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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    2013 Superintendent of the Year finalist


    Brad Jolliff, KickingBird Golf Club, Edmond, Oklahoma
     

    Golf course superintendents are used to performing often under grueling conditions. Still, it's difficult to imagine facing some of the conditions Brad Jolliff encountered in 2013.
     
    Superintendent at KickingBird Golf Club in Edmond, Okla. for the past 15 years, Jolliff faced a trying set of circumstances last year that included both of his assistants and a full-time equipment operator leaving early in the year, leaving only Jolliff and his mechanic as the only full-time employees for much of the season at a daily fee facility subject to heavy play.
     
    Add to that an extremely wet spring and summer that brought about 37 inches of rain between April and July in the Oklahoma City area, which is about 17 inches above normal, according to the National Weather Service. Those rainfall totals included a record 14.5 inches in May, according to NWS.
     
    Despite the many hurdles facing Jolliff, many of the golfers who play at KickingBird say its greens rate with any found in the Oklahoma City area, including at private clubs. And they say Jolliff is the reason why.
     
    "I have played KickingBird Golf Course since the 1970s. Never has this course been as attractive, well-groomed and inviting to players," said KickingBird golfer Judy Warren. "I have recommended this course to many individuals. On every occasion, I have described KickingBird as public course that could be mistaken for a private club course. That explains the dedication and desire by Brad and his team to please the public and those of us who do not have private club memberships."
     
    By May, Jolliff's second assistant and equipment operator had left KickingBird, and his first assistant received a head superintendent's position about a month later. With the months of golf left for KickingBird, only Jolliff and equipment manager Sylvester Tillman were full-time employees of the city-owned course. Seasonal helped ranged between eight and 10 (mostly high school students working their first jobs) throughout the season.
     
    For his dedication to the course and those who play it, Jolliff has been named as a finalist for the 2013 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta. The winner will be announced Feb. 6 during the Golf Industry Show in Orlando, Fla.
     
    A total of 38 people who play or work at KickingBird submitted nominations on Jolliff's behalf. Humbled by the recognition, he doesn't believe he has done anything that any his 15,000 or so colleagues around the country wouldn't do if put in his position.
     
    "What I did is very similar to what I hear a lot of superintendents have done," Jolliff said. "There are periods in our careers when we will have to work a lot if not every day. I worked every day for five or six weeks.
     
    "I know that I didn't count the hours. That might get discouraging."
     
    Still, golfers who play at KickingBird are indebted to Jolliff for ushering the course through trying times in 2013.
     
    "His team consisted entirely of seasonal employees, with the exception of his full-time mechanic,. Due to this shortage Brad put in many extra hours throughout the summer," said Brett Pribble, a member of KickingBird's advisory board. "I appreciate his effort and am proud that he was able to keep our municipal course in excellent shape."
     
    For Jolliff, the dedication required to get through the year is part of doing what he loves best - providing a golf course with the best possible playing conditions.
     
    "I enjoy the customer interaction as much as the agronomic side of the business," he said. "That is why I don't mind the hours. There is a lot of satisfaction knowing that the customers are enjoying their time at KickingBird because of what we have done in preparation for them."
  • 2013 Superintendent of the Year finalist


    Matt Gourlay, CGCS, Colbert Hills, Manhattan, Kansas

    Each year, Colbert Hills is ranked among the best public golf courses in Kansas. According to many of the golfers who play there, Matt Gourlay, CGCS, is big reason they hold the course in such high regard.
     
    Gourlay not only keeps the course in Manhattan, Kan., in championship condition throughout the playing season, he does so with a budget and staff that would make operators at some mom-and-pop facilities blush. He also is recognized by members for his selfless dedication to the facility where he has been known to pinch hit behind the counter in the golf shop and for his ability to manage the course in a way that matches playability with environmental stewardship and sustainability.
     
    For his efforts, Gourlay has been named as a finalist for the 2013 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award presented by Syngenta.
     
    "It is well known that Colbert Hills has won many awards for environmental, conditioning, training, turfgrass research and the development of future golf course superintendents," said Gourlay's father, David, general manager and chief operating officer of Lakewood Country Club in Westlake, Ohio.
     
    "It is an honor for me to make a recommendation for Matt Gourlay for TurfNet Superintendent of the Year. Truth be told, Matt should have been recommended each year for the past seven years."
     
    The Superintendent of the Year Award winner will be named Feb. 6 at the Golf Industry Show in Orlando, Fla.
     
    Colbert Hills is home to dozens of tournaments each year, including, including collegiate tournaments hosted by the men's and women's golf teams from nearby Kansas State University. 
     
    "We strive to have Colbert Hills in tournament ready condition every day as we host over 65 tournaments yearly," Matt Gourlay said. 
     
    And he does so with comparatively modest resources.
     
