Shownotes
This podcast episode delves into the intricacies of golf course management, with a particular focus on the challenges faced by superintendents during the winter months. We engage in a comprehensive discussion with Jim Myers, the golf course superintendent at Columbia Edgewater in Portland, who shares insights regarding the unique difficulties posed by excessive rainfall and the subsequent implications for turf management. The conversation highlights the necessity for adaptive strategies in maintaining the course, particularly in relation to disease management amidst the unpredictable weather patterns characteristic of the Pacific Northwest. Furthermore, we explore the importance of meticulous planning and budgeting in ensuring the optimal functioning of a golf course, emphasizing the significance of resource management in this demanding profession. Through this dialogue, we aim to illuminate the often-overlooked responsibilities of golf course superintendents and their pivotal role in preserving the golfing experience for enthusiasts.
Links referenced in this episode:
- paintedhillsnaturalbeef.com
- birdieball.com
- langdonfarms.com
- infogrillingatthegreen.net
- benhogangolf.com
- paintedhillsbeef.com
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Columbia Edgewater
- Painted Hills Natural Beef
- Gunter Wilhelm
- Weston Kia
- Birdie Ball
- Langdon Farms Grill
- Ben Hogan Golf
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
It's time for Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores the golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass.
Speaker A:For the hackers do sweepers and turf spankers.
Speaker A:Here's Jeff.
Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker A:Hey, everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to Grilling at the green here on AM860.
Speaker A:The answer in the Golf News Network.
Speaker A:I'm JT.
Speaker A:Today we've got a good friend of mine, Jim Myers, the golf course superintendent over at Columbia Edgewater there in Portland, home of the LPGA tournament every year.
Speaker A:And we'll be talking about the LPGA in a little bit.
Speaker A:We'd like to thank the folks over at Painted Hills Natural Beef Beef the way nature intended.
Speaker A:You can check them out online@paintedhillsnaturalbeef.com Jim, how are you, buddy?
Speaker B:Good morning, JT.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me in.
Speaker B:I really appreciate it.
Speaker B:It's always nice to be back.
Speaker A:It is nice.
Speaker A:It's nice to see you again.
Speaker A:I saw you the other day.
Speaker A:You were working on your backyard putting green, your little chipping exercise and stuff.
Speaker A:I caught that on Twitter.
Speaker B:That's how I. Yeah, I think last time we talked, it wasn't even installed yet.
Speaker B:My contractor finally finished the backyard putting green, and so I was doing a little bit of chipping and putting and kind of been enjoying the backyard.
Speaker B:Doing a little grilling back there.
Speaker B:I finally got the TV up and Golf Channel on.
Speaker B:So almost living the dream now.
Speaker A:So what have you cooked so far?
Speaker B:Well, I've done some ribs, done brisket.
Speaker B:I've done the tri tip.
Speaker B:It's kind of nice.
Speaker B:Obviously, when you're slow cooking something like that, you actually need to either have the TV on or have something like a putting green.
Speaker B:So you can sit back there and put and chip or both or both.
Speaker B:So it's been good for me.
Speaker B:I can't complain.
Speaker B:Anytime you can slow cook something and chip and putt, that's a good life.
Speaker A:There you go.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:The reason I wanted to talk to you is we are in the doldrums of winter right now.
Speaker A:We're here in the early part of January doing this show.
Speaker A:And, you know, if you just even look out the window today, it's wet, it's gray.
Speaker A:And that's just not indicative of where we live in Oregon.
Speaker A:But a lot of the northern part of the country, if you go, you know, clear across east, it's like that.
Speaker A:We're not down in the sun Belt.
Speaker A:What do you guys do this time of year?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, this January has been pretty Interesting so far.
Speaker B:Normally for Portland, we would receive about, I don't know, 4.5 inches of rain for the month.
Speaker B:And last night we got 0.72, and that's put us well over three inches of rain just in the first eight days of January.
Speaker B:The nice thing is Columbia Edgewater drains really well and the golf course drains.
Speaker B:But it's been.
Speaker B:It's been definitely interesting with how wet the Pacific Northwest has been.
Speaker B:So it's kind of changed some of our.
Speaker B:Our mowing practices change, some of our projects.
Speaker B:Definitely needing to keep our eye on disease management a lot more.
Speaker B:But yeah, definitely had to change the schedule of what we thought the first week of the new year was going to be as far as projects and maintaining the golf course.
