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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    What do you do with an 18-hole executive course struggling to make ends meet in one of the country's most golf-centric locations? Easy; turn it into a 9-hole daily fee course with a luxury apartment complex for seniors. Oh, and tie the name of the new venture to the earliest days of American history.
    Sounds different, but that's exactly what has happened at the former Heatherwood Golf Course on Long Island in New York.
    Opened in 1965, the financially struggling Heatherwood course was shuttered in 2020 in the midst of the Covid pandemic. Fast forward three years, and Heritage Spy Ring Golf Club — along with a 200-unit, upscale 55-and-over apartment community — opened on its spot in the town of Setauket, which is located along the northern coast of central Long Island.
    Although it only came together in the past few years, the transition of converting a struggling 18-hole facility to a 9-hole operation with built-in cash flow from a rental community is one that has been on the drawing board for nearly a decade. 

    Heritage Spy Ring Golf Club includes 200 upscale rental units for seniors. It was nine years ago, in 2014, when Heatherwood's owners were able to secure a zoning change that would allow for a rental community in the Long Island town, albeit a pricey one. 
    Even though zoning change allowed owners to redevelop the Heatherwood site, plans to add a luxury rental community were not approved until 2021, a year after Heatherwood closed.
    When plans for the Heatherwood site were announced, the property's owners said they wanted a challenging 9-hole layout that could be played in less than two hours but would be challenging enough to attract Long Island's better players.
    Architect Tyler Rae, who studied under Ron Prichard and Keith Foster, was brought aboard to design the new par-36 course that plays from 2,323 to 3,105 yards with holes ranging from 97 to 520 yards in length. The course is defined by its massive greens and hazards that take advantage of the property's natural landforms.
    The course draws its name from the Culper Spy Ring that was founded by Gen. George Washington's intelligence officer during the American Revolution.
  • If this whole golf course maintenance thing doesn't work out for Emily Casey, she might want to consider a career as a social media influencer.
    Casey, the assistant superintendent at Seven Canyons Golf Club in Sedona, Arizona, is the owner of the infamous video with nearly 33 million views on the site formerly known as Twitter that shows damage caused by javelinas. That's right, 33 million.
    "I know, it's crazy. I was expecting maybe a few thousand views, not 30 million," said Casey (right) laughing. "It's not even a good video. It's loud and it's shaky and it's recorded on an iPhone X. I'm not even a social media person."
    You are now.
    The video shows the result of a herd of javelina, which are native to Arizona, peeling back turf in search of a meal underneath the surface.
    "We've done all our apps for grubs, and we haven't found a grub on the golf course," Casey said. "We think they're going for earthworms." 
    The feedback the video has generated runs the gamut from supportive and sympathetic to callous and repugnant.
    Some offered thoughts and prayers, others suggested solutions to help heal the course. At the other end of the spectrum were those who concluded that Arizona is no place for a golf course, anyway, and the staff and members at Seven Canyons sort of got their comeuppance. There were even some who said Casey couldn't tell the difference between a collared peccary (the javelina's official moniker) and a feral hog.

    Ultimately, like most social media influencers, Casey was forced to limit responses on the thread and even stepped away from the unplanned notoriety.
    "Yeah, I've had to take a break from it," Casey said. "I've stopped checking my messages. It's been a little much."
    Prior to Oct. 22, the most popular video on Casey's account was a Jan. 20 clip of a northern Arizona snowstorm that to date has collected more than 480,000 views.
    "I thought that was a lot," she said. "And that was just a snowstorm. This was different." 
    The recent javelina video rapidly brought a very bright spotlight, wanted or not, onto Seven Canyons.
    "I've been posting videos of javelinas for the last few months, and no one has ever noticed," Casey said. "I posted this one on a Sunday, and by the time I came into work on Monday morning, it had more than 3 million views. I thought 'Oh, man.' "
    Andy Huber, her boss and the superintendent at Seven Canyons, was headed to the airport that day for a conference. Casey told him she'd sent him a text message when the video reached 10 million views. 
    "By the time his plane landed it was at 15 million," she said.
    And his response?
    "Oh, no. That might be publicity we don't want."
    "At first, I was a little nervous," she said. 
    "It's been a lot of publicity, but most of it has been positive. Now, we just laugh at it."
    Members not only have gobbled up the notoriety their golf course has received, many have pitched in to help repair the damage. That's a good thing, considering the javelina show up almost daily during the hot, dry months. When the javelina are most active, the Seven Canyon crew spends 100-150 hours a week repairing turf in fairways and rough and on tees and approaches.