    Gourlay has a humble annual budget of about $550,000, and he spends about 27 percent ($150,000) of that on irrigation water, according to professional golfer Jim Colbert, the course's namesake and architect. And he maintains the course with a crew that includes a full-time assistant superintendent and a makeshift crew comprised of Kansas State turf students. Although the students bring a certain amount of expertise to Colbert Hills, the staff has a high rate of turnover as students enter and leave the school.
     
    Still, Gourlay spends a great deal of energy helping to further the career of others. He teaches at regional turf conferences and 28 of his former employees have gone on to become a superintendent or assistant superintendent at other courses.
     
    "I have had at least 50 superintendents in my employ over the last 25 years, and I would put Matt Gourlay at the head of the class," Colbert said in his nomination. "This year Matt, did a great job of restoring Colbert Hills to its top form . . . He did all of this with a total budget of $550,000, and $150,000 was for water - a remarkable feat in this part of the country. Those numbers are well below the norm for just daily maintenance and he has done all of this with a makeshift of talented but part time staff. His dedication to Colbert Hills is unparalleled."
     
    Although Gourlay's agronomic and management skills have helped make Colbert Hills one of the premier golf destinations in Kansas, he selflessly lends his expertise to other departments throughout the property.
     
    Besides managing the maintenance facility, Gourlay goes above beyond the normal call of duty for a superintendent by sometimes selling merchandise and tee times in the golf shop, and cooking, tending bar and even washing dishes in the restaurant.
     
    "Making our golf clientele's experience at Colbert Hills memorable," he said, "is my main priority."
  • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently gave the thumbs-up to two new highly mobile BASF fungicides for professional turf managers seeking rapid preventive and curative control of a host of common turfgrass diseases.   Xzemplar fungicide and Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide both contain the active ingredient fluxapyroxad, brand name Xemium, a new succinate-dehydrogenase inhibitor. Fluxapyroxad is a highly mobile active ingredient that provides both preventative and curative activity on many turfgrass pathogens. Xzemplar fungicide is a solo product containing only fluxapyroxad.    Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide contains a 1:2 ratio of fluxapyroxad and pyraclostrobin, the active ingredient in Insignia SC Intrinsic brand fungicide. Lexicon Intrinsic is a next-generation Intrinsic product with disease control and advanced plant health, say BASF scientists. Field trial results for Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide have shown it provides efficacious control on a variety of turfgrass diseases, including brown patch, dollar spot, summer patch and fairy ring, in addition to 22 other diseases.   Research shows Xzemplar fungicide and Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide provide consistent, long-lasting protection against a broad range of turf diseases. In trials conducted during 2008-2013 by both university and private contract researchers, excellent disease control was observed.   Trial results for Xzemplar fungicide have shown excellent control against dollar spot at all rates and spray intervals (14-28 days) on greens and fairways. In a fairway dollar spot trial at Penn State University in 2013, Xzemplar fungicide on a 21-day spray interval was the top performing treatment among 40 entries. On the final rating date, Xzemplar fungicide was the only treatment with no dollar spot present, while the untreated plots contained over 140 dollar spot lesions per plot.    In a curative dollar spot trial on a Crenshaw Bentgrass putting green at the Pee Dee Research and Education Center of Clemson University, Xzemplar fungicide plots contained an average of two dollar spot lesions as compared to the untreated plots that contained over 20 lesions at 14 days after the application.   Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide trials demonstrated efficacious control of a variety of diseases including brown patch, dollar spot, summer patch and fairy ring. In a trial conducted on SR7100 colonial bentgrass, no Rhizoctonia infection (brown patch) was observed in Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide plots at 21 days after application as compared to the untreated control plots that averaged 70.5 percent disease incidence at the Rutgers? trial site.   Similarly, in a trial conducted on Baron Kentucky bluegrass showed low infection (1.8 percent) of summer patch after 21 days, compared with 58.2 percent in the untreated control.   Both Xzemplar fungicide and Lexicon Intrinsic brand fungicide are expected to be available for sale later this year.   Click here to read more about Xzemplar and Lexicon Intrinsic fungicides.  
  • TurfNet contributor Hector Velazquez has been named to the board of directors of the International Golf Course Equipment Managers Association.   Velazquez, equipment manager at Walnut Creek Country Club in South Lyon, Mich., will join several others named as officers or board members of the association.   Mike Kriz of Arrowhead Golf Club in Rapid City, S.D., was elected the association's next president, and serving as vice president will be Henry Heinz of Belfair Plantation Golf Club in Bluffton, S.C., and secretary/treasurer John Weidler of Ironbridge Golf Club in Glenwood Springs, Colo. John Patterson of PGA National Golf Resort and Spa in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is the association's immediate past president.   Joining Velazquez on the board of directors will be Bret Hart of Turning Stone Resort in Verona, N.Y., Scott Sanderson of Stonebridge Country Club in Goffstown, N.H., Chris Rapp of Bellerive Country Club - St.Louis, Mo., Luke Spartalis of The Royal Melbourne Golf Club in Melbourne, Australia, Adam Thompson of Commonwealth Golf Club in Victoria, Australia, Alan Bussey of The Ford Plantation in Richmond Hill, Ga., and Kenneth Meals of Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.

