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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    After a lengthy career as a school principal, Todd Gordon finally made the transition to superintendent - but not the kind of superintendent you might think.
    Gordon, 57, spent 32 years as a teacher and principal in the Marion-Florence school district in central Kansas until his retirement last year. This year, he started a new career - as superintendent at Marion Country Club, a private, nine-hole facility that redefines barebones.
    Gordon, whose golf course maintenance experience includes one season helping his predecessor, is a staff of one at a course that operates on the honor system. And he has called on the expertise of experienced professionals to help him master his craft.
    Greens fees are $15 to play the nine-hole route twice and 20 bucks for a cart. And it's all on the honor system. There is no clubhouse staff, so players just sign in, grab a cart, place their money in an envelope and drop it into a box. 
    "We can't afford to have someone just sit in the clubhouse," said Gene Winkler, the club's treasurer.
    When the previous superintendent left, Marion was a little rough around the edges. Even though he had only worked at the course part time for one season, Gordon had caught the attention of other members.
    "I told the board members if they ever wanted their golf course to look like my yard to give me a call," Gordon said. 
    They remembered that.
    "He is doing a wonderful job," Winkler said. "He was a principal in the local school system for years. He was always outdoorsy and he used to have a green in his back yard that he maintained. He worked here as a laborer last summer, and when the greenkeeper left, he moved up into the job, and he is doing a great job."
    Gordon never even played golf, much less practiced as a turf manager, until he started his career in education.
    "I was just a farm kid from Iowa. I never played through high school until I took a teaching job in Kansas," he said. "The other teachers were all golfers and they were determined to turn me into a golfer. I guess they won out, because I've been one ever since. I can't believe I went all those years without playing. I guess I found the right district."
    His job today as superintendent is much different than it was a year ago as a part-time greenskeeper.
    "I used to have a flexible schedule here and could come and go as I please," Gordon said. "Now, I come early and stay late.
    "I was great help for the greenkeeper before me. Now, there's just one of us."
    That's not exactly true.
    Members at Marion have been very generous with their time, helping where and when they are needed.
    "We have a member who donates two days of mowing, that's 16 hours a week," Gordon said. "Another member has helped mow and we have a member who is on the school board who has taken off work to help. We've had a lot of member help. Without that, there's not enough hours in a day to get the work done."
    Finding enough help is not the only challenge facing Gordon at Marion. He also needs the expertise of others to help solve agronomic challenges and build daily protocols.
    For that, he has leaned heavily on area superintendents, vendor reps and others.
    That list includes Mike Hulteen, CGCS at Hesston Golf Course, Gary Andrews of Hillsoboro Golf Course, Shawn Spann of Winfield Solutions and Kansas State extension specialist Jared Hoyle.
    "We had some problems with the greens. I'd take pictures and send them to Mike," Gordon said. "He's busy himself, but he always takes the time to help me. I can't thank him enough.
    "Between him and Gary, that's 60 years of superintendent experience. When they make suggestions, I pay attention and write it down. There are a lot of folks out there willing to lend a hand."
    Gordon also made field trips to other courses to pick the brains of superintendents throughout the area.
    Last year, Gordon coached the Marion High School golf team. While his team was competing, Gordon would be at the maintenance shop talking turf with superintendents at each course.
    "He wants to learn. All the time he is reading and learning," Winkler said. "He's made so many contacts. He really wants to make the golf course good for us."
  • A law-enforcement official examines the scene of a mower rollover at a golf course in Missouri that resulted in the death of the operator. Photo by KMOV-TV Even the most unimaginable tragedy can give way to a teaching moment.
    Workers at two golf courses in two states were killed within days of each other, serving as stark reminders to review existing operator safety protocols with staff where such programs exist, and establish them where they do not; and make sure employees follow them.
    A worker at Normandie Golf Course near St. Louis was killed July 23, when the mower he was operating went down and embankment and ended up in a creek, pinning him underneath.
    Aerial imagery on St. Louis news outlets shows what appears to be a large zero-turn mower overturned in a creek bank. 
    A worker at Chicago Highlands Golf Course in Illinois was killed when a spray tank on a unit he was operating fell on him.
    Golf course personnel are tight-lipped on the details while investigations continue and the eventual threat of a lawsuit looms. 
    It was unclear whether the operator of the mower was wearing a seat belt, or if he had been ejected and trapped beneath the mower. A respiratory therapist at a local hospital playing golf at Normandie at the time of the incident told news outlets that she responded to the scene to offer assistance, but that the worker appeared to have been trapped underneath the mower for some time. 
    It is common procedure for the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration to get involved early and conduct its own investigation into whether an employer is providing a safe work environment for its employees, or if it is negligent in its efforts to do so, opening the gate for civil action.
    With the safety features built into golf course maintenance equipment and the proliferation of safety training programs at golf courses, it is difficult to imagine that such a tragedy can still occur, but it seems like this story, or one similar to it, pops up a couple of times every year.
    Each incident is a reminder to review safety procedures with your team with the goal of avoiding a similar tragedy.
    Rollover protection systems have been standard on new maintenance equipment for years, and when used in conjunction with a seatbelt are more than 90 percent effective at saving lives, according to the Department of Labor. That number drops to about 70 percent when seatbelts are not engaged with ROPS use.
    Mickey McCord, principal of McCord Golf Safety and Services, said a common cause of mower-related injuries and deaths occur when the operator does not use a seat belt, thinking they can escape from the machine if it begins to tip over.
    "The biggest issue is guys not wearing seatbelts with ROPS," McCord said. "I've had discussions with guys who are adamant about it because they are afraid of being trapped under that equipment. I tell them they're not going to get trapped if they can keep their heads for a minute and undo the seatbelt. If that mower rolls over on you without seatbelts, then you really are trapped by that equipment. I'm telling you, I hear it all the time."
    McCord says it is important to have written protocols in place that reflect proper ROPS use, but it is equally important to make sure employees are in compliance.
    "A written policy formalizes everything," he said. "But if you have a policy but an employee doesn't follow it, are you complying?"
    Some other tips for safe mower operation on sloped areas include:
    > Using a specialized mower, such as a Ventrac, on inclines of 25 percent or more.
    > Wet and undulating conditions make mowing more difficult.
    > Mow front to back, not side to side.
    > Do not start, stop or turn on slopes.
    > Make sure tires are inflated to the proper pressure.
    "The main thing, obviously, is you don't something like this to happen," McCord said. "But you want the golf course to be protected. You need a policy - a written policy, and you have to make sure that everyone knows it is important to follow it."
