by Chad Giebelhaus, NGCSA President
Superintendent, Crooked Creek Golf Club
As my service to NGCSA progresses I find myself becoming more passionate about what we do. Helping to preserve the game, along with our ecosystems that we call golf courses all of a sudden seem to fit into the big picture more and more all the time. At first I thought, OK I’m going to serve just because I was asked to. Then when I’m off the board I’ll just go back to being a superintendent. I found out that it isn’t that simple.
I’m not just going to go back to being a superintendent. I’m always going to be a superintendent, but not unless I continually strive to better our industry and protect what we conserve. We don’t just take care of our golf courses so that people can enjoy a great round of golf. All of us care for our canvasses as though they were our own; we know that we are tied to these ecosystems. If we contaminate, exhaust our resources, mismanage the symbiotic relationships within our ecosystems there will be consequences that effect ecosystems outside of our own. When that happens, a negative chain of events can happen that eventually affect our own existence. Now, I know that seems a bit extreme, but consider an example where we start trying to conserve water at an extreme stage of a drought , wild fires break out and fire ravages an entire area effecting every living organism in that area. Were we actively engaged at the right times to help facilitate oncoming environmental disasters?
This is where our service comes in. Instead of us just being superintendents at our facilities, we need to strive to be active in our associations and communities to educate, experiment, document, and share our knowledge to help protect and better our environment. Not only will the service that we conduct better our communities, facilities, and the game of golf, but it will better cement our place in the game and improve upon our value to our employers and players.
A great example of this just happened during our March meeting at Lochland Country Club, when after our meeting Craig Ferguson invited every superintendent out to his practice wedge facility where his members are able to practice their wedge shots (hence the name I suppose) where Craig and his staff had been performing their own experiments on poa annua. Craig didn’t have to invite any of us out there to show us what he was doing on his course. He didn’t have to share any of his findings or ask a bunch of questions of his peers. But he did, and I think that those of us that took some time out of our day to tag along with Craig out to his experimental areas to engage in dialog about what is working and not working for us as managers are all a little better informed. And for engaging us at the March meeting I thank you Craig. He didn’t have to engage us, but he did. We don’t have to be engaged outside of boundaries of our golf courses, but we should be. It not only is the right thing to do, but I find it makes our jobs as superintendents easier and a whole lot more enjoyable. Engagement is one way to better ourselves and those around us!
In the weeks, months, and years to come we all have a chance to be engaged outside of our courses, and I challenge you to attend a meeting, hold a field day at your course, get a couple of superintendents in your area together once in a while to play golf or anything else that you might enjoy to get a few of you together. You will be surprised what comes of events that are not associated with your individual employers. By the time this newsletter is in your hands “Nebraska Golf Day” will already have happened, and I hope a few of you were able to attend and support the WE ARE GOLF event at Wilderness Ridge Golf Club in Lincoln. Events such as these don’t seem at the time to be very important to a lot of us, but sometimes we forget that it is not always a question of what did we actually do at this event, but were we there? Did I support something that is not only important to me, but also to those that this game is important to?
In a time where the digital age is not only upon us, but is almost the standard, I still put a very large value on a hand shake and phone call. I am not going to deny the level of efficiency that we are able to sustain in our daily lives whether it relates to work or our personal lives. But as we all discuss how great it is to have texting, Facebook, Twitter, and any other means of digital communication, we are forgetting how important that “personal touch” is.
I want to use a personal experience in which I just had a week ago to draw from. I have a friend, Dan, whom I have gotten to know the past five years through playing different leagues of pool with. Dan and I have always talked about going on a bird hunt together but just never seemed to get it done. I think most of the problem is I am a city boy, from the city, and Dan is from outside of town, where I don’t have the resources of good hunting ground.
Well I finally got a call a week after Thanksgiving asking me if I was a decent shot with a .12 gauge. I said yes, but that was with clay targets as I had not gotten out on a good bird hunt for some time. He said don’t worry about it, the hunt was an organized “Box Hunt” and he just wanted to get a fun team together. So with jumping at the chance I was also able to get fellow superintendent Nevin Kotera to go along, as we needed one more person.
