Later this week we will be releasing our new publication Bowling Club Survival and in it the process of Green Maintenance is shown to be critical in several different ways.

The most obvious link between Bowling Green Maintenance and Bowling Club Survival is of course that the club with a better green should be able to attract more members and tournaments, thus giving that club a better chance of surviving.

Secondly of course there is another obvious link; and that is that if we reduce expenditure on green maintenance then we will save costs and therefore give our club a better chance of survival.

Between these two clear survival strategies lies a quandary that many clubs have found themselves in for decades now:

“if we spend more money on Bowling Green Maintenance the green will be better; so if a better green would give us a better chance at Club Survival, we shouldn’t be cutting expenditure on Green Maintenance”

In Bowling Club Survival we will discuss why the answer to this argument isn’t as obvious as it seems and leave you with a clear strategy to make progress on this issue fast; but that’s only the beginning because this new guide will tackle 7 distinct strategies that must be mastered in order to give clubs the best chance of surviving the current challenges in both the economy and the game of bowls itself.

Please complete the form below to register your interest and we will ensure that you are among the first to be alerted when the guide is launched.

Name

Email

Comments

Please re-type this word

I still hear the phrases “closing the green down for winter” and “putting the green to bed for winter” all too often and that is a worry.

Of course these are for the most part just harmless terms for the end of the season, but in some cases they still mean literally ignoring the green from now until next March.

Autumn is the only time we can really tackle big issues like thatch reduction and compaction relief in a meaningful way.

We also have to ensure that all running repairs that require re-growth such as over-seeding of bare patches are carried out soon after the season ends to give the work the longest and best chance to succeed.

Moving beyond the autumn renovation plan it is vital that maintenance continues throughout the winter months, especially in terms of compaction relief as this is an ongoing effort and doesn’t stop in winter time. In fact winter is the best time to get on top of compaction by following a concerted monthly program of compaction relied measures.

I’ve updated our Winter Bowling Green Maintenance Guide. The guide is FREE and you can get a copy by dropping your details in the box at the top right of the page.

If you have already signed up to receive email updates from us you will have already received a link to download a new copy.

Good luck with the autumn renovation works and winter programs and remember, if you have any questions just drop me a line anytime.

John

photo: Sandy Steele, the booler

Sunday 22nd August saw the finals of the Greenmaster Scottish National Mixed Pairs being held in glorious sunshine at Broughty Bowling Club. Pictured left to right are John Quinn, Greenmaster Ltd, Kevin and Marion Fraser the tournament winners from Newhills Bowling Club, Aberdeen and Scottish Bowling Association President Ewen Farrell.

Following the successful release of our ebook Performance Bowling Greens, a practical guide by John Quinn earlier this year we are currently putting the final touches to a new and complementary publication called Bowling Club Turnaround and Survival.

This book is targeted at individual clubs and will offer a cohesive strategy to help them assess and quantify their current situation, develop a strategy for turning their fortunes around and finally to implement that strategy effectively.

Bowling Club Turnaround and Survival lays down a step by step plan that clubs can follow to ensure that they are making the best of every opportunity presented to them.

This ground breaking new ebook will be available here from the end of August 2010.

You can register your interest using the form below. This will ensure that you are among the first to be alerted to the book’s release.

Name

Email

Comments

Please re-type this word

The site first started to look a bit weird on Saturday at lunchtime and thanks to all of you who alerted us to this; this particular problem was related to a software update and was fixed by late afternoon on Saturday.

Then as a consequence of the original problem we were hit by a bandwidth issue (don’t say it, I know what the ???? is that?)

All is fixed, tested and solid now thanks to our excellent hosting company staff who don’t seem to take any time off over the weekend which is just as well.

As a result of the changes we had to make (we had to take the site back a  few days) some of the recent site activity was deleted.

Again, though we have now restored all of the posts and we are working on restoring the photos and comments from readers from last week.

Thanks for your patience with this.

Buy Performance Bowling Greens

The book has become very popular and a lot of you are showing a lot of enthusiasm for getting stuck in to the program.

From the questions we have received relating to the book, a couple of popular themes are forming:

Question 1: What is the Performance Greens readers group and does it cost extra?

Answer: This question has cropped up a lot and the simple answer is this:

After you have purchased the book, you will receive an email from John, care of aweber.com (this is the company we use to manage our email broadcasts), which asks you to confirm your request for information from the performance greens readers group.

This is simply an email list that John is using to deliver coaching emails to all of the readers of the book and it means that you will receive relevant; bite sized coaching emails to help you implement the green maintenance approach that he delivers in the book. You can of course unsubscribe from this list at anytime.

This extra assistance will go on indefinitely and it is of course absolutely FREE.  To take advantage of this information you must confirm your request by clicking on the link in the email.

Question 2: What happens if I’ve deleted the email without confirming, will I miss out?

Answer: No, just drop us an email and we will sort it for you.

Question 3: Where can I get access to the specialised materials John mentions in the book?

Answer: We are in the process of setting up a members only website for the Bowls Excellence Network, which will include a shop where you can access all of the materials you need at discounted prices plus a lot more…watch this space!

For those of you who haven’t secured your copy of the book yet you can get it here

This is an important reminder for all of you who still haven’t confirmed your membership of the book readers list.

Right after you purchased the book you would have received an email from me asking you to confirm your request for information from the performance greens readers group.

To get the maximum benefit from your purchase of the book please click on the confirm link of this email.

This will enable you to receive all of my upcoming emails on implementing the program at your club.

This will include templates, advice and other resources, all free of course that you can use to set your green on course for high performance.

So please check your inbox and confirm that you want to receive this free advice and coaching.

If you are having difficulty finding it or have deleted it already just drop me a line and I will get it back up and running for you.

Regards

John, Author, Performance Bowling Greens, a practical guide

We are very sorry for the delay, but want to make sure that everything works smoothly during and after the release. This is due to the huge interest there has been in the book and our concerns about the effect of this demand on the website.

Please be assured that all of you who have pre-booked will be alerted as soon as the book is released. Meantime you can still pre-book using the form below:

There has been a lot of interest in the book this week as John has been sharing some of his insights about bowling green maintenance with us. We would like to thank all of you who have filled out the pre-booking form and apologise for not getting back to all of you personally, but this would have taken too much time out of an already busy week. We have now compiled a list of pre-bookings and will be in touch as soon as the book is available on Monday.

Meantime if you would like to be added to the pre-booking list please fill out the form below and you will get priority notice of the book’s availability. We are doing this to try to make sure the site isn’t overloaded with requests on Monday.

So have a great weekend and we will be back in touch soon.

The main concern during and after snow cover is the potential for the outbreak of snow mould which is caused by the same fungal pathogen as fusarium patch; and indeed, fusarium might well be encountered after the snow has melted. Although many clubs will have applied a preventative fungicide in the Autumn, this might not have provided total protection, but should have minimised the risk of attack.

When the snow has gone you might well find active areas of Fusarium and this should be treated with a curative fungicide containing the active ingredients iprodione  or chlorothalonil applied as per the manufacturer’s advice.

Many of the enquiries we have received have been related to the actual snow cover and clubs have been worried about the prolonged cover of snow and ice on their turf and have asked if they should be pro-active and do something to remove the ice cover. My advice would be to leave it and allow it to melt naturally.

Attempting to remove ice could result in damage to the turf, soil structure and grass plants.

Please also remember that even after the snow and ice has gone the underlying soil could still be frozen and any activity on the green could result in damage to the root system of the green.

Please make sure that the green has completely thawed by probing the soil before commencing (and catching up) with your winter maintenance program as detailed in my winter maintenance report .

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.