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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    Driving to work each day in one of San Francisco's most dangerous neighborhoods, Tom Hsieh feels a sense of satisfaction that the golf course he has overseen for the past dozen years is helping provide a leg up to those who need it most.
      Located between the downtrodden Excelsior and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods on the city's southeast side, Gleneagles Golf Course has been defying the odds since the Jack Fleming design opened in 1962 just up the hill from the then-new Candlestick Park.    For more than a decade, the course has served as a First Tee facility, giving at-risk youth a pathway to golf and the principles that prop up the game. For the past year, through a job-training struck with a local labor union and multiple municipal agencies, Gleneagles is providing dozens of adults down on their luck with a new career skills and a new lease on life.   "There are a couple things that have been really special in my experience at Gleneagles, which is now 12 years as a manager," said Hsieh, owner of Gleneagles Golf Partners that leases the course from the city. "I did not get into this business to change lives. I wanted to save a golf course and keep it going for myself and for the next generation. That was my altruistic purpose.   "When we opened up to The First Tee, I saw how golf can change lives. I saw kids who were 7 years old, and who are now 15-17 years old and who have stayed with it and who have become not only good golfers but great people. They are all from the neighborhood. They are all black and brown kids who would not be playing if not for the access to this neighborhood golf course.   "The second thing is this apprenticeship program. This is a totally different part of the community, but the same racial profile of people. They are black and brown, Asian as well. They are older, and they've had some really hard luck, some of it self-inflicted but they are on the side where they want to do better, and they've been given this - I don't want to say second chance, because for a lot of them they are well beyond that - but given this chance to improve themselves through this program. And the vast majority of them are taking advantage of that program. And that is really rewarding personally to watch that happen."   Named for a local union leader, the Mario de la Torre Training Academy provides union pre-apprenticeship training for up to a dozen low-level city workers, most of whom come from a broken past that includes run-ins with the law and time behind bars.    As many as 12 workers at a time are recruited from throughout various city departments to learn in incremental steps how to work on a golf course, starting with pulling weeds and clearing debris to eventually raking bunkers and operating power equipment. After each six-week session,"graduates" receive a union pre-apprenticeship certificate that allows them to apply to complete apprenticeship training so they can compete for other union jobs offering better pay and benefits.   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, which includes basic maintenance, operating basic equipment, introductory IPM, pulling weeds and safe tree management.   Workers spend the first week in Gleneagles' new classroom, learning golf course etiquette and how to act on the property.   "They are tooled up on safety instruction and what it means to be on the golf course, stuff that if you're not a golfer, you just don't know," Hsieh said. "They learn a lot of soft skills in that first week, in fact in all six weeks."   The city and Gleneagles budgeted for as many a total of 80 people to work at Gleneagles across five separate six-week sessions in the first year. A total of 63 people went through the program in its first 12 months, including a dozen graduates who secured city jobs with union wages. As soon as one six-week session ends, the next begins.   "They were taking one-week breaks between sessions, but now they are going end to end," Hsieh said. "We are happy to have them and have the help all the time."   Workers are paid through their city jobs while working at Gleneagles. A fundraiser golf tournament helped raise money to contribute to the program so it can continue into the future.   While elected leaders in Washington, D.C., talk about the need to retrain the underemployed for a brighter future, Hsieh and public officials in San Francisco are actually doing it.   "The vision is to create job training and career pathways for people who are underskilled and underemployed," Hsieh said. "It takes six different city departments to make this happen. It's a very large effort to ask the city to be partner with a private entity."   Two union managers handle all training and discipline. Workers are required to wear a uniform, steel-toed work boots and a hard hat, and they are expected to be on time. Hsieh said he is amazed to watch the workers grow into the position as each six-week session progresses.   "They look bedraggled the first week," Hsieh said. "No one tells them how to dress. By week three, they get it. They carry themselves in a different manner, because now it is getting serious; they are working with power tools, they have been taught how to mix oil and gas and they're mowing tees.   They are constantly evaluated as they go by their managers. If they don't show up on time, they get released. They are expected to be on time, prepared to learn, have a positive attitude and a team dynamic. All of them want to better themselves."   The program has transformed Gleneagles into much more than just a forgotten golf course in a forgotten part of the city. For some, it represents a promise for a future that didn't exist before.    "Gleneagles is in a neighborhood in one of the worst parts of the city. That has become a strong point for the program," Hsieh said. "It is now a community resource, because the people in this program are from this neighborhood. They are now a success and they can walk to work."   City-owned Gleneagles never has enjoyed the perks of Harding Park, its well-heeled municipal sibling that rims Lake Merced on the city's west side, at least not since Hsieh has run the course.   While Harding Park was flush with union labor, Gleneagles' success (or failure) largely was left to the imagination and slight of hand of whoever leased it from the city. For the past 12 years, that has been Hsieh. He puts his own money, not the city's, into the course and gets to keep the profits if there are any, and usually there aren't any.   At the same time the PGA Tour was in talks to bring a host of championship events to Harding Park, gunfire echoed in the neighborhoods around Gleneagles - literally. While the course was undergoing a restoration project seven years ago, a stray bullet screamed through the cab of piece of equipment, missing the operator (an employee from the nearby California Golf Club of San Francisco) by mere inches.   Although there wasn't much Hsieh could do about neighborhood crime, he knew something had to change about how the barebones way in which the golf course was managed.   With only two full-time employees on the golf course working tirelessly to keep Gleneagles playable, years of deferred maintenance were taking a toll. Debris and dead or dying trees cluttered the edges of the property.    In 2014, he entered into negotiations with the Local 261 and city agencies to start a program that would provide much-needed labor help on the golf course, would give the city's at-risk community a chance for a new start and the union an avenue to train them.   Union workers spent much of the first year learning how to clear debris and trees using a skid steer and other equipment and haul everything off the property. There is enough work to keep workers in the union program busy for years.   "This program just happens to have met the needs of each party," Hsieh said. "The union needed a site for their workers, workers needed new training and we certainly can use the help. The concept of turning our site into a classroom made sense. There is still so much work that needs to be done."
  • The first time University of Massachusetts offered its Winter School for Turf Managers, The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson was a box office smash, Mount Rushmore was just a rock and Charles Lindbergh was preparing to make the world's first solo transatlantic flight.
