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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    As it's nickname implies, Minnesota has a substantial amount of groundwater. That's all the more reason for the state's golf course superintendents association to play a leadership role in helping conserve it - and make sure the industry has a stable source well into the future, says Jack MacKenzie, CGCS, executive director of the Minnesota GCSA.   "Just because Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes, that doesn't mean we don't have to be responsible for our water," MacKenzie said.   To that end, the association recently put the finishing touches on four publications that address best management practices for golf courses in Minnesota.   "In Minnesota, there are two kinds of water users: Either you have a permit, or your permit is suspended. Golf is a non-essential water user in Minnesota, so we're the first apple to be picked when it's time to reduce water use," MacKenzie said. "We're trying to make it so that golf has a modicum of protection. We're happy to dial back when it's time cut back. Just don't pull the plug on us. When you do that, we lose viability as a business."   In the works since 2012, the guides include a compilation of the greatest hits of work already completed by superintendent chapters in other states, including Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Rhode Island.   Two events helped elevate the project's status at the state agency level - the Minnesota GCSA's mercury-mitigation program and a state court ruling that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources restrict groundwater pumping from the environmentally sensitive White Bear Lake.   Mercury mitigation has resonated with the state department of agriculture, which regulates water quality in Minnesota, since Dan Stoddard took over as section manager for the department's pesticide and fertilizer management division.   "We'd been trying to push this for years. We were asking what we needed to do get this off the ground," MacKenzie said.    "The interim director, who I knew in college, asked what we can do to partner together. Because of the sudden impact of mercury, how do we work with golf courses so we can develop mitigation procedures for these properties? It opened the door for what has become a blooming relationship."   The same can be said for the state GCSA's newfound relationship with the DNR, since the latter has fallen under direction from the courts to reexamine how it grants groundwater use permits.   The association's "Best Management Practices Water-Use Efficiency/Conservation Plan For Minnesota Golf Courses" actually has presented the state DNR with a template it is using moving forward. Input from golf was welcomed and necessary since, according to MacKenzie, about 80 percent of the state's 500 or so golf courses use groundwater, including several in the White Bear Lake vicinity.   "We're all working together," MacKenzie said. "This will the template of water appropriations changes throughout the state.   "We're here to support the DNR, and we want them to know we are here to help. We are here to help them conserve water. Here is our environmental state, now just don't pull the plug on us."  
  • Smithfield Foods Inc. and Anuvia Plant Nutrients have reached a partnership to create sustainable fertilizer from all-biological materials.   Smithfield will supply Anuvia with renewable biological materials collected from manure treatment systems at Smithfield's hog farms throughout North Carolina. This project is part of Smithfield's efforts toward accelerating its carbon reduction while helping create renewable energy.   The project reuses organic matter found in hog manure to create a commercial-grade fertilizer that is higher in nutrient concentration than the original organic materials. End users thus are able to better manage nutrient ratios while using less fertilizer by applying precisely what they need. Because Anuvia's products contain organic matter, nutrient release is more controlled, resulting in reduced greenhouse gas emissions and a smaller environmental footprint.     Anuvia will utilize remnant solids from Smithfield that accumulate over time at the bottom of the anaerobic lagoons, basins designed and certified to treat and store the manure on hog farms, and to manufacture and sell commercial-grade fertilizer products.  
  • As Henry Ford's attorney, Horace Rackham made his fortune as an original investor in his client's pipedream of making four-wheeled motorized transportation affordable for the masses. Sharing his good fortune with others was important to Rackham, and as a turn-of-the-century entrepreneur and philanthropist, Rackham's name and record of his goodwill are peppered throughout Michigan.    His name adorns buildings at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Wayne State University in downtown Detroit and Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. He donated land on Detroit's northside in suburban Huntington Woods for construction of the Detroit Zoo, and his contributions to science were so vast that a lizard (Xenosaurus grandis rackhami) found only in parts of Guatemala is named for him. Nearly a century ago, he hired Donald Ross to build what is reported to be the first golf course in Michigan open to the public on land adjacent to the zoo.   When Detroit mayor Mike Duggan recently threatened to close the course that bears Rackham's name, along with two other city-owned courses at Chandler Park and Rouge Park, one thing some in city hall seemed to forget was how much each means to its local community.   None of these courses will be confused with Detroit Golf Club or Oakland Hills, but each has a long history of offering affordable recreation to some of Detroit's most underserved communities.    Boxing great Joe Louis played many a round there, and Ben Davis, the first black golf pro at a municipal golf course, conducted lessons at Rackham for more than 50 years.   It's a legacy of which Rackham himself would be proud, said Pat Little, who plays in the women's leagues at all three courses.   "It would have been a shame if this course closed," Little said of Rackham. "All of these courses bring something to their local community."   Like many cities, Detroit is always seeking ways to cut operating expenses, and more than once the subject of closing the golf courses it owns has been thrown out as a potential solution.   