  • Bridging the gap

    By John Reitman, in News,

    Connecting the gap between generations has been a challenge for the ages, but it's been especially tough on the golf business during an ever-changing economy.   Attracting new and younger players has proven to be, despite widespread efforts, nearly a futile effort. And expecting the next generation of employees to display the same work ethic their parents did, is, for many superintendents, an exercise in frustration.   Indeed, the complaint is a common one among seasoned superintendents: Younger employees lack the work ethic displayed by their older colleagues. Interns arrive ready to get on the fast track to becoming a head superintendent, yet don't want to work weekends and lack the experience required to rake a bunker.   And when it comes to assigning blame for that lack of work ethic, senior superintendents might not like where they have to look for an answer a mirror.   As a consultant to corporate America, Steve Drake says 20-somethings weren't born with a lack of get-up-and-go; it was taught to them by doting helicopter parents who teach that effort trumps results.    "Now, here's this Gen Y, who from the time they were born got a trophy if they woke up. Seriously. You got a trophy for participating. You didn't have to win," said Drake, a speaker at last month's Syngenta Business Institute in Winston-Salem, N.C.   "Who trained this generation to expect that? (Baby) Boomers and older (Generation) Xers."   The younger generation of today's workers, called Generation Y or Millennials by Drake,  also learned a lack of loyalty for employers by watching their parents, despite years of dedicated service to a single employer, get laid off in their 50s thanks to sweeping cost-cutting moves. (Sound familiar?)   Regardless of how potential employers feel about any of this, Millennials are here to stay. This age group comprises more than 70 million people and is the country's fastest-growing demographic due to immigration, Drake says. And they're not likely to change how they view employers and what they expect in return.   "Baby Boomers live to work. To them, work is a place where you go every day," Drake said. "For Generation Y, they work to live. Things that are important to them are flex time, friends, family, community service and social media."   Superintendents on the other hand are simply worried about hiring, managing and retaining a good crew so playability on the course is not compromised and everyone gets to keep his or her job. But that won't always be enough.   "Now, the challenge is we have to deal with this, because (Millennials) want recognition and rewards," Drake said.   Like it or not, Drake says, managing a younger workforce eventually is going to require some change by those up the chain of command to be more accepting of the factors that are important to younger workers.   Although offering flextime to someone scheduled to be on a mower at 6 a.m. daily is a stretch, there are other, easier-to-implement ways to engage younger employees, Drake says. That list includes promoting feedback, empowering workers, embracing technology, offering educational and career-advancement opportunities, employee golf outings or take-your-child-to-work days and promoting stronger interpersonal communications.   Attracting and engaging the next generation of golfers has been even more difficult for an industry struggling under current economic conditions. Since 2006, rounds played have been relatively flat resulting in a net loss of more than 500 golf courses, according to the National Golf Foundation. Research by Pellucid Corp. shows that golf is increasingly a game carried disproportionately by those age 50 and above.   Like their peers who work at golf courses, members of Generation Y are attracted to golf's social aspects, Drake says. And golf facilities that hope to attract them will have to promote that interpersonal touch.   "What are you going to do to get them?" Drake asked. "They have a lot of other things to do (with their time). Keep in mind that according to all generational research, they like to do things as groups of friends. What does golf do to get groups of friends to play golf? Appealing to them to play golf on their own ain't gonna work."
  • The Golf Course Superintendents Association of Northern California recently named Wayne Kappelman as the recipient of its superintendent of the year award.
     
    Kappelman, who is superintendent at Sharp Park Golf Course, an Alister MacKenzie designed owned by the City and County of San Francisco, will receive the award at the chapters annual meeting, scheduled for Jan. 13 at Oakhurst Country Club in Clayton, Calif.
     
    The association also will honor former University of California Cooperative Extensive specialist Ali Harivandi, Ph.D., with the GSANC Presidents Award for his contributions to turfgrass and irrigation water research.
     
    Other award recipients will include Randal Gai, CGCS, formerly of Claremont Country Club (George Santana Distinguished Service Award); Jim Ferrin, CGCS at Sun City Roseville and Jason Goss of Sonoma Golf Club (public and private sector Turfgrass Excellence Awards, respectively); and Adrian Bertens of Hydro Engineering and Mike Ligon of Jacobsen West (Bert Graves Affiliate Merit Award).
     
