Maintenance Facility Tours

   Yesterday afternoon, many local golf course superintendents, assistants, and ground's teams came together to tour our maintenance facility and nearby Echo Valley Country Club's facility. This was a great opportunity for all of us to see how other facilities operate and organize their shops. Every golf course's maintenance facility is unique, so it's good for us to take some of these great ideas and implement them in our own facility.

   As always, a discussion about new products and equipment took place. We're excited to hear how the newly purchased equipment does at other local golf courses. In the coming weeks, we will be touring a couple other facilities and we look forward to gaining more ideas and bettering our department for the future!

Seminar Season

We recently attended both the Iowa Turfgrass Conference and Trade Show and the Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America (GCSAA) Education Conference and Golf Industry Show.  The Iowa conference is held here in Des Moines and is a great opportunity to network with superintendents from throughout the state as well as local university researchers.  The conference consists of classes, roundtable discussions, a trade show featuring local distributors, and a pesticide re-certification course.

This year, the GCSAA show was held in San Diego, California.  The national show includes in- depth seminars given by researchers from throughout the country.  The trade show also gives us the opportunity to browse the latest golf course maintenance technology, equipment, and supplies offered by manufactures from throughout the world.  We also have the opportunity to catch- up with old colleagues.  We had the privilege to attend a motivational speech presented by Major Dan Rooney- an Air Force fighter pilot and P.G.A. Golf Professional.  Mr. Rooney is the founder of the Folds of Honor Foundation and Patriot Golf Day (in which Wakonda participates on Labor Day.)

This year, for example, we purchased two FieldScout TDR 300 Soil Moisture Meters.  This technology has the potential to pay for itself very quickly by allowing us to sample soil moisture much more accurately and efficiently which will give us a more accurate picture of soil moisture conditions.  We will undoubtedly be watering more efficiently once we master the use of this tool.

FieldScout TDR 300

Both shows help to get our minds to turn to the approaching golf season with new ideas for Wakonda and a renewed sense of optimism and excitement.

We received a broad spectrum of training in courses described below:

Iowa Turfgrass Conference & Trade Show:  January 29- 31. Des Moines, Iowa

• Golf Course Renovations

• Quality Customer Service

• Weather Modeling for Insects & Diseases of Turfgrass

• Weed Control- Latest in Poa annua Control Products

• Turfgrass Pathology- Diagnosis and New Research

• Confronting Challenges & Seizing Opportunities

• Golf Course Marking- Defining and Marking O.B. and Hazards

• Developing Internship Opportunities and Training Interns

• Pesticide Applicator Training and Continuing Education

GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show: February 4-6. San Diego, CA.

• Event Management and Tournament Preparation

• Team Motivation

• Nonverbal Communication

• Water Availability, Reductions, and Efficiency in the Golf Industry

• Biostimulants- hormones & the effectiveness of naturally derived “turf enhancers”

• Golf Course Photography

• Business Communications

• Media & Public Relations

• Turfgrass Diseases

• Data Collection and Utilization for the Golf Course