Chimney Swift nestcam

Below is the process of building and installing our tower here at The Minikahda Club.

The three tower sections constructed.

First tower section concreted into the ground.

The three tower sections put together.

The finished Chimney Swift tower, standing just over 14'6".

The Golf Course Trades Magazine Article

In the December issue of The Golf Course Trades magazine, I was fortunate to write this issues featured article. If you have a moment please read the article titled, My Turning Point. The article gives an inside look into how and why we have changed our management philosophy towards managing our finer turfgrass plants.

There's more to our Gardens then Deadheading and Watering

Maybe one of the most under appreciated members of our staff and an individual, if not for his work, would almost go unnoticed (and that's really the way he likes it). Dick Axum, Head Gardener (our only Gardener) has been a member of our Grounds Staff for the past 21 years. In a way Dick works behind the scenes, quietly and diligently going about his work attending to one plant at a time.

The back bone of the gardens, the basis for Dick's madness, is built behind the compost which he makes every fall. For the past 15 years Dick has been making his own compost to add to gardens throughout the golf course and around the club house. All material used for the compost is generated on the property. Compost materials include all of the annual flowers that are removed each fall, Halloween outdoor decorations such as corn stalks, straw bales, and even food scraps that Dick brings from his house each week to deposit on his pile. The backbone to his composting is about 5 loads of leaves collected from the golf course in the fall.

Dick will spend about 4-6 weeks in the later part of November and the month of December grinding leaves and building his compost which will be used next fall. Typically once the leaves and other organic material has been ground and piled, the pile will sit for about 9 months before any of it's used.

One amendment which we would like to begin adding to his pile this year will be coffee grounds from the club house. We want to be able to utilize as much material from our facility as possible to recycle and we feel coffee grounds will be a good place to start. Coffee grounds have a very good nutrient analysis and is a excellent amendment to add to our compost pile. Since we will be using coffee grounds from the club house, this will be a team effort by the waitstaff to save the coffee grounds for our usage. Initially it will take some work to get in place, but like most changes it will only take some time to make the adjustment and the commitment.

No matter the conditions, Dick works through it to make sure his compost pile is made. Quite a determined and focused individual.

Hundreds of tulip bulbs are planted each fall in the front bed.

Multiple containers are positioned around the clubhouse. Dick does a wonderful job keeping the flowers in bloom all season long.

Pool and snack bar area.

The clubs rose gardens are spectacular. Dick invests a great deal of care and attention to each rose plant and it shows. Many of these plants are at least 20 years old.

Dick really has a relationship with his gardens and the soil. He knows and understands how each garden is different and knows what can and will grow, or will not grow in each location. As I watch Dick develop his compost and care for the soils I am reminded of a paragraph from Joel Salatin's book The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer,

"Take a handful of good compost, full of microbes. Bury your nose in it and inhale deeply. Now take a handful of any drug, pesticide, any chemical fertilizer. Bury your nose in it. Inhale deeply. Which relationship would you rather have?"