NGCOA to honor Homestead's Cascades layout
The National Golf Course Owners Association named The Cascades Course at The Homestead in Hot Springs, Va., as the winner of its 2013 Jemsek Award for Golf Course Excellence.
The award honors the worlds top golf courses, which are widely known for superior quality, having hosted major amateur and professional tournaments and for being venues to which golfers travel from far and wide. The award will be presented during the NGOA Annual Conference held next month in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show in San Diego.
The NGCOA also will recognize winners of the Award of Merit for long-term contributions to the game, the Don Rossi Award for significant contributions to the NGCOA, the Champion Award for service to course owners at the state level, the Player Development Award for success in attracting new players to the game and the Paul Porter Award for commitment, service and leadership to a chapter or international affiliate. The winner of the Course of the Year Award also will be announced during the awards ceremony.
Jacklin Seed launches mobile app
Jacklin Seed by Simplot recently introduced its new mobile application for the turf industry.
Available for iPhone, iPad and Android devices, the app was developed in conjunction with turfgrass research, scientific and education experts and offers superintendents and others the ability to research data, product information, site-specific recommendations for any of the company's 200-plus turf seed products.
The mobile application can be downloaded from respective app stores or by clicking on the link on the Jacklin Seed Web site.
Blasi strikes out on his own
After many years of learning from and working with Robert Trent Jones II, golf course architect Jay Blasi is hanging out his own sign.
Blasi spent a total of 11 years with Jones at his firm in Palo Alto, Calif. In that time, Blasi was the project architect on Chambers Bay in University Place, Wash., and Stanford University's Siebel Varsity Golf Training Complex in Palo Alto. His Jay Blasi Design firm will be based in nearby Los Gatos.
Blasi will continue to work with the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance at Sharp Park Golf Course, an Alister MacKenzie design in Pacifica. He also will begin work with his former employer on a collaborative effort of restoring SentryWorld in Wisconsin.