     
    In other news, former GCSAA president Steve Cadenelli, CGCS, and turf pathologists Bruce Clarke, Ph.D., of Rutgers University and Bruce Martin, Ph.D., of Clemson University have been named as recipients of this year's GCSAA John Morley Distinguished Service Awards.   The awards will be presented at this year's Golf Industry Show that is scheduled for February in Orlando, Fla. Cadenelli spent more than 40 years as a golf course superintendent at clubs throughout the Northeast, including at the Country Club of New Canaan in New Canaan, Conn., Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, N.J., and Cape Cod National Golf Club in Brewster, Mass.   Clarke is chairman of the department of plant biology and pathology and director of the Center for Turfgrass Science at Rutgers, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1982.   His research has focused on managing cool-season turf diseases such as anthracnose, gray leaf spot and patch diseases. His work has resulted in widespread implementation of new control strategies.   Martin has been a research scientist in the plant pathology and physiology division of Clemson's department of entomology, soils and plant sciences for 26 years and has been a leader in developing strategies for managing creeping bentgrass in warm-weather locations.   His work has focused mostly on developing management programs with fungicides and nematicides.    In 2010, Martin received the Carolinas GCSA Distinguished Service Award as well as the Clemson Alumni Association's Alumni Distinguished Cooperative Extension Public Service Award. Named for the founder and inaugural president of the GCSAA, the Morley award is given annually to those who have made an outstanding, substantive and enduring contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession.
  • The Golf Skate Caddy offers an alternative to golfers who want a more contemporary way to get from one golf hole to the next.    Due for official launch at this year's PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando, Fla., the Golf Skate Caddy is a stand-on golf transport vehicle that looks like a skateboard with a golf bag attached to it.   Powered by a 1,000-watt electric motor and lithium ion battery, the Golf Skate Caddy features a mono-handle that is pushed to one side or the other to steer. The handle also features a handbrake, which will come in handy since the vehicle has a top speed of about 12 mph.   The Golf Skate Caddy does have a pedestal seat, but the ability for golfers to stand and steer the device like a skateboard is an appeal to attract younger players.    Maximum weight load is 243 pounds, including golf bag and clubs. The vehicle also can carry divot mix dispenser, a drink bottle, umbrella and scorecard, and an optional cooler also is available.   The Golf Skate Caddy reportedly will sell for about $3,200.
  • Brandt, a manufacturer of agricultural specialty products, has reached an agreement to buy Grigg Brothers.
     
    The acquisition of Grigg Brothers, a manufacturer of liquid and granular fertilizer products for the golf and sports turf markets since 1995, fits Brandt's aggressive corporate strategy of providing superior products throughout the world, according to the Springfield, Ill.-based company. The combined company has sales in 48 states and 45 countries. In addition to the turf category, Brandt offers a broad range of specialty products for the agriculture, sustainable and ornamental markets, including plant nutrients, adjuvants, lawn & garden products, sustainable controls and soil amendments.
     
    Though long-term business plans are still being formulated, Grigg Brothers will become part of Brandt's Specialty Formulations division, under the direction of Vice President, Bill Engel.
     
    "The intellectual capital, knowledge and relationships (Griggs Brothers) bring will transform our existing T&O capabilities, making us an undisputed leader in the turfgrass business," Engel said. "I can't wait for the Golf Industry Show to really start to get to work together."
     
    Mark and Gary Grigg will become part of the Brandt team. Mark Grigg, current CEO of Grigg Brothers, will continue to provide strategic operations management and key account service. The announcement comes on the heels of the Gary Grigg's recent retirement.
     
