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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    Some of the best ideas are copied from someone else, such as dog calendars or awards honoring golf course equipment managers. Another idea - this one brewing in Europe - might also warrant copying, or stealing, or whatever you want to call it. In its infancy, the project certainly merits watching.
    The challenges facing turf managers today are ever changing. New challenges, often driven by practices such as lower mowing heights, arise for which there is no solution supported by scientific data. That can be a problem in an era when research dollars no longer flow like they once did.
    The Sports Turf Research Institute and the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association have teamed to launch a demand-driven turf research program designed to provide science-based solutions for challenges facing turfgrass managers. The program is funded fully by STRI.
    Turf managers will be able to list their problems through an online portal, and a team known as the Golf Research Enterprise will prioritize a list of issues and present them for discussion at the 2020 BTME conference.
    That enterprise will develop research protocols and programs to investigate and identify solutions to the problems on that priority list, and trials will begin next year at the STRI research facility. 
    The results will be shared at field days and through social media, and trials updated periodically.
  • A gift from touring golf professionals long ago as a show of thanks to members for their benevolence, the cathedral clock inside the halls at the Inverness Club has been marking the club's history for the past century. For the next two years, it will count down to the historic club's journey back to its place among golf's elite.
    A 1918 Donald Ross design, Inverness was the site of four U.S. Open Championships and a pair of PGA Championships, the last in 1993. Through the years, the course has been tweaked a handful of times, each shifting the course farther away from what Ross had intended until finally it had lost its identity if not its historic significance.
    After a highly acclaimed restoration at the hands of architect Andrew Green and an aggressive master plan to restore Inverness to its former greatness that included this year's U.S. Junior Amateur, the comeback of what was one of Ross's most revered works is all but complete and will culminate in two years when the 2021 Solheim Cup is contested in Toledo.
    "The members love it. They've already forgotten what it looked like two years ago," said Inverness green chairman and past president Greg Kopan, a Toledo-area financial advisor. 
    "If we'd known how large of a project this was going to be before the U.S. Junior Amateur, I'm not sure we could have sold it. I don't think we could have sold it. We were pushing hard to because we knew it was the right thing to do."

    In a span of two years, superintendent John Zimmers (seated) and assistants Carlton Henry (left) and Ryan Kaczor have faced a massive restoration project and a USGA event and now turn their attention to preparing for the 2021 Solheim Cup at the Inverness Club in Toledo. Photos by John Reitman Keeping the project on track while also helping change the culture at Inverness - both on the golf course and in the clubhouse - has been superintendent John Zimmers.
    When Zimmers arrived in Toledo two years ago, he brought a lot of championship experience with him after nearly two decades at Oakmont, where he prepped for two U.S. Opens in 2007 and 2016 and a U.S. Women's Open in 2010 and oversaw perpetual changes that transformed the Pittsburgh-area classic from a tree-lined, parkland-style layout into a wide open thing of beauty that looks a lot like what Henry Fownes designed in 1903.
    "When I interviewed, I asked them if they realized how aggressive their master plan was," Zimmers said. "It started with taking grass off bunkers, putting in new drainage and sand, then moving bunkers, changing fairways, purchasing land and putting in new golf holes and taking other holes out, building new greens and moving the irrigation lake to where it is now off site, and by the way, take out a few thousand trees, and they probably wouldn't do that project today if they knew what was involved. I haven't heard any regrets, it's just that it was a very large project. And, we never closed the golf course through any of it."
    Green was recommended by Zimmers' predecessor Chad Mark, who had a short one-year stint at Inverness before taking the job at Muirfield Village, two hours away in suburban Columbus.
    Green's restoration, part of the club's master plan, included restoring some of what Ross had built, rerouting some holes and expanding the course onto recently acquired land. That allowed Green to stretch the course to more than 7,500 yards to keep it relevant for today's longer game while also working within an overall design philosophy to help restore the property to Ross's original intent.
    Changes include reworking Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 8. No. 2 is a replica of Ross's original second hole, while 4 is a recreation of the original No. 7, 5 is a replica of the original No. 13 and No. 8 is patterned after the original 6th hole.
    Of the hundreds of courses with which Ross's name is associated, Inverness was among his favorites and he wrote of it often. 
    "I really respect Ross's work," Green told TurfNet last year. "In all my time doing this, and that's about 20 years, you hear numerous things about the courses he did. Did he really do this or that, or was it just a whistlestop tour and they just call it a Ross course? 
     
    "The places like Inverness where you know he was on the ground and spent time, he did a marvelous job. He was a genius at fitting holes into the ground he had and being creative to build good golf holes. He had a great eye for utilizing the ground. Each piece of ground was utilized in unique ways, and there was a tremendous amount of variety in his designs.
     
    "All the old guys were good. They didn't need a bulldozer to bail them out."
     
    In more than 20 years of providing championship conditions at the highest level, even Zimmers said he's never quite faced an aggressive schedule like that encountered at Inverness that included the U.S. Junior Amateur just two years after contractor McDonald and Sons broke ground.
    McDonald also had been hired by Mark, who is a Zimmers protege. Zimmers had worked with the contractor exclusively for years at Oakmont, and that relationship, along with assistants Ryan Kaczor and Carlton Henry, helped keep the project on track. The end result has been extremely satisfying for Zimmers, especially given the time constraints.
    "I don't think there's any question about that. This junior am might be my biggest accomplishment in my professional career," he said. "I'm not going to lie. We didn't have enough time, the grass wasn't mature enough. We didn't have the right equipment, and we didn't have the right staff. Not that there was anything wrong with the staff, we just didn't have enough trained staff. But we worked hard it. We had our ups and downs, and it's something I'm not going to forget. It's not easy doing championships in the middle of July when it's a heat index of 100 degrees.
    "The big thing was having two assistants who helped educate the members on what we were doing. The second thing was having McDonald and Sons here. When you work with somebody every day, and I worked with them for the last 20 years, you know they have your back. When you have a relationship like that, they make us look good, and it was up to us bring what they did to life, and I think we've done that."
    Held every other year, the Solheim Cup is headed to Toledo in two years. This year's event, won by Team Europe, was played Sept. 13-15 at Gleneagles in Scotland. With the countdown to the next Solheim Cup already begun, there is no rest for Zimmers and his team. LPGA staff have been on site in Toledo for months and preliminary plans for the location of infrastructure already were on Zimmers' desk before the Junior Am was completed. 

