Measuring, Maintaining, and Managing Turf: How Spiio Data Helps Baltimore County Golf
Matt Madsen, Superintendent for Baltimore County Golf, has seen an incredible turnaround on the courses this year as the industry navigated unprecedented territory. He’s been proactive in managing turf—in part by implementing the use of Spiio sensors—and has seen quick and significant results.
Matt Madsen has been managing turf on golf courses since he was 18. Like many, it started out as a summer job. He graduated college with a degree in math, but he continued working on the course. One day a superintendent mentioned to him that he could go back to school for this; Madsen subsequently earned a degree in turfgrass management from Penn State. He worked at a couple of private clubs before coming to work with Baltimore County, where he’s been for 20 years now. He has been the superintendent there for 15 of those years, covering 5 large courses.
It’s a big property here—360 acres—to manage, so any info that we can use remotely is a big deal for us. We use moisture meters daily, but to be able to see moisture readings at any time from a phone or computer is really big for us. Moisture data helps us measure surfactants and aerification.”
Matt Madsen
Over the last two decades, Madsen has seen a variety of challenges. However, the challenges of 2020 for the golf industry were unparalleled. Baltimore County golf courses saw a loss of two million dollars in revenue in only 49 days. They had to reduce their staff for a while. However, they diligently cared for their courses during that time, and they managed to close the year with a profit, seeing people come to the courses in numbers like they’ve never seen before. Many of those customers were new players, which was encouraging.
Spiio Data: Managing Turf at a Large Property
In June, Baltimore County started using the Spiio soil moisture sensor to measure the temperature and moisture of the turfgrass on their courses. “The main reason we looked into it,” says Madsen, “was, it’s a big property here—360 acres—to manage, so any info that we can use remotely is a big deal for us. We use moisture meters daily, but to be able to see moisture readings at any time from a phone or computer is really big for us. Moisture data helps us measure surfactants and aerification.” He explains that they’re on top of watering the turfgrass every day, but “the biggest thing is, when we get a rain event, we know we can put the hand meters away and we can use the Spiio data to know when to go back out with them.”
“The biggest thing is; when we get a rain event, we know we can put the hand meters away and we can use the Spiio data to know when to go back out with them.”
Matt Madsen
Madsen has also noted other benefits managing turf from utilizing the Spiio sensor. For instance, temperature readings are important for Baltimore County’s courses in dealing with their applications to reduce seedheads.
Adjusting and Looking Forward to 2021
They were also impressed by the speed with which they were able to get everything set up and going. “We messaged Spiio on Twitter and started the conversation. When they came out, I was surprised that we got everything set up basically the same day. It was really easy.” They have continued to work with Spiio as they’ve adjusted to the new technology. They’ve reached out and gotten support whenever they’ve encountered problems.
“We messaged Spiio on Twitter and started the conversation. When they came out, I was surprised that we got everything set up basically the same day. It was really easy.”
Matt Madsen
“It’s a new system for us, so I anticipate making new changes.” They’ve noticed, for example, that there is a huge difference between some of the sensor readings between courses. In 2021, they’d like to look at adding a couple more sensors to look at the soil in their tees and fairways as well as their greens. As Baltimore County looks forward to the new year, Madsen is very optimistic. “We’re in the mid-Atlantic so we are never really closed. We have a ton of play now, and when it gets warm, we’ll get more. We think we’ll be really busy.”
Being inspired by how to be managing turf with data? Reach out to Spiio here.