I read a great quote this morning from Admiral Hyman G. Rickover. This quote comes from Rickover’s testimony to
congress, following the Three Mile Island accident. Rickover states: “Any
successful program functions as an integrated whole of many factors. Trying to
select one aspect as the key one will not work. Each element depends on all the
others.”
This quote is an excellent description of the teamwork it takes to put a golf course in shape on a daily basis. With so many moving parts and tasks to be completed, everyone needs to pull their weight and work as a team to create the conditions that are desired. It's my job to make sure each 'element' is doing just what is expected. Another great quote from Admiral Rickover states “You don’t get what you
expect, you get what you inspect.”
One of the factors we improved on today was bunker maintenance. I showed the crew three separate bunkers - 1. A bunker with multiple infractions that we sometimes miss. 2. A hand raked bunker. 3. A machine raked bunker. The message communicated was that we can produce a bunker the plays like a hand raked bunker if we just pay attention to the details, we can have good bunkers and be efficient with our labor resources.
We have been busy with Ohio Amateur preparations, which isn't much different than daily preparations other than we are attending to all our little projects over the next week vs. tackling them over a three week period. Many have asked, what changes will there be for the tournament? You can expect thicker rough and banks, slightly faster greens; also, 4 and 15 will be played as par 4's. How will this effect you as the member - you will see thicker rough over the next few weeks and expect a little mess when we finally have to cut it down. Also, if you play the Friday and Saturday of the tournament, you can expect faster greens (weather dependent) than what is typical. With outside outings on the Monday's before and after the tournament, the course will definitely have it's share of divots and wear patterns. We will do our best to get the course back into shape as soon as possible.
