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CN CANADIAN WOMEN'S OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP

August 24, 2010

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA

THE MODERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. My apologies for the delay. Welcome to the presentation by the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association to our superintendent in charge, Kerry Watkins. It's an annual presentation that the CGSA makes to the host club superintendents. Here for the presentation is Mr. Greg Holden, superintendent of the Clear Lake Golf Course in Riding Mountain National Park.
Why don't I pass it over to you for some remarks and then we'll open it up for questions at the end.
GREG HOLDEN: Thank you. Well, this is a special moment for me and a great moment for Kerry for more than one reason. Besides the wonderful job he's done here this week with his staff, I happen to have known Kerry since he was this high, one year old, thereabouts, and he now has two little guys running around here, his family and his wife, the same age as he was when I knew him at Clear Lake.
The Canadian Golf Course Superintendents Association represents almost 1,500 individuals involved in the profession of golf course management. The CGSA provides education, certification, representation and communication services to its members with the objective of improving the image of the superintendents and appreciation of the industry for the role of golf course managers.
Through the development and the delivery of training programs, the development of occupational standards, the CGSA is working to ensure that superintendents are knowledgeable concerning the latest tools and techniques available to assist with environmental protection, sustainability and the consistent course conditioning and the ability to apply that knowledge in an effective manner.
Part of the ongoing effort to recognize the importance of the superintendents to the industry involves the presentation of a national tournament plaque to members that host such events. The CN Canadian Women's Open is one of our national tournaments, and it is my pleasure to call on Kerry Watkins, AGS, superintendent of the St. Charles Country Club, to accept this CGSA national tournament award.
I will read the plaque here: "CGSA recognizes the contribution of Kerry C. Watkins to the success of the CN Canadian Women's Open of St. Charles Country Club, Winnipeg, Manitoba, August 2010." Congratulations, Kerry. It's truly my honor to present you with this plaque.
THE MODERATOR: Kerry, if you wouldn't mind maybe just sharing with us a few thoughts. Obviously the tournament is underway, championship rounds get started in a few days. Give us your thoughts on preparation leading up to the event from a superintendent's perspective and give us your thoughts on winning the award.
KERRY WATKINS: Well, first and foremost, my name may be on this plaque, but there's an entire maintenance team that's put their heart and soul into this place, and not just because it's a tournament year. They do it every year, but it's a maintenance team award, just happy for Greg to take time out of his schedule as president of the CGSA to be here and recognize this golf club and its efforts.
But from a superintendent's standpoint, as soon as it's announced that you're hosting something of this nature, and your whole focus is, wow, it's only going to be months, which turns into weeks, which turns into days away. We've had a countdown calendar, which was the first thing, starting back at about 166 days. Every day, every morning we erased a day off the calendar.
And to be here in tournament week is thrilling. It's a lot of hard work. Due diligence and planning and with the great leadership of Braydon Gilbert, Sean Major, the club's assistant superintendents, where a best foot forward was put in an attempt to prepare for this tournament week.
Things like maintenance, advance week is obviously a big week for this club. The a.m. and p.m. detailing of the golf course is carried out, which is probably the single most predominant difference from everyday play, or maintenance of a golf course. You don't do things a.m. and p.m. So starting in advance week, our membership would have experienced noisy mowers and maintenance being carried on in the p.m. That's only natural given the event that is taking place this week. That's not an everyday occurrence; at an everyday club it's just in the a.m. To ensure conditions are a little more consistent, the grass is cut more often, the bunkers are raked more often, it's all a manpower item. It costs money. And that's why it's not done every day at a daily operation.
THE MODERATOR: Obviously we're surrounded by friends, family, peers. Why don't we take maybe a question or two from the group here.

Q. What was your greatest challenge getting the course ready?
KERRY WATKINS: Springtime in Winnipeg, Manitoba, if anybody knows about the locale of Winnipeg, we have winter, so getting through winter is probably the biggest challenge, and then spring unfolds, and you see what lies ahead. Knowing that August is 90 days away from basically spring, that's the biggest stumbling block.
Since the last week of July, John Gascon and his team arrived, and with contractors. True talent; communication has been great. John and his team, it's been a phenomenal experience, not just from my end. From our irrigation tech, Derek Alexander, who literally probably watched every spike go into the ground, and if you've walked the property, from stake and rope to the 10th green today. It was a team effort; communication was great. I couldn't say enough about that experience so far.

Q. This year there's been a lot of talk about weather and how that affected golf courses, particularly in the northeast. Have you had any special concerns or taken any precautions to make sure that the grass is green?
KERRY WATKINS: Well, first, this is a 105-year-old site, and you've got some 105-year-old parts, some of that being turf grass, lovely poa annua. For us in the golf course world, leading up to this event, some properties are blessed, some are not. If we get a half-inch rainfall, that can drastically change the playing surfaces of this golf course. You can ask the contractors who were in staging this event since the last week of July. It can be hot and sunny and beautiful. It's amazing, from our turf end of it, we're on the edge watching it daily, hourly, doing whatever is needed just to keep it alive, never mind green, with poa annua.
We get one rain event and immediately -- half inch in less than an hour, surface changed drastically, puddling and water, sand in bunkers washes out, green texture changes. We have an array or differences in greens throughout the tournament rotation. They all handle rain events a little bit different, but it's our management and inspection on how we handle those challenges from Mother Nature. That's one thing you can't predict is Mother Nature.
One thing that we can predict is we have great people, and kind of a contingency plan to it. If it is a rain event or if it's heat, we've kind of got it down on paper at least for what we need to do to execute a plan to the best of our ability to try to keep tournament conditions up. Never mind tournament conditions, but that's daily ongoing course condition for all our membership.
That's one thing at the end of this tournament, August 30th, the 1,000 people that call this place home and it's their golf course, they need their golf course back, so our job after this event is to ensure that they get it in good condition.

Q. Obviously at the end of the week you're going to look back. What are you most looking forward to come Sunday? Obviously lots to do between now and then. What are you most looking forward to?
KERRY WATKINS: Looking forward to the last putt go in, weather not causing any major disruption or delay. I'm there with my team, or the club's team, with my family, closest friends, and just taking it in and really enjoying the climax of the event and watch a lot of golf on TV. To be a host superintendent with great people will be a personal and professional highlight I'll remember forever.

Q. You may not have the answer to this one. In the past when we've had major events here, invariably they have finished on the north nine. They've played the south nine first and then the north nine. Now, of course, we're switching it around and the south nine will be the concluding nine for the tournament. Do you have any opinions on that or why it was done this way?
KERRY WATKINS: Just my opinion, the 9th hole is a strong finishing hole as a 4. A par-5, depending on the wind, like today the par-5, the 9th hole on the MacKenzie nine, the north nine, it's a strong test.
The back nine is more tree-lined and you're in your own little setting. That works great from a maintenance standpoint because a lot of the front nine, the MacKenzie nine, has parallel holes. You've go to do all the maintenance on that because what we do on 1, because 9 runs along it, we've got to do it simultaneously.
So I guess from a maintenance standpoint it works out great that the Ross nine is actually the back nine because once you get past basically the first two holes, you're on your own. So we can go hole-by-hole maintenance and not have to worry about that paralleling issue. I think nine Ross is a great stage with the amphitheater that is there. Obviously the corporate side of life, you can sell seats and marquee tents and skyboxes. It's dollars and cents, too. I think it's a win-win all around.
THE MODERATOR: Kerry, thank you very much. Congratulations. Good luck this week. Thank you for joining us.

End of FastScripts

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