The "Meta Greenskeeper" and the Management of Golf Infrastructure - Streamsong

[Mike Sweeney]

META - "A term, especially in art, used to characterize something that is characteristically self-referential."


Landscape of The Black @ Streamsong - Opening Fall of 2017


The Black @ Streamsong - under construction

I had the opportunity to almost play 36 holes at Streamsong last week. Some wifey duties loomed at Disney and this was my fifth one-day trip to the complex. It keeps getting better and better, and the early morning bag drop is a testament to their success. It is amazing that they are training their golfers to walk 100% on demanding terrain.


Bag drop @ Streamsong practice green


Playing for all these years at Yale, I have always felt very lucky to golf at a course with such huge scale. Only Pine Valley and Bethpage Black can compare to Yale's scale in the Northeast, and each have very different "owners" that manage their respective grounds. Viewing Scott Ramsey as the “Greenskeeper” at Yale is looking at a small fraction of what he does. Streams, water issues, building a new range, removing hundreds of trees and upgrading the green surfaces while maintaining them with a heavy volume of players, and being a part-time historian is clearly more than the typical Super.


Now there is Streamsong, and watching those HUGE earth moving machines on The Black makes me rethink the value of a "Meta Greenskeeper". The scale of Streamsong is magnificent, and then the level of detail that is required for the fussy retail golfer is amazing. Soon it will be three courses on thousands of acres next to one another all open for play year round.




A number of factors are unique to Streamsong, especially in a demanding Florida year round climate. I still love the one predominant height of grass cut and this seems to free them to deal with the infrastructure issues of pest control, Florida storms in the summer, hurricanes......


A "Meta Super" working the phones and making decisions in the field leads to this:




and a happy Maine customer in the Florida sun.


"Those courses do make you want to play great." -Michael "Ask me about golf in Maine" Moore on his inaugural visit to Streamsong Resort.


Two questions for the group:

• What are the qualities needed in a "Meta Greenskeeper" that typically is the master of a huge infrastructure golf course favored by the raters?

• Why has the "two cuts of grass" (green height and everything else) not caught on with the success of Streamsong?

PS - I am working on the new font issues...

[MCirba]

Nice return post, Mr. Sweeney.

I also think that Meta guy looks vaguely familiar.   

[James Bennett]

I think I met a greenkeeper like that - didn't realise it the first time I met him, sure did the second time though.

Mike, really interesting post.  The meta Supt has a lot of challenges - the hiring and firing of employees, the development of turf strategies that suit the physical site and clientele, keeping an eye on physical playing conditions (a regular game helps the meta-supt to understand this) and sharing the vision with so many key customers/stakeholders/employees.

I can't add much more, but I will reread your post on the weekend.

James B

[Peter Pallotta]

Yes, welcome back, Mike. I hope you and the family are well.

I took your meaning a bit differently, i.e. "meta" as in a greenskeeper who is consciously commenting on the art/craft of greens-keeping.

From your description,  it sounds as if the superintendent at Streamsong has what, in my opinion, any good artist or craftsman must have, which is a clear and guiding intention/ethos about what his goals and objectives ought to be.

It also sounds as if this meta-greenskeeper is, through the maintenances practices there, making a statement about the art/craft in general and how it should be practiced, which is: "If you serve the Architecture, you'll be serving the Customer too".     

[Mike Sweeney]

"If you serve the Architecture, you'll be serving the Customer too".     

Peter,

That not only encapsulated, it extended my original thought(s).

So I follow Kyle Harris on FB and he often post early morning pictures of Streamsong. He is in the fortunate position of life where he loves and has passion for his job. The "Meta" of Streamsong came out in the live format of playing last Friday when I saw Kyle's passion "in the ground".

For this conversation, "Kyle" represents Streamsong's greens staff and the management that supports them. Now my original post thought was in a choice of Doak (architect, short time on site, also C&C) vs "Kyle", I would rather invest in the Meta of the greens staff as that is an everyday relationship with the customer.

However, your thought on "Serving the Architecture" blew that to pieces. Streamsong has made Tom's and C&C architecture "better", but you need the baseline to start from. Like most things in life, finding that balance is key.

