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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman

    Bluegrass beauty

    By John Reitman, in News,

    Looks can be deceiving when driving past Griffin Gate Golf Club. Other than a sign that directs traffic toward this Marriott resort course in Lexington, Kentucky, there is little evidence from the outside that such a peaceful place could exist wedged into a corner formed by six lanes of traffic-snarled Newtown Pike and as many lanes of the always-busy Interstate 75.

    Once one makes the turn and begins the slow, uphill climb toward the golf course, the hustle and bustle gradually give way to a feeling of serenity that is almost surreal given the location. In a sea of traffic that steadily has been engulfing Kentucky's Bluegrass Region for the past 35 years, Griffin Gate is an oasis.

    "That's what I compare it to," said Zach Newell, who is in his third season as superintendent. "You go from urban sprawl, Newtown and (I-)75, and then you come in here. It's pretty amazing."

    A former stop on the PGA Senior Tour, the 1981 Rees Jones design has developed a reputation in recent years for being a blueprint for environmental stewardship. That journey largely is one that began in 2002 when Scott Bender, CGCS, arrived here. And it's one that continues today under Newell.

    Griffin Gate is located on 185 acres of what once was one of Lexington's trademark thoroughbred horse farms. Everything about the property belies its location while Kentucky's second-largest city continues to grow up around it. Even the farm's 19th century mansion home, built in 1873 after the original residence erected in 1854 was destroyed by fire, still is located here.

    A 2000 University of Kentucky graduate, Bender, 39, prepped for two years under Mark Wilson at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, before returning to his hometown in 2002 to become superintendent at Griffin Gate.

    "It was nice to come back home to Lexington to work," Bender said. "In this business, you never know where you're going to end up."
     


    During Bender's tenure as superintendent, Griffin Gate became a certified Audubon sanctuary in 2008 and was a pilot facility for the e-Par environmental certification program. His work toward achieving Audubon certification included erecting boxes to attract bluebirds and bats, and establishing areas that have helped attract other forms of wildlife to this urban environment.

    In 2013, with help from UK's entomology department headed by former USGA Green Section Award winner Dan Potter, Ph.D., Bender established the first of two pollinator zones on the golf course.

    "We worked with the department of fish and wildlife and established wildlife corridors on the property where animals can pass through," Bender said. "We established two areas of butterfly gardens. It was great working with UK. Whenever they want land here, I'll find them a spot to do things like this."

    Since then, Bender has been named the property's director of engineering and grounds, giving him the responsibility of overseeing not only the golf course, but the property's 409-room, 350,000-square-foot hotel as well. Newell, his assistant for two years, is in his third season as course superintendent, but make no mistake, Bender still is at home on the golf course. His philosophy of environmental stewardship now permeates the entire property and includes resource-conserving measures inside at the hotel and outdoors on the golf course.

    "I love it out here," he said. "It's always welcome when I can get back out on the golf course."

    Just about everything that happens on the golf course at Griffin Gate likely will accomplish at least one of three goals ? improve the golf course for Marriott customers, maximize profitability for the hotel and make more efficient use of resources. Often, a project can accomplish all three goals at once.

    On July 23, the course celebrated a grand reopening after a four-month bunker renovation projected headed by Jones promises to improve playability for a wider range of golfers and more friendly to Griffin Gate's maintenance budget.

    Although the bunker count was reduced by only two, from 69 to 67, Jones took out about 53,000 square feet of hazard. Areas that once were filled with sand now are covered with zoysia sod. Nearly 400,000 square feet of it have been used during the project.

    "We went from 133,000 square feet of bunkers, which is just enormous, to around 80,000 square feet," Bender said. "There were some silly large bunkers that were not in play."

    Since Griffin Gate opened nearly 35 years ago, bunkers there were, as Bender described, like a catcher's mitt, nearly surrounding every green on the course with high, flashing sides that were difficult to maintain.

    "When we'd have rain events, we'd spend the next three days trying to recover from that," he said.

    Shaving down those sides has opened up views across the golf course.

    Griffin Gate's bunkers not only are smaller now, the high, flashed sides are gone. Couple that with the installation of Better Billy Bunker system, at Bender's request, and post-rain event bunker maintenance suddenly has become almost a thing of the past.

    With a combined 24 inches of rain falling in June and July at Griffin Gate, Bender shudders to think what the course would look like this year without a bunker renovation.