  • After judges recently reduced damage settlements in two of the cases lodged against Bayer in the ongoing Roundup saga, the result is a good news-bad news scenario for the maker of the world’s most popular herbicide.
    The good news? You don’t owe as much as you did a few days ago.
    The bad news? With just a few cases litigated, you still owe a @#$% ton of money, and that amount will continue to grow with more than 13,000 other cases looming and the airways (and my email inbox) cluttered with ads from law firms soliciting new clients to jump on board in what has become a case study for how to wage a propaganda war.
    Critics ask why is Roundup still on the market after it has been named in thousands of cases for being responsible for causing non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Those same critics advocate Bayer paying through the nose, even for suits that include $2 billion in damages.
    Roundup is on the market because it works. No other company has developed a non-selective herbicide as efficacious as glyphosate. It also has a product label that is several pages long and lays out explicit instructions for safe use, including guidelines for clothing - a fact lost on my next-door neighbor who was spotted just this week applying it to hundreds of square feet all while she worse shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops. By the way, she is an attorney.
    Hey, why read a label? In the litigious world in which we live, it is easier and more profitable to claim ignorance, point a finger and hire a lawyer.
    Attorneys, activists and the uninformed and uneducated are not going to line up any time soon to spread pity on a multi-national chemical company that employs thousands of people around the planet. Just for fun, search Twitter on the topic and read some of the comments, including a meme that lists Roundup as one of the 12 worst products ever created. Call the Dirty Dozen, the list, that also includes DDT and Agent Orange, appears to have been developed by a “clean food” advocacy group that goes by the name GMO Free USA.
    Chemicals have had safety labels for decades and tobacco products have included warning labels since 1965. There are countless other products that have been linked to cancer, are still on the market and still do not include a safety or warning label of any kind, yet products like tobacco and toxic chemicals are low-hanging fruit in the courtroom.
    In three cases, a jury has ruled against Bayer to the tune of more than $2 billion. In each case, a judge has reduced punitive damage amounts that regardless of what the public believes, would still be unmanageable, even for a company like Bayer.
    The reality is Bayer’s value has dropped significantly since it acquired Monsanto last year. According to Fortune and other published reports, the company’s stock has fallen by more than 40 percent in that time. Although the $2 billion in damages announced earlier this summer will be slashed to a yet-to-be-determined amount that likely will be in the neighborhood of $250 million, even a company like Bayer, which has announced plans to sell its Dr. Scholl’s footcare and Coppertone sunscreen divisions to boost profitability, can pay damages on 13,000 cases (and growing) awarding millions in damages. The legal system has two choices - eventually absolve Bayer (unlikely) or reach a realistic class-action solution that allows the company to remain viable.
    The world probably can get along without tobacco, but it is difficult to imagine agriculture without access to herbicides, insecticides and fungicides. Remove products like Roundup from the shelves and soon the people who complain about everything will scream about higher prices for food. Once a problem like that hits critics in their wallet you can be sure they’ll tell people to take their lymphoma and shove it.
  • Wherever one sees Joe Rimelspach, left, you are likely to see Todd Hicks nearby. Below, Joe Rimelspach helps attendees at a recent Disease Day seminar identify diseases in the field. Photos by John Reitman Starsky and Hutch, Batman and Robin, Shaggy and Scooby, Joe and Todd.
    Wherever you see one-half of any of these famous duos, chances are the other is somewhere close by. Each is an example of the philosophy of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. It is an ideal voiced by Aristotle to illustrate the concept that people accomplish more as part of a team than they do individually.
    For the past decade, Joe Rimelspach and Todd Hicks have been a 1-2 punch for Ohio State's turfgrass pathology program. Thanks to their nearly two decades of hard work together, the program has become one of the leading centers for disease and fungicide research as well as extension outreach as they help golf course superintendents, sports field managers, lawn care operators and homeowners around the state and throughout the country solve some of their most challenging grass-growing issues.
    "Todd and Joe are always ready to help superintendents and speak at local association meetings," said Tim Glorioso, director of golf course operations at Toledo Country Club and a past president of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation. "Their passion for the industry is truly evident in their actions."
    Along the road to where the program is now, they have encountered a few potholes.
    "Our professor, Mike Boehm, was becoming more involved in administration, and when you have a professor leaving that usually means the end of the program," Hicks said. "I told Joe that we need to start selling ourselves as the Todd and Joe Show."
    Boehm, formerly a professor in the department, went on to become vice provost at OSU and three years ago was named vice chancellor at the University of Nebraska.
    In that 10 years, the two are almost inseparable - professionally, at least.
    "I cover research, and Joe helps me. Joe covers extension, and I help him," Hicks said. 
    "We spend way too much time together. We know each other's families: I know his; he knows mine. I joke that in a couple more years, we are going to be common-law married."
    Hicks, 51, credits the U.S. Army for giving him the mettle needed to get where he is today.
    A native of Mendon, Ohio, Hicks joined the Army after high school and served with the 82nd Airborne based at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
    "I wanted to jump out of planes and blow **** up," he said. 
    "I told the recruiter I wanted to do something that I could tell stories about as an old man."
    The Army taught skills like patience, perseverance and focus.
    "If you make a mistake in the Army, someone dies. If you make a mistake here, it's grass, it will grow back," he said. 
    Rimelspach has been part of the OSU turf pathology program since 1992. Until Hicks came aboard, turnover in the program at the staff level was high, which led to all sorts of challenges.
    "Before Todd, there were different people here all the time and I was always training new people," Rimelspach said. "We didn't have consistency; consistency of getting work done right, or consistency of taking advantage of each person's skills and education.
    "I became more embedded in research at that time, and my main focus was working in the clinic diagnosing samples and giving extension talks around the state."

    Joe Rimelspach helps a group of turf managers identify various turf types at the OTF turfgrass research center in Columbus. Even when Hicks joined the department after graduating from OSU with a degree in agronomy in 2001, it took some time for the program to get on an even footing.
    "The girl who ran our field season was leaving, and I knew what that meant. It meant the field season was just Joe and myself with no help and no background info," Hicks said.
    "Joe and I spent the summer together piecing together what we needed to do field research. It was a long and hard process. If Joe wasn't such a good guy, I would have quit and never looked back. It was awful; no student help, half our trials didn't work. From that day forward, we worked to make things more reliable, easier and faster. We were all about working smarter, not harder.
