Adam Duncan – Valley Club

June 10, 2014 in 2-year, Internships

After my late morning visit with RJ at Teton Springs Golf Club, I made the four hour drive west to prepare for a morning visit. The 27th hole facility at the Valley Club gave plenty of opportunity for intern Adam Duncan to get a wealth of experience in various agronomic management practices.

Adam is having an impressive internship and experiencing a lot of different things during his time at The Valley Club. His morning starts ahead of just about everyone else’s, as he goes into the course 30 minutes early each day to assist the mechanic in getting equipment ready for the day. During his first two and half months on the golf course, he has been able to get a better idea of management practices used by the golf course superintendent as well as getting the lay of the land around the golf course.

For the second half of the internship, Adam’s going to focus on continuing to get an improved understanding agronomic practices as well as getting more experience with various equipment at the golf course.

Not really related to the internship but interesting nonetheless, I was given a tutorial of the superintendent’s custom-built labor tracking software. The completely customizable software called Advanced Scoreboard really allows the superintendent to dial in his labor and time budget so that he could find exactly where his money went for any practice. As a data person, the most impressive things about the software was that at any point, he could calculate the exact amount of money it costs to rake bunkers, trim the edge of cart paths, mow greens and fairways, or any other practice. For me, I see this is as a huge and powerful tool for golf course superintendents who are constantly being asked where their money goes. Having this information in the palm of your hand, you can answer questions immediately and directly and show the impact of any changes in agronomic practices due to reductions in the budget. I’ll be interested in following along as software continues to grow. For more information, please check out their website at www.advancedscoreboard.com.

Check out the pictures from my visit with Adam Duncan