      That was 1927. And although movies and air travel have come a long way since then, the UMass winter program is still going strong, providing aspiring turf managers with all the benefits of a traditional turf education in a compressed six-week window.   Every other autumn for the past three decades, the biennial Green School program has been offering turf and landscape professionals who do not have time for a traditional turf program with curriculum designed to provide a basic understanding of horticulture fundamentals and strategies.   UMass recently announced the schedules for its upcoming Green and Winter schools.   Green School is scheduled for Oct. 24-Dec. 12, in Milford, Massachusetts. Classes will meet twice per week from 9 a.m.-3:15 p.m. Students have a choice of one of three tracks: turf management, landscape management or arboriculture. Outlines, supplemental materials and quizzes all will be conducted online, so a computer and reliable Internet access are critical.   Registration deadline is Oct. 7, and those who register by Sept. 23 are eligible for an early-bird discount.   The Winter School is scheduled for Jan. 9-Feb. 17 at the UMass campus in Amherst. Classes will meet from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and 8 a.m.-noon on Fridays. This schedule is designed to accommodate weekend commuters who might want to stay in the Amherst area during the week and return home on weekends.   Winter School immerses students in a full-time program, focused solely on the management of fine turf and is taught by UMass faculty and staff. Winter School is a comprehensive certificate program designed to furnish turf managers with the fundamental concepts essential to maintaining high quality turf, while instilling a sense of environmental stewardship and fiscal responsibility.   The application period will open in September and will close on Oct. 31.  
  • Independence Day fireworks usually signify the second half of summer; the downhill slide toward Labor Day and back-to-school; the second half of the 100 days of you-know-what.   The middle of summer, however, also is the height of Pythium root rot season, or as researchers at North Carolina State University recently called it - Pythium-Palooza.   Pythium root rot in creeping bentgrass putting greens can occur at any time during the growing season mostly in areas that drain poorly or are over-irrigated. Areas with excessive thatch or organic matter also can be susceptible.   Symptoms manifest as irregular patterns, spots or patches that can be orange or yellowish in color and then dark, greasy patches on individual crowns and roots, according to NCSU research. The pathogen often can spread by following drainage patterns across the turf. Eventually, root mass and depth are severely depleted.   Pythium root rot can be managed through cultural practices and chemical applications.   Cultural practices that can assist in preventing Pythium root rot or reduce activity include tree-management plans that reduce shade cover and aid in air movement, regular hollow tining and topdressing applications of at least 5,000 pounds per 1,000 square feet per year. Other remedies can include reducing thatch, improving drainage or greens reconstruction.   Preventive chemical control options, according to NCSU, can include products with active ingredients such as cyazofamid, mefenoxam or propamocarb applied at label rates every two to three weeks during the growing season and when rain persists for two to three straight days.   Curative control options, according to NCSU, can include ethazole - watered in to prevent burn - followed by applications of systemic fungicides such as cyazofamid, mefenoxam or propamocarb after two-three days.    Other actives that have been shown to be effective in a Pythium root rot program include azoxystrobin evern 10-14 days, azoxystrobin in combination with propiconazole every 14-28 days, azoxystrobin with tebuconazole every 10-21 days and chlorothalonil with fluoxastrobin every seven to 10 days.      
  • Nematode control was a whole lot easier when all that was needed to keep the pests in check on putting greens and fairways was a jug of Nemacur and a reliable hazmat suit.
      Regardless of the temperature, pest species, turf type or geographic location, fenamiphos, the active ingredient in Nemacur, was the end-all, be-all for nematode management. Now that Nemacur no longer is available, nematode control is not impossible, but success requires much more homework by professional turfgrass managers.   Products that have made it to market since Nemacur and other  fell victim to to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Food Quality Protection Act of 1996, share some of its properties, but nothing does everything Nemacur did. Some have systemic activity, some are contact products that get bound in the thatch layer, while others work deeper into the soil. Some work on sting nematodes, but not lance and vice versa.    "Nemacur had contact and systemic activity. We have nematodes that live in the soil and some that live inside the roots. Nemacur worked on all of those," said University of Florida nematologist Billy Crow, Ph.D.    "The first group of old chemistries the EPA looked at were organophosphates. They are nerve toxins and work on anything with a nervous system: nematodes, insects, birds, fish, dogs, people.   "You couldn't get something like that labeled today."   Trials at the University of Florida's research facility in Citra, located between Ocala and Gainesville, focus on much more than how efficiently they can extinguish nematodes.   "We're  not looking just at efficacy, but how nematodes move in the soil," Crow said.    "We're also looking at non-target effects. We have several concerns, because we are using a lot of nematicides at high rates and frequent applications. What kind of effects are we having on non-target organisms?"   Federal regulations today require data on how new chemistries affect bees and worms.   Success in fighting nematodes today requires multiple products in a rotational program. According to the EPA, there is no scientific data to support the hypothesis that nematodes can develop resistance to any specific chemistry. The agency, however, recommends rotating products just to be certain, and so does Crow.   Nemacur worked at the surface, in the soil, in the plant and on contact. Products that have replaced it have some of the traits that made it so popular, but it's like picking, not from an all-you-can-eat buffet, but rather from an a la carte menu where users get a little of this and a little of that.   "Abamectin binds in the thatch. You can spray it at the surface, irrigate it in and only 1 percent will make it through the thatch. Root knot nematodes stay in the thatch layer, so it works on that, but it's not so good on other nematodes," Crow said.   "If you have a product that works on sting nematodes, but not lance, your sting numbers go down, but then your lance nematode numbers might go up. If you use that product repeatedly, you can develop a lance nematode problem. We have to rotate chemistries to manage different nematodes at different times of the year."  
    The first group of old chemistries the EPA looked at were organophosphates. They are nerve toxins and work on anything with a nervous system: nematodes, insects, birds, fish, dogs, people. You couldn't get something like that labeled today."
     
    Other studies at Florida include using a box camera that takes high-quality digital images used to inspect color and determine turf quality based on nematicide use, and incorporating compost containing actinomyces with Comand topdressing for nematode control.   In micro plots at the Citra research facility, Crow has observed 95 percent control of sting nematodes with the Comand topdressing-actinomyces compost mix, and studies are under way to determine whether the combination can be used to control sting nematodes at the surface during topdressing applications.   Other trials are showing that TifTuf Bermudagrass developed by researchers at the University of Georgia, not only is drought tolerant, but also has a root mass healthy enough to stand up to nematode-related stress better than most other warm-season grasses.   "The more roots you have, the more nematodes you can tolerate," Crow said. "If you have fewer roots, you can't tolerate as many.    "Shear number of nematodes is not as important as how the grass is going to perform."   In the end, superintendents today have to know a lot more about nematodes than they did when Nemacur was the standard for control.   "New products work better on some nematodes than others. You have to know what kind of nematode you are going to manage. Which product to use and when you use it are important," Crow said. "Some nematodes are in different places in the soil depending on the time of year. Some are going to be deeper in the soil in the summer, so you have to put something that is going to move deeper. When it's cooler, some will stay higher, so you have to use something that stays in the top part of the soil. You have to know a lot more about what you are doing, the nematology and their behavior."  