    Donald Ross utilized the natural contours of the land when designing Inverness a century ago. "I haven't even put my Junior Am folder away, and I already have my first Solheim Cup folder," he said. 
    Although much of the set up will be at the discretion of the Team USA captain, one change already has been made. 
    Nos. 9 and 18, the latter being the club's signature hole, will be flipped for the Solheim Cup. The 18th green is where Bob Tway holed out for birdie on the 72nd hole in a rain-plagued 1986 PGA Championship to beat Greg Norman in a Monday finish. In 1920, 43-year-old Englishman Ted Ray placed his putter on the ground there to relight his pipe before sinking a birdie putt on the final day to beat Jack Burke by one stroke and become the oldest U.S. Open champion in history - a mark that stood until Ray Floyd won in 1986 at Shinnecock Hills.
    "Everyone will want to see them play 18, and there is a good chance that many of the matches won't get to the 18th hole. So, if they never show up to 18 it will be disappointing," Zimmers said. "I understand it. Being a traditionalist, I don't like it, but it is the right thing to do. I want to see them play that hole."
    Inverness has a longstanding tradition with major championship golf. The U.S. Open was contested there in 1920, 1931, 1957 and 1979. The club also was site of the PGA Championship in 1986 and again in 1993. 
    In golf's early days, touring professionals traditionally were prohibited from using a club's facilities. That all changed in 1920 at the U.S. Open in Toledo when Inverness opened its dressing room doors to the players. As a show of thanks, the tour pros, headed by Walter Hagen, gifted the club with a cathedral clock that still keeps time in the clubhouse today.
    While the club maintains a tie to major championship golf, the city of Toledo has an equally impressive legacy with women's golf. The town has hosted an LPGA event since 1984. Marathon Petroleum, the title sponsor of the LPGA event, also has signed on to back the Solheim Cup.
    And if the opportunity to host a U.S. Open or PGA Championship would ever present itself, Inverness now has the golf course to pull it off thanks to Green, Zimmers and a patient and dedicated membership willing to make it all happen.
    "The club has always wanted to be there," Kopan said. "We needed to make some improvements and move forward. The moment we made the decision to move forward, the goal was always to do events of national prominence. We want to do bigger and bigger tournaments. We want to continue to do national events, and in the case of the Solheim Cup, international events. Certainly, we would like to see a major back in Toledo. I think Toledo would support it, and now we have the golf course to do it."
  • Kim Erusha, Ph.D., of the USGA Green Section said effective communication is key for success in the turf industry. Photos by John Reitman  
    Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories focused on Bayer's Women in Golf event held recently at the company's facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina.
    Looking back on nearly three decades of experience in the golf turf industry, Kim Erusha, Ph.D., says some of the best leadership advice she ever received stems from an analogy about basketball.
    "We all grew up playing basketball in my family, and my dad always told us to just shoot the ball," Erusha said. "He said they only count the points, not the misses.
    "In life, it's easy to be indecisive because you never know if you are going to make the right decision. Just make a decision. Just shoot the ball."
    Erusha, whose long career with the USGA which includes the past 10 years as managing director of the Green Section, comes to a close at the end of the month as part of a restructuring in New Jersey, recently was at the Bayer Environmental Science facility in Clayton, North Carolina, where she talked to a group of 50 other women about industry trends and challenges specific to them.
    The group included superintendents, assistants, representatives from academia and sales.
    Erusha, who holds a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Iowa State, and master's and doctoral degrees in agronomy from the University of Nebraska, said she is more comfortable talking about agronomy than she is discussing career advice.
    She offered the crowd career advice tips, shared her biggest pet peeves and examples of the best advice she ever received - like "just shoot the ball."
    To be successful, it is important for folks to find something they are passionate about and to fuel that passion every day. It also is critical to differentiate yourself from others.
    For Erusha, that has meant being a technically sound scientist.
    "Your goal should be to be as technically sound as possible in the role you are in," she said. "That is how you are going to be able to move around in this industry.
    "You never know when an amazing opportunity can come your way in the industry. I never thought when I graduated from Iowa State as a horticulture major that I would be a leader in the golf industry years later, so you never know what those opportunities are that will come your way."
    Following that line of thought helped Erusha grow throughout her 28-year career with the USGA, where she started as a technical writer and then progressed to director of education and eventually as the head person in charge of the Green Section.
    Finding and nurturing your passion, Erusha said, is all about bringing a little extra to your position for your employer.
    "You have to identify your own perspective of what you bring to the industry," she said. "You have to answer that question of what added value you are bringing to an organization and how you move the organization forward."