    "I am proud of the company we built," Mark Grigg said. "But I am truly excited about our future together with Brandt. This transaction will give us access to a wide range of world class people and products."
  • It's not exactly the same as Congress deciding the fate of the country, but the annual ritual of budget negotiations can be just as important to the future viability of any club.   "I'm not talking about two nations here, but we are talking about competing for resources with another manager within your organization, and you have to figure out who gets those resources and how you have to allocate them," said Amy Wallis, professor of practice in organizational behavior at Wake Forest University during this year's Syngenta Business Institute. "You have an employee who wants to change their work schedule and you have to decide if that is feasible and everything that is going to be impacted by that decision.   "These are the kinds of negotiations we engage in on a day-to-day basis."   Held in December at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., SBI is a four-day professional business development program that provides about two-dozen superintendent attendees with graduate school-level business education in a compressed and interactive format.   Developed in conjunction with the Wake Forest University Schools of Business, the program supplements superintendents' management skills with a curriculum that includes financial management, personnel management, effective communications and negotiating skills delivered in an interactive series of seminars and workshops conducted by members of Wake's MBA faculty.   The program included sessions on financial management, managing across generations and leading teams and individuals.   Negotiations processes that the group identified as the kind that typically involve superintendents include negotiating with managers about budgets, the golf shop about frost delays and vendors over product pricing.   "This truly is an eye-opening experience," said Matt Kregel of The Club at Strawberry Creek in Kenosha, Wis. "Negotiating has been one of my weaknesses. The techniques we've heard about can be implemented as soon as we get home."   According to Wallis, many negotiations go awry because people from one or both sides enter the process without understanding what makes such processes successful.   "We tend to think of negotiations as a zero-sum game," she said. "Everything I get is something you lose. Everything you get is something taken from me. I am competing to get the most of that pie.   "That is how most of us think about negotiations. What we find out is that when we cooperate others tend to cooperate as well. We need to learn how to leverage that."  
    What we find out is that when we cooperate others tend to cooperate as well..."
      Wallis used an arm wrestling exercise to demonstrate how negotiations commonly work, which often is a confrontational relationship, and how the process can be a win-win for both sides.   She instructed members of the group to pin their arm wrestling partner as many times as possible. As attendees struggled to pin each other in the exercise, Wallis demonstrated how by each person allowing themselves to be pinned, both people got what they wanted.   "We tend to define success as I have more than you do so I won," Wallis said. "Is there a different definition of success that is not about winning or losing, but about both of us getting what we need?   "What happens to develop a win-win situation? We have to learn how to let go. We have to trust, have to be willing to concede, i am willing to let you take this point because i am go to trust that next you are going to be willing to let me take the point."  
    We have to learn how to let go. We have to trust, have to be willing to concede,.."
      Sometimes, it requires creativity for the negotiations process to be successful.   "I didn't get a business degree, I got an agronomy degree," said Ralph Kepple, CGCS at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. "I took some business classes. The part on negotiating was eye opening. You see what happens when you break trust."   Three things to consider for a successful negotiations process include: substance, or what is being negotiated; process, or how the negotiation will take place and relationships between those involved in the process.   This requires some self reflection to determine if one tends to approach interpersonal conflict from competing, collaborating, compromising, accommodating or avoidance perspectives.   "We have to be mindful to processes, and if we are going to change them," Wallis said. "If we don't think about the processes beforehand, what assumptions do we walk in with? We walk in with the assumption that this is going to be combative, somebody's going to win, somebody's going to lose. I have to get as much as I can out of this and make sure the other guy or gal doesn't get as much as they want."   "The other thing we need to take into consideration is the relationship. Most of the time you are engaged in a negotiation, it probably is with someone you are going to have an ongoing relationship with."   Wallis pointed to an example provided by an attendee who says he spends all year fostering a positive relationship with his club's controller to help smooth over the budget negotiations process.   Investing in relationships makes sense, Wallis said.    "That way, when you do eventually need something you've got that good will in the bank so people are inclined to help you," Wallis said.   "Folks who spend most of the year making other people mad probably are not going to be as successful in a negotiation as someone who invests in helping people get their job done well."
  • Between semesters at Anoka Technical College (Anoka, MN) and while interning on the greens staff at Golden Valley Golf and Country Club (Golden Valley, MN), Rob Grant had one of those "better ideas": a simple, plastic, easily removable device to protect golf cups from paint drips, spray and pigment stain, and sand topdressing.
     
    Thus, the Cup-Saver was born.
     
    Grant had a virtual prototype designed on a CAD system and a physical model produced via 3-D printing, a relatively new "additive manufacturing" process that slices a virtual prototype into digital cross sections to serve as a blueprint for "printing". The machine then lays down successive layers of liquid, powder, paper or sheet material until the final 3D model is complete. The final product is made of engineered thermoplastic.
     
    Looking sort of like an inverted funnel, the Cup-Saver fits inside the cup hole and rests on the top lip of the golf cup... beneath the inch of soil frequently painted white for visibility.  The inverted "nose" serves as a handle to quickly insert and remove the Cup-Saver while painting cup rings, before and after spraying, and to keep sand topdressing out of the cup.
     

    The Cup-Saver is available for purchase through cup-saver.com, Pricing is $130 for four and $275 for ten.
  • November was a good news, bad news sort of month for the golf business.
     
    The bad news, according to Golf Datatech's National Rounds Played Report, was that year-over-year rounds played for the month were down 11 percent (10 percent at daily fee courses and 15 percent at private clubs), compared to November 2012.
     
    The good news, according to Pellucid Corp., is that such losses so late in the golf season have little bearing on yearly totals.
     
    Rounds played for the month were down in 39 states by as little as 1.2 percent in New York to as much as 53 percent in Iowa. For the year, play is down by 4.8 percent compared with the first 11 months of 2012.
     
    According to the report, which does not track rounds in Alaska, play was up in 10 states, including gains of 4 percent in Utah and 25 percent in New Jersey.
     
