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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Adam Hoffman, superintendent of Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrolton, Georgia, is a major proponent of diligently recording turf data. Spiio has been a valuable tool for him in this effort. In addition to being impressed by superb customer service, he’s quickly noticed the sensors’ value in turf data comparison.

In his 27 years in the turfgrass industry, (6 as superintendent), Adam Hoffman says the field has changed a lot. “When I got in,” he says, “it was during the Tiger Woods boom. The money was flowing, and courses were being built everywhere. Now, everything’s closing down, getting cheaper, getting more streamlined. Courses have got to do more with less—especially in a small-town country club like this. Things are at a premium financially.” That budgetary shift is just one issue golf course superintendents face. Recording turf data using Spiio sensors can help alleviate financial strain.

Adam Hoffman was actually a graphic design major in college. On the side, he was still working his high school job at a golf course in Johnson, Tennessee. Like many turfgrass professionals, he eventually realized he enjoyed working on the course more than what he did in class. So, he transferred to the University of Tennessee to study Ornamental Horticulture with a concentration in Turfgrass Management. He’s now worked on several courses. In 2005 he and his family left Tennessee, his home state, to follow his wife’s teaching job to Georgia. His current professional home is Sunset Hills Country Club in Carrolton, GA.

Saving Money with Spiio Sensors

Sunset Hills CC installed two new Spiio sensors last June. Hoffman is really seeing the potential financial value: “I’ve used the sensor data quite a bit to time free-emergent herbicide applications. If you put those applications out either too soon or too late, you’re wasting money. You spend on the initial application, plus the cost of the post-emergent application you’ll have to put out later. Because of that, I’ve been trying to fine-tune the timing.” Recording turf data (like soil temperature) with Spiio sensors can help courses better time these applications and save money. 

“I’ve used the sensor data quite a bit to time pre-emergent herbicide applications. If you put those applications out either too soon or too late, you’re wasting money—money for the initial application, plus money for the post-emergent application you’ll have to put out later. Because of that, I’ve been trying to fine-tune the timing.”

Adam Hoffman

“We’re fortunate in Georgia that we don’t have to buy water, like places out West. But we still have to pay to pump it, so obviously it’s a resource we don’t want to waste.”

Another way Spiio helps courses save money is water conservation. “We’re fortunate in Georgia that we don’t have to buy water, like places out West. But we still have to pay to pump it, so obviously it’s a resource we don’t want to waste.” Precise soil moisture data allows Sunset Hills to save money (and help the environment) by reducing the risk of over-watering.

Customer Service at Spiio: It’s More than Just the Product

But it’s not just the value that the sensors themselves bring. Hoffman has been extremely impressed with the service he’s received from Spiio as a company. “The customer service has been mind-blowingly awesome,” he says. “They’ve always been willing to work with me. Of course, there have been a few problems and bumps in the road, but they’ve been on top of it. They’ll ask, ‘What can we do to make it right?’ They’ll send replacement units; as well as check-in with a call or a text. Even when I’ve had some requests that might seem unreasonable, they’ve gone out of their way to make it work. It’s rare to find customer service like that in any business, especially this one.” One example of this kind of personalized customer service was helping Hoffman’s efforts in recording turf data.

Spiio made sure the data from the sensors worked directly with the spreadsheets Hoffman was already using. Keeping track of and recording turf data has always been very important to Hoffman. He’s been building off the work of other turfgrass professionals who have shared spreadsheets online. At Sunset Hills, they log temperatures, rainfall, and evapotranspiration on a regular basis. “Sometimes, honestly, it turns out to be pointless. But some days, I’m able to go back and say, ‘Oh, we’re starting to see a spike in X. We need a new growth regulator application.’ Or it might be, ‘Moisture is going down, we’re not going to see as much growth.’”

“The customer service has been mind-blowingly awesome,” he says. “They’ve always been willing to work with me. Of course, there have been a few problems and bumps in the road, but they’ve been on top of it. They’ll ask, ‘What can we do to make it right?’ They’ll send replacement units, they’ll check in with a call or a text, and even when I’ve had some requests that might seem unreasonable, they’ve gone out of their way to make it work. It’s rare to find customer service like that in any business, especially this one.”