Speaker A:We'll circle back to some of those in just a minute.
Speaker A:But because we haven't had any really cold weather so far this year, we really didn't have a lot of cold weather last year.
Speaker A:How do you adjust things to say we're going to have a lot of bugs this year, we're going to have a lot of maybe diseases in the ground like that.
Speaker A:When you've got really wet weather like this, what do you guys do?
Speaker A:How do you prep for that?
Speaker B:Yeah, so.
Speaker B:Well, here in the Pacific Northwest, there's a really common disease called Microdopium naval and or fusarium.
Speaker B:In the past, it's been called pink snow mold.
Speaker B:And when it's not cold and we sit in that window of like 46 degrees, 50 degrees as a high, we don't get the cold frost and we continuously get that rain.
Speaker B:The disease pressure is extremely high.
Speaker B:And when we have extremely high disease pressure, our integrative pest management plan needs to be in full effect.
Speaker B:We need to be scouting.
Speaker B:We need to make sure that we're doing the best management practices to be able to keep that disease at bay.
Speaker B:So there's a lot more effort go into our management plan than normal.
Speaker B:If we have those colder temperatures and not as wet, the disease pressure isn't as high.
Speaker A:So when you say scouting, do you actually go out, walk or take a cart or something, Go out and look at what you may assume is a potential troubled spot or area on the course?
Speaker B:Yeah, for me, I walk the golf course every day.
Speaker B:I try to walk every green on property just because the disease pressure is so high that things change within that 24 hours, especially in the evening when you have heavy moisture sitting on that leaf blade all evening and all morning.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:Scouting is pretty much me and my Assistants looking at the turf grass and what it looks like.
Speaker B:And is that disease starting to move on the canopy?
Speaker A:We're talking with Jim Myers, the golf course superintendent from Columbia Edgewater here in Portland.
Speaker A:Portland not being so different than other courses, especially here in the northwest and up in the Northeast.
Speaker A:Northeast tends to get a little more snow than we do, which probably eradicates some of the potential for some of those diseases.
Speaker A:But they have their own inherent issues with other things up there.
Speaker A:So when you walk the course, this is something I always wanted to ask a superintendent.
Speaker A:When you walk the course, do you ever take like a wedge with you and just kind of slow walk it, so to speak?
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, that would be really nice.
Speaker B:I would love to chip and putt.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, I have a very tight window to be able to walk those 18 holes.
Speaker B:And plus our nine hole Mason course that we have.
Speaker B:So unfortunately, no, but yes, that would be great.
Speaker B:But yeah, it's just pretty much looking for disease.
Speaker B:Looking at the projects, seeing how the team's doing and moving as fast as I can.
Speaker A:I might have to.
Speaker A:If I was a golf course superintendent, I might have to adapt certain policies.
Speaker B:Yeah, it would be definitely nice to get out there and chip and put.
Speaker B:That's the nice thing.
Speaker B:Maybe about having the backyard area.
Speaker B:Yeah, you can do that in the evening.
Speaker A:Yeah, no, that's good.
Speaker A:So going back to what you were talking about a minute ago, you're looking for diseases.
Speaker A:But when you're in your normal preparatory work, if this was a normal year, if the rain averages, the moisture averages were within that normal range, so to speak, and not getting any extra, which we tend to do around here, what would you be doing right now?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So if we didn't have the heavy rains like we.
Speaker B:We probably wouldn't be, well, edging our drain caps.
Speaker B:That's one thing that we did last week.
Speaker B:We wanted to make sure with all this moisture that we were getting that we were out edging all the drain caps and catch basins.
Speaker B:It took two guys 24 hours to edge all those areas just to make sure that water has an area to go, make sure that none of those drain caps.
Speaker B:So we normally wouldn't be.
Speaker B:Wouldn't be doing that.
Speaker B:You know, that's something that we only do once in a while.
Speaker B:But if it wasn't so wet, we would be doing more drainage projects.
Speaker B:We would be more irrigation projects.
Speaker B:We'd actually be working on more projects that allow us to get in.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, when it's really wet, it's pretty impossible to do drainage projects.
Speaker A:Well, I think you would tear up the ground too much.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:I mean, you can plywood as much as you want, but unfortunately, sometimes when it's this wet, you would end up doing more damage to the area than good.
Speaker B:So if it's dry and halfway decent like you were talking about, normal year for us, we'd be doing those projects.