    "It has been crazy wet this year. We're finding water in places we never had it before," he said. "If we didn't go with a liner, the bunkers would have been ruined before we opened, we had that much rain."

    Weather also provided predictable challenges during the project.

    Temperatures in Lexington reached 60 degrees on March 3 and 50 degrees the following day, according to the National Weather Service, more than enough to get winter-weary golfers back onto the course. By the night of March 4, temperatures dropped into the 20s and 17 inches of snow fell during the next 36 hours. Then came the rain.

    "We would seed, and the rain would wash it off," Newell said. "We paid to hydroseed, and the rain washed it off."

    From horseshoe teemarkers to 150-yard markers fashioned from old hitching posts, links to Griffin Gate's past are everywhere. Perhaps the property's most important legacy is Bender's minimalist philosophy.

    He's instituted use of LCD bulbs throughout the hotel, a policy that Newell is taking to buildings around the golf course, as well as an extensive recycling program. Next up are sensors in restrooms so lights are on only when needed.

    "Our first fairway app usually isn't until June," Bender said. "We'll grow some dollar spot before we freak out. We really watch the weather, and we'll stretch our fairway apps as much as we can to get a three-week spray, or even longer.

    "Our philosophy here is to go green, and economics is a big part of that."
  • A packed schedule is sure to offer something for every golf course superintendent at this year's University of Tennessee Turf and Ornamental Field Day.
      Scheduled for the Sept. 10 at the East Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center, the field day attracts more than 500 professional turf managers and offers pesticide recertification credits for attendees from Tennessee as well as Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The program also has been approved by the GCSAA for 0.50 CEUs.   Topics to be covered include pre-emergent and post-emergent weed control, fescue establishment and maintenance, disease control in bentgrass putting greens, new tools for aerification, climate change for turf managers, BMPs for non-turf areas, boxwood blight update, new Bermuda and zoysia cultivars, invasive pests (including emerald ash borer), ornamental grasses and ultradwarf Bermuda management.   The event also will include a fraze mowing demonstration and information on its benefits as well as a behind-the-scenes tour of the East Tennessee Ag Research and Education Center.   Details on the field day are here.  
  • A new drought-tolerant turfgrass developed by breeders at the University of Georgia is a staunch indicator of just how much R&D goes into the process before a new variety is released to the market.
      In development since 1993, TifTuf Bermudagrass emerged from a pool of more than 27,000 potential cultivars to finally reach the market because of its ability stand up to drought-like conditions.   Developed by a group led by Wayne Hanna, Ph.D., and Brian Schwartz, Ph.D., TifTuf is now available through The Turfgrass Group of Monroe, Georgia.   TifTuf began to emerge from a crowded field during Georgia's recent drought years. While other varieties under development were turning brown in the field, the variety that became known as TifTuf remained green, Schwartz said. TifTuf went by the name DT-1 during testing.   "After three more years of field research in two different soil types, we found evidence that TifTuf was using less water than Tifway 419 and TifSport," Schwartz said. "This was exciting because initially we believed it might just have a deeper root system capable of extracting more water. But instead, it seems that it's just using less of the available resources."   Some of the traits exhibited by TifTuf include:   > TifTuf used 38 percent less water than Tifway during a 2011 drought trial; > TifTuf generally exhibited superior turfgrass performance than many other cultivars (including Tifway, Celebration and Princess-77) when subjected to short- and long-term periods of drought in multiple locations; > faster Green Up than many other Bermuda varieties.   TifTuf is available now for sod production license with limited foundation material ready for planting this summer.  
  • Jacobsen adds Jenkins to marketing staff
      Jacobsen named Dena Jenkins as the company's events and channel manager.     She is responsible for planning and managing the company's events and working with Jacobsen's network of dealers on marketing initiatives. She has more than 10 years of experience in the turf industry, working in a variety of marketing roles at Woods Equipment Co., LG Seeds, and most recently, Dixie Chopper.    Prior to Jacobsen, Jenkins was an events manager for Bell Helicopter (also a Textron company), planning events across the globe for the rotorcraft manufacturer.   New Hampshire gives thumbs-up to Nufarm's Clipper herbicide
      The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has granted a 2 (ee) label registration for Nufarm Americas' Clipper aquatic herbicide for control of two pesky water-borne weeds.   With the active ingredient flumioxazin, the tank mix of Clipper and 2,4-D, provides New Hampshire applicators with a tool for weed-management programs at the rates specified on the new 2 (ee) label for fanwort and variable leaf milfoil, two species of invasive submersed weeds, with one application.   Clipper may be tank mixed with other registered aquatic herbicides for enhanced control of submersed and floating plants.   For more information about Clipper, visit nufarm.com/USTO/Clipper.     Engage Agro USA celebrating fifth anniversary
      Engage Agro USA is celebrating its fifth anniversary of serving the agriculture, turf and ornamental markets.    Based on the business model developed in Canada by Engage Agro Corp. that is based in Guelph, Ontario, Engage Agro USA specializes in crop protection and nutritional products for agricultural, turf, industrial, and niche crop markets in the United States.    The company's product portfolio includes a line of adjuvants, soil surfactants, pesticides and accessory products.
  • When a golf course architect's dying wish is to have his ashes scattered in the stream that runs past his home course, it's safe to conclude he was a fan of his own handiwork.
     