Shuttering the city's public golf courses, including Rackham, which hosts about 40,000 rounds per year, seemed, for some, an unlikely place for for the city to cut expenses.   "If you're from around here, you've heard this before," said Jim Uehlman, Rackham Park's manager. "This has happened many times before. Any educated person in Detroit knows they're not going to close this golf course.   "We want golf in the city of Detroit to go up. We don't want it to go down. It's already been going down."   When the Detroit's management contract with Vargo Golf to operate the three courses expired in March and city council was unable to reach decision on a new labor agreement, Duggan threatened to close the properties, giving city council a week to come up with an alternative. Days before the courses could have closed, council approved a bid by North Carolina-based Signet Golf to operate the courses for the next two years. The city said it also received contract bids from Billy Casper Golf, Kemper Sports Management and Vargo.     A local company from nearby Oakland Hills, Vargo hired all employees and even owned the golf cars and equipment used at each course.   Signet's first move was to hire Uehlman to maintain some sort of continuity in the city golf structure. A week later, Uehlman was still busy collecting applications from former Vargo employees hoping to keep their jobs and new applicants seeking employment. Even Little, who plays Rackham several times each month, stopped in to volunteer her services to the course she loves.   "This is exciting," Uehlman said. "We're getting new carts, new equipment, new mowers.    "We've had probably 50 people fill out applications over the past few days."   The struggle over what to do with the three city-owned courses has been a consistent saga in Detroit. Estimates are that it could take as much as $8 million to make necessary upgrades to all three, thus prompting the talk of selling them.   Through the last several months, one option has included renovating Chandler Park and Rouge Park and selling Rackham. The Donald Ross design, however, is protected by deed restrictions that require it to remain a golf course, and there is not much of a market for golf courses in urban areas in need of repair.   And that's just fine with those who consider Rackham a community asset rather than a pawn in city politics.   "Everyone knows this course is here. People come from all over the city to play here," Uehlman said. "There's a lot of history here, from Ben Davis to Joe Louis. It's important to have this as a place for recreation for the community."  
  • Build it, and they will come. Well, sort of.   For the second straight year, the University of Tennessee conducted a workshop on annual bluegrass control, but the public was not invited to attend. Not in person, anyway.   The second-annual #PoaDay Field Day Facebook Live event held March 28 and sponsored by Aqua-Aid, is available for on-demand viewing on the Aqua-Aid Facebook page and Web site.   Targeted toward golf course superintendents, sports turf managers and lawn care operators, the event covers a host of pre- and post-emergent herbicide programs for annual bluegrass control in turfgrass, as well as the different herbicidal modes of action used for annual bluegrass control and how to optimize programs to mitigate problems associated with herbicide resistance.   More details are available on Aqua-Aid's #PoaDay event page, or by following @AquaAidInc or @UTturfgrass on Twitter.
  • Captains seeking shelter often park their ships safely in the harbor, while those who yearn for a more stimulating experience don't hesitate to take to the high seas during the stormiest weather.   So says Steve Cook, the longtime superintendent at Oakland Hills Country Club.   Cook has never been one to go through life in dry dock, so when he thought he might be getting to point in his career in which he was closer to being more like a dingy than a destroyer, he decided it was a good time to weigh anchor and . After 20 years at Oakland Hills, the 58-year-old Cook recently left the Donald Ross classic outside Detroit to become the head superintendent at Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago.   "Safe ships stay in the harbor. Sitting on the deck and drinking margaritas is fun, but that's not me," Cook said. "Battleships should be sailing the oceans."   That's the same philosophy that helped Cook navigate through a successful 2004 Ryder Cup and 19 other prosperous seasons at Oakland Hills.   Cook spent some of the early days of his career at Medinah under then-superintendent Danny Quast. The challenges associated with size and scope of the property - three golf courses, 600 acres and 600 members - made Medinah one of the few places that would lead Cook to consider leaving Oakland Hills.   "I wasn't looking for a new job at all. In fact, this is the only job I've applied for in 20 years," Cook said. "I wasn't stagnating, but I thought I needed a change. I could have stayed at Oakland Hills. The club was happy, I was happy. But if there was an opportunity to move to a club where I could make a difference; where it was a step up; where it would be more difficult and offer a chance for professional growth, then I needed to try for it."   The only reason the Medinah position was available in the first place was because Curtis Tyrrell left there earlier this year for many of the same reasons Cook was seeking a change. After a 10-year run that included the 2012 Ryder Cup and a complete makeover of the of the massive multi-course facility, Tyrrell exited Medinah for a similar challenge at the Bonita Bay Club in Naples, Florida.   "I just completed my 10th year at Medinah," Tyrrell said. "In that time, we've rebuilt three courses, built a new maintenance facility and a new practice facility, all for $15 million. And we had the Ryder Cup. It's been an incredible decade."   His mission at five-course Bonita Bay is to replicate the same kind of success he enjoyed at Medinah in the ultra competitive southwest Florida golf market. Never mind that he managed all cool-season turf at Medinah. Tyrrell learned Bermudagrass management under Shawn Emerson at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale and Virgil Robinson at PGA West in the Coachella Valley.  