How this hunt progressed the rest of the day was far better than I could have imagined. The fourth guy in our group whom I had never met happened to be a neighbor to Nevin’s grandparents, small world! So we had a dynamic group that just had a blast walking the fields that day. How do I know that? Well, when I forget my shotgun in my car and the rest of the guys in the group are willing to trade off letting me hunt with their gun while they walk empty handed. With all that, we didn’t even see a bird for the first two hours. We didn’t even care because we were having such a good time working the dogs on the hunt, telling stories, things you do on a hunt together. And did I mention that we walked around all-day in the rain? The fields were so saturated from the 1.5 inches overnight that fell there was no place for the rain that day to go but in my boots!
With the convening of the hunt we headed back to the bar where all the teams in the “Box Hunt” gathered to count their scores and hand in the birds. The best thing that I almost forgot to mention was that the birds that were shot all got cleaned and fried up for all us competitors to eat while sharing our stories from the day’s fun. But the first thing that happened when we got back to the bar and shed our wet gear where the handshakes afterwards, the acknowledgment of the great afternoon, and how we all need to
get together and do it all over again sometime.
A lot of the activities that we do throughout our daily lives we are able to have our cell phones on us, or we’re sitting around a
computer that’s on. We seem to always be “plugged in”. Experiences like this past weekend allow me to realize how important it is to pull the plug, get away from the electronic life and enjoy what is in front of us. Instead of taking a digital picture of everything, stop and try to make a memory out of it, in your mind. And when you’re really grateful for something or someone, at least pick up the phone and call them if you can’t tell them in person. I know that I personally try to work with the same principles that governed that last hunt. Don’t forget that the sport of golf is the same way! What’s the first thing you do on the last green? That’s right, you shake hands…
Fall has finally descended upon us, our crews are down-sizing, and our courses are on the mend. It may seem that the season is winding down now that October has arrived, but we all know that not to be true. Most of us are starting fall projects, reseeding thin areas on the course, and aerifying a few areas where we know you can’t aerify enough!
As the educational meetings come to an end I want to remind you all that at our November annual meeting at Indian Creek Golf Club in Elkhorn we have Chava McKeel, Senior Manager of Information and Public Policy from GCSAA, coming to present on some of the sensitive environmental issues that are affecting public policy. Also presenting will be Jim Nedrow, Indian Creek’s very own, updating us on their course renovation in which they have been undergoing for two years now.
Every year teaches us something new whether it is how we can use different pesticides more efficiently or how we can fine tune our agronomic practices to improve quality of turf through difficult environmental situations. As we progress forward from this point I want to remind you all that documentation on the job is becoming such a vital tool for superintendents. And if you don’t think it is, think about that valve box for a section of low pressure pop-ups that was installed at your facility ten years prior to your arrival, and you have a valve that just won’t close all the way, but you can’t find it. A picture or a detailed illustration stored away in a file or on the computer might come to help save about five hours worth of search time. Or maybe you are trying to sell your membership/owner on a drainage project. The point you are trying to get across is a bit more difficult because the course floods and a pooling of water doesn’t reseed until about an hour after it rains. Yet, the person or people you are trying to sell the project on are never around while it rains, so you take a picture as it is happening. This then gives you the chance to explain the situation when it is more convenient for them allowing you to take them out to the site and explain to them what affects that pooling of water has on the turf quality during times of stress.
Turning the documentation process into a great tool to get accomplishments passed and finished at your club can turn into great teaching tools for our own members of NGCSA. Not only can you inform your fellow superintendents about something new or old that has worked for you, the benefits of presenting can also help you out professionally. When you speak you gain experience on presenting while you also get recognition and points toward your good standing with your local and national chapters.
So I encourage all of you to take the time from here on out to take the time to document anything that may be relevant to improving what we do on and off our golf courses, for it is one of the many reasons why we are always getting better at what we do.
Chad Giebelhaus, Crooked Creek Golf Club
Chad Giebelhaus, Crooked Creek Golf Club
I used to be amazed at how individuals in our industry lend themselves to others
in times of need; anymore I am more amazed when they don’t. I say this because I have gained a better
understanding of what kind of person it takes to hack it in our industry. I’m not just referring to Superintendents, mechanics,
our assistants, or our crews. I’m also including
our sales representatives, their owners, our university partners, instructors,
researchers, students, or anyone else that I am probably forgetting. It not only takes everyone, but it takes a
certain dedication and passion to do what we all do, and to do it well
together.
Just in case last summer’s intensive
rain and sudden heat didn’t teach me anything, I’m sure that this year’s summer
will do a fine job in filling in the gaps!
