Olds College Degree is now available online.

Starting this September the Olds College will be making the Degree in Golf Course Management available online. For full information you can visit

http://oldscollege.ca/programs/BAppSc_Horticulture/golf-course-management.html

Another great advancement to the improvement for the turf industry.

Guest Speakers bring Motivation to Turf Students

The Turfgrass program at Olds College is continuously advancing and improving. Bringing in guest speakers with past experiences in the industry continue to motivate the students. The majority of the speakers are Olds College alumni from the Turfgrass Management Diploma and Golf Course Management Degree programs.

This past fall the students were treated to a highly motivating and refreshing pair of speakers whom both have fantastic international experience. The first speaker was Mark Kolentsis who is currently finishing his Direct Field Study this winter, for the degree program. Mark has worked at golf courses in Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, and across Canada. Mark's humbling insight into working abroad opened the eyes to many students in the turf program to expand there horizons with the possibilities that are attainable.

The next speaker was Jared Speake who is working at Glencoe Golf and Country Club along side Mark Kolentsis. Jared is from Perth Australia and has worked at a couple TPC courses in the States, with one being the TPC Scottsdale course.

In the early part of the second semester we were treated to a discussion on investing in yourself from a brilliant young superintendent from Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club, Mitch Davidson. Mitch brought a strong leadership tool to the students to become successful in their careers, and in life.

Fall Field Trips for OC Turf Students

This fall the Olds College students were treated to some amazing field trips to some of the finest golf courses in Southern Alberta. The second year diploma along with third year degree students toured Banff Springs Golf Club, Glencoe Golf and Country Club and Dinosaur Trail Golf and Country Club in Drumheller. The third year degree students also travelled to a couple extra courses, being that of Priddis Greens, and Springbank Links.

For these field trips the students were given full tours of the maintenance facilities, the golf course, and also specialized areas on course. The specialized areas would be such things like poor agronomic areas to grow turf, poor and amazing design features, and even the signature hole at Banff Springs, hole 4 Devil's Cauldron.

The students had the exceptional opportunity to discuss and ask questions to some of the great challenges to becoming a successful greenkeeper. Students were well educated in all areas of managing different types of golf courses from the major private to public tracks. The superintendents and assistants at these courses are great leading examples of professionalism, and we would like to thank them for the insights and styles of there leadership.

Guest Speakers

This past week has been a busy one for the first, second, and third year Turfgrass Management Students. We have been fortunate enough to have numerous Guest speakers come to Olds College to talk to us about the Turfgrass Industry. Guest speakers can be very beneficial to us as students. They present us with new ideas, they offer a new perspective, and they can give us insights on what to expect in the future of the Golf Course Management.

The first speaker that we were lucky enough to have speak to us was Dale Miller, the Lead Agronomist for Brett Young. We should give Dale some credit as he travelled all the way from Texas and faced the -40 degree temperature just to speak to the Turf students. You could tell right away that he was passionate about our Industry and that he had learned so much from his 30 plus years of experience. He talked about the benefits of Carbonates over Sulfates in terms of fertilizers, and he showed us that we can be way more efficient with the amount of fertilizer applied.

The second set of speakers that came to Olds College to talk to the Turf Students were various Assistant Superintendents from around Central and Southwestern Alberta. These Assistant Superintendents came from different types of golf courses with varying budget ranges and maintenance capabilities. They sat as a panel at the front of the lecture hall and were then bombarded with questions prepared by the Turf students. They all handled themselves very well with the questions presented to them, giving us clear responses of what to expect as an Assistant Superintendent. Each one of the speakers from the panel had their own path to becoming an Assistant Superintendent and they shared some advice that they learned on the way. This proved to be very informative to us who are preparing to make that next step in the Turfgrass Management Industry.

Brandon Conrick

Degree Students Visit to Priddis Greens G&CC

On Tuesday, September 27^th, the third year degree students of Olds College had the pleasure of touring Priddis Greens Golf and Country Club. The course is located near the town of Priddis, Alberta, southwest of Calgary. It was the first course in Alberta to join the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program. It has recently played host to the CN Canadian Women’s Open in 2009.

This field trip was a part of the class Environmental Management for Golf Courses. Our tour focused on how the turf care department at Priddis has been practicing environmental management and the challenges they have had to overcome. Course superintendent, James Beebe, led the tour along with his assistant superintendents Chad Armitage, Chris Prodahl, Lance Morris, and Mike Mackinnon.

Our outing began on the course where we toured the back nine of the Raven golf course. There James shared some of the difficulties they had faced during the summer, and a few of the tools they use in their day-to-day maintenance. We discussed several other areas including water management, low-maintenance areas, Audubon certification, and chemical usage. The tour then moved into the shop area to see their equipment bay and chemical storage shed. It ended with a meeting in the Priddis lunch room where they explained some of the unique ways they approached course setup using the EZ Locator program to set pin locations and their staff management.

Thanks go to James Beebe and to the staff of Priddis Greens for hosting us. It was an excellent chance to see the successful application of environmental management in the golf environment.

Photos courtesy of Andrew Leggett and David Smith

David Smith

Display Case

click photo to enlarge

The Olds College Turf Club display case in the Land Science Center on campus has been in need of a renovation for quite a few years. Starting at the end of the last school year, Andrew Leggett and I began to develop a plan to redo it. In collaboration with the program coordinator Dave Moroz, we constructed a cross section of a USGA specification green. This included the clay subgrade, trenched in drain tile, 4” of a gravel drainage blanket, 2” choker or intermediate layer, and 12” of rootzone mix, with an artificial turf on the surface. The Flag with the new Turf Club logo was supplied by Brett Young & Standard Golf. The plan is for current and future members of the Turf Club to continually bring golf balls with their course logo to be placed on permanent display. 

