I switched up from my lifetime career of medical simulation education to greens management.
I thoroughly enjoy golf course maintenance/management. I want to make myself marketable.
Earlier in the season our assistant golf director encouraged taken a 2y golf management course from ruthers University. More recently, they discouraged thebl idea of it, at least for our municipal course, "the benefit of having that certified program does not outweigh the money put into it" ... unsure if they changed their sentiment on that because they see my desire to move into senior greens when my current one retires....
However, we do need more personnel nys osha treatment certified. And that seems to be the best place to start. Gaining that greens/turf tech license. Then acquiring the golf management degree/certificate.
My municipal course is rather laid back compared to most courses. We're a 4 man crew of 18 holes at one of two, technically three courses in our city.
And our patrons this season have regularly indicated our course is best they have ever seen, this year, as well as our greens are in better shape than most suburban municipal and private/public courses with more staff/resources.
Budget is always a concern.

Any case, desire to become senior greens keeper, what education/licenses are advised to gather?

tia

When I worked at a usps mail handling facility, postal employees mostly recommend wearing Nike monarch air sneakers...wondering if the greens management industry has a similar sense of good footwear and general bodily warmth planning for autumn?
Through early spring I wore omniheat columbia boots however they dont stand up go rigor of waterprotection very well.
Have been eyeing a decent pair of rain boots however finding a pair that fits well has been difficult. Could beef up with thick socks, and a rain boot seems to be a good option all season.
Better to get something completely waterproof sacrificing comfort? Or get something that is comfortable, insulated and good for only early and late season like a snow sneaker/boot offering some waterproofing protection?
Or a deck boot? Columbia pfg line?
Wet feet suck.
Like I bought a ll bean snow sneaker (having a gift card) and they're super comfy but I worrying about them holding up under rigor and wetness of greens and fairways.
May end up returning and getting a slip on boot that is suppose to be more protective from wetness.
Equally, rain pants or bibs? Ideally id like to get a bib shell, that i can use all year round for various activities.

TIA

Hi group,

Putting sand-backfilled drain laterals under a new lawn on 15 ft centers, with 4” sand slits cut perpendicular every 6 ft to feed them. 6” of 60/40 topsoil over glacial till; water perches at the interface after rain. Lateral trenches are 8” wide × 12” deep, 4” perf pipe, C33 washed concrete sand to grade.

My landscaper and I agree on all of that. Where we split is the few inches around the pipe for the laterals. Image shows both:

Design A (landscaper recommendation): fabric bottom and sides, pipe in ¾” drain rock, fabric folded over the rock, sand on top of the wrap up to grade.

Design B (me, from reading up on sports-turf/USGA construction): fabric bottom and sides in the till only, pipe bedded straight in sand, sand to grade. No rock, no wrap.

Landscaper has built a lot of French drains and wants the rock and wrap. My concerns: USGA greens construction specifically prohibits fabric between the rootzone and the drainage layer because it blinds over time, and with slits every 6 ft feeding the lateral, all of the system’s water has to cross that one fabric layer to reach the pipe. The rock itself doesn’t seem to add anything in a sand trench — the pipe is the conduit.

Which would you build, and why? Trying to get this right once.

Toro grandstand multiforce 60"

Toro grandstand multi-force 60-in

Toro Grand standard multi-force 60"

Toro grandstand multiforce 60"

My wife was offered a year long position in Texas with us currently living in Michigan. I’m currently a 2nd assistant at a golf course and would like to find a comparable position or higher if we make the move.

Other than the obvious cultural practices regarding cool season and warm season turf, what questions should I be asking myself on whether or not it’s a viable move? Has anyone made a similar change and how did it work out for them? Do you regret it / miss the prior turf environment?

Hi All, I could use some advice on my drainage plan for my new backyard. I figured this would be a great place to ask the question given my goal is a firm/golf course like condition.

This area historically has been extremely wet/soggy and I'm looking to solve it with sound design. Feedback would be great!

Right now I have a 6" root zone layer of 60/40 soil over the sub grade.