    "When I got out of the service, I realized I could do anything as long as you are with good people. In the service, whatever you were doing might have stunk and sucked, but you had your buddies with you. Joe is my buddy, and that is how we have survived for so long."
    Although the program does not have anyone with the letters "Ph.D." behind their name, it is one of the country's top pathology programs.
    "Mike Boehm gave me just enough rope to either climb the ladder or hang myself," Hicks said. "There aren't too many people with a four-year degree who have gone from student researcher to heading up plant pathology research at a place like Ohio State University. "We're called by companies to conduct research on their products and kick off fungicides. We speak at meetings with colleagues around the country. 
    "Joe has a lot of years in this industry diagnosing things and working with chemistries, and he is as good or better than any Ph.D. I've worked with."
    In those early days, it wasn't uncommon for them to be spraying test plots until 11 p.m. while they figured out what worked, what didn't and where they could save time. In the two decades since, Rimelspach and Hicks have been busy building one of the countries busiest and most highly regarded turf pathology departments into a finely tuned machine that each admits he could not have done alone.
    "We learned from those days and initiated new systems to address those issues," Rimelspach said. "Todd was very organized. He set up new systems and new ways of doing things to make everything more efficient and more accurate. It pulled us both together to where we now play off each other's strengths."
    Besides conducting extension work statewide, through the years the turf pathology team has partnered with other entities around the state, including golf courses, parks and others to establish remote test sites to monitor disease pressure and fungicide efficacy under a wide range of conditions.
    "Joe is constantly in the field, and he is our eyes and ears as to what is going on around the state," said Dave Shetlar, Ph.D., professor emeritus of entomology at Ohio State. "Todd is always tending their applied research projects, mainly at the turfgrass facility, but also at some remote locations."
    At times, that even includes the classroom, where the two teach what used to Boehm's turf fungicide class. 
    Over time, the setting for that class has often met in a location where both are more comfortable - on the research plots at the OTF research facility.
    "We talk about diseases, but we also get them outside in the field," Hicks said. "Too much is done in a book, and there is a big difference between what happens in a book and what happens in real life out in the field."
  • Tahoma 31 has been tested on golf courses in Oklahoma like the Shangri-La Resort. Turf managers in the transition zone exchange one set of issues for another when they convert from a cool- to a warm-season variety. Myriad challenges associated with growing bentgrass, ryegrass or annual bluegrass in summer give way to problems like winterkill on Bermudagrass.
    Turf breeders at Oklahoma State believe they have a solution with Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass. Released late last year, Tahoma 31 is promoted as the most cold-tolerant Bermudagrass on the market for use on sports fields and golf courses. You know that a breeder and the company that grows and markets its product believe they are onto something when the logo for a new warm-season grass features a snowflake.
    Through five years of testing across the country, Tahoma 31 stood out in NTEP trials for its drought, wear and cold tolerance as well as its visual turf quality. Field tested on a few golf courses and athletic fields, it recently was installed on the Tennessee Titans practice field and next month will be put in at Razorback Stadium at the University of Arkansas in time for the 2019 college football season. 
    How highly anticipated is Tahoma 31? This year will be the first time the University of Arkansas has played home games on grass since 2009.
    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.
    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.
    Field tested on golf courses in Oklahoma, Tahoma 31 also shows great potential for drought resistance, and exhibited the lowest ET rates in field trials at Oklahoma State for three consecutive years. According to Oklahoma State extension specialist Justin Moss, Ph.D., it requires up to 20 percent less water that some other Bermudagrasses.
    In NTEP trials, Tahoma 31 exhibited cold tolerance that exceeded other Bermudagrasses.
    Lexington, Kentucky is a transition zone location noted for some of the worst growing conditions for warm- and cool-season turf alike, and it makes the area a favorite test site for breeders, growers and seed companies. In NTEP trials at the University of Kentucky, Tahoma 31 had a lower winterkill rate than other Bermudagrasses tested.
    The hybrid Bermuda system is available only as sod. Sod Production Services of Charles City, Virginia, holds the licensing rights.
  • The beaches of Florida have become my zen place. Maybe it is the increasing stress that accompanies an unavoidable confrontation with old age. Maybe it is a list of deceased Facebook friends that numbers into double-digits. Maybe it is that my high school graduating class in Fort Thomas, Kentucky is about 10 percent smaller today than it was in May 1980. Maybe it is a combination of all of these things.
    Whatever the reason, it is easy to be more philosophical about life when reality sets in and you admit that not only are you not invincible, but you are closer to the end than the beginning. Much, much closer. Along with that is the realization that some of your time here has been wasted on things that in the big picture are not as important as you once thought, and that the people and things that are important have been given the short shrift.
    By nature, I am a private person. Discussing topics like mortality and stress and how they are intertwined is way out of character for me. I am more likely to address your mortality and your stress in print than I am my own. When numerous friends and family members, all of whom I thought would outlive me, die far too early, well, here we are. In the past, my M.O. for dealing with personal stress and tragedy has been to bottle it up, stew over it and never discuss it - with anyone. I am here to tell you that is NOT the way to deal with things.
    Stress comes at us from every angle. We are expected to do more with a dwindling pot of resources. Job-related stress runs high, quality time with family and friends run low. Relationships and health suffer. 
    Although it is no mistake that Paul MacCormack's Mindful brand is increasingly popular, superintendents do not have a corner on the market of job-related stress.
    Unlike Paul, I am far from qualified to administer life-changing advice to anyone. I have not mastered the art of zen or the pursuit of inner peace, so I certainly am not equipped to advise others on how to find true fulfillment in life. There is a chasm-sized gap between philosopher and psychologist, and I know on which side of that canyon I reside.
    The extent of my expertise as a shrink is limited to the role of father, and even then my wife and daughter would probably say I am batting about .500; great for a baseball player, not so hot for a parent. My most coveted skill at home is killing bathroom-invading spiders for women who believe Charlotte's Web belongs in the horror genre.
    Sometimes you have to be hit over the head with tragedy to wake up and prioritize life and everything in it, and losing a cousin, father-in-law and two very special friends all in a matter of months was that dose of reality.
    My best friend from high school died suddenly in May at age 56. By all accounts, he was reasonably healthy, but dropped dead of a heart attack while at work. Before he married and moved off to St. Louis, the Tim I remember possessed a million-dollar smile and a laugh that was infectious. Somewhere in his home, a device must be logged in to his Facebook account because he appears every day in a list of contacts currently online, which makes for a very surreal browsing experience every day. Throw in my own third-degree burn a year ago in a kitchen fire that required a hospital stay and countless visits to a burn unit, and I now know I am not as bulletproof as I once thought. Consider my head sufficiently hit.