    I wasn't looking for a new job at all. In fact, this is the only job I've applied for in 20 years. I wasn't stagnating, but I thought I needed a change."
     
    "The goal when I got to Medinah was to rebuild the club into a uniform structure, and it took 10 years to complete," Tyrrell said.    "This club has made a lot of investment in a fitness center and clubhouse, and now they're ready to begin investing in the golf courses. I'm here to organize, develop and execute  projects for the golf courses. It's everything that would entice me to leave Medinah."   While Tyrrell was prompted to leave Medinah by the promise of things to come, Cook said he probably would never have left Oakland Hills if not for some of the life-altering moments from his past.   Throughout his career in golf, Cook, 58, has climbed nearly every rock and mountain in his path, often as a way to cut through the stress that comes with managing a Top 100 classic-era golf course.   Eventually, those excursions took Cook to the Himalayas in 2015 where he climbed Ama Dablam, a 22,349-foot summit in Nepal. Taking on a mountain like Aba Dablam, where one mistake literally can be the difference between life and death, Cook trained for months, exercising, following a special diet and perfecting his climbing skills.   Once the experience was over, it created a vacuum that resulted in a host of personal issues and challenges. In fact, Cook has never climbed so much as a tree since he stepped off Ama Dablam, Cook nearly three years ago.   Still, the experience has helped him confront other challenges, including a move to Medinah.   "I thought about that a lot when I first heard about the opening at Medinah," Cook said. "Going on that climb gave me courage in other parts of my life that I don't know that I'd have if I didn't make the climb."   The team-first culture instilled by Medinah general manager Robert Sereci hasn't hurt, either.   "In 20 years at Oakland Hills, we had two U.S. Amateurs, a Ryder Cup and a PGA Championship. It was a great experience. That's a lot of activity in 20 years," Cook said. "I like tournaments, activity, building teams, goal setting. I don't know if I'm any good at it.   "One of the things that turned me on and interested me in this job was that the general manager has been successful at changing the culture throughout the club. That was attractive to me."   Both Cook and Tyrrell are hoping they can put away their resume for a long time to come.   "I'm 47, and this is my last stop - I hope. I'm here to do what I do, and that's improve facilities structurally and build teams. I always thought it would be nice to go to an 18-hole course and tone it down a bit, but this was an exciting opportunity. It's the world I've been operating in. This was the right move at the right time."  
  • SiteOne has brought back an old standby.
      The Lesco web site features Lesco-branded products for the golf, turf and ornamental markets and an interactive blog where users can find answers to frequently asked questions.   Lesco-branded products for the golf market include pesticides, fungicides, seed, fertilizer, adjuvants, colorants and specialized equipment like sprayers and spreaders.   More Lesco-branded products are due this spring, said John Gertz, vice president of SiteOne.   Product information is available through a catch-all link, or in market-specific sub sites.   The interactive blog is pre-loaded with tips on product selection and timing of application.   Lesco, which was bought by John Deere in 2007, once a staple vendor in the golf turf industry, with a fleet of trucks that made on-site sales calls to golf courses across the country. SiteOne bought Lesco from John Deere Landscapes in 2013.
  • Part II in an ongoing series about labor issues affecting the golf industry.   Gleneagles and Highland Meadows are separated by 2,500 miles, and the spaces they occupy in golf's unspoken hierarchy are even farther apart.   Gleneagles Golf Course at McLaren Park is the San Francisco muni that, if not for the vision and efforts of manager and operator Tom Hsieh, probably would have been cast onto the ever-growing heap of closed courses years ago.   Located in the Toledo, Ohio suburb of Sylvania, Highland Meadows is the longtime home of the LPGA's Marathon Classic, formerly the Jamie Farr Owens Corning Classic, and occupies the other end of the spectrum.   Despite the economic differences between Gleneagles and Highland Meadows, the courses share a common bond - a struggle to attract enough hourly talent. And both have looked to some unique sources to fill that void.   At Highland Meadows, superintendent Greg Pattinson figured there is strength in numbers, and that's why he's partnered with a local park to attract workers who, throughout the golf season, spend time at both facilities.   Since 2015, Hsieh has been working with a local labor union in the Bay area to provide unskilled labor in a pre-apprentice program that provides training and hope for at-risk residents from one of the city's worst neighborhoods.   In Sylvania, Pacesetter Park encompasses 138 acres of trails, practice and game day soccer fields and eight baseball and softball fields.   Together, the park and Highland Meadows, which has been the site of Toledo's LPGA tournament in its various iterations since 1989, have targeted five area schools in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan that have agriculture or horticulture programs.   "It's helped us target people who already are interested in our field," Pattinson said. "There's not a lot of weeding out. Whether it's turf, farming, greenhouses or something similar, at least 50 percent of the people we target are interested in working for us."   In year one of the program last year, the park and golf course split the workers and traded them back and forth every couple of weeks. This year, the entire group will spend more time at one location then shift en masse to the other.   "We tweaked the program this year to leave them at each facility for a month at a time," Pattinson said. "It just wasn't enough time before."   Similarly, the training program at Gleneagles in San Francisco provides Hsieh with much-needed help. It also gives workers, many of whom come from the local community on San Francisco's downtrodden southeast side that was a 5-iron away from where Candlestick Park once stood, with a second chance to lead a productive life.   The principal of Gleneagles Golf Partners, which holds the management contract on the golf course, Hsieh's roots are in San Francisco politics, namely as a campaign advisor. He knows enough about golf that he doesn't want historic Gleneagles, which doesn't receive financial support from the city like its muni siblings Harding Park and Sharp Park, to go away.   "I'm winging it. I'm not a golf industry insider," Hsieh said. "There are no boundaries for me except to be open-minded. If something doesn't work, we change and move on to the next thing."   Fortunately for Hsieh, the pre-apprentice program works for parties on both sides.   Named for a local union leader, the Mario de la Torre Training Academy at Gleneagles provides pre-apprenticeship training for up to a dozen low-level city workers, most of whom come from a past that is, at best, sketchy.    Those accepted into the program learn how to work on a golf course in incremental steps. They start with pulling weeds and clearing debris to raking bunkers and operating equipment. After each six-week session,graduates receive a union pre-apprenticeship certificate that allows them to apply for apprenticeship training so they can compete for other union jobs that offer better pay and benefits and a chance at a real future, which is something most of them didn't have before.   A storage facility at the golf course has been repurposed - thanks to union-provided labor - into a classroom to help facilitate training.   The program is a joint effort that includes the Northern California District Council of Laborers, Local 26 and a host of city and county agencies (parks alliance, public utilities commission, public works, housing authority, department of environment, chief administrator's office, board of supervisors, mayor's office, unified school district).   The academy's goal is to equip at-risk residents with training and skills needed to be successful at work and in life. Two managers employed by Local 261 handle all training.   The program, which provides on-the-job training for as many as 70 people per year, lost one of its staunchest allies last year when San Francisco mayor Ed Lee died unexpectedly.   In the meantime, interim Mayor Mark Farrell and others renewed the city's support of the training program and what it means for golfers and San Francisco's at-risk community when they visited the site in February to honor the latest group of graduates from the training program.    While it's important for Hsieh to help his neighbors, his ability to do so means saving the golf course first.   "We're helping individuals and their families," Hsieh said. "But this golf course is important too. If it doesn't make it, we're not able to do that."
  • Each year at the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Turfgrass Research Field Day, the plant pathology team of Joe Rimelspach, Ph.D., Todd Hicks and Francesca Peduto Hand make available the latest version of the handy guide entitled "Families of Fungicides for Turfgrass".   The guide includes information such as the name of the active ingredient, FRAC code, trade names, mode of action and concerns about resistance on dozens of fungicide products, including chlorothalonil, iprodione, mancozeb, new products like mandestrobin, and more than 30 others.   There are some updates to this year to the guide that also is available as a printable, downloadable PDF.   The single greatest concern surrounding fungicide use, besides efficacy, is the threat of resistance. The latest version of the OSU guide includes information on combination fungicide products as well as FRAC codes for each to help superintendents make more informed decisions.   "This way, people can quickly know what families are in those combination products," said Rimelspach. "The guide can help them understand things a little better and make better choices. They can manage rotation to help manage resistance, so they're not using the same family of product over and over again. Rotation to help manage resistance, not using same product over over again and make better choices and understand things."   Some of the dozens of combination products included on the guide are chlorothalonil plus acibenzolar-S-methyl and pyraclostrobin plus pyraclostrobin as well as chlorothalonil plus iprodione plus T-methyl plus tebuconazole, which includes active ingredients from four different fungicide families.
  • Part I in an ongoing series about labor issues affecting the golf industry.   One step forward; two steps back.   That's how Scott White feels every winter when it is time to hire seasonal help at Urbana Country Club in Illinois.   Whether it's finding high school workers with some semblance of work ethic, or helping Hispanic workers successfully navigate the physical exam process, White spends a lot of time looking for temporary help. And he's not alone.   All over the country the story is the same: superintendents are struggling to find qualified seasonal help, interns and even assistants. White is trying to get creative in finding high school students to round out his seasonal staff that includes Hispanics and retirees.   "It used to be I'd hire just anyone," said White, who is in his third season at Urbana. "Now, I'm looking for kids who want to be here because it excites them. I want kids who want to be outdoors, not just kids who need a job. I'm trying to find kids who are a better fit. That's the culture I want to create here. It seems I'm working four or five times harder to find the right employees who even want to be here. Eventually, robotic mowers will be a necessity because of labor."   Three years ago, White began working with a local high school to recruit summer help. Rather than get kids excited about the prospect of working outdoors all summer, he was getting the exact opposite.   "I was getting kids who didn't even want to be outside," he said. "It was like they were being forced to do it. They were not what I needed, and they didn't want to be here anyway."   This year, White ventured out of town to Mahomet-Seymour High School about 15 miles northwest of Urbana. Located in a more rural area, Mahomet-Seymour has a horticulture program stocked with kids already leaning toward a career spent outdoors.   White is scheduled to speak there next week, but already has hired a player off the basketball team who reached out when he learned a local golf course superintendent was coming to talk about careers in golf.   He is replicating that recruiting tactic at Fisher High School 25 miles north of the Champaign-Urbana area.   "I think I can establish a nice pipeline to Mahomet and Fisher," White said. "Once I get started, through word of mouth I can get their brothers and friends and round out my crew."   Every time I placed an ad, about 30 people would respond; I would schedule interviews for about five and only one of them would show up. I was spending a lot of time for very little return." Conrad Pannkuk, assistant superintendent at Wynstone Golf Club in North Barrington, Illinois, said he and superintendent Ben McGargill are having similar challenges finding help, especially since his employer, Century Golf, started using the e-Verify system.
