Great Lakes Trade Exposition

I just returned from two days in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where I attended the Great Lakes Trade Exposition (GLTE). Despite the very non-descriptive name (really, that name could refer to anything) the conference was very educational. The GLTE is colaboration between the Michigan Turf Foundation and the Michigan Nursery and Landscape Association and involves three days of educational seminars and a trade show at Devos Place.  While there, I listened to speakers from the USGA, Michigan State University, the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and various golf courses and businesses from around the midwest. I also talked with many suppliers, vendors and former classmates of mine from MSU.

Golf's Economic Impact

Interesting numbers from We Are Golf.org (an organization founded by The Golf Course Superintendent's Association of America, The PGA and The National Golf Course Owners Association)

Michigan has 265 golf courses, with a direct economic output (defined as the size of the golf industry within the state economy in terms of revenues) of $2.2 billion. Total number of employees of Michigan golf courses is 56,977. Compare that to North Carolina, which has 558 courses with an output of $2.6 billion or Massachusetts with 375 courses and $1.6 billion in output.

Winter at Leslie Park

Here are some photos of Leslie in the winter.  More snow on the way!

Weather Station

Sucess!  We have the weather station back up and running. To be truthful, the weather station was working, we just could not relay the information to Weather Underground for people to see over the internet.  That is all fixed, now, so the box to the right and at the bottom of the page is now real-time weather at the golf Course

Frost delays and why we have them

 Frost delays can be an annoyance. But they are also a very important tool for helping turf to survive the tough winter months. In this video, Dr. Larry Stowell of PACE Turf explains to golfers how frost can damage turf, and why a frost delay of even only two hours can make a big difference in turf's ability to survive.

Closed for Winter

Leslie Park is closed for the winter. If you would like to play golf, our sister course, Huron Hills, is still open.

Pictures of new trees.

Here are the pictures of some of the new trees that I promised.

#3 green after two new trees and two transplanted trees.

The left side of #3 before the transplanted trees.

And finally, some areas on #4 where we planted some native grasses in our naturalized areas.  We aerified and then spread the seed.  The grass is growing in the holes from the aerifier.