    I do not pretend to have a monopoly on tragedy, or answers on how to cope with it. We all have our own experiences. They are all different and everyone has to deal with theirs in their own way. What I do know is what works for me, which can be described as, for lack of a better term, random acts of kindness.
    Life is short - yours, mine, all of us. 
    Things that once were important, are not. Things that I took for granted, and shouldn't have, have moved up on my priority list. I try to appreciate the simple things - sunrises, sunsets, the peace that a thunderstorm brings. Who knows how many of them any of us have left?
    I appreciate when people - family, friends, acquaintances and strangers - exhibit kindness. It makes life's journey a little more bearable. It is how I want people to treat my wife and my daughter. If I desire that or expect it from others, I have to practice it on others, as well. I try a little harder now to be kind to everyone, though there are some people who have not earned that goodwill, like the guy on the Florida Turnpike who expects everyone to drive 30 mph over the posted speed limit and shows his disappointment in you with a one-finger salute when you do not.
    We are social animals by nature, and smiling and being kind to others comes naturally. It is much easier than being indifferent or rude, which actually require effort.
    One of those hit-me-over-the-head moments came on a recent trip to Florida. Our friends at Bayer took a group to meet with golf course superintendent Laurie Frutchey at Lexington Country Club in Fort Myers. 
    Laurie has been at Lexington for 18 years and shared with the group what she does to burn off work-related stress. During our stop, we also visited with her general manager, Al Kinkle. We met with Al only for about 10 minutes, but what an energy-packed 10 minutes it was. It was immediately evident in just a few short moments that this man was born to lead and inspire others. And at age 75, he is covered in tattoos - both arms, both legs. He showed us all of them, and explained their meaning, most of which centered around the death of his 35-year-old daughter, Kimmie, to a fentanyl overdose in 2016.
    Since then, Al has become the chairman of charitable entity known as Barbara's Friends. Named for Barbara Haskell, who died of breast cancer at age 32, Barbara's Friends helps provide treatment options for pediatric cancer patients in Fort Myers and throughout Lee County. He also was instrumental in starting Kimmie's Angels, which is named for his daughter and is an assistance fund to help benefit Barbara's Friends families.
    As a father who has buried a child, Al has experienced way more personal tragedy than me, way more than most and way more than I ever want to know. To his credit, he has taken that loss and used it in a positive way to influence the lives of others when they are at what often might be the lowest point in their lives.
    He gets it - way more than I do. Five minutes with him was like five minutes with a movie version of a healing evangelist who lays his hand on the crippled and makes them walk again. 
    He has taken unthinkable tragedy and turned it into an avenue to help others. He is all about kindness and stressed that those who cannot be kind to their fellow man pretty much “suck” at life. His words, not mine, but he is right.
    Fort Myers also happens to be the final resting site of a friend who died unexpectedly in January at age 48. This was a friend who held a very special place in my heart and my wife's and after my encounter with Al Kinkle, I felt like I had to go to Fort Myers Memorial Gardens to see her. Soon I was talking and crying into the facade of a concrete vault - hardly how I expected my next meeting with her to be. That moment was a reminder that perhaps I have sucked at life a little more than I care to admit and that I need to keep working to change that.
    A little-known fact about me is that for the past six years, I have coached a CYO track team at the Catholic school where my daughter when to middle school. Each year I have somewhere from 75-110 kids on the team. It is a 100 percent volunteer position that I started when my daughter was in seventh grade. She heads off to college in less than a month, but I am still coaching that team and do not make a dime for it.
    The payoff is the chance to work with kids, introduce them to organized sports in what I think is the right way and make a positive impact on their lives through teaching the value of hard work, discipline, teamwork, respect for themselves and others, how to win and lose gracefully and have fun doing it.
    After my roles as husband and parent, coaching is easily the most fulfilling thing I do. Sharing the few talents I do have and using them to help others is the best way I know to help myself - and in the meantime try not suck at life so much. That part, however, remains a work in progress.
  • Deere's high-tech solutions for superintendents include an autonomous fairway mower (not available yet) and a GPS-guided spray unit. The past, the present and the future of John Deere were on display this week in and around the company's western Illinois base of operations.
    In America's heartland, seemingly every tractor and every harvester on every farm is green and yellow and covered in dust, serving as a reminder to the kind of hard-working spirit, grit and determination that is the very backbone of this country.
    This week's PGA Tour event, the John Deere Classic at the TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, which was built two decades ago on land owned by an ancestor of John Deere himself, is a reminder of the company's devotion to the golf industry and a reminder to folks around here who earn a living feeding the rest of the country and the world that there is more to Deere than implements used in agriculture and construction.
    Some of the company's recent innovations, and others that are not yet available in the golf market but soon will be, took center stage during a demo day in the run-up to this year's tournament - serving as a testament to where Deere came from, where the company is now and the path it is forging into the future.
    That list included a Gator-mounted/GPS-guided sprayer, upgrades to Deere's triplex mower lineup, acquisition of a data-management platform and a demo of the much-awaited autonomous fairway mower.
    Deere has partnered with Precision Makers, a Netherlands based company that specializes in autonomous technology for various equipment forms, to provide riderless mowing technology for the golf and sports turf markets.
    Paired to a Deere 7500A, the brains of the riderless mower system is Deere's Starfire GPS receiver, which is the same system found on the GPS-guided sprayers.
    Mapping the fairways is as quick as driving each fairway - twice for an inner and outer border. There is no limit as to how many fairways can be mapped, and updating routes after a renovation are as simple as driving each new fairway configuration.
    "We're listening to what our customers are telling us they need," said Brooks Hastings, product manager for Deere.
    From coast to coast, superintendents everywhere are plagued by labor shortages. At daily fee operations, a shortage of help could mean not filling fairway divots or raking bunkers. At private clubs, it could mean cutting out some detail work and even switching from walk mowing greens to triplex mowers.
    Autonomous mowers could provide a solution to those struggling to meet their labor needs.
    A crowd of onlookers comprised largely of superintendents and distributors agreed, judging by the audible gasps when the autonomous mower approached and made a couple of passes in front of the group.
    "I'm very excited. I can't wait for this," said Dan Meersman of the Philadelphia Cricket Club, one of the many invited to the event. "Even in urban areas, it's so competitive. Everyone struggles to get enough help."