Speaker B:If it's a super wet like this.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, unfortunately, that just pushes us into doing other things.
Speaker A:Well, it's, you know, I think people have this vision in their head about if you work at a golf course, you know, this, they think about all the benefits, which is normal because we're all golf nuts.
Speaker A:But when you think about the actual work, which seems to be ongoing and extensive no matter what type of time of year, because you got to, you know, switch years as the year goes on, I think that mystique about working at a golf course, if they actually knew, maybe wouldn't be there.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, it is a tough job.
Speaker B:Our golf course is open every day except Christmas.
Speaker B:So every day I'm responsible for something.
Speaker B:Even if I'm on vacation, I'm still responsible for what my assistants are doing and the team's doing.
Speaker B:So having to check in with them.
Speaker B:So, yeah, it's, you know, I wish I could play golf every day.
Speaker B:I can't wait till retirement.
Speaker B:I think that's gonna be, that's gonna be the game plan.
Speaker B:But as of right now, it's a, it's a full time job.
Speaker A:Plus, plus, do they, if you stay with Columbia that long, will they give you access after you've retired forever?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:You know, I've heard of some clubs actually doing that with the golf course superintendents, you know, that have been there for a long time.
Speaker B:They've actually got retirement membership.
Speaker B:So nothing that I've ever talked about with Columbia, but I haven't been there long enough.
Speaker B:Yeah, I know.
Speaker B:I think after you spend 10 years at a club, 15 years, you know, into 20 years, the membership really, you know, enjoyed.
Speaker B:The superintendent, they probably want to take care of you and also use you as a resource for the next superintendent coming in.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, we're going to take a break.
Speaker A:We've been talking with Jim Myers, the golf course superintendent out at Columbia Edgewater there in North Portland, right across from the, right down from the airport.
Speaker A:Actually not across from it, but it's kind of.
Speaker A:You can hit a nine iron and hit the, you know, east Runway there.
Speaker A:I'll say that.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Also, we'd like to thank the folks at Gunter Wilhelm knives.
Speaker A:They've got unmatched quality, comfort and efficiency for your productivity in your kitchen.
Speaker A:That's Gunter Wilhelmsknife's.com we'll be back in just a minute here on Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Please stay with us.
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Speaker C: all time leader in Kia sales: Speaker A:Reported by Kia Corp. Hey everybody, JT here.
Speaker A:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try Birdie ball.
Speaker A:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those and they work great.
Speaker A:Birdieball.com.
Speaker A:This is an encore.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling green here on AM860, the answer and the Golf News Network and multiple and I mean multiple platforms out there that you can listen to the podcast version of the show with.
Speaker A:Like to thank the folks down at Langdon Farms Grill.
Speaker A:They still have prime rib every Friday night and they've actually got a lot of takeout service.
Speaker A:You can go to their website and see their menu or you can just sign up and they will send you little email notices every once in a while how they changed it.
Speaker A:But it's grab and go there.
Speaker A:Good food.
Speaker A:That's langdonfarms.com you can email us@infogrillingatthegreen.net you can also find us on Facebook and Twitter and all those good social media platforms.
Speaker A:You're into those, aren't you Jim?
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:We're talking with Jim Myers from Columbia Edgewater.
Speaker A:He's the golf course superintendent out there.
Speaker A:So in a normal year would you be like planning when you're going to reseed something, you're going to aerate the greens, excuse me, this time of year, you know, those types of functions which it may be too wet to do right now.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So normally around September before we move into the winter months, we usually set a five month goal plan and what projects we're going to be working on when air vacation scheduled.
Speaker B:And it's nice that having those goals set because when we do have heavy wet weather like we're having this week or this month of January so far, we can actually kind of change on the fly a little bit and do different projects that actually kind of fit into some of those Wet weather projects.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:So it's nice having an actual a game plan moving forward and be able to just adjust as we go.
Speaker A:How long does it take?
Speaker A:Like when you aerate the course?
Speaker A:Every course is different.
Speaker A:Every course dries differently.
Speaker A:You know, some areas, if they've got a lot of trees along the fairway or they've got different groves of trees, depending on the layout, those areas may be a little damper at certain times because the shade or whatever.
Speaker A:But how long does it take you to aerate the course or, like, aerate and then sand the greens or whatever you're doing?
Speaker A:Walk us through the process on that.
