Coming Soon: New "Jonesy's World" Blog Format

Change is coming to Jonesy's World. Be advised that sometime in coming weeks we will be migrating this blog over to the GCI site to be hosted there. Those of you who have friended, liked or otherwise subscribed to this version will have to do the same thing on the new version. I'll post an update as we get closer to that day.

Why are we doing this? Greed, my friends, greed. Our advertisers like to know that people actually visit our site, and the thousands of visits we get on this blog don't count in those site traffic reports because I'm both impatient lazy and set this thing up on Blogger instead of our own site. So, we're going to restart over on GCI.com so we can have everything in one place.

Also, we've had some problems posting pictures and doing other things on this platform recently. I'm told by my wonderful squad of geeks that the new blog platform will solve those issues and we'll also have all sorts of fun new bells and whistles, so that's cool.

Look for it soon kids!

Check out the digital edition

Hope you are among the thousands who like to look at the digital edition. Same great layout, same great content...fewer dead trees.

Here's the March edition...

More New Stuff from GCI

By now, you should have seen the newest e-newsletter from our team: Disease Digest. If you didn't, check it out here:

Disease Digest: The Buzz on Dollar Spot

Look for these monthly throughout the disease season courtesy of an exclusive sponsorship by our pals at Valent Professional Products.

Fire Destroys FarmLinks Maintenance Facility

The state-of-the-art Toro Maintenance Facility at Pursell's FarmLinks "living laboratory" golf course was damaged heavily by fire yesterday. Looks for photos and updates on GCI.com soon.

Attack of the Killer Team of Columnists!

Feedback is a wonderful thing...and we get lots of it. It's not unusual to get a pile of e-mails whenever we run an interesting piece about the inner workings of the business or a major industry trend. Those types of features are always well read, turf articles are great and the operational profiles are dynamite...but the columns we run are what really seem to engage readers.

And why wouldn't they? I will say with absolutely no modesty whatsoever that we have an amazing group of columnists and contributors. Every month, we deliver opinions, ideas and the occasional punch in the gut from Tim Moraghan, Brian Vinchesi, Monroe Miller, Terry Buchen, Jeff Brauer, various guest columnists and even little old me. (BTW, each of our regulars has their own page on the fabulous GCI website...click on any name above to check out their archives, biography and contact info.)

We're also very proud that Bruce Williams has become a featured contributor to the magazine. Bruce is, quite simply, the man. Legendary superintendent at Chicago's famed Bob O'Link and the one-and-only Los Angeles CC, son of a superintendent, past president of GCSAA, speaker, teacher, consultant, communicator and the go-to guy for all things related to high-end jobs in this business. Bruce's piece on negotiating last fall was just outstanding and brought forth tons of response. Next month, he writes on how superintendents can deal with club politics. This might be the single best article I've seen in 25 years in this business. I suspect it's something many of you will read, re-read, cut out and keep.

I'm equally proud to say that Dennis Lyon, another legend, past president, longtime honcho of Aurora, Colo.'s golf division and good friend will join our team of columnists next month. Dennis plans to devote his column to management, the "big picture" of the business, public/government golf and the future of the industry. Did I mention Dennis just won the USGA Green Section Award? Did I mention that Dennis is just a great, all-around straight shooter?

Our goal at GCI is simple: we will provide our readers with the unvarnished truth so they can enjoy bettter careers and lives. Keep the feedback coming and let us know if we're doing that.

Golf in the (Middle) Kingdom

Amazing things are being done in China right now. Here's a new course designed by Curley & Schmidt. Doesn't even seem real. My colleague Kyle Brown points out that China offers every imaginable type of topography. Here's proof.

Thinking about the GIS attendance figures

Much is made of the fact that the national is the biggest event in the industry. It is. But, consider this...

The numbers are a little fuzzy, but show hosts said attendance was 14,780 or so. That's good, all things considered, but remember that two-thirds of those who attended were there to sell stuff to superintendents.

GIS hosts said there were approximately 5,750 "qualified buyers" attending. That includes superintendents, assistants, management company execs, owners, managers, architects, builders and anyone else who says they have "purchasing influence" for one or more facilities. Based on past breakdowns of who those qualified buyers are, I'd estimate about 2,500 actual superintendents -- the core of the market -- were in Orlando.

There are 15,800 or so golf facilities in the U.S. (we'll disregard Canadian and International attendees/courses to keep this simple). That means the show attracts only 16 percent of the primary customers nationwide.

(That said, if you look at the demographics of the superintendents who do attend, they clearly have higher-than-average budgets. So, that 16 percent who went to Orlando may command as much as 30 percent of all purchasing power in the U.S. market. That's why exhibitors still spend lots of money to be there.)

Yes, the show matters...it matters a lot...and attendance was surprisingly good. But, 84 percent of y'all didn't go to this year's national. A lot of us...including me...need to remember that the Big Show is a luxury that most facilities either can't afford or just don't care about because they're focused on surviving in the real world of today's golf market.