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Professional Development

One of the things that we focus on during the winter months is professional development. The management of our department attend national, provincial and local seminars, meetings and conferences on golf course management. These events help us stay current and up to date on technology, theories, legislation and practices.
Yesterday we attended a local seminar offered by the Greater London Area Golf Superintendents Association at Westhaven G & CC. Among the speakers was Teri Yamada, who is an environmental consultant for the golf business. She spoke on the new regulation concerning the province wide ban on cosmetic pesticide use. The golf course is exempt from this regulation with some conditions. The definition of golf course is greens, tees, fairways and rough. This means that any landscaped areas such as clubhouse lawns, gardens and entry ways are restricted to no pesticide use. One of the conditions for the golf course to continue pesticide use is that we become accredited through the Integrated Pest Management council of Ontario. We here at HCC have already completed the first two phases of this three phase process. Once the regulation comes into full effect I will update everybody with the complete conditions to the ban.

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