  • The National Golf Foundation is very good at what it does.    When it comes to collecting scientific data on the golf industry, the NGF is so good that the rest of us spend the rest of the year going through the numbers to learn what is going on over time regarding the business of golf.    When it comes to being a cheerleader for a struggling industry, the NGF knows no peer. After all, rooting on a team that shrinks in size every year and convincing others it still can win the Super Bowl must be a challenge.   When it comes to drawing conclusions from its own data, however, the NGF might need a little help.   In a sampling of 72 golf industry insiders who sell equipment to consumers or sell to those who sell to consumers, 61 percent said they "believe" golf is perceived by the public in a positive manner. Never mind that the industry lost a net 225 golf courses last year and 993 since 2006. Never mind that nearly 1 million people left the game in 2014 (the most recent data available) and 8 million have bolted for greener pastures since 2002.   Asking industry stakeholders to weigh in on how they think others view the game and the industry is perception, not reality. It should be abundantly clear to anyone in golf that many see golf in a negative light. But how many?    The supposition that about 60 percent of people view golf in a positive way might be spot on. It also might be inflated, or it might even understate the public's perception of the golf business. Based on this survey, we'll never know.   When a trade association solicits opinions, compiles data and releases the information complete with graphs and statistics, the exercise implies that the message is official and generally accepted as industry fact - even if it merely is perception.    NGF, its members and others with a stake in the success of the industry might have been better served had the Jupiter, Florida-based group gone directly to those who play, those who don't and those who used to with a scientific survey to learn what they think about golf, why they don't play (or why they don't play more often) and whether they think they might any time soon. That would be reality, not perception.   The NGF's sample population had more measured opinions on the future of the the industry.    A little more than half the respondents said they believed the game's popularity during the next three to five years would remain "about the same" and a little less than half actually thought the game might become slightly more popular.   Respondents cited roadblocks into the game such as an elitist mentality that is not accepting enough of young people, women and minorities.   According to the survey, about 75 percent of respondents plan for some level of growth in the golf segment in next three to five years, and believe it enough to plan for increased spending.   Those believing the number of golfers and rounds played will climb cited aging baby boomers and popular young professionals like Jason Day, Jordan Spieth and U.S Open champion Dustin Johnson will help drive more interest in the game in the near future.   According to the NGF's own data, the 22 million golfers in the game today are the fewest since the mid-1980s. Although there was a 1.5 percent increase in rounds played last year, some industry analysts believe the number of golfers in the system to dip below 20 million for the first time in decades.   Before growth can occur, respondents admitted many things must change, such as making growing the game the top priority, improving customer service, embracing societal shifts and integrating new technologies into the game on an everyday basis.   That much we know is industry fact.
  • In the four decades he has been managing golf courses, Mark Hoban, CGCS, has learned a lot about what works - and what doesn't. Both will be on display July 19 when Hoban hosts his Organics and Native Grasses Field Day at Rivermont Golf Club in Johns Creek, Georgia.
      "I want to show people what we're doing," Hoban said, "and give them ideas on how to reduce inputs and still produce a good, quality product."   The field day will include information on native grassess, pollinator zones, compost fairway trials (thermal and vermi), an update on University of Georgia trials underway at Rivermont, biological trials on greens, compost tea brewers and Hoban's worm farm.   "I have more worms than what should be allowed by law," Hoban said. "Some of them have escaped and invaded the fairways. When it rains it's worm-city out there."   The great worm escape helped Hoban identify areas in his management plan that need tweaking, including aerification. In fact, his field day aims to inform other superintendents that his program isn't necessarily the end-all, be-all of low-input maintenance.   For example, before this year's playing season, some of Hoban's fairways had received no inputs of any kind for as many as four years, and he learned that he probably pushed some areas too much.   "We went so low on inputs that it almost became a game," he said. "I'm learning this year that you can go too low, but I would never have learned that if I hadn't done it. I don't want people to think I am some kind of guru, because I'm not. I'm still trying like hell to learn, and I'm failing quite a lot.   "I've learned that I need to do a better job at balancing my program and I need to do some aerification.   "I still question whether I went too far, or if it was just timing."  
    I don't want people to think I am some kind of guru, because I'm not. I'm still trying like hell to learn, and I'm failing quite a lot."
     
    Hoban has been incorporating low-input practices since 1986 when he succeeded Palmer Maples Jr. at The Standard Club. The thought for a field day first came to him when John Shamblin of Regal Chemical asked if he could bring a few of his customers by.   "He thought some other superintendents could benefit by what we were doing with native grasses," Hoban said.    Then another vendor asked the same question.   "I thought, well, hey, I should have a field day," Hoban said. "But I wanted to wait until I had something to show them."   On board for the field day include Clint Waltz, Ph.D., of the University of Georgia, who will provide updates on UGA's trials, and Emily Dobbs, a doctoral student at Emory University who worked on the first U.S. Operation Pollinator project under USGA Green Section Award winner Dan Potter, Ph.D., at the University of Kentucky. For more information, contact Mark Hoban.    
  • Since 2002, the TurfNet Superintendent's Best Friend Calendar has paid tribute to the most important job in golf - that of the golf course dog.
      Each year, the original golf course dog calendar highlights 14 dogs and their tireless contributions to the game across the country and around the world.   There is still time to nominate your canine friend for a place in the 2017 TurfNet Superintendent's Best Friend Calendar, presented by Syngenta, but you must hurry. The deadline for submitting entries for next year's calendar is July 31.   Some tips to improve your dog's chances of winning a spot in next year's calendar: > Shoot at your camera's highest resolution setting. > Images should be taken in a horizontal format; we can't use vertical photos. > Get down to the dog's level; don't shoot down at them from a standing position. > Fill the frame with the dog as much as possible, but try not to center your dog in the frame. Left or right orientation often can result in a more dramatic photograph. > Avoid clutter and distracting backgrounds. > A scenic course background is fine as long as the dog is featured prominently.   All dogs must belong to the course or to a course employee and spend significant time there. Submit your best photo; multiple entries of the same dog are discouraged and will not improve your dog's chances of being selected.   A panel of judges will select the 14 dogs for the calendar. To nominate your dog, use our online nomination form. Deadline for nominations is July 31.   Accept no substitutes.
