{"id":13120,"date":"2023-08-01T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2023-08-01T12:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/what-the-greenskeepers-know\/"},"modified":"2023-08-01T08:00:35","modified_gmt":"2023-08-01T12:00:35","slug":"what-the-greenskeepers-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-in\/what-the-greenskeepers-know\/","title":{"rendered":"What the Greenskeepers Know"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you want to know your golf course, mow it.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Verticut the greens. Rake out the bunkers. Weedwack the margins. Run a blower around the fairways until you\u2019re dizzy, and accidentally shower your 6th<\/sup> green with a morning\u2019s worth of clippings. Go get the backpack blower and fix your mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Tom tackles the 1st tee from a different perspective<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Remove the markers and cart signs. Cut the tee, clean it. Get off your machine and put it all back. Cut a hole before the players get to the green and feel the plug of soil you\u2019re pulling break in two\u2014find a screwdriver somewhere in your cart and try to scoop out the rest. They\u2019re waiting in the fairway and you don\u2019t want them to trash your place on Yelp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve bounced around the planet surveying golf courses and golfers for the last 25+ years, and I thought I had all the angles covered. I knew a Redan from a Cape hole; I could tell a Tillinghast from a MacKenzie; I could debate top-100 lists with informed opinion and toss in obscure substitutes, just to boast of my bona fides. I knew where to find the best showers, the best swag, the best bowl of soup. And then I started operating my own golf course and realized I didn\u2019t know a damn thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sullivan County Golf Club<\/a><\/strong> is a community 9-hole golf course in the Catskills in New York state. Dirty Dancing<\/em> country. It\u2019s nearly 100 years old with golden age lineage, and aside from some of the sand bunkers turning to grass, nothing much about the place has changed over the last century\u2014except for management. I have the chance to buy the place at the end of this season, and if we can get it out of the red and prove that the place still has an audience and a purpose, that just might happen. But I didn\u2019t end up here because I wanted to round out my resume with point-of-sale experience or hours spent on the back of a Toro\u2014rather, I\u2019m here because of a superintendent. We\u2019ve called them the keepers of the greens going back to Old Tom\u2019s time, but in this case, the Sullivan County super is keeping the lights on and doors open as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found a note in my DMs some time back in January telling me about a golf course in the Catskills that wasn\u2019t going to reopen this year, asking if I had any contacts in the architecture or golf club world who might be interested in a new project\u2014otherwise these 175 acres were headed to market. Its owners had the best intentions, but they\u2019d been losing money for three years and weren\u2019t golfers\u2014they\u2019d hoped to put a hotel on the property, but those plans didn\u2019t materialize. Superintendent Shaun Smith<\/a><\/strong> had kept the place going with a tractor and duct tape\u2014literally\u2014and hoped I knew someone who could help. It turns out that I did, and that he might like to write a book about the experience. And there isn\u2019t a morning spent following lines in the dew that I\u2019m not grateful I decided it was my turn to finally figure out how golf happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hole 4 is downhill par 3, nestled between Catskill pines<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With the help of partners like Aquatrols, we\u2019ve been able to bring inputs to Sullivan County that its grasses have never known, and they are drinking them down like desert wanderers. We\u2019ve got mowers that cut and sprayers that spray\u2014we\u2019ve got shirts in the shop and beer in the fridge. And we\u2019ve even got people showing up to see it all. This old beauty has some life in her yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The financial risks are still real and there are miles left to go for Sullivan County\u2014the club isn\u2019t out of triage yet\u2014but the rewards for responding to Shaun\u2019s message are abundant and clear. As a golf writer, I don\u2019t get the chance to watch someone read a page and know what they\u2019re thinking, but watching golfers enjoy a hole I just mowed is gratifying in an entirely new way. Watching them not repair their ball marks is also soul-crushing in a new way, but that\u2019s the gift of Sullivan County: a chance to know a course beyond the version presented to paying golfers; to understand that golf requires so much more than well-fit clubs and swing-thoughts; to know the days and months and dollars that go into a party that only lasts for four hours. It\u2019s an education one can\u2019t get from a book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or maybe you can.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you want to know your golf course, mow it. Verticut the greens. Rake out the bunkers. Weedwack the margins. Run a blower around the fairways until you\u2019re dizzy, and accidentally shower your 6th green with a morning\u2019s worth of clippings. Go get the backpack blower and fix your mistake. Remove the markers and cart […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from What the Greenskeepers Know<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13122,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-success-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat the Greenskeepers Know - Aquatrols<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aquatrolscompany.com\/en-in\/what-the-greenskeepers-know\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What the Greenskeepers Know - Aquatrols\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you want to know your golf course, mow it. 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