    "This allows superintendents to reallocate labor to things they couldn't get accomplished before." Hastings said.
    The system has been field tested at several sites. Demo opportunities will be announced next year. The company has not announced when the system will be available.
    The riderless mower was just one example of how Deere is working to help superintendents work smarter while also overcoming some of the challenges they face in day-to-day management of the golf course, like labor shortages and the pressure to improve playability and provide consistent conditions.
    GPS-guided spraying has been used in agriculture for several years, but is new to golf, which requires more precision due to unique challenges, such as multiple fairways with unique contours and irregularly occurring obstacles like bunkers and cart paths that vary in location and shape from one hole to the next.
    Either the Pro Gator 2020A (34 hp gas engine) or Pro Gator 2030A (21 hp diesel) can be outfitted with the HD200 or HD300 spray systems. 
    Deere also used the demo day to introduce the latest additions to its triplex mower lineup. The all new 2700 and 2750 and 2700E and 2750E put more control in the hands of the superintendent and helps provide consistent quality of cut regardless of operator.
    The programmable and password-protected TechControl system, superintendents can control frequency of clip, turn speed, clean up pass speed, and how fast the cutting units raise and lower.
    The superintendent also can select Eco Mode, which electronically controls the engine speed to conserve fuel. With Eco Mode, the engine RPM automatically adjusts based on the load, saving as much as 30 percent on fuel and reducing operating sound levels for early morning mowing. 
    "Because of the consistency you can achieve," said Deere product manager Brad Aldridge, "you can take a rookie on your crew and make them look like a 20-year veteran."
    During the demo on July 9, Deere also announced that it had acquired OnLink's cloud-based data-management platform. 
    OnLink is a cloud-based golf course management platform that helps superintendent collect data and manage equipment, labor, water, chemicals, nutrients and playing conditions. The acquisition includes the platform and all existing OnLink service contracts.  During the transition, current OnLink customers will experience uninterrupted service, Deere officials said. 
    The OnLink system cloud-based, automated-reporting software provides critical course conditions, economic reports and equipment insights, helping superintendents make more informed management decisions. The system also offers precise and accurate weather forecasting service through a partnership with IBM's The Weather Company.
    Likewise, the system allows superintendents and equipment managers to integrate their equipment fleet and manage and gather data, including maintenance scheduling and parts management. It also generates reports and can be used with all equipment manufacturers and vendor suppliers.
    Critical to the success of so many new projects is Deere's Integrated Solutions sector that allows various segments of the company to utilize technology between business units.
    "That allows us to leverage the research and development in other areas of the company," said Manny Gan, Deere's director of global sales and marketing. "We can take those elements and apply them to golf where they make sense."
  • Superintendent Alex Stuedemann is five years into his second stint at TPC at Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois. The TPC at Deere Run facing golfers this week during the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic is a much different course than it was when Michael Clark outlasted Kirk Triplett in the first event held at the course in 2000.
    Superintendent Alex Stuedemann was not at Deere Run for that first event in 2000, but he was an assistant there from 2002-2007 before moving on to help grow-in the TPC of San Antonio. Stuedemann, who has been head superintendent at Deere Run since 2014, admits the course has changed a lot since those early days.
    "When I was here as an assistant, I don't think we understood the agronomics of the property," Stuedemann said. "We had a reverence for the land, and we still do, but simple things like light, air, water, nutrition, we were ignoring them to a degree. We saw this beautiful piece of land, and we thought any change to the golf course would change the beauty and history of this property."
    The Deere started in 1971 as the Quad Cities Open at Crow Valley Country Club and was first played across the Mississippi River at Crow Valley Country Club in Davenport, Iowa. In almost a half-century, it has undergone several name changes. It has operated as the John Deere Classic since 1999 and moved to its current home in Silvis the following year.
    TPC at Deere Run is built on the site of a horse farm donated by the Hewitt family, who are descended from John Deere, the company's founder and namesake. 
    "We still have a reverence for this property and what it means to John Deere and the Hewitt family," Stuedemann said.
    A perpetual tree-management program started by former superintendent Paul Grogan, who was Stuedemann's mentor at TPC Twin Cities in Minnesota, has been ongoing since 2013.
    "It started with Paul opening up air movement, pruning and removing trees," Stuedemann said. "That gave us a good foundation and we've gotten more aggressive with it since then. Definitely if you go down the corridor of the golf course, conditions have improved since those early days. But we realized that if you took a step 30 feet off that corridor in either direction, the golf course could be improved even more."
    That tree-management plan also includes removing invasive species and promoting the native plants to so the property remains consistent with that which the Hewitt family donated to the PGA Tour two decades ago, Stuedemann said.
    "We have a lot of good hardwood trees here - basswood, elm, ash, Linden, oak - and they're all being swallowed by sumac and locust saplings and all of these other invasive species that have been destroying this geography," he said. "We've gone through and taken all these species out to highlight the native trees while also making the golf course more playable. That has benefited our guests and their golf experience, and the added benefit is better turf conditions."
    The Quad Cities area of western Illinois and eastern Iowa is surrounded by some of the world's most fertile farmland. The golf course, however, is built atop an old coal mine and the native soils are dominated by thick, silty clay that Stuedemann compared to Play-Doh.
    "We were a little surprised by the soils here," Stuedemann said. "It's challenging growing grass into it. You have to be very responsive when it gets hot and humid.
    "It's almost like playing with artists clay. It's moldable, but it doesn't percolate anything. When I came back, we had an old Verti-Drain in the barn that hadn't moved since I was an assistant. We fired that up, and pounded with it and almost drove it to its grave. We've since bought a new one and it has become part of our annual practices."
    TPC at Deere Run was built at a time when several new turf varieties were coming onto the market, and the aggressive growth properties of some of them - and how to manage them - were not fully understood, Stuedemann said. 
    "We were pulling quarter-inch to three-eighths-inch cores. It was a new course. We were trying to build organic matter, and that was when a lot of new bentgrasses were coming out and nobody quite understood their aggressive nature," Stuedemann said. "It was 'three-eighths, drag it in, blow off the fluff and here we go,' and it was the same every year. Looking back, we were just creating a layer beneath the surface that wasn't allowing us to grow very deep roots. The organic matter was building up with those new, aggressive bents that didn't require a lot of nutrative inputs. Recognizing that, we got aggressive and are getting some of that organic matter out. We went in that first fall with some five-eighths-inch hollow tines and pulled it all out and shovelled it all out."
