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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted label registration to Pinpoint Fungicide from Nufarm.   With the active ingredient mandestrobin, Pinpoint is a new strobilurin (QoI) fungicide registered for controlling dollar spot in turfgrass. Pinpoint optimizes disease-management programs for golf course superintendents and lawn care operators by providing consistent turf quality throughout the season while helping combat dollar spot resistance, Nufarm says   "The unique and targeted activity that Pinpoint delivers against dollar spot is a boon to superintendents and their ongoing pursuit of pristine turf," said Steve Jedrzejek, marketing manager at Nufarm. "Pinpoint fits multiple spray programs from early season through late season wherever dollar spot control is needed."   Pinpoint, developed by Valent in conjunction with Nufarm, has been under field development with numerous university researchers since 2006   "Pinpoint provides powerful dollar spot control, provides excellent turf tolerance, and enhances the stewardship of disease management programs," said Jason Fausey, Nufarm's director of technical services.   Pinpoint is labeled for use on golf courses, athletic fields, residential and institutional lawns, public parks and recreational areas, as well as sod farms.   Pinpoint is a member of FRAC group 11 and is best used preventively in a rotational program. It provides an additional management option for dollar spot and is a rotation partner for other classes of chemistry such as Spectrum Succinate Dehydrogenase Inhibitors (SDHI) fungicides.  
  • For much of the past three decades, Scott Witte, CGCS, has worked diligently to convince people that golf courses are diverse ecosystems that offer more to their respective communities than simply an outlet for physical recreation. Golf courses, Witte says, also can provide wildlife habitat as well as diverse native plants that attract beneficial insects. It is a message he has taken to golfers and nongolfers alike since he became superintendent at Cantigny Golf near Chicago in 1995. For the past six years, Witte has leaned on an unlikely prop to help him make his case even further.   Recently, Witte teamed with Bayer Environmental Science to host a Feed A Bee educational event at Cantigny in suburban Wheaton. The two-day event, which included an educational tour of Cantigny's bee-friendly grounds and the many pollinator-specific programs under way there like Witte's Bee Barometer project, largely targeted media from outside the golf industry in what he called a blogger-engagement event.   The event attracted about a dozen representatives from various media outlets representing a variety of industries, including agriculture, golf and food production. It also presented Witte with an opportunity to share the work he has conducted the past six years on behalf of promoting healthy bee populations as well as his eco-friendly golf course-management programs.   "I wanted to open bloggers' minds about the beauty of golf's environmental opportunities," Witte said.    "The more people understand the logic of what is going on with bee populations and the importance of pollinators, the more they are an educated sounding board connected with good news about bees, not just the doom and gloom."   Tour stops included places like Honeybee Hill, where Witte maintains his beekeeping operation, native prairie gardens, the site of a future monarch feeding station and the Cantigny Golf Academy, where Witte has planted native grasses and pollinator-friendly plants. It also included a stop in a wooded area where native bee colonies have taken up residences in hollowed trees.    "I wanted to demonstrate how golf and bees can survive and thrive in harmony," Witte said.   "Education is important so the public doesn't see bees coming from a tree and think  'We have to kill these things.' "   The event also included a golf tournament that was rained out. Still, no one who registered wanted a refund of their $200 green fee since proceeds benefitted the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal, Illinois. Between green fees ($200 for each of 24 players) and corporate donations from the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Kemper Sports and Bayer, Witte's event raised more than $12,000 for the museum.   For years, bees, like golf, have been under attack from multiple fronts. Weather patterns, parasites, disease, pesticides and loss of habitat have resulted in declining numbers of bees and a phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder, which was first documented in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Thanks to the efforts of Witte and others, bees are on the rebound.   His Bee Barometer project helps promote and sustain healthy bee populations, which, he says provide a snapshot of the overall health and diversity of the surrounding environment he works so hard to provide at Cantigny, which is part of the 500-acre Cantigny Park.   "I love preaching the gospel of a healthy golf environment and diverse ecosystems on golf courses as awesome wildlife habitat," Witte said. "If we don't have an avenue to communicate with people, we'll never convince them of what we are doing for the environment."   The bee population, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped steadily from 1989 to 2008. For the past eight years, however, those numbers have been on the rise. There were 2.7 million honeybee colonies in 2014 (the most recent data available), which is a 20-year high, according to the USDA.   "The numbers for bees are relatively stable, and we have the data to back that up," Witte said. "Bees still face many stresses, and we're not out of the woods yet. There is more we can do, especially in golf, to provide forage and protect pollinators.   "Nobody loves a tragedy more than the media, and as easy as it would be to latch onto the sky-is-falling report, there needs to be more people involved in the good news of what is going on with pollinators and honey bees."   Witte has been promoting the environmental efforts of golf course superintendents for years.   Every year, he fashions rain barrels from recycled fertilizer drums and sells them to raise money to fund the Bee Barometer project and participates in a gardening event sponsored by a recycling awareness organization known as SCARCE (School & Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education). All along the way, he tells his story to anyone and everyone who will listen.   "I win those people over one at a time," he said. "Sometimes, I get people who look at me cross-eyed, because they are convinced golf can do no good in nature. You have to start a dialog with that segment and show them physically what you are doing.   "That is the goal of the Bee Barometer project and the Feed a Bee program. That is the message we want to get out, that golf is part of the solution, not part of the problem."  
  • When it comes to doing more with less, few have been able to match Matt Gourlay, CGCS, at Colbert Hills when it comes to pulling rabbits out of hats.
      Gourlay never has had a budget increase since he's been superintendent at the course at Kansas State University in Manhattan. In fact, his budget was slashed by 20 percent in 2015. Despite an ill-timed drought that plagued Manhattan last year, Gourlay's water-related expenditures came in $40,000 under budget in 2015. Since he was named superintendent at Colbert Hills a decade ago, Gourlay has cut spending on water by 71 million gallons.   Those were just some of the reasons Gourlay was named winner of the 2015 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year, presented by Syngenta. Whoever succeeds Gourlay will really have to be on top of his, or her, game.   With more than a month left in the nomination period, TurfNet has received nearly 400 nominations for more than 200 individual nominees.     TurfNet has been honoring superintendents like Gourlay with the Superintendent of the Year award since 2000. Since then, the Superintendent of the Year award has recognized nominees for their work in producing great playing conditions often during times of adversity. If this sounds like a superintendent you know, there still is is time to nominate him (or her) for this year's award.   Nominations can be submitted by golf course owners, operators, general managers, club members, golf professionals, vendors, distributors or colleagues, even by mothers and wives. The nomination deadline is Dec. 9.   Nominees are judged on their ability to excel at one or more of the following criteria: labor management, maximizing budget limitations, educating and advancing the careers of colleagues and assistants, negotiating with government agencies, preparing for tournaments under unusual circumstances, service to golf clientele, upgrading or renovating the course and dealing with extreme or emergency conditions.     The winner, who is selected by a panel of judges from throughout the golf industry, will be named at next year's Golf Industry Show in Orlando, and will receive a trip for two on the 2017 TurfNet golf trip to Ireland, courtesy of Syngenta.   To nominate a deserving superintendent for this year's award, visit the 2016 Superintendent of the Year Award nomination page. For more information, email John Reitman.   Previous winners of the award include Matt Gourlay, Colbert Hills, Manhattan, Kansas, 2015; Fred Gehrisch, Highlands Country Club, 2014, Highlands, North Carolina; Chad Mark, Kirtland Country Club, Willoughby, Ohio, 2013; Dan Meersman, Philadelphia Cricket Club, Philadelphia, 2012; Paul Carter, The Bear Trace at Harrison Bay, Harrison, Tennessee, 2011; Thomas Bastis, California Golf Club of San Francisco, South San Francisco, California, 2010; Anthony Williams, Stone Mountain Golf Club, Stone Mountain, Georgia, 2009, Sam MacKenzie, Olympia Fields Country Club, Olympia Fields, Illinois, 2008; John Zimmers, Oakmont Country Club, Oakmont, Pennsylvania, 2007; Scott Ramsay, Golf Course at Yale, New Haven, Connecticut, 2006; Mark Burchfield, Victoria Club, Riverside, California, 2005; Stuart Leventhal, Interlachen Country Club, Winter Park, Florida, 2004; Paul Voykin, Briarwood Country Club, Deerfield, Illinois, 2003; Jeff Burgess, Seven Lakes Country Club, LaSalle, Ontario, 2002; Kip Tyler, Salem Country Club, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2001; and Kent McCutcheon, Las Vegas Paiute Resort, Las Vegas, 2000.