    Renee Geyer, right, of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio and Morgan Creighton of Glencoe Golf and Country Club in Calgary go through an exercise at Bayer's Women in Golf conference. Photos by John Reitman For many of the women at this conference, part of their responsibility now is to be a mentor for other women in the business.
    Among those in attendance was Renee Geyer, who has worked at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio for 11 years, including the past three as superintendent.
    "This has made me feel totally empowered," Geyer said. "I've met a whole new family here, who I can now go to with anything, and who can come to me."
    Much of Erusha's advice centered around ethics and "staying focused on your own moral compass," she said.
    That includes owning mistakes, correcting them and moving on, putting the interests of the team (i.e., crew and employer) ahead of self interests, and building credibility with subordinates and members by saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
    "Don't lose focus on your own moral compass. When you lose it, it is hard to gain it back," Erusha said. "Following your moral compass is how you build trust with others."
    Early in her career, before she began working with the USGA, Erusha spent two years driving a truck for a lawncare service provider. That time helped her hone many of the skills needed to be successful throughout her career.
    "I loved that job," she said. "It taught me a lot about horticulture communications. I worked with a team and also independently. It was a great way to learn a lot of things about customer service, efficiency and planning."
    The rest of her career was spent with the USGA, which earlier this year announced that several changes to the Green Section's structure would be coming throughout the year. At least a dozen employees, including agronomists, support staff and researchers have left since spring, including Erusha who accepted an early retirement buyout that goes into effect in October. 
    "I'm looking for that next opportunity," she said. "I have a lot to offer the golf industry, and I'm excited to see what that next opportunity is."
  • Jackie Gleason, left, and Bob Hope at Inverrary. Below, Gleason with two-time Inverrary Classic winner Jack Nicklaus, who won the event in 1977 and 1978. The forerunner of the Honda Classic once was one of the most highly regarded, highest-paying gigs on the PGA Tour schedule.
    Jackie Gleason did not bring the PGA Tour to South Florida, but he certainly brought it to prominence. From 1972 to 1984, the Tour made a stop at Inverrary Country Club, Gleason's South Florida home in Lauderhill in western Broward County. The tournament, which became the Honda Classic in 1984, had several iterations, including the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic (1972, 1974-80), Jackie Gleason Inverrary-National Airlines Classic (1973), American Motors Inverrary Classic and eventually the Honda Inverrary Classic. In the tournament's early days, Gleason was known to subsidize the winnings out of his own pocket to boost the prominence of the event.
    Home to a pair of Robert Trent Jones, Sr.-designed courses, historic Inverrary will close its doors forever next spring, according to its owners.
    Inverrary's East Course was the site of several professional championships, including the Inverrary Classic, the 1976 Tournament Players Championship and several LPGA events.
    Winners of the PGA Tour event at Inverrary include Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Larry Nelson, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Kite and Hale Irwin. 
    News of the closing, scheduled for June 1, 2020, came via a Sept. 20 email from Victorville West Limited Partnership, which has owned Inverrary since 2006. Owners cited an overbuilt South Florida market and years of financial setbacks as driving factors behind the decision.
    Gleason, who produced a TV variety show in the 1960s from Miami Beach, lived in a 14-room estate at Inverrary. The entertainer's third wife, Marilyn continued to live on the golf course after Gleason died in 1987 until she passed away earlier this year.
  • Growing the game of golf does not just happen in the clubhouse, practice range or on the first tee. It also occurs at the grassroots level - literally.
    On Sept. 11, Estes Park (Colorado) Golf Course superintendent John Feeney hosted a group of 80 students from Estes Park Elementary for a field day event designed to raise awareness about the environmental stewardship efforts of golf course superintendents and generate potential interest in turf management as a potential future career opportunity.
    "The main reason for us was public outreach," Feeney said. "We try to get the message out about the environmental benefits of golf courses and turfgrass. We feel like we are helping to grow the game of golf. It's amazing how few kids this age have actually stepped foot on a golf course."
    The event was a hit with the students and teachers alike, all of whom enjoyed being outside and taking advantage of an opportunity to commune with nature.
    "The kids and the teachers loved it," Feeney said. "They were outside the classroom and ate hot dogs. Doesn't get much better. We received 80 handmade thank you cards a few days later."
    The field day comprised five stations: 
    > soils, where kids were able to use soil sieves to separate soil and watch water percolate through different materials;
    > math on the golf course, in which explained the use of simple algebra on a daily basis;
    > composting, where kids learned how the Estes Park staff converts elk feces and pine needles to usable compost;
    > cool tools, such as cut cutters, greens rollers and walk mowers;
    > putting contest, including obstacles on the practice green, courtesy of Estes Park head pro Mark Miller.
    "Hopefully we can influence some students to find new inspiration in their school work and possibly influence them to pursue a career in golf," Feeney said.
    Feeney first had the idea for a field day after learning about the First Green program at this year's Golf Industry Show in San Diego, which pairs golf courses with local schools for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities.
    The field day not only educates students on environmental stewardship and careers in golf, it also can help dispel commonly held misconceptions about what it takes to manage a golf course.
    "This is a great opportunity to get those messages out. It allows us to show how superintendents are more responsible with water usage and fertilizer/chemical applications than most of the parents at home," Feeney said."The soils lab can show how turfgrass acts as a filter, keeping contaminants out of groundwater and creeks and streams. Perhaps a student will explain to dad why he shouldn't wash the car in the driveway, or broadcast fertilizer all over the sidewalk."
    Feeney held his first field day in April, and plans to continue hosting at least one event per year.
    "I think golf course superintendents need to continue to take larger roles in growing the game of golf. It's important to get young people interested in our profession."
  • John Deere has issued a recall on its XUV835 Gator utility vehicles sold from 2017-2019.
    According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the plastic sheathing on the throttle cable can melt due to improper routing, causing the throttle to stick. This could result in the operator not being able to stop the vehicle, posing a crash hazard. John Deere has received reports of nine incidents. No injuries have been reported.
    The recall affects more than 20,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. and Canada sold from November 2017 through July of this year. The recalled utility vehicles were sold in green and yellow, olive drab and camouflage and have side-by-side seating for two or three people, depending on the seat option.
    Customers should stop using the recalled vehicles immediately and contact an authorized John Deere dealer for a free inspection and repair of improperly routed throttle cables. John Deere also is contacting all known purchasers directly.
    Customers can contact John Deere at 800-537-8233 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (eastern) Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, or online at www.deere.com and click on "Recalls" on the drop-down menu under "Parts & Service" for more information. 

