Editor's notebook

Enhancing the experience

Indiana course adding educational component to tournament volunteering.

Work in the morning. Work in the evening. Learn in the afternoon.

Victoria National Golf Club is experimenting with a way to make a tournament week even more fulfilling for golf course maintenance volunteers. The southern Indiana course is hosting the United Leasing Championships April 30-May 3. The Web.com Tour event attracts more than 20 volunteers seeking tournament preparation knowledge and camaraderie, according to assistant superintendent Gerald Smith. This year, Victoria National is attaching educational opportunities to the volunteer experience.

Speakers will address crew member and volunteers about topics beneficial to their careers. The sessions will begin after sponsored breakfasts and last between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. Veterans from industry companies are among the first group of speakers to commit to presentations.

“We have got it to be mostly focused on just education,” Smith says. “Obviously, they are going to promote their products at some point, but we want to keep it as educational and as little promotional as possible.” Victoria National also has reached out to researchers from local universities about presenting.

Practice rounds for the United Leasing Championships begin Monday, April 27, the day after the Big Ten Championships conclude at Victoria National. Obtaining five speakers is a goal for the week of the United Leasing Championships, and Smith says superintendent Kyle Callahan has inquired about volunteers receiving GCSAA credit for attending the sessions.

“Everybody we have talked to is pretty excited,” Smith says. “Usually you have four to six hours of just downtime, where, yeah, you go watch golf for a little bit, but you’re not really getting anything out of that. This is one more chance to learn something and help out with networking because you will be in a room with all of these assistants and AITs dealing with the salesmen and the speakers, which is huge in this industry.”
 

From the Feed

Bunker opinions are inescapable. We profiled the rebuilding of the hazards in our January issue (bit.ly/1yDg50L), and they are a major topic wherever we travel. We started our travels this month by attending the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Spring Tee Off event in Columbus, Ohio, where Dr. Norm Hummel of Hummel Co. & Inc. gave a presentation on sand selection for topdressing and bunkers. Hummel urged superintendents to leave sand selection decisions to golf professionals because of the ensuing controversy that might follow. We posted Hummel’s advice on our feed. As expected, multiple opinions surfaced. We even received feedback from the pro shop.

John Gordon @gordongolf
I would love to hear the rationale behind that comment

Steven Chernosky @AggieTurfman
Best advice ever

Phil Eyre PGA @hbgcproshop
I will leave that for the super. But will always support his decision. #cantmakeeveryonehappy

Guy Gurney @GuyGurney
@hbgcproshop I will leave that for the owners #notgonnabeme

Phil Eyre
@GuyGurney fair enough #betterthanlettingmedecide

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