Tag Archive for: Scott

September Update From Scott MacCallum

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September Update From Scott MacCallum: Well, the football and rugby seasons are in full swing once again and those with affiliations to a particular team – most of us – are experiencing the uncomfortable feelings we all get when our team is in action.

We might be engaged in a serious piece of conversation about potential new curtains for the bedroom, or watching the latest episode of Bodyguard, but what we really want to do is steal a look at our phone to check the score. You know full well it’s not going to go well – not the score, but the reaction from your other half to what is a display of less than 100% attention to the task in hand.

September Update From Scott MacCallum

I’ve said before, but the extent to which sport weaves its way into our every day lives, and dictates our moods, is never to be underestimated. My wife and I even got caught up in the World Cup and found ourselves not disinclined to share a smile when England scored. Even from north of the border the atmosphere created by a thumping of Panama and a penalty shoot out win against Columbia could be felt. The distant memories when Scotland qualified for five consecutive World Cups made those feelings all the more poignant.

Scotland’s qualification for the Women’s World Cup next year is small consolation and I’m sure the entire country will get behind the team but the, amended, famous Tartan Army chant “When you hear the noise of the Tartan Army girls” doesn’t quite work to the same extent.

I do live in eternal hope that the next generation of football’s superstars could contain the odd one with a Scottish accent, but living in hope is something I’ve become used to – living in expectation is something I leave to those south of the Hadrian’s Wall.

Anyhow, all of the above would not be possible without the pitches to perform on and with none of us knowing what sort of weather we are going to get to prepare those pitches it is a credit to all that standards are so high and that the limitations of budget are exceeded so frequently.

Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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An Update From Scott MacCallum: Most of the major sporting events for the year have concluded, the schools are back and the universities are preparing to welcome back their students.

So what to make of 2018? Well, from a sporting perspective it’s been pretty exciting. The World Cup was exciting, or being a Scot, I’m told it was exciting, with Gareth’s boys exceeding expectations. As it progressed through the knock-out stages, those expectations had shot up again and many thought the 52 years of hurt were going to end.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

Glasgow’s European Championships were a success while I don’t recall any of the regular sporting calendar highlights letting the side down in the football, rugby, tennis, golf, cricket, horse racing. That said, Andy Murray’s non appearance at Wimbledon did reduce excitement at SW19, but we are going to have to get used a life post-Andy going forward I’m afraid to say.

But the point I was going to make was that, as far as I can recall, there were no negative headlines from a turf management side of things.

No complaints from disgruntled losers, no injuries directly attributable to a surface, no Head Groundsman or Course Manager being named and shamed in public. That’s not to say that everything went perfectly in every instance.

Of course, things went wrong. You don’t need highly talented people in position if everything were to go swimmingly on every occasion. You guys are paid to resolve problems, but to do it, more often than not, quietly, efficiently, without fuss and without headlines.

Looking forward it’s hard to see how the quality bar can be raised much more but we can probably look to attain the same standards with fewer chemical applications – both for environmental reasons and the fact that it is likely that we will see costs rise as we stumble through Brexit.

On an artificial turf perspective the Rubber Crumb issue will continue to run. A six month consultation process on reducing acceptable levels of carcinogens has just started and I just hope that the safety of the end user – groundsman and sportsman – is placed before cost when a final decision is made.

So as greenkeepers start planning their winter programmes and groundsmen continue to turn out super surfaces in all conditions I wish you all well going forward.

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An Update From Scott MacCallum

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We have just come from a tumultuous six weeks of sport – with the World Cup, Wimbledon and The Open Championship at Carnoustie and you know what – the fact that the groundsmen and greenkeepers didn’t create one headline between them makes my heart sing.

When it comes to turf maintenance and the media – no news is good news.

An Update From Scott MacCallum

But to a large degree that’s sad. Why shouldn’t the great work carried on by turf professionals in Russia, West London and the east coast of Scotland be acclaimed? It’s only when something goes pear shaped that turf professionals are named and shamed.

Had Harry Kane slipped on a loose bit of turf and missed one of his penalties; or Novak Djokovic missed a potential Championship winning point because of a dodgy bounce; or Tiger Woods saw one of his better drives land in a divot and cost him that elusive 15th Major, we would have known the names of every Head Groundsman or Course Manager involved.

Like a good referee – although I do believe the arrival of the celebrity referee is changing this – it has all gone well if no-one has noticed you.

I do know that that situation suits many turf professionals. In a previous guise I wanted to run a campaign to encourage golf club members to get to know their Course Manager, but it didn’t fly. Greenkeepers, and assume most groundsmen, don’t like their heads above the parapet.

What I would say, however, is that no matter how strong your agronomy knowledge the ability to communicate is just as important.

I remember something a friend of mine, who was Chairman of Green at Muirfield Village, in Ohio, told me. He said that their course, which plays host to Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament every year and hosted the 1987 Ryder Cup, was always in perfect condition. He also told me that their Superintendent’s degree was in politics, not agronomy.

So, face up to your biggest critic. If you can’t talk round someone who is bound to have much less subject knowledge than you maybe your next training course should be in communications not soil science.