  • Walter Woods, left, with golf course architect and turf consultant Eddie Connaughton during a recent TurfNet trip to the BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition. Walter Woods was a key figure in modernizing the greenkeeper profession and training in Scotland and throughout Europe.
    The former greenkeeper at St. Andrews Links for 21 years until he retired in 1995, Woods died Sept. 18 following a long illness. He was 84.
    A native of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, Woods got his start at a local nine-hole facility, Tillicoultry Golf Club. According to BIGGA, he was the golf professional and greenkeeper at Alloa Golf Club before eventually moving on to St. Andrews in 1974 where he remained until his retirement 21 years later when he became a consultant to the PGA European Tour.
    He was the host superintendent for four Open Championships, a feat of major championship success largely unheard of anywhere in the world not named Augusta, including two won by Jack Nicklaus. 
    When the Open came through St. Andrews, Woods was known to have played practice rounds with Nicklaus. Later in life, he cited Nicklaus’s Open wins in 1970 and 1978 among his favorite golf memories.
    Brian Stiehler, superintendent at Highlands Country Club in Highlands, North Carolina, worked for Woods’ protege Eddie Adams at St. Andrews in 1999, and was fortunate enough to meet the legendary greenkeeper and forge a lasting relationship with him.
    "Walter was a kind man and drew the respect of all who knew him," said Stiehler, who is pictured with Woods in the photo above right. "He was admired by the entire team on the Old Course and an icon in the town of St.Andrews. Walter mentored a large number of greenkeepers, and this is a huge loss to the industry as a whole. He will always be remembered as a great man and innovator."
    Woods was a leader in the formation of BIGGA and its support program that provides members the opportunity to volunteer at The Open and other championships in Europe. He also is considered a pioneer in modern British greenkeeping. Architect Tom Doak has said he credits Woods for much of what he knows about turf maintenance and deeply influenced his design philosophy.
    Woods is a recipient of the Order of the British Medal award given by the crown for meritorious service, and was the winner of the 2002 Old Tom Morris Award.
    Survivors include wife Caroline, sons James and Walter, daughter Caroline, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
  • The first step toward recovery is recognizing there is a problem.
    Not even four years into being a superintendent at Charbonneau Golf Course in Wilsonville, Oregon, Danny Vandecoevering was struggling to find what just about all golf course superintendents seek - that almost-mythical balance between life at home and at work.
    Unable to find that yin and yang, Vandecoevering left the business for a sales position with Wilbur-Ellis, a California-based supplier of products to the agriculture and turf industries.
    "Any long-term career success is going to come back to one's ability to have a healthy work-life balance. I struggled finding that on the golf course," said Vandecoevering, who still lives in Wilsonville. "I emphasize 'I' I struggled leaving the course at the course, and in reality, I struggled leaving the course at all, but that comes back to my ability to choose to manage that in a healthy way. Ultimately, I wasn't in an environment where I was going to be a good husband and father. I can't emphasize enough, that was a function of my personality and the organization I was a part of. That's not to say that every superintendent job is like that."
    An Oregon State graduate, Vandecoevering, 30, started working on a golf course in high school and was an assistant at Snoqualmie Ridge in Washington where he worked for friend and mentor Ryan Gordon. Those two first met in 2009 when Gordon was the assistant at Snoqualmie and Vendecoevering, then a student at Oregon State, volunteered for the Boeing Classic, a Champions Tour event in the Seattle area.
    He quickly developed into a leader and coach and showed an eye for detail work. A natural leader, he also has a self-professed love for the physical labor side of the job.
    "I find it so much harder to sit still nowadays," he said.
    Once he became the head man, responsibilities changed and so did accountability. Eventually, he realized his most important job was at home with  wife, Marie, and 3-month-old son, Troy.
    There had to be another way to earn a living and still stay connected to the industry he loved.
    "It can be really tough to not head back to the course on a Saturday afternoon when it's hot out, or you get a call that there's an irrigation break," he said. "I feel like we talk about work/life balance in the industry as if it's easy to just let there be dead turf on the golf course. 
    "I'm glad I don't have to be stuck in between that rock and that hard place while we raise our son."
    As much as he knew he had to make a career change, Vandecoevering said pulling the trigger wasn't so easy. His wife offered support, but tried hard not to influence his decision. 
    "I have the most supportive wife in the world," he said. "I was fortunate enough to have been approached by Wilbur-Ellis with the opportunity. It took me a couple of months to really come around to the idea. I would talk about pros and cons with my wife often, but she maintained a poker face. The day I told her I was ready to commit to the change she broke and told me how relieved she was to see me get out of my current situation. All that said, I would have made the decision much earlier if I had known she felt that way all along."
    Vandecoevering admits sales is not a cookie-cutter profession and might not be for everyone looking to make a change in the golf business.
    "The sales role can take you to your limits," he said. "But for my skill set, it seems so much more manageable."
    Still, the profession has its rewards, and Vandecoevering called upon some previous experiences with sales reps when making his decision and deciding what his place in the golf industry would truly be if he no longer were a superintendent. Ultimately, helping other superintendents achieve their goals made him feel pretty good about his new career choice.
    "I worked with some really talented reps who weren't salesmen; they were truly my agronomic advisors," he said. "I respected them as much as any superintendent, and their example showed me that applying yourself in a sales role could not only be rewarding, but provide an opportunity for me to have a positive impact on the industry at-large."
    A former employer once told him: " 'Why do all golf course superintendent's think that the whole turf thing is all they can do? You manage staff, you manage budgets, you manage incredibly high expectations, you have to coordinate maintenance for massive events, you have to know hydraulics and electricity' That's so true," he said. "The one thing that makes any superintendent successful is an unrelenting dedication to learning new things and adapting to change. If you've done that successfully as a golf course superintendent, then you're going to do well in whatever you do next."
  • Feral hogs are a problem on golf courses throughout the South, including in Florida (above) and Texas (below right). Everything is bigger in Texas - even hazards on golf courses.
    A team of three trappers and dogs recently caught and removed a 400-pound feral hog at Gateway Hills Golf Course at Lackland Air Force Base just outside San Antonio.
    Wyatt Walton of Lone Star Trapping hunts feral hogs for a living. He has trapped more than 3,000 of them in the past three years, and said the 411-pound porker seized on Sept. 12 is the largest he has ever caught. According to Texas A&M, hogs in Texas, and there are a lot of them, typically run in the 200-300-pound range. Walton’s recent catch required the help of three dogs, one hunting dog to track the beast and two specially trained animals to grab it and hold it down until the trapper arrived to kill and dispose of it.
    The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says hogs of various species were introduced into the state nearly 300 years ago by European explorers and likely escaped into the wild during the Texas Revolution in 1835-36. Since then, they’ve crossbred with one another at an alarming rate.
    A model of evolution, feral hogs are able to reproduce as early as 6 months of age and can go through two reproductive cycles per year with as many as 12 piglets in each litter.
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture there were more than 5 million feral hogs in 39 states across the country with more than 1.5 million roaming the Texas countryside - five years ago. They’ll eat plants and animal matter - and each other if need be to survive. 
    According to a story on CNBC, hogs cause more than $2 billion in damage to crops and property per year while they root for food. According to estimates, hogs are responsible for about $400 million in damage per year in Texas, where it is legal to hunt them without a license.
  • After 15 years as a superintendent, Neil Mayberry sought a change of scenery so he could spend more time with his family, including son Tanner. Some people just have a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