  • For a pest that is so small, annual bluegrass weevil has proven to be a mysterious and adaptive critter that has made understanding and controlling it a challenge for superintendents and researchers alike.
      "My lab does a lot of basic biology to understand their behavior," said Penn State entomologist Ben McGraw, Ph.D. "You would think we would have it all solved by now, but they are spreading outward and encountering different plants. They move and they behave differently. We are starting to see that in some of our studies in places like Maryland and Virginia."   First identified as a pest in managed turfgrass in 1931 in Connecticut, annual bluegrass weevil (Listronotus maculicollis) historically spend the winter off the turf, but emerge in spring to lay eggs between the sheath and stem in annual bluegrass plants, typically about the time forsythia are in full bloom.    According to McGraw, the newly hatched larva molt multiple times inside the plant before emerging during the third instar phase to feed. Eventually, the pest enters the pupa stage, drops into the soil and emerges as an adult in a six-to-eight-week process that can repeat itself two or three times per summer, depending on the geographic location. Damage can occur from tee to green, but over time has been most prevalent in collars. Researchers and superintendents are quickly learning that nothing is absolute.   For the first 60-plus years after it was found in Connecticut, ABW's sphere of influence had been largely confined to metropolitan New York.    So little was known about ABW 30-40 years ago, that many superintendents misdiagnosed the damage as something else. Pat Vittum, Ph.D., entomologist at the University of Massachusetts, was just completing work toward her doctorate degree when she spoke on ABW at the old Massachusetts turf conference. Show officials then told her that none of the courses in that area had an ABW problem. That was in 1981.   "When I got back to my office, my phone was ringing off the hook with superintendents saying 'I had no idea about annual bluegrass weevil, but here it is,' " Vittum said. "It's not like I brought starter-kits and dumped out weevils. It was a matter of increased awareness."    ABW is not a prolific flyer, in fact Vittum says the ones in her lab might fly more than those outdoors as they make a break for an open window. Still, during the past three decades damage has been recorded as far west as the Cleveland area and as far south as the mountains of North Carolina.   So, is ABW a critter on the move, or is it a native pest adapting to its environment?   "That's a good question," Vittum says.    Although ABW is a problem for superintendents in only a handful of locations, the species has been identified in about 35 states, according to Vittum, leading her to conclude that it is a pest adapting to a changing environment.   "As turf-management strategies change, the damage we see from the insect changes," she said. "As we lower heights of cut, that is an additional stress to the turf, add in a pest that has been there a long time and we see more damage in places we didn't used to see damage. I think that is part of what is going on."   McGraw has been working with Scentworx, a Florida-based company that trains rescue dogs to sniff out all sorts of problems, like bed bugs for the hotel industry, and annual bluegrass weevils for McGraw. McGraw and Jason Webeck of Scentworx brought Carl, the weevil-sniffing dog, to Oakmont a few weeks before the U.S. Open to see whether the course had any weevil issues. Carl has been trained to sniff out all stages of weevil, from egg to adult. McGraw would like to see other dogs trained for that purpose to ensure greater accuracy, but that is expensive and requires outside funding.   McGraw says it might be easier to learn more about weevils by knowing the history of the golf courses they harass rather than the pests themselves.   "A lot of the wounds we see are self-inflicted. What makes one course susceptible and one not is history: How long have you been applying insecticides and what insecticides?" McGraw said.  "From 1957 to the 1980s, it was around New York and New Jersey. In the 1980s, its range really ramped up, and then again in the '90s.    "It is when mowing heights dropped that it became a problem. By mowing fairways with greens units we've been making more of an ideal host plant. Only when damage is present is its presence obvious to superintendents. So, have we been making more of an ideal host plant and it was it always there and we never knew it?"   Understanding the enemy here is not easy, because not all weevils are created equally.   ABW in the warmer extremes of its current range, places like southern New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, have developed a taste for creeping bentgrass, while those in the North Carolina mountains, where the climate is cooler, still behave like those in New England, where they stick to a strict diet of annual bluegrass. Some superintendents have used ABW for biological control of Poa annua on primarily bentgrass surfaces. Vittum says that is not an acceptable practice for everyone, including those in the southern extremes of ABW territory where weevils view bentgrass as a perfectly suitable food source.   "In the Delmarva area, don't use weevils for Poa control, or you're going to be looking for a job," she said. "If you don't know how much Poa you really have, you're going to be looking for a job."   In the past, superintendents could get reasonable control by ringing in-play areas with pesticides. It wasn't until second or even third generations were active that visible damage might move to other parts of the golf course, but no more.   This year, Vittum has seen extensive damage from first-generation ABW well into golf course fairways, leading her to conclude that adults probably overwintered there.   "Normally, damage from the first generation is noticeable on the edges of fairways, tees and collars. We don't normally see damage in the fairway from the first generation," she said.   "They don't always behave the same way from one year to another. Clearly, it behaves differently in the southern end of its range in places like Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey, and we don't know why it differs. It appears to be the same insect, but we haven't yet looked at its DNA. Are we looking at two different species, or biotypes?   "You might have 30 larvae in a square foot and half of them are females getting ready to produce as many as 100 eggs. With as many as four generations per year, there is a lot of opportunity for genetic diversity."   One thing is certain, it is quite able to adapt to its immediate environment,    Even what pesticides to apply and when are not easy questions to answer.    ABW populations in New England first showed resistance to pyrethroids a decade ago, and have since exhibited resistance to non-pyrethroid chemistries as well.    "You could have all shades of gray," McGraw said. "You could have intense resistance, moderate resistance. Resistance is all over the place. In some places, it has become highly resistant after five years.   "A new person comes in and inherits the sins of the father, and that probably happens more than we know. A superintendent is trying to save his job and will try to create blemish-free conditions. Once you develop high resistance, extreme measure have to be taken."   Timing of pesticides is critical as ABW is vulnerable both in the larval and adult stages. Adulticides, however, have shorter residual activity than larvicides, but as life cycles vary, generations begin to overlap and it becomes difficult to know exactly which generations are present.   "Some of the early ones become adults more quickly and they get about the business of laying eggs very quickly. The ones that come along more slowly lay eggs later," Vittum said. "By the time you get to July, you truly can find every stage in a single sample. Is this second generation, or early third or late first? It's a challenge to find out when a new influx of adults is ready to reproduce. We know how long it takes each stage to develop at different times of the year, so you do your best to make an educated guess.   "It has developed resistance quickly and adapts to new conditions much faster than a lot of things we see. Why? I don't know, but it appears be quite resilient."  