    The losses in November were predictable, according to Pellucid, given the early arrival of winter conditions in many states.
     
    For example, in Chicago, which is no stranger to cold weather, average daily highs and lows throughout November, ran 3 degrees colder than the historic average, according to the National Weather Service. As a result, play was down in the city by 48 percent in November. Daily temperatures in St. Louis, where play was down by nearly 30 percent, also were 3 degrees below normal for the month.
     
    According to Pellucid, golf playable hours, a measurement of the total number of daylight hours compared with factors that influence play such as precipitation, humidity, daylight variances, etc., were down by 14 percent in November.
  • CTR Golf (Clover, SC) has announced the release of the Buchko Brush rotary turf brush attachment designed for the Toro Greensmaster Flex series of cutting units.
     
    The Buchko Brush, initially developed and produced for Jacobsen's Eclipse series walk behind mowers, features controlled rpm, bi-directional rotation, and quick release changeout of brushes with a variety of stiffness for use on cool- and warm-season grasses.   CTR Golf has completed development of the brush for fixed head walk behind and riding mower models from Jacobsen. With the adaptation for Toro Flex units, the Buchko Brush is the first rotary brush system designed to fit multiple manufacturers' equipment.   The Buchko Brush fitted to the Toro Flex series 18 and 21 inch cutting units will begin sales in January 2014. CTR Golf plans to complete development on the Buchko Brush for Toros Greenmaster fixed head mowers in Q1, 2014.   For more information, visit www.ctrgolf.com.  
  • TurfNet Quality of Cut Week kicked off Monday with a spirited presentation by Michael Morris, CGCS (Crystal Downs Country Club, Frankfort, MI) and Stephen Bernhard (Bernhard & Co, Rugby, England), moderated by Peter McCormick of TurfNet. The presentation focused on how quality of cut serves as the foundation for not only playability and presentation, but also the fiscal health of the club or course.

    Mike Morris explained how he has been able to assess expectations of his golfing clientele, arrive at a target green speed that satisfies the majority, and then tweak his management program over time to manage for that "ideal" ball roll distance with minimal day-to-day variability.

    Stephen Bernhard contributed his global industry experience and viewpoint to stress listening to the customer, communicating effectively with them at all levels, and managing quality of cut to maximize the "wow!" factor and ultimate customer satisfaction.
     
    During a lively 45-minute Q&A session, attendees peppered Morris with questions about his reel and turf management program, including how he convinced his mechanic to buy-in to a no-lap, no-contact, always-super-sharp regimen. In fact, we had to cut off questions as our time ran out!
     

    Question: "Mike, how often do you backlap?"  Answer: "Never."

    Monday's session was free and open to all, as is the recording... which can be accessed by registering here.  Set aside an hour and 40 minutes because you won't want to miss any of it.  The approval code for 0.15 GCSAA education credits is given at the end of the recording.
     
    The momentum continues Tuesday with Bill Stone, golf product specialist from John Deere, presenting at 10:00 AM EST. Stone will address common causes of quality of cut issues and techniques to remedy them; cutting unit setup; roller selection (including proprietary MT rollers) for special situations; hybrid technology and FOC.
     

     
    Tuesday afternoon at 1:00 EST, five presenters from Jacobsen will discuss the history of the Jacobsen reel; geometry, angle of attack, behind center reel distance; manufacturing processes for reels & bedknives, and managing FOC on the greens. A video tour of the Jacobsen factory will be included.
     

     
    Presentations on Tuesday through Friday are TurfNet Members Only. If you have toyed with the idea of becoming a TurfNet member but never pulled the trigger, now is the time to kick off your year of TurfNet membership with a bang! Six Members-Only webcasts over four days with on-demand viewing available four hours after the live event closes.

    In addition to this webcast series and our other 24+ live TurfNet University webinar events during the year (and 100 more in our on-demand archives), TurfNet members enjoy free job listings... free used equipment listings... access to the Members Only area for three individuals... the Forum, our private discussion area... an invitation to our famous Beer & Pretzels Gala at GIS... and all the new friends, networking and camaraderie that goes with every TurfNet membership.  

    All that for $195/year!  That's nuts!  This webcast series alone is worth that!

    If for some reason your membership has lapsed, follow these instructions to renew.  Glad to have you back!
     
