Serving Your Community Insurance and Financial Services Linda Kessler, CLTC, LUTC Representative 15 British American Blvd. Latham, N.Y. 12110 (518) 786-8099 x7052 Insurance issued by The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ and its affiliates. Securities offered as a registered representative of Pruco Securities Corporation (Pruco), member SIPC 751 Broad Street, Newark, NJ 07102. Pruco and The Prudential Insurance Company of America are Prudential Financial companies. Each company is solely responsible for their own respective financial condition and contractual obligations. IFS-A013542 Ed. 1/2003

If the essence of the spirit of golf could be personified, then the image of Guilderland's Rob Bigley would appear.
A superintendent at Pine Haven Country Club in Guilderland, he has discovered the golf course as a place to nurture his relationship with his sons and other up-and-coming golfers, to foster personal integrity, and to tend the nature that surrounds him.

To Bigley, golf is much more than just a sport.
In the arena of golf, he has found a way to interest new generations in the game and all it means by helping to start a junior golf tournament. At the annual event at Western Turnpike Golf Course in Guilderland, he passes down the principals he has come to hold in high esteem: fair play, care for the course, etiquette, and care for others by raising money for charities through the tournament.

The tournament begins with an hour and a half clinic on how to repair ball marks on the green while playing golf, replacing divots and raking bunkers.

His is not the game of victory or networking, but a game where players can learn how to present themselves.

"Golf is a sport of integrity and sportsmanship," said Bigley, who has also worked at New Course and Evergreen country clubs in Albany. "It's a pretty humbling sport. You really have to control your emotions."

It is these virtues that he instilled in his sons Bryan and Robby, who wake in the pre-dawn hours on many summer mornings to work at the golf course. Their reward: to play golf after work, and to learn sportsmanship and enjoyment of the game from their father.

The rewards continue: both sons are now attending Siena College in Loudonville, helped along by golf scholarships, where they play on the college's golf team.

"They've traveled a lot and met many different people," said Bigley. "If they want to play on the team, they have to keep focused. They have to budget their time more effectively to keep up with their academics."

Both sons continue to work at the course during summers off from school - that is, when they are not participating in tournaments.

"It's like my second home here in the summer," said Robby Bigley.
And so it is year-round for his father. On most mornings you can find Bigley at Pine Haven readying the course for those who come to play at this private club. As superintendent he maintains the golf course and handles scheduling, personnel, application of materials for course upkeep, irrigation and mowing, and budgeting to keep the course top notch.

"We try to balance the golfers expectations with finances and the environment," he said.
"Golf course superintendents are indeed stewards of the environment," Bigley said. "Sometimes the perception from people who really do not know what our jobs entail is that we are not good environmental stewards; they frown on golf courses using pesticides or plant protectants."
As the recent past president of the Northeastern Golf Course Superintendents Association (NEGCSA), he said "We try to inform the golfing public, such as junior golfers and golfing members of the community, about the role of the golf course superintendent."

That role, he said, hinges on "the difficulty of balancing Mother Nature with the high expectations of having quality turf conditions on which to play the game of golf."

By informing and educating the new, young players of the game about golf course maintenance etiquette and the role of the superintendents, Bigley sees one sure way to insure the integrity of the game and the course.

Case in point: he and his assistants are New York State Pesticide Applicators, and regularly attend training sessions and seminars to keep informed on information regarding pesticides and their usage. Through Integrated Pest Management (IPM), golf course superintendents utilize the tools of good cultural practices, proper irrigation and monitoring pests - again, balancing thresholds with expectations - to care for the environment while maintaining a quality course.

Examples of good IPM practices include:

• Aerify the soil, which makes for a stronger grass plant that does not require as much treatment to maintain its hardiness.
• Monitor the pests and thus only apply a plant protectant when needed, depending on the threshold of the pest and the stress of the plant at the time.

"Today's plant protectants or pesticides, when used properly, are much less harmful to the environment than those used 20 to 30 years ago," Bigley said. "Many of the newer compounds are taken up through the plant."

Golf courses are also introducing naturalization areas, where the natural vegetation and wildlife can exist without disturbance from humans.

"We haven't seen any vegetative kill or wildlife problems," he said. "Instead, the golf course is a very vibrant place with an influx of wildlife and healthy vegetation."

Pinehaven is also home to a variety of perennials that were planted at the course by students from Guilderland's Farnsworth Middle School. Plants that are native to the Pinebush area, such as lupine, color the course.

Superintendents can find out more about operating environmentally-friendly golf courses through the Audobon Society, which has a corporate golf course sanctuary program with more than 2,000 courses involved in educational programs.

"Golf courses are out there. We help them to manage the land surrounding the course," said JoEllen Zeh, an Audubon Society ecologist. "We focus on protecting and enhancing the wildlife habitat and protecting water quality. Golf courses are really a unique place."

She points out, just as Bigley does, that the acres of land that a golf course sits on might have otherwise been torn up for houses or malls in today's development craze.

"Golf courses are valuable green spaces that have many tremendous benefits," Bigley said.
The Audubon program promotes a positive and balanced approach of the co-existence of nature and golf courses through:

• the creation of spaces such as vegetative buffers around the water of golf courses;
  
• monitoring and becoming familiar with trouble spots so they can be either spot-treated or used as indicator spots;
  
• keeping a record of diseases and weeds to decrease pesticide use.
  For anyone keeping score, it all adds up to a good day on the golf course for many years to come.