What 21 Smacks Gets You

It get's you 18 holes of  golf  on a nine holer walking with a back drop like this and few others around.  In addition two freshly made tacos with homemade salsa and a coke plus a two buck tip.

I have seldom paid for playing golf in many years but this is cheap golf and today was a blast. Hit the ball pretty good for playing just five times this year. Actually thought I wouldn't play at all. This track makes it by on the very minimum of a budget I'm sure. It played really well and the greens were true as can be and looked great.  It was a lot of fun.

But it wasn't fun for Mary who got a ticket for protecting her honor on the golf course. 

Double Eagle Reality

One of the ways to become a better golfer is being able to admit to your shittyness. Especially after accomplishing something more than just huge.

“I went out last night, and the magic was gone,” Schrage said. “I didn’t have anything that resembled that. I’m back to reality.”

A few years ago now made a curling 12-14 footer on the front nine for a par 36.  I knew my shittyness would be waiting on the back. I left to enjoy that first and only time feeling of parring nine holes of golf. I enjoy it to this day but it wouldn't be as much if there was a 48 or a 52 tacked on to that. That's what happens when you're a shitty golfer.

Good on this guy - yes!

It's Not Much But It's Something Anyway

One of the things I've always enjoyed was walk mowing greens. It's fun and when you are finished and have done a good job meaning mowing straight it has never failed to make me feel better when you look back at it and it's almost perfect.

Not real hard to do but many struggle and never get it.. The HOC (height of cut) these are mowed at is .125 or 1/8th of an inch.

If you see that slug in the Utah dummy post I apologize. I can not get rid of him.

And The Answer Is

We just took delivery of five new mowers. These are specialized to cut grass on a golf green and are designed to mow at very low heights. We mow ours at .125 which is 1/8th of an inch. These have yet to be used. What do you think one costs?

 

Here's another view.

With a corporate discount of 25% each mower carry's a price tag of $7500. One of the reasons the game of golf is not cheap to play except for the better off.

Golf-Mores And The Recession

With over 1500 posts here there are only a handful that relate to this game. There may be more or there might be less but there's going to be one now because as like in most media people receive there is more to the linked story that is just as important as the reasons given. I want to attempt to draw a correlation between these three things. The recession,golf and mores.

I've been at this business for damn near 25 years. I can tell you it is very expensive on the maintenance side. I have strong opinions on a number of issues and will do my best not to stray.

The picture at the top looks nice doesn't it. It just didn't get like that by accident. The way golf courses are maintained has changed in dramatic ways since I've been involved.

There is a lot of grass cut on a daily basis and I think it's around 90 acres possibly more with numerous different types of mowers.

Take a look at the top picture again and you will see three sand traps that are huge. Maybe 73 on this course but many newer courses can have hundreds. This course is 30 years old. Get this-maintaining the bunkers is the biggest number in our maintenance budget.

This is important too-what you see here and what you see on TV are two different things. No one sees what goes on behind the scenes and I've never seen it myself and never really wanted to participate at tournament level. But what you can take to the bank is that it is several levels up from what you see here accomplished by literally an army of volunteer golf course people operating dozens and dozens of the same pieces of donated equipment from one of the three major players in the equipment business swarming over every hole. That is how the conditions are achieved so the big boys can make sure they can hit a good shot out of the rough unlike some of the majors where they cry if conditions are too hard. Sorry I wasn't going to stray.

Time to get to the meat of this. The linked to article has numbers and they are real bad about the downhill slide this game has taken and  reasons why which I don't dispute but dammit you need to give the rest of the story. It's worth glancing at.

"It's definitely connected to the economic conditions and the ability of potential private club members to pay the fairly significant initiation fees and annual dues," said Jay Mottola, executive director of the Metropolitan Golf Association, representing 120,000 golfers and 500 golf courses in the New York region.

What was not mentioned.

1. A number of tour players decided to become architects and each one tried to out do the others in difficulty of design and locations where built. What you have is a maintenance nightmare that becomes outrageously expensive.

2. Most golfers are hacks. Only maybe 10-12% can break a hundred. I can do it if I play a bit and get my mind right but trust me I am a shitty golfer. We are not going to stray here except to say you can give the average golfer tournament conditions and it won't make shit bit of difference in how he plays. He'll still chunk the ball around for 18 holes no matter where he or she plays.