    Much of the bite A.W. Tillinghast put into his 1922 design at the Philadelphia Cricket Club had been lost in the decades since 1942 when his ashes were sprinkled into nearby Wissahickon Creek. Once Tilly's pride and joy, the course garnered nary a sniff from the game's biggest bodies as they sought tournament sites in the Philadelphia area. After a 2013 restoration by architect Keith Foster that was designed to recapture some of Tilly's magic, the Cricket's Wissahickon Course has teeth again with features such as "The Great Hazard," and the 1922 Tillinghast classic is on the tournament radar with three events in six years.

    This year, the PGA Professional National Championship - the biggest event of the year for PGA professionals, the top 20 of whom qualify for this year's PGA Championship - was held at the Cricket. Next year, the Constellation Senior Players Championship will be held on the Wissahickon Course as will the USGA's U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship in 2020.

    "We haven't had tournament golf here for 100 years," said Dan Meersman, the club's director of grounds since 2009. "Now, we're going to make up for it in six years."
     
    Managing turf, and just about everything else at a place as large as the Cricket is no small task for the 37-year-old Meersman, winner of the 2012 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta. And make no mistake about it, there is no moss growing under his feet. Meersman is a man constantly on the move. He has to be because he has a lot of ground to cover across two campuses.

    Known as the nation's oldest country club - it was founded in 1854 - the Cricket is located in multiple cities and towns, including the Chestnut Hill section of northwestern Philadelphia and the Flourtown section of Springfield Township. The property also borders a state park. Aside from 45 holes of golf, Meersman also oversees squash and lawn tennis facilities, clay tennis courts, a paddle tennis complex, pool area and all the common grounds throughout both campuses. Getting things done requires not only consensus from the club's many constituencies, but can often include getting an OK from decision-makers from the township and the city as well.

    "There are so many moving parts here with members, departments and staff," Meersman said.

    "And working with different municipalities, you have to develop relationships quickly. You also have to know who the township engineer is. You have to know the police chief, you have to know the fire chief. Then you go to the City of Philadelphia, and it's a different set of people. Once you know everyone, it streamlines everything you are doing, but you do have to spend time getting folks on board early."

    He walks at a brisk pace while making his rounds, greeting everyone he encounters between Points A and B (as well as C, D, E, F and G) with a smile and a courteous salutation. Most members he comes across recognize him, and all other club employees know who he is.

    Players during the PGA Professional National Championship go out of their way to thank him for producing a course that is a tough, but fair test of golf, not to mention in immaculate condition. Members in one of the many buildings on the property or serving as tournament officials line up to compliment him on his work. Fellow employees tell him the same, or stop him to say "so-and-so, told me to tell you the course looks great."

    Even Ben Kimball of the USGA's competitions committee, upon seeing the Wissahickon Course immediately after the restoration in 2013, told Meersman "(the USGA) could host something here right now."
     


    "When you inherit a golf course, you are inheriting the Titanic, not a speedboat that you can turn around quickly. It takes time," Meersman said.

    "In the restoration, we used a lot of sod, so we went from dirt to ?oh my' in two days.

    Based on the accolades, praise and thanks others heap on Meersman, it would be understandable if he were to become comfortable or complacent. A third-generation superintendent, Meersman is the exact opposite of complacent. He learned the ways of a business early, when as a boy he and brother Jason - also is a superintendent - visited their father Mike's maintenance shop in the mornings before heading off to school. Today, his attention to detail is evident when he stops each time he sees something as small as a candy wrapper, picks it up and throws it away. If there isn't a garbage can nearby, the trash is filed temporarily in his pants pocket until something more appropriate is located.