    The next year, he added deep tine aerification to the program. As aggressive as the management program was, the process of feeding the turf became equally conservative.
    "We went down 7 inches to give the roots a path. We've had to get more aggressive with our cultural practices because the accumulation of organic matter was impacting the health of the turf," he said. "We're pulling larger cores and using lots and lots of sand. My nickname is "The Sandman. 
    "We started weekly topdressing to keep up with the growth, and we started giving the turf what it needs when it needs it so as not to repeat the problems we had. We were very aggressive and we still are, but we were backing it up with results. We had a firmer surface, we had better performance after storms. Yes, there was a cost to it in the way of some impediment to golf, but we were giving golfers better season-long performance out of the golf course."
  • BASF has launched two new fungicides for the turf market. 
    Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide feature the new Revysol active ingredient and provide broad-spectrum control on diseases such as dollar spot, anthracnose and spring dead spot. This chemistry is the only in its class to be designated Reduced Risk candidate by the Environmental Protection Agency, the company says. 
    Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide also delivers plant health benefits supporting turf to handle the toughest pressures. Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicide are the first isopropanolazoles, and provide control even on plant pathogen strains that are insensitive to DMIs.
    Maxtima fungicide and Navicon Intrinsic brand fungicides have improved rainfastness and help provide effective and longer-lasting control of turfgrass diseases, like anthracnose, fairy ring, spring dead spot and dollar spot. 
    With a unique mode of action, they deliver season-long control regardless of temperature at application.
    Jim Kerns, Ph.D., associate professor and extension specialist of turfgrass pathology at North Carolina State University, has been working with both products for more than five years, applying them to research trials throughout North Carolina. 
    "We applied Maxtima fungicide to creeping bentgrass and ultradwarf Bermudagrass greens during periods of the year where other DMIs are usually phytotoxic," Kerns said, "but we had not observed any phyto damage."
    Revysol made a big splash in the BASF booth at this year's Golf Industry Show in San Diego. On June 26, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted label registration to the new fungicide. 
    The active ingredient mefentrifluconazole is trademarked as Revysol.
    Revysol fungicide, which was OK’d for use in Europe in March,  has a unique isopropanol link that can flex to control a broad spectrum of fungal diseases and DMI-resistant strains. 
  • Mathieu LeCompte has led the revival of Royal New Kent Country Club in Virginia. No one can accuse Mathieu LeCompte of not being a risk-taker.
    When LeCompte was approached last year by the new owners of Royal New Kent in Providence Forge, Virginia about becoming superintendent, the course already had been closed for about six months and was in severe disrepair.
    "Some bridges were gone. Parts of the cart path had collapsed, and there were trees across the cart paths," LeCompte said. "It was in rough shape."

    The Royal New Kent course (above and below) had fallen into disrepair, to say the least. Photo credit @ML_Turf
    Until then, LeCompte had been superintendent at Two Rivers Country Club and Ford's Colony Country Club, both in Williamsburg and both under a director of agronomy. Anxious for his first gig as a head superintendent, LeCompte figured the task of reclaiming Royal New Kent could go one of two ways - only one of which was good. At just 33 years old, he also figured he was young enough that his career would recover if the project went south.
    "I thought if it worked, it would be good for my career," he said. "If it didn't, it would force me into doing something else.
    "I thought it was time to take a risk. Even if it didn't go well, I thought this was a good age to try something like this. I'm not sure how comfortable I would have been taking a risk like this if I was older."

    Mathieu Lecompte. @ML_Turf on Twitter. Those concerns are now water under the bridge - a new-and-improved bridge at that.
    The course reopened in May after a nearly a $2 million restoration that included rebuilding greens and bunkers and making much-needed repairs to the irrigation and drainage systems. It is a success story that could not have been possible without help from many of LeCompte's colleagues from Richmond to Williamsburg.
    Designed by the late Mike Strantz, Royal New Kent opened to much acclaim in 1996 and was heralded by golf publications as one of the country's best new designs. Previously owned by Traditional Golf Properties, Royal New Kent closed under the previous ownership at the end of 2017 and sat dormant for about six months. The course soon looked like thousands of others that have closed in the past 10-12 years and had become defined by knee-high fairway turf and putting greens that had become dried and cracked. The new ownership group, a consortium that includes some partners with ties to Wingfield Golf Management, bought the property last year for $1.1 million.
    Still, bringing the course back from the dead would be no small feat.
    When he accepted the job, LeCompte had no staff and most of the Royal Kent's assets had been liquidated by Traditional Golf. The only piece of working equipment he had was a rough mower that had been neglected to the extent that sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. But, it was all he had. Likewise, many vendor accounts had gone unpaid, so establishing much-needed relationships with some critical suppliers was a challenge.
    "Establishing relationships with some of these companies has been hard," LeCompte said.
    Fortunately, many of LeCompte's colleagues around the Williamsburg-Richmond areas were more understanding and offered the use of equipment and advice until he could acquire the equipment he needed and hire a staff.
    "There was no power in the maintenance shop. The mower kind of worked," he said. "I was able to borrow some things from local superintendents. There weren't even any carts. I drove my truck around the golf course."
    Strantz was named by Golfweek as one of golf's top 10 architects when he died of cancer in 2005. LeCompte hired some of the shapers used by Strantz during construction nearly 25 years ago. He also was able to draw upon photography and imagery provided by Strantz's widow, Heidi.
    Work included rebuilding the greens and replacing the bentgrass putting surfaces with Champion Bermudagrass. All 100-plus bunkers were rebuilt and more than 100 drains that had failed had to be dug out and repaired.

    Post-renovation/reclamation... whatever one wants to call it. Since 2006, about 2,000 golf courses have closed nationwide. Although it is not common for them to reopen, like Royal New Kent has done, it is not entirely unheard of either, according to Golf Advisor.
    "So far, all of the golfers have been very complimentary," he said. "There are still some scars, but we are recovering."
  • Dogs, like Raynor here of Whitinsville Golf Club in Massachusetts, play a critical role in the day-to-day operations of many golf courses around the country. Accused by some on social media as being a waste of time, golf course dogs chase geese and keep nuisance critters on the go. They run interference on golfers for the superintendent and generally serve as a calming influence in a world that often is anything but calm. And that is why TurfNet has been recognizing golf course dogs around the world since 2002 in the Superintendent's Best Friend Calendar, presented by Syngenta.
