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Presidents REPORT
MY, HOW THINGS CHANGE.
The fresh ideas and enthusiasm each of us had for this upcoming season has changed ever so quickly. What looked to be a good start in April has turned into possibly the worst summer of weather I can recall. Rain, windstorms and more rain have caused flooding throughout the province. Golf courses closing for extended periods have been the norm and not the exception this year. With the weather dominating our lives again I urge all MGSA members to try and realize that course
conditions are reflective of the weather and not ones ability as a turf manager. It seems that even the best of plans and intentions have been reduced to ashes by Mother Nature. With patience thin and frustrations high at many courses in the province, be sure to keep lines of communication open with staff, club officials, management, members and patrons. Staying positive is critical not only for yourself but the people who work for you.
Our here at the Bridges, the task of rebuilding after 3 weeks of flooding seems daunting. As a maintenance crew we are trying to look at it from the point of view that it could have been worse. The attitude of my crew has been exceptional and that has helped me to remain positive.
On a brighter note, I would like to thank all members and guests who came out to the Prairie Turfgrass Research Tourney held at Bridges Golf Course on August 12th. This was a great opportunity to recharge our batteries and get away from our courses for a day. I am pleased to report the event was a success. If getting to the Research Tournament was not an option at the very least I hope you took an afternoon or a day off to relax before September.
Good luck the rest of the season.
Respectfully Submitted Tony Feheregyhazi
MGSA's 22nd
Annual Turfgrass Research Tournament A Success
The Manitoba Golf Superintendents Association recently held it 22nd Annual Turfgrass Research Tournament at Bridges Golf Course in Starbuck, Manitoba on the 12th of August. Sunny, mild, and breezy weather greeted the field of 34 teams, which competed in the 4-man Texas Scramble Format tournament. Open to all amateur golfers, it was a funfilled day that included golf, lunch and dinner, with chances at various individual and team prizes.
Net proceeds from the fund-raising tournament are used to support turfgrass research projects in the prairies through contributions by the M.G.S.A. In spite of a tough year in the Manitoba golf trade, sponsorship by our corporate partners, local industry, and golf courses throughout the province reached an all-time high, which speaks volumes to the resilience of the M.G.S.A., the Manitoba golf community, and its supporters.
Bridges Golf Course was in great shape in spite of the devastating damage caused by recent spring and summer floods due to heavy rainfalls in the province. Tony Feheregyhazi and his staff had worked tirelessly to prepare the course for the event and should be commended for their efforts. Wayne Meek and the Proshop staff along with Cameron Holmes and his staff in food services area took care of our needs very well and need to be acknowledged for their efforts, as well.
Special thanks also goes out to our on-course volunteers, Hole-in-One Prize contributors from Guertin Equipment and Tamarack Equipment, and Prize table contributors including Even-Spray, Red Lake Area Golf Course and Falcon Lake Golf Course.
Last, but not least, I would like to thank all of the golfers who participated in this year's tournament. We hope to see you back at next year's event; watch for a future announcement on the date and venue.
Submitted by Todd Thompson,
Chair, Tournament Organizing Committee
Superintendent Profile
Tony Feheregyhazi
Bridges Golf Course
The MGSA Research Tournament was held this year at the Bridges Golf Course in Starbuck, Manitoba. Bridges Golf course is one of the newer golf courses in the province and is a David Wagner design that opened in August of 2000. Situated in a prairie setting on 220 acres, there is both a traditional and links style feel to the course. Bridges offers the golfing public a little bit of everything. MGSA member and course Superintendent Tony Feheregyhazi states, "From a playability standpoint it can get pretty tough out here especially in the wind. With our lakes and the Lasalle river there is water on 14 of 18 holes. Playing from the proper set of tee markers is critical." The Bridges also has a 10,000 square foot timber frame clubhouse, which is quickly becoming known as a wonderful golf banquet and wedding reception facility.