Cam Champion

Degree Students Visit to Banff Springs GC

September 20, 2011 the third year degree program students were welcomed by Bob Burrows and his wonderful crew of Fairmont Banff Springs. Bob talked about the history of the golf course and how they have become Audubon certified and continued to re certify themselves every two years since 1999. Bob and his staff walked us around the course and showed us the beautiful layout and pointed out some of the challenges they have had to deal with in terms of wildlife and the difficult growing conditions being in the shadow of the mountains. He also spoke about how he had cut back on the amount of naturalized area to speed up pace of play. The reason why they had to cut back on the amount of naturalized areas was because they had too many forced carries and this was interfering with the resort play.

Thanks to Bob and the staff of Fairmont Banff Springs for a wonderful and memorable trip to the area.

Photos taken by Andrew Krek.

Cody Inkster

First Annual Winter Classic Long Drive Competition

Fore! The first annual Winter Classic Long Drive Challenge went down last Thursday evening with some big hitters and big snowflakes attending the event. There were 22 competitors that were fired up and ready to hit the links. They just couldn't wait any longer!

It was a different style long drive competition; we had head to head elimination rounds to go through to the finals. This made it a little more interesting going up against somebody Mano-a-Mano.

Finals had the likes of Stephen Masters, Tyson Sauser, and Chad Fawcett to make it, just to name a few. Come podium time it was Richard (3rd Place), Cody Inkster (2nd) and all 5'10, 150 pounds of Erik Stromquist that threw down to take 1st and a brand new Nike 9.5° driver, courtesy of Nevada Bobs Golf shop in Lethbridge, Alberta. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported the event, we raised $170.00 dollars for breast cancer. We also cannot forget all the local businesses that donated prizes including; Panago Pizza, 360 Snow Skate, Tracks Pub, Movie Experts and Uptown Hair Designs.

Franz Unterberger

Water Conservation

How good would it be to cater to the transpiration rate of each species? In our first year Irrigation program with Ian Morrow, we designed a three hole course and put together the most water conservative irrigation systems that you could come up with in those holes. It included individually irrigating zones, separating your fairways from rough, approaches, greens and so on.This looks totally out of the norm right now and is a tough concept to grasp. Water restrictions will gear you towards a set up like this in the not so distant future.

 You will start to see more naturalization and less unneeded turf around your tees. More controlled watering within zone will be accomplished by a higher number of sprinklers with a smaller radius. As water restrictions grow tighter every year, you as a superintendent might have to look at zoning each individual micro climate. Having three to four rows of full circle rotors up the middle of your fairway and part circle rotors to the perimeter will keep the fairway and rough separate to accommodate different transpiration .

Back in the day superintendents didn't really have to be cautious with their watering practices, but times are changing.  We are entering into an environmental sensitive time that  will require us to adopt  styles like this for water conservation. It’s the way of the future and our industry, and we will be seeing more of it.

Franz Unterberger

Audubon International – Cooperative Sanctuary Program

A presentation by Travis Ekelund, Assistant Superintendent of Earl Grey Golf Club

On Monday March 21, Travis Ekelund, the Assistant Superintendent of Earl Grey Golf Club, came to speak to the Turfgrass students at Olds College. The topic was on Audubon International’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program and how the golf course became certified. He was joined by Valerie Hammond, who was employed to aid the golf course in this certification.

Ekelund’s talk focused on the steps a course must go through for this certification. A golf course must meet criteria in the following areas: Environmental planning, outreach and education, wildlife and habitat management, water conservation, chemical use reduction and safety, and water quality. Finally, they must complete a case study project in one of the six criteria.

While sharing his experiences, Ekelund focused on a few points. The first was that the overall process was not as difficult as he first imagined. Many of the management practices golf courses already employ are a part of the certification process. Audubon International mainly wants to make sure that managers are aware and moving forward in these areas and are documenting there progress. Another point was that the whole process is possible, practical, and enjoyable. Because of this program many improvements have been made to the course, improving the beauty and wildlife diversity of the property. Some of the highlights were an outreach program to a local school. The students of the Grade 4 class helped to color bird and bat houses for the course. For the case study project, the maintenance staff built a natural area called “Barron’s Bluff”. This beautiful and scenic area, formerly a waste area, is now dedicated to a former member who was an important champion for environmental awareness at the golf course.

The talk was educational and informative. Many courses are looking to become Audubon certified as pressure mounts from an increasingly environmentally savvy public. Ekelund’s experiences taught the students that Audubon certification is a reachable goal and can be beneficial to any golf course.

photos 

Dave Smith

Bunker and Tee Construction

In our 2^nd year Design and Construction class we have been designing and building bunkers and tees in the landscape pavilion. Our class worked on them the 10^th, 15^th and 17^th of March. The tees were shaped to 6 meters by 7 meters. We installed 4” drain tile which sloped 3% from front to back draining out the back of the tee. The finish grade was sloped 1% front to back. The bunkers were constructed on the irrigation side of the landscape pavilion. This was a great feature seeing that the drainage of the bunkers could actually be tested and the water returned to the wet well for reuse. 3 bunkers were constructed varying in sizes. They were all shaped by hand by the students in the class. Drainage was installed using 4” drain tile. Liner was laid and stapled down and bunker board was installed then staked in to hold it in place. Once that was done the drainage was tested. The work of the class had been done correctly and the bunkers drained promptly to the wet well. A lot was learned by our entire class and jobs well done.

photos

Andrew Leggett

Welcome

Hi all and welcome to the turf club blog. The purpose of this blog is to keep all Olds College Turfgrass alumni in touch with the current students, and the activities of the program. Feel free to share this link with anyone from your class that is still in the industry, as well as anyone that is interested in turfgrass.

Sincerely, Cam Champion