  • "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet."
    - Aristotle     Like Aristotle, BASF understands the need for education.    Whether you are a superintendent who prefers to learn from the comfort of your office, or someone who likes learning in person, BASF has you covered.   The company is sponsoring a series of Webinars available on TurfNet, and also is offering a pair of summer seminars to help turf managers tackle some of today's most daunting challenges.   The summer seminar series kicks off Aug. 30 at Brentwood (Tennessee) Country Club with BASF's Kathie Kalmowitz, Ph.D., and Bruce Martin, Ph.D., of Clemson University, continues the following day at Druid Hills Golf Club in Atlanta with Kalmowitz and Jim Brosnan, Ph.D., of the University of Tennessee.   Kalmowitz, technical specialist for BASF, will discuss pre- and post-herbicide use on golf courses and also will provide an update on use of Xzemplar fungicide on warm-season putting surfaces.   Martin will discuss disease identification and management for Bermudagrass and creeping bentgrass greens.   Brosnan, professor of weed science, will deliver a presentation entitled Winning the War on Weeds.   Brosnan also will discuss weed control in a BASF-sponsored webinar on TurfNet, scheduled for July 22 entitled Summer Weed Update and Options for Control. Open to everyone, the presentation will include a discussion on common troublesome summer weeds and conditions under which each thrive. Brosnan also will include an update on the latest scientific research on the topic and recommended control methods for a variety of common weeds.   Martin also will deliver a Webinar on TurfNet on July 12, when he and Larry Stowell, Ph.D., of Pace Turf present Biology and Control of Rapid Blight.   The discussion will address why some geographic areas are more susceptible than others and how rapid blight interacts with other diseases, including summer patch and anthracnose. Martin and Stowell also will discuss fungicide efficacy in the effort to manage against rapid blight and how new chemistries compare with standard treatments.   On Sept. 21, Casey Reynolds, Ph.D., of Texas A&M will address the use of turf colorants in a presentation entitled Turf Colorants, a Look Inside. In that presentation, Reynolds will take an in-depth look into the use of turf colorants on ultradwarf Bermudagrasses.   Previous TurfNet webinars sponsored by BASF include Fairy Ring and Fine Agronomics by Mike Fidanza, Ph.D., of Penn State and John Cisar, Ph.D., of the University of Florida, and Scheduling Fungicides for Turf Disease Control by Purdue's Rick Latin, Ph.D.   All BASF webinars are free for everyone and recordings are available for 24/7 on-demand playback.
  • With Nemacur no longer available, golf course superintendents have struggled to find an acceptable tool for the control of nematodes in turf.   For professional turfgrass managers looking for a tool to help control a variety of turf-damaging nematodes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has granted label registration to Indemnify, a new nematicide from Bayer Environmental Science.   With the active ingredient fluopyram, Indemnify is a concentrated formulation labeled for preventive and curative control of sting, root knot, spiral, Anguina pacifcae and many other types of nematodes.   Indemnify is labeled for use on warm-and cool-season grasses and will not damage turf. Formulated with soil surfactants, and it sprays on clear, but has a bluish tint after application.   A 17.1-ounce bottle is enough to treat 1-2 acres of affected turf.    
  • The Fed is slowly chipping away at rules regulating the use of drones for commercial and non-commercial operators.   On June 21, the Federal Aviation Administration adopted new rules focused on making unmanned vehicle flight safer than ever. Some of the new rules include limiting flight of commercial drones weighing less than 55 pounds to an altitude of 400 feet unless operated within 400 feet of a taller structure, and must remain within site of the operator at all times. Flight is limited to within 30 minutes of sunrise and sunset.   One of the driving forces behind the new legislation is the increasing use of drone flights near airports. The FAA says it receives reports of drones flying near airplanes and airports every day.   The rule also dictates that operators must be 16 years old and, are required to speak, read, write and understand English. Before being approved to fly, operators also must pass an aeronautics exam every two years to become a certified remote pilot.   Like before, commercial operators must keep their vehicle within view at all times, and are prohibited from flying them within 5 miles of an airport.   Commercial use is defined as those paid to provide drone-based services, such as aerial photography. The FCC has published the new regulations governing commercial use - named the Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule (Part 107) - in a 600-plus-page rulebook divided into several categories, including aircraft requirements, remote pilot certification, and responsibilities and operational limitations.   "With this new rule, we are taking a careful and deliberate approach that balances the need to deploy this new technology with the FAA's mission to protect public safety," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta told the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, a trade organization representing the drone industry. "But this is just our first step. We're already working on additional rules that will expand the range of operations."    The rule will take effect in late August following a 60-day comment period after it is posted to the Federal Register.   The rule does not address private or hobbyist users. The FAA already released separate rules for private users last December, including a requirement for all private users to register vehicles with the FAA.   According to the FAA, about 465,000 private operators have registered their vehicles since December. As many as 1 million vehicles were sold during the 2015 holiday season alone, according to the AUVSI.    The industry trade organization estimates the drone industry will have projected economic impact of nearly $14 billion in the next three years and more than $80 billion over the next three decades.   The Small Unmanned Aircraft Rule also does not specifically address privacy issues that have grabbed headlines since drones first took flight. However, the conflict between the FAA and individual states remains an issue.   Congress ordered the federal agency in 2012 to begin cracking down on drone rules and regulations with the passage of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012. The act gives the FAA the authority to develop a comprehensive plan for safe use of unmanned vehicles. That plan will be rolled out in incremental phases, the first of which requires drone owners to register all unmanned aircraft between 0.55 and 55 pounds.   The U.S. Senate introduced a bill last week that would cede authority in all drone law instances to the FAA, and the agency in December issued a warning to the states not to pass any laws that are in conflict with federal rules, either in place or planned.   But a lot has happened at the state level before that warning due to the FAA's delay in acting on four-year-old legislation, according to the National Law Review.   The industry is mixed on that solution, with drone manufacturers coming down on the side of the FAA and the American Civil Liberties Union siding with the states.   Last year, 45 states introduced nearly 170 pieces of legislation addressing drone usage, including one in Arkansas that passed prohibiting all drone activity over private property. Another law on the books in North Carolina requires drone owners there to pass a test before flying a vehicle.
  • When it comes to instant replay, the USGA could learn a thing or two from college football, or even the American legal system.
      Other than that the handling of putter-gate at the U.S. Open apparently reflects the way the USGA like to do business, there was no plausible explanation of why it took officials several hours and 13 holes of play to decide whether eventual winner, Dustin Johnson, caused the ball to move prior to address on the fifth green during Sunday's final round and whether a one-stroke penalty was warranted.   None. Zip. Nada.   It's no one's fault, but we'll never know whether Johnson's putter caused the ball to move, or if it was an anomaly caused by an ill-timed breeze moving across Oakmont's famously slick greens that reportedly were rolling as fast as 15 feet on Sunday. All we have to go on is Johnson's word. He said he didn't strike the ball, and in the face of damning evidence, we should take him at his word. That's the way golf works. That's the way society works. Nowhere, except in USGA events, are people penalized for what they might have done. After TV cameras zoomed in beyond acceptable video quality, it looked like Johnson might have touched the ball, but the evidence was circumstantial at best, and in a court of law his case would have been laughed off by a jury faster than the O.J. verdict.   "If it doesn't fit, you must acquit."   With the prestige and perks, not to mention a check for $1.8 million, that come with winning a U.S. Open, it was incumbent on the USGA to get that call right, and no one - except Johnson - will ever know whether they did. USGA said as much, telling Johnson after he putted out for birdie on No. 18 that his actions "could have" caused the ball to move.   Fans booed loudly on the telecast when the subject came up and Johnson's fellow players went overboard in his defense on Twitter. Still, the USGA did so much as say "we are right, and the rest of you are wrong."   So much for the long-treasured beliefs of indisputable evidence and innocence until proven guilty that the rest of civilized society find so appealing.   After missing a birdie putt on No. 5, Johnson stood over a short par putt when the ball moved prior to address. He immediately told his caddie and a USGA official that the ball moved, but he didn't touch it. Johnson made par and played on with the blessing of the referee.   It wasn't until Johnson arrived at the 12th hole that he, and the rest of the field, learned the play was under further review. A final decision wasn't made until after Johnson walked off 18. The scenario became a farce, and even as USGA officials tried to rationalize their decision late into the night on the Golf Channel, the explanation never made sense regardless of how many times they spun it.   To their credit, the USGA did a lot of things right during the 116th U.S. Open, namely setting up the course and paying due respect many times throughout the weekend to superintendent John Zimmers, his crew and his army of volunteers for producing absolutely flawless conditions.    Course set up was fair, but tough. Even after rain on Thursday pulled some of Oakmont's teeth leaving many players to take target practice on Friday and Saturday, the course was its usual brutish self by Sunday.    The U.S. Open's allure is that usually it is one of the few times each year the pros truly are judged against par. It's no fun week after week to watch golfers playing the latest and greatest golf ball post obscenely low scores that remind the rest of us of how challenging it can be to foil them without an arsenal of 150 volunteers double-cutting, triple-cutting and rolling greens daily.   For all the things the USGA did right during the U.S. Open, it stepped in it with putter-gate. After USGA president Diana Murphy thanked Zimmers at the trophy presentation for course conditions at Oakmont, she should also have thanked Johnson for safely distancing himself from the field and allowing her association to save face, because things could have gotten ugly.   What if Shane Lowry, the runaway 54-hole leader playing in the group behind Johnson, had not collapsed on Sunday? What if Lowry, or anyone else not named Dustin Johnson, leaves 18 tied for the lead, or is one shot back, only to THEN have a penalty assessed to Johnson? Does the USGA want its Super Bowl, its Daytona 500 decided by what detractors would see as no less than a conspiracy call because a player's actions might have caused a ball to move? The fallout of such a scene would have been disastrous for the USGA and felt for many years.   Golf is a game that relies more than any other on tradition and sportsmanship. Losers congratulate winners, and everyone self-reports infractions. If a player breaks a rule, usually it is because they didn't know the rule in the first place. It is a system based on honesty and fair play, and it works.   You don't need to look at that grainy video more than once to conclude that Johnson might have caused the ball to move, but the evidence is inconclusive. The resulting call, the only one that makes sense, would be "after further review, the ruling on the field stands."
  • Type the phrase "golf courses are . . . " into Google and the Internet search engine will suggest such verbiage as ". . . a waste of space" and ". . . bad for the environment" to complete the sentence. One can try all day, and it is a lead-pipe cinch the words ". . . a good neighbor" never will automatically fill in, although, in the case of Findlay Country Club, it would be accurate if they did.
      For Dan Koops, Findlay's director of grounds, making a positive contribution to the community is as important as producing greens worthy of next month's Ohio Amateur Championship. And a former employee has been only too happy to oblige him.   For the past three years, the club has turned to a local school for those with developmental disabilities to grow and plant annual flowers around the clubhouse, the front entrance and in some key areas around the golf course. This ongoing relationship serves a dual purpose: The flowers help beautify the club's grounds each spring, but more importantly, helps give purpose to those who plant them.   "It gives them some experience getting their hands dirty, allows them to get outside and helps us get other things done around the course," said Koops, superintendent at Findlay since 2012. "It's a win-win."   The Blanchard Valley Center serves more than 400 resident and non-resident "clients" with varying levels of developmental disabilities by providing them with recreational opportunities and vocational training. Part of that training includes growing flowers, plants and vegetables in a 1,500-square-foot on-campus greenhouse that is managed by former FCC horticulturist Tim Stumpp.   Each spring, Stumpp and as many as a dozen Blanchard Valley clients make the short journey - a 3-wood as the crow flies, or 2 miles by car - to the 1928 Thomas Bendelow design where they plant hundreds of flowers around the property.   "The plan for us is to be able to employ all of our clients in the community. That's our goal; they come to us for vocational training, and hopefully the community embraces that," Stumpp said.   "This is vocational training for our clients. For me personally, this is about seeing our clients learning a skill from start to finish.   Although flowers around the clubhouse might fall pretty far down on the to-do list for many golf course superintendents, especially those preparing for one of the state's largest events, they are a big deal for Koops, who embraces his relationship with Blanchard Valley and its clients. He also believes similar projects elsewhere could go a long way in dispelling some of the negative stereotypes associated with golf, particularly the notion that private clubs are enclaves secluded from their local communities.    "It's not that way here at all. The club wants to give back and be involved," Koops said.   "We want to be part of the community."   