Speaker B:Yeah, so we can.
Speaker B:With about 17, 20 guys, we can aerate the golf course in three days.
Speaker B:And to what level of verification are we doing?
Speaker B:We normally pull a core on greens, and we actually will backfill those holes with sand.
Speaker B:So that takes quite a bit of manpower.
Speaker B:Same with our aprons.
Speaker B:We walk, mow our aprons.
Speaker B:It's pretty shortcut grass.
Speaker B:It's almost treated like a green.
Speaker B:We see the green and the apron as the kind of same one, complex.
Speaker B:So that has kind of the same process.
Speaker B:And then after that, obviously, we're into fairways and tees usually.
Speaker B:My kind of game plan has always been, in the springtime, do a solid tine and backfill with sand, and then in the fall, pull a core and then backfill.
Speaker B:We'll do that the same on tees and fairways.
Speaker B:It's a little bit faster when you're solid tining and backfilling with just some sand than actually trying to pull a core.
Speaker B:Actually, when you're pulling a core, you have to do the cleanup.
Speaker B:So it adds one more step to the actual process.
Speaker A:Do you have a sweeper that does that?
Speaker B:Yeah, you can use sweepers.
Speaker B:There's definitely different kind of tactics to go about.
Speaker B:A lot of guys use core harvesters for cleanup.
Speaker B:You know, when you're doing the greens and aprons, sometimes it's done by hand.
Speaker B:Some teapot complexes are pretty small, so you can do those by hand.
Speaker B:And where you're just using shovels and manpower to push those off, scoop the plugs up, backpack below it, then the top dressers come on, and then you're either hand brooming the sand in or dragging the sand in, either or.
Speaker A:Huh.
Speaker A:What do you do with all those cores?
Speaker B:Yeah, a lot of the cores go to our compost pile, and we'll turn those compost piles and try to use that to create some soil with some organic matter in it.
Speaker B:We'll add a little bit of material to it.
Speaker B:We can use it for upcoming projects, landscape beds, just any kind of fill that material that we need for the golf course when doing future projects.
Speaker A:So there's really no waste.
Speaker B:Yeah, we try not to waste anything.
Speaker B:Waste is cost.
Speaker B:And for us operating a budget, we want to minimal.
Speaker B:Minimalize as much waste as possible to maximize our dollars.
Speaker A:One thing you and I have never talked about is budget.
Speaker A:I don't want any numbers, but what percentage in the whole overview of the course is the maintenance budget?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's a big portion of it.
Speaker B:I mean, at the end of the day, most of the members are there for the golf course.
Speaker B:So, you know, the golf course maintenance will.
Speaker B:Will take most of the budget.
Speaker B:You know, obviously there's a lot to add with the front office, the F and B.
Speaker B:Sure, that kind of deal.
Speaker B:But end of the day, members are playing the club for a reason, and.
Speaker B:And members want the golf course taken care of.
Speaker B:So it is a big piece of the.
Speaker B:Of the entire properties.
Speaker A:But is it like, just ballpark me.
Speaker A:Is it like 45%, 55%?
Speaker A:Normally?
Speaker B:Yeah, I would think somewhere right in there.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's a.
Speaker A:That's a big cost.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:Anytime you do anything on the golf course, it's.
Speaker B:There's a huge dollar amount tied to that.
Speaker B:And it's really important for us as golf course superintendents to maximize every.
Speaker B:Every bit of our dollars and make sure that our board and the club understands that we as superintendents are really money cautious and want to make sure that we're doing the best we can.
Speaker B:We treat it as our own checkbooks.
Speaker B:So I'm very cautious about how I spend my money, and I think the club would want me to be very cautious on how I spend their money as well.
Speaker A:Do you ever get any jazz from one of the members or a board member saying.
Speaker A:Shaking their finger at you, saying, jim, you're over on this.
Speaker B:I'm really fortunate to work for a very good club and a very good board, so never really had any issues.
Speaker B:It's something that we always discuss.
Speaker B:Go through our finance committee is really good.
Speaker B:It's just unbelievable how good our finance committee is and the members that sit on the finance committee and how well they do.
Speaker B:It's actually good to kind of lean on them when you need help on some information as far as purchasing equipment or anything like that.
Speaker B:Those guys are professionals at that.
Speaker B:I'm a golf course superintendent, so it's nice to always kind of lean on somebody that's a good financial manager.