    This year, Pannkuk spoke to an FFA group at a recent Barrington High School job fair about the careers in turf, including golf course maintenance, sports field management and sod production.   "I spoke about what the job entails, expected salary and what the job entails," Pannkuk said. "I want to show them what career options are available to them. If I'd known about this when I was in high school, I would have been all over it."   In the past, when he worked at the Biltmore Country Club in Illinois, Pannkuk relied on Web sites like Indeed or Craigslist to find temporary help. Results were sporadic at best.   "Every time I placed an ad, about 30 people would respond; I would schedule interviews for about five and only one of them would show up," he said. "I was spending a lot of time for very little return."   Finding new ways to attract talent, he said, is more important now than ever.   "We're working with local community colleges. You have to be creative to get your name out there in as many places as possible," he said.    Making his case to local high schoolers has been a good fit for Pankkuk, and much better than relying on generic help-wanted Web sites.   "Looking for help through Craigslist and Indeed was tedious and depressing," he said.   "Going out and speaking to high school groups is fun. It's like going out and teaching, and I enjoy teaching."    
  • A bad day for a caddie at many clubs might mean schlepping two bags for five hours for a pair of notoriously chintzy tippers.   At the Retreat and Links at Silvies Valley Ranch in east-central Oregon, a bad day for a caddie might mean getting fired and ending up on the menu in the restaurant.   Silvies Valley Ranch is a 140,000-acre working ranch in Seneca, Oregon that is home to about 4,500 head of cattle and more than 2,000 American range goats. Situated in a high mountain meadow, the ranch also includes the Retreat & Links that is billed as an eco-tourism destination comprising a hotel and spa, a host of western-themed activities and four golf courses designed by Dan Hixson, including the seven-hole McVeigh's Gauntlet course, where the steep terrain makes golf cars obsolete and goats that serve as caddies a necessity.   The best part, they don't talk back or dole out bad advice.   "How did we come up with the program? We'd like to take credit for it, but the goats wanted a different career opportunity," joked Colby Marshall, vice president of livestock and guest services at Silvies Valley Ranch.   "For a goat, working as a caddie is a better career path than working in the restaurant."   A new Hixson design, McVeigh's Gauntlet will open this season, and not just any goat will do for the caddie program.   Goats are handpicked, range in age from 2-8 years, undergo training with a livestock handler and get regular veterinary checkups to ensure their health and satisfy the animal-rights community.   When Marshall says the goats work for peanuts, he means it. A specially designed pack allows the goats, which can weigh in at a beefy 150 pounds, to carry a limited number of clubs, refreshments and goat treats.   There are four goats in the program, Mike, Bruce, Peanut and Roundabout, and three more will join them this spring as McVeigh's Gauntlet preps for its official grand opening.   "There is a lot of interest in it. They start thinking about it as kids," said Marshall, the resident Henny Youngman of eastern Oregon.   Each goat will work about six hours per day, and handlers make sure they don't stray from their golfers.   Although goat is a popular menu item at Silvie's Ranch, Peanut and Roundabout and their colleagues won't really be served up as the nightly special when it's time to put them out to pasture.   Instead, they'll be eligible for adoption.   "There are none ready at this point; they're all in the prime of their careers," Marshall said. "They'll be placed as pets.    "They're going to have the good life."   Silvies Valley Ranch has been a working cattle ranch since the Craddock family homesteaded the property in 1883. After a succession of owner spanning some 60 years since the 1950s, Scott and Sandy Campbell bought the ranch about a decade ago.    The property also includes the Hankins Course, the nine-hole Chief Egan layout and the Craddock Course that was built to be fully reversible with the routing reversed each day to create a unique golf experience, said superintendent Sean Hoolehan, who thought highly enough of Silvies Valley Ranch that he recently came aboard after 21 years at Wildhorse Resort in Pendleton, Oregon.   "There is nothing clumsy about the reversible layout. It feels like you're playing two distinctly different and unique golf courses," Hoolehan said. "Nothing makes you think on course you played the day before."   Hoolehan said he was attracted by the scope of Silvies Valley Ranch property and the unique experiences it affords guests.   "The top environmental practices we use here have helped turn the ranch into a thriving operation," Hoolehan said.    "I jumped at the chance to come on board. The ranch is not the whim of a wealthy family. This is a thriving business, and it's something I wanted to be part of."
