Superintendent Adam Hoffman from Sunset Hills Country Club discusses how he uses Spiio’s Google Sheets integration for data-driven reporting, allowing him to back up his agronomic decisions with data. He built a dashboard on Spiio’s Google Sheets Plugin and combined it with other data sets, like weather data from his own weather station, TDR readings, and his tracking of the playability conditions on the golf course. He can now use his dashboard, which updates with only one or two clicks, to track live agronomic conditions as well as to go back in time to understand the context behind his previous decisions. 

Adam Hoffman, Golf Course Superintendent of Sunset Hills Country Club

Adam has been working in the golf industry for 23 years. What began as a high school summer job evolved into a career that took him to a variety of different courses. Adam earned a degree in Ornamental Horticulture and Landscape Design with a concentration in Turfgrass Management from the University of Tennessee in 2004.

He spent the next 10 years serving as an Assistant Superintendent at several clubs in Tennessee and Georgia, including three years at Marietta Country Club and five years at Sunset Hills from 2010 – 2014. Adam served as Director of Golf Maintenance, overseeing multiple courses in Dekalb county, and most recently as the Golf Course Superintendent of The Frog Golf Club in Villa Rica. He is the Golf Course Superintendent at Sunset Hills today. 

About Sunset Hills Country Club

Sunset Hills Country Club delivers the premier golf experience in West Georgia.

Regarded as one of the true hidden gems in West Georgia, Sunset Hills Country Club’s Robert Trent Jones designed course delivers a challenging golf experience for low-handicappers, while providing playability for higher-handicappers and beginners alike.

In addition to delivering a challenging, yet rewarding golf experience for players of all skill levels, Sunset Hills takes tremendous pride in providing a scenic backdrop for its members to enjoy their round. Highlighted by immaculate turf conditions, the course weaves its way through towering Georgia pines and offers beautiful visuals of the Sunset Hills lake which comes into play on several holes on both sides of the course.

Spiio delivers on an increasing demand for reporting in sports turf management. 

Spiio customers can now use a plugin for Google Sheets to access their Spiio data with just a click and build upon it with tailored reports or more advanced data-driven models. You can build simple graph automations for your reporting, or you can create models for your irrigation management system. You can also combine the data with other field data to create your own individual dashboard with the exact insights you care about.

Superintendents and their assistants explain that they use Spiio data as a basis for their agricultural decisions, optimizing the playability conditions of the golf course. We also hear often that the need for data-backed reporting is increasing. Rising water prices, water regulations or yearly changing playability conditions are just some of the reasons people tell us it is so valuable to be able to look back in time. You can review last year’s data and understand  the circumstances you were facing a year ago when you made a specific decision.

“You never know what the focus might be next year. That is why I like data in Google Sheets so much. I can go in and pick the data I need to show. Then I can look back in time to understand and communicate why I made the decision and how the situations differ to last year. Looking back into my Spiio data helps me to comprehend my decisions,” says Adam Hoffman

Adam Hoffman mentions that he is constantly tracking playability conditions. Questions naturally arise about why the conditions change on a yearly basis. There are many factors that can affect playability. This season, for example, Sunset Hills had a long season and some trouble with fungicides. Next season will come with different challenges.

Using the plugin is very easy.

Few superintendents are into coding or have a technology department working for them. Spiio wanted to make it easy for everyone to use their data and adjust it to their individual needs. 

Exporting a chart or downloading a CSV file within the Spiio App has always been easy. Whatever data you are displaying gets converted. But if you want to build, for example, a standardized reporting structure on top of the data, there is now a better way to do it so that you can combine it with different data sets to show relations like the relation between in-ground data and playability conditions. 

You would probably like to have direct access to your complete data set, where you can pick the data area you need and refresh it with a single click. The Google Sheets Plugin is connected to the Spiio API. Clicking on the plugin loads the Spiio data directly into your spreadsheet. 

Working with the plugin is very easy. You will get a fast overview of your projects and the Spiio IDs of your installation. By clicking one button in Google Sheets, the plugin generates a data sheet with moisture, salinity, and temperature readings for each project in your organization. The timespan and the sampling of your readings can be adjusted by Spiio according to your needs. From there, it is easy to generate the reports needed for your greens committee or to build more advanced functionalities on top of the data. The script accesses Spiio’s open API, downloads the data, and makes it easily accessible.