Speaker A:When you go to buy equipment, like a new mower or something, or maybe you need a new tractor, whatever the piece of equipment is, do you put that out for bids or do you just have a supplier that you've normally worked with and say, I'm going to get this from Bob again?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Actually, anytime we want to purchase something, we'll look at a couple of different manufacturers.
Speaker B:I'll go to the finance committee.
Speaker B:I'll make my recommendations to the finance committee.
Speaker B:But then they look at it on a financial.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker B:Come back to me and ask me why I pick those pieces of equipment and what's the reasoning behind that.
Speaker B:I'll supply that data to them to help them make their final decision.
Speaker A:Well, that's interesting.
Speaker A:This sounds like one of the rare times a committee actually works.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think.
Speaker B:I think.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's at a golf course.
Speaker B:It's interesting.
Speaker B:I mean, they have a huge investment, you know, especially at a private club, they have a huge investment in what's going on at the property.
Speaker B:So our committees are very involved.
Speaker B:Our board is really good.
Speaker B:Our finance, like I said, our finance committee is awesome.
Speaker B:Our green committee is very focused and it's nice to have that.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker A:We're talking with Jim Myers, golf course superintendent out at Columbia Edgewater here in Portland, and we're going to take a break.
Speaker A:We're going to be back with more of grilling at the green right after this.
Speaker A:Please stay with us.
Speaker A:Hey, everybody, it's jt.
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Speaker B:This is an encore.
Speaker A:Hey, welcome back to grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT along with Jim Myers.
Speaker A:Today, Jim is the.
Speaker A:What the hell are you.
Speaker A:No, you're the course superintendent out at Columbia Edgewater.
Speaker A:Jim and I know each other, so I can jazz on him a little bit there.
Speaker A:We'd like to thank the folks at Painted Hills Natural Beef.
Speaker A:Beef, you can be very happy and confident in serving your family and friends.
Speaker A:That's Painted Painted Hills Natural Beef and also Ben Hogan Golf Tour quality clubs at factory direct prices.
Speaker A:You can check them out online @Ben Hogongolph.com we were talking off the air.
Speaker A:We were talking about comparisons of courses and stuff, and you just told me an interesting story.
Speaker A:You went down to the women's championship course.
Speaker A:What did you learn and did it open your eyes or what?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Recently, I just volunteered for the golf course superintendent, Chris, down at the Champions Course in Texas, and they were hosting the ladies US Open.
Speaker B:It was great.
Speaker B:Obviously, it's a warm season, we're cool season.
Speaker B:You know, Chris's event was supposed to be earlier in the year, and it got pushed back with the COVID so it probably wasn't the time of year that you would normally host a U.S. open, but, God, the golf course was phenomenal.
Speaker B:The assistance down there were so good.
Speaker B:It was amazing to actually learn how they operate compared to my LPGA event, the.
Speaker B:I'm sure the players really enjoyed.
Speaker B:I actually had an opportunity to kind of chat with Hannah Green a little bit, one of my favorite players.
Speaker B:And, yeah, it's.
Speaker B:I think that the.
Speaker B:The event was very successful.
Speaker B:It was well televised, I thought.
Speaker A:Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:So it was.
Speaker B:It was interesting working at the golf course.
Speaker B:You know, it's been a while since I've gone to a different golf course and volunteered.
Speaker B:I volunteered for Chris Chase at the Hong Kong Open when he was at Hong Kong Golf Club a few times.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So it's been a while since I volunteered, but what a great opportunity to be able to.
Speaker B:To learn from that staff.
Speaker B:And my team was volunteers from all over the place.
Speaker B:We had a guy from Indiana, a guy from Scotland, and my team leader was from Texas, and I was actually on the bunker team in the morning, which was great.
Speaker B:Just learning what.
Speaker B:What they've done to prepare for that US Open at a time that, you know, normally wouldn't be hosting a big televised event like that.
Speaker A:What.
Speaker A:What exactly did you learn?
Speaker A:Well, let's start with bunkers.
Speaker A:Their weather and our weather is a lot different, but their weather is close to ours.
Speaker A:As we get into the really long days of summer, when we start cracking 90 degrees and stuff around here, which we don't have that too long, they live with it, you know, 75% of the year down there.
Speaker A:What changes?
Speaker A:What did you learn?
Speaker B:Well, one of the things that I don't know if I can totally speak to Chris's operation, But they use two different courses for U.S. open.