    As the sun set on 2017, Neil Mayberry was ready for a career change after 15 years as a superintendent. He even went back to school to earn an MBA to help facilitate the change. No sooner had he earned his graduate degree from Sam Houston State when a senior agronomic position opened with Yara Turf and Ornamental, a Norwegian company looking to expand into the golf turf fertility market.
    It seemed Mayberry, 40, was destined to be a golf course superintendent. A second-generation greenkeeper, he first started working on a golf course at around age 10, picking range balls at the coastal Mississippi course where his father, James, was superintendent. Soon after graduating from Mississippi State with a degree in turf management in 2002, he was named superintendent at New Orleans Country Club, where he remained until January 2018.
    Mayberry left a lasting mark on the New Orleans golf scene where he ushered the club through renovations, expansions and natural disasters, namely Hurricane Katrina, which left its mark forever on the Crescent City in 2005.
    It seemed to be a match made in heaven, except for one thing. With two children at home, Mayberry, understandably, wanted to be around the house more. He'd heard too many stories from fellow superintendents who missed out on their children growing up, and he did not want to be the next one to share that story.
    "You know how it is on a golf course," Mayberry said. "Sometimes you're not home in the evening until after dark. You feel like you're married to the golf course. I wanted to get away from weekend work. I wanted to be there for my kids, to watch their games and help coach their teams."
    Mayberry began work toward an MBA at Sam Houston State, with the thought of becoming a general manager or supporting superintendents through a job with an industry manufacturer or supplier. While the exact path of his future was unclear, one thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to spend more time at home with his family.
    "A lot of people in this business have told me that their biggest regret is not spending more time with their kids," he said. "With kids at home, I knew if I didn't take action I would have missed out on a lot. Getting an MBA got me where I needed to be."
    He started his position with Yara in January 2018 as crop manager for the company's T&O division.
    Reaching that end point was not easy.
    Long days at the golf course followed by even longer nights slumped over a computer working to better his life and tested Mayberry's resolve, and, at times, the patience of his wife, Shannon.
    "That was the biggest challenge. I'd get home late from the golf course and be up until midnight or 1 a.m. doing school work," he said. "My wife would ask me, 'What are you going to do with it?'
    "I thought I wanted to be a GM, but they work on weekends, too, so being a GM was out. This job was exactly what I was looking for."
    Besides achieving the goal of more time at home with his family, Mayberry's experience with Yara, has helped him become a better agronomist.
    "It's nice being able to help people all over North America," he said. "What has really been positive has been seeing different ways of doing things. That really makes you think outside the box. If I had known when I was a superintendent what I know now, I would have been really dangerous. That's a good thing, and a bad thing."
    Mayberry's story at NOCC wasn't the typical "superintendent gets burned out (or fired) and moves on" saga that has become so common.
    When he told the club he was leaving, he was asked to help find his successor. The search committee eventually settled on Will Guererri, Mayberry's assistant.
    "Leaving a job where they take care of you, and I mean really take good care of you, was hard," he said. 
    "I needed something different."
    He still misses those special times at the golf course, but has never looked back on his decision to change lanes in his career.
    "The No. 1 thing I miss is being around the guys," he said. "I also loved the early mornings when you are the only one on the golf course, and late in the afternoon when the sun casts long shadows on the golf course."
    Still, he has never looked back on his decision to get out of the profession.
    "What this job with Yara has given me is priceless. I can't describe it," he said. "Kids grow up so fast. You blink and they're gone. I'm where I need to be."
  • As many parts of the country are flirting with some of the hottest conditions of the year while summer winds down, it might be hard to focus on winter and the challenges it can mean for golf course superintendents. But harsh winter conditions often can have disastrous results for superintendents managing cool- or warm-season turf. And they'll be here before you know it.
    Whether it is ice-covered Poa, or Bermudagrass left uncovered during periods of extended cold and windy conditions, winter can be a cold, lonely time for golf course superintendents on multiple levels.
    In 2017-18, winter conditions left a trail of dead or stressed turf that former Clemson turf pathologist Bruce Martin, Ph.D., said affected about a third of the roughly 100 golf courses on the Grand Strand. With that in mind, as summer winds down it is never too soon to start thinking about winter prep, especially on warm-season grasses.
    Jim Kerns, Ph.D., of North Carolina State University recently tackled that subject in a free TurfNet University Webinar on Sept. 3 titled "Preparing for fall and winter diseases of warm-season turfgrasses". Presented by BASF, Kerns addressed low-temperature stress, including snow and ice, and their effects, and management strategies to promote acclimation to cold weather conditions. The presenter include information on cultural practices and how they can influence dormancy and how to promote recovery and spring green-up. He also addressed the most common diseases in warm-season turf, including take-all patch, leaf spot and Pythium root rot and the importance of establishing a good relationship with a diagnostics lab.
    On cool-season turf, periods of freeze, thaw, freeze can leave cool-season turf, especially Poa, vulnerable to winter's harsh reality. 
    On October 1, Kevin Frank, Ph.D., of Michigan State University explore that side of that story when he presents another free TurfNet University Webinar titled "Preventive measures for minimizing winterkill on annual bluegrass" a topic Frank knows all too well.
    In this presentation that is presented by Grigg and BASF, Frank will focus on winter prep efforts and the most recent research results to help mitigate winterkill. 
    Topics will include fall management practices such as topdressing, aeration, surface drainage improvement, fertilization, plant growth regulators, wetting agents and adjusting mowing height. 
    Successes and failures from the field will be discussed and the most recent research efforts to mitigate winterkill from around the country will be presented. 
    There are several other webinars planned for the remainder of the year, including "Update on what's new in Microdochium patch control" by Alec Kowalewski, Ph.D., at Oregon State on Sept. 26; "Considerations for building a course pesticide program" by Ken Cropper, Ph.D., at the University of Kentucky on Nov. 19; and "The year in review" on Dec. 19 by Frank S. Rossi, Ph.D. There will be additional titles before the end of the year. All are presented by Grigg and BASF.
    All TurfNet University Webinar are free for members and non-members and all are recorded for on-demand playback on our Archives page which houses more than 250 Webinar recordings.
    TurfNet members should be logged in to their account and non-members should register for a free guest account to view them.
  • Hydrogel technology, shown below right clinging to a turf root system, could help turf managers save as much as 40 percent on water use. Many of the advancements that ultimately make life easier for golf course superintendents come out of agriculture.
    One such example that has been used in agriculture for several years one day could help turf managers reduce water usage exponentially as cost and access are destined to go off in separate directions.
    Hydrogel technology - small, polymer granules injected beneath the surface that absorb and store water like a sponge - has been used as a water-saving measure in California agriculture for years. These polymers can absorb up to 400 times their weight in water, storing it at the root level until the plant needs it. The polymers release about 96 percent of the water back to the plant over time
    Five years ago, Fresno, California-based Aqua Cents began work toward bringing this technology to turf through research at Fresno State University’s Center for Irrigation Technology.
    Last month, the City of Phoenix and Arizona State University announced a research project funded by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation that will study the effectiveness of these polymers on athletic fields under Arizona’s desert climate.
    Hydrogels will be installed on 12 acres of soccer fields that combined use 11 million gallons of water annually at a cost of $63,500. Researchers expect to realize water-use savings of about 40 percent, or 4.4 million gallons annually, or $25,400.
    Injecting the polymers underneath the rootzone is a laborious process, and it will take six weeks to two months to complete the task on the soccer fields at ASU’s West Campus, which is about 20 miles northwest of the main campus in Tempe. The polymers are designed to last five to seven years.