  • As a college instructor who tries to help her students better understand behavioral differences between people across cultural and generational lines, Amy Wallis, Ph.D., loves her job. After all, as a professor of practice at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she is immersed in a field that is relatively new and poorly understood.   Every December, Wallis brings her message to 25 or so golf course superintendents at the annual Syngenta Business Institute.   "We're not going to learn everything we need to know about leading everyone," Wallis told the 2017 class at the 2017 SBI. "We can't allow ourselves to fall into stereotyping and thinking there is some cookie-cutter approach to working across differences.   "I'm going to equip you with the tools and concepts to dig a little deeper."   That's just a slice of what attendees are in for at the 10th annual SBI, scheduled for Dec. 3-6 at Wake Forest.   In its 10th year, the Syngenta Business Institute is a 3 ½-day event held on the Wake Forest University campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is part of Syngenta's ongoing effort to grow the professional knowledge of golf course superintendents and assist them with managing their courses. Through a partnership with the Wake Forest University School of Business, the program provides graduate school-level instruction in financial management, human resource management, negotiating, managing across generations and cultural divides, impact hiring and other leadership- and professional-development skills.   Registration for the 10th-annual event is open through Aug. 14.    Applicants must complete an online application that includes writing a short essay on why they should be selected for this unique career-development program.     "Superintendents have the opportunity many times a year to learn about agronomy. But what they don't get to hear about or understand is how to work with their teams and how each person in their team can be different," said Stephanie Schwenke, turf market manager for Syngenta, "hat can be based on age. It can be based on gender. It can be based on culture, and it can be based on the way they were brought up and what they were exposed to in their lives. So i think the culture and the generations session opens everyone's eyes that everyone is not just like me. And not everybody grew up the same way I did with the same culture or the same skillset. So it's understandable that there are different motivational factors for their team if they can understand how to work with them. That has been the one piece superintendents have walked away with saying, "I wish we could get more of this.' "   David Groelle of Royal Melbourne Country Club in Long Grove, Illinois, applied for the 2017 SBI because he was eager to learn ways to improve communications with his team and help them be more effective.   "It was a rewarding and educational experience, and they're not selling anything," Groelle said.   "I've been to every type of turf event imaginable. This is so off-the-wall different.    "The biggest take home for me has been dealing with cultural and generational issues and trying to understand that better. Understanding how people from the U.S. differ from people from other cultures - I think it would help with retention, and efficiency on the golf course and how they work and what is going through their heads vs. what is going through mine. I never really thought about it that way, but when I heard it, it made sense."
  • Before administering the naturalization oath of allegiance to a recent class of new U.S. citizens, federal judge Stephanie K. Bowman reminded them never to take for granted what she was about to bestow upon them.
      "She told us that that Americans often forget how important U.S. citizenship is, and that we have to remember how great it is to be a citizen of this country," said Pat O'Brien, superintendent of Hyde Park Golf and Country Club in Cincinnati, and a U.S. citizen since January. "I agree with her.    "This country is phenomenal. It's the best place to be, and we forget sometimes how great it is. That's the moral of the story for me anyway."   A native of London, Ontario, the 47-year-old O'Brien has been living in the U.S. for most of the past 20 years. On Jan. 12, he closed the book on a 2-year naturalization process when he and 67 others took the oath in Bowman's courtroom in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.   The experience was a life-altering moment for O'Brien and his wife, Jen, and even for the couple's daughters Brynna and Maeve, who, after the ceremony, were enlisted by the League of Women Voters to distribute voter-registration cards to the group of newly minted citizens.   "My wife even had tears in her eyes," said O'Brien. "She's a tough woman. Our kids call her the ice lady."   Throughout the naturalization process that began in 2016, O'Brien has had to develop a thicker skin, as well.   "I get a lot of ribbing from Canadians," he said. "They don't like it when Canadians become U.S. citizens. They don't get it."   There was a time when O'Brien and his wife were open to moving wherever his career took him, even if it meant returning to Canada. Those days are gone.   "As we started to have kids, we realized this is the place and it didn't make sense anymore to look elsewhere," he said. "A couple of years ago, my wife told me 'I feel bad for you, because we're not moving.' That's OK. This is a great city with great schools."   He decided two years ago, when President Trump was elected on a platform that included promises of a crackdown on immigration, that it was time to start the naturalization process. Despite cable TV news claims of a loose immigration policy, O'Brien said, the process is exhaustive. So much so that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services delayed the date of his swearing-in while they checked out his travel history that includes numerous crossings of the border between the U.S. and Canada.   "I was in limbo for a couple of weeks," he said. "I really thought I had messed up, because I had forgotten to document some travel.    "There is so much scrutiny. They make sure your marriage is legitimate and not just something to get you into the country. They go through everything. The vetting is phenomenal. A lot of people are immigrating here, and immigration (services) does an incredible job."   For O'Brien, it has been a long journey to Hyde Park, a century-old Donald Ross design on Cincinnati's upper crust east side, where he has been superintendent since 2004.   