I do think that our course has weathered the adverse, atypical summer
conditions better due to some additional aeration of areas and some much needed
added drainage of areas. But seeing
Brown Patch and Pythium occur like someone went out during the nights and used
a Lely to apply their spores like southern course over-seed is something I have
never encountered. Turf in general seemed
to be hanging in there until July 28th through August 3rd
when disease, heat, and humidity did whatever they could to wreak havoc on golf
courses in the Midwest.
Where I’m going with this message is
that until I had some fellow Superintendents out to play a round on our course
here at Crooked Creek, I thought what I was doing was a total failure. And why did I offer up our course to play a
day after all the beans had just hit the fan?
I’m still pondering that decision!
No, but actually it may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise for
me because up until that moment I had not played Crooked Creek during that past
week. I didn’t know how it was playing; I
only knew how it looked from my point of view as our Superintendent. As our round had progressed I realized that
the course actually played well. Yeah,
there are always going to be a few lies that cost you another stroke, but
that’s golf! Another positive that came
from the round was that I was told that the course is in great shape, not to
worry about it and that most of it will come back, as I added the word
“hopefully” after their words of encouragement.
I was reassured that I wasn’t the only one going through this, and that
it was happening to all of us. The thing
that amazes me is that they are exactly right, and I just needed to hear it
from some of my own fellow Superintendents.
So I say thank you to everyone that
has helped save someone else’s sanity just by picking up the phone, or stopping
by an individual that is struggling during any situation of any sort offer some
words of encouragement, ever. Words of encouragement
go further than some would think. Yes,
having someone lend you a roller for a day to get ruts out of greens from
aerification, or a fellow Superintendent just GIVING you 4 acres of
Dollar Spot control just so you don’t lose your greens, and not expect a single
dollar back, are incredible occurrences to have, but so is the lending of an
ear and the words of wisdom and encouragement.
I know it has helped me!
Summer of 2011, welcome, because it has been a long time coming. While it’s nice to have cool temperatures and mild weather in the spring, cold and uninviting is not particularly welcome in our industry during the spring season. Especially the day after you have aerated greens and front makes its presence for two days in a row and it is cold and windy for the remainder of April, in which nobody seemed to play any golf. It makes it a bit interesting when you are trying to pay bills!
We all have these topsy-turvy conditions and events during our years of employment in this crazy golf industry, but as we venture on through life I think that some of us, including myself, lose site of the larger picture, and that is the focus of our health and family. After our years of devoting ourselves to our profession these are the two that I want to make sure that I still have around me, and hopefully both are in good condition!
I guess the reason why I am writing on this subject is because it does kind of hit home to me. Last year taught me one thing, that whether we lose a little or a lot of turf, we can still reseed and almost everyone forgets how bad it was, and starts to focus on what they have in front of them and under their feet at the present. But when it comes to our health and families’, reseeding isn’t an option. Time doesn’t just heal things, sometimes that is what destroys those things because we don’t stop and take the time to be with our families and focus on our health.
Now I realize that the reality is that our employers don’t always and won’t always see things the way we do, but we have to try to help them see what we see. Is the threat of grass lost worth a stroke or the loss of our family due to our visions being out of focus, to sort of speak? I would answer this no!
Last year taught me that staying till 6:00 in the evening trying to keep things cool probably didn’t accomplish any more than if I would have left work at 4:30 in the afternoon and focused more on what I was going to do in the fall to recuperate what we lost as soon as the temperatures start to retreat. I learned, but not until the beginning of this spring and at the expense of some minor health issues die to high levels of stress. And I’m sure that we all learned something different and we are hopefully able to learn one valuable thing from every adverse situation that we run into.
My lesson learned…”I come first!”
Chad Giebelhaus, President
Crooked Creek Golf Course
Chad Giebelhaus, Crooked Creek Golf Club
These last few months leading up to the National GIS in Orlando has had my phone ringing off the hook, to sort of say. Now that I am our delegate for NGCSA I have the honor of having the candidates for Directors of the Board of GCSAA call me intermittently throughout the days, asking if there are any questions that I or our members may have for them, while they also slip in the “I am also just looking for your support for my position on the board!” This let me tell you, they are all deserving of our support after having the privilege of speaking with all of them. Service on the National GCSAA Board of Directors is no small task, and I doubt if any of them would be running if they didn’t care.