    The hydrogel injection machine from Aqua Cents. The probes rotate while beneath the turf surface. If the Arizona research on soccer fields is consistent with what the technology has produced in agriculture and residential lawn use, city officials in Phoenix say they likely will introduce the use of hydrogels to other municipal properties, including parks and golf courses.

  • News and people briefs

    By John Reitman, in News,

    Nufarm renews commitment to military families
    Nufarm Americas Inc. announced its recommitment of $150,000 to Project EverGreen’s GreenCare for Troops program. The nationwide program assists thousands of military families by providing basic lawn care and yard maintenance while a family member is deployed defending our country. The investment will help expand the impact of the initiative and enable more lawn and landscape professionals with the opportunity to give back to their community in a meaningful way.
     
    The GreenCare for Troops initiative, which celebrated its 13th year this year, has helped more than 6,000 green industry professionals assist provide much-needed services to more than 11,000 military families since the program was launched in 2006. GreenCare for Troops and its sister program SnowCare for Troops provided lawn care, snow removal and landscape services exceeding $1 million to hundreds of military families across the United States in the past year.
     
    The contribution will be used to enhance and expand the national program that is managed by non-profit Project EverGreen. This will include increased outreach for volunteer recruitment and communications to families, volunteers and the media, as well as adding promotional and logistical resources required to grow the GreenCare for Troops database and serve more military families.
      
    Based on Nufarm's support in 2019, the GreenCare for Troops program realized a double-digit increase in active volunteers, a 70 percent match rate among military families and an immediate volunteer match for three-fourths of all newly registered families. 

    Bayer is offering savings on a few timely products throughout September. Bayer announces personnel changes, offers new savings program
    Bayer Environmental Science recently announced several personnel changes the company says will enhance focus on finding innovative solutions for the evolving needs of customers.
    Axel Elling, Ph.D., T&O product development team lead, ES Field Solutions Organization, North America, will lead the Turf and Ornamental product development team responsible for disease, nematode, insect, weed and turf stress management. Axel will remain responsible for disease and nematode management solutions, and will lead a team including: Bruce Spesard, focused on weed management; Xulin Chen, focused on insect management; and Chenxi Zhang, focused on stress management.
    Jake Doskocil, Ph.D., has been named Global Project Leader of Pest Management and Rodent Control for Environmental Science. He most recently served as product development manager for insecticides and led the Clayton Development and Education Center for Environmental Science.;
    Nonggang Bao, Ph.D., has been named as Head of the ES Field Solutions Development and Experience Center in Clayton, N.C., Biology Team Manager and will also be responsible for leading projects within the ES Global Specialty Actives Team..
    Xulin Chen, Ph.D., joins the T&O Field Solutions team as Product Development Manager for Environmental Science. She brings more than eight years of broad entomology expertise to the team. Xulin obtained her Ph.D. in entomology from the University of Florida.
    In other news, Bayer Environmental Science recently launched its 2019 NOW Solutions program that includes instant savings on the agronomic solutions turf professionals need to successfully manage turf conditions through critical summer months.
     