Building or integrating Spiio on one click into your advanced spreadsheet models

Many Spiio customers are used to working with spreadsheets already. They collect moisture data in the field and weather data from weather stations.They might also track playability conditions in a spreadsheet. Some are building irrigation and pesticide application logics on top of this data. The most common irrigation systems have user interfaces that are based on spreadsheet logic.

Imagine that the manual part of collecting readings on a piece of paper and communicating this to the office has just been solved by one click on the plugin. The Spiio data directly integrates into your spreadsheet models.

Adam has to combine several data sets. He is tracking TDR measurements and weather data from his own weather station. He has also been tracking cutting yields for a while now to optimize his machinery maintenance, and he tracks playability conditions in a spreadsheet. There is no tool out there that can completely solve all of his needs. Combining these data sets with the Spiio data in only one click, and building graphs for a presentation or a chart for his dashboard, is an incredible help in his day-to-day routines. The Google Sheets Data Plugin that Spiio has created for him facilitates his efforts. Instead of exporting the data from the app, he simply presses the Spiio button and he gets the most recent data into the spreadsheet. It frees up time for other tasks and helps him to keep the overview.

“I noticed that, since I am tracking data, I tend to get drier and drier on the course. I sometimes even go down to 15% moisture level, because I can back my decision with data. Before I had this knowledge there, I had the tendency to over-irrigate, because you need to be sure that the turf is not drying out.”

Adam built a whole live dashboard on top of the data that shows him the most important graphs he needs for his daily routine. The advantage of a spreadsheet integration is that it can integrate seamlessly into these already existing models and workflows without needing to write a single line of code.

The need for reporting and decision-making can vary from state to state, greens committee to greens committee, and superintendent to superintendent. The beauty of this plugin is that it can integrate into every spreadsheet without one line of code. Instead of you working for the data, you can make the data work for you

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Matt Leverich, co-founder of the comprehensive communications and technology system Playbooks for Golf, comments on its recent integration with Spiio sensors and data. How does streamlining these innovative technologies benefit clients in the turf industry?

A Kansas State University alumnus with over a decade of experience in the turf industry as well as some exposure to software development, Matt Leverich was uniquely positioned to recognize and fill a need in the world of golf courses. In 2008, he partnered with Greg Wojick to found Playbooks for Golf, a comprehensive offering of communications and technology products for managing golf course turf. Playbooks has taken off over the last twelve years, with its products now incorporated into 700 courses worldwide—including several of the top ten courses in the world. Leverich manages the day-to-day operations of Playbooks, including product, operations, integration, IT development, and client interactions. 

Playbooks’ Coverage System and its Integration with Spiio

One of Playbooks’ well-established and innovative products is the Coverage software system, which manages chemical and fertilizer tracking, planning, and reporting. Last winter, Coverage integrated with Spiio. Customers with Spiio sensors can now see the soil temperature and other relevant data from those sensors in Coverage, allowing for an even more streamlined experience as managers and superintendents plan and track their applications based on up-to-date, in-the-ground data.

This kind of third-party integration is a key part of what Playbooks does. “There is a lot of software out there,” says Leverich, “but nothing comprehensive like this. There are other products that attempt to track fertilizer and chemical applications, but typically, the burden still lies on the course and its superintendent. With us, the burden is on us. Playbooks is a turnkey product that’s simple for a non-tech person to use, but it comes with all the power that innovative software can offer. It really is a one-stop-shop.” So, whenever there is an opportunity to integrate with other high-quality programs, Playbooks takes the opportunity.

Biggest benefit of integrating Coverage with Spiio is just “having more actionable data.” 

Matt Leverich

Choosing to integrate with Spiio was an easy decision. Already familiar with Spiio’s National Sales Representative, Dave Latshaw and his family, Leverich learned about Spiio and found that its API was easy to integrate and made for a good fit. The integration is currently in beta testing, and things are looking good so far. Customers can see all the data from their Spiio sensors in one place with the other information in the Coverage system.

The Power of Actionable Data

Leverich comments that the biggest benefit of integrating with Spiio is just “having more actionable data.” Spiio sensors provide real-time data on moisture, temperature, and other indicators from the soil that is remotely accessible. Users can therefore base their chemical application, water management, and other maintenance decisions on accurate and current information that is convenient to access. Playbooks and Spiio hope that, in addition to benefiting current clients, their integration will allow other potential customers to be exposed to the possible advantages of the Spiio data as they see its integration tab appear in their Coverage software.

