TRAVELS WITH TERRY

Globetrotting consulting agronomist Terry Buchen visits many golf courses annually with his digital camera in hand. He shares helpful ideas relating to maintenance equipment from the golf course superintendents he visits — as well as a few ideas of his own — with timely photos and captions that explore the changing world of golf course management.

Dual Golf Maintenance Logos

Like most clubs, Audubon Country Club in Louisville, Kentucky, has a very distinctive logo. The greens and grounds department also created their own two distinct logos. The entire staff wears T-shirts, golf shirts, jackets, hats and other apparel provided by the club. The Audubon Turf logo is placed on the front of clothing and hats and the Two Crossed Cup Cutters logo is placed on sleeves of T-shirts and golf shirts only. A local sporting goods store provides the clothing and they combined with another local company to install the logos. Creating apparel with the logos only adds a few dollars to the cost depending on the size. Superintendent Chris Knockwafel, assistant superintendents Paul Hauck and Dylan Panther, equipment manager Dalton Wilson and the rest of the staff wear their logoed clothes proudly. The response from the greens and grounds committee, membership and management has been very positive.




Dual Purpose Valve Key

Audubon Country Club also has two different types of irrigation shutoff valves: a 2-square-inch nut mainline gate valve and a round brass hand isolation valve. This mainline gate valve key, modified in-house, was shortened from 6 feet to about 30 inches in height so it would easily fit in the bed of a turf vehicle. A recycled 2-inch square nut, from a discarded mainline valve, was modified by welding on two prongs (¼ inch by 1½ inches) that fit into the openings on the round brass hand isolation valve — which fits onto a threaded bolt welded just below the handle when not in use, which is held in place with a nut and washer. Now only one valve key is required to open and close both types of valves. All the parts were in inventory and it took about 30 minutes to modify it. Superintendent Chris Knockwafel, assistant superintendents Paul Hauck and Dylan Panther, and equipment manager Dalton Wilson are a formidable team. Lester George is the club’s renovation architect.

Terry Buchen, CGCS, MG, is president of Golf Agronomy International. He’s a 51-year, life member of the GCSAA. He can be reached at 757-561-7777 or terrybuchen@earthlink.net.

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