TEE-OFF News
May/June 2011
Stockdale Golf & Country Club
Michael Barber Host Superintendent By Scott Furtak
Inside this issue:
President’s Message
2
Meeting Schedule
5
Around the Green
6
Quit, Die or Fired
8
Highlights
10
Highlights
11
Official Publication of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of Central California. The purpose of this publication is information and education for the membership. Published bi-monthly by GCSACC 5322 N. Leonard Clovis, CA 93619 Phone (559) 298-4853 Fax (559) 298-6957 Email gcsacc@aol.com Bob Schneiderhan, Newsletter Chairman Mike Scott, CGCS, Editor
May’s GCSACC meeting takes us to Stockdale Golf and Country Club. Our host Superintendent will be Michael Barber. Stockdale is the oldest golf club in Kern County. It was established in 1925 on property that the mighty Kern River once carved its way through until it was diverted to the north. In its early inception, the turf on the course was actually flood irrigated before the installation of pipe and a QC system. Michael has been the Superintendent at Stockdale for 10 years. Pre-
viously, he was the Superintendent at Blackhawk Country Club, served as an Asst. Superintendent at Menlo Country Club, and worked for the Pebble Beach Company, which along with working at Stockdale, he considers to be his career highlights. Michael and his staff have just recently experienced the “thrill” of a major re-construction of all of the greens & bunkers and 3 tee box complexes at Stockdale. The redesign was done by Cary Bickler. They also constructed 18 “alternate” greens (5,200 yds.) for the membership to
play while the reconstruction of the existing greens (6,400 yds.) was underway. The “signature hole” is the Par 3, 15th, which demands a healthy carry over water to reach the putting green. Michael, along with Asst. Superintendent Dave Wilkening, long time Foreman, Tom Melendrez, and the rest of the maintenance staff, profess that one of the biggest challenges of maintaining the turf at Stockdale is the numerous amount of trees that have been planted (Continued on page 3)
Cal Poly SLO’s Turfgrass Science Department By Jason Lewis, Asst Professor Greetings from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, I am the new Assistant professor in Turfgrass Science, Jason Lewis. I started at Cal Poly in August and I am just finishing up my 3rd quarter. I grew up in Nebraska, and went to the University of
Nebraska in Lincoln for a BS and MS in Horticulture with a Turfgrass Science option. During my high school years I worked at our hometown golf course, Meadowlark Hills in Kearney, NE, on the maintenance crew. Once I started
in college I spent a summer at the Sand Hills Golf Club in Mullen, Nebraska, then 3 summers working for Landscapes Unlimited LLC on the construction and irrigation crews at Deer Creek in Omaha, NE, Wilderness
(Continued on page 4)