Of course, the importance of remotely accessible data and reliable software has been underscored during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of their proven quality, Playbooks was fortunate to see no loss in clients and, in fact, saw 90% of the sign-ups in 2020 they had seen in 2019. “We have a product people need and want,” Leverich says, and it shows in times like this. 

“I’m an avid golfer, so I love being in the golf business and working to improve the golf experience.” 

Matt Leverich, Playbooks

The golf market is niche, so it can be challenging to target such a small market. It takes a lot of networking, time, and effort, but Leverich says it’s worth it when you’ve got a great product. “I’m an avid golfer,” says Leverich, “so I love being in the golf business and working to improve the golf experience.” 

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Recently partnered with TurfTasker, a growing communications and tracking platform for turfgrass professionals, Spiio is showing that its easy-to-integrate API opens new doors for the future of communication and automation in golf course operation.

One of the reasons Spiio is growing rapidly is that it’s optimized for integration with other emerging technologies. As the turf industry, along with much of the world, moves toward automation, this technological integration is key. One company that recognizes and is riding this trend is the comprehensive platform TurfTasker. 

TurfTasker: The Origins of a Comprehensive Platform

TurfTasker was started by three friends—two software engineers and a turfgrass professional who was working at Roger Dean Stadium in Florida. At one point, this friend expressed “At the stadium, we do everything on whiteboards, paper, and Excel. It’s real old school.” The three friends decided to work together to provide a more modernized data recording and communication solution for Roger Dean. 

“At the stadium, we do everything on whiteboards, paper, and Excel. It’s real old school.”

Alex Jacobs, TurfTasker

That’s how the project started, but it soon grew to be a lot more.

After some contact with other turf venues, the emerging TurfTasker soon realized that golf course operation would be a prime application for their new platform. By this point, several months of work had yielded a full-fledged product. TurfTasker provides clients with the potential for automation in many of their day-to-day operations. It offers property mapping, a comprehensive platform for tracking essential data, and—of course—the ability to integrate that platform with other technologies.

Using Spiio Data to Enhance Potential Automation

Alex Jacobs, one of the founders of TurfTasker, has expressed his excitement about the budding partnership with Spiio. “The integration was easy,” he says, “and the data is awesome. It really takes us to the next level.” Rather than positioning the app as a widget within the platform, TurfTasker pulls Spiio data directly from Spiio’s API to populate its graphically-friendly tables and charts. Alex built out a one-page portal where you can really see the potential for automation at play. For example, he says, “You can schedule a task to Worker X that’s dependent on whether it’s supposed to rain.” Integrated with local weather forecasting and soil moisture data from Spiio sensors, the system does the analysis and delegation on its own. This communication between technologies really opens doors for golf course operation.

“You can schedule a task to Worker X that’s dependent on whether it’s supposed to rain.” Integrated with local weather forecasting and soil moisture data from Spiio sensors, the system does the analysis and delegation on its own.

Alex Jacobs, TurfTasker

Though it’s a valuable product now, TurfTasker is only getting started. Its vision for automation includes the ability to combine property mapping and inventory records to show users exactly what they’ve got and what a given task will cost. Imagine this scenario: TurfTasker pulls information on soil temperatures from Spiio data to determine whether a chemical application is needed in a certain area of turf. It then uses property mapping, area calculation, and inventory tracking to figure out how much product would be needed, how much would be left afterward, and how much the task would cost before assigning that task to a specific worker.

Looking to the Future: Plans and Possibilities

TurfTasker has a lot planned in the near future. We can soon see another almost-too-good scenario becoming possible: Spiio provides real-time data on soil moisture, and irrigation responds to set thresholds by watering where and when it’s needed. In a post-Covid world that increasingly values remote and labor-efficient work, this kind of automation is a lifesaver for turfgrass professionals. “It would cut down workforce and save water, which is necessary for both financial and environmental conscientiousness,” Jacobs points out.

It would cut down workforce and save water, which is necessary for both financial and environmental conscientiousness.

Alex Jacobs

The integration between Spiio and TurfTasker is mutually beneficial. Spiio is quickly becoming a well-established product with a reputation for value and dependability. TurfTasker is unique because it is a much more comprehensive product than many of its competitors. “We’re excited to see a partnership with Spiio develop,” says Jacobs. Speaking with him about it, it’s clear that we’re witnessing a turning point in which communication between technologies like Spiio and TurfTasker is creating new possibilities for the future of golf course operation.

Read more about Spiio’s API here and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

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