    Damage on the 13th fairway at Seven Canyons in Sedona, Arizona. All photos by Emily Casey "The members have been great," she said. "It's been nice to have the support of the members."
    So, just what is a javelina, or collared peccary?
    Some in Casey's conversation wondered, or even claimed, that they are related to pigs, but they're not. As disgusting as pigs are, javelinas are even worse, said Casey, a Penn State graduate who has learned a lot about them since she arrived in August 2022 at Seven Canyons. 
    "They stink," Casey said. 
    Unrelated to pigs, javelinas are native the American Southwest with a natural range that extends south through Mexico and Central America into South America. They are considered game in Arizona with a strictly regulated hunting season that spans January and February. 
    That rules out the advice offered by so many on X who suggested a poison or even what caliber of ammunition would be best to wipe them out.
    Even those who hunt them legally during season are permitted only one per tag.
    "They're native to here, just like deer," she said. "And we wouldn't just blow away deer."
    They're native like deer with the odor of a skunk, leading some to call them "skunk pig."
    A scent gland on the javalina's rump emits a strong odor that most find repulsive but javelina consider inviting. They rub their rears on trees to mark territory, and they rub it on other javelina to identify members of their herd, which can number up to 50 or more.
    "It's nasty," Casey said. "If you hunt them and get their oils on the meat, it spoils the meat. And if you hit that scent gland, forget it. You just have to leave it for the coyotes, and they probably won't even touch it."

    In the meantime, the javelina run roughshod over Seven Canyons almost daily. When Casey posted a time-lapse video of the Seven Canyons crew repairing damage, viewers noted how they'll just return and damage the same area.
    "That's what they do. They come right back the next day," she said. "We have to laugh about it. If you don't, you'll cry."
    Javelina activity is dependent on weather. They are less active - at least on the golf course - during rainy periods and throughout the winter.
    "When it's hot and dry, they're here almost every day," Casey said. "Last summer we had a lot of rain, so we didn't see too many."
    With overnight temperatures in the 30s in northern Arizona, the javelina finally are becoming less visible at Seven Canyons. When winter hits, they'll disappear.
    "I think now they're just loading up, getting as many earthworms as they can before winter," Casey said. "When it's freezing, there's nothing here for them."
    With each visit, they hit the same cluster of holes. They're favorite run includes holes 9, 11, 15, 16 and the practice range.
    "It looks worse on video than it is," Casey said. "They're like animal sod cutters. They roll up the turf and we just roll it back - at least in the fairways. The rough is the worst, we've had to shut down trying to repair the rough until they go away."
    To minimize future damage, the club is soliciting bids to complete fencing of the property.
    "Traps don't work. They're very territorial. Once one herd leaves, another one will take right over," Casey said. 
    "The club is partially fenced. We're taking bids right now to see who can complete it ASAP." 
  • Agronomy is among the many training modules offered by the Bobby Jones Links Leadership Center. BJL photo Bobby Jones Links is adding a new division focused on leadership training for companies in the golf and hospitality industries.
    The Bobby Jones Links Leadership Center is an educational initiative focused on training resources, consulting and best practices developed at Bobby Jones Links-managed properties across the country.
    The center's focus is on training individuals and teams within an operation on leadership systems, insights and leadership philosophies.
    The company offers consulting in agronomy, operations, food and beverage, membership services, staff training, sales and marketing, communications, risk management, development and renovation, human resources, procurement, finance and accounting, technology and social media.
    The leadership center also provides in-person training to clients, the next being Feb. 13-14 at Eastpointe Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens. Attendees do not have to be existing Bobby Jones Links clients or from BJL properties.
    Based in Alpharetta, Georgia, Bobby Jones Links manages more than two dozen clubs in 11 eastern U.S. states.
  • Funny how life changes when one encounters a fork in the road. Life hangs in the balance depending on which route is chosen.
    Steve Cook, CGCS MG, director of golf course operations at Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago, came upon such a fork decades ago when he was a student at the University of Illinois. One route led to a dead end career in forestry, the other to an incredibly successful career as a golf course superintendent. 
    Cook, who started down one path, backtracked and eventually took the other, will retire Nov. 1 after a 40-year greenkeeping career that has taken him around the world.
    As a forestry major, Cook thought he had his career all figured out.
    "I had an affinity for forestry," Cook said. "I wanted to be a park ranger."
    Things changed when he and his classmates were dispatched to southern Illinois for a series of summer courses.
    The class was sent to a facility in Paducah, Kentucky, where lodgepole pines were trimmed and shaped into telephone poles and injected with creosote. Cook talked up one of the workers who was covered head to toe in the tarry substance.
    "I asked him how he got a job like that," Cook said. "He told me he had a master's (degree) in forestry, and that was all I heard."
    That same year, a forestry professor from the university told the class his priority was to get as many students as possible to drop out of the program.
    He asked how many people entered forestry to become a ranger, thinking they'd ride a horse through the mountains of Colorado.
    "Of course, my hand shot straight up," Cook said. "Then he told us for every job like that there were 1,000 applicants, and we'd probably end up taking tickets at a state park and cleaning bathrooms."
    Clearly, it was time to change majors.
    Cook, turning right rather than left, changed majors to horticulture, took a summer job on a golf course and the rest is history.

