COMMUNICATING IN A CRISIS #1 Fairway Bunker, Deer Ridge Golf Club, spring 2017. Photo courtesy of Jason Winter.
Deer Ridge’s GM, board of directors, the membership, and even nearby clubs. “I ason Winter knew something was was as proactive as I could be,” he explains. coming—he just wasn’t sure when or how “Everything fails when you become big it would be and on the day in question, emotional about the situation, when you the watershed that feeds the Grand River react badly to what is happening. I had to was having one of those “once in 100 think of a plan to deal with the course years” events. More than 100 mm of rain once the water receded, and how to let fell in two hours on a Friday evening everyone know what was going on.” “Everything fails when you become just north of Deer Ridge Golf Club, the Winter, who has dealt with tornado events and a previous flood, has learned course where Winter is superintendent. emotional about the situation, when That much precipitation in a short you react badly to what is happening. first-hand that preparing for a crisis communication plan was a key facet of amount of time can’t be ignored, and I had to think of a plan to deal with the recovery and calls himself “a bit of a Winter was well aware that Deer Ridge, disaster management specialist.” It isn’t a private course just north of Highway the course once the water receded, a title he is thrilled to have, but it does 401 in Kitchener, would feel some of the and how to let everyone know what show the importance of being prepared ramifications of the rainfall. when something unexpected hits. “I Winter reached out to the club’s general was going on.” think supers are a resourceful group,” manager, Tom Schellenberg, to say Deer says Winter, “but you need to consider Ridge needed to be prepared. “We started an emergency action plan, and effective thinking about how to communicate with the membership right away,” says Winter. “I lost underneath the Grand River. On two communication is a part of that. You never mean I was talking to Tom about it before holes, the water stretched to the top of the know what the emergency is going to be, but you can plan how you’ll deal with it once anything happened at the golf course. I flagsticks. While the water was rising, Winter it arises.” wanted him to know something could Increasingly superintendents need to was already communicating with the happen and we should expect it.”
By Robert Thompson
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Winter was right—that evening the water rose to envelope practically all of the golf course. Golf pro, Rich Morel told a local newspaper of rapids forming on the 5th hole, and when morning light appeared the following day, Deer Ridge was largely