    The program offers customers tailored, volume-based discounts on Specticle FLO, Indemnify, Interface Stressgard and Mirage Stressgard throughout September.
    Specticle FLO is a preemergent herbicide with the active ingredient indaziflam that provides broad-spectrum control of more than 50 grassy and broadleaf weeds in warm-season turf.
    Indemnify controls nematodes on contact in as little as one application and continues to work throughout the root zone to offer visible, long-lasting improvement in turfgrass quality for up to six months. It offers control of plant parasitic nematodes, such as sting, root-knot, stunt, ring, Anguina pacificae and others.
     
    Interface Stressgard is a combination of iprodione, trifloxystrobin and Stressgard technology that provides a solution for diseases and plant stresses under hot, cool, wet or dry conditions. As a non-DMI fungicide, Interface Stressgard can be applied throughout the year without plant growth regulator effects and helps control DMI-resistant plant pathogens. 
    Mirage Stressgard is a DMI fungicide (tebuconazole) that provides control of major diseases affecting cool- and warm-season turfgrass including annual bluegrass, Kentucky bluegrass, creeping bentgrass, perennial ryegrass, bermudagrass, seashore paspalum and zoysiagrass.
     
    Tanto Irrigation taps Clarke
    Tanto Irrigation recently named Tim Clarke to its management team. 
    A native of upstate New York, Clarke is a graduate of SUNY Delhi, Clarke has more than a decade of experience in the golf industry. 
    He was an assistant at Wykagyl Country Club in New Rochelle, New York, and spent 11 years at Augusta National where he specialized in irrigation.
    PBI-Gordon adds to regional sales team
    PBI-Gordon recently named Peter Lange as a sales representative servicing golf course customers in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi.
    Based in Georgia, he most recently Lange was the assistant golf course superintendent at the Atlanta Athletic Club where he managed a crew of nearly 20 and helped oversee many budgeting, administrative, and agronomic functions at the club.
    Lange received a two-year turf degree from Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He also has earned a bachelor’s degree from Florida State and an MBA from LSU.
  • Alden Maddocks' children check out the butterfly scene at Ekwanok Country Club in Vermont (above). A monarch caterpillar feasts on milkweed at Ekwanok (below right). When it comes to value as a pollinator, bees are the undisputed king. They pollinate as much as 80 percent of the world's plants and nearly 100 different food crops. As much as 75 percent of the food consumed by people can be traced back to a bee making a pit stop on a plant.
    Butterflies, especially monarchs, might look the part, but that fall somewhere further down the list of effectiveness. As University of Kentucky entomologist Dan Potter, Ph.D., a pioneer in the field of providing habitat for pollinators, once told TurfNet: "Monarchs are an iconic and beloved species. . . . Monarchs really don't have any economic value, and they are not important pollinators like bees. They don't really help crops in any way. . . . They are a symbol of environmental health. They're like pandas in China, or polar bears or bald eagles. What good do they do? But it's special when you see one. And we don't want to lose them."
    Much has changed since Potter, and his former graduate students, established the first Operation Pollinator plot in North America and the first on a U.S. golf course nearly a decade ago. Few saw the merit in establishing butterfly habitat on golf courses in those early days. Today, according to the U.S. Golf Association, as much as 70 percent of all U.S. golf courses have managed out-of-play areas. And many have out-of-play areas dedicated to pollinators.
    Dale Wesselman, regional superintendent for Billy Casper Golf in Duluth, Minnesota, maintains a half-acre of milkweed and other Monarch-friendly plants at Enger Park Golf Course as part of Audubon International's Monarchs in the Rough program.
    "We have 300 acres here and we manage 240 of them, so we have the acres to do a lot of initiatives," Wesselman said. "I'm not doing this just to get on the bandwagon. I'm doing it because I like walking the golf course and seeing butterflies."
    Some of the other butterfly-friendly plants at Enger Park include black-eyed Susan, coneflower and butterfly bush. When establishing out-of-play areas, Wesselman can't plant just anything in Duluth, where sub-freezing temperatures often is the norm for five months.
    "Even things that can grow in Minneapolis won't survive the winter in Duluth," he said. 
    "We planted from locally harvested native plugs so we know it survives here."
    From those plants, he harvests seeds to start new plantings from that native population.
    Alden Maddocks has established two areas for Monarch habitat at Ekwanok Country Club in Manchester, Vermont, where either he or his father, Ted, now the club's general manager, have been superintendent for the past 25 years.
    The younger Maddocks' commitment to environmental stewardship at Ekwanok, an 1899 Walter Travis design, was renewed while researching old photographs to piece together a presentation for a committee meeting in the winter of 2015-16. That's when he discovered a 1903 image that promoted natural area on the course as "the largest natural waste area in American golf."
    At that time, the club was going through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary renewal process when a member coordinator involved in the program mentioned Audubon had recently started its Monarchs in the Rough Program and there was milkweed already growing on the course anyway, so . . . .
    "When I saw that photo from 1903, I just decided to go with it," Maddocks said. 