After asking a question or two, we got on a pretty good topic of discussion: Where is the GCSAA headed and how do we get there? One candidate had an answer that was rather obvious. He said that in order to sustain and improve on GCSAA’s national impact and public awareness we have to promote ourselves at home, at our places of employment first, and then make sure we are doing what we are supposed to be doing at the state level, and then the national level of support will come. But GCSAA has to be able to supply the knowledge and means of communication to its members. Though, individually we need to be communicating to our members first and foremost, they are the only reason that we get to do what we do! Then communicate effectively and explicitly with our supervisors, whether that is a board, owner, director, or whomever. What matters the most is that we communicate, because that will put us in the eye of the decision makers and the customers, thus validating that what we do is important. Not only is what we do important to the game of golf, but to the environment and our communities. Our management of resources cognitively and respectfully allows us to preserve our planet, so to speak. We are mindful of the plant and animal species in our environments, our impact on their health and survival, water sources, and the air in which we breathe, but do the players, public, and legal decision makers of our communities know that?
I guess how I envision our self promotion is that it starts every morning. During the growing months you start the process by going out and talking to the players, explaining what your goals and processes are for the day, the week, the month, and so forth. From there discussion might progress to how your accomplishing these things and the explanation of impacts come later in your discussions. Knowledge displayed is power, and I think that the power, so to speak, is you securing your place at your facility and your place in the game of golf. After your interaction with the players you can start the whole process over again with your superiors, with whom you are directly responsible to. And it shouldn’t stop there…there is also lateral information shared with the golf professional, your assistant, and don’t forget the rest of the maintenance crew. If all other employees see what you’re doing and why, your impact reaches far beyond your clubhouses and maintenance shops. Keeping with those lines of communication, you need to stay in contact with your local legislators and fellow superintendents on important environmental issues. Communicating our knowledge everyday will demonstrate that our impact is much more diverse than just on the game of golf! Really, I think it’s that easy.
What we know and have done for the past 30 years for that matter, cannot be learned in a thirty minute reading of some article out of a magazine or turf book. What I do here at Crooked Creek will not always work for Brian Hellbusch at Hillcrest Country Club, two miles to the west! One also may not be able to manage their 15th green the same way that their 9th is managed. Others need to know that.
So in my closing remarks, we need to be visual at our facilities. We need to be active, vocal, and perform in that educational role every day. And from there we do the same outside of the confines of our employment, being active in the same way in our communities. We need to use our local and state association as a means of informing others, staying on top of important topics, performing community outreach, and don’t forget relating with our fellow superintendents with what we love to do! I hope as this newsletter hits your desks with spring fast approaching, that we were all able to recharge ourselves after last year’s many challenges! I know I’m looking forward to this spring.
Chad Giebelhaus
NGCSA President
So I’m going to state the obvious and just get it out of the way: “I never thought that I would be this involved in the NGCSA a year and a half ago.” But here I am, enjoying every bit of it! When I was thinking to myself the other day why I thought this might be, the only thing that I could come up with was that I could see how our association, whether it be our state or national, makes me a better Superintendent!
This past weekend, with our first snowfall of the season and a fresh pot of coffee brewing, I was sitting in my shop with a close friend of mine, whose passion for what we do is so great that he looks forward to weekends just so he can come in to mow greens for me. Jason’s primary job is not on a golf course but for a local lawn and landscaping company. If he could he would make the jump, but it would be a big challenge for him to advance in our field due to his lack of experience on a golf course, and taking a fairly large pay-cut with having a family to support would set them back. I tell him all the time that if he ever wanted to make the leap that I would do everything in my power to help him. As I thought about it, this is exactly why I have jumped head first into the NGCSA ever since I have had the chance. What I would do for my employees is exactly what we do for each other, and our association is our avenue for doing this. We all know that having an association gives us a voice and a face, but it is very important to remember that no one will hear us if we don’t speak. So I say to those of you who are active in the association, stay active. If you’re an individual who wants to but just doesn’t think that they have the time, make time; it’s easier than you think – not to mention worthwhile!
In the past six to eight months I have really started to notice what our association does for us as professionals and our facilities, not to mention for our industry as a whole. With the help of Kissel /E&S Associates we held the first Nebraska Golf Day, which mirrors perfectly what We Are Golf is supposed to accomplish, by educating and informing lawmakers and decision-makers at the local, state and national levels of government on the significant and diverse contributions of the golf industry. And this coming year’s Nebraska Golf Day should be even better, but not without the support and attendance of our members. Again, we need to make our voices and faces seen and heard. Without them, we are nothing! After attending the Delegate’s meeting in Kansas City a few months back I finally realized why we need to have good government relations, mostly because there are issues (WATER) on the front lines that affect our industry, if they haven’t already! And with Nebraska Golf Day we are stating to those decision-makers that they are important to us.
