Whether it is advice on managing bentgrass or Bermuda greens, controlling weeds or getting the most from PGR programs, Bert McCarty, Ph.D., has been helping golf course superintendents throughout South Carolina, around the Southeast and across the country tackle some of their biggest challenges for three decades.
Superintendents have expressed their collective thanks by naming McCarty recipient of the Carolinas GCSA Distinguished Service Award, the association's highest honor.
"We are very proud of Dr. McCarty," Carlyle Brewster, Ph.D., chair of Clemson's plant and environmental sciences department, said in a news release. "His achievements are making positive impacts on our students, on the turfgrass industry and on our state."
A graduate of Clemson with a bachelor's degree in agronomy and soils and a doctorate in plant physiology and pathology, and North Carolina State with a master's in crop science, McCarty was a professor at the University of Florida for nine years before returning to Clemson nearly 23 years ago.
The golf industry has an annual economic impact of about $7 billion on North and South Carolina. McCarty's work helps golf courses throughout the area maintain their status, said Tim Kreger, executive director of the Carolinas GCSA.
"It's very easy to make a case that Bert McCarty's career is one of the reasons we can bank on this economic benefit year after year," Kreger said. "He makes the game better from below ground level through his research and from above through his teaching and support of future and current superintendents."
Bert McCarty has authored more than a dozen books and hundreds of book chapters and peer-reviewed articles.
During his career, he has authored or co-authored 15 books, 93 book chapters and 114 peer-reviewed journal articles. He has chaired 37 graduate students and been a committee member for 30 more. He currently chairs two doctoral candidates and two master's students. He is the coordinating author of Clemson's Annual Pest Control Recommendation Guide for Professional Turfgrass Managers.
In 2012, he was named the recipient of the Godley-Snell Award for Excellence that is given to the top agriculture researcher at Clemson University, and in 2010 and 2013, won the Notable State Document Award from the South Carolina State Documents Depository System from more that 3,000 entries. In 2014, he was the recipient of the Fred Grau award through the Crop Science Society as the top national and international turfgrass science researcher. In 2016, he was named a Fellow for the American Society of Agronomy, the first for any Clemson researcher.
Among his works are: Common Weeds and Wildflowers that he authored with botanist David Hall, Golf Turf Management that includes 16 chapters on common turf species and cultivars and how to manage them, and Best Management Practices for Carolina Golf Courses, which was published by the Carolinas GCSA in 2015.
McCarty will receive the award at the Carolinas GCSA Conference and Show scheduled for Nov. 12-14 in Myrtle Beach.