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Diary of a course employee, end of the season


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Sorry for a lack of posts, the work has fallen into routine a little so there hasn’t been much to say. That said I have a new vehicle I get to drive, a Toro water sprayer truck, and there have been some funny moments.

 

First off, our pull carts are terrible to transport. They don’t fit anywhere and they aren’t light either. So when it comes time to move them...

8e5h8d6pznln.jpeg

They get moved as one.

 

This is a tent we set up for a corporate tournament. Later on the head pro set up his trackman and did sort of a swing-analysis for everyone who came through.

ggoh6cvk3qal.jpeg

 

Speaking of the pro, yesterday we drenched him with the sprinklers during his kids camp lesson. I was not aware our practice chipping/putting area was one single sprinkler circuit, and had told the pro to move to the chipping green at 2 so we could water the putting green. So he moved all the kids off and then I went back to meet the super and turn the sprinklers on remotely. He (super) said that J was the practice green and so i turned it on. He then proceeded to list the other letters and when no chipping green was listed I asked about it. He said “oh the whole short game area is on right now” and I said “F***!”

 

The pro wasn’t too mad, he said the kids ran in the sprinklers and he had a laugh.

 

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> @RSinSG said:

> > @jas904 said:

>

> > This is my life aspiration. I have 22 years on and 13 to go (I started way to young). I can't wait to sit on a mower in silence. The head superintendent at my club has told me many times that the day I retire has has a seat on a mower waiting for me. Funny side story, the superintendent at our club was previously the assistant superintendent at Bel Air CC in Los Angeles. He said that they would hire as many retired cops as they could because they show up on time, do what they are told and just want to be left alone!

>

> Mowing fairways would be too stressful for me. Straight lines and all that technical stuff. My buddy and I edge bunkers, trim sprinkler heads, varnish wood and other jobs that don't require much thinking. I buy a new audible book every week, put on my earplugs and enjoy the outdoors. I make a whopping $8.50 an hour and get to play and practice as much as I want. Retirement is good and I suggest you don't put it off. 35 years is a lot - too much actually.

>

 

Ya, fairways take too much brain power when you are retired. That's why I chose the rough. I loved making patterns in the rough that looked good from the tree boxes. I'd mow rough from 5am to 1:30 pm Monday to Friday! If I didn't want to talk to anyone I didn't need to. It was nice and quiet all day long.

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You’re still looking at your reel. :) If you aren’t comfortable looking at a point off the green look at the the point where your line starts where the green meets the collar. Also try and make your lines as wide as possible. Get comfortable with where the edge of your reel is in comparison to your tires, spend some time off the mower looking at it.

 

Really enjoying this thread and hope you are enjoying the job.

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> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > @az2au said:

> > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

>

> But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

 

Initially you were trying to stay under the radar. Obviously being known has turned out not to be a concern; that’s good.

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> @howellhandmade said:

> > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > @az2au said:

> > > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

> >

> > But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

>

> Initially you were trying to stay under the radar. Obviously being known has turned out not to be a concern; that’s good.

 

Yeah, in the beginning I was worried about making bad impressions and was unsure of the culture. Now that I’m more integrated and “one of the crew” I’m not as concerned.

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> @CDM said:

> > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > @az2au said:

> > > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

> >

> > But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

>

> Tapiola Golf Course

>

> _Edit: just a guess from the images you posted up_

 

Well done!

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One of the unexpected perks of this job is the stuff I find in the trash. Nothing too special, but a lot of broken shafts with playable grips I can salvage. Today was even better: I found this thrown away:

4vbx7b0ziilb.jpeg

 

I remember when these came out I was 11 years old and this was the club that one of my friends, whose dad was a member at the local CC got for him. I was still playing a Callaway Warbird at the time, but this was The Club. Now I’m going to shaft it up and try it out.

 

In other news I drove the fairway aeration tractor today and that is the slowest work imaginable. We also had a fox die in our retention pond... ibgw9b1e8gr6.jpeg

We’ve also been getting our new cafe ready.

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> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > @CDM said:

> > > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > > @az2au said:

> > > > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

> > >

> > > But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

> >

> > Tapiola Golf Course

> >

> > _Edit: just a guess from the images you posted up_

>

> Well done!

 

LOL wow I just winged that from images .... So do I win a free round if I ever make it over there =)

_Edit: by the way the clubhouse looks pretty cool on the website_

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> @CDM said:

> > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > @CDM said:

> > > > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > > > @az2au said:

> > > > > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

> > > >

> > > > But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

> > >

> > > Tapiola Golf Course

> > >

> > > _Edit: just a guess from the images you posted up_

> >

> > Well done!

>

> LOL wow I just winged that from images .... So do I win a free round if I ever make it over there =)

> _Edit: by the way the clubhouse looks pretty cool on the website_

 

Well there won’t be a free round, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will achieve total consciousness... so you got that going for you, which is nice!

 

(In seriousness should you ever make it out here and I’m anywhere around, I’ll caddy for you)

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> @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > @CDM said:

> > > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > > @CDM said:

> > > > > @"James the Hogan Fan" said:

> > > > > > @az2au said:

> > > > > > Based on your "Golfing in Finland" signature and the fact that it has been cold up until recently... I'm going with, yeah, Finland :)

> > > > >

> > > > > But which course in Finland, that’s the question ;)

> > > >

> > > > Tapiola Golf Course

> > > >

> > > > _Edit: just a guess from the images you posted up_

> > >

> > > Well done!

