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COVER STORY Past Women’s U.S. Open Champions 2011 So Yeon Ryu - The Broadmoor 2010 Paula Creamer - Oakmont C.C. 2009 Eun-Hee Ji - Saucon Valley C.C. 2008 Inbee Park - Interlachen C.C. 2007 Cristie Kerr - Pine Needles Lodge & G.C. 2006 Annika Sorenstam - Newport Country Club 2005 Birdie Kim - Cherry Hills C.C. 2004 Meg Mallon - Orchards G.C. 2003 Hilary Lunke - Pumpkin Ridge G.C. (W.H.) 2002 Juli Inkster - Prairie Dunes C.C. 2001 Karrie Webb - Pine Needles Lodge & G.C. Hole 14 on the River Course will play as the 5th 2000 Karrie Webb - The Merit Club Hole for the Open. The par 4 shown here from 1999 Juli Inkster - Old Waverly G.C. the 6th tee plays 423 yards from the tips and is 1998 Se Ri Pak - Blackwolf Run G.C. called “Natures Course”. The green is protected by Weeden’s Creek to the right and back. H E R F O R T N O R B Y G o l f C o u r s e A r c h i t e c t s Phone: 952.361.0644 Fax: 952.361.0645 e-mail: [email protected] web: www.herfortnorby.com THE GRASS ROOTS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2012 41 EDITORS NOTEBOOK 2011 In Review By David Brandenburg, Editor nother year has gone to the histo- local battles courses had with heat, hu- Arians! How will you judge 2011? midity and short runs of wet conditions Were you and your club successful? and dry conditions. Did your turf and staff survive weather At our facility we had 174 golf play- extremes and challenges from smaller able days in comparison to our 4 year budgets and more demanding golfers? average of 192. Most of the 18 lost days Were you able to enjoy the season and were in April. We count golf playable take some time to get away? Hopefully days as above 45 degrees and less than so. .25” rain as that seems to be the indus- My positive spin on the year was it was try average. okay, and could have been a lot worse. As expected our season was shorter There were plenty of days to enjoy the with 237 days open in comparison to sunrise over the ledge surrounding 245 for a 4 year average. Fond du Lac, plenty of days to enjoy With any luck 2012 will bring a warm baseball and golf, and most importantly spring with great growing conditions plenty of days to enjoy life and family. and rain only at night. Lets review what happened. Money Matters The Weather In comparing rounds and revenue Spring was a disappointment for play- to 2010 August was our best overall ers, staff and the cash register as late month where as to be expected April cold and snow ruined much of April was our worst. without even considering March for After 27 years in this business I am play. Those days hung like a anchor still amazed a 70 degree day in Septem- over the rest of the year as they could ber will be slow while a 50 degree day never be made up. in November will be busy. The urge to The weather charts show the increased play golf works in mysterious ways. moisture in April and again in July with Many courses were able to recover a dryer August and September. Tem- some revenue in December and even peratures were near monthly normals this January until the snows finally fell. with July and August a bit above nor- I say some revenue because the short mal. days really limit tee times but golfers all Soil moisture was adequate for most of seem to be in a good mood when they the state but similar to politics weather are hitting the links in winter. Happy is local. The charts are nice to look at golfers are worth more than we give adv grassroots 2011.pdf 1 2/4/11 11:18 AM but monthly averages do not show the them credit for. Fertilizers • Plant Protection Products • Seed C M Y CM MY Shawn Hilliard CY Cell: 608-516-4006 CMY email: [email protected] K N125 Co. Hwy. C, DeForest, WI 53532 Toll Free: 800-362-8049 • Fax: 608-846-1115 © Agrium Inc. 2011. All Rights Reserved. 42 THE GRASS ROOTS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2012 EDITORS NOTEBOOK My theory is gas prices are hurting our have to start at the club level. where the trees were rated on a 1-5 scale business more than most publications or ex- There are no easy answers to improving and given ID’s for future reference. Since perts have expressed. For golf it is two fold the economy or increasing rounds. We have then nothing but crickets and the response because we buy a lot of fuel for equipment work to do on a individual and national ba- “we have your information and you will be and carts but also our customers use fuel to sis. receiving a letter soon”. For us it is only 15 get to our golf courses. With golfers paying trees many of which were young or out of 30 to 50% more for gas each week it leaves Imprellis play. For many of our members it is a design less discretionary income for golf. It was not that long ago I had never heard changing experience and the superinten- The sluggish economy and number of un- of the herbicide Imprellis or dreamed of dent is under extreme pressure to provide deremployed have many customers working a product so good it provided post and answers to the membership or owners. more hours in their primary or second jobs. pre-emergent herbicide protection on our Rumors of payout offers of hundreds of Time continues to be a detriment to the toughest weeds at low application rates. thousand dollars on top of tree removal cost growth of the game. We are all busier with I jumped on the bandwagon with both have some clubs seeing green and ready to jobs, families, friends, 248 channels on cable feet and found the price was great and the spend. As with any major product failure it along with other hobbies. A 18 hole round product worked as advertised. Now it is a is wise not to spend the money until it is in of golf is easily 5 plus hours away from home product that we will never forget; not for the bank as anything can happen. and other activities. Get to a busy daily fee how well it worked but for its effect on ev- club and it stretches to 6 hours with travel, ergreen trees. What’s next? warm-up, golf, lunch and travel back home. Word starting spreading in late June that So if 2011 was okay can 2012 be good? those who used the product in late Once again we can spend our winter plan- 2010 were seeing dieback on trees ning and working hard to provide for suc- and by August golf course superinten- cess but so many things are out of our hands. dents, owners and members were in We don’t control the economy, gas prices or panic mode as more and more trees the weather. For the average course Dupont began to die. is not going to give us a bag of cash to make We can debate who or what is re- up our budget shortfalls. sponsible for this damage but there What we can control is our attitudes and is plenty of blame to go around. As our ability to open our minds as we plan professionals we are responsible to for 2012. What can we do better in our test new products on our courses but department to increase golfer satisfaction? at the same time we are guaranteed Can we work closer with the golf shop and the products we buy are safe and thor- clubhouse to reduce duplicated duties and oughly tested by the manufactures, the cost while increasing employee and golfer EPA and our sales representatives. satisfaction? Are their simple changes we Time for golf? Time was the biggest bar- It is a lesson learned the hard way as can make to the golf course to make it more rier to playing more from survey respon- Dupont has taught the industry a new enjoyable to play? way to test herbicides. Good luck as you work on your winter dents in Grand Rapids, MI. (Graph cur- With home landscapes devastated projects and planning for a successful 2012 tosey of JJ Keegan, Golf Convergence.) and some golf courses losing hundreds at home and work. of mature trees what happens next? Be sure to stop and enjoy the sunrises our The graph above shows time was the larg- It has been and continues to be a slow pro- profession affords us. One day you will miss est factor to why golfers did not play golf cess. We had our site visit in September them. more often. These particular results are from Grand Rapids, MI however, JJ Keegan, of Golf Convergence states “As we go around the country, time | no barrier | and money always compete for the top spots. Usu- ally, time is 1st, no barriers 2nd and money third.” Considering our association events usually lead to 5 hour 18 hole rounds I am not sure turf managers will be much help in speeding up a round of golf. I think the best thing we can do is to have the course properly marked for play and have rough heights and green speeds that match our clientele.