To tie all this back to my original statement that my involvement in NGCSA has helped to make me a better Superintendent, I am now more aware of local, state, and national issues affecting the golf course industry. Communicating those issues to my owner and my golfers has improved my importance at my club. I take a different approach with my employees back at my club; I’m much more of an educator and communicator now. Not to mention my time management has improved since expanding my responsibilities.
As 2011 approaches I am wondering, “What is Mother Nature going to deal us this year?” All I can say is that no matter what she brings our way, we’ll prosper; I know we will. And I know this because that is what we do! I look forward to serving you all as President this coming year, and I hope that I can contribute as much as those who have served before me. As this newsletter hits your mailboxes I hope that the Holidays treated you well!
Chad Giebelhaus
NGCSA President
Spring is always a time of awakening and rejuvenation–flowers bloom, trees bud, grass sprouts new shoots. And we “go back to work” with a sense of urgency and anticipation for a better season than last. This season, however, will be met with much hand-wringing and uncertainty over the economic pressures put on all of us. Despite that, most superintendents with whom I have talked are anxious to see what lies ahead— as if they will really bear down to make the best of an ‘iffy’ economic situation.
And so it should be with your involvement with your association this year. Make an extra effort to make it the best year it can be for our chapter. It shouldn’t be difficult to make it a great year considering the many fantastic things that are happening within our association. All we need is some effort and participation on your part. What is so great? you ask, remembering last years’ helter-skelter schedule and member apathy. Well, since you asked, here goes my list of great things that your BOD has been working on to make Nebraska GCSA successful and fulfilling to its members in 2009: The meeting and education schedule for this year is outstanding! Derek Nicholson has put together the best schedule we have had in years. Check out our meeting schedule in this and coming issues and at ngcsa.org. Mark your calendars now so you don’t miss these events. What brings many of you to the meeting? Great venues!!—how about Wilderness Ridge, Field Club, Iron Horse, Wild Horse just to name a few in 2009.
What about education you might ask– not the same old stuff we’ve heard a hundred times? We’ve got something for everyone and have added many “interesting topics” outside the realm of turf; i.e. financial planning, personality types, irrigation and public power, mower reel set-up, and much more.
The new look web site is still a work in progress but it is exciting to be able to exchange information quickly among members. By using this media you have no excuse for not knowing what is going on! The continued search for an Executive Director!! This is a significant change in how our association operates, but it is a change that is necessary and vital to further our chapter. This position will elevate our association to the levels that the Nebraska Golf Association and the Nebraska section PGA now have with golfers. Check out the posting for this position in this issue. Maybe you are our man/woman! A renewed cooperation with UNL. Roch, Bob and the whole University staff want to be more involved with our association. Obviously, they are key to our education programs and their industry contacts will help broaden our learning opportunities. Already Roch has scheduled Gary Grigg and himself to do their GCSAA seminar on foliar feeding for our April meeting!
Bob Hall has returned as newsletter editor!! The news-letter will be packed with great info! Whew! I am already down to the bottom of the page with great things for Nebraska GCSA in 2009. All we need now is for you to be with us!
Josh Mahar
Nebraska GCSA President
By all accounts, Ryan Krings, Bill Kubly, Anne Streich, Steve Merkel, and Arbor Links crew hosted a fabulous September meeting. It was our best attended meeting of the year which I hope bodes well for the coming year. The Education and Meeting Committee worked hard to provide entertaining and educational opportunities throughout the year. For those who were not able to attend a meeting, ask someone who did and they will relay that all meetings this year were both fun and educational. Again, thanks to Ryan for putting together such a great meeting.
As my term as President comes to a close I want to take the opportunity to dole out thank-yous to those that have helped the association and myself during the past couple of years.
Golf Course Superintendent/PGA Professional Relationships
“Can’t We All Just Get Along”
I may be ostracized from the Superintendent ranks for this opinion but feel it is an important issue in our careers. I am going to try to convince you that working constructively with your pro is a benefit to you. It is my belief that if the superintendent and pro are on the same page concerning the direction of their club, the facility will be more likely to prosper. I happen to be in a situation whereby the pro respects my contribution to the operation as much as I do his. If you are not in that type of situation then it will be harder to see my point, but open your mind as you read on.