    Improvement projects at the Cricket often can come in bunches, and for good reason.

    "We have to elevate each campus simultaneously for things to pass," Meersman said. "When they passed the Wissahickon restoration, they also passes a squash court expansion, the paddle tennis hut and some redesign of the pool pavilion. Then when all that passed, I proposed restoring the St. Martins Course before the Wissahickon restoration.

    "It's important to get out with different people. There are many different member groups, and you really don't want to get pegged as favoring one over another."

    Members here expect a lot, and Meersman delivers. Golfer expectations at a place like the Cricket Club are always at an elevated level, but they are especially high here since the Wissahickon restoration. A membership drive in advance of the restoration yielded an influx of young, skilled players.

    The level of everyday play here has helped ease selling parts of the restoration, namely the addition of some hazard features, including The Great Hazard, that were in place when Tillinghast built the course, but were lost over time.

    "We built the golf course to maintain at a high level," Meersman said.
     

    The restoration served two goals: it stayed true to what Tillinghast put in the ground in 1922 while at the same time providing a fair test of golf for players of all skill levels. In the process, the Wissahickon's heralded restoration is a breath of fresh air to a facility that was the site of the U.S. Open in 1907 and 1910. Even then, the USGA's national championship was played on the St. Martins Course, and 1895 design that opened as a nine-hole layout and was expanded to 18 holes two years later. As evidence of the changes that have occurred through the decades at the Cricket Club, the St. Martins Course is again a nine-holer complete with its original square putting surfaces.

    A quote by Tillinghast cited in a video to commemorate the restoration attempts to connect golf course architects to those who play on their creations: "This attention of the golfers at-large to details of course planning and construction must be welcome indeed to be leaders of their craft, the architects whose greatest reward is the approval of those whom they seek to please."

    A complex of 13 bunkers in a waste area in the middle of the No. 7 fairway known as The Great Hazard, a raised green protected by bunkers on No. 14 and a fescue-covered hillside on No. 15 are designed to penalize golfers for errant shots, not swallow golf balls.

    "It's a Tilly golf course, and it was intended to honor Tilly and to reintroduce all of these great Tilly features that at one time had been kind of watered down," Foster said in the Cricket Club video. "A.W. Tillinghast was a member at this course. This was his home course. He's from Philly, which is really quite important, and to now have the opportunity to reintroduce the world to what Tilly did here at his home golf course is really, really special."

    It wasn't enough to get such features included into the restoration blueprints, Meersman and Foster also worked to get them into a published set of standards that was voted upon by members.

    There is a sinister side to Meersman, who chuckles almost on queue each time he discusses the difficulty built into the course. Talking about these new native features and the process of getting the club to approve how they are to be maintained is no different.

    "(The Great Hazard) is a native feature in the direct line of play that is 50 yards wide. Sooner or later, this is going to become a topic for discussion," Meersman said with a laugh. "We got together with the architect and the committee because this is going to be a tough feature for some.

    "When the restoration is done, Keith is gone. I knew I'd have to do something. I checked the (standards) with Keith, and he was OK with them, so we took them to the club. Once we put those in, the biggest fear for the club was that they had worked five years getting this restoration teed up for a vote. They'd walked through the mud with Keith. The last thing we wanted was someone coming in and telling you to change things and filling in bunkers.

    "I now have something I can defend."
     


    Those standards allow Meersman to maintain these areas as hazards as long as they don't get overgrown to the point where lost balls become a recurrent problem.

    "The members here have so much pride in this place, and now they have a key feature that is different," Meersman said. "To be a feature, it has to be something that is not normal, otherwise it would look like bunkers you can see anywhere and no one will remember or have a reason to celebrate.

    "If you can't find your ball and the hazard is in play, then I think that is a legitimate argument. If you lose your ball in the direct line of play, you should be able to find it.

    "The standards also build in a level of staff accountability. We have high standards, and our guys know how to hit them."

    Once covered by trees, the fescue hillside is another matter. Buttressed with railroad ties, the feature adds aesthetic appeal and helps to naturally control weed pressure.

    "The more you're in there thinning it, the more weed pressure you're going to have. The more weed pressure you have, the more you going to be in there pulling those too," Meersman said.