  • Like many other golf courses throughout the Southeast, Ocean Palm Golf Course took a beating last week from Hurricane Matthew. And like many other courses nationwide, it also took a significant financial beating a decade ago. 
      In the wake of last week's storm, Matthew left behind a lot of debris and downed trees on the golf course in Flagler Beach, Florida, leaving many people anxious and ready to get to work to get Ocean Palm ready for play. The same could not have been said a year ago before a small group of investors got together to help resurrect Ocean Palm. Their story is a good news trend that is slowly sweeping across the golf landscape.   Of the net 900-plus golf courses the industry has shed since 2006, 160 have reopened, according to the National Golf Foundation, including 120 since 2012. That still leaves a net negative of about 800 courses, but the lightly reported rebound of courses that went from open to closed to open again, many under new ownership, is one of the industry's best-kept secrets.   So far this year, 16 courses in 13 states have opened their doors again after "prolonged closure" which is defined by NGF as at least one year. Three of those courses closed in 2015, four closed in 2014, two in 2013, two in 2012, one in 2011, two in 2009 and two closed all the way back in 2008.   For many of these courses, the climb back to solvency is a long, slow journey,    When the economy tanked in 2008, so did the Palm Golf Club at Forest Lakes in Sarasota, Florida. After nine years on the shelf, the course, which now is managed by Billy Casper Go, reopened in March under new owners Neal and Karen Neilinger, who bought the property five years ago. Part of the rebirth can be traced to the sale of 24 acres of vacant land to Canada's Mattamy Homes for new real estate development that, it is worth pointing out, is independent of the golf course. That development will include more than 150 condominiums, townhouses and villas, a clubhouse and pool area, dog park and open spaces.   A year after The Palms closed on Florida's gulf coast, so did Ocean Palm Golf Club on the other side of the state in Flagler Beach. The city eventually bought the property in 2013 in a foreclosure sale, hoping to repurpose it for something that could be consumed by the public. One of the ideas thrown out there was a dog park, but city officials never could come to a consensus.    Last year, cousins Duane McDaniel and Terrence McManus got together to come up with a way to save Ocean Palm for the sake of local golfers. Their plan, which was met with overwhelming enthusiasm from residents and local city officials alike, included a 40-year lease deal with the city that would include revenue-sharing with the city after three years of operation. The new management group also promised to put their own money into restoring the course, because they didn't want city officials feeling like they could poke their noses in to micromanage the the golf operation.   That plan was met with applause by concerned residents, and after nearly a year of preparations, the course reopened in June after being closed for seven years. That group has put its own money into restoring the course and getting it ready to open   Still, for every positive story like The Palms or Ocean Palm, there are many more that do not end quite so happily, proving that management philosophies, like current economic conditions, can determine which golf courses will become a statistic and which will remain viable businesses in the future.   
  • The emotional toll of the Ryder Cup can be an immense burden to shoulder.
      Host sites are named years in advance, so the run-up, with its obligatory restorations, projects and upgrades, seems to last forever, taking the superintendent on an impassioned roller coaster ride of emotional highs and lows. Then, after investing heart and soul into preparing a golf course for its place on the world stage, the moment flashes by in a single week, often leaving a superintendent physically and emotionally drained and psychologically unprepared to get back to the day-to-day grind of managing a golf course once the excitement is over.   When he was preparing for the 2004 Ryder Cup Matches at Oakland Hills near Detroit, Steve Cook, CGCS, sought advice from fellow superintendent Bill Spence, who prepped The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts, for the event in 1999.   "He told me to be ready for when the circus leaves town," Cook said. "The media's not calling anymore. Nobody is calling anymore. They've all moved on to the next guy.   "After it's over, nobody wants to be there. You don't want to be there, it's hard to keep your staff motivated and interested. And the members still expect to play the golf course in a week. You're on an emotional roller coaster."   Chris Tritabaugh, superintendent at Hazeltine National Golf Club in Chaska, Minnesota, site of this year's Ryder Cup, is still riding the high that comes at the crest of the hill. He's yet to experience the deflation that comes with riding through the valley.   For as much planning as he did for the physical aspects of the Ryder Cup, like course preparation, keeping projects on schedule and organizing volunteers, Tritabaugh spent much of the four years he has been superintendent at Hazeltine preparing for the mental aspect as well. And the only part of the tournament that didn't play out as he visualized it in his mind was the day after, when he expected that emotional downturn. Instead, the morning after the matches were over, Tritabaugh came back to the golf course seeking more.   "That moment hasn't come yet. I visualized this whole thing from volunteers, food, drink, the way the area would be set up, to the way the golf course would look, to the way we do our morning routines, the way we do our evening routine, even down to what I thought I would do the day after," Tritabaugh said. "And everything went exactly like I expected it with one exception, and that was the day after."  
