In The King's Castle

      This past week, I had the opportunity to play at Arnold Palmer's Latrobe CC, in the western part of  Pennsylvania. The chance to see some of the great memorabilia, in the clubhouse of Arnold Palmer's incredible career, is really special, but to be a foot away from one of the biggest names in sports is priceless! We were not sure if Mr. Palmer was still in town, but as we spoke to the locker room attendant, he said to be careful heading into the men's grill because that is where Mr. Palmer sits at lunch, right by the door.  As our foursome finished up lunch, with no word of a sighting, we headed out to our cars to grab our clubs. One minute later, one of our foursome came over and asked, "Did you see him? You missed him by about a minute..." With that I headed back inside and cut through the men's locker room and as I walked out of the men's locker room, Mr. Palmer turned and looked at me and I just said, " Hello Mr. Palmer,". He nodded and turned back to his table of friends.
       I am not an autograph collector or someone who is really into the celebrity worship, but I have to say it was pretty cool. To see one of the icons of golf, who still is one of the top money earners in sports, within a foot of you, is something I will never forget.

 

 

WJC

Training Days

       This past week, we held a training event, for our sales group, and then a demo day for customers at Blue Bell CC & Normandy Farm Conference Center. The opportunity to have all our primary vendors come into town to a first class location, for one on one training, with the sales team, was priceless! Hopefully, the mix of classroom work, with in the field product training, over a few days, was as productive as the planning that went into it. Manufacturer representation from Jacobsen, Ventrac,Turfco, Smithco, Redexim, AquaMaster & Turflux were all there participating. We are very lucky to have the strong Representatives who work with our dealership! One of the things I have learned since I have come to Lawn & Golf, is that their factory reps know their products inside and out. Most of them have their own demo units and can go head to head with anyone.

 

       On Thursday, Steve Johnson from Smithco & Andy Billing of Turflux stayed around for an extra day, so we were able to do a sprayer demo day for customers. Speaking to a group of Superintendents, Assistants and Technicians, Steve and Andy briefly reviewed the Smithco and Turflux products. Every time I see GPS spraying in action, I have to admit, it is really amazing.

 

       A big thank you goes out to all our factory representatives, Denis Bergey, Superintendent of Blue Bell CC, the staff at Blue Bell CC and Normandy Farm Conference Center and all the staff at Lawn and Golf for a great week!

         



 

 

 

 Chuck Hicks of Redexim giving product training to Jeremy Weand & Bob Angell of L&G

         Mark Pena & Andrew Sickenberger of Jacobsen training Steve Hesser of L&G

            Chris Francis of Turfco giving training on the new Turfco 1550 to Matt Brown of L&G

                 Steve Johnson of Smithco talking sprayers

                  Andy Billing talking about Turflux technology


WJC

Make It Rain!

       As we head into the official end of summer, summer must not have gotten the memo. With another week with multiple days of temperatures in the 90's and not much chance of rain in the long range forecast, most Turf Managers in the Mid-Atlantic have had enough. After the last measurable rain, when you took a core, the turf was moist the for the first few inches down and powder just below that. What started out as an average year, has turned into a especially long season.
     This week the information regarding the Philadelphia Area Golf Course Superintendents Association Aeration Days at Walnut Lane Golf Club will going out. On September 28th & 29th, the home of The First Tee of Greater Philadelphia will be getting the course aerated with volunteers from the PAGCS. On top of members donating their time, vendors donate seed, fertilizer, tines and equipment for the aeration process. We did a similar event, a few years ago, and it was really great to see it all come together. Hopefully, the weather breaks our way and Bob Sawicki and his staff will have an overflow of help!

WJC