    There have been several facsimiles, but for almost 20 years, the Superintendent's Best Friend Calendar has been the original golf course dog calendar. If you have a dog that earns its keep at the golf course, enter a photo for consideration for next year's calendar.
    A panel of judges will select the 14 dogs for the calendar, including the cover and December 2019. Images should be taken horizontally at your camera's highest resolution setting. Also, try not to center your dog in the frame, as left or right orientation often can result in a more dramatic photograph. Nomination deadline is July 31. 
    Click here to submit a photo of your dog for consideration. Be sure to include the dog's name, age and breed; photographer's name; owner's name, phone number, email address; and the name of the golf course where the owner and dog both work. 
    For more information, email John Reitman. Submission deadline is July 31.
  • For years, the question for superintendents has been how to increase awareness of the job and elevate the profession to a level at least equal to that of other positions throughout the industry.
    It might not seem like it, but progress is being made on this front, even if it is coming in dribs and drabs. Elected officials are becoming increasingly aware of the environmental stewardship efforts of superintendents and acknowledging the significance of BMP programs.
    Just in time.
    For longer than anyone in the business cares to remember, golf courses have had the reputation of being environmentally unsound. They use too much water, and pesticides, fungicides and fertilizers pollute the environment.
    That’s been the historic reputation, anyway. Although a reversal of fortune, as slow as it is, is in the works, there still is much work to be done.
    After a quick Google search of the phrase “golf courses are …” the top four results were “closing”, “a waste of space”, “a waste of land” and “bad for the environment”. 
    A glance into the social media frenzy waged against Bayer over the Roundup controversy is proof of the importance of education of the misinformed. 
    The reality is, superintendents are mindful users of water and protectors of the environment and employ practices that maximize the efficacy improved fertilizers low use-rate pesticides.
    As 16th-century English playwright John Heywood said, “Rome was not built in a day,” but finally the work of golf course superintendents is being recognized outsized the turf industry. Just look at Iowa and North Carolina for proof with Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, and Bob Farren, CGCS at Pinehurst Resort recently were inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in their respective states.
    The Georgia chapter has been a leader in environmental stewardship for more than a decade. It has an equally long history of working with state lawmakers and water officials as well as being able to get the word out on its accomplishments.
    In June, the Georgia state senate passed a resolution endorsing the Georgia GCSA for publishing its Best Management Practices for Georgia Golf Courses in 2018.
    According to the resolution, Georgia’s golf industry employs 57,000 people and has an economic impact of $2.4 billion.
    The resolution also stated:
    today’s superintendents draw on more environmental science than any generation before them; their training included biological sciences, chemistry, horticulture, soils, environmental sciences, and many related disciplines, uniquely qualifying them for their duties; and
      carefully adopted best management practices can potentially improve the financial sustainability of golf courses, as well as environmental sustainability; these methods and techniques are found to be the most effective and practical means of achieving an objective, such as preventing water quality impacts or reducing pesticide usage; and
      pesticide best management practices provide the necessary guidance for the proper transport, storing, mixing, and application of pesticides to address target pests and minimize impacts to non-target species; design and construction best management practices and storm-water best management practices address the potential for erosion and sedimentation and ways to mitigate that potential; and
      the design and maintenance of irrigation systems, as well as proper irrigation scheduling, careful selection of turfgrass cultivars, and incorporation of cultural practices that increase the water-holding capacity of soil are addressed through these best management practices. The Georgia chapter’s history with state lawmakers and agencies is a long one.
    In response to one of the worst droughts in the state’s history, superintendents in Georgia drafted a water BMP manual in 2007 that convinced state officials, lawmakers and environmental agencies that golf course turf managers are capable of drafting their own water-use programs, even in the face of an emergency of epic proportions.
    Although getting the word out to the consumer public about what you do will always be a challenge, it makes sense to foster and maintain positive relationships with agencies at the state level that will control access to water and pesticides now and in the future.
  • Todd Hicks, talks dollar spot control at Ohio State. When tallying infection centers in dollar spot trial plots, Todd Hicks and Joe Rimelspach rarely count all of them.
    Hicks, program coordinator for Ohio State University's turfgrass pathology department, had some advice for about 30 attendees at this year's Disease Day workshop in Columbus.
    "Once you get past 25, who cares? The fungicide doesn't work," Hicks said.
    Disease Day is a half-day workshop at the at the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Research Center that helps superintendents, athletic field managers, lawn care operators and sod growers identify common diseases in turfgrass and the best options to manage them.
    "A lot of the things we do in the turf industry we know are not promoting maximum health, i.e., the mowing height of the turf we are standing on right here," Rimelspach, program specialist in OSU's turf pathology department, said while standing on a brown patch test plot maintained at fairway height.  
    "It is a two-step process to manage disease: stop the fungus and grow the host. These leaves, even with holy water, are not going to be normal again. They're going to die. The goal is not to let new leaf tissue get infected."
    The workshop included information on diseases like brown patch, red thread, rust and more, much of the focus was on dollar spot, which has been making show-stopping appearances across Ohio in recent years.
    Historically, dollar spot makes a brief appearance in spring, goes away then returns in mid- to late June or early July. That has not been the case recently.
    "The last two years, it comes early, stays and doesn't fade away," Hicks said. "Then it seems to go to sleep for a little bit, then comes right back where it left off."
    That can be a problem for superintendents, sports field managers and lately even lawn care operators. Hicks and Rimelspach provided an update on some ongoing trials, including some experimental products. Download their fungicide chart for more information on specific fungicides.
    "That's kind of what we're dealing with right now, dollar spot in fairways," said Dan Smith, second assistant at Double Eagle Golf Club in nearby Galena. "This was valuable information that we learned her today."
    For a disease that first was diagnosed nearly 100 years, dollar spot still is a problem with a lot of unknowns. 

    Joe Rimelspach discusses the relationship between weather, disease pressure and root length in summer in cool-season turf. Dollar spot in turfgrass was identified in 1937 as being caused by the pathogen Sclerotinia homeocarpa. Ever since, scientists have been trying to learn even more about the disease and what causes it. Research conducted by scientists at Ohio State, Rutgers and North Carolina State and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has identified a new genus and four species - not just one - that cause dollar spot in turfgrass.  
    The new genus, Clarireedia, is named for former Rutgers turf breeder C. Reed Funk, Ph.D. Among the four species identified, two occur primarily in North America and two in Europe, according to the research.