    "...everything went exactly like I expected it with one exception, and that was the day after." -- Chris Tritabaugh
      Rather than stay home and sleep in, and no one would have blamed him if he did, Tritabaugh went to the course and made sure everything was just right for VIP play the following day.   "I wanted to do it, I didn't just want to take the day off, because I felt like I had to get back out there and continue to soak it all in until the very last moment," he said. "But as I drove around I didn't feel that way at all. I saw everything I wanted to see, I did everything I wanted to do. I touched every part of it. I don't have any regrets about it. There is no part of it starting from four years ago until the culmination of it this weekend that I feel like I missed."   Tritabaugh received an assist from Mother Nature with mostly benign conditions in the final run-up to the tournament and during the week of play. Curtis Tyrrell wasn't that lucky in 2012 when he was the host superintendent for the Ryder Cup at Medinah Country Club near Chicago.   Three successive years of record summer heat made getting ready for the matches a challenge, especially considering the amount of guest play at Medinah.   "The emotional part of it is not something people ask about, but it's a reality. It's hard to describe, because we all tell our own stories to go along with it," Tyrrell said. "Here, it was brutally hot. We had record heat in 2010 and in 2011. I remember in 2012 I said to myself that it couldn't get any worse than it had been the previous two years, but I was wrong. It got even hotter."   Weather was only part of the stress that Tyrrell faced four years ago. The real pressure came from the realization that his work at Medinah would reflect on the entire Chicago area.   "The build up was intense. From the day I stepped on the property I was focused on one week, and it was like that until it was over," he said. "There was a huge emphasis on what it meant for the City of Chicago."   Medinah management had made a commitment to allow about 13,000 rounds that summer before shutting down the course for final Ryder Cup preparations. As luck would have it, spring came early and so did opening day at Medinah.   "Holy crap; everybody was evaluating you. It was intense pressure and local scrutiny," he said. "People would come out to play and thought they would be getting Ryder Cup conditions all summer. If it didn't meet their expectations then word got out. It was not uncommon for the press to come out and say we were struggling."   Like Tritabaugh, Tyrrell, who was hired at Medinah in 2008, spent four years preparing for the Ryder Cup. It wasn't until after the first practice round was completed that he was able to relax.   That was when players were asked to publicly evaluate course conditions. All of them, to a man, gave Tyrrell and his crew two thumbs up.   "I was lurking around by the tent trying to hear what they were saying," Tyrrell said. "Someone asked me if I had heard what they said. I told them no, and that's when he told me they all said they loved it. That's when I was able to relax."   After years of preparation getting Medinah's Course 3 ready for the world's best players, Tyrrell and his crew moved from the Ryder Cup to a renovation of Course 1 the Monday after the tournament was over, so the letdown didn't come for him until the summer of 2013   "That's when things started to settle down and I had to internally deal with it," he said. "It was a terrible feeling, and I still don't like it today, because it was that much fun."   
    "It was a terrible feeling, and I still don't like it today, because it was that much fun." -- Curtis Tyrrell
      For Cook, the letdown was unexpected.   "After everyone has left, nobody wants to be there. You don't want to be there, and you're trying to keep your staff motivated," Cook said. "But your members still expect play the course in a week.    "I didn't realize the impact it would have on me. It was much greater than I expected, so I don't have the answers. It's just what comes with the event. You go from the front page to the back page. That's the way it works, it helps a little to know it's going to happen."   Tritabaugh sought Cook's wisdom on how to make the tournament run as smoothly as possible. That advice included keeping the circle of volunteers tight to control the process and to make sure the food they are served is top notch.   Tritabaugh followed Cook's advice on the food, but his army of volunteers ballooned with about 50 who had some sort of connection to Hazeltine and another 140 who did not.   That circle included assistant Ryan Moy and Jeff Johnson, superintendent of the nearby Minikahda Club.   "If I was the air traffic controller, Ryan was my dispatcher. He handled everything," Tritabaugh said. "And Jeff, he is my best superintendent friend by far."   Also at his side were brother, Adam, wife, Lindsay, and Hazeltine green chairman Reed Mackenzie, who was a scorer during the event.   "He takes that job pretty seriously, and we're both pretty quiet, so we didn't talk a lot," Tritabaugh said of his green chairman. "We watched a lot and I told him 'thank you for hiring me.'   "On Sunday, I walked the course with my wife and Jeff out ahead of play. I was able to spend time with everyone I wanted to spend time with."  
    "On Sunday, I walked the course with my wife and Jeff out ahead of play. I was able to spend time with everyone I wanted to spend time with."
      Although the post-Ryder Cup hangover has not affected Tritabaugh yet, it will eventually if history is an indicator.   Still, those who have ridden that roller coaster before say the view from the top of the hill was enough to just the feeling that comes when the ride is over.   "It was a career-defining moment to be part of something so big that required so much planning; to be involved in playing the game at a level you don't reach very often," Tyrrell said. "The feeling was the frustration of it being over. I wish there was another one to gear up for.    "The real thing for me to manage and deal with is how it affects you, your family and your friends, because it does. You own it with everything you are. You give up a lot of life to do something that special. It's an experience like I've never had, and I'd love to do it again."
  • In an effort to help growers in a variety of industries manage weed challenges more efficiently, the University of Tennessee has established its Weed Diagnostic Center.
      Developed in cooperation with the UT Office of AgResearch and UT Extension, the Weed Diagnostic Center was established to provide growers nationwide with diagnostic tests tailored to weeds in turf (including golf and sports turf), ornamentals, urban landscapes and crop production.   The UT Weed Diagnostic Center, which is believed to be the first of its kind, utilizes whole plant and molecular techniques to provide consumer and professional growers with services such as weed identification and herbicide-resistance screening, as well as bermudagrass off-type assessment. Results of all diagnostic tests also include research-based solutions for managing weeds in the field.    According to the folks at the University of Tennessee, there are many reasons why weeds should be tested.   > Proper identification is critical to successful weed control. > Diagnostic results allow managers to implement optimal management strategies. > Results allow managers to conserve labor, financial, and technological resources. > Resistance screening helps steward effective technologies for weed management.   Samples should be prepared in the same manner in which soil samples are submitted, and an online form also must be completed for each submission.   The diagnostics process is a multi-step program that can include: weed identification, off-type assessment and herbicide-resistance screening.   Weeds are identified based on morphological and botanical characteristics using fresh plant samples. Those not identified via traditional means will be recommended for molecular weed identification by sequencing the internally transcribed spacer region.   Desirable and potential off-type Bermudagrass samples are cultured until producing a minimum of five stolons with at least three nodes. Samples are characterized by measuring Internode length, stolon diameter, leaf length, and leaf width are measured using digital calipers.   Three different herbicide-resistance screens are offered including traditional whole plant testing, molecular analysis for target site mutations, as well as a new rapid diagnostic assay in agar culture that can provide information in seven to 10 days.    UT has all USDA and U.S. EPA APHIS permits necessary to accept weed submissions from all 50 states at any time of year.    Turnaround time for results will vary based on the test conducted. A basic weed identification only takes a few days while some of the more traditional resistance screens can take longer.    All diagnostic test results will come with a detailed report that provides recommendations for controlling the weed in the field, which are particularly useful for herbicide-resistance screens.  