Superintendent Tony Feheregyhazi had the pleasure of hosting this annual get together and worked hard to get the course back on track after some summer flooding. Tony started his career many moons ago at Niakwa Country Club under the guidance of Jim Barr. "I could not have had a better learning ground than at Niakwa, we had good crews and a great boss. To be honest with you, I still miss the place from time to time." After graduating from Fairview College Tony took the superintendents position at Falcon Lake Golf Course and then moved onto the Bridges as the grow-in superintendent where he still hangs his hat. When asked what he likes most about his job he states, "Everyday there is a different set of variables thrown at you, be it the weather, staff, equipment or
irrigation problems. No two days ever seem the same so it is never boring." When asked about what he finds to be the most challenging aspect of being a golf course superintendent he states, "I am
not a perfectionist by nature but like most of us want perfection at the facilities we work at. I am slowly learning that this is unattainable. Even the guy at Augusta National must have an area or two that is not perfect'" During the off-season, Tony enjoys to curl and getting caught up with his son Jason who is 10 years old. Tony is also our current MGSA President and would like to thank everyone for coming out to Bridges on August 12!
BRIDGES GOLF COURSEAT A GLANCE:
Address: In Starbuck. MB; 10 minutes west of Winnipeg
Contact: (204) 735-3000
Course: 18 hole. Public
COMPETITION REPORT
Our 2nd meeting brought us up to South Interlake where Gord had the
course in great shape for the 35 who attended.
The winners
for this meeting were:
CLOSEST TO THE PIN:
Andy Larkin,
Greg Hollins
and Joe Chartrand.
THE HIGH HIDDEN HOLE WINNER:
Wayne Kosowan
The third meeting of the year took us to Carman for the Superintendent and
Greens Chairman event. 32 golfers spent the afternoon enjoying a well deserved break with the superintendents having a chance of winning the John Steel trophy.
This year's winner of the JOHN STEEL TROPHY went to Rob Hamm.
THE GREENS CHAIRMAN LOW SCORE went to Garry Brears from Breezy Bend.
Turfgrass Tournament
This years 22nd Annual MGSA Research Tournament took us to Bridges Golf Course in Starbuck, Manitoba, where the 34 entry teams and all the sponsors made it a huge success. Host Superintendent Tony Feheregyhazi had the course in amazing shape considering all the weather conditions and flooding that he had encountered this year. Well done!
This year's winners are:
10TH PLACE Randy Loewen's team
9TH PLACE Ian Brooks' team
8TH PLACE Dave Turner's team
7TH PLACE Vince Solimka's team
6TH PLACE Ralph Schofield’s team
5TH PLACE Greg Hollins’ team
4TH PLACE Jeff Scott’s team
3RD PLACE Joe Chartrand’s team
2ND PLACE Brian Foster’s team
1st PLACE Regan Janzen’s team of Bob Carson, Damon Henderson and Travis Malkoske
Most Honest Team – Ken Bordynuik’s team
Closest to the Pin Team Prize – Jeff Scott’s team
Long Drive and Putting Contest – Brian White
Straightest Drive – Brent Kurbis
Thanks to Todd Thompson for all his hard work as well as to Bridges Golf Course and everyone else who helped make this day a success.
Hope to see you all next year!
A Bunker Mentality, by Bradley S. Klein
Stupid me, I thought bunkers were supposed to be hazards.
That's their status according to the Rules of Golf. But that's not what most golfers think based, that is, on what they actually say about bunkers and how they've come to expect them to be maintained.
By my reckoning, when it comes to how golfers evaluate a golf course, bunkers are the second most important element they consider. Only greens are ahead in priority. Architects rely heavily on bunkers to provide both shot-making strategy and stark contrasts in color, shape and playing texture. And yet the way bunkers have come to be maintained has created an arms race of heightened maintenance expectations. As a hazard, bunkers should pose problems for golfers, with the chances for recovery dependent upon extremes of both skill and luck.
But if that were truly the case, then bunkers wouldn't have evolved to the point now where they are flawlessly groomed, manicured and nursed, the same way greens, tees and fairways are. I've heard anecdotal evidence that some upper-echelon clubs now spend as much per square foot maintaining bunkers as they do for putting surfaces. Seems a little excessive to me, but then when golfers come to expect perfect lies every time without footprints, rake lines or sand pilings, then things have gotten a little out of hand.