    Steve Cook will continue to explore the outdoors in his upcoming retirement. "You could have heard a pin drop in that room," Cook said. "Honestly, it was depressing to kill someone's dream like that. I was waiting this whole time for someone just to show me how to ride a horse. I thought I would be Smokey the Bear."
    Forty years later, Cook is set to take another fork on the road when his retirement is official. Cook worked at Medinah under Pete Wilson before taking the job at Golf de Joyenval in France, where he worked for two years.
    That led him in 1992 to the Wakonda Club in Des Moines, Iowa, where he eventually met Rick Tegtmeier.
    "When he came here, I reached out and told him whatever he needed to let me know," said Tegtmeier, CGCS at Des Moines Golf and Country Club. "We've leaned on each other a lot over the years."
    Sharing information has not been limited to agronomics on the golf course. When Tegtmeier has encountered things in his career that are outside of his control, Cook has been there with advice.
    "When I've had concerns, he tells me to get over it," Tegtmeier said. "When I need to get my head straightened out, he's my guy."
    That approach has summed up much of Cook's career.
    During the past four decades, Cook has seen tremendous advancements in greenkeeping technology, newer and more effective products make it to market and height of cut drop dramatically, increasing pressure on the turf and those who manage it.
    Eight years ago, he scaled almost all 22,349 feet of Ama Dablam in Nepal before his party was forced to turn back due to an injury among one of his colleagues.
    Whether it was in France, or Des Moines, at Medinah or at Oakland Hills in suburban Detroit where he spent 21 years and oversaw conditions for the 2004 Ryder Cup Matches, Cook always has put people ahead of the job itself.
    "I'm most proud of the relationships I've made," he said. "There have been some tough summers, and some low points. The problem with this job is you take your work home too much, and that robs you of your time. It not only robs you, but it also robs those around you. I'm looking forward to occupying my mind with other things."
    Cook is looking forward to spending time at his newly purchased home in Durango, Colorado and seeing the country from his Airstream camper.
    "I'm going to continue to hike, bike and climb," he said.
    "There have been some tough summers, and some low points. The problem with this job is you take your work home too much, and that robs you of your time. It not only robs you, but it also robs those around you. In the end, nobody remembers the green speed for the club championship. In fact, they probably forget it the next day. What people do remember is what you say to them. It's not the events. They're just a moment in time, and there is no lasting satisfaction in that. It's the people you meet along the way."
    Steve was honored in March, 2022 as a TurfNet All Star of Turf:
     
  • Time is winding down for those who hope to secure a spot in the 2024 UMass Winter Turf School.
    Scheduled for Jan. 2-March 1, the 2024 program will be conducted in a remote, virtual format for the fourth consecutive year. Deadline to apply is Nov. 1.
    Since 1927, the UMass Winter Turf School has been providing an alternative to traditional education that has pumped professional turf managers into positions all around the world.

    Assembled in a compressed certificate program, the 2024 Winter Turf School will cover all the concepts essential to maintaining high quality turf, with emphasis on environmental stewardship and fiscal responsibility. This comprehensive short course includes more than 110 hours of instruction taught by UMass extension specialists and faculty as well as guest instructors and is ideal for experienced or aspiring golf course superintendents, sports field managers, as well as parks and rec and LCO professionals.
    The 2024 course period will be nine weeks built around a 4.5-hour block on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays throughout the duration of the program, with scheduled class time from 1-3 p.m. and 3:30-5:30 p.m. Successful applicants will receive a detailed schedule before classes begin.
    Specific topics that will be covered are:
    > Fundamentals of Turf Management
    > Soil Science and Management
    > Turf Pathology
    > Turf Entomology
    > Weed Management
    > Advanced Topics in Turf
    > Irrigation and Equipment Management
    > Arboriculture
    Benefits of the virtual format include saving on registration costs, travel expenses and time; and opens the program to those who otherwise could not attend.
    A Certificate of Completion will be awarded to those who complete the program. Pesticide recertification contact hours will be offered for those from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, and continuing education credits will be available.
  • Pinehurst Resort will be the site of several USGA events during the next 25 years. Pinehurst Resort photo With a long history of national championships to its credit, Pinehurst Resort will be the host site of six more events during the next 25 years.
    These events are the 2027 U.S. Women's Amateur, 2032 U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Girls' Junior, 2038 U.S. Amateur, 2044 U.S. Women's Amateur and a future U.S. Adaptive Open. The 2027 and 2044 U.S. Women's Amateurs and 2038 U.S. Amateur will be held on Pinehurst No. 2, with the remaining championship's courses to be determined at a later date.
    "Bringing more championships to a venue like Pinehurst is a testament to the USGA's commitment to our long term partnership with the Resort and our promise of expanding the presence of our organization in the area," John Bodenhamer, USGA chief championships officer, said in a news release. "Pinehurst's rich golfing heritage and commitment to excellence make it the perfect setting for all of the USGA's world-class events. Their commitment to our Open championships is incredible, and now we are able to shine a light on the amateur game here as well."
    This decision reaffirms the USGA's commitment to staging national championships at Pinehurst while also bringing its other premier championships to North Carolina with more frequency. The inclusion of the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Girls' Junior will mark the first time these championships will be contested at Pinehurst. The resort has hosted one U.S. Women's Amateur in 1989 and the U.S. Amateur will be played at Pinehurst for a fourth time when it returns in 2038. 
    In addition to the championships announced on Tuesday,  Pinehurst No. 2 also will be the site of the U.S. Open in 2024, 2029, 2035, 2041 and 2047, as well as the U.S. Women's Open in 2029 for another historic year of back-to-back U.S. Open and U.S. Women's Open Championships like the USGA staged at Pinehurst in 2014.
    "We are honored and thrilled to welcome these USGA championships to our historic venue in the years to come and today continues to help us achieve our goal of hosting a variety of premier championships," said Bob Dedman Jr. in the news release, speaking on behalf of the Dedman family, which owns Pinehurst Resort. "This continued partnership with the USGA reflects our shared dedication to the game of golf and the bright future we envision together. Pinehurst's legacy in golf combined with the USGA's commitment to innovation ensures that our collaboration will continue to create memorable championship moments for years to come at all levels of the game."
    North Carolina has hosted 37 USGA championships while Pinehurst Resort has hosted 12 USGA championships, including the U.S. Open in 1999, 2005 and 2014; the U.S. Amateur in 1962, 2008 and 2019; the U.S. Senior Open in 1994; and the U.S. Women's Open in 2014. Other USGA events contested at Pinehurst include the 2017 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship, and the first two U.S. Adaptive Open championships in 2022 and 2023.
    The U.S. Adaptive Open is open to male and female professional and amateur players with a handicap index of 36.4 or less and an eligible impairment confirmed by a WR4GD Pass. The championship is a stroke play event contested over 54 holes utilizing multiple sets of tees.
  • For several years, the Greenkeeper mobile app has been helping superintendents determine the best time to apply plant growth regulators.
    Now, an add-on feature will help them ensure they apply product on where it is needed.
    Greenkeeper CIS allows users to map course boundaries, log pest applications, create prescription spray maps and add drone maps and application records. Users can turn data into application maps for GPS-guided sprayers allowing them to save time and money on product and water.
    "We needed some way to make data actionable," said Bill Kreuser, Ph.D., superintendent at Jim Ager Golf Course in Lincoln, Nebraska, and the founder of Greenkeeper and CIS. "It provides better control of GPS sprayers and irrigation systems. It allows you to pull in boundary files so you can customize where you want to spray.
    "It prevents some areas from not being treated, or over-applying. We now have a way of controlling that sprayer."
    Besides marking boundaries of fairways, tees, bunkers and greens, Greenkeeper CIS (short for Course Information System) allows users to mark off specific targets, including individual weeds, pests and other smaller problem areas for spot-specific application.

    Greenkeeper CIS helps superintendents dial in precise spray applications. Greenkeeper CIS photo "With CIS, you can see your location on the map and you can mark exactly where the pest is," Kreuser said. "You can write notes, and create custom spray applications for those spots for, say, for yellow nutsedge. We're really excited about the realm of precision turf management that this can bring to every turn manager. The reduction in spray volume can be huge. And this allows you to do this without complex software.
    "It will be a nice change to take a map of the course and identify where the problems are, share them and link that to the sprayer."
    Data can be stored locally or on Greenkeeper CIS.
    Kreuser had just recently finished collecting data for the CIS system when his sprayer was stolen from Ager Golf Course and crashed into a police vehicle in August.
    He related a real-world experience to demonstrate the savings that can be realized through the CIS program when he treated for Pythium root rot on four greens at Ager.

    Superintendents can create prescription maps to treat specific areas on the golf course. Greenkeeper CIS photo "I drew where we wanted to treat. It was six spots on four greens," Kreuser said. "Instead of treating all 50,000 square feet, we treated 6,000 square feet and still eliminated the problem."
    To date, Kreuser has worked with multiple companies, including Deere and Frost to upload maps into spray units.
    "They realize clients are begging for a tool to control their sprayer," he said. 
    "This is a hub that brings all that data together and overlays them so the turf manager can make a decision."
    Kreuser founded Greenkeeper in 2017 along with Doug Soldat, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin. Kreuser insists that the latest CIS add-on is not the end of innovation under the Greenkeeper umbrella.
    Kreuser promises more changes by the end of the year.
    "I love the entrepreneurial side of this," he said. "This is all about when you need to do something, minimizing the quantity and making sure the timing is right."
  • Buffalo Turbine's KB23 has a 23 hp, fuel injected gasoline engine. For turf managers who need an easy-to-use, high-powered and affordable blower, Buffalo Turbine recently introduced the Cyclone KB23 tow-behind blower.
    The KB23 is incorporates many of the features from Buffalo's popular KB6 blower built around a 23 horsepower, fuel-injected gasoline engine with and a lower price point. The engine comes with a 3-year warranty and the unit includes a 10-year manufacturer's warranty.
    A wireless start/stop function means no choke is required before starting. 
    Other features of the KB23 easy-to-operate hitch, wireless throttle and nozzle control, heavy duty air cleanerauto nozzle positioning and a six-gallon fuel capacity like its KB6 cousin.
    The KB23 comes with a standard polymer nozzle with rectangular and round aluminum nozzles an available option.
     
  • A year-long restoration of the University of North Carolina's Finley Golf Club was finished this week, with the course opening for play on Wednesday.
    The restoration was the handiwork of Love Golf Design and Davis Love III, who played for the Tar Heels from 1982 to 1986, company president Mark Love, also a Carolina graduate and former Tar Heel golfer, and lead architect Scot Sherman. 
    The $13.5 million restoration includes a wall-to-wall regrassiing with Bermudagrass, lengthening of some holes and expanding the practice area to better suit the needs of the university's golf teams.
    The latest redesign effort is only the second makeover at UNC since the course was built in 1950, when Finley was built by architect George Cobb.
    The course had not been touched since a Tom Fazio renovation in 1999. As other courses throughout North Carolina converted to one of many varieties of ultradwarf Bermudagrass, Finley's greens remained creeping bentgrass. The university's golf team also was in need of a more expansive practice facility.

    The newly renovated University of North Carolina's Finley Golf Club recently reopened. UNC photo Greens were recontoured and regrassed with Tif-Eagle and are surrounded by Tahoma 31 collars. Tees, fairways and rough were grown-in with 419.
    About 16 acres from the 10th and 11th holes have been absorbed to expand the practice facility and provide the golf teams every lie, grass length, corridor and target imaginable. Consulting on the practice facility project was Darren May, desinger of the Michael Jordan-owned Grove 23 in Hobe Sound, Florida.
    The Finley course was built in 1950 by Cobb on land donated to the university by William Coker, a UNC professor and botanist. In 1982, when three holes were remade into intramural and athletic fields and three new ones built in the woods on campus.
    In 1999, Fazio was hired to re-design the course and build a new one. He used some of the original corridors and added drainage since the course was built in a low-lying area prone to flooding. 
    The project also included reversing the nines, with the old front nine now being the back, and vice-versa, because Love saw the par-4 ninth hole as an ideal finishing hole. And with the 10th and 11th holes being swallowed up by the practice facility, the par-3 12th hole is now hole No. 1.
    Losing Nos. 10 and 11 meant finding room for two new holes on the new front nine. The new holes are the 320-yard uphill par 4, and No. 6, an uphill par 3.
    The course held a grand opening on Oct. 18. Golf car traffic will be restrict to cart path only for eight months until the men's NCAA Regional Tournament in May.
  • As New York Gov. Kathy Hochul weighs whether to sign a bill that would ban neonicotinoids in the name of protecting pollinating insects, Tom Kaplun hopes to convince her staff of how important that class of chemistries is to the state's golf industry and how responsible superintendents are in using them.
    In June, the New York State Senate voted to pass Senate Bill S1856A.The proposed legislation would prohibit the sale of neonicotinoids as well as coated seeds used in agriculture.  Known as the Birds and Bees Protection Act, the bill is on Hochul's desk where it awaits her signature or veto.
    Kaplun is superintendent at North Hempstead Country Club in Port Washington, as well as vice president of the New York State Turfgrass Association and government affairs chair for the Long Island GCSA. He wants the governor to have all the facts before making a decision that could be detrimental to golf courses around the state.
    "I would tell her in turf we deal with the application of a product that goes down one time a year at the height of grub-laying season," said Kaplun. "And it goes down on a surface that is devoid of flowering plants that would attract bees."
    Neonicotinoids are commonly used in golf to control pests such as white grubs. Specifically, imidacloprid is a common tool of choice among superintendents in New York, Kaplun said.
    Previous versions of the Birds and Bees Protection Act were introduced as long ago as 2017. According to Kaplun, it gained support in Albany based on a 2020 report published by Cornell University that concluded that routine neonicotinoid use is detrimental to bee populations. He believes researchers with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, not elected officials in Albany, should decide the fate of neonicotinoids and other chemistries that are in question.
    "It is a collection of data to see if there is a cause and effect with bee loss associated with use of this product," Kaplun said. 
    "If something is deemed unsafe, why doesn't the state instead operate in a capacity to fund scientific studies to show that is the case? The Department of Environmental Conservation should make these decisions, not legislators."

    There are many contributors to bee colony loss besides pesticides, including parasitic varroa mites and habitat loss. Utah State University photo Neonicotinoids are not the only contributors to hive loss. Habitat loss and parasitic varroa mites also have dramatic effects on bee populations.
    Kaplun says he and his colleagues throughout the state have worked hard to develop best management practices that show by example their commitment to environmental stewardship while also providing the best possible playing conditions for their golfers.
    He is not necessarily looking for a veto of the birds and bees act, but at least an exemption for golf.
    "The goal of establishing best management practices is to be environmental stewards of the golf course grounds that we maintain," he said. "Those are our guiding principles. And we use science-based documents and research to safely manage these grounds under an integrated best management practices."
    If the governor signs the bill enacting it into law without any exemptions, the outcome could be detrimental for golf because superintendents would lose an effective tool, Kaplun says.
    "This legislation would make our jobs more difficult, and it will make golf more expensive," he said. "More than 70 percent of golf in New York is public, and the average greens fee is $40. This legislation is going to drive that price up, and drive some in golf out of business."
    Kaplun has spoken with members of Hochul's staff and the state's green industry is working with the Vandevort Group, an Albany-based lobbying firm to plead their case. The governor must decide either way by the end of the year.
    "We met with the governor's advisors, so she can make her best informed decision," he said. "At this point, we are looking for a veto or an amendment that allows for one application one time per season for golf.
    "We need to act on things that affect us, and this is one topic we felt we had to vigorously oppose."
  • The Clutch, a new family-friendly 12-hole track by Beau Welling Design, will open in late 2023 at South Seas resort on Capitva Island near Fort Myers, Florida. The project is part of the rebuilding process underway at South Seas since of Hurricane Ian devastated the Southwest Florida coast in 2022.
    The course was designed by Beau Welling along with design associate Chase Webb.
    Welling, whose projects include restoration work at Stanford University Golf Course, Atlanta Country Club and PGA Frisco and working with Tiger Woods at Bluejack National, designed The Clutch to help improve stormwater management for the north end of the resort. To that end, the course can withstand as much as 20 inches of rain in a compressed time.
    Each hole was designed with multiple routes of play, offering players a unique alternative to the standard 18-hole experience.

    The Clutch is a Beau Welling design on Captiva Island. South Seas resort photo "We are extremely proud of the course that we have created at South Seas and look forward to unveiling The Clutch," Welling said in a news release. "The site is spectacular, and we were able to create a strategic and challenging, yet playable golf course that complements the beautiful surroundings with unobstructed water views on every hole. Working with South Seas, we were also able to create a unique and relaxed golf experience that promotes friends and families coming together through the game of golf to enjoy the stunning setting."
    The name The Clutch refers to a sea turtle nest, a common site on Florida beaches, and pays homage to the island's diverse wildlife population.
    "We're thrilled to introduce our guests to this new golf experience," said Shawn Farrell, GM at South Seas. "Our goal is to offer more than just a game – it's about enjoying the popular sport in the most beautiful setting imaginable."
  • With a history that started in painting and marking sports fields, GPS-guided auto steer technology from Traqnology is soon coming to mowing finely manicured turf.
    Powered by any connected iPad, Traqnology's auto steer system works on any piece of equipment that is controlled with a steering wheel.
    The system progressed from sports turf painting and marking into other agronomic practices such as aerifcation, overseeding, fraze mowing, root pruning, applying sand topdressing and more, and soon will be available on all turf mowers controlled with a steering wheel. 
    Traqnology's GPS-guided technology allows users to map boundaries of any turf surface, including fairways, greens and athletic fields, as well as around irrigation heads, valve boxes, drainage inlets, trees and bunkers.
    Maps can be saved on the Traqnology cloud or downloaded locally, and on-screen object obstruction detection prevents unwanted collisions and maximizes safety for the operator and others.
  • It has been nearly two centuries since the Farmington River Canal was used as a navigable waterway.
    The canal that once connected Northampton, Massachusetts with New Haven, Connecticut, was long ago converted to a rail line and later a series of trails. The canal, at least the part that goes through Farmington, Connecticut, was full again recently, when the area was hammered with 8 inches of rain in late September.
    Among the areas affected was the Country Club of Farmington, a 100-year-old Devereaux Emmet design near Hartford that serves as a floodplain.
    "I thought it might flood once every nine or 10 years, but this is the fourth time this year," said Farmington superintendent Scott Ramsay, CGCS. "This is unprecedented.
    "There are 90 holes of golf in my area that are in a floodplain. We are the only country club. We are a pressure-relief area for farmers in the area downstream. The water rose so quickly, it overwhelmed the golf course. Hopefully, we were able to help protect buildings and farms downstream."
    When the Farmington River, which is controlled with a series of dams, backs up, two creeks that run through the course overrun their banks and flood parts of the golf course.
    A few days later, the creeks were back in their banks, but low-lying areas still were holding water on Oct. 3.
    "The river doesn't crest on the golf course," Ramsay said. "It's the creeks and tributaries that back up.
    "Most of the creeks were back in their banks yesterday, but low-lying areas are still full of water. Half the course is still closed."
    The lowest areas on the golf course include the No. 6 fairway and area around the practice facility.
    Emmett designed the course with flooding in mind. Greens and tees are elevated to where they mostly are out of harm's way. 
    Historic flooding and landforms such as ditches where the canal once was located have combined to help make Farmington a great golf course.

