Behind the Ropes: At This Week’s Korn Ferry Tour Finals at Hillcrest Country Club
Parker Cohn, CEO of Performance Resource Management and Friend of Driving the Green, takes us ‘behind the ropes’ to show us the work he is doing with Hillcrest Country Club.
Hillcrest Country Club, Boise, Idaho
This week’s Albertsons Boise Open kicks off the 2021 Korn Ferry Tour three-event finals series featuring 75 PGA TOUR players and the top-75 Korn Ferry Tour players. Fans are invited back on the site for the first time since COVID-19. New to this year’s event will be three nights of concerts after golf (included with price of admission). This event models the Driving the Green vision of golf that invites value creation for more than just those interested in golf.
The Boise Open is hosted by Hillcrest Country Club, as it has been since 1990. Hillcrest CC features a 6,880 yard, par-71 layout with a facility that includes gardens and focuses on health and wellness.
Given that focus, it’s no surprise that Hillcrest has worked with a member of the Driving the Green community to improve the sustainability of its operations – Parker Cohn and his premium agronomic service, Performance Resource Management (PRM).
In year one of working with Hillcrest CC, PRM’s results included:
While a greenskeeper or turfgrass researcher may understand the implications of these numbers, it’s a little abstract for the majority of us. The important thing is this:
Improving the numbers above ultimately improves the sustainability - and playability - of our favorite golf courses.
Sustainable solutions are both here to stay for the future and well within one’s present toolbox. Parker Cohn has shared his passions for water and resource conservation with us in several conversations. He originally studied mechanical engineering and founded Performance Resource Management in 2010 when he realized the potential of biology and soil health to address water needs at their literal roots.
His LinkedIn profile says it succinctly:
“Fix the soil, save the planet”.
His initial case studies saved over $500,000 in water for courses in Arizona. His latest project in San Jose is on track to cover the client’s annual service fee from water savings in just the first five months of the year (May-Sept).
These days he’s excited to use drones with specialized cameras that quantify turf health and detect irrigation inefficiencies. Since his programs inject biology into the irrigation system, results are maximized by improving the efficiency of the irrigation system. The drones can help to identify individual sprinkler heads that require maintenance to better distribute water, and with it, Parker’s biology.
The use of drones has allowed Parker to specifically pinpoint and detect problem areas throughout the golf course.
According to Parker, golf’s goal shouldn’t be to minimize turf, but rather to build the most healthy and efficient turf possible. His solutions accomplish exactly that by feeding probiotics to the soil and improving the health, efficiency, and resilience of the turfgrass on the golf course. This week’s Boise Open at Hillcrest will showcase one such example.