Speaker B:I think that was the first time that's ever happened.
Speaker B:And the reason why they used.
Speaker B:I think the two different courses was just for time restraints for sunlight, how much daylight, you know, during that time of year.
Speaker B:I know that they did a renovation on the Jackrabbit course with, with the Bunke.
Speaker B:So I'm sure the bunkers played a little bit different for the players, being that, you know, some were just renovated and some were a little bit older.
Speaker B:I know that we just went through, you know, just kind of doing a rejuvenation of our bunkers at Columbia Edgewater adding sand.
Speaker B:And anytime you add sand to, to the bunkers and rototill, they get a little bit softer.
Speaker B:It takes a little while for them to compact.
Speaker B:It's not instant when.
Speaker B:I don't know if golfers know this, but as soon as you put sand in a bunker or renovate a bunker or you're just adding stuff or tilling those bunkers, they play different.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, you cannot keep bunkers consistent through a golf course.
Speaker B:I've played golf courses in all over the world in 30 some odd countries, and there's no way you can keep bunkers consistent.
Speaker B:I'm not sure if golfers think that they walk on a golf course that the bunkers are going to be exactly the same on hole one as hole 16.
Speaker B:It's an outdoor sport that's almost impossible to do.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:But I think Chris's team did a really good job of how they provided a product during kind of the off season for them.
Speaker B:So it, it was very interesting being able to.
Speaker B:To work on both sides of the courses and, and maintain the bunkers.
Speaker A:Did they, do they use, I should say, the same type of sand we use up here?
Speaker B:No, I think the sands a little bit different.
Speaker B:I think you can get sand at any different.
Speaker B:It just depends on what's available in the regions.
Speaker B:You know, sometimes bunker sand is actually just rock that's been, you know, crushed in, pulverized, and then they diet.
Speaker B:Some sands are actually natural sands where they actually take from a sand pit.
Speaker B:Those are probably the better playable sands, I think.
Speaker B:But bunker maintenance is a whole life within itself and a huge budget just on that.
Speaker A:Yeah, a lot of truckloads in sand.
Speaker A:You guys order your sand from some other place, not, you know, one of the sand and gravel companies here in Portland.
Speaker B:Yeah, there was an actual local place that most of the golf courses got the sand was Ravensdale.
Speaker B:And that pit kind of dried up and guys were looking for different types of sand.
Speaker B:There was some sand in Canada that guys were kind of taking and using here in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker B:And there was also some other sands that were same thing that were pulverized and died.
Speaker B:And then there was a.
Speaker B:A good Supply that's come out of South Dakota lately that's really kind of matched a lot of the sands that guys were using here in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker B:And so I think that's our direction our club will probably be taking is rail carring sand in from South Dakota.
Speaker A:That's a lot of weight.
Speaker B:A lot of weight, a lot of money.
Speaker A:And when they charge you by the ounce, that's a lot of money.
Speaker A:That's a lot.
Speaker A:What did you learn, too?
Speaker A:We just got about a minute here, Chris.
Speaker A:Jim, before we go to break, but what did you learn about, like, green maintenance and stuff when you were.
Speaker A:When you were working down there in Texas for the Open?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So during the event, that actual.
Speaker B:It was warm season grasses and most of it was dormant, so they were actually, you know, painting the actual tees and fairways.
Speaker B:And the same thing we do, you know, before our event, we add a little dye just to kind of keep things consistent.
Speaker B:But you could see it.
Speaker B:I thought it added a real nice contrast between the fairways and the dormant Bermuda grass that was in the rough.
Speaker B:So I actually learned a lot about.
Speaker B:There's a process that the Bermuda grass goes through once it starts seeing a little bit of frost.
Speaker B:And it's called tigering.
Speaker B:And it was really interesting.
Speaker B:I've never seen it before.
Speaker B:Most of the warm season grasses I've played are in Asia.
Speaker B:They would never have frost or anything like that.
Speaker B:So you don't see that.
Speaker B:But I think it was a really good contrast.
Speaker B:It looked really good on tv.
Speaker D:Huh.
Speaker A:Interesting.
Speaker A:Speaking of interesting, here is Bruce Fuhrman with your golf tip of the Week.
Speaker D:Hi, this is Bruce Fuhrman.
Speaker D:I'm the director of instruction out at Langdon Farms Golf Club.