Adam Hoffman

The Importance of Recording Turf Data

Hoffman really advocates recording turf data consistently. He often advises, “It costs almost no effort. And you never know when you’re going to use it until you need it.” He also jokes, “At least it impresses people.” The Spiio sensor makes it that much easier to record accurate data, and adds a new element: “Because it’s there in the ground, you’re always getting info—rather than just momentary snapshots from going out with probes. With the sensor, I can get a fuller picture of what’s going on in the course. When I look at the data, I can see almost a heartbeat, a rhythm, in the grass. The numbers move up and down throughout the day.” Seeing this daily fluctuation opens possibilities for turf data comparison between different times of the day. This includes times of day Hoffman usually wouldn’t get much insight into.

Though he’s already noticed benefits, Hoffman looks forward to having Spiio data that spans multiple seasons. Right now, he’s able to give reports to board members on a monthly basis. Those data-driven reports instill confidence in general managers, board directors, and other stakeholders. They know the superintendent is on top of things and knows what’s going on out on the course. As he continues recording turf data with Spiio, Hoffman is excited to eventually have multiple years of records. He’ll be able to say, for instance, “Here’s what we had last October, and here’s what’s happening this year.” Turf data comparison across years would yield insights beyond what he’s got so far. 

Experimenting with Sensors & Recording Turf Data

Sunset Hills is also open to expanding their use of Spiio sensors. “We put one on our wettest green and one on our driest green for now. We’re on a limited budget,” says Hoffman. “I’d love to possibly add more later. But in the meantime, there’s also a ton of flexibility; I can move the sensors as needed to check other areas.” That means he can utilize turf data comparison between different areas of his course.

“We put one on our wettest green and one on our driest green for now. We’re on a limited budget,” says Hoffman. “I’d love to possibly add more later. But in the meantime, there’s also a ton of flexibility; I can move the sensors as needed to check other areas.”

Adam Hoffman

As a long-time advocate of consistently recording turf data, Hoffman frequently tells people, “You think you’ll remember, but you won’t. Write it down.” With Spiio, someone is always “writing it down.”

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When the pandemic struck, like many courses, the Columbus Country Club found itself with drastically reduced staff. In order to help them maintain their turf, they participated in Spiio’s Covid-19 relief program. The data-driven benefits they saw have lasted far longer than their staffing troubles.

When JR Lynn turned 16, he wanted to look for a job. He decided it would be cool to work on a golf course—primarily because he’d have access to free golf—and so he started at the Silver Lake Country Club. He wondered if there was a future in this, so, he recollects, “I asked my boss about his position and how he got there, and he pointed me in the direction of Ohio State. I went and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in turfgrass management, and while I was there, I got some experience with tournaments. After graduation, I took my first big job in Indiana, and my career kicked off from there.”

Weathering the Covid-19 Storm

JR Lynn is now the green superintendent at Columbus Country Club in Columbus, Ohio. He’s been there for a few years, and he’s witnessed a lot. This last year, the Covid-19 pandemic brought unprecedented challenges to the course. “Initially,” he says, “we had to furlough most of our staff. Whereas we normally have around thirty staff members going into June, we now had six. Everyone had to wear multiple jackets. We were back to an almost-normal staffing level by the end of the summer, but still somewhat restricted because it was nearing the end of the season.” They made the most of the situation, hosting an amateur event and somehow pulling together just enough to hit their milestones.

“We were able to put sensors in the ground right away and have set points, or thresholds, where we knew exactly when we needed to go out and water. We could also gauge our initial applications dependent on soil temperatures. Spiio made it possible to have a plan of attack, and still follow our own recipe.”

