Golf Industry Show, San Diego California

I took my first class today called "Hazardous Duty...Basic Bunker Maintenance". There was lots of useful information on communication and developing an understanding of the architectural purpose of the bunkering and developing a well defined standard for bunker playing conditions and the desired degree of difficulty for playing bunker shots. I think that we can develop some standards to help us maintain our bunkers in a more consistent way. The main take-a-way I got from the class is that they are HAZARDS and we can't loos site of that. There is always going to be what some consider an unfair lie but if they hadn't hit it in the hazard they wouldn't be in the predicament  in the first place.

One example given was a greens committee member stated that he found his ball to be completely unplayable after he hit it in the adjacent creek on the fifteenth hole but he determined that if they could cut the water off completely he may be able to find it and at least have a shot at the green. A hazard is a hazard and what makes us think that we have to have bunkers in such pristine shape that we can never have a bad lie. It's something to think about anyway.

Saturday I took some time and toured the USS Midway. That was a great tour. I recommend it to everyone who can make it down here. One of my vendors used to fly fighter jets in the Navy and I managed to see all three of the jets that he flew. Mike "Turf Commander" Madden, these photos are for you!