  • Since it became part of the AT&T National Pro-Am rotation in more than 20 years ago, Poppy Hills Golf Course has faced one stiff challenge after another, not the least of which was eventually getting bumped from its lofty tournament perch.   The greatest obstacles facing the 1986 Robert Trent Jones Jr. design on California's Monterey Peninsula have included an effort to make the routing relevant and navigating a grow-in through significant local water-use issues.   Poppy Hills replaced highly regarded Cypress Point Club on the AT&T circuit in 1991. Supplanting the Alister MacKenzie classic was like an opening act following the Beatles on stage - no matter how good you are, it's not going to be good enough. And Poppy was never good enough.   Other layouts on the three-course AT&T circuit that include Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill are either on or near the Pacific. But the heavily forested and inland Poppy Hills course failed to wow the pros from the start and quickly earned the moniker "Sloppy Poppy" or "Sloppy Hills" from PGA Tour players who bemoaned drainage issues on the course and dogged some holes as being downright "goofy".   By 2010, Poppy was out of the rotation in favor of the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club, a 1959 Bob Baldock/Jack Neville oceanfront masterpiece made even better 10 years ago by the late Mike Strantz.   With its high-class neighbors setting the bar higher and higher, the road to relevancy has been a long one for Poppy Hills.   Last spring, construction began on an RTJ II redesign, the scope of which is matched in magnitude only by some of the challenges confronting it. As such, parts of the project have become an exercise in patience and being a good neighbor.   The project included moving a total of 115,000-120,000 cubic yards of earth, taking out trees in some areas and creating new forested corridors in others, raising some areas and dropping others, some by as much as 10 feet.    "This opportunity presented itself as an adventure in renovation and restoration," said Tom Huesgen of Frontier Golf, contractor on the project, during this year's Northern California Golf Association Assistant Superintendent Boot Camp education event in October.   "I still struggle, with all the work that has been done out here, to call this a renovation or restoration," said Huesgen, the former golf course superintendent, whose resume includes a stint at Pebble Beach. "I'd almost categorize this as a new golf course on top of an old site."   Moving earth, filling in ponds and relocating a practice area were only a few of the challenges associated with the project.    Water is a precious resource on golf courses around the country, and nowhere is that more evident than on the Monterey Peninsula where average annual rainfall is a scant 18 inches.   Residents, businesses and golf courses have been asked to conserve water for a long time, about 20 years, according to Poppy Hills superintendent Manny Sousa. In an effort to be a good environmental neighbor, the Poppy Hills project included reducing the amount of irrigated turf from 82 acres to 62 acres. But it also included carpeting the fairways with a 5-inch blanket of sand.   That was a source of great concern for other courses in the area.   Seven courses inside the 17-Mile Drive loop, Poppy Hills included, draw water from the Forest Lake reservoir, a 325-acre-feet reclaimed water impoundment in the Del Monte Forest that is managed by the Carmel Area Wastewater District. There is a finite allotment of water for those courses that is self-managed by the honor system. With rainfall totals for the year running behind already arid historic averages and a lagging tourism industry further stifling the output of reclaimed water, levels in Forest Lake were running low before a single seed had gone into the ground on Poppy Hills' sand-covered fairways. The original plans for the project called for seeding to begin in late May. But the fear was that the grow-in at Poppy would require too much water at a time when other courses needed it most. Not to mention a spike in the cost of reclaimed water.   The price of water also had gone up - a lot - from about $175,000 per year in 2012 to $500,000 for the same amount of water this year, Sousa said.    "How can you grow-in a golf course without water?" Sousa said.    Representatives from all courses drawing from the pipe met to seek a solution.   "The demand for water was higher than what (the wastewater district) was producing. Nothing was going into the reservoir, and it was operating at a deficit for months. It was a panic" Huesgen said.    "We had half the place tore up and no water to grow grass."   The solution included delaying seeding at Poppy Hills by two months and voluntary cutbacks by the other courses.   A mid-summer bump in tourism meant more toilets flushing at area hotels and provided enough reclaimed water to go ahead with seeding on July 27, which also was the first day on the job site for grow-in superintendent Matt Muhlenbruch who will take over for the retiring Sousa next year.    "There were questions about where would the water come from, how much would we have and how much would it cost," Huesgen said.   "We could have seeded earlier, but we waited because there was not enough water for everyone," Sousa said. "This project was not without its challenges."   The new-look Poppy Hills will open in April, and though it is isn't scheduled to return to the AT&T any time soon, it will be worthy of such an event and with vast sandy waste areas will remind players of Pinehurst No. 2 or Pine Valley, Huesgen said.   "The goal there of course is, in the long run as the course grows in and matures, to use less water in the future and maintain a golf course that is still acceptable for this area," Huesgen said. "It's not going to be target golf like desert golf. It will be a target-type, limited turf golf course in a forested area."
  • Turning a snow-covered green into a dry and playable putting surface in a matter of days is no Christmas miracle, but instead the result of planning, science and hard work at one of the country's old golf facilities.   In the past, play at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis had been hampered by poor greens drainage and slopes and swales that moved water from one area only to have it suspended in another.   Last summer, John Cunningham CGCS, who was the superintendent behind the revival of TPC at Las Colinas in Irving, Texas, had a SubAir system installed at Bellerive.   Though use of the system and constant soil monitoring with handheld probes, Cunningham not only was able to identify optimal soil moisture levels, he now had the tools to deliver those sought-after conditions on a consistent basis.   The system, he says, is strong enough to remove excess water while leaving enough moisture in the soil to provide for proper plant health.   In mid-December, the greens at Bellerive were covered in 4 inches of snow. Temperatures that climbed into the 50s a week later left the greens soaked and inhospitable to golfers. In the past, wet winter conditions resulted in volumetric water content on Bellerive's greens, said Cunningham, were 30 percent to 50 percent above normal.   During normal mode, Cunningham runs the SubAir system for 7 minutes every 2 hours. After the recent snow event, he left it on for about 24 hours, which resulted in removal of all excess moisture by Dec. 20. By the time he was able to walk the course the next day, the difference was very noticeable. No sponginess. No footprinting.   In a demonstration video Cunningham posted to , assistant superintendent Chris Fletcher showed how effective the system was by taking soil moisture readings at various points around Bellerive's No. 9 green. And all readings, whether taken from high points or low were in Cunningham's range of providing acceptable playing conditions.   "No Christmas miracle here," Cunningham said. "Lots of investigation, planning, testing, sampling, communicating, meetings, approvals, agronomics and just plain old hard work."