Speaker D:And today's tip, I'm going to talk a little bit about your grip and your wrist positions.
Speaker D:And most people that are average players have no clue.
Speaker D:They just hold the club whatever feels comfortable.
Speaker D:But the face is the biggest determination of how the ball starts.
Speaker D:So wherever your face is aimed at impact, that's where the ball is going to start.
Speaker D:And then the combination of the path, meaning the direction your club is going, and the face that determines how much it's going to curve.
Speaker D:And so how you hold the club and how your wrists are when you swing back and down are very important, and you should understand what your tendencies are.
Speaker D:There are three basic wrist positions at the top of the swing.
Speaker D:There's bowed wrists, and that's somebody like John Romm or Koepka or Morikawa.
Speaker D:They usually have what we call a combination Grip where they have a weaker left hand and I'm talking about a right handed player by the way, a weaker left hand grip and a strong right hand and that tends to bow the wrist and there's a lot of guys doing that right now.
Speaker D:It's not that easy to do.
Speaker D:I don't normally recommend everybody trying to do that, but it does work.
Speaker D:And then there's what's called a flat left wrist at the top and that's more of a neutral grip.
Speaker D:And that would be somebody like Tiger or Adam Scott.
Speaker D:And then there's a cupped wrist at the top and that's usually from a strong grip, which means for a right hander the grip is to the right or you'll see more knuckles.
Speaker D:Somebody like Couples has that.
Speaker D:So how your wrists are at the top and how they come down, whether you're flexing your wrists, which means bending the palm down towards your wrist or you're extending, raising the back of the hand towards tort your forearm, those things make a big difference on how that club face comes into the ball.
Speaker D:And so you should understand that.
Speaker D:And if you don't, you should go see a pro and make sure that you understand that and match all those things up and then you'll play a lot better golf.
Speaker A:Thank you, Bruce.
Speaker A:We appreciate that.
Speaker A:You can find out more about Bruce by going to langdonfarms.com click on the instruction button.
Speaker A:It drops down.
Speaker A:Bruce is the head of instruction there.
Speaker A:The director is his proper title and you can book a lesson with him or just send him a question.
Speaker A:We're going to be back with Jim Myers.
Speaker A:Wrap up the regular portion of the show in just a couple minutes.
Speaker A:You're listening to Grilling at the green on AM860.
Speaker A:The answer and the Golf News Network.
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Speaker C: all time leader in Kia sales: Speaker A:Reported by Kia Corp. Hey everybody, JT here.
Speaker A:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try birdie ball.
Speaker A:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those and they work great.
Speaker A:Birdieball.com.
Speaker B:This is an encore.
Speaker A:Hey, welcome back.
Speaker A:Welcome back to grilling.
Speaker A:It's Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT and today we're talking with Jim Myers from Columbia Edgewater Country Club.
Speaker A:He's the golf course superintendent there.
Speaker A:If you just tuned in and if you did do just tune in, I would invite you to check out the show online or the replay of the show here, which is early Sunday mornings on Cape Ham.
Speaker A:You were talking about learning stuff and going to Texas and learning stuff.
Speaker A:Do you, as a golf course superintendent, there must be continuing education classes that you do.
Speaker A:That's kind of mandatory in a way.
Speaker A:I understand that.
Speaker A:But what you did in Texas, do you do that or have you done that in other places, gone to Florida and worked on a course or somebody you met at a conference or, you know, made friends with whatever and go checked out their course, see the way they do it?
Speaker A:I would think all the information you could garner would be good for your position.
Speaker B:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker B:I think anytime you can go to just your neighboring golf course or a golf course overseas, you can always learn something.
Speaker B:Yeah, and volunteering happens quite a bit.
Speaker B:We have some volunteers come to our LPGA event and it's nice to go to other golf courses and repay that favor of, you know, volunteering and helping out, obviously hosting an event, you know, just like this US Open down in Texas.
Speaker B:Chris has 35 guys on staff.
Speaker B:He had an additional 35 guys volunteering just to try to maintain the golf course for an event.
Speaker B:So it's.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's interesting how much you can learn.
Speaker B:You know, like I said, I volunteered for Chris Chase at the Hong Kong Open.
Speaker B:And his main management practices are so different compared to mine here in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker B:But you can definitely pick up on how he manages the property, how he manages his team, the different techniques, the different equipment that he uses.