    I was in limbo for a couple of weeks. I really thought I had messed up, because I had forgotten to document some travel."
     
    He's been working on golf courses since 1993, and it was a career path that happened almost by accident.    O'Brien had been working on a cousin's dairy farm in Ontario when a spot opened closer to home on the grounds crew at Westminster Trails Golf Club in his hometown.   "The superintendent asked me what I could do, and I told him I knew how to drive a tractor, you know, because I had been working on a farm," he said. "He hired me to run a mower.   "The last year I was there I was the assistant. I think there were only six of us working there. It was a different world. It was all I'd ever seen, so I didn't know any different. I enjoyed working there. Some of the best times I ever had was as a night waterman."   By that time, the golf course had become O'Brien's passion, and he realized the bachelor's degree in geography he had earned at the Western University in Ontario wasn't going to help him much. It did, however, help him find his way to State College, Pennsylvania, where he enrolled in George Hamilton's two-year turf program.   "George was very soft spoken and humble. But he was also very direct," O'Brien said. "He talked in class about real-life things, like club politics. As students, we get hung up on grass and don't know how to relate to the real stuff."   O'Brien's long-term plan to stay in the U.S. almost went off the rails after a return to Canada nearly 20 years ago. During his Penn State days, O'Brien interned at Kirtland Country Club in suburban Cleveland and was hired on as Todd Bidlespacher's assistant after graduation in 2000.He went back to Canada, but after some self-reflection, realized he belonged in the states.   He made some calls to look for work in the U.S., and that's when he connected, through Matt Shaffer, with Doug Norwell at Camargo Club, a 1927 Seth Raynor classic in Cincinnati's ritzy east side suburb of Indian Hill. But securing a work visa that allowed him back into the U.S. was a hard process, and Norwell recalls completing a lot of paperwork to guarantee O'Brien's return.   "They want to make sure you're not writing up a job description with just that person in mind," Norwell said. "The visa process seemed pretty difficult at the time, but the years have a way of making things less painful.   "It's worth the hassle for a good assistant."
  • A new name will make its way next year into the turf and ornamental market, but it's someone you already know.   This isn't a prelude to a T&O version of the TV game show Jeopardy. It's the most recent update on the merger of two of the world's largest chemical companies.   This week, DowDuPont announced the names of three separate publicly traded companies it will create in the wake of a $130 billion union between the companies that first was announced in December 2015 and was finalized last September.   Two of the entities will retain the historic names of Dow and DuPont. The new and separate companies will split off in phases next year.   The agriculture division of DowDuPont will become Corteva Agriscience, a name that is derived from a combination of Hebrew and Latin words meaning "heart" and "nature", the company said.   "This is the start of an exciting journey," James C. Collins, Jr., chief operating officer, agriculture division of DowDuPont said in a news release. "Corteva Agriscience is bringing together three businesses with deep connections and dedication to generations of farmers. Our new name acknowledges our history while looking forward to our commitment to enhancing farmer productivity as well as the health and well-being of the consumers they serve. With the most balanced portfolio of products in the industry, nearly a century of agronomic expertise and an unparalleled innovation engine, Corteva Agriscience will become a leading Agriculture company, focused on working together with the entire food system to produce a secure supply of healthy food."   Corteva Agriscience will comprise DuPont Crop Protection, DuPont Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences to create a standalone company involved in seed technologies, crop protection and digital agriculture.   The product names from each of those separate entities will not change under the Corteva badge, the company said.   Corteva's corporate headquarters will be in Wilmington, Delaware. Locations in Johnston, Iowa, and Indianapolis will serve as global business centers that will include business support functions, R&D, global supply chain and sales and marketing.   The new Dow will include what is now DowDuPont's materials science company that consists of petrochemicals, packaging polymers, polyurethanes and coating resins. Headquarters will be in Midland, Michigan, the historic home of Dow before the merger.   DowDuPont's specialty products division will become the new DuPont and will be based in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont's former headquarters, and will include businesses such as Kevlar aramid fibers, building materials, industrial biosciences.   The spinoff of Corteva is expected to take place by June 1, 2019.  
