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CANADIAN PACIFIC WOMEN'S OPENAugust 19, 2014Jason GriffithsTim WebbLONDON, ONTARIO THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for joining us here in the media center at the 2014 Canadian Pacific Women's Open. Pleased to be joined by Tim Webb, superintendent with the Sunningdale Golf and Country Club here in London representing the Golf Course Superintendents Association, here to say a few words and make a presentation to our host club superintendent, Mr.Jayson Griffiths. TIM WEBB: Thank you to Golf Canada and to the tournament sponsor, Canadian Pacific, for this opportunity to honor one of our members. The Canadian Golf Course Superintendents Association represents almost 1,400 individuals involved in professional golf course maintenance, the profession that has ensured the playing field for this tournament that is top‑notch. The CGSA provides education, certification and representation to its members, superintendents, providing them with the latest tools and techniques in areas such as course conditioning, environmental protection, and over 50 core competencies identified in the CGSA national occupational standards for superintendents. As part of the ongoing effort to recognize the importance of the superintendent to the golf industry, CGSA represents a national tournament plaque to members that host these prestigious events. Today we would like to acknowledge Jayson Griffiths, who is the superintendent here at London Hunt Club. He has been a CGSA member since 2002 and has 25 years' experience in the industry. It is my pleasure to call upon Jayson to accept this CGSA National Tournament award for his efforts in hosting the Canadian Pacific Women's Open. Congratulations, Jayson. JAYSON GRIFFITHS: Thank you, Tim. THE MODERATOR: Obviously we'd like to get a few words from you just on receiving the award, representing the CGSA, representing the golf course, the whole team, and what does it mean to be coming in, hosting a championship, knowing that we had a bit of a difficult spring for you? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: Most certainly. What I can say is this award is not just for myself. I have to extend it to my entire grounds crew. They were determined and dedicated to having this product that we have outside today. We made extraordinary efforts from the spring right through now. This award goes to my staff, and also to the other superintendents that struggled this spring. It's a testament that Mother Nature ultimately has the final say, and we do what we do to get it back for our members. THE MODERATOR: I know you did a bit of a blog to keep all the members up to date on what was happening. How important is communication with the club, with the members at a time when there's conditions at the golf course that they should be aware of and might be frustrated with and just to keep them in the loop on what's happening at the course and how progress is coming? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: I would say the communication is the number one strategy this year. Myself and my assistant, Deb Dale, we knew back in November that the winter of 2013‑2014 could be a real bad year, and a lot of our peers knew that, too, and we started communicating that point as of Christmas, the ice storm in Toronto, the Polar Vortex, the ice that we saw at the golf course, and we started slowly educating our membership about what could happen, and that was a key. And then when the worst case scenario developed, I have to say the vision of our standards committee, they called for a town hall meeting, and that was probably the best thing we could have done here at the club. We had an open forum with questions and answers and really put everything on the table, and that's how we got the ball rolling, and that's why we're here today. Q. I was able to walk down the 18th fairway from tee to green with Tim the other day, and he mentioned that that green was actually 80 to 90 percent totally gone. Maybe take us through the process of where it was at and where it's at today. JAYSON GRIFFITHS: Yeah, the greens at London Hunt Club, they're wonderfully massive, they're large, which affords traffic space. They're fairly flat, and with the ice cover we had and the surface drainage coming out of the winter, that's one of the biggest problems. We lost almost three acres of the four acres of greens here in London. Four or five of the greens were over 90 percent injured. 18, for example. The struggle for us this spring as everybody might be aware of, the ground was frozen well beyond four feet, so there was no irrigation system in April, and we had to pick our window. We had a three‑day window in April, April 19th through 21st where myself and our whole crew, in the spring we have a crew of about 18 people. We went at it hard. It took us three days. We seeded. We had to devise our own technique to get the seed in the ground because you have to get it in the ground and you have to go pretty hard. 12 days later they germinated. We had to use covers to amplify temperature, Mother Nature provided the rain, irrigation system wasn't functional. May 2nd they germinated, which is eight days beyond what it normally would take in August. We watered through the covers for the first week, pulled the covers finally, each cover is about 10,000 square feet, so you need a dedicated staff, and then you have to grow them. So that's what happened here. Again, we keep calling it the fifth season: Patience. I say that a lot, but it really was. Our members extended Deb and I the opportunity to have that time. The grass could not tolerate traffic, and the USGA and the CGSA, we know that foot traffic on new seedlings, it just would not work. We would not be where we had if we had traffic. Again, our membership were supportive. They were informed, and we opened the greens June 27th, all 18. But we started off with two greens and 16 temporaries. Q. Was there ever a time where you thought, you know what, there is a chance we may not have this event ready the way it is today? Any doubt at all? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: You know, I just couldn't have that in my mind. We knew we had time. If we had the support of the membership, we had time. We've had experience in our past where we know when you have a completely dead surface how to grow it back. It's just time. And once we had the time, it was a cold spring, but we got it. They're still tender, but we're very happy where we are today. Q. How is it going to hold up throughout the tournament? Obviously it's getting a lot of play right now. You want it in the best condition possible. Are we looking at it still being 100 percent come Sunday? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: Well, of course weather is a big factor. We're anticipating some rainfall tonight, and the greens drain fairly well. They're not USGA greens so they don't drain tremendously well. The golf course does drain excellently here in London. The fairways drain well, the bunkering drains well. As far as the greens' health are concerned, we're in a good position we feel that they will hold up through the weekend. It's just a matter of how much rain we get. Q. What sort of‑‑ when you knew that there was obviously going to be a lot of work that had to go in, what sort of feedback did you ask of the LPGA Tour, of Golf Canada? How did that sort of communication channel open up and dialogue continue through the process? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: Well, I mean, Deb and I probably had this conversation back in the spring, and we did not have any interaction right off the bat with Golf Canada or the LPGA in terms of the situation. I think the Northeast, there were probably over 400 or 500 golf courses with winter injury this year, so it was a phenomenon that affected not just us but a lot of big clubs, so I think the message was out there that, though, this could be bad. We did have some early interaction. Brent came in from Golf Canada, and they were very positive, very upbeat, and they didn't have any concern. I think they knew that we had a plan and we had time, and they were great. Four or five weeks in, we had a media day early, and we didn't have all the greens open for media day, but the product was there. I think everybody could see the potential, and we just held our ground, and when we opened them to our members June 27th, Deb and I have been babying the greens since then, and we just feel that they're right where they need to be right now. Q. Obviously that's a big recovery process through it all. What are you sort of most proud of when you look at where it started back in April and where you are today? What would you say is the point of pride for you and the team? JAYSON GRIFFITHS: It's grass. It's just a humbling experience, it really is, and it's just a lot of hard work. That's the secret. It's just hard work. Countless hours. I don't think there was a weekend where both Brent McDougall and Deb, my assistant, left this golf course. We were watering from morning 'til night if need be. It was 24/7, 14 weeks to get here. It was just a lot of extraordinary efforts. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much for joining us. Tim, thank you for joining us. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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