  • Rain Bird offers full slate of training
      Rain Bird Training Services will conduct more than 70 irrigation training events throughout the country through May 2017. These classes are open to all irrigation professionals regardless of experience. All Rain Bird training classes count toward CEUs from the Irrigation Association.   Classes include three education tracks - Rain Bird Factory Trained classes, which provides training on installation, management and maintenance of all Rain Bird products; Rain Bird Academy, which provides instruction on general irrigation skills on products from various manufacturers; and Rain Bird Customized Training which provides customizable onsite training for professionals from medium-large operations.   Click here for the schedule.   Nominate a turf professional for OTF award
      The Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Professional of the Year Award will recognize one turf industry professionals who has made a significant difference in the turfgrass industry in Ohio.   Nominees for OTF's most prestigious award will be judged on willingness to assist others, leadership in developing new ideas and trends, professional and civic involvement and leadership, and service to the industry.   Nomination forms are available online. Nomination deadline is Oct. 15.   The winner will be recognized Dec. 6 during the keynote address at this year's OTF Conference and Show in Columbus.   Rounds played down almost 5 percent in August
      Year-over-year rounds played were down 4.6 percent nationwide in August compared with the same month last year, according to Golf Datatech's monthly rounds played report.   The big losses were recorded in flood-plagued Louisiana (down 46 percent), Arkansas (26 percent) and Mississippi (23 percent). Double-digit losses also were recorded in Alabama (15 percent); Illinois, Missouri and Texas (14 percent); North Dakota and South Dakota (13 percent); Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada and Washington, D.C. (10 percent).   Year-to-date rounds played are up about 1 percent compared with the first eight months of 2015.   Rounds played in August were up in just 18 states, with the biggest increase of about 5 percent coming in Maine, New Hampshire, Utah and Vermont.  
  • Gannett Co. has acquired Golfweek from the Turnstile Media Group, the parent company of TurfNet.   Effective immediately, Golfweek joins Gannett's USA Today Sports Media Group. The acquisition includes Golfweek, Golfweek.com, Golfweek Custom Media and Golfweek's events division, which oversees the Golfweek's Best course-rater program.   Orlando, Florida-based Turnstile Media Group retains TurfNet, Professional Artist, a community newspaper division and The Golf Wire, all of which will continue to operate business as usual.   "The news that Golfweek was sold to Gannett should have no long-term effect on us at TurfNet," said TurfNet founder Peter McCormick. "Although owned by Turnstile Media Group for the past 15 years, TurfNet has always operated relatively autonomously. We are a profitable business entity with a proven product and long track record, and there's no reason for that to change."
  • To those who believe, as professional turf managers, they already are walking a fine line where irrigation is concerned, scientists at the University of Florida have some news: Chances are, you ain't seen nothing yet.
      "Water is the Achilles heel of the golf industry," said Bryan Unruh, Ph.D., professor of environmental horticulture at UF, during a recent educational event at the university's South Florida Research and Education Center in Fort Lauderdale. "It drives everything."   One need only look at the message the USGA is sending each year during the U.S. Open for proof.   "We are hoping to change players' perceptions," said USGA executive director Mike Davis during the 2015 U.S. Open at dried-down Chambers Bay in Washington. "For years, we have gone lush and plush. Players like that. They are used to it."   Although golfers like lush and plush, but just about everyone else knows that is an unsustainable model and the pressure to use less and less will only intensify.   Water-saving measures have been in place in Arizona and Nevada for years, and California's drought restrictions that were imposed in 2015 were well publicized. As access to usable water becomes more challenging in the years to come, those who grow finely managed turfgrass will fall under increasing scrutiny in a country where the average non-superintendent uses 80-100 gallons of potable water per day, according the U.S. Geological Survey, to do things like shower, brush their teeth and do laundry.   According to the USGS, there are about 332.5 million cubic miles of water on the planet. The amount of water present on earth has held relatively steady for "eons", said UF assistant professor Jason Kruse, Ph.D. In fact, the amount of water that falls in the form of precipitation outpaces the amount lost to evaporation each year by about 30 percent, representing a potential annual net gain of nearly 9,000 cubic miles, according to the USGS. Clearly, the problem is not availability of water, it's that so much of it is unusable in its current state.    Of that total volume of earth's available water, fresh water comprises only 2.5 million cubic miles. And only half of that is usable, with the rest is frozen atop mountains worldwide.   "We're not losing water," Kruse said during the two-day event for professional turf managers. "What is changing is where that water is located.   "We may never run out of water technically, but we're going to run out of good water. And that is going to increase the cost of water if we have to start desalination plants for drinking and living purposes. Price of water, or an inability to make coffee in the morning are going to affect how we use water in the landscape at some point."   The point UF researchers were illustrating is that there is a difference between availability of water and quality of water.   Kruse pointed to two examples to make his point - his native Idaho and his current home, Florida.   Southern Idaho receives most of its scant 10 or so inches of rain each year in a matter of weeks, not months.   "The aquifer where we pumped water from at the house I lived in was 650 feet down, so by time water made it to that aquifer, it was pretty clean," he said. "The problem was it was being pumped out through so many wells by farms in the area that it was draining quickly. Availability was the concern, not quality."   In Florida, the growing concern is water quality. It is estimated that as many as 1,000 people per day are moving to Florida, and the pressure that growth is placing on the state's system of underground aquifers is leading to saltwater intrusion on some occasions.    "What is reality is we may reach a point where our water use in the landscape is even more heavily scrutinized, which is already happening in places like California," he said.   "Availability of water sets the pace for how we manage a landscape."   Indeed. The United Nations says that by 2025 1.8 billion people will be living in areas under what it called "absolute water scarcity" and that two-thirds of the population will be living in water-stressed conditions.   For those same reasons, there is likely to be a push from within the golf industry to convince superintendents of the benefits of irrigating turf based on evapotranspiration. Although some are irrigating that way now, the majority do not.   Unruh suspects superintendents don't irrigate off of ET now because it is a shifting dynamic that changes daily based on factors like humidity, wind and sunlight.   "Uniformity of distribution is all over the place," said David Dore-Smith, superintendent at Copperleaf Golf Club in Bonita Springs, of ET-based irrigation. "I know superintendents who hand-water everything on greens."   The University of Florida recommends irrigating turf based on 70 percent of ET. Anything more that could push nutrients below the root level is wasteful.   "Sandy soils can't hold all that water. It goes right through," Unruh said, likening the soil's ability to consume to that of a greedy teenager.   "What happens when you give a teenager everything they want? They use it all," he said. "Overwatering turf is like giving that teenager everything they want, plus more, they're lazy and not much use."   Finally, water-use analogies in terms we can relate to.
  • Daily fee golf is under attack.   Nearly 1,000 golf courses have closed in the past 11 years, and a disproportionate number of them have been daily fee facilities, according to the National Golf Foundation.   Public-access facilities comprise about 75 percent of the golf course supply, yet they represent about 93 percent of the 177 net closures of 18-hole equivalents in 2015. Private facilities, which make up 25 percent of the supply, accounted for the remainder of all closures - about 7 percent.   There are many examples of cities that "get it" when it comes to the muni golf dynamic, but there are many others that do not.   For the past three years, golf course architect Andy Staples has been trying to help municipal golf operations reinvent the wheel through a program he calls "Community Links."   More than just a golf course, the Community Links concept is a full-blown scheme designed to attract families to facilities that include not just a golf course but other amenities that focus on family togetherness, health and wellness, diversity, and conservation and education.   Because only about 7 percent of the U.S. population plays golf, publicly owned facilities are under increased scrutiny to be self-sufficient. Subsidizing renovation and construction projects, like Community Links, can be an easier sell since it offers amenities, like parks, trails and open spaces, for the other 93 percent of the population as well.   Staples recently published a white paper on the concept that he has titled "Innovate or Close".   His first project at Rockwind Community Links in Hobbs, New Mexico, opened last year and transformed a money-losing municipal course into a vibrant property that Golf Digest and Golf Inc. both named among their best new developments for 2015.   The Hobbs project includes 27 holes, including a short course, double-sided practice range, chipping and putting areas, trails, open spaces for events, a 5-acre lake and a classroom for new golfer instruction.   Funding of the project wasn't cheap, with the city committing $12 million for the restoration of the golf course and additional family-friendly amenities.   Staples' white paper details the history of the municipal golf model and why, with some exceptions, so many cities are struggling to make it work.   Rising management costs and declining demand have combined to provide a difficult environment in which municipal operations can thrive. Municipal golf was developed primarily as a way to bring recreational opportunities for the masses at less than - far less than - private club fees. An inflated golf market through the 1990s diverted too much attention away from golf and onto other amenities as golf facilities everywhere looked for additional ways to drive revenue. A recession, many of the effects of which continue to linger, and interest in the game that is sinking like a boat with a hole in it, have left many municipalities rethinking their commitment to muni golf, like Jackson, Mississippi, which recently closed its nine-hole Grove Park Golf Course.   The Community Links concept is a grassroots effort to grow the game and drive interest in family friendly outdoor activities. It's moving at a snail's pace, but it is moving.   Late last year, Staples began working with the City of South Jordan, Utah on developing a $10.8 million master plan for its Mulligans golf center in hopes of converting it into a similar Community Links project. On Sept. 23, a city review committee approved Staples' Community Links master plan, passing it on to the full council for consideration at its next meeting. He also is in talks with cities in California, Nevada and South Dakota on similar projects.   Like the Hobbs project, the South Jordan plan includes a golf course renovation that produced a product focused on high-handicap players, parks and other open spaces aimed at getting families off the couch and outdoors.   According to feedback from the Hobbs community, non-golfers have a more positive view of the open spaces and their benefits than golfers, with 91 percent saying they are interested in trying to play golf. Growing the game at the grassroots level is what municipal golf is all about.  
  • When it came to building a worldwide design empire on the basis of his fame, Arnold Palmer succeeded like nobody else. Palmer, who died Sunday at age 87, was a smart-enough businessman to know that his clients would be thrilled even if he were to show up only at the occasional ceremonial event to bless work that was well underway.
      He cared enough to monitor progress on the 306 design projects that came his way during the last half-century of his life. He also knew the key was to hire good associates and to entrust and empower them. He assembled a deep roster, notably Frank Duane, Ed Seay, Harrison Minchew, Erik Larsen, Vicki Martz and, more recently, Thad Layton and Brandon Johnson.   Nobody mistook Palmer for the architect. At news conferences and ribbon cuttings, Palmer would defer to his design associates to provide technical details. Such is the confidence when you're The King.   There also was no other way to undertake the flood of work that came his way. What began as one of many ancillary businesses along with a string of dry cleaners and an eponymous drink combining iced tea and lemonade was little more than a vanity enterprise. It quickly grew to a point in the mid-to-late 1990s that the offices of Palmer's design firm in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida., arguably were the busiest in the world, with 25 employees churning out plans and overseeing work, with little hope of catching up on the backlog.     Back then, a 30-foot long "Current Projects" board in one design studio tracked the status of 38 courses in various stages of Phase I (planning and routing); Phase II (construction documentation); and Phase III (actual construction) across 14 states and eight countries. Seven other signed contracts were in some version of "hold," if not for environmental-permitting issues then simply because of financing shortfalls. There also was a list of two dozen good prospects for which contacts had been made, business plans discussed and preliminary negotiations underway.   Those were the days. More recently, the Arnold Palmer Design Co.'s workload, like that of the entire golf industry, slowed to a near crawl. His design staff has been trimmed to two full-time designers, Layton and Johnson, and the workload handled easily in a small office at Palmer's beloved Bay Hill Resort & Lodge in Orlando, a 1962 Dick Wilson design that Palmer owns. He repeatedly tweaked the layout so that it remained a fresh test for resort guests and the toughest crowd of all to please, his fellow professionals who, starting in 1979, assembled there every March for a PGA Tour event that honored Palmer. The course used to favor aerial bombardment. Interestingly, there's now more ground game out there, including low-cut approaches and greenside rollouts into chipping areas.   His design legacy embraces 37 U.S. states, 25 countries and five continents (all except Africa and Antarctica). His first project was the back nine at his boyhood home course, Latrobe (Pa.) Country Club, with his dad, Deacon Palmer, in 1963. His last was Fazenda Boa Vista in Sorocaba, Brazil. He as an ambassador for the game all the way, never more so than in 1985 when he debuted the first course in China, Chung Shan Hot Spring Golf Club, just inland from Macau.   Palmer's design style evolved with the golf-development market. His early designs emphasized elaborately shaped bunkering and the occasional photogenic beach bunker or bulk-headed peninsula green. Gradually, he cultivated a more site-specific approach. Isleworth in Orlando, Fla., was a flat grove when Palmer and Seay went to work there in the mid-1980s. Semiahmoo in Blaine, Wash., on the Canadian border, was carved through the rolling terrain of a dense conifer forest.   At Tralee in Ardfert, Ireland, the task was less to build holes than to allow them to emerge naturally from native sand dunes on a peninsula projecting into Tralee Bay. And at PGA West (Palmer Private) in La Quinta, Calif., Palmer emulated the high-tech glitz that was the rage then with hyperactive putting surfaces, tightly fortified green complexes and four dramatic holes on the back nine into raw mountain rock.   But Palmer's design team also was capable of scaling it back, which is what makes his most highly ranked course, Old Tabby Links on Spring Island in Okatie, S.C. so impressive. The 1,200-acre site is a low-lying old tabby ruin in the middle of Intracoastal Waterway tidal marshland. There can't be more than 4 feet of natural elevation change on site. Two-thirds of the entire property are set aside for a nature preserve, and the golf course weaves in and through boggy terrain and sandy waste areas without much hint of real estate anywhere. The back nine culminates in holes that brush up against the marsh, with the now-famous 17th hole a par-3 sitting on an isthmus. As an engineering achievement, it's a brilliant piece of drainage. As golf design, it's endlessly fascinating for the angles of play and the way different long views open, depending upon the line of approach.   Palmer was respected by his peers in the American Society of Golf Course Architects. They awarded him their Donald Ross Award for lifetime achievement in 1999 and made him an honorary member and subsequently a group fellow. It didn't matter that he wasn't technically trained in topographic analysis and landscape engineering. What mattered was Palmer's commitment to a professional design ethic through the people he empowered in his firm and through his professional credibility as the game's preeminent spokesman for half a century.   - Bradley S. Klein, Golfweek   Arnold Palmer's best designs
    Kapalua Golf Club (Bay Course), Maui, Hawaii (1974) Whistler Golf Club, Whistler, British Columbia (1980) Tralee Golf Club, Ardfert, Ireland (1984) Chung Shan Hot Spring Golf Club, Zhongshan, China (1985) Isleworth Golf & Country Club, Orlando, Fla. (1986) Semiahmoo Golf & Country Club, Blaine, Wash. (1986) PGA West (Palmer Private), La Quinta, Calif. (1987) Kildare Hotel & Country Club (Smurfit), Straffan, Ireland (1990) Park Hyatt Aviara Golf Club, Carlsbad, Calif. (1990) Dakota Dunes Country Club, Dakota Dunes, S.D. (1991) Musgrove Mill Golf Course, Clinton, S.C. (1992) Old Tabby Links on Spring Island, Okatie, S.C. (1994) Oasis Golf Club (Palmer Course), Mesquite, Nev. (1995) Running Y Ranch Resort, Klamath Falls, Ore. (1997) Tradition Golf Club, La Quinta, Calif. (1998) ArborLinks Golf Course, Nebraska City, Neb. (2001) TPC Boston, Norton, Mass. (2002) Reunion Resort & Club (Legacy), Kissimmee, Fla. (2003) Newport Dunes, Port Aransas, Texas (2008) Fasano Las Piedras, Punta del Este, Uruguay (2012)
  • With 1,000 golf courses, 2,000 high schools, thousands of parks and a population of almost 20 million people, Florida claims to have the nation's largest turfgrass economy.
      According to the Florida Turfgrass Association, 178,000 people contribute to the state's turf industry, creating an economy worth nearly $8 billion. Whether it is golf, sports turf, lawn and landscape or parks and rec, one thing turf managers from each segment of the industry have in common is a need for education.   The University of Florida is stepping up help to help fill that void with the first of what it hopes will be many installments of turf education designed to help everyone, from entry level lawncare operators to the most experienced golf course superintendent or sports turf manager.   Bryan Unruh, Ph.D., professor of environmental horticulture and associate center director of the University of Florida's West Florida Research and Education Center in the state's Panhandle, has been wanting to start such a program for most of the past two decades. Several research and teaching positions flipping in the past several years, stalling his plan, until the recent addition of Travis Shaddox, Ph.D., at the South Florida Research and Education Center near Fort Lauderdale.   "In my 21 years in Florida, through various surveys, a need for more in-depth education continually came forward," Unruh said. "As we brought on Dr. Shaddox here in Fort Lauderdale, the time just seemed right."   "We wanted golf course superintendents, athletic field managers, landscape contractors, all these different groups of people from around Florida coming in to learn the science behind turfgrass management, realizing they have varying levels of knowledge and skills. We feel that diversity makes for a great learning environment, because they are teaching each other."   Limited to 40 attendees, Turf School I - Evidence-Based Turfgrass Management was a two-day series of seminars, workshops, demonstrations and field trips that provided in-depth information on water, light and temperature, and how those three factors influence almost everything turf managers do on a daily basis. As the name implies, all curriculum presented was the result of scientific research, not anecdotal evidence from someone down the road.   "The object is to provide turf stakeholders in Florida with an opportunity to come in and ask questions, and for us to provide answers from an evidenced-based point of view," Shaddox said.   "There is a lot of anecdotal evidence out there, and observational evidence, but from our perspective, when we provide answers to questions, those answers need to evidence-based from a scientific perspective. That way, turf managers can take that information and immediately implement it into their programs and create a more efficient program by reducing their costs, producing the same turf conditions with fewer resources or enhance their programs and produce better-quality turfgrass."       The obvious challenge with a diverse audience with varying levels of expertise is developing curriculum that is meaningful to all, regardless of experience.   Each presentation slide shown throughout the two-day program included a footnote about the scientific research supporting the data, some of which was provided as supplemental handouts.   "We have people in here with less than three or four years of experience in turf and some with 20 years or more. There is a great variation of knowledge in the audience," Shaddox said.    "We made conscious efforts to address multiple levels of knowledge in the audience. Among the things we did, in the lectures, we tried to present the information in layman's terms, while providing scientific manuscripts for the experienced turf managers."   The event also included a field trip to the adjacent Miami Dolphins practice facility, where sports turf manager Ed Lamour shared how he manages Bermudagrass and paspalum on two NFL fields.   David Dore-Smith, superintendent at Copperleaf Golf Club in Estero, Florida, was eager to attend the event after meeting with Shaddox at chapter meetings.   "He was very open with us how he wanted to approach his testing at this facility," Dore-Smith said. "He wanted to show evidence-based research, in that we could get over here and get our hands dirty, look at the different products and ask the relevant questions that appealed to us.    "When I read the curriculum those were the sorts of things that appealed to me."   Audience diversity, said Jason Kruse, Ph.D., associate professor of turfgrass management at the university's main campus in Gainesville, has added to the back-to-school experience.   "It's been great to see the spectrum of people we have drawn into this," Kruse said. "That spectrum of experience has made this a richer experience for everyone already. We tried to welcome a dialogue throughout this process, and we have people with different levels of expertise of their own that they have brought to the discussion."   UF will follow up with the second installment of its evidence-based turf school, probably in early 2017 so as not to conflict with the Golf Industry Show in February in Orlando. Turf School II will teach attendees primarily how to manage insects, weeds, diseases and nematodes.    "We are going to bring in other players from the UF turf team," Unruh said. "And in we will want attendees at the next event to come in and take part in a lot of lab exercises where they will learn how to extract nematodes from a sample. or grow out a pathogen so we can say 'yes this is the problem you are experiencing in the field.' "
  • With dozens and sometimes hundreds of courses shuttering their doors each year, saving money, regardless of how much or how little, is more important than ever in the current golf economy. That is especially true at multi-course facilities like 72-hole Cog Hill Golf and Country Club near Chicago.
      Saving money, however, is not the impetus, behind an agronomic experiment that is helping Cog Hill superintendent Chris Flick slash water, fertilizer and pesticide inputs on on the property's No. 1 Course.   For Flick, finding a way to perfect that experiment so he can use it on Cog Hill's other courses is all about sustainability and staying a step ahead of pesticide rules and regulations.   "This program is a result of seeing all the legislation that is being handed down," Flick said. "If you look at New York and California and Canada, I feel like we're all going to eventually feel that. I wanted to teach myself and the guys here how we can manage that before we are required to to manage that. I wanted to stay ahead of the curve a little bit."   For two years, Flick has been experimenting with three low use rate programs that include a variety of pesticides and nutritional products. Each program, however, has one common thread - Civitas.   "I've been experimenting with a variety of things, and different rates and intervals, but Civitas is the cornerstone of the program," Flick said.   "We keep pesticide use to a minimum here, and what that boils down to with this is half-rate fungicides going into the tank. It's a process, but we're getting closer."   So far, the results have been dramatic for Flick.   Overall turf health and visual quality are up, inputs are way down without compromising playability for his members. Water use also is down, by about 30 percent, Flick said. That's a bonus on a course that gets about 20,000 rounds per year.   "We were expecting some water savings, and Civitas sort of claims to be able to produce water reductions," Flick said. "But I didn't know if we would be able to pull that off because of the traffic we get."   A graduate of Clemson University, the 33-year-old Flick said, when it comes to projects like this, he is fortunate to manage such a large piece of property.   "We have a ton of turf we manage, so we can get away with a little experimentation, a little failure and take away some learning," he said. "We fail from time to time, and that is part of the learning process. I don't mind that as long as I can communicate with customers about what trying to prove.   "If we had just one golf course, we could never tolerate this."   Flick continues to tweak and make changes to his program so that he can find the limits of what he can and cannot do to reduce inputs while still providing excellent playing conditions at one of Chicagoland's most well-known properties. Once he defines those limits, his plan is to expand it.   "I definitely plan to expand it. We've seen some excellent results on Course 1, especially on greens and approaches," he said. "When you are doing so many things like we are, it is important to define what works and what doesn't.    "Not going to get better until we find what works and what doesn't, and nothing will ever make sense if all we do is fail."    Although he definitely is saving some money, Flick said money never was his goal.   "I'm not in it for the cost savings. Anyone has that goal not going to be successful," he said. "Civitas is not cheap. None of these products are. Of course, there are some cost limitations, and you have to be effective in how you spend your money. But if you're just going to throw this out there to make yourself feel good, it's just going to be a waste."   In fact, Flick recommends that anyone attempting a similar project should set clear goals before beginning.   "My advice is set reachable goals to start and don't expect a lot right away," he said. " I expected a lot, because I wanted to see a lot, and what I did was get confused.   "Pick a goal, monitor that goal and work toward that goal."  
  • As the home to the U.S. Air Force's 30th Space Wing, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is ground zero for the military's space and missile testing. For the past 59 years, it also has been home to Marshallia Ranch Golf Course. Even Marshallia Ranch's unique status in the golf industry has done little if anything to ensure the property is immune from the challenges that exist outside Vandenburg's gates.   Citing declining play and rising water costs, the Air Force closed Marshallia Ranch last month. The practice range and clubhouse remain open, but the golf course no longer is open for play.   Reportedly designed by Bob Baldock, who has more than 80 course designs to his credit, Marshallia Ranch has been the site of several military tournaments was dubbed by the Air Force as its "Best Kept Secret."   The real secret is out now.   According to published reports, the course, once open only to retired and active military personnel, opened its doors to public play in 2005 and has been operating in the red for 10 years. That's a problem for military courses that are part of the Morale, Welfare and Recreation division. As such, they must be self-sustaining and receive no additional funds from the government.    From 2006 through 2015, there has been a net loss of 993 golf courses, according to the National Golf Foundation.   Air Force personnel said the course has been buying water from the state for more than a decade, and the cost of water has risen 500 percent in that time.   Superintendent George Stiles has made changes in recent years in an effort to cut back, including turning off water in the fairways and cutting back on greens and tees. That still wasn't enough, as water costs soared to more than $250,000, making the operation financially unfeasible, the Air Force said.   The golf shop, practice range, putting green and chipping area all will remain open.  
  • Golf is a game inexorably linked to its past. It clings to and celebrates its history and former champions, living or dead, like no other sport.
      Although football might be the nation's most popular sport, its early pioneers, like Sammy Baugh, Otto Graham and Jim Taylor, are not revered nearly in the way golf's greats, like Jones, Hogan, Snead and Nelson, or even Palmer and Nicklaus, are remembered.   We embrace golf's venues and those who built them as icons. Augusta, East Lake, Merion, Medinah, Oakmont, Olympic and more stand the test of time in an era where football and baseball stadiums - with a few exceptions, i.e., Wrigley Field and Fenway Park - are razed to build new ones with more money-making luxury boxes. Even South Florida has its iconic tracks, and the Grand Dame of Miami-Dade is not the Biltmore or the Blue Monster at Doral, but Miami Springs, a 6,800-yard, tradition-rich layout that once was host to the longest tenured tournament in professional men's golf.   To understand Miami Springs Golf Course, one must understand the community that has embraced it for nearly a century.   Opened in 1923, the city-owned course was built by Glenn Curtiss, a giant in aeronautics and civil rights before the latter was fashionable. Today, the course remains the oldest in the Miami area. Besides being a home for many years to an early professional tour event that regularly attracted the game's greats, the course,billed as one of the country's first desegregated golf facilities, also was the home of the annual North-South Tournament.    Superintendent Laurie Bland embraces her role at the course and its place in South Florida golf history.   "There is so much history here. Everybody used to play here," Bland said.   While the course has gone through a roller coast ride that saw it rise up, fall into disrepair only to rise up again, it shares many traits with the city, namely it is small, quaint, unpolluted by time and the envy of the metropolitan Miami area.   City-owned Miami Springs is tucked into a planned community of the same name that, with its triangular shape, is bordered by a canal to the west, 36th Street and the massive Miami International Airport to the south and the Miami River that connects the two from the northwest to the southeast before emptying into Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami 8 miles away.    The town, which cannot expand because of its hard boundaries, stands in contradiction to the growth, congestion and general hub-bub that have risen around it. To date, it has some of the highest real estate taxes - and real estate prices - in Miami-Dade County, is a reminder of the romance of early South Florida and proof that sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same.   The course opened as the Miami-Hialeah Golf Club. It wasn't designed by MacKenzie or Ross, it was the work of Palmer . . . not that Palmer. Tub Palmer was a founding member of the Miami Coconuts, a group of South Florida golf aficionados seeking another place to play.   Residents of Miami Springs have been protective of the property ever since it went into the ground. Many of the town's residents are descendents of those who settled here on land once owned by Curtiss. When a hotel chain tried to buy a sliver of a city land adjacent to the golf course to complete a larger real estate purchase so they could build a hotel near the airport, residents voted it down by a two-thirds majority.   "People here love this golf course," Bland said. "They didn't want anyone building anything on land owned by this golf course."   Like residents of the town he built, Curtiss, who later constructed a home on the golf course, was cut from a different cloth. Considered the father of naval aviation, his Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Co. merged in 1929 with the Wright Brothers' Wright Aeronautical to form Curtiss-Wright, which still is in operation today. Once an airplane and engine manufacturer, today Curtiss-Wright, with sales of more than $2 billion in 2015, provides technology solutions for the defense, industrial, commercial aerospace and power-generation markets.   Curtiss was a visionary who bought up scads of land in what is now Miami-Dade County, 116 acres of which he sold for the development of what today is Miami International Airport just south of Miami Springs.   When he paid nearly $100,000 to build the golf course, he used Seminole Indians as laborers, not to exploit them as a cheap source of labor, but to give them an opportunity for work because he could see they were a segment of the population that was being left behind as northerners swarmed into Florida in the early 20th century. Curtis, whose home on the golf course is being renovated into a museum, also established a bank just for the Seminoles.   "He could see they were being discriminated against," Bland said. "And he wanted to help them."   That ideology continued throughout the course's history.   From 1955-1989, the annual North-South Tournament was contested at Miami Springs. An integrated tournament that provided an outlet for play for black servicemen in the post-World War II era, the North-South events drew celebrity players such as Jackie Robinson, Joe Louis, Althea Gibson as well as professional golfers like Charlie Sifford, Lee Elder and Jim Dent.   By then, the course had developed a reputation as one of the country's top golf tracks, and was the site of professional golf's Miami Open from 1925 to 1955, which was the same year the original clubhouse was lost to a fire. Past winners there include Gene Sarazan, Sam Snead, Tommy Armour, Ray Mangrum and Frank Stranahan. Its run as the longest-tenured PGA professional event of its era ended in 1956 when the City of Miami, which then owned the course, refused to support the tournament. Major League Baseball players filled the void, and played in tournaments at the course each year during Spring Training from 1956-67.   The City of Miami Springs bought the course in 1997, and though a few tees and greens moved over time not much else had changed until Bland was named superintendent three years ago. The course had fallen into disrepair and lost more than $8 million since the ownership change, and golfers left for greener pastures.   