The Internet: an invaluable tool

Bill Prest, superintendent of Sweetbriar Golf Course in Avon Lake, Ohio, uses the Internet more frequently than he did before he arrived at Sweetbriar five years ago.

“Before I came to Sweetbriar, I didn’t have a computer,” he says.

Steve Neuliep, certified golf course superintendent at the Country Club of Asheville (N.C.) uses the Internet to find information that helps solve turfgrass problems, to locate a piece of equipment or to obtain general information.

“Better decisions can be made through finding information quickly on the Internet,” Neuliep says. “The ability to access information more readily is huge. There is a wealth of information available.”

Jon Jennings, certified golf course superintendent of the Chicago Golf Club in Wheaton, Ill., says the Internet has become very important to him. Jennings uses the Web to look up equipment, to buy parts, to communicate with the club’s members and to check the weather. Jennings, who has two computers linked together in the maintenance facility, uses the Web several times a day.

“If I don’t have a parts manual, I can look it up on Toro’s or Jacobsen’s Web site,” he says. “I can accurately identify parts online or check a (material safety data) sheet or label.”

Tom Schlick, certified golf course superintendent and director of golf course and resort grounds at Grande Lakes Orlando (Fla.), is in charge of 500 acres, including an 18-hole golf course. Schlick uses the Web more and more each month.

“It’s faster to go on a search engine than to look something up in a book, unless it’s certain types of fertilizer,” he says.

Schlick retrieves schematics on Rain Bird’s site and prints them out and gives them to workers to change parts of the irrigation system. Also, mechanics on staff use the Web when repairing equipment.

“They can get exploded views of assemblies, print them out and post them up at their work station, and then when they’re done, throw it out,” Schlick says.

The grounds maintenance building at Grande Lakes Orlando has five computers for everyone to use. The computers aren’t dedicated to one person.

“The crew leaders use it, but they didn’t use it last year,” Schlick says. “We give them the opportunity to take the initiative to look something up and ultimately advance their careers because they are more proactive. We push these guys pretty hard to figure it out on their own.”

Schlick uses The Weather Channel’s site and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) site, which features a more precise radar station that covers central Florida. He also uses plant search engines and horticultural, nursery and association links, including the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s site. Other references, primarily for equipment, include Ben Meadows, A.M. Leonard, Lesco, DuPont, BWI and Turfcovers.com.

“I’m all over the board,” Schlick says. “The Internet is a great resource that I can use in my office. I’m happy I have it.”

“I’ve never not found a pesticides on there,” Galea says.

David Wrenn, golf course superintendent at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., uses the Internet to gather information three or four times a week to check the weather, for maintenance, and to get parts and supplies. Wrenn admits he isn’t as computer literate as some and doesn’t use the Internet as much as others.

“It’s not vital,” he says.

Web sites Wrenn and his staff use frequently include sites of the GCSAA, Smith Turf & Irrigation Co., Textron, The Toro Co. and The Weather Channel.

Chat rooms

Prest primarily uses two Web sites: the GCSAA’s and TurfNet.com for turfgrass-maintenance issue.
“The chat rooms help with problems,” he says. “I get an answer within a day from five or six superintendents who have dealt with the problem before.”

Prest likes the chat rooms and messages boards found on the GCSAA site because he likes feedback from other superintendents.

“If I’m about to do a large project, I’ll go on to the GCSAA site and put a question out to members and look for recommendations and/or potential problems with what I’m about to do,” he says.

However, Prest says the GCSAA site isn’t monitored as closely as the message board on TurfNet.
Occasionally, Prest will visit one of the major chemical companies’ Web sites, such as Syngenta, to see what chemicals it has.

Sites Jennings frequents are Toro’s, Jacobsen’s, The Weather Channel’s, the NOAA’s, the GCSAA’s, TurfNet.com and AccuWeather.com.

“I draw at least one good idea a week from what people are talking about on the messages boards, things like retrofitting and golf course maintenance aspects,” he says about TurfNet’s and the GCSAA’s sites.

Galea says chatrooms are a time saver because he can just type in a query and a number of responses pop up, allowing him to find out what other superintendents have done with a similar problem.

Jennings says the weekly update he sends to club members lets them know what’s going on with the course, such as aerification or tournament preparation.

“It keeps them in the loop so they’re not caught off guard,” he says, acknowledging that his weekly e-mails prevent members from getting upset with course maintenance and confronting him about it.

Jennings checks The Weather Channel’s and the NOAA’s sites to monitor weather.

“We check the weather every morning and at the end of the day for planning purposes for such things as fungicide applications,” he says.

Neuliep also checks The Weather Channel’s site on a regular basis, which helps with spray applications and the bulk of the maintenance, so he knows when to do something and when not to.
Prest uses the Internet to check the weather twice a day.

Schlick uses the Web to look for, and sometimes purchase, equipment. He visits sites of companies such as Toro, Textron, John Deere and Rain Bird regularly. He purchases equipment from A.M. Leonard through its Web site because the company makes it easy to do so. But when he buys turfgrass, it’s a phone order.

“You have to have a Web site that works,” he says. “You have to make it easy for me, or I won’t consider purchasing online.”

Jennings orders online with all of the companies that have that capability. The Internet helps Jennings save money on purchases. As an example, when he was looking to buy teak water coolers, he went online and checked several companies that sold them and ended up saving $400 per cooler.

“I couldn’t have done that without access to the Internet,” he says.

Using the Internet has some quantitative and nonquantitative cost savings, according to Jennings. For example, he saved $1,200 by not having to subscribe to the DNT weather system, which includes an antenna connected to a satellite and a screen to view weather patterns. Now he gets the weather from the Internet. He also saves time on the phone by ordering directly online.

Prest, unlike Jennings and Schlick, doesn’t purchase equipment, tools or parts online. He says he prefers to work through local sales representatives.

“A guy out of town cannot come to my door if I have a problem,” he says.

Galea says he doesn’t do any purchasing online either.

The Web will take on a larger role with training superintendents and their staffs about topics such as safety because it offers a two-way feedback, according to Jennings.

Schlick foresees the Internet becoming more integral in jobs related to golf course maintenance.

“I can see the day, before I retire, when there will be an LCD screen in a mechanic’s bay, and he’ll pull everything up right there on the screen at his workbench,” Schlick says. “That will be huge. There will be the same thing in the fertilizer building.”

“It’s a great reference tool,” Jennings says.

Prest says using the Internet makes him a better superintendent.

“If you are not on it, you should be because there is a whole host of information that you’re missing out on,” he says. GCN

Surfin' the Net

Here are some Web sites mentioned in the article above that golf course superintendents find useful: