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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    A new apprenticeship program for aspiring greenkeepers could help golf course managers solve their labor-shortage issues while also streamlining the education process for both employer and employee alike.
    The Greenskeeper II apprenticeship program by Tyler Bloom Consulting is a 4,000-hour training program designed to help put those without a formal turf education on a path toward a career in golf course maintenance. 
    The program provides on-the-job training combined with online instruction delivered through partnerships with university turf programs nationwide.
    The program, which has been years in planning, recently was recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Apprenticeship, which establishes nationally recognized standards and standardized training that ensures all candidates, regardless of their background, experience or location will have access to advanced educational resources and opportunities to develop their skills, Bloom said.
    The program also could open the door to providing financial incentives to employers for adopting such a structured educational program.
    "Credit to New York," Bloom said. "New York already offers $5,000 in tax credits to offset education costs."
    A shortage of labor has been an issue for a majority of golf course superintendents in recent years, according to industry reports.
    Curriculum includes irrigation, pest management, fertility and cultural practices, and all who are admitted to the program must attain their respective state's pesticide applicator's license upon its conclusion.
    The formal structure of a federally recognized program leads to its attractiveness, compared with a standard on-site training program, Bloom said.
    "It provides confidence for the employee that the employer is committed to advancing them and their career," Bloom said. "With on-the-job training there is some structure, but with this formal program, now it's real. Once they are enrolled in such a program it becomes real for the candidate."

    A new apprenticeship program for the golf industry is recognized by the U.S. Department of Labor. Photo by John Reitman The program has been in the planning process for at least four years, but has been in overdrive for the past year. Several superintendents associations, Bloom said, already have reached out to express interest.
    "Standardized training ensures that all candidates, regardless of their background or prior experience, have access to the advanced educational resources and opportunities for skill development, creating a level playing field for all applicants," said Bloom. "They'll also have networking opportunities designed to help candidates from diverse backgrounds connect with individuals who can offer guidance, support, and career opportunities."
    Bloom also believes the program will lead to increased employee retention.
    "From the jobseeker standpoint, it puts skin in the game," Bloom said. "You know the employer has committed to this kind of program."
    The federally recognized program mirrors to a degree a program Bloom developed when superintendent at Sparrows Point in Maryland from 2014-20.
    "This program is not just for elite clubs," he said. "Based on the program I set up at Sparrows Point, "The local daily fee club will find as much value if not more."
  • In more than 50 years as a golf course superintendent, Dick Gray never was at a loss for words. Even in retirement, he still finds it difficult to hold his tongue on some issues. So it should have come as no surprise that during what should have been a simple "how ya doin?" phone conversation went off the rails into a rant on a hot button issue for superintendents: "unfair" pin placements.
    Green speeds (too slow or too fast), fairways that do not produce enough roll, cart path-only days and greens aerification all are among the many things that get under golfers' skin.
    Of all the complaints golfers lodge — and there are a lot of them — the one grievance that should make any superintendent bristle is anything about unfair pin placements. 
    Just the word unfair implies that the prevailing conditions give one player a competitive advantage over another. Since every golfer plays the same conditions, is anything about the location of a hole really "unfair?" Maybe poorly placed, or not well thought out. But unfair? 

    When it comes to pin locations, retired superintendent Dick Gray says there might be bad ones, or even dumb ones, but he stopped short of labeling them as unfair. File photo Superintendents seek out pin locations that are challenging, fair and offer variety. There are unwritten rules about where and where not to cut a cup. Typically, a cup should be cut in an area that has a 3-foot radius of flat space in every direction. 
    Still, there are times when pin placements make headlines for all the wrong reasons. 
    Third round scores of the NCAA Women's Division III championship were tossed last year when a pin location on the par-4 sixth hole on the El Campeon Course at the Mission Inn and Resort in central Florida was ruled unplayable. Then there was the 2022 girls 3A state championship tournament in Iowa when a sloped pin placement resulted in an average score of quadruple bogey on the finishing hole of River Valley Golf Course in Adel.
    The latter example was bad enough that it prompted tour pro Billy Horschel to rant on social media that whoever set up the 18th hole should be banned from setting up tournaments in the future.
    Although every pin placement might not necessarily be a good one, Gray, whose wife died of cancer in 2020 at age 58, says the term unfair is a stretch and denotes something far more negative and permanent than a four-putt on the 10th green.
    "Wait a minute. What are we talking about here?" he said. "Unfair? Life is unfair. Cancer is unfair. A heart attack is unfair. Pin placements are not unfair. There might be stupid ones, or dumb ones. But there aren't unfair pin placements." 

    PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, was a four-course property when Dick Gray oversaw four renovations in four years. File photo Whether the stakes are a Nassau during a friendly foursome, bragging rights at the club championship or the $25 million winner's share at the Tour Championship, golf at the end of the day is still a game.
    And no one wants to listen to someone complain while playing a game. Likewise, it is difficult to have empathy for professionals with out-of-this-world athletic ability bemoan playing conditions on the way to a seven-figure payout.
    The 2016 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year while at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Florida, Gray had a successful career at many of South Florida's best club's, including Loblolly Pines, Sailfish Point and Jupiter Hills. He also was the construction superintendent and architect of record at the Florida Club in Stuart. While at PGA Golf Club, then a four-course property, he managed four renovations over four years. Clearly, he knows a thing or two about where a cup should be cut and where one should not, even if his former employers thought otherwise. 
    He recalled many a green committee meeting throughout his career where unfair pin placements were a topic of discussion. His response was to remind pe
    "I told them that hole wasn't unfair, it was just beyond their playing ability," Gray said. "There is no such thing as an unfair pin location."
    His message to golfers: "Remember, it's just a game."
  • With temperatures topping the 90-degree mark on at least 10 occasions in June, summer arrived in central Indiana with vengeance this year. Two months later, as summer winds down and the end of the 100 days of hell comes into view, disease pressure on cool-season grasses also is on the wane. 
    The turfgrass team at Purdue has a digital turf tip and resource tool to help identify and manage common diseases in cool-season turfgrass 
    According to the National Weather Service, the average daytime high in central Indiana in August was 83 degrees, 3 degrees cooler than in June. Those falling temperatures (both daytime and overnight), fewer consecutive days of unseasonably hot weather and days that grow shorter with each flip of the page of the calendar mean less heat stress and disease pressure on cool-season grass, writes Purdue University professor Lee Miller, Ph.D., in promoting this new online tool for managing common diseases in cool-season turfgrass. Seasonal shifts in weather also mean that much of the turf that has been affected by heat stress and disease should, by now, be well on its way to recovery, if not fully healed, wrote Miller.

    Purdue professor Lee Miller, Ph.D., on the school's turfgrass research plots. Purdue University photo For example, brown patch was a common issue in the Midwest throughout June and July as the mercury in the thermometer rose. But that disease is almost a non-factor now heading into what is a much cooler September.
    A new resource from Purdue provides tips for managing brown patch and nine other common diseases found in cool-season turfgrass. The 14-page guide, one of many online tools available for turfgrass managers from Purdue, provides information on leaf blight, brown patch, gray leaf spot, pink snow mold, Pythium blight, red thread, rust, dollar spot and summer patch in cool-season grasses, including Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, fine fescue and perennial ryegrass.
    The document includes the time of year when each turf species is susceptible to each disease, symptoms, treatment and what recovery looks like.
    The new guide is just one of many online tools available, including those on turf establishment, weed control, disease reports and control, insect control, as well as tools and calculators to determine fertilization needs, predict disease outbreaks, turf identification, sand and seed calculator and turfgrass selection. Purdue also released earlier this year its updated weed identification and control guide.
  • Brandt is making supply chain updates throughout the next year. Brandt photo Brandt is making changes to its supply chain function as well as structural updates in its Specialty Formulations group.
    With global headquarters in Tampa, Florida, Brandt is a manufacturer of specialty fertility products for end users in the turf and agricultural markets. The company's turf line includes products under the Brandt Turf Solutions, iHammer and Grigg labels. 
    The goal of the supply chain function is to provide more coordinated management of these critical areas, delivering scale efficiencies and increased quality. To that end, Brent Wallner (above right) will be in charge of coordination of the company's dealer support, specialty formulations purchasing, logistics and production as vice president of supply chain.
    "Getting Brent in place is just the first step," said Rick Brandt, president and chief executive officer. 
    Supply chain changes will continue to be implemented through the next calendar year.
    Brandt also made structural changes to its specialty formulations group with the appointment of Matthew Ingram (right, below) as the division vice president of sales and supply chain function. He will take over for John Guglielmi, who has accepted a role with Dowdy Crop Innovations, which provides solutions for row crop growers.
    Ingram will work with Brandt executive vice president Bill Engel as the latter transitions from his role as head of the specialty formulations sector, and together will work to develop a sales strategy for the specialty unit.
    "Matt is bringing new energy and new ideas to our specialty formulations business," Brandt said. "We have one of the best specialty plant nutrition portfolios in the world. But Matt is already thinking about how we integrate those products into solutions with our planter box technologies and additional products."
  • Since the moment he first stepped foot on a golf course more than 20 years ago for a summer job, Kevin Mercer knew he had found his life's calling in turf and landscape management.
    Two decades and many jobs later, Mercer wants to give back to the industry that has given him so much.
    Now the grounds manager at Denison University in Granville, Ohio, Mercer has penned a book on his life's work that he hopes will help his colleagues become better turf managers.
    Titled "Environmental Solutions For Grounds Management" the book is scheduled to be released Sept. 2.
    "This book was intended to help the grounds manager, golf course superintendent and sports turf manager to help them with today's environmental impacts without changes or altering their grounds maintenance program," Mercer said in the foreword. "I wanted to help the green industry tackle today's environmental challenges head-on."
    The book includes chapters titled stormwater management, biodiversity habitat and carbon fertility and composting.
    The chapter on stormwater management includes industry lingo and definitions, information on the country's 18 major river basins, practical solutions for reducing stormwater runoff and managing nutrients, why buffer strips are important and how to create them.
    The author discusses the importance of pollinators and creating habitat for them and other beneficial species in chapter 3. That section includes a bee identification guide, a list of beneficial insects, installing bat and bird houses and minimizing pesticide use through mechanical weed control.
    The book, which will be available through traditional outlets including Amazon and Barnes & Noble and through Mercer's web site, concludes with innovative approaches to soil amendments and composting in Chapter 4. The section includes information on the benefits of composting, vermicomposting and compost tea and how to get started with each.
    Mercer's school-of-hard knocks career in turf began when he was in high school working summers on a nine-hole layout in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. After studying landscape design at Montgomery County College in Rockville, Maryland, he worked from 2000 to 2004 as the assistant superintendent at the golf course at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

    Kevin Mercer, left, and his team at Denison University celebrate recognition of their achievements at a recent awards ceremony. Denison University photo Since then, he has been the grounds manager at a handful of colleges, including Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. He also was an instructor at the College of Southern Maryland, where he taught classes in sports turf management, principles of turfgrass management and environmental landscaping.
    He has been the grounds and landscape manager at Denison in Ohio since 2017 and also is the owner of his own company — Grounds Management Environmental Solutions — through which he teaches grounds maintenance and team-building, morale, increased productivity and job satisfaction through a series of workshops. 
    At Denison he is responsible for managing all campus grounds and works with other departments, including athletic field work.
    In 2022, Mercer was named the winner of the Professional Grounds Management Society's Special Award of Distinguished Service, while his team won the Grand Award — the society's most prestigious award — in the small college category.
    "I do not have a Ph.D., master’s or even a bachelor’s degree," Mercer wrote, "I have something far more worthy, which is over 30 years of failures and successes in the grounds maintenance profession."
  • More than 200 people gathered in the spring at the University of Tennessee to learn more about the science of developing playing surfaces for multiple stadiums and practice fields in three North American cities for the 2026 World Cup. University of Tennessee photo Imagine taking over a vacant parking lot to grow sod for a major golf tournament being held nearby for the purpose of matching growing conditions and reducing transportation costs.
    Sounds crazy, but that could be happening in the world of sports turf when the FIFA World Cup comes to North America in two years. In fact, staging the 2026 event on multiple sites in the U.S., Canada and Mexico could have profound effects on turfgrass research in the U.S. might never be the same, and that is what scientists at Tennessee and Michigan State are hoping for.
    Earlier this year, a delegation from soccer's ruling body in Zurich, Switzerland, made its way to Knoxville for the FIFA Pitch Research Field Day. The event was a gathering of more than 250 turf managers and others who will be involved in the event to be held at multiple sites in three countries in 2026. The purpose of their visit was to learn more about the research being conducted to provide consistent playing surfaces at 16 host stadiums, 84 training sites and 178 practice fields throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico for 48 teams from around the world.
    "The importance of the perfect pitch cannot be overstated," said Heimo Schirgi in a video released by FIFA. 
    "This is a symbol of the quality of the tournament. So this is of the highest importance for all of us."

    Trey Rogers, Ph.D., (left) of Michigan State and John Sorochan, Ph.D. (second from left) of the University of Tennessee meet with FIFA officials during a spring field day in Knoxville. University of Tennessee photo Just like golf course superintendents are expected to produce the highest quality playing conditions possible, sports turf managers are expected to do the same for a global event like the World Cup, where play will span four time zones and numerous growing regions.
    The challenge that lies ahead for scientists at Tennessee and Michigan State is providing surfaces that will perform in an identical manner in Toronto and Boston as it does in Los Angeles, Miami and Mexico City.
    UT turfgrass professor John Sorochan, Ph.D., and Trey Rogers, Ph.D., of Michigan State have been assigned the responsibility of taking this plan from the drawing board to the playing field, and they are keenly aware of the significance of what lies ahead for the world of turfgrass research.
    "Sharing our evidence-based research with end users for the World Cup 2026 and others from around the world means everything to me," Sorochan said in the FIFA statement. "Knowing that half of the world is watching something you have been a part of — it's hard to imagine the emotion that I'm going to feel."

    An indoor growing facility was designed to replicate the conditions inside a domed stadium. Univ. of Tennessee photo Success will depend upon the ability to produce vast amounts of sod in rapid fashion on multiple sites around the country to make getting sod where it is needed as efficient a task as possible.
    To conduct that research, UT has built a shade house at the university's East Tennessee Research and Education Center to duplicate conditions they will encounter in domed stadiums during the Cup.
    "You know, the ability to produce a harvestable sod in as much as 16 to 20 weeks is paramount," Sorochan said in the FIFA release. "We can do something really fast, and we can also cut down on trucking costs, too. In theory, we could probably do this closer to urban areas and take up a large, vacated parking lot and actually grow the sod close to the stadiums, so you reduce transport costs as well."
    Rogers and Sorochan have worked together on many previous projects, including pitch development for the 1994 World Cup that was played in 14 U.S. cities.
    "If you can perfect this, which is what we are doing, this is our whole idea, you push turfgrass science forward," Rogers said in the statement. "You increase sustainability, you increase every part of the ability of the turf manager to be able to host multi-events in multi-use stadiums. It opens up every avenue, and it's the main reason that, for me, I got involved in this project."
  • The phrase "the more things change, the more they stay the same" might seem like an odd way to describe golf course restoration, but it could just be true in the case of historic East Lake Golf Club.
    As the PGA's season-ending Tour Championship tees off this week in Atlanta, the new version of East Lake might be something more like what Bobby Jones would recognize when he was club president in 1946-47.
    The recent Andrew Green-led restoration relied heavily on previously unknown aerial photography from 1949.
    According to the club, the photo revealed what the course looked like after Donald Ross renovated the original layout in 1913.
    Green is the architect of record of other well known restorations, including Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio; Scioto Country Club in Columbus; Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York; and Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland.
    The new East Lake celebrates the historic past of the club that Jones called home nearly a century ago, and continues to embrace the future and the role the property plays in holding up the East Lake neighborhood.
    The overall length of the course has not changed much, stretching out to 7,455 yards from the back tees, which is only about 100 yards longer than before the renovation, but the previous par-70 layout will now play as a par-71 after the par-4 14th hole will now play as a par-5.
    New tees also were added to accommodate members of differing skill levels.
    Putting surfaces all have been completely rebuilt and are larger than before, offering more pinnable locations. In some cases, the greens are substantially larger. For example, the No. 2 green is about 50 percent larger than it was previously, expanding by nearly 3,000 square feet to about 9,000 square feet.
    All greens were redesigned with many distinct capes and bays that were patterned after those found in period photography. Those putting surfaces also have been regrassed, with Green replacing the Mini Verde that had been in place since a Rees Jones renovation in 2008 with TifEagle ultradwarf Bermudagrass. Green says the TifEagle-covered greens are firmer and faster than the Mini Verde predecessors and will roll at 13 for the championship.
    Green also replaced the old Meyer Zoysiagrass in the fairways with the newer Zorro Zoysiagrass that he says plays firmer and will provide more roll for golfers.
    "We really wanted to try to get the player to feel like they're playing more over the natural ground," Green said in a news conference unveiling the changes. "And that meant that we shaped or reshaped fairways to be more natural."

    Architect Andrew Green relied upon recently discovered aerial photography to restore historic East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, annual site of the Tour Championship. PGA Tour photo Golfers will get a taste of Green's work right away, on the first hole, a 510-yard par-4
    Bunkers along the par-4 17th fairway were removed and replaced with a trench-style bunker that splits the fairway. The fairway-bisecting bunker was part of the original Ross design and was thought to have been lost around 1950.
    The par-4 No. 8 hole has been shortened by 40 yards to 390 yards and could be reachable off the tee for some. The fairway winds around the shoreline of East Lake, but a bunker complex short and left of the green will penalize those who come up short of attacking the green off the tee.
    "We wanted to make sure we created extra opportunities for exciting golf," Green said.
    The club's namesake lake on No. 18 was expanded out to the left side to bring it more into play, and a stream between No. 6 and No. 7 was reclaimed and native habitat restored in that area.
    Rebuilding bunkers also was a key part of the project, with Green moving fairway bunkers to squeeze landing areas at varying distances. Greenside bunkers are positioned to improve aesthetic appeal, interest and contrast around putting surfaces. Many of the bunkers throughout the project were based on the original Ross bunkers uncovered in the 1949 aerial photography.
    The Tour Championship begins Aug. 29.
  • Not many lawns or golf courses in Wisconsin require mowing throughout the winter. On the other hand, there are plenty of opportunities for would-be greenkeepers to stay busy during the offseason on golf courses in the southern hemisphere.
    Since 2019, Envoy Golf, a placement firm based in Sydney, Australia, has helped bring golf course maintenance workers from north of the equator to golf courses in Australia and New Zealand for the growing season in the southern hemisphere.
    Nolan Ruffing, 23, is a 2023 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where he majored in marketing. Today, Ruffing (right) moonlights as a part-time greenkeeper while also operating a landscape and lawn care business he owns in the Milwaukee area. A lifelong golfer, he is in the process of transitioning from  a part-time gig at Milwaukee Country Club to new employment at Sand Valley Golf Resort. 
    While those jobs keep him busy during the summer in Wisconsin, Envoy gave him a chance to work through the winter months while experiencing another part of the world. He worked six months at Metropolitan Golf Club near Melbourne, and stayed a seventh month to tour the rest of Australia and New Zealand.
    "I'm a big believer in their mission and what they offer greenkeepers in the northern hemisphere," Ruffing said.
    "I have a landscaping business. I do it myself, and I've built a really good book of business, but I wanted a winter job, too. I love to travel and always wanted to live internationally."

    Envoy Golf of Sydney, Australia, places greenkeepers from north of the Equator at golf courses in Australia and New Zealand on a temporary basis like Metropolitan Golf Club near Melbourne. All photos courtesy of Nolan Ruffing The experience was so impactful he created a blog detailing the trip.
    Started in 2019 by Ellington Savage search firm founders Mark Matehaere and Paul Hannaford, Envoy was established to connect skilled workers with "the needs in the golf industry," according to the company's website. 
    Interview requests to Envoy's management team went unanswered, but according to its website, the company specializes in finding temporary positions for greenkeepers, as well as jobs in hospitality and an executive search division. 
    Envoy connects job seekers in Europe and North America with employers in Australia and New Zealand through a series of Zoom interviews, and schedules travel once a connection is made. For greenkeepers, there is no charge for Envoy's services, but applicants must cover expenses for a work visa, travel and housing, though Ruffing said many of the clubs in the program can help set up housing for seasonal workers, like Metropolitan did for him and his housemates.
    Ruffing was one of eight temporary workers from abroad spending the winter at Metropolitan. He did not get rich earning the equivalent of $20 U.S. per hour with overtime available, but he and three roommates from Canada and Sweden paid just $650 each per month for a four-bedroom house they shared.
    Although the opportunity to work during the Australian summer provided a chance for Ruffing to work year-round, the real payoff was experiencing new cultures and meeting people from other parts of the world.
    "This really came from a desire to push myself out of my comfort zone," Ruffing said. "I have a passion for golf and travel, and I forced myself to expand my horizons. I Googled 'international golf experience' and Envoy was what came up."

    Nolan Ruffing says there are many differences between working on a golf course in Australia and one in Wisconsin. There was some trepidation as the date for departure to Australia drew near.
    "On the way to the airport I thought: 'What am I doing? Am I really going halfway across the world with no connections?' " he said. "But those kinds of experiences shape who you are though. That's the way I look at it.
    "I had to make myself uncomfortable and learn things about myself that I didn't know before."
    He also learned a few things about turf management that he did not know before. He was able to work on turf species not found on golf courses in Wisconsin and how waste areas can take the place of rough turf.

    After completing his obligation in Australia, Nolan Ruffing took time to see the sights in New Zealand before returning home to Wisconsin. "The style of golf and operational culture is very different there," he said. "Learning about their work culture was different."
    Envoy's ability to bring workers from around the globe to New Zealand and Australia were stifled in 2020-21 by Covid restrictions, but the company, part of the much larger Ellington Savage firm that was founded in 1993, has flourished since lockdowns and restraints on travel were lifted. In fact, Ruffing plans to use the Envoy service again to find a temporary gig, probably in New Zealand this time.
    "It was a life-changing experience," he said. "I believe in their mission and their message, and I want other people to be able to experience the same thing I did."
  • ProtectMAX Southside is registered for post-emergent control of sedges, kyllingas and many grassy and broadleaf weeds in warm-season turf. Harrell's photo For turfgrass managers seeking an additional tool for post-emergent control of sedges and broadleaf weeds, Harrell's recently launched ProtectMAX Southside herbicide.
    With the active ingredients sulfosulfuron and metsulfuron-methyl, ProtectMax Southside is labeled for selective post-emergent control of many annual and perennial sedges and grassy and broadleaf weeds in warm-season turf on golf courses, athletic fields and sod farms, as well as in commercial, industrial, institutional and residential applications.
    ProtectMAX Southside is labeled for control of dozens of sedges and weeds, including green kyllinga, yellow nutsedge, purple nutsedge, tall fescue, Dallisgrass, Virginia buttonweed, annual bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, dandelions, dollarweed, spurge and white clover and many others.
    The product can be applied at 1.5 ounces per acre twice per year, according to the label. It may not be applied through an irrigation system or anywhere runoff might be a concern. 
    ProtectMAX Southside should not be applied to turf already under stress from insect pests, disease drought or poor fertility and all measures to prevent drift on to non-target species should be taken.
    A Group 2 herbicide, ProtectMAX Southside should be rotated with other Group 2 chemistries, and can be tank mixed with other products from other groups. 
    ProtectMAX Southside is approved for use in Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
    In other news from Harrell's, Jack Harrell III (right) officially took over as the company's chief executive officer and chairman of the board of directors on Aug. 15.
    Harrell is a fourth-generation leader of the company that was started in 1941 in Lakeland, Florida by his great-grandfather Ormond Harrell, and succeeds  his father Jack Harrell Jr., who died in July at age 68 after a brief battle with brain cancer.
    Jack Harrell Jr. had been the company's CEO since 1991.
  • Since Pete Dye carved it out of the dunes along Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shoreline, Whistling Straits has etched its name among golf's great destinations.
    Owned by the Kohler Co., the maker of small engines and bathroom fixtures among a variety of solutions for other markets, Whistling Straits is part of the company's 72-hole golf Mecca north of Milwaukee. Its courses have been the site of several major championships, and recently were chosen by the USGA to be the host of three more — the 2028 U.S. Amateur, 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls' Junior. 
    Wisconsin has a strong history of championship golf, and Whistling Straits, with its colorful past, is at its forefront. 
    Whistling Straits is located on a site that during the 1950s was a U.S. Army air base. Wisconsin Electric bought the installation in 1960 with the idea of building a nuclear plant on the site before eventually selling it to the Kohler Co. in 1995, and the company's public-access golf complex opened in 1998. In the years since, Kohler's flagship layout, the Straits Course, has been the site of four national championships and other high-profile events.

    The USGA has tapped Whistling Straits in Wisconsin as the site of the 2028 U.S. Amateur, 2033 U.S. Junior Amateur and the 2037 U.S. Girls' Junior. Destination Kohler photo The 2004, 2010 and 2015 PGA Championships; 2007 U.S. Senior Open; and the 2021 Ryder Cup Matches all were contested on the Straits Course, that, along with the Irish Course, was designed with Irish links-style golf in mind. 
    Kohler's other property, Blackwolf Run, is home to the River and the Meadow Valley courses. A composite of the two served as the layout for the U.S. Women's Open in 1998 and again in 2012.
    A total of 17 USGA championships have been contested in Wisconsin, including the 2017 U.S. Open at Erin Hills in Milwaukee, two U.S. Senior Open Championships (2007 at Whistling Straits; 2023 at SentryWorld) and one U.S. Amateur (2011, Erin Hills).
    Erin Hills, a 2006 Hurdzan-Fry design 30 miles northwest Milwaukee, also will be the site of the 2025 U.S. Women's Open, and Sand Valley Resort in Nekoosa also was recently picked to play host to four USGA championships over the next decade — the 2026 U.S. Mid-Amateur, 2029 U.S. Junior Amateur, 2030 U.S. Women's Mid-Amateur and 2034 U.S. Girls' Junior.
  • Could real estate golf be making a comeback?
    At least in some markets, the answer to that question appears to be "yes."
    Since a recession fueled by a real estate bust a generation ago, golf course supply vs. demand has been on a course of self correction for the past 18 years. The number of golf courses in the market has been on a steady decline since 2006 as the market seeks equilibrium. 
    According to the industry's mid-year report card and projections for the remainder of the year, that gap between the number of golf courses that have closed vs. new construction projects appears to be narrowing.
    The game's comeback has been aided by a global health crisis during which many newcomers took up golf and many others who previously left the game rediscovered it. Covid has brought a near-record number of golfers playing record-high rounds, and that increased play has closings and openings inching ever more slowly toward equilibrium. Among those rebounding markets is real estate golf, although it has a much different look than it did during the game's construction boom when almost anyone could buy a home with a golf course view.
    For those looking for someone to praise for golf's construction boom of the 1990s and 2000s as well as someone to blame for its bust during the past two decades, developer Charles Fraser might be a good place to start.
    Considered the father of real estate golf, Fraser was a 1953 graduate of Yale Law School who, in the 1960s, took over his father's timber interests on a forested South Carolina outpost called Hilton Head Island. Amenities like a golf course, Fraser believed, could help make even the most mosquito-infested land attractive to prospective home buyers.
    Although Fraser's most famous creation, Sea Pines, is hardly the run-of-the-mill golf real estate development, the resort on the southern end of Hilton Head attracted copycats seeking to cash in on a similar model during the next several generations.

    Real estate golf is on the rebound in places like Florida and Texas. Photo by John Reitman Eventually, overpriced homes and overvalued golf courses sharing the same dirt pulled the rug out from beneath both, forcing a hard reset that is still felt nearly 20 years later. Although that model has largely been on the decline for most of the past two decades, some version of it could be making a comeback.
    During the past 18 years, thousands of golf courses have closed, and a few have opened. Figure in the sparse openings that have occurred each year, and there has been a net loss of more than 1,600 golf courses in 18-hole equivalents since 2006, the first time since 1946 that there were more closings than openings. That trend has repeated itself every year since.
    About 2,360 golf courses have closed their doors since the market steered onto a course of self-correction in 2006. Lately, closings have hovered around 100 per year, but some years, like 175 closings in 2017 and 155 in 2020, have been worse than others. 
    That number has been coming down for the past three years. A total of 93 courses closed in 2021, 97 in 2022, 78 last year and, according to the National Golf Foundation, fewer than 40 have closed through the first half of 2024. 
    A total of 13 new courses opened between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, with at least that many expected to open by the end of the year, according to NGF editorial director Erik Matuszewski.
    In all, more than 120 golf courses projects are in some stage of planning or construction in the U.S. That includes more than 70 golf courses under construction, with another 50-plus in the active planning stage, according to NGF, making this year the most active golf course construction market in more than a decade, Matuszewski said. There are dozens more in the early stages of planning.
    The difference between real estate golf 20 to 30 years ago and what is going in the ground now is dramatic. Much of what occurred previously was an unsustainable model of high-end daily fee or semi-private golf propping up real estate interests. Much of what is being built today in places like South Florida is anything but public access.
    The most active markets are Florida and Texas, where several new courses have opened recently, including some very high-end real estate projects like Panther National in Palm Beach Gardens. That property has 139 sites for multi-million dollar homes ranging from 4,000 to 10,000 square feet. According to NGF, more than a third of all new courses, whether under construction or in some state of planning, are in Florida and Texas.
    Apogee is a 54-hole facility west of Hobe Sound owned partly by Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross. Free of private real estate, Apogee will include villas for member use.
    When it is completed, The Ranch, also west of Hobe Sound, will have 36 holes, a 10-hole practice layout, 12-hole short course and 360-degree practice area.
    Just how big is the golf boom in Martin County? There are at least nine 18-hole layouts within a 10-mile drive.
    Another 20 courses, according to NGF, are under construction in Florida or in the final phases of planning.

    There has been new and renewed interest in golf during the past four years. Photo by John Reitman Fueling that comeback, in part, was a global health crisis during which many newcomers took up golf and many others who previously left the game rediscovered it. Covid has brought a near-record number of golfers playing record-high rounds, and that increased play has closings and openings inch ever more slowly toward equilibrium.
    Since Covid, the game has been adding an average of nearly 1 million players per year, and continues to grow. The 23 million golfers who played last year are the most since a record 29 million players in 2006.
    Rounds played in 2021 matched a record high of 518 million rounds, a mark that had stood for 21 years, and was topped again last year by another 2 million rounds.
    It is unknown whether this boom, or at least a shift to equilibrium, will stick this time, or result in another bust. But whichever occurs, Charles Fraser should get some of the credit, or some of the blame.
  • Skip Heinz not only maintains the equipment to keep Royal Poinciana Golf Club in top condition, he also has dedicated his career to promoting his profession. Royal Poinciana Golf Club photo
      Skip Heinz, CTEM, was due for some good news. Heinz, the certified turf equipment manager at Royal Poinciana Golf Club in Naples, Florida, recently was named the recipient of the 2024 Edwin Budding Award. Named for Edwin Budding, the inventor of the lawn mower, the award is presented annually by the GCSAA "to an equipment manager or related innovator, technician or engineer who has made a significant impact on the golf course and turf industry."
    The announcement was released Aug. 13, but Heinz learned in late May that he had been named the winner. The news arrived shortly before his wife, Deb, lost a lengthy battle with breast cancer on June 12.
    "When I told her I had been nominated for an award and won it, she gave me a thumbs up as if to say 'way to go, you deserved it,' " Heinz (right) said.
    The son of a superintendent, Heinz grew up around the game. His father, Robert, was a longtime superintendent at Key West Country Club in Florida. The younger Heinz also has spent time as a superintendent and assistant superintendent before becoming an equipment technician and manager.
    He will receive the award at the 2025 GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in San Diego.
    "I was really excited about the award, but probably not as much as I should have been, because I was sitting by my wife's side," Heinz said. "Her condition had deteriorated pretty badly, and I was humbled by that."
    His expertise in the shop was recognized 20 years ago when he won the 2004 TurfNet Technician of the Year Award. That award was presented annually from 2003 to 2020 to an equipment technician who excelled at any of the following criteria: crisis management; effective budgeting; environmental awareness; helping to further and promote the careers of colleagues and employees; interpersonal communications; inventory management and cost control; overall condition and dependability of rolling stock; shop safety; and work ethic.
    Heinz is among those who founded the International Golf Course Equipment Managers Association almost 20 years ago, and the award is a culmination of a career dedicated to increasing the visibility and promoting the equipment technician profession.
    He also was a driving force behind IGCEMA’s assimilation into GCSAA in 2015, and has played an active role in the association's efforts to provide opportunities for equipment managers. Heinz served on the association’s inaugural Equipment Manager Task Group that established certification programs for fellow equipment techs.
    Past Budding Award recipients: 2023 - Gary Bogdanski; 2022 - Trent Manning, CTEM; 2021 - Helmut Ullrich; 2020 - Mike Kriz; 2019 - Jim Nedin; 2018 - Hector Velazquez; 2017 - Chuck Totten; 2016 - Ed Ward; 2015 - Stephen Tucker; 2014 - Roland McPhearson; 2013 - Tom Hurst; 2012 - Dana Lonn; 2011 - Wes Danielewicz; 2010 - Vollie Carr; 2009 - Eddie Konrad; 2008 - Eric Kulaas; 2007 - Ed Combest.
  • It is that time of year again, when superintendents from the Gulf Coast to Canada might find themselves fighting off fall armyworms.
    Other than the fact that armyworms can cause significant damage in golf course turf as well as row crops, little is known about what makes them tick, move or even eat.
    The caterpillars that are the bane to many golf course superintendents are the larval stage of the fall armyworm moth, known scientifically as Spodoptera frugiperda. Intolerant to cold, fall armyworms are native to South Florida and South Texas in the U.S., as well as other tropical zones globally, but its destructive habits stretch far beyond its native range thanks to its ability to migrate hundreds of miles on a tailwind. 

    Fall armyworms are voracious feeders in their larval stage. Mississippi State University They prefer Bermudagrass, but with multiple generations possible throughout the summer, and each new adult able to move hundreds of miles, they can be found as far away as the Midwest, Northeast or even southern Canada by autumn under the right conditions.
    Researchers agree that hot, dry conditions are optimal for armyworm activity, but there seems to be little predictability as to when and why they are worse in some years, such as the widespread infestation of 2021.
    The adult moths do not feed during their short stage of the armyworm life cycle, but they are voracious as they progress through the larval caterpillar stage. Fortunately, there are many effective tools available to manage them.
    Larva, according to Dave Shetlar, Ph.D., professor emeritus at Ohio State, can do little damage as first, second or third instar stage. By the time they reach their fourth or fifth instar stage, or when they are a half-inch or more in length, it might be too late. Damage manifests first as what might appear to be drought stress, but can quickly become catastrophic. Therefore, scouting can be critical, says the USGA Green Section.
    Left untreated, hundreds of armyworms might be present once damage becomes noticeable. Researchers at Michigan State suggest a pyrethroid labeled for use on turfgrass, including bifenthrin or cypermethrin. OSU’s Shetlar also suggests chlorantraniliprole (Acelepryn) or pyrethroids for curative control as well as diamides for effective preventive control.
    The female adults lay masses, each containing up to 1,000 eggs, on vertical objects in or adjacent to turf, such as ballwashers, 150-yard markers and directional stakes (right). The eggs hatch at their new home in just a few days, where they fall to the ground and soon begin feeding.
    The migratory life cycle of the armyworm is a curious one. The caterpillars later pupate and eventually emerge as moths. Unable to overwinter outside their native habitat, armyworms will die at the first frost, and the process will begin all over again the following year as new adults head north from Texas and Florida.
  • An airplane crash landing on a California golf course brought renewed attention to the need to shout "fore" on the links.
    The small private plane, identified as a single-engine Piper PA 28, crashed onto a putting green Aug. 4 at the Haggin Oaks golf complex in Sacramento after losing power shortly after takeoff from nearby McClellan Airport.
    According to reports, the plane had reached an altitude of about 400 feet when it lost power and crashed onto the Haggin Oaks complex, where it carved up a practice green then skidded across the pavement before coming to rest against the golf shop. The crash took out a bench and damaged the outside of the golf shop as the aircraft scraped the building before coming to a stop.
    No injuries were reported, other than a few scrapes on the pilot, although a startled golfer can be seen on surveillance video  leaping out of the way as the plane slammed to the ground.
    The event was captured on surveillance cameras, and the crash footage has gone viral to the amazement of Terry Daubert, general manager of Haggin Oaks, and president of Morton Golf Management, which owns and operates the facility.
      A small plane created quite a stir when it crashed onto the practice green of a California golf course. Image courtesy of Haggin Oaks "It's pretty shocking, right?" Daubert said. "I think what makes it more spectacular are two things: One, nobody got hurt, so that makes it easier to talk about; and two, we got exceptional video because we have two cameras in position to see the flight of the plane as it came in. We've heard it has been picked up by more than 1,000 news outlets as far away as Germany.
    "It's amazing no one was hurt. A few inches this way or that, and this could have been really disastrous."
    The plane remained in place for three days after the crash roped off with yellow police tape, as National Transportation Safety Board officials completed their investigation.
    Superintendent Rick White and his team had cut out most of the damaged turf and resodded the area almost immediately, Daubert said. The half of the practice green that was unaffected remains open. The side under repair will reopen in short order.
    "It will reopen in another week, maybe two at the most," Daubert said. "It won't be long."
    Haggin Oaks is no stranger to vandalism from troublemakers operating cars, motorcycles and golf cars, but damage from an airplane is a first. When Daubert, who was not on property at the time of the event, learned about the crash over the phone, he thought the caller was talking about a miniature remote-control model.
    "When one of our other partners told me a Cessna-type plane had landed on the golf course, I didn't know he meant a real airplane," Daubert said.
    "We've had worse than that by a car or someone doing wheelies on the green and tearing it up."
    Haggin Oaks is one of the most popular golf courses in the Sacramento area, and Daubert is thankful the damage was limited to the turf, pavement and side of the building.
    "We're not the busiest golf course, we're not the most lavish and we're not the cheapest either, but we are the most centrally located in Sacramento for golfers," he said. 
    "No one was hurt, there was minimal asphalt damage, minimal green damage, some clean up and we have to make some repairs, but hey, that is what insurance is for."
  • Andrew Jorgensen, CGCS (below), was named the winner of the Florida GCSA Distinguished Service Award at the group's annual meeting at Sailfish Point Golf Club (above). Above photo from Florida GCSA The awards continue to pile up for Andrew Jorgensen, CGCS.
    Jorgensen (right), the director of community maintenance operations for On Top of the World Communities in Ocala, Florida, recently was named the recipient of the Florida GCSA Distinguished Service Award. He received the award July 19 during the association's annual meeting held at Sailfish Point Golf Club on Hutchinson Island near Stuart.
    The award is presented annually to a member "who has performed outstanding achievements as a golf course superintendent and who has given his time unselfishly in promoting golf course management and unification of the Florida GCSA."
    Jorgensen serves on the Florida GCSA committee, but was caught by surprise during the meeting when he was named the DSA winner. 
    "I was very surprised and humbled to receive the award," Jorgensen said in a news release. "You never serve thinking you’re going to get awards, you do it because it's the right thing to do."
    Before being named director of community maintenance operations in 2022, Jorgensen had been director of golf course maintenance operations, overseeing 81 holes of golf for On Top of the World Communities since 2005.
    Jorgensen earned an associate's degree in 2000 from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia, and a certificate in turfgrass management from the University of Georgia in 2013. He has been a superintendent since 2002 with stints at Southern Woods Golf Club (now Citrus National) and Sugarmill Woods Golf Club, both in Homosassa, Florida, and World Woods Golf Club (now Cabot Citrus Farms) in Brooksville, Florida. He immersed himself in service almost immediately, hosting a Seven Rivers GCSA meeting and golf outing. 
    "That was my first foray, and I quickly realized the value of being involved and it just grew from there," he said. "Serving has been especially helpful to my career. Getting to know as many people as I have, if I have an issue, I know help is just a phone call away."

    On Top of the World Golf Club in Ocala, Florida. OTWGC photo A past president of the Florida GCSA, Jorgensen was the 2020 recipient of the Florida Turfgrass Association Wreath of Grass Award, presented annually to someone who has shown "outstanding service to the FTGA and to the turfgrass industry."
    He also earned the GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2022, and the Environmental Leaders in Golf Award in 2014 and 2017.
    "Andy is as dedicated to his profession and his colleagues as you can possibly be," said Jennifer Bryan, Florida GCSA executive director. "I really don’t know of anyone who devotes more of their time and energy to the golf course superintendent profession as a whole. And he always does with a smile and encouragement for those around him."
    In other happenings at the meeting, Jason Zimmerman, CGCS director of greens and grounds at The Nest Golf Club in Bonita Springs, was elected the association's president. Zimmerman, a Michigan State graduate who has been at The Nest since 2006, takes over from Parker Ferren, CGCS at Copperleaf Golf Club, also in Bonita Springs. Ferren will serve a term as immediate past president. Ryan Swilley, CGCS at The Dye Preserve Golf Club in Jupiter, was elected vice president. Dustin Plemons, superintendent at municipal Cleveland Heights Golf Club in Lakeland, is new secretary-treasurer.
  • Tropical weather update via T3 golf

    Tropical Storm Debby's projected path. National Weather Service graphic Tropical Storm Debby continued to ravage the Southeast with heavy rainfall as it made its second landfall Thursday.
    Debby came ashore about 2 a.m. Thursday near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, with winds of 50 mph. The storm was tracking northward at 10 mph with winds of 40 mph.
    The storm made landfall Monday on the west coast of Florida near Steinhatchee as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph and moved out to sea again Tuesday east of Charleston at 5 mph with winds of 65 mph before coming ashore again Thursday.

    Projected rainfall totals from Tropical Storm Debby. NWS graphic Debby has been blamed for at least seven deaths so far, spawned a tornado that heavily damaged a school in central North Carolina. The storm has left rainfall totals of a foot or more and flooding throughout parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina, but is projected to continue to weaken as it stays over land throughout the week from North Carolina to Maine and eventually into Canada.
    Debby's tracking speed will continue to increase over land as it moves across North Carolina and Virginia and bears down on Washington, D.C., by Friday morning. The storm is predicted to be over northern Maine and quickly will be out of the picture in the U.S. by Saturday morning. Rainfall predictions range from 1 to 8 inches along Debby's projected path.

    Flash flooding potential from Tropical Storm Debby. NWS graphic The chance of flash flooding remains a concern along Debby's path, with the greatest threat in the central parts of North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York.
    This information is provided by meteorologists Garrett Bastardi and Herb Stevens of T3 Golf. Stevens is a former TV meteorologist and one of the original on-air personalities when The Weather Channel debuted in 1982. He has been providing weather reports to the skiing and golf turf industries for more than 20 years with Grass Roots Weather. In 2021, Stevens and Bastardi launched T3 Golf which provides golf course superintendents with short-term forecasts at a local level.
    For more information, follow UmbrellaWeather and T3 on X, or contact Garrett Bastardi of T3 Golf.

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