    "These features are far from natural. It's a gorgeous fescue and everything is wonderful about it, but to pull that off takes a lot of work. In this case, the railroad trestles and visual aesthetics of the feature trumps your playability. That's the way the architect designed it, and that's what we all agreed to."
  • Through field days and conferences, Ohio State University and the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation have worked in concert to promote the latest in turfgrass education and research to industry professionals from throughout the state and around the Midwest for more than 50 years.
      The next series of "classes" offered through this unique partnership will take place at the 2015 Turfgrass Research Field Day, scheduled for Aug. 11 at the OTF Research and Education Facility at 2710 North Star Road in Columbus.   The one-day event will include research updates and education for those involved in all facets of turfgrass management. Topics that will be covered include: gray leaf spot forecasting, fungicide updates for golf, granular fungicide evaluation, herbicide efficacy during spring and summer seeding, Poa Cure update, Bermudagrass in northern climates, plant responses to acidivorax, putting green management, how to kill weeds, insect management for golf and sports turf, ground penetrating radar for putting greens.    All sessions are led by Ohio State professors and personnel.   Registration is $40 for OTF members and $60 for non-members, and attendees will have the opportunity to earn commercial recertification credits from the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) in categories 8 and CORE. GCSAA members may also receive 0.35 education points.  Registrations details are here.
  • Leave it to a company from Michigan with a name from down under to take online record keeping over the top for superintendents.
      Michigan-based Sydney Solutions recently launched a Web-based version of its SPaRKS system for planning and monitoring pesticide and fertilizer use and costs.    An acronym for the Superintendents Planning and Record Keeping System, SPaRKS helps turf managers plan and track fertilizer and pesticide applications on one or multiple courses and share information with other users from any Web-enabled device, including PC, Mac, tablet or smart phone. The system also offers free data backup.   A conversion service is available for current users of the SPaRKS desktop system,   The system allows users to create fertilizer and pesticide budgets, offers cost comparison of alternative products and treatments, tracks purchasing and inventory, calculates major and minor nutrient requirements, generates worksheets for applicators and can be used to generate reports for record-keeping, compliance and green committee meetings.   The SPaRKS system also can be used to monitor worker safety information as well as equipment inventory.
  • Toledo Country Club is like a lot of golf courses throughout Ohio this spring in that there definitely is no shortage of water.
      A near-record 8.52 inches of rain fell in the Toledo area in June. According to the National Weather Service, that total was 36 percent more than the 6.26 inches that fell in the area during the same month a year ago and 248 percent more than June's historic average of 3.43 inches. The record for June was 9.77 inches of rain set in 1902, according to the NWS.   Dump that much rain on hard clay soils and the outcome is predictable. In fact, there was a day when Toledo CC superintendent might have a real cause for concern. Summers such as this are precisely why Tim Glorioso, CGCS, has spent much of the past 15 years installing new drainage at this 1897 Willie Park Jr. design.   "We've installed drainage on nearly every hole here," Glorioso said. "Prior to all of the drainage projects we've accomplished here, No. 2 would be under water. No. 12 would be under water. No. 15 would be under water. No. 13 would be under water.   "I've been meaning to document how much we've put in. It's been so much, I couldn't tell you how many feet we've put in."   The drainage systems installed by Glorioso have done the job.   Toledo's drainage, 18-24 inches worth, includes standard pipe and pea gravel and about 12 inches of coarse sand that Glorioso described as a cross between USGA sand and a choker layer.   After an additional 3 inches of rain during the first 10 days of July, Toledo is, for the most part, dry enough for play and dry enough to mow.   "Before, on a day like today, we'd be closed," Glorioso said.   His resurrection of this parkland-style course renovated and rebuilt by Hills & Forrest in 1997 almost never occurred for numerous reasons. First, turf management is a profession that Glorioso found by accident. Second, he nearly declined the job when it was offered to him.   A landscape architecture major at Ohio State, Glorioso spent the summer between his junior and senior years working for Mike McBride, then the superintendent at Jack Nicklaus' Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio.   Some 30 years later, McBride still remembers Glorioso, now 48 and the next president of the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation, as an atypical summer employee.   "Tim was a guy who was a good employee and asked quite a few questions regarding the turf world," McBride said. "I'd give him a hard time for leaving in the middle of the day, when actually he was heading to OSU for classes - I think.   "A good guy that you knew had some untapped potential."   His background in landscape architecture and experience at places like Muirfield were good enough that he landed a job as the assistant at Hillcrest Country Club near Pittsburgh. Six years later, he was named the superintendent. It was then that he figured he'd need more formal education in turf management and earned a degree through Penn State's two-year program.     "When I started working at Muirfield, I thought ?I really like this,' " Glorioso said. "I didn't realize then that every golf course wasn't like Muirfield. I thought they all were like that."   When he was offered the job at Toledo, Glorioso initially declined. The 125-acre property along the Maumee River had potential, but trees blocked the river and those clay soils had taken their toll on playing conditions.   Only when the club said it needed someone to breathe life back into the course and would give him the resources he needed to accomplish that, did he change his mind.   "When I got here, you wouldn't even know the river was there because there were so many trees," he said.   It's been a process of steady improvement ever since. He's taken out hundreds of trees and emerald ash borers have taken 128 others. Now the river not only is in view, but it offers views along the back nine where a pool, playground, a renovated amphitheater and short, uphill par 3 hole symbolize the pride the members have in their club. And the drainage improvements symbolize the pride Glorioso takes in providing great playing conditions for them.   "It's all about providing them with a good product," he said.   "They let me get the equipment I need, and they've let me put in a ton of drainage. The membership here has been great. They're very supportive. "
  • Doug Ayres began looking for ways to conserve water at Corral de Tierra Country Club long before California Gov. Jerry Brown told him he had to. In fact, he's been seeking ways to make every drop count since he arrived 10 years ago at the course in Corral de Tierra, California.
     