Stumpp, who earned a two-year horticulture degree from Ohio State in 1984, had worked at FCC for 13 years when he felt a need to do something else with his life. By then, he already had returned to school and earned a bachelor's degree in advanced technological education in 2006 from nearby Bowling Green State University with hopes of one day teaching at the community college level. That dream withered on the vine as a sluggish economy hit local two-year schools especially hard. Eventually, he turned his attention toward Blanchard Valley Center, where his late mother, Ethelann Stumpp, once taught.   "I needed to do something in my life that was making a difference," Stumpp said.    "I can't say there was a life-changing event that led to this. It was just a feeling I had at the time. I saw an ad in the paper for a greenhouse technician, and it sounded like the right thing to do."   It was during his first year operating the center's 30-foot-by-50-foot greenhouse when he thought about his former employer.   Initially, Stumpp figured a relationship with the country club might simply be a way for Blanchard Valley to sell some flowers and for its clients to get some practical training as well as a little fresh air. It has become much more because of the way the club has embraced the program and those working in it.   "I knew they needed someone after I left, and I thought it would be a great opportunity for the people here to grow flowers for the country club," Stumpp said. "We grow the flowers and plant them, and we've built a great relationship the past three years. Dan has been great with our clients. They're always asking 'How's Dan?' 'Tell Dan I said hi.' It has turned into much more of a beautiful thing than I ever imagined it would."   Each of the past three years, members tell Koops how much they appreciate reaching out to the community on the club's behalf.   "The flowers look good, the clients are happy, we're happy and our members are thrilled," Koops said. "It's good for everyeone."   In the end, Blanchard Valley provides about half the annual flowers planted each year at FCC. That is no small effort and includes 50-70 flats per year, enough to cover about 5,000 square feet of bed space.   About a dozen adult clients from Blanchard Valley are involved in the program that has morphed into policing the course for loose debris in the spring as well. Clients confined to wheelchairs are able to plant flowers in pots that are placed around the clubhouse entrance. Koops and his crew express their gratitude each year by staging a cookout for the clients.   The project wouldn't be possible without support from inside the clubhouse.   "This is about being a good partner in the community," said Chad Bain, the club's director of golf, membership and marketing.    "We are in the relationship business internally and externally, and this is a relationship that is very important to us."
  • -- BRADLEY S. KLEIN, Golfweek   It's 4:15 a.m. and 140 volunteer superintendents are gathered in a tent, awaiting their marching orders.   They have gathered here from all over the U.S. and from Asia and Europe to help Oakmont's head greenkeeper, John Zimmers, polish Oakmont Country Club for the U.S. Open. They are here to help Zimmers' staff of 50 employees, and the only way to do it is to start early in the day.    That's the nature of the business. If you're not a morning person, you cannot be in this business.   There's Matt Shaffer from Merion, who hosted this event three years ago. And there's Jon Jennings from Shinnecock Hills, which is home to the U.S. Open two years hence. Chris Tritabaugh of Hazeltine Golf Club is getting ready for the Ryder Cup in two months. He's here with friend, colleague and neighbor, Jeff Johnson of the Minikahda Club, home to the 2017 U.S. Senior Amateur.   You know its a classy assembly because they are drinking Starbucks coffee, not just some local sludge. Their temporary quarters sport dozens of colorful banners. Some showcase the flags of prominent turf programs represented: Michigan State, Rhode Island, Ohio State, Penn State. At one end, a huge banner proclaims "You're in Fownes Country", in reference to the founding family of Oakmont. At the other end is a flag in the city's iconic colors of yellow and black proclaiming Pittsburgh as City of Champions and listing the titles of the towns three major professional teams.     Zimmers appears, hushes the group, then launches into a little pep talk that is short on detail because folks like this don't need much instruction. "How does it feel to be the best you can be?" he asks, rhetorically. "Let's have fun, let's stay focused. Take care of each other. Take care of me." Then with a shrug and a laugh he hands things over to his right-hand man, David Delsandro, who without missing a beat calls each name in the room and quickly sends them off to their position on the course.   Fifteen minutes later it's still dark when Zimmers comes by a practice area green to survey the buzz of activity mowing, rolling, changing cups. It always makes me a little nervous to have them working like this in the dark, he says. He likens it to indoor factory production where they've turned out all the lights and have to keep working without loss of consistency or quality.   Out on the course, each green has to get double-mowed, maybe even triple mowed, then rolled. Then green speed measurements are taken, and the crew is joined by the USGA's setup team to determine the day's hole locations and to look at the likely hole placements for each of the next five days (including the dreaded playoff). Mike Davis, executive director of the USGA, leads the team on the back nine. His setup counterpart for the front nine is Jeff Hall, the USGA's managing director of rules and competitions.   How many people does it take to change a hole location? By the looks of things, about 25. Some take notes for the days pin sheet; yes, even for a practice green. Someone cuts the cup... no easy task. Another changes out the previous cup. Someone carries the flag. Others stand around and talk, including Gil Hanse, golf course architect and FOX Sports golf course analyst for the week, who is taking notes for the days telecast.   Tritabaugh, keen to soak up everything he can in the run up to his Ryder Cup, is standing there on the 10th tee wondering about the mowing pattern. He invokes the face of a clock to describe the lines as 3 to 9, rather than 12 to 6. At the 14th green, he leans over, practically on hands and knees, to observe the characteristics of a ball mark and comment on its turgidity.   A scrum ensues, turfgrass experts and everyday practitioners huddle, someone Googles turgidity and the analysis is confirmed regarding the osmotic flow of water inside the plant tissue. The group then discusses how the ball mark reveals the structure of the underlying soil and how healthy the leaf blade is.     Why would professionals like this give up a week of their lives in mid-golf season to perform the grunt work of tournament set up? Because its like a graduate-level boot camp for them, a chance to engage their colleagues at the highest levels of agronomy and greenkeeping. Instead of having to answer the same basic question over and over to the everyday golfer or to explain things to the same perpetual malcontents, they can engage at a high level of technology and practice. With the opposite of turgid being flaccid, there's no shortage of joke opportunities as well.   At the short, uphill par-4 17th hole, 313 yards long and definitely drivable this week, another huddle ensues, this one involving Davis, Zimmers and Delsandro. The discussion concerns the height of cut in an area short left of the green where many ambitious players' drives will land. At 4.5 inches deep the rough is so tough that a ball could disappear here, and with it, a player's hopes.   Davis wants to increase the potential reward of the risk ratio. After plenty of discussion, they agree to cut back some of the area to 3 inches of rough. It's enough to make a difference. Delsandro and Zimmers walk off an alignment for the adjusted mowing zone, a 10-15 foot wide swing. A promissory note to mow is made. It'll be done that morning.   The setup never stops. The learning never ends.