> >

> > LOL wow I just winged that from images .... So do I win a free round if I ever make it over there =)

> > _Edit: by the way the clubhouse looks pretty cool on the website_

>

> Well there won’t be a free round, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will achieve total consciousness... so you got that going for you, which is nice!

>

> (In seriousness should you ever make it out here and I’m anywhere around, I’ll caddy for you)

 

LOL Sounds like a deal...!!!

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So it’s been awhile because work has become routine and there is nothing new under the sun. Let’s talk about the driving range!

 

Range balls are hit and the collected before being fed through a washer and conveyored to either the upper or lower ball machines. We also have white prov practice balls from the learning center (a very good learning center by the way, 3 indoor hitting bays with trackman that they can move outside to grass tees as well, full studios and fitting carts, etc)

The ProV’s are sorted and set aside for them to use.

fftn9wlg6i7p.jpeg

b33kyhe9i3zd.jpeg

 

Tuesdays from 6-9AM we have 3 hours to collect every ball and cut the grass, and today the aerator hit a sprinkler main that created a geyser... So we got that fixed too. I was on our groundsmaster and slinging missed range balls all over the place. One ball got shot 75 yards by the mower, quite fun!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Recently our greens have become infested with Poa Anna grass, an invasive (if you like bentgrass) weed that makes light green patches in your beautiful fescue/bent greens. To that end, we had a poa party:

 

t5s8d5658l9r.jpeg

 

Which is where most of the crew focuses on one green with knives and sand buckets and weeds out the poa. It’s probably a way to keep us busy but it’s also a rather important job to keep the stuff out.

 

In other news I drove the aeration tractor. It goes about 1 mile per hour, and is otherwise a rather slow and boring job. The goal is to open up the compacted soil to allow air/nutrients/water into the rootzone of the plant.

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A nice side benefit of this job is the Finnish Greenkeeper’s association, of which I will hopefully soon be a card-carrying member. Through the FGA connections, I was able to play the Helsinki Golf Club (first golf course in Finland, Euro LPGA host 2009-11) for 10€. (Usually 75) As we are a fake-links, and HGC (or Tali) is as Parkland as they come, it was interesting to re-learn how to play with trees. They have at least double the staff we have. Their course was in better shape, but otherwise not too spectacular. Their clubhouse is pretty nice though:

 

m3x9zee3qv4d.jpeg

As is the rest of the course:

 

a2iphkxm2ap0.jpeg

lw92r9kdk7b5.jpeg

e2b59b51b43y.jpeg

 

In other random thoughts, here is a sprinkler I torpedoed:

 

7czkloghvsby.jpeg

 

 

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> @mallrat said:

> Be careful what you say about Poa. Many courses here are wall to wall Poa

 

I am well aware, and we discuss it a lot around the water cooler. Poa can be maintained as an excellent putting surface (Pebble comes to mind) and the fairways at Helsinki CC are lush Poa.

 

From our perspective though, poa is not conducive to the conditions we are trying to prepare or the aesthetics we are trying to create. As a pseudo-links we are trying for rye/fescue fairways and fescue/bent greens. Poa would require too much water and fertilizer for our budget and cause us to lose the firmness of our greens. (I think those were the given reasons)

 

I’m not against poa, it just falls outside our particular strategy.

 

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Being from California, I have nothing favorable to say about Poa. My club spends a great deal of time and money keeping Poa out of the greens. Poa can be fine when kept to tour standards but that is too taxing on both the plant and most clubs budget to sustain on a daily basis. I have played Pebble (and many other coastal courses) a few times when in the afternoon rolling a putt can look like a plinko game. It is like trying to putt on top of broccoli.

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L.A.B. Mezz.1 Max 35”, Accra

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Today we had a near disaster. The freezer overheated and shut off, which put $80 worth of ice cream in peril. We frantically called the restaurant and the cafe to obtain permission to use their freezer as our mechanic pulled the freezer out and pointed a fan at the exchanger on the back to try and get the temp down.

 

6f5u4dmwdz6t.jpeg

bo0sf2vl1jdy.jpeg

Meanwhile the rest of the ice cream was loaded into carts and driven to the other freezers at the course. We managed to save most of the ice cream.

 

In other news I cut fairways today, which felt like greased lightning compared to the aerating tractor, and yesterday I took second (net) in the club “Captain’s cup” with an 84 net 71. I was feeling a little strange about that, but it turns out no one played well yesterday and I would have been second if it were gross as well, so I was pleased with that!

 

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great posts, would love to golf in Finland. I have Denmark and Sweden under my belt

How long is the playing season typically?

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> @cardoustie said:

> great posts, would love to golf in Finland. I have Denmark and Sweden under my belt

> How long is the playing season typically?

 

Very latitude dependent. Most courses in the Helsinki area start to wake up around the middle of April, but will have a few temp greens linger into May. The absolute earliest a course could open is late March. Up north, (Levi, Tornio, Rovaniemi) they can still have snow on the ground in June, so they open up later. Things start to die down in October in the north, and November in the south. The absolute latest would be about thanksgiving.

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> @mallrat said:

> Do you think it’s a career you might want to look into?

 

 

Maybe as a second career or a pre-retirement/retirement career. Right now I need to do something with my engineering degree. Though I love golf and golf courses, I’m not sure spending 5/10/20 years caring for the same 150 acres is really for me. Free golf is though!

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