When Bland arrived, the fairways had more weeds than turf. Some areas under heavy shade were so bad that nothing grew there and Bland, who prepped under Tom Trammell just a couple miles away at Doral, thought it might take years before she could make the course playable. During her interview, she told then-city manager Ron Gorland he would have to fork out a lot of money just to give golfers something they'd want to play.   "When I started here, the fairways were dead. I told the city manager it was going to take at least $1 million to get this place back in shape, including buying products you need," she said.   She also delivered another dose of bad news.   "You're not going to get your money back. You're just not going to see that much revenue," she said. "You just need to get this place in shape first. If you put a million into a golf course don't expect to get it back. That's the kind of shape it was in. I told them to be ready to lose more money."   Eventually Bland whipped the course into shape through a program that included aggressive aerification and topdressing sand, as well as an herbicide program that comprised a lot of Xonerate, Revolver and Monument and what she described as "every ounce of Tribute available in South Florida."   "Everyone understood my gameplan," she said. "I had to attack the weeds and get those out of the way, and then the grass would come back. And it did with a lot of cultural practices, aerification and topdressing, and it worked."   Her plan and its implementation made city and course leaders happy they listened to her during the interview process.   "I refer to her quite often has my 'claim to fame.' What she has accomplished here in the three years we have been here is astonishing," said Miami Springs general manager Paul O'Dell, who took over management of the facility three months before he hired Bland. "This historic track was in shambles in many ways and she has brought the turf back to life, rebuilt all the tees, bunkers and aesthetics of this Grand Dame that is the oldest golf course in Miami."   Indeed. O'Dell, who was brought aboard to clean up the operation, has more than three decades of experience in the golf business and Bland already has been identified by city leaders as his eventual replacement whenever he decides to retire.    "In my years in the golf course business historically, it's (been) the head pro/director of golf (who has) ascended to the GM's position," O'Dell said. "Laurie will be one of the first to break that mold. She has the intelligences, demeanor and ability to direct all the departments and carry out all the functions of the general manager's position."   Since mid-July, Bland has been slowly integrating clubhouse duties into her schedule, including running the business end of the food and beverage department.   "I never knew there were so many laws, especially liquor laws," she said. "If you run out of Jack Daniels, you can't just go down to the local liquor store and buy a bottle. You have to buy it from a vendor.   "The trick is don't run out of Jack Daniels; make sure you keep it on hand. So far, we've been doing pretty good with that."   The entire city of Miami Springs is located atop the Biscayne Aquifer, and 22 well houses installed in the 1920s, including seven on the golf course, supply potable water to the City of Miami as well as Miami Springs. The sandy profile between the surface and the aquifer makes for a naturally efficient drainage system, something Bland learned early in her career there.    Her first major rain event at Miami Springs came in July 2013, the same month she was hired. By the time the rain stopped late in the afternoon she had recorded 8 inches at the golf course.   Rain in August in Miami is a common occurrence, but 8 inches is a lot, even here. That much precipitation can be especially troublesome on a course that relies solely on Mother Nature for drainage.    "There is no drainage on this course; absolutely none," Bland said. "The locals told me how well it drained. They said 'you'll see.' "   See it she did.   "When the rain ended around 5 p.m., the course, I mean it was just flooded," she said. "I thought, 'oh no, I'm going to have to shut it down tomorrow.' The next morning, I couldn't believe you could drive carts on the fairways, and we were able to reopen."   When the course was built, Tub Palmer didn't install a lot of bunkers, and most of the ones he did pencil into the design were pretty small. Since getting Springs' weed problem under control and bringing back the Bermuda turf in the fairways, Bland has rebuilt the bunkers and reduced the overall number of traps from 38 to 26, mostly by enlarging and combining them so there are fewer hazards to maintain.   "What is one bunker now used to be three small bunkers with big, deep faces. We don't need that here. It doesn't fit on this kind of golf course," she said.    "The course already is challenging because of the greens. We want to challenge golfers, but we also want to attract people and encourage them to play golf, so we needed to make the bunkers easier and easier to maintain. Now, I only have to send one person out in the morning to rake bunkers."   Some of those golfers who left when the course went to pot have never come back, though many have, enough to keep a steady stream coming through the door, even in 98-degree heat with soaring humidity.    Convincing many of them to give Springs another chance has taken some effort.   "It took a lot of work to convince them that we had changed and to come back," she said. "We offered them free golf or to just ride the course and see what they think.   "A lot of them didn't come back, but a lot did."   Those who did realized that at Miami Springs, the more things change, the more they stay the same.  
  • Once rejecting Bayer AG's proposal of a merger, Monsanto has agreed to a coupling with the German chemical company.
      Bayer AG, which is based in Leverkusen, Germany, will acquire St. Louis-based Monsanto for $66 billion in cash, pending regulatory review, the company's said in a joint statement. It is the latest in a rush of chemical company mergers that includes a $130 billion merger between Dow and DuPont that was announced in December. That merger was followed by a $43 billion buyout of Syngenta by the China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina).   The mergers, according to Reuters, are taking place as companies scramble for position in a burgeoning global agricultural market. The deal is expected to receive intense regulatory scrutiny as lawmakers voice concerns over antitrust issues and the rising cost of food for consumers.   Monsanto, which manufactures Roundup for The Scotts Co., rejected Bayer's initial takeover bid in May, with Monsanto board members calling the $62 billion offer financially inadequate.   There could be even more mergers coming, with Monday's announcement of a planned merger between Agrium Inc. and Potash Corp of Saskatchewan, both of Canada.   Monsanto has long been considered a coup for any chemical company in a takeover bid because of its presence in the ag seed market. Monsanto is the world's largest seed producer and a leader in genetically modified foods and seeds. Bayer AG, whose subsidiaries include Bayer Environmental Science, makes a host of products for the healthcare, agriculture and chemical industries.   Once the deal has passed regulatory review, the combined agriculture business will have its global Seeds & Traits and North American commercial headquarters in St. Louis, its global Crop Protection and overall Crop Science headquarters in Monheim, Germany, as well as its presence in the Research Triangle Park area of North Carolina, according to Bayer.   Nothing is certain in a merger of this size, especially in an election year, analysts say. According to Bloomberg news, mergers valued at more than $10 billion have a 1 in 3 chance of being rejected. To that end, the Dow-DuPont merger has hit several roadblocks since European Union regulators opened a full investigation into the merger in August. The latest delay was announced Sept. 11, leaving both firms to conclude the merger will not be approved, if at all, until 2017.   If Bayer-Monsanto deal is not approved, Monsanto will be owed a $2 billion breakup fee by Bayer.

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