Kirk Kirkland
Kirk Kirkland, Superintendent, The Amelia Island Club
THE INTERVIEW
Located on the southern tip of beautiful Amelia Island, Florida, the Amelia Island Club at Long Point has scenic views and challenging holes. Since 2008, Kirk Kirkland has been the superintendent at this Tom Fazio award-winning design. And nearly every year, Kirk has enlisted the USGA Green Section to make an annual course consulting visit. He talked to us about what makes those visits so important to him and how he is using the GS3 ball to dive deeper into data collection.
Q: What kind of club is Amelia Island?
Kirk: It's pretty unique. The club itself is the Amelia Island Equity Club, which is a mouthful. But the golf course is Long Point, but our members have access to Oak Marsh, which is owned by the Omni, and then Little Sandy, which is a par 3 type facility. So, the members at Amelia Island Club have access to all of that.
Q: But you primarily look after Long Point.
Kirk: Yes.
Q: When did you first start asking the USGA to come out and do course consulting visits?
Kirk: I have used it for 15 years, since I've been here.
Q: What do you look to get out of a CCS visit? What are your expectations?
Kirk: I always look for what are other guys doing. How can we continuously improve? The expectations here get higher every year, so having somebody that sees many ways of doing things is huge for us. But I also enjoy the fact that the regional agronomist can help us if we are trying to get some projects done, get some equipment or whatever. It's always nice to have that independent person talk about the benefits and support us in that way as well.
Q: Do you say, hey, I want to take a look at this, this and this? Or is it more of you just come out and ride around and look at the entire property?
Kirk: I always try to schedule the site visit when we look our worst. So, in this area, it’s usually in the spring and depends on the year we've had. If there are certain things that I know about before the visit that I want to improve on, I'll certainly talk to Chris Neff about that. But if it’s just normal winter conditions, we discuss what we're seeing and how to manage out of it.
Q: Do you share the CCS report and recommendations with management or your Greens Committee?
Kirk: Absolutely. I send it to my general manager and every member of the golf committee. I open it up for discussion, and I try to highlight some of the topics because the reality is not everybody reads everything. And to keep that in front of everybody is very important.
Q: Let's discuss the GS3 ball. You've had it for a little over a year. What attracted you to it? What sold you on it?
Kirk: To finally have numbers that we can put with our maintenance practices and to take a lot of the subjectivity out of things. I can show them this is where we're at. And this is where we want to be. That helps a lot. It's actual data that I can present to management and members. And it's also how can we get the most bang for our bucks? What cultural practices give us the most improvement? And are there any we don't need to do? It can help with those decisions.
Q: What metric do you like most or that resonates most with you?
Kirk: It was always about speed, right? And to me, now, I'm more interested in the smoothness and trueness. And now that I actually have a way to measure that, where prior, it was just me throwing some balls and seeing what they did. Smoothness and trueness metrics are the highlight of purchasing the GS3.
Q: Are you using the drop fixture with the GS3?
Kirk: I am. I take firmness every time as well. And that's something new to me and I’m learning about. I'm still trying to figure out firmness and how that equates to a better golfing experience.
Q: Has the GS3 ball changed the way you do certain cultural practices? Certain things you did before that you don't do now, extra mow, more rolling,
Kirk: I actually feel like I need to do more mowing, more double cutting. I'm definitely seeing that, especially this time of year, we roll greens every day. But the days where we double cut, I'm seeing a pretty big difference between smoothness, trueness and speed. The data helps push me in that direction.
Q: What would you say to somebody who's on the fence about the GS3 ball or data collection in general and not sure whether it's worth the investment?
Kirk: I believe technology can really be a great tool to help us get better and to justify the costs of things. If members have a certain expectation, the GS3 data can help get what we need to meet that expectation. When you have the data to justify it, it can help tremendously. I'm trying to collect as much data and use it to the best of its potential.