    Like so many problems facing turfgrass managers, the dollar spot pathogen can lie undetected, awaiting waiting for just the right time to appear, which makes application timing critical to success.
    "The key with dollar spot is to go out with early season control and get the inoculum level knocked down," Hicks said. "Remember, dollar spot goes through a whole series of events before you see it. It's right there before you can see it, just waiting. Then you go out with your application and three days later you have spot and you're making a call saying, 'hey, the crap you sold me doesn't work.' You have to look at the weather patterns, and you probably were late, you just didn't see the damage yet. It's like having cancer and not knowing it until someone tells you at the doctor's office that you're dying."
    So, what is the magic number of acceptable infection centers on those test plots?
    "It's probably one," Hicks said. "These are 3-foot-by-5-foot plots, and if every plot across a green had just one, that would be unacceptable for you."
  • A plea to a federal agency to place the herbicide glyphosate on a watchlist and a class-action lawsuit against the maker of the world's most popular weed killer mark the next phase of the challenges facing Bayer.
    Law firms in St. Louis and Kansas City on June 20 filed a class-action suit against Bayer for misleading advertising. The action seeks a refund for all Roundup purchases by Missouri residents, damages and court costs. 
    Bayer attorneys told the St. Louis Business Journal: “This complaint has no merit as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has considered and approved the labels for our glyphosate-based herbicides based on their expert assessment of the extensive body of research and their conclusions that these herbicides can be used safely and that glyphosate is not carcinogenic.”
    In another development, the Environmental Working Group, an activist group that “specializes in research and advocacy in the areas of agricultural subsidies, toxic chemicals, drinking water pollutants and corporate accountability,” has requested the Centers for Disease Control add glyphosate to its list of toxic chemicals, the group said.
    Used on golf courses for renovations, rebuilds and restoration projects, glyphosate is the most popular weed killer used in agriculture, the group cited as evidence trace amounts of glyphosate found in many food crops and their by-products.
    Some scientists have said, however, that the amounts are in such small amounts that they present no threat.
    At the center of the glyphosate debate are conflicting reports by the World Health Organization and the EPA. In 2015, the WHO concluded that glyphosate was a "probable" carcinogen. The EPA, on the other hand, has said that there is no evidence indicating that glyphosate causes cancer based on the results of more than 800 tests and studies. 
    In the past year, juries have sided 3-0 with the WHO findings and ignored the scientific findings of the EPA, which has a specific scientific review process to determine labeling for every chemistry on the U.S. market. 
  • Revysol made quite a splash in the BASF booth at this year's Golf Industry Show in San Diego. On June 26, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted label registration to the new fungicide. 
    This new active ingredient is the first and only isopropanol azole of its kind in the market. The active ingredient provides fast-acting and long-lasting disease control for a broad range of disease combinations, including anthracnose, brown patch and dollar spot.
    Unlike older DMIs on the market, Revysol fungicide is the first isopropanolazole, a unique chemistry with binding properties that make it 100 times more powerful than conventional triazole fungicides. It is the only triazole to be designated a Reduced Risk candidate by the EPA.
    The active ingredient mefentrifluconazole is trademarked as Revysol and eventually will be available in two formulations, alone marketed as Maxtima or in combination with Intrinsic that will be called Navicon.
    Revysol fungicide, which was OK'd for use in Europe in March,  has a unique isopropanol link that can flex to control a broad spectrum of fungal diseases and DMI-resistant strains. 
  • While reinventing yourself past age 50 is becoming more common, 59-year-old David Payne is not the traditional college student. David Payne is not your traditional college student studying turfgrass management.
    A student at Ohio State ATI, Payne is one of a couple of college students blogging this summer from Europe where he is serving a brief internship while working toward an associate's degree in turf studies.
    He also happens to be 59 years old, on his second marriage and is busy trying to reinvent himself.
    In hindsight, in today's economy that has forced many past age 50 to reinvent themselves, that all probably makes him more typical than one might think.
    A Texas native, Payne earned a bachelor's degree from Texas Tech and a master's from Emporia State and was a teacher and coach for more than 20 years in Texas and Kansas. He moved to Wooster in 2016 when his wife, Kris Boone, Ph.D., was named ATI's director.
    Since then, he's had a hard time finding work as a teacher and coach and figured there was no better time to take that next step in redefining himself and his career path.
    "I have always been interested in turf," he said.
    "Moving to Ohio gave me the opportunity to go to ATI and learn turfgrass management from one of the best programs in the nation."
    He's not just saying that because his wife is the boss there.
    Through the connections of ATI assistant professor Ed Nangle, Ph.D., Payne is spending the summer abroad interning for the Irish Sports Turf Institute and blogging about the experience for TurfNet. That experience, which continues until August, gives Payne the opportunity to work with machinery, equipment and people he never would encounter in the U.S., like a vintage Lamborghini tractor and his new best friends, the bartenders at the many local pubs.
    Although he is not the typical intern, Payne's age and experience have been a benefit in some ways.
    "Study abroad programs require a certain level of flexibility and a willingness to pursue what is a difficult opportunity by opting to be away from family," Nangle said. "The systems are very different from country to country, customs and thought processes are also very different and so it requires a student who is very focused on going abroad to succeed. Further to that, international internships can be difficult to setup and having patience is a virtue as issues arise and changes have to be made, David showed that in spades."
    When Payne decided on a new career path in turf management, naturally his concerns centered around age - not only as a student at ATI, but after he graduates, as well.
    "My fears were the typical ones: being old and starting over, fitting in. Most of the students are golf oriented . . . probably my weakest area," he said. "The only concern I have would be being able to take my knowledge and work/teach down the road. I fear some would shy away from someone like me without giving me a chance."
    His time interning in Ireland, where he has the chance to learn about different cultures, different processes for maintaining turf and different tools with which to do it can only help increase his marketability when he matriculates through ATI, Nangle said.
    "For me, when I completed an international internship, it made me realize reality – an internship where you are handed clothes, schedule, bills paid is great but that's not life. Having to juggle the responsibility of managing money, bills, banking, healthcare in another country is a scary, but character-building opportunity," Nangle said. "It is not for everyone, but it does provide a resume a very unique finish compared to a vast majority of people competing for jobs, and there are many people who will say that without the experience they would not have ended up where they are today. David's experience is more unique than most – getting research exposure at ISTI in this way is certainly beneficial for him, but he can now truly compare what different disease pressure look like in the midwestern United States and an island in the Atlantic Ocean that has constant air movement and low relative humidity levels."

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