CLUB PROFILE  Club Name: Forest Hill Field Club Website: www.foresthillfc.com Superintendent’s Blog: http://fhfcgreendepartment.blogspot.com/ Holes: 18 Designer: A.W. Tillinghast No. of Members: 250 Annual Rounds: 16,000 Type: Private member-owned Year Opened: Club opened in 1896; golf course opened on current site in 1926 Golf Season: April – October Greens: Poa and bent grass Fairways: Poa, rye and bent grass Honors & Awards: The Metropolitan Golf Association has held its Open Tournament at Forest Hill Field Club on several occasions.

Golf Course Superintendent Frank Tichenor has found that social media is an effective way to keep the membership informed about golf course happenings.

Established in 1896, Forest Hill Field Club in Bloomfield, N.J., is steeped in tradition. That doesn’t mean, however, that the property cannot benefit from a modern amenity or two. Golf Course Superintendent Frank Tichenor has found that social media is an effective way to keep the membership informed about golf course happenings. He started using social media in the spring, and his blog and Twitter postings offer a wealth of information about maintenance at the golf course – and how it affects the golfers.

From posting videos about aerification on his blog to tweeting about frost delays, Tichenor has found that social media allows him to provide updates about course conditions in real time. His postings have helped him strengthen his relationship with members as well.

He recently spoke to us about the advantages of using social media and his intention to increase his reliance on this valuable form of communication.

Q: Why did you start using social media to document maintenance activities?

A: Every club has a round table where rumors get started, believe it or not, and sometimes those rumors are not fact-based. I wanted a place for our members to go to get the facts and to increase communication between my department and the membership. Newsletters only come out once a month, and sometimes the information in them is no longer time-sensitive. With my blog and Twitter, everyone can see what’s going on right away. It was a way to improve communication.

Q: What forms of social media do you use?

A: Currently, I use Twitter and I use blogspot. This winter, I’m going to probably go into Facebook, also. There are so many people on it. Instead of just clicking onto my blog, I’ll get even more exposure if I’m on Facebook, too.

Q: What kind of information do you share?

A: We’re pretty transparent. We post whatever’s going on out on the golf course. We have a little fun with it. Today, we’re aerifying greens, and I posted a video of that. On Twitter I posted that we’re having pretty lousy weather. My assistant took some great photos the other day, and I posted those, also.

Q: How often do you post new information?

A: I try to get on there at least once a week. Sometimes it’s just when the moment strikes. I can post from my BlackBerry when I’m out on the course. If I see something, then I can post it right there. If I waited until I got back into my office, I probably would forget about it.

I guess I’m like Professor Gadget. I just got an iPad, and I can see myself changing the way I do things with it. I have some aerials that I downloaded from Google Earth. I can e-mail them to myself or to the greens committee. It also helps me because I think differently than the way the members of the greens committee do. One of them might say, “You know, that spot on No. 15 where I always hit my shot.” And I’m thinking, “Over by that head that leaks.”

Q: How important are photos to your blog postings?

A: They’re huge. You know the old saying – A picture is worth a thousand words. Pictures are really important. I also post the latest USGA updates if they’re pertinent to our situation to illustrate the whys and hows of what we do about things such as frost-related issues. Right after I post the USGA updates, I can put up photos of what the traffic of just one foursome does to a green with frost on it.

Q: How does the use of social media help you develop relationships w/ members?

A: When I first started, I wasn’t getting a huge amount of hits. But I kept plugging away, and word spread. The heat this summer was pretty tough on course conditions, and I had one golfer say, “I haven’t seen an update. What’s going on?” But I thought it was more important to take care of the golf course than to write a newsletter article.

Our women golfers play on Tuesday mornings, and some of them drive 30 or 40 minutes to get here. They can check first to see if we had a rain event the night before, and see what the status of the cart paths is. They used to have a phone chain to update each other about course conditions, but now they can go right to our Twitter account and see what’s happening. I’ve met with them, and they’ve been really complimentary of the system.

Q: So much of the work that golf course maintenance crews do goes on behind the scenes. How does social media help you share what you’re doing, and maybe even more importantly, why you’re doing it?

A: You’re able to convey your thoughts to the membership. In the past, you maybe saw somebody on the putting green when they’re getting ready to play. But their mind is on their round, not on anything you might want to tell them. But now, they can check Twitter or my blog when they’re in a different mindset. We can give them the facts and show them what’s happening.

They can see progress on a weekly basis, and they can see it in a lot of areas on the course where they might not even look. They might be in an office on the 50th floor of a building in New York, and they can duck onto the site for a quick update. It’s a little escape for them.

Q: Do you read the blogs of other superintendents or follow them on Twitter?

A: I follow a few guys on Twitter, and I will check on some other superintendents’ blogs. There are some other superintendents in the area that use social media – Todd Raisch at Ridgewood Country Club, Jamie Devers at Canoe Brook and Tyler Otero at Trump National-Colts Neck. But it was two superintendents in Minnesota – Jeff Johnson at Minikahda Club and Chris Tritabaugh at Northland Country Club – that really got me going.

Q: How has following other superintendents helped you with your own job?

A: If they have a good idea, then I’ll copy it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right? What’s nice about this industry is that everybody is trying to help each other and better each other. If somebody picks up something off of me, then I feel great about that.

Q: What attracts you to someone else’s blog?

A: A good eye for design and the choice of photos. If it’s a golf course that’s a well-known course or a well-known superintendent, then I’ll take a little more in-depth look at it. But a huge part of it is whether or not it looks professional.

With the software, it’s just so easy to make them look good. The program does it all for you. I designed mine last winter. I was watching TV on the couch one weekend, and I just started messing around with it.

Q: How has the use of social media increased your value as a superintendent?

A: I think I get asked a lot more questions by the board members now. I feel like I’ve kicked it up a notch. I’m definitely more respected now. People are more willing to listen to my ideas.

An article in the Newark Star-Ledger about our use of social media was published on the first day of our member-guest tournament this summer. It was on the front page of the sports section, and everybody saw it. I think it gave our members a sense of pride to see their superintendent featured in the article. It boosted my credibility.

My department is well-respected at the club, but a lot of times golfers show up and just expect everything to be perfect. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it, though, and I think the golfers have a better understanding of that now.

Q: How do you think social media will factor into golf course maintenance in the future?

A: I can see a lot more people jumping on the Twitter bandwagon. I can see a lot more Facebook pages out there. I’m trying to get the club to start a Facebook page. A lot of our members are in their 50s or 60s, and I said to the board, “You might not be using Facebook, but the demographics of the members you are trying to attract are using it. And they use it every day.” You can go old school, but it’s not going to get you new members. It’s just like cell phones. Everybody has cell phones on the golf course now.

As a superintendent, you have to stay current. People expect good turf conditions, but you’re spending a lot of the club’s money to get them, and you’d better be able to justify the expenditures. You’re not just the guy down there at the shop that rides the lawnmower around.

Communication, communication, communication. It’s important in every form of the business world, not just the golf course business. If there’s a problem, then you have to communicate it and you have to be candid about it. Social media is a great way for a superintendent and a club membership to communicate with each other.