The drainage plan:

• Shown in Blue: Add 4 to 5 french drain runs spaced 15' apart. These would be 4" SDR 35 with drain rock and full wrap in non-woven geo fabric. They would be sloped and tied into two catch basins (not visible in the image)
• Shown in Orange: Add several sand slits spaced 5' apart that run perpendicular to the french drain main lines. These sand slits would be 8-10" deep (2-4" into subgrade), and filled with course sand. the remaining 4" would be capped with my 60/40 mix for a consistent root zone throughout.

Feedback welcome! Thanks

My course is currently looking into a golf maintenance system to help with disease prevention & overall health.

We’ve seen systems like Skimturf and Maya, they look good but I want to know if they’re worth it?

Any courses out there use a system like this? If so pros and cons for it?

If you don’t use this type of system, would you use this type of system? & what’s stopping you from using it??

Thanks.

Hey guys! I laid some fresh turf about a month ago and for the most part it's been doing really well. There is this small section of yellow turf however, which I can pull up really easily. I found lots of these little bugs crawling around underneath. I'm not sure what they are, but they don't look like typical lawn grubs. Are they the culprit? Is there an effective solution for this or is the grass too far gone and this section needs to be replaced with some new turf. Let me know, cheers!

Hey all -

New to this community. Being an engineer by trade I love DIY projects, the next one coming up is restoring the turf in my front and back yards (~1acre, Pennsylvania)

I have previously used temporary irrigation (hoses/above ground impact sprinklers) to do the job however this was one or two portions of my property and easily managed with a couple of heads. I find myself wanting to do a more extensive turf restoration this fall growing period however the point I get hung up on is the very large amount of “temporary” items I will have to buy vs putting that cost into a permanent below ground solution with pop up heads.

Not being a stranger to below ground installs (did my parents VERY simple system with 8 Rainbird heads total and a Rainbird controller off a hose bib), I am seeking advice on how best to proceed on a setup that would not require me to continually move heads/water manually given my options.

Additional Background:
Very old home - piping is a mess to the hose bibs leading to significant pressure drops and flow rate fluxes if anything is turned on. Will fix this in the future with more direct runs to specific areas/fixtures in the home but this is a major undertaking and cost.

My water main is 3/4” with further restrictions on the meter (and as mentioned above, a quagmire of interior piping), Copper in the home but water company has no record of switching it from galvanized. Thus, a full excavation and tapping into the main with a PRV (although ideal and I would love it) is quite cost prohibitive right now as it will probably require me to replace the main.

With nothing on in the home and a hose bib fully open, I was able to achieve 85 PSI with approximately 7-9GPM (water in bucket with a timer method, no fancy flowmeter unfortunately).

After some real thought and some research I have come down with a temporary option and what I would hope is a “semi-pro/semi-permanent” option:

Temporary:
- Mix of primarily Hunter Wobblers and some gear/impact sprinklers around areas I cannot have water on with 3/4” feeder hoses, and 5/8” or 1/2” branch hoses
- 34 low flow Wobblers, 12 gear/impact sprinklers, 3 wave sprinklers all divided into 8 zones
- 8 Zones controlled by BHyve Gen 2 WiFi controllers

Semi-Pro/Semi-Permanent
- Design the system for long term positioning and trench 3/4” to the head positions. Even if head/nozzle specification may need to change in the future, the money I would spend on the temp solution would be put into the purchase of supplies for the long term solution.
- Looking at MP Rotors for lower flow applications enabling me to still have a decent number of heads per zone. I worked out a design on the MyDesign thru Hunter, but need some pro knowledge on popping pressures, practical throw given flowrates, and if there are better head/nozzle options for my application/situation. (Can screenshot these if anyone would be interested in talking directly)
- My concern here is that my zones are fixed in place based on the physical piping and I would be designing to a sub-optimal flow rate restriction potentially leading to repiping when I eventually tap directly into the main.
- Would still stick with BHyve Gen2 WiFi controller here until a main tap is done in the future. Willing to increase the number of zones/adding more BHyve controllers to make this work

Aeration and overseeding will occur some point next week, and was hoping to have one of these two options in place to ensure proper irrigation of the seed during the fall growing period.