To start with, why are there even bunker rakes at all during a round? Gone are the days when sheep, deer, rabbits and night crawlers (human and snakelike) traipsed their way happily through sand pits on golf courses. I've scoured old, historic photos of golf courses during major championships and find no evidence of rakes in view until the mid1950s. Turf-related catalogs and magazines started offering rakes for sale in the mid-1920s. Initially, only the maintenance crew used the rakes. The practice of leaving them around during play and making them available to golfers as a standard element of mid-round repair probably did not evolve until after World War Two. Western civilization hasn't recovered from this colossal mistake.
On the PGA Tour for the last twenty years, bunkers have actually been "halfhazards." That's how they function as per PGA Tour statistics, which show that, on average, the successful recovery rate from greenside bunkers is 50 percent, meaning that hitting it beachside exacts precisely a half-shot penalty. Of course PGA Tour staff agronomists work assiduously with superintendents in the field to make sure that bunkers meet all sorts of stringent requirement with respect to uniformity of sand depth and the playing quality of the sand. No buried lies-that would be embarrassing. And we certainly don't want a Tour event to be decided by such a fickle thing as fate, good luck or a really bad break. That would be too much like. .. real golf.
Superintendents, agronomists and architects work really hard behind the scenes specking out the sand and making sure it passes through high-tech lab tests for porosity, compaction and particle size distribution. If you leave the decision as to sand selection up to most golfers, they'd choose the same way most people buy cars--on the basis of color-like white. I love it when some star-struck green chairman who has played too much golf in the Bahamas insists on blinding white stuff for their parkland layout in the north. Usually, the color will last about a good half season, and then turn dull, soft brown. Not that there's anything wrong with tawny as opposed to flash white bunkers. But if you're pretending to be Augusta national, it can be a bit of a letdown to have the sand revert like that.
Of course it does help if you build the bunkers properly. Here's one of the biggest changes in the industry in the last decade. Bunkers aren't just pits in the ground; they've always had subsurface drainage, whether through percolation through the native soil or by installation of drain tile and an outlet pipe. And architects have always been mindful to steer water clear from the top of bunkers; a sure sign of bad design is bunkers that wash out because they serve as a drainage basin for the surrounding area.
Lately, bunker construction and drainage techniques have improved dramatically. Erosion-preventing liners covering the bunker floor help the sand adhere to slopes and prevent washouts, thereby saving on labor costs and preserving the longevity of the sand. Such techniques are, however, much more expensive up front. In a bunker renovation plan of the entire golf course, a standard 1,500 sq. ft. bunker will cost about $6,000-7,000 to rebuild, and upwards of $10,000 apiece if the liners are used in conjunction with expanded drainage. But the added expense can be well worth it by substantially extending the useful life of the bunker.
One point is clear. Bunker problems can't be solved by adding sand into a hole, especially if the hole leaks, is clogged or overspills. Unfortunately, a lot of under-financed, poorly managed courses address their bunker problems by adding sand. They might as well be throwing sand into the wind. All they're doing is piling more sand on top of gravel and dirt, in the mistaken belief that they can literally cover up the problem. Besides, there's no need for more than 2-3 inches of sand in the face of a bunker and 3-4 inches on the floor.
What most golfers don't realize is how playability is affected by the nature of the sand. In many cases, the complaints that descend upon the club are from golfers who have lousy sand games or who have the wrong sand wedge-with too much bounce, or with too little. Dense, angularly shaped, compact sand requires a sand wedge with less bounce so that the clubface doesn't skip off the surface of the bunker floor. By contrast, lighter, round-shaped, looser sand requires a sand wedge with more bounce so the leading edge of the flange can scoop under and get through the ball.
In some cases, a quick visit to the golf pro for a lesson and a purchase can solve longstanding problems that a golfer has with his or her home bunkers. If a bunker rebuild is needed, it's best to have the full team on board in all decision-making, and that includes the pro, the greenkeeper and the architect. Cooperation like that on bunkers will leave golfers in the awkward situation of having no one else to blame for their incompetence but themselves.
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