  • Proper context

    By John Reitman, in News,

    When golfers walk off the 18th green at La Rinconada Country Club in California's Silicon Valley, superintendent Kevin Breen wants them to be able to say three things: that they had fun, that the golf course is well maintained with an attention to detail, and that it presents a fair test to players.

    A lifetime of playing golf has helped Breen view the courses on which he has worked from the eyes of a player more than a grass-grower.

    "I think that is imperative that you play golf. If you're not playing, you should walk the golf course and walk in all of the places the golfer walks," said Breen, superintendent at La Rinconada in Los Gatos, Calif, for almost two years. "Start on the teebox, walk down the fairways, look at all those areas, bunkers and greens, and go at a slow enough speed so you can take it in slower than you would if you were on a golf cart. You'll notice things you never noticed before."

    It took a while for Breen, 51, to realize it, but he was destined for a life in golf. His parents even bought his first set of clubs before he was born, and he became an accomplished player in the junior ranks. After years of competitive play, frustration took over and Breen, still playing junior golf, walked away from the game. At the time, he thought he might be stepping away forever.

    Although Breen eventually returned to golf as a greenkeeper and not a player, the route he took to get there was a circuitous one that at one time included aspirations of monitoring and forecasting weather.

    Breen graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1987 with a degree in meteorology and envisioned a career with a federal agency like the National Weather Service as a forecaster or researcher. Colorado, Breen said, was "ground zero" for meteorology and a move to the Rockies meshed well with his other love, skiing.

    "My plan was to work in a field office doing research or forecasting," he said. "I didn't have much of an interest in being on TV."

    But this was during the Reagan administration, Reaganomics and small government, and federal jobs were difficult, and in some cases impossible, to come by.

    Rather than pursuing his dream, Breen was far from home, fresh off a failed marriage and in need of work.

    He found a job at the ski operation at Keystone Ranch, a golf and ski resort in Dillon, Colo., because it offered an opportunity to be outdoors. It was only when he listened to tales spun by Jack DeRyk, who doubled as Keystone's golf course superintendent and ski lift operator, that Breen entertained the idea of a life in turf management.

    "Jack was an amazing man. He had so many stories," Breen said. "He worked alongside us every day telling us all of these amazing stories. I immediately fell in love with the place and the job."

    Soon after, Breen, who by this time had remarried, enrolled in the turfgrass management program at Colorado State University in hopes of parlaying his new passion into a career.

    "I grew up on a golf course," said Breen, who played extensively as a junior at the spartan Elks Golf Club in Salina, Kan. "It fit my personality perfectly."

    He paid his dues at other places such as Jackson Hole (Wyo.) Golf and Tennis Club and Pagosa Springs (Colo.) Golf Club until finally landing his first job as a head superintendent at Los Alamos Golf Course in New Mexico.

    During the early stages of his career two decades ago, Breen picked up invaluable tips at each stop, including knowing when to talk less and listen more and that it was OK not to be perfect all the time.

    "Brian Heywood, my superintendent at Jackson Hole, told me that making mistakes is OK, just don't make big ones," Breen said. "That takes a lot of pressure off a young person. Mike Kosak (then of Lahontan Golf Club) told me that he taught by osmosis.

    "I'm still not sure exactly what that means, but I think part of it is learning by watching.

    "Everyone who I ever worked for or was in a classroom with I learned something from. The best people gave me room to make mistakes and learn from them."

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