Source: The News-Press
Ever watch the TV commercial featuring golfer Tiger Woods and the Caddyshack theme where he has a pest control specialist capture a nuisance animal who has been wrecking all the greens?
Jere Carrick endures a similar scene through the summer.
Carrick is the general manager at Majestic Golf Club in Lehigh Acres.
Their unwanted visitor is the mole cricket. That small, sometimes noisy, insect elevates the summer stress level.
That pesky mole cricket can cost Majestic more than $40,000 a year to contain.
"They eat the small, tender roots of the grass on the greens," Carrick said. "Because the government agencies are more restrictive with what you can spray with today, you'll spend $40,000 to fight one insect. The cost is triple of a decade ago."
Any golfer worth the weight of his expensive golf clubs will show up at any local course and expect perfect conditions. On the tees, the fairways and especially the greens, no excuses.
That would hold true even during the last month when Hurricane Charley and other storms have dumped lots of unwanted water on area golf courses.
"The rain and resulting standing water can stop a lot of maintenance work but when that player arrives he expects perfect conditions," Carrick said. "Many will leave their home where the grass might be half a foot high, knowing the rain made it impossible to mow, but once they arrive here it better be near perfect."
May through October might be titled the season of torment with a mole cricket the star player.
The summer of 2004 added torment with the hurricanes, forcing a club like Majestic to close for 15 days to clean up the debris.
"We make all of our money November through April when we actually have a breather in course maintenance," Carrick said. "The summer and fall is full of worries on a daily basis."
Then Carrick ticks off a list of items that cause torment. Fungus, bacteria, mold, germination, non-germination, disease and of course the insects cause the majority of problems.
"First, Jere understands the entire operation of a golf course, not just certain areas," said Ken McDaniels, course superintendent at Majestic. "That makes it a lot easier for someone in my position, having a person willing to spend the money needed to keep maintenance at a high level."
Majestic will spend more than $500,000 on course maintenance in a year with chemicals taking up half of that amount.
"The upscale clubs will spend as much as $l.5 million, over $20,000 a week, on keeping everything perfect," Carrick said. "Of course they have a staff triple a public course like Majestic and they don't leave a weed untouched."
The chemicals all have long, scientific-sounding names that become everyday words for Carrick.
"We live in paradise and folks want everything to look nice, regardless of Mother Nature," Carrick said.
Carrick must also train an ever changing labor staff to understand the technology involved and using chemicals.
"It must be ongoing because insects build immunity once a chemical has been in the ground for a while," Carrick said.
Carrick worries about and cautions golfers about licking their golf balls or smoking a cigarette after touching the chemicals on the ground.
"They don't realized how powerful that stuff is," Carrick said.
Carrick would like golfers to think of the time it takes to care for their yard at home and then multiply that by 100.
"The actual golf course is over 6,700 yards, not counting all the surrounding property," Carrick said. "Regardless of the size of your staff, when bad weather comes along it means folks better be a little patient.
"We have a joke around here that when it rains and then sun follows, you can hear the noise of the grass growing."