Streamsong will be seen as the Big Budget operation that can afford "Meta". However, I would argue that the Greenskeeper at Highlands Reserve north of SS has Meta too, just at a different price point. Mike Dasher was the architect there and you can find a Biarritz and some other equally interesting, yet simple looking, architecture features. On the east side of Orlando, there is Deltona. It was a favorite of mine when it opened a few years ago. Unfortunately, their price point dropped and the Meta is gone.

As I get older in life, I find myself more attracted to people with "Meta", and less to people with big budgets. My view of Streamsong before last Friday was that they were moving into the land of big budgets and all the complications that comes with it. My wife says I don't have the ability to say this, but I WAS WRONG   Streamsong has found a nice balance and I look forward to future rounds on The Black.

[Michael Moore]

Well, it took fifteen years but MBA Mike finally cooked up a Borgesian riddle whose semiotics I can’t unpack. I think it will turn out that he meant to say “mega” and we will all know what he is talking about. And by the way, I am not addressing the ball there, I am attending to a loose shoelace.

It all became clear on the 22^nd hole. We had a brief wait on the tee and a clear view over to the construction of the third course, about a half mile away. Like a good spectrum-inhabiting GCAer I became immediately obsessed with the enormous trucks down there, and I can now tell you that they hold 25 tons and ride on 66-inch tires. It once again looked like a mining operation. I wondered how dangerous it would be down there, and what would be happening next to these enormous piles of sand.

As we descended to the fairway, a caddie popped out of a nearby goat path. Kyle, who has been stalking the property for five years, asked about it and learned that this was a useful shortcut for forecaddying. He said that he would tidy it up at some point.

So there you have it. The Eames brothers Powers of Ten film is more popular than ever, every New Yorker essay begins with a wry ancedote from 1833 before making a general point, and the ability to switch contexts and work at the correct level of abstraction is a critical skill. A super who can banter with the waitress and familiarize himself with the John Deere 250D-II will indeed be successful.

[Mike Sweeney]

Well, it took fifteen years but MBA Mike finally cooked up a Borgesian riddle whose semiotics I can’t unpack. I think it will turn out that he meant to say “mega” and we will all know what he is talking about.

It was a word used by our Professional at reference in this thread. Thus, I included the definition at the top of the thread so that the term could be discussed.

I personally don't like "Mega" as that pulls back in the Big Budget concept. Maybe Kyle can comment later.

[Michael Moore]

I was teasing about "mega" and I am starting to get it. Strictly speaking, a meta-superintendent would be growing greenskeepers instead of grass, and that is what we observed.

[Tom_Doak]

Mr. Sweeney:


I was fortunate to recommend Kyle's boss Rusty Mercer for the head job at Streamsong, and to employ Kyle as an intern there, where he decided to stay on.  It's one of the nice things about architecture that once you get to a position of importance you can become "meta" too.

[Brad Tufts]

I find this thread entertaining, in that I know the parties involved but can't understand a word of it.


If I did follow, it's as if I need to connect Streamsong with a defunct European socioeconomic system, an old yankee author or three, and a mid-century US art movement.  Insert one of those comments here.



My visit to Streamsong was back in 2014, and I loved every second of it.  Somehow I made 3 eagles in the span of about 12 holes during the day, all with the putter.  Can't wait to return!

[Howard Riefs]

My visit to Streamsong was back in 2014, and I loved every second of it.  Somehow I made 3 eagles in the span of about 12 holes during the day, all with the putter.  Can't wait to return!

Blue Course on #6, #13 and #17?

[Brad Tufts]

And now for your "nobody wants to hear about your round!" installment of the day:


Blue #13, Driver to about 20 feet, using the kick off the bunker downslope short right of the green...made a 2 with my opponent stiff for birdie 3, he was not pleased.
Blue #14, Driver-5w to about 15 feet
Red #7, Driver-5i to a back pin, tap in...ball must have ran 50-60 yards around the mound and up the entire green


So 3 within 13 holes...all downwind too. 


Whenever my first round on the Black happens, the Vegas line on eagles in that round is 1.5