    Alden Maddocks has been all in on establishing native areas at Ekwanok Country Club (above) since he found a vintage photograph from 1903 that shows the club's environmental legacy. A trout stream meanders through butterfly habitat at Enger Park Golf Course in Duluth, Minnesota (below right) where Dale Wesselman is superintendent. While promoted as pollinators, butterflies aren't very effective at that, but helping promote their population seemed like the right thing to do, Maddocks said.
    While adult monarchs can drink the nectar of many plants, they eat only milkweed during the caterpillar stage of their lifecycle and need the plant to lay their eggs. Each fall, monarchs throughout North America begin their migration to a mountain forest in Mexico barely 70 miles wide where they spend the winter. Their habitat, according to the National Wildlife Federation, is disappearing at such an alarming rate it is estimated that their numbers in North America have declined by as much as 90 percent over the past several decades.
    "They don't really do anything, but they are a good sign of a healthy environment in general," Maddocks said, echoing Potter's sentiments. "Members enjoy the idea of helping the environment, using less pesticides and water, and helping the monarch population is a bonus."
    Both Ekwanok and Enger Park have established BMP programs that make it easy to be Monarch friendly.
    "We've established a small area behind the No. 11 green that is about 4,000 square feet and an area surrounding No. 11 tee complex and the No. 14 tee complex," Maddocks said. "We use minimal herbicide in there. We already had milkweed here, and we used to hand pull it three to four times a year."
    A native of Iowa, Wesselman spent a lot of time outdoors as a child on his grandparents' farm. He spends a lot of his free time as an adult outside, too, hunting and fishing. His appreciation for everything outdoors extends for his programs on the golf course.
    "We don't use any insecticides here. They're not necessary because of the winters," Wesselman said. 
    "Ten years ago, nobody even thought about Monarch butterflies. I remember as a kid, I used to see tons of butterflies. Now, I rarely see them like I did when I was a kid."
  • For nearly 20 years, Pat Berger was a golf course superintendent, but he has spent most of the past two decades managing sports turf for the University of Arkansas athletic teams. That tenure includes the past 10 years overseeing the artificial turf surface at the university's football stadium.
    For the first time in a decade, the university has real grass on its football field, and the experience has brought Berger back to his roots.
    This summer, the field at Razorback Stadium was converted to Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass, a new release developed by breeders at Oklahoma State University for cold, drought and traffic tolerance. 
    The new surface got its first test Labor Day weekend when Arkansas kicked off the college football season with a game against Portland State. Exhibiting its potential for traffic tolerance, the turf showed nary a divot after two practices and a game, Berger told Hawgs Illustrated.
    "This is a lot like being a golf course superintendent," Berger said. 
    "We need to topdress the field to fill in some low spots. . . . Topdressing is going to solve your problems."
    Noted for its visual turf quality and density, Tahoma 31 grows aggressively, but has a low vertical growth rate, and it can be mowed as low as 0.125.
    Field tested on golf courses in Oklahoma and in NTEP trials throughout the transition zone, Tahoma 31 can easily handle the hot, humid summers of the mid-South. It also was bred to withstand unseasonably cold winters that can plague transition zone golf courses. 

    In field trials at Oklahoma State, Tahoma 31 showed exceptional drought tolerance, exhibiting the lowest ET rates for three consecutive years. Researchers in Stillwater say their new grass can use up to 20 percent less water than some other Bermudas.
    Breeders at Oklahoma State, including Yanqi Wu, Ph.D, professor of grass breeding and genetics, have been working on Tahoma 31 since 2006. As breeders pared down a list of potential new genotypes from more than 10,000 to about 1,600 specimens, plot No. 31 performed best under grueling winter conditions in 2010 field trials, exhibiting early spring green-up and dense growth. 
    Sod Production Services of Charles City, Virginia, holds the licensing rights to this hybrid Bermuda system that is available only as sod.
  • Marsh Benson's footprint on golf is, to say the least, immense.
    For more than a quarter century, Benson was a major influence on the direction of golf's grandest championship when served as superintendent and later director of golf course and grounds and ultimately senior director of golf course and grounds and long-range planning at Augusta National Golf Club.
    In recognition of his contributions to the golf industry, Benson has been named the recipient of the Don A. Rossi Award presented annually by the Golf Course Builders Association and “recognizes those that have made significant contributions to the game of golf and its growth as well as those that have inspired others by their example.”
    While overseeing long-range planning at Augusta National, Benson influenced the careers of countless up-and-coming interns, assistants and superintendents. He also built and directed teams that implemented the visions of the club established under the guidance of chairmen Jack Stephens, Hootie Johnson and Billy Payne, including enhancements to the golf course, clubhouse, The Masters championship, player and patron-support facilities at one of the world's most recognizable sports venues. 
    A 1975 graduate of the University of Georgia where he earned a degree in environmental design, Benson was a product of the Penn State turfgrass management program. His tenure at Augusta started in 1981 when he interned under Billy Fuller. He was the superintendent at the Country Club of Florida in Boynton Beach and Jennings Mill Country Club in Athens, Georgia before returning to Augusta in 1989 as superintendent.
    His ability to improve maintenance practices at golf course facilities achieved world-wide recognition after he invented and patented the SubAir System in 1994. The popularity of the system has grown over the past 25 years, starting with golf course greens and expanding to all types of playing and sports field surfaces.   
    Due to the demanding tournament turf conditions at Augusta under an array of weather scenarios, Benson has been instrumental in working with golf equipment manufacturers to improve mower performance, grass disbursement, irrigation concepts and more.  
    Benson retired in 2015 but continues to consult with the club on several projects. In 2015 he founded his own company WMBIMAGINE, which provides design, construction and project consulting services for clients throughout the world.
    Benson continues to give back to the industry he loves by serving on the board of The Musser International Turfgrass Foundation that awards top doctoral graduate students the Musser Award of Excellence to provide financial support of their educational endeavors. 
    He also is active in an effort to grow turfgrass scholarships at Penn State in memory of his mentor Joseph Duich, Ph.D., also a former Rossi winner, and serves on the board of the Warrior Alliance, whose mission is to drive skills development in the golf industry for veterans transitioning from active duty to civilian life. 
    The Rossi award is named for Don A. Rossi, who served as executive director of the National Golf Foundation from 1970 to 1983, was instrumental in forming the National Golf Course Owners Association and served as executive director of the GCBAA from 1984 to 1990. The award will be presented at the 2020 Golf Industry Show in Orlando.

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