Speaker B:I think that's probably one of the things that you can learn more than in college or, you know, it's just going and visiting another club and gaining different ways to complete a task.
Speaker A:I would think so.
Speaker A:And I think, you know, when I was like playing in Australia and stuff, they have critters that we don't have and some of them you have to be a little more careful of.
Speaker A:You know, some of our desert courses around this country, you might run into some certain snakes or bad bugs down there.
Speaker A:They have four legged critters you don't want to run into.
Speaker A:So have you had any experiences like that?
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, in Australia, obviously you could deal with some kangaroos or something like that.
Speaker B:I've played in Australia recently.
Speaker B:But I think, you know, if you want to be on the turf side, it's crazy that down in Florida and the warm seasons, they have mole crickets that actually do quite a bit of damage to the.
Speaker B:To the playing surface.
Speaker B:We're here in the Pacific Northwest.
Speaker B:We don't have to deal with mole crickets, you know, tunneling and burrowing into the turf.
Speaker B:We have our other challenges with, you know, some, you know, crane fly larvae or something like that, chewing on the roots, but nothing as destructive as little mole crickets, which is interesting.
Speaker A:Or gators and crocs, depending on where you're at in the world.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, I've.
Speaker B:Like you said snakes.
Speaker B:I played in South Africa, and there's definitely some interesting snakes.
Speaker B:If you hit one out in the rough, just leave it out there.
Speaker A:Just leave it?
Speaker B:Yeah, just focus on the fairway shots.
Speaker A:I kind of figured that out in Australia, too.
Speaker A:You know, a couple of them.
Speaker A:I went out, I was playing in a place called Orange, which is between, like, Brisbane and.
Speaker A:Or Sydney and Melbourne down that way and then some.
Speaker A:It wasn't really the rough.
Speaker A:It was the jungle.
Speaker A:Yeah, it was a beautiful course.
Speaker A:It was a country club.
Speaker A:But if you did get out of bounds or something, just leave it.
Speaker A:You know, it's like, if you ever play golf with me, it's like, I say this a lot.
Speaker A:They're like Doritos.
Speaker A:Golf balls are like Doritos.
Speaker A:They'll make more.
Speaker A:Okay, so just leave it.
Speaker A:Don't go in there slashing around for it, because you might stumble upon something you wish you hadn't.
Speaker B:Yeah, I think the two courses I played, King island, which is off of Tasmania, that had a lot of snakes on it.
Speaker B:And Vietnam there was out in Da Nang, definitely some snakes there.
Speaker B:I'm not a big fan of snakes, so I just try to stay away and focus on those fairway shots.
Speaker A:Was that golf course in Da Nang an old US military course that they converted?
Speaker B:Actually, it was not.
Speaker B:I played Danang Country Club and a few that are a little bit further north.
Speaker B:But I did see the old military base.
Speaker B:You could still see the old hoop houses that were there.
Speaker B:And when we drove from the airport, going down to Da Nang Country Club to play there, it was pretty interesting.
Speaker B:You know, if you're a big fan of Vietnam history and, you know, seeing some of that old Vietnam War history is pretty interesting.
Speaker A:Oh, I bet it is.
Speaker A:I bet it is.
Speaker A:It just sounds odd to say the Da Nang Country Club, because when I grew up, Da Nang was not anywhere that you thought there would be a country club.
Speaker B:Yeah, that strip that's along China beach there is all solid hotels, golf courses.
Speaker B:It's a wonderful place if you can visit to play golf there.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's definitely a destination to play golf, for sure.
Speaker A:I just find that amazing.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's no borders anymore, no rockets.
Speaker B:There are some, some still some bunkers that are on property.
Speaker B:I actually went with Chris Chase and we played so many courses in, in Vietnam, but those were some of the cool ones.
Speaker B:We actually got to go into some of the bunkers that are on.
Speaker B:On property on the golf courses, or we actually did some tours where you could see some of the old war bunkers.
Speaker A:Oh, wow.
Speaker A:Jim, thank you for being on the show today.
Speaker A:Jim's gonna stick around for after hours, so you're gonna want to catch that, too.
Speaker A:But for Jim Myers, I'm jt.
Speaker A:We'll be back next week with another edition of Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Don't worry, folks.
Speaker A:Good weather's coming.
Speaker A:You'll be golfing soon.
Speaker A:Take care.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by.
Speaker B:JTSD Productions, LLC in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker D:All rights reserve.