  • Pittsburghers take great pride in their city's sports heroes and heritage.
      In an area that gave the sports world the Immaculate Reception, Roberto Clemente, the Steel Curtain, Mario Lemieux, the "We Are Family" Pirates and most recently, the Penguins' win in the Stanley Cup final, Oakmont Country Club stands among Western Pennsylvania's greatest sports icons.   The course built in 1903 by Pittsburgh industrialist H.C. Fownes takes center stage again this week when it hosts the U.S. Open for a record ninth time.   "There is a lot of tradition and history here," said Oakmont superintendent John Zimmers.   "I don't think any other club is more identified with the U.S. Open than this."     The steel mills that once dotted the Pittsburgh skyline are gone, but the toughness they instilled remains.That grittiness translates at Oakmont, where members demand the course be maintained to such standards that playing a round there is akin to surviving a street brawl.   "Why do (the members) want it to be this way? There is something about this Western Pennsylvania thing," said Zimmers, a native of Tyrone, Pennsylvania about 100 miles east of Pittsburgh. "The Pens are supposed to be in the (Stanley) Cup, the Steelers are supposed to go deep into the playoffs and make a run for the Super Bowl every year and Oakmont is supposed to be ready for the U.S. Open every year.   "It is diabolical, and it has stood the test of time."   Indeed.    Conditions at Oakmont are so consistently difficult and immaculate that if the Open were played there every year, other superintendents would have the same love/hate relationship with it that they do Augusta.   "I think he wanted to build a golf course that was tougher than anything else he had seen or played," said Charlie Howe, the USGA's U.S. Open Tournament Manager. "Over the years, that same philosophy has been instilled in this membership."   Fownes wasn't an accomplished architect when he built what was intended to be the world's most difficult course 113 years ago. He did not rely on trees to add teeth to the routing, and he didn't have to. He made Oakmont hard by building lightning fast putting surfaces that sloped every which way when no one else was, by building it long when few others were and by studying where golf shots landed and placing bunkers there.   "When he built it, there were only a couple of bunkers on second hole," Howe said. "He'd watch people play, and wherever the ball landed, a day later, he'd have a bunker there. That's how he designed the course."   Originally built at 6,400 yards, Oakmont had grown to a then-unheard of 6,929 yards when Tommy Armour won the first U.S. Open played there in 1927.   Oakmont's face remained unchanged until an aggressive sapling-planting program in 1962, the same year Jack Nicklaus outlasted Arnold Palmer for his first professional win during the U.S. Open at Oakmont, served to change the appearance of the course during subsequent generations.   By the time the 1994 U.S. Open was in the books, many purists had become unhinged at tree-lined look.   The process of returning Oakmont to its unshaded roots really began long before Zimmers arrived 17 years ago, with a cloak-and-dagger approach of cutting down and removing trees in the middle of the night, according to a 2007 story by ESPN.com.   Zimmers continued that process, taking down thousands of trees before the '07 Open, and even more since, resulting in the extraction of an estimated 15,000 trees during the past two decades for a look much like the view that greeted famed sportswriter Grantland Rice in 1939 when marveled at how he could see flagsticks on 17 greens from the clubhouse.   The current setup is one of which Fownes and all Pittsburghers would be proud.   The high grass on the fairway side of the bunkers has been cut down to make the hazards more accepting of stray shots, and the graduated rough at Oakmont is so penal, the USGA agreed to shave down the deep stuff by 2 inches after players complained two days before the tournament even started. The severity of the rough coupled with green speeds of 14 to 14.5 have combined to strike such such fear into the hearts of the world's best players, there has been a rush on the equipment trailers as many search for a more accurate alternative to the driver.   Webb Simpson called Oakmont's greens "Augusta on steroids," and Brandt Snedeker said the putting surfaces are the most difficult the pros will face all year. During a practice round early in the week, Rory McIlroy called Oakmont the toughest test in golf, and added that a win there would make him a "complete player.   "This is going to be hard test," Zimmers said. "But anyone will tell you, it will also be a fair test. This course isn't tricky."   It doesn't have to be, it's Pittsburgh tough.
  • A grant from the USGA will help researchers study the long-term sustainability of salt-tolerant turfgrasses.   Researchers from the University of Georgia, Washington University in St. Louis and the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis will work together to further study salt tolerance in seashore paspalum through a grant by the USGA's Turfgrass and Environmental Research Program.   According to the Danforth Center, is a not-for-profit research institute with a mission to improve the human condition through plant science, about 5,000 acres of coastline are lost per year, and, despite the prevalence of salt-tolerant grasses on the market "scientists are only beginning to understand the genetic basis of salt tolerance."   "The USGA is committed to advancing the game of golf through science and innovation, especially in turfgrass research," said Michael Kenna, Ph.D., research director for the USGA.  "Research conducted at the Danforth Center furthers our longstanding work in the development of drought-resistant grasses and sustainable practices.  Increasing the effectiveness of  turfgrass breeding and genetic research and using   whole genome data will provide genetic tools not commonly seen in recreational sports, and could have global impact."   Researchers with an active role in the project will include Elizabeth Kellogg, Ph.D., and Robert E. King, both of the Danforth Center, Ken Olsen, Ph.D. and doctoral candidate David Goad, both of Washington University, and Ivan Baxter, Ph.D., USDA research scientist and associate member at the Danforth Center.   Goad will conduct greenhouse experiments growing plants in different concentrations of salt water. In each experiment he will measure plant growth rate and chlorophyll content (greenness) to determine the effect of salt. In addition, the research group will apply ionomics to measure the amount of salt in the plant. This new ionomics method was developed and has been used extensively by the Baxter lab. Finally, the information on growth rate and salt content will be combined with extensive genome sequence data.   Their discoveries will advance the development of more robust turfgrass varieties that require less fresh water and fewer chemical treatments, a critical step in increasing the environmental sustainability of the golf industry.    The research will lay the groundwork for a larger study to identify the genetic basis of salt-tolerance by providing all of the necessary methodological tools and plant material to begin additional genome sequences and precise location of salt-tolerance genes. Preliminary results from the pilot project will also help in acquiring further funding to cover the costs of additional sequencing, greenhouse experiments, and ionomics work.    "With this grant we will begin to uncover the genetic basis of salt-tolerance in seashore paspalum," Kellogg said.    "Data and resources generated in this project will lay the foundation for future work to uncover the genetic basis of salt-tolerance using natural variation from a wide range of cultivated and wild plants."   

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