    The Country Club of Farmington in central Connecticut lies in the Farmington River floodplain. CC Farmington photo "This is a cool piece of property, and a phenomenal use of a floodplain," Ramsay said. "Where the Farmington River Canal was is just grassy knolls and swales now, but you can still see it.
    "We have excellent soils and excellent topography for golf. Excellent topography for golf once the water recedes."
    The course also has original bunkers that Ramsay and his team spend a lot of time rebuilding every time the course floods.
    Farmington is in the midst of a restoration led by architect Matt Dusenberry. For reference, Dusenberry is using Emmett's original 1921 plans as well as aerial photos from 1934 to restore the course to its original design and playability.
    "It's starting to look like a heathland golf course. It never was a parkland golf course, and it was never a links-style course."
    The project also includes tree removal, improving drainage and expanding greens contours to their original specs. 
    "We're getting the footprint back," Ramsay said. "We're going to wrap up this fall. Then I look forward to restoring the bunkers — and defending them from inclement weather."
    In the long term, Ramsay would like to move more of the golf course out of the flood zone, but that will include getting an OK from local and state officials since and likely will also mean converting at least an equal amount of acreage to floodplain use since handling floodwater is the course's purpose.
    "There are methods we could use to defend the golf course from the weather, like raising some fairways and diverting water elsewhere," Ramsey said. "It would be a big project, but I think we could raise fairways a quarter-acre here and there."
  • NGF names new president
    The National Golf Foundation named long-time employee Greg Nathan as its new president and chief operating officer. Nathan, who has worked at NGF since 2007, will take over for Joe Beditz. 
    Beditz has served as president and chief executive officer since 1989, and will continue to serve as CEO.
    Beditz, 71, first joined NGF in 1984 as the research director, and has groomed Nathan to take over the nonprofit think tank.

    NGF photo Central Turf, Corteva reach distribution deal
    Central Turf & Irrigation Supply, a distributor of irrigation and landscape supplies with dozens of outlets across North America, is now a distributor of Corteva Agriscience products.
    Corteva Agriscience, formed from a merging of Dow, DuPont and Pioneer, offers a portfolio of fungicides, herbicides, insecticides, and seed treatments that protect turf against weeds, disease and insects.
    Central Turf has more than 60 outlets in the U.S. and Canada.
     
    Ryan turf equipment rebranded as Bobcat
    Doosan Bobcat's Ryan turf renovation equipment will rebrand under the Bobcat name.
    Ryan equipment joined the Doosan Bobcat portfolio in 2020, following the acquisition of Bob-Cat Mowers and the Steiner and Ryan brands of grounds maintenance equipment from Schiller Grounds Care. 
    Ryan has produced turf renovation equipment for more than 75 years and has a product lineup including aerators, sod cutters, dethatchers, power rakes, overseeders and other specialty products.
  • The Turfgrass Information File includes more than 300,000 print and digital files, including scores of material from TurfNet dating back years. The Turfgrass Information File database is widely known as a repository of articles published on turfgrass management. The TGIF database was previously accessible only via paid subscription. Now, the Michigan State University Libraries' Turfgrass Information Center is making the Turfgrass Information File database publicly available. The database is a cooperative project of the Turfgrass Information Center and the USGA.
    The release of the publicly accessible TGIF database coincides with the 40-year anniversary of the partnership between the USGA and the MSU Libraries. The database initiative began in 1983, with the goal of providing those in the business of turfgrass management expedient access to contemporary literature and ultimately expanding to published and unpublished materials. The USGA provided the initial investment to fund this project, with the first record being entered into the TGIF database on Sept. 10, 1984. Today there are more than 300,000 documents on file.
    "The development of what would become the Turfgrass Information File was a specific goal of the USGA Green Section's original research committee, and the MSU Libraries has done an exceptional job advancing it," said Cole Thompson, USGA director of turfgrass and environmental research. "Today, TGIF has become the go-to database for people interested in turfgrass literature. I can't imagine life without it, which reinforces both its status and how visionary the original development effort was. Allowing public access of TGIF advances our original goals, and the USGA is appreciative to collaborate with MSU Libraries on the effort."
    The MSU faculty and staff are proud to play a role in helping bring such a wide range of information in an open-access format to those who need it, said Trey Rogers, Ph.D., professor at Michigan State. 
    "The TGIF database has been a tremendous resource for anyone in the turf industry, and certainly a source of pride for me and my colleagues during my 35 plus years on the MSU Turf faculty," Rogers said. "To watch this vision of Peter Cookingham and others take shape and become the quintessential source for all turf information has been both amazing and gratifying. Open access will only enhance the reputation of the TIC at MSU, and we could not be happier."
    The TGIF database indexes material from a wide variety of sources including government agencies, universities, professional organizations and private publishers. Materials include articles from peer-reviewed publications, technical reports and conference proceedings, trade and professional publications, local professional newsletters, popular magazines, monographs, academic works, fact sheets and brochures, images, software and web documents. The majority of the database uses English-language materials, but it does include non-English resources. As of August 2023, the database comprised 323,469 records, 67 percent of which link to the full text of the item, according to Elisabeth Mabie, head of the Turfgrass Information Center.
    "For turfgrass professionals who cannot regularly visit a research library, access to full-text turfgrass research and other pertinent turf literature can be a challenge," Mabie said. "However, these are often the individuals who utilize these materials the most. With two-thirds of TGIF database records linking to the full-text of the item, this means many thousands of records link directly to content, saving valuable time and effort that would otherwise be spent locating physical copies for personal use."
  • Cutler Robinson, CGCS
    As a superintendent, Cutler Robinson was all too familiar with trying to schedule fertilizer applications based on weather that had already occurred. He thought there had to be a better way. Then the idea hit him: Applications might be more effective leading to a healthier plant if he somehow could tap future forecasts as a basis for product applications.
    After three years of development, the result is Predict-N7, an app-driven platform from Roanoke, Virginia-based Predictive Agronomics that utilizes thousands of data points, including site-specific weather information to match nitrogen management with products offering the proper amount of phytohormones and metabolites.
    Robinson, who graduated from Virginia Tech's turfgrass management program and also earned a master's degree in plant physiology in Blacksburg, described Predict-N7 as a math-driven, science-driven and site-specific weather data-driven tool that combines future forecast data with specific input from the superintendent to produce unique management based on the probability of conditions that are likely to occur rather than those that have already happened.
    "It incorporates seven-day forecasts before they occur, not Growing Degree Days after they occur," Robinson said.
    "It doesn't tell superintendents what to do. They tell it what they want, and it makes recommendations."