JR Lynn, Columbus Country Club

Spiio’s Covid Relief Program: How Being Data-Driven Helped

One of the things that helped the club get through this difficult stretch was the Spiio Covid relief program. Toward the beginning of the year, when the program started, Lynn recognized the value it could bring. “We’re very agronomically driven,” he says, “and dependent on our science.”  He applied for help, and the club received three Spiios as part of the program. “We were able to put sensors in the ground right away and have set points, or thresholds, where we knew exactly when we needed to go out and water. We could also gauge our initial applications dependent on soil temperatures. Spiio made it possible to have a plan of attack, and still follow our own recipe.”

Benefits of Using Data-Driven Approach

The biggest benefit that came from using Spiio sensors, says Lynn, has been water management;

“Water management is such a big aspect of turfgrass management; it drives the health of the turf and our ability to maximize playability.”

He also notes that data-driven approach is a great tool in educating club members, helping staff and members talk about what’s happening when there are changes on the turf. 

As they’ve utilized the data from Spiio sensors, Lynn and his staff have already learned a few things. They soon found they could better monitor microclimates and discover why, for example, their thirteenth or sixteenth pockets stayed frozen later in the spring than the rest of the course. The data also helps them set realistic expectations for the labor they need. They’ve also been able to reduce labor costs by taking out the guesswork out of monitoring and watering. Before, when a few days went by they’d start to get the itch to send someone out to monitor whether they needed to water. Now they can look at the data and have confidence in when they do—and don’t—need to send someone out. As JR Lynn points out:

“Everything in today’s world is data-driven. Being able to have something tangible in the form of Spiio data is really useful.”

Contact Spiio here for more information.

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Combining Spiio Data with Super-Smart Modeling

The GreenKeeper app is a decision-support tool in the turfgrass industry designed to help superintendents and field managers make the optimal decisions for their turf in applying chemicals, pest control, watering, and other agronomic tracking. GreenKeeper was originally developed at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and has continued to grow from there. It is now the leading decision-support tool in the industry.

From Lab to Turf: GreenKeeper as a Research-born, Research-led Tool

The founders of GreenKeeper, Dr. Bill Kreuser and his partner Dr. Doug Soldat, are professors at UNL and the University of Wisconsin, respectively. They have both earned master’s degrees at UW and doctorates in horticulture at Cornell University, and now these two professors have put their years of work in the lab to use in creating an platform that allows professionals in the turfgrass industry to access their research—as well as other existing research in the public domain—in one user-friendly interface. The web-based app includes product tracking and application logs, nutrient management, a performance tracker, pest outbreak models and pest reports, weather reports, and more.  

A Smart Decision: Integrating GreenKeeper and Spiio

Recently, GreenKeeper partnered with Spiio. Spiio’s open-design interface allows it to easily integrate with other platforms, and this particular match is one that adds tremendous value to both Greenkeeper and Spiio customers. “[Spiio] seemed like they had a really streamlined product that made a lot of sense in the golf and sports turf market,” Dr. Kreuser says when discussing the decision to partner. In particular, he was attracted by the prospect of using Spiio data with the turf disease models in GreenKeeper. Spiio, in turn, had been looking for an opportunity to align themselves with university researchers that could best interpret their data to create actionable Spiio data for their customers. After reaching out last year, Dr. Kreuser could immediately think of about a dozen models that GreenKeeper could make accessible to Spiio data. Right now, they’re ready for Spiio data to help optimize their predictions of soil-borne diseases such as summer patch and brown patch. Eventually, they’re planning to pair it with herbicide models for crabgrass and other weeds, as well as root health models and models that give guidance on soil moisture and watering. These predictive models will become an industry-leading standard that will change how many execute their agronomic plans.

How GreenKeeper and Spiio’s Partnership Helps Turf Managers

“The thing that makes GreenKeeper and Spiio useful,” says Dr. Kreuser, “is that it makes it easier for clients to get good information instead of having to enter data from hand-held devices and then make their best guess at what to do with the data. Now, our models can have data fed to them constantly from Spiio sensors.” This combination of real-time data and research-proven models is golden for making decisions about turf.

Book a demo here for a personal introduction to the Spiio/Greenkeeper integration.

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