  • Last year's Solheim Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club was as uplifting a story as golf has seen in a long time. Camaraderie displayed between teams, patriotism and pride in country and, as was the case in 2017, in state.   The event that pits the best women players from Europe and the United States was a special moment for Iowans both on and off the golf course. It was a professional championship the likes of which Iowans and not seen before, at least within the borders of their own state. It also was the kind of tournament that Iowa superintendents don't get a chance to even volunteer for, unless they venture outside the state.   Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS, made sure that changed in 2017, when he opened the door for Iowa superintendents to get their hands dirty preparing for the Solheim Cup, and it's one of the reasons why he was named the winner of the 2017 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta.   Professional golf, even at its highest level, is about much more than who wins. It is about helping those in need through charitable donations.   To that end, nine worthy causes will share $250,000 in charitable contributions from Des Moines Golf and Country Club, the West Des Moines country club announced last week. The money comes from profits the club made by hosting the tournament last August.    The club said its overall donations tied to the Solheim Cup totaled more than $400,000 and that it was fulfilling a promise to donate 50 percent of its profits from the event that attracted more than 120,000 spectators who watched the U.S. top Europe, 16.5-11.5.   Beneficiaries include Iowa Court Appointed Special Advocates, ISISERETTES Drill & Drum Corp, DMGCC Educational Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of Central Iowa, Children & Family Urban Movement, Children's Cancer Connection, Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, Youth Emergency Services & Shelter and the First Tee of Central Iowa.   "The success of the 2017 Solheim Cup," said DMGCC president Gregg Carlson, "was in large part due to the incredible way Iowans embraced and supported our efforts to host the prestigious golf tournament."  
  • The USGA's Bible for building putting greens is hardly a static document.   In fact, since it was first published in 1960, the USGA Recommendations for a Method of Putting Green Construction is a dynamic script that has been amended five times, including its most recent update in 2015.   "The purpose of the revisions process is to go through all the research that is being done and see if any new techniques or materials need to be included in the Recommendations to make them more reliable," said Adam Moeller, director of USGA Green Section Education. "We also want to make sure that the Recommendations are still an industry standard that can work anywhere in the world.   "The bulk of the Recommendations are the same. This is the fifth set of revisions, and the least amount of revisions since the recommendations came out in 1960."   Key changes in the latest set of revisions, Moeller said, are about selecting gravel, perimeter drains, clean-up ports, clarifying rootzone mixtures and new information on amendments used in a rootzone mix.   Green Section director Kim Erusha, Ph.D., Darin Bevard Green Section director of championship agronomy, and Mike Kenna, the group's director of research, ran point on the project that has been in the works for nearly two years.   Staffing changes and the retirement of former research director Jim Moore slowed the process. The revised document was written by turf and soils consultant and 2017 USGA Green Section Award winner Norm Hummel, Ph.D. Hummel also authored the revised document after changes in 1993 and 2004.    Other changes occured in 1973 and 1989.   The section on drainage includes advice on adding perimeter drains at any low point along the perimeter wall, and no longer just at the terminal point. The drainage section also now recommends installing clean-up ports on high and low side of putting green drainage lines, so cameras can be used to inspect the area.   "A lot of people were already doing this in the field," Moeller said. "We thought it was time to include it in the Recommendations."   Pertaining to gravel, the USGA now says research indicates there is evidence that placing low-pH rootzone mixtures over high-pH gravel materials such as limestone and dolomite contributes to the formation of iron-oxide layers at the rootzone and gravel interface. These layers have been shown to impede drainage from the rootzone mixture to the gravel layer. If given the option, selecting a neutral-pH gravel is recommended.   "This iron-oxide layer is almost cemented together," Moeller said. "It can be a quarter-inch to a half-inch thick. Certainly research and work in the field indicate there is a concern this can impede water drainage into the gravel and the drainage below."   Finally, the new version of the Recommendations provide tips on selecting amendments for the rootzone mix.   The Recommendations also includes the supplemental guide entitled Building the USGA Putting Green Tips for Success. This document, Moeller said, goes through all the steps outlined in the Recommendations and does so in more depth.   "There is no set time frame to update the Recommendations," Moeller said. "If something needs to be done sooner than in that 10-year mark, we can certainly do that. It's not like the Rules of Golf that change every four years, and I think that is a testament to the science that backs the construction method."    
  • Perception is not always reality.   The aisles were more narrow than usual at this year's Golf Industry Show, often giving the illusion that the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio was more crowded than ever. By the afternoon of the second day, even funneling traffic into a single-file walkway wouldn't have been able to mask the fact that a lot of people clean forgot the Alamo this year.  
    Attendance at this year's show was 11,700. That's 1,900 fewer attendees than last year's show in Orlando, 900 fewer than San Diego in 2016 1,189 below the five-year average attendance of 12,889. It's even down 700 from the last time the show ambled on into San Antonio in 2015.   The number of vendors exhibiting at the show has been hovering in the mid-500s for years, and this show, with 531 exhibitors, was no exception. That mark is down from last year's total of 569 in Orlando. It's down 19 from 2016 in San Diego and down an even 20 from the 2015 show in - San Antonio.   After a brief rebound in 2016 and 2017, when vendors rented out 250,000 square feet of convention center real estate in back-to-back years, booth space rental also was down this year, to 184,900 square feet. That's the least since 2015 (182,000) in San Antonio and well off the five-year average of 210,280 square feet.   None of this should be a shock. The game has been on a steady pace of losing players and rounds for more than a decade, and it's not unrealistic to expect the challenges associated with those losses to trickle down to the turf side of the business.   If there was a bright spot in a show marked by steady decline, it's that 5,600 education seats were filled this year, compared with 5,800 last year in Orlando.  

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