Carl Spackler May Have Himself a Job at Harding Park
by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 5, 2009 10:08 AM EDT
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PrintHarding Park - site of the President's Cup in October - has suffered from some serious fertilizer burn. It was done accidentally when too much fertilizer was applied to five of the greens at the San Francisco public course.
This man was seen applying fertilizer to Harding Park greens.
Ron Kroichick reports in the San Francisco Chronicle:
[F]ive greens at Harding Park sustained significant damage recently when course officials mistakenly overfertilized them, burning brown streaks into those greens and prompting them to be closed to the public.
"I'm embarrassed for players coming out here today - I wish we didn't have temporary greens," course superintendent Wayne Kappelman said. "I'm not happy about this, but I'm pretty confident we'll get through it."
The super said that he expects three of the greens to open up back to the public next week, just in time for the reduction in public rounds at Harding Park to begin.
Kroichick notes that this isn't the first time that Harding Park has had a misstep like this, but it fared well in 2005 for the American Express Championship.
Interestingly enough, I'm going to be in the Bay Area for Labor Day weekend. I might try to find a way onto the course.
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Unfortunately Typical For a Muni
Given the times and the budget pressures that come with them, it is not surprising that a mistake was made. You pay for what you get, and that includes the help that keeps things green and playable.
“typical” ?
mistakes get made – it has very little to do with the course being a muni or a top dollar country club. A few years back, we had a nice club just outside of Atlanta that had a delivery of fertilizer and chemicals that looked a lot alike get put in the wrong places. When the crew put down what they thought was the right chemical, they were putting something else down and killed the entire back 9 overnight.
Eastlake had problems a couple of years ago before the Tour Championship.
OMP, You might hear “them’s fightin’ words” from a lot of muni greenskeepers around the world for that comment. Just because someone works at a muni doesn’t mean they are incompetent. I don’t know what kind of courses are in your area, but greenskeepers of all levels take their greens seriously and deserve more respect than that shot.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
No one is claiming incompetence. I do know a keeper of the greens at a very prominent muni here in NC — he was at my house for dinner not two weeks ago — and he was complaining about his manpower budget being cut so low by his government employer that he had to let go much of his long-term and extremely well trained staff and replace them with far lower paid and inexperienced folks that he has to watch extremely closely in order to keep them from doing something wrong and causing problems.
In fact, he told me of some problems he’s had with his course because they just don’t know what signs to look for when trouble was first breaking out. He can’t be everywhere at all times and has to depend on his people to be his eyes out there.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 5, 2009 12:53 PM EDT up reply actions
Caddyshack, no problem.
But I wouldn’t want our HR manager (whose office is a mere six doors from mine) walking in and seeing a website with several dozen pictures of plunging necklines, if you know what I am saying.
I’m as red-blooded as any fellow, and yeah, I enjoy a tastefully done risque’ picture as much as anyone. But these days in the corporate world, that can be job suicide — something you really do not want to even remotely risk given the market out there for job-hunters.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 5, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions
did you suggest that he post the problem signs in Spanish ? :-)
sometimes it just doesn’t matter how good a job he does – mistakes happen – and some are pretty expensive. Harding Park isn’t a regular muni with a minimal budget. The PGA Tour wouldn’t be playing there if it was.
I see what you meant about budgetary considerations and having the people to do the work.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Actually, language problems are a major issue for him.
And he’s using my Rosetta Stone account to catch up ASAP.
You and Ryan are right about mistakes happening anywhere, however. 18 greens were ruined over at Governor’s Club near hear, and I can assure you that it’s a place where the hoi polloi need not apply for membership. Unless I am mistaken, Roy Williams (UNC coach) lives there.
by Charles Boyer on Aug 5, 2009 3:15 PM EDT up reply actions
oh geez – careful with the pictures, RB !! you’re going to get OMP in trouble. :-)
Hope you get on at Harding Park. It’s gorgeous, and make sure you study up to get your angles right to drive a couple of greens over the doglegs.
President’s Cup isn’t until October – the greens will be repaired and playable in a few weeks. Modern greenskeepers are amazing.
"this ball will fit in that fairway"
Yeah, this shouldn’t be pause for concern about Pres Cup.
Email me any comments or questions at ryan@thegolfnewsnet.com.
by Ryan Ballengee on Aug 5, 2009 10:18 AM EDT up reply actions
It's not that uncommon
I saw it all when I worked golf course maintenance. Certainly, at higher end courses, you have a more professional staff, but mistakes still happen.
Here’s a good one:
At the course I worked, a friend of mine also worked there. He was applying fertilizer to the fairways one season. He was using a tractor with one of the big broadcast spreaders on back (that threw the fertilizer granules out instead of just dropping them).
He had a full hopper of fertilizer and was doing the 17th fairway. He came back toward the tee end and went into the rough to turn around, short, and to the left of the fairway (looking from the tee). He was going too fast and hit some bumps that were there and the tractor bounced and probably 5-10 lbs of fertilizer bounced out of the hopper into a pile in the rough.
Within hours, the grass was dead. They shoveled up as much as possible and tried watering it (hoping to wash through whatever was left). After a while (weeks, probably), they seeded the area and nothing came up. Then, they dug out a few inches of rough and soil and sodded the area and then the sod died. They tried seeding it again later and no luck. The soil was literally so poisoned that nothing would grow. Not grass, not crab grass, not a weed of any kind.
Eventually, they did the only thing they could: dug a bunker out and filled it with sand. For years after that, people would say, “You know, I can not figure out for the life of me why they’d put a bunker there. It’s not really in play for anyone.”
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