    One of the first signs that Predict-N7 is working, according to Cutler Robinson, is finer leaf blade in the grass plant (right). Predictive Agronomics photo For example, relying on plant growth regulators to slow growth of putting green turf can increase reliance on nitrogen, Thompson said. 
    "Give the plant more N than it needs, there is more accumulation of organic matter, which is where disease is born," he said. "This model tells you the right amount of N for the right amount of growth between spraying intervals."
    In a testimonial on Robinson's web site, Mike Nowicki, director of agronomy at Victoria National Golf Club in Indiana said Predict-N7 has worked for him on different turf types and different soils.
    "I've used the Predict-N7 model on two different golf courses, one with A4 and USGA construction, the other with Triple 7 and California construction," Nowicki wrote. "In each case, the Predict-N7 has helped me provide elite putting surfaces that withstand high heat, humidity, and traffic at very fast putting speeds."
    Two years of Beta testing during R&D and real-world use by superintendents have shown, Robinson said, that Predict-N7 can result in aerifying less often because less organic matter is created at the surface level.
    Matthew Wharton, CGCS at Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky said he was just beginning to look at Predict-N7 for use at Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte when he changed jobs.
    "I too have been searching for a way to break the PGR addiction," Wharton said. "Before the season started, I uprooted and took the position in Kentucky, and immediately began the steps to put the model in place at my new facility. Unfortunately, I do not have the ability to compare results this year to years past as I would have, had I remained at my previous facility. But I do believe the model is working based on turf performance this season, and I am excited to see how things perform next season."

    Cutler Robinson says more precise nitrogen applications at the right time can help reduce accumulation of organic matter. Predictive Agronomics photo Developed with business partners Chris and Cindy Appel, Predict-N7 can be used to help manage bentgrass, Pos annual, and ultradwarf Bermudagrasses, including TifEagle, Champion and Mini Verde.
    Incorporating thousands of data points including weather and other inputs such as soil tests into the equation along with other data, such as the types of results a superintendent is trying to produce will not only help determine how much N to spray, it can also recommend other nutrients the plant needs at a specific time. It also means that multiple properties within close proximity of one another could have vastly different spray programs because of differences like soil make up, micro climates, turf type and more.
    "When you incorporate everything into the algorithm then add in what the superintendent sees on his golf course, you can have two golf courses a mile apart and they will have two different spray models," Robinson said. "You could even have two different models on the same golf course. Every property is going to have a different model," Robinson said.
    "What if we sprayed exactly what the plant needs every time the superintendent fills the spray tank? That's pretty exciting." 
    With 24 years as a superintendent under his belt, Robinson knows all about managing turf under difficult circumstances. His last stop before giving up being a superintendent to focus on Predict-N7 was at Bayville Golf Club in Virginia Beach, where he says he was the first superintendent to get A4 bentgrass in 1995.
    "This program is driven by science and data and what the superintendent sees on his golf course," Robinson said. "Not blanket calendar-driven treatment."

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