Ein Freund von mir – Golfbetriebswirt seines Zeichens – hat in diesem Sommer in seinem Golfclub ein Praktikum als Greenkeeper gemacht. Da ich das Thema Greenkeeping immer sehr interessant fand, aber immer noch zu wenig darüber wusste, habe ich ihm mal ein paar Fragen dazu gestellt:

Wie sieht der typische Tagesablauf im Greenkeeping aus?

Zunächst einmal ist um 05.50 Uhr Team-Besprechung, wobei der Head Greenkeeper die Arbeiten einteilt. Dann zieht man entsprechend los. Schlüssel für die Maschine gegriffen, Maschine aus der Halle vorgefahren und und die WOLKE gecheckt (Wasser, Oel, Luft, Kraftstoff, Elektronik). Besonders die Hydraulikverbindungen sind zu prüfen, da austretendes Hydrauliköl den Platz schädigt. Um 10.00 Uhr ist dann für 30 Minuten Frühstückspause. Entweder man ist bis dahin mit seinem ersten Auftrag fertig und bekommt vom Head eine weitere Aufgabe, oder man führt seine ursprüngliche Aufgabe fort. Um 13.00 Uhr ist für 30 Minuten Mittagspause. Es wird verfahren wie bei der Frühstückspause. Es ist natürlich so, dass bis zum Mittag die eigentliche Platzpflege beendet sein sollte. Nun werden Arbeiten durchgeführt, die nicht der täglichen Routine unterliegen (Bunkerböschungen mit dem Luftkissenmäher (FlyMo) mähen, Außenbereiche des Clubhauses und der Range pflegen, Bunkerkanten und/oder Regnerköpfe ausstechen, Abschlagtafeln und Bänke mit dem Fadentrimmer vom Gras befreien usw.). Wenn es der Tag zulässt macht man um 17.00 Uhr Feierabend. Hat man aber nicht mehr vor sich, um die Aufgabe zu beenden, arbeitet man länger, damit man am nächsten Tag nicht erneut anfangen muss. Aufgezeichnet wird alles per Stempeluhr. Die Überstunden werden dann im Winter oder bei schlechtem Wetter abgebummelt.

Read the rest of this entry »

Funny, about a year ago I wrote about the website  of Muskoka Bay Golf Club in Canada,  describing how nicely they integrated pics of the golf course into the website design.

Now I know that they had plenty of spectacular views to choose from as I discovered dks_34′s photoset of Muskoka on flickr:

Looking at the pics kind of brightens up my day as it is raining cats and dogs since days here and there isn’t a chance of going out to the course and hitting the tiny white ball. So sit back and relax with me and enjoy the scenery of Muskoka.

In case you were wondering, the report on the Volvo Masters was postponed until November 14th, Eurosport instead broadcasts live from the Northern Ireland Trophy – Snooker that is!

Please excuse me for a second, I’ll go throw up.

Congratulations to Justin Rose for winning the Volvo Masters and the 2007 European Tour Order of Merit.

Congratulations to Martin Kaymer for posting the lowest round of the tournament, for finishing in sixth, for winning the biggest purse in his young career and for winning the “Rookie of the Year” (more here and here, and an interview with Martin can be found here (MP3)).

And finally, to Graeme McDowell for finding his spot in golfs history book by scoring an incredible albatros on the famous #17 at Valderrama. You have got to see this shot:

The guys at Valderrama will need do add another commemorative plaque to the hole.

After 36 holes, Justin Rose and Padraig Harrington are in the first two positions at Valderrama. But Justin Rose is in the better position, as he is four shots ahead of Padraig, who wasn’t able to match Justins birdie streak on the back nine. In fact, Justin is the only player under par after 36 holes.

Padraig went off with a shaky start during the first round but was able to fight back to level par after 18 holes. Justin always was able to hold his score level par or under and shot a flawless back nine today in 32, scoring four birdies. Here’s how the scores of the two developed over the first two rounds:

It promises to become a thrilling season finish.

As for the german players, Martin Kaymer wasn’t able to maintain his momentum, six bogeys and one triple bogey with only one birdie put him at +7 for the day, +8 for the tournament at tied 35th. Alex Cejka had his +7 yesterday but was able to come back with a 71 today, putting him at T23.

The end of the leaderboard is shared by two of the four players playing on a sponsors exemption, Sandy Lyle is at +23 after rounds of 84 and 81,  Ronan Rafferty also produced a good amateur score with +30 (scoring 83 and 89).

Meanwhile on the other side of the planet, Ernie Els missed the cut at the Singapore Open. I wonder if he is wondering whether he better had played in Spain.

Kiki pointed it out very precisely: “One golf blog alone cannot describe the entire beauty of this sport.” So, consequently we had the idea of putting all our golf blogs together in a “meta-blog” that we called The Leading Golf Blogs. I had reserved the domain for quite some time but it hadn’t been until now and with Karstens programming skills that we realized our idea.

And it turned out really nice, I might brag.

What the website does is aggregate all the blog post from the affiliated golf blogs Golfer’s Delight, The Royal and Ancient Golf Blog, Foremen Blog, Birdies & Bogeys, Golfgaga and as the newest and only female member, Kiki’s e13.de. Apart from that,we have integrated the news feeds from Pinposition.net and the European Tour,  present some golf photography from the flickr! golf fotography pool and via our del.ici.ous group various links around the game of golf.

A couple of ideas still are in our heads to be added to the website. Thanks to all the contributors and especially to Karsten for the coding. What are you waiting for, go over there and check it out!

In Case you didn’t know, the R&A made some changes to the rules of golf. You can download the 2008 rulebook here.

The principal changes introduced in the 2008 code are:

General
The changes to the Rules generally fall into two broad categories: (1) those that improve the clarity of the Rules and (2) those that reduce the penalties in certain circumstances to ensure that they are proportionate.

Definitions
Advice -— Amended to allow the exchange of information on distance, as it is not considered to be “advice.”
Lost Ball -— Amended to clarify substituted ball issues and to include the concept of “stroke-and-distance” (see corresponding changes to Rules 18-1, 24-3, 25-1c, 26 and 27-1).
Matches -— Definition withdrawn and replaced by two new Definitions, “Forms of Match Play” and “Forms of Stroke Play.”

Read the rest of this entry »