3. Because of what is seen on TV the norm has become to expect the same. In many cases it has become unrealistic to attain because of the cost factor and these are just as big of reasons as stated in the article.

A change in maintenance practices that can significantly lower the cost of operation and a lot of courses would still be viable.

And for the average hack it will not make shit bit of difference in his game or mine either.

I have never worked my ass off here for 20 years to give the most optimum conditions possible with what we have for those 90% never!! I do it for the rest who realize and appreciate what it took to give them these playing conditions on the part of not that many people who work very hard.

Get out there - be sure and look up and swing as hard as you can and take a giant chunk of turf each time and not put it back. Sorry -strayed again.

And please -give me the courtesy of not being insulting about how bad golf courses are for this or for that. Thanks in advance. Down south they sure as hell can be but not around these parts.

You Might Get A Kick Outta This

It was fun doing this today.

Whattaya Do In The Wintertime

One of the inside jokes we get a chuckle out of every year and you get this question a lot if you work on a golf course is "What do you do in the wintertime?". We think it's funny but it does get old and at times you just give a smart ass response if it's warranted. Something like watch golf or wash golf balls or something like that because most just don't have a clue.

Some time ago I wrote a tongue in cheek piece about just that but of course can't find it and now the question has been popping up once more I thought I'd explain.

Simply the answer has many similarities to farming although the reasoning for that has changed a bit but is still valid. A good operator spends his time preparing for the next season repairing or modifying his equipment so that when he takes it to the field it's going to work during that critical time of year of field preparation and planting.

It the same with this business as that's what I/we do is prepare our equipment for the coming spring and golf year. The mowers have to be in top notch shape because when you cut acres and acres of grass on a daily basis the demands are huge. Some of the equipment we have is old to say the least up to 30 years and some not so old but have many hours on them.

Yesterday did a swing around video of what's in the shop. Some of it has been worked on some not but you can get the idea anyway that there's plenty to do and below this floor there is a huge basement with a whole bunch more. One thing that makes the day go faster is good music and generally it's KDNK out of Carbondale that we listen to much of the time. Just don't know how they can play so much incredible music day in and day out.

It's Friday-maybe we watch TV and throw snowballs at the cars that continually run the stop sign. After all it's winter time.

Give'em hell!

Big Bertha Is Still Needed

Callaway Golf Company Announces Increase in 2008 Earnings. We are very pleased that we were able to deliver a 6% increase in pro forma earnings per share in a very difficult economic environment.

Well to do people like spending a lot of money on golf clubs and such even though they can't hit the fucking ball. The trickle down shit storm I don't think has reached many in the high end market of this game. We'll see what happens as we get closer to spring.

Hummer Accident

Through the course of the summer a number of hummingbirds make there way into the shop and just can't get out even though there's a large overhead door that is wide open. They make their way in because there is a large array of windows on the other side. I've caught and released maybe 8-10 so far this year. This guy today I got without using a towel. They are no worse for wear after this.

click on pictures for a huge view




Later I find this guy who didn't make it. Some fly like hell towards the windows slam into one and do not survive. I include this because I don't ever remember seeing a tongue. I like birds a lot most of them anyway and hate to see this happen but it just does.





Probably have one of the better views than most and quite a few interesting pictures are captured from my work area as this one was this morning.






This little rodent is a vole. Cute as hell but these little shits can cause a tremendous amount of damage over the winter. A bit unusual to see one out in the open like this for any period of time and he was lucky he didn't get snatched up by a crow or magpie. Tried to make him face the camera a bit better but when I tried to turn him a bit he scampered into the native area. I think he had an upset stomach or something.

Two friends stopped by and wanted me to golf so I did and it was fun. Used to golf for years three or four times a week but it's not like that the last few years. It's important I do this because unless you play one does not get the same perspective as driving.

Struck the ball so well and missed four par puts and didn't even get a par. That's the way it is sometimes and that's okay. We played the back nine and it was in fantastic shape I was impressed and it made me feel good to see that. Noticed only two slight mowing errors and the greens are perfect. I do my job for the maybe 10% that notice and appreciate the effort and hard work it takes to achieve playing conditions we had today and we do this on a course that is difficult to maintain at this level with never enough help. There were nine of us today and when school starts there will be less. The crew gets a big thank you tomorrow before we start the day.