    Located just a few miles east of the Monterey Peninsula, Corral de Tierra is in an arid canyon where temperatures can exceed those on the coast by 20 or 30 degrees or more. Conserving water there was important even before the state became consumed by a record drought that caused Brown to implement 25 percent reductions statewide.
     
    Ayres, encapsulated his water-saving efforts in a 2:24 video that was named the winning entry in the Aquatrols-TurfNet Smart Water Management Video Challenge.
     
    "Smart water management is not a one-time, one-step, one-and-done program," Ayres says in his winning video. "It is an ongoing multifaceted commitment to use water wisely while providing the best-possible playing conditions."
     
    That's not always so easy nowadays in California, where the spigot hasn't quite been turned off, but the amount of water coming out of it isn't what it used to be.
     
    Runner-up in the contest sponsored by Aquatrols was Jim Alwine of Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego. Alwine's video highlighted a massive turf-reduction program that has helped save water while improving aesthetics. Third-place winner Matt Gourlay, CGCS, focused on the challenges he faces at Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kansas, where wind is a major factor.
     
    Prizes include a slot on this year's TurfNet members' trip to Ireland, a DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ Quadcopter with FPV HD video camera and a GoPro HERO4 camera.
     
    Ayres said providing a good product for his members at Corral de Tierra requires three things: infrastructure, good old-fashioned hard work and radically creative innovation.
     
    Saving water has been accomplished through several practices, including tweaking the irrigation system through improved head spacing, pump station upgrades, head replacement and the use of new and improved nozzles.
     
    Other innovations at Corral de Tierra include use of subsurface drip irrigation around bunkers for the past eight years, collecting and reusing runoff water, use of wetting agents and reductions in irrigated turf.
     

     
    For the past eight years, Ayres also has been using hydrophilic synthetic polymers that increase the soil's water-holding capacity.
     
    Synthetic, water-absorbing polymers (think baby diapers) represent old technology that has been around for decades and in use at Corral de Tierra for the past eight years.
     
    Initially, Ayres used them under sod and around bunkers during construction projects, broadcast them over wide areas and used an aerator to work them into the soil or injected them by hand. With the need to use them on a broader scale, they now are applied directly to the turf and worked into the soil through a spiking process, along with fertilizers and other additives, at a rate of 2 acres per hour.
     
    "The numbers don't lie," Ayres said. "A 50-percent reduction in irrigation in all of the areas that we have applied the polymers has been realized. The savings in electricity alone will pay for the application and the additives. This has proven to be the best way to reduce irrigation use and not only keep quality high, but improve it. Infrastructure, good old-fashioned hard work and radically creative innovation are all part of our smart water management program."
     

     

     

     
     
     
  • Rain Bird has expanded its web site to offer water-saving tips for golf course superintendents and others in California and throughout the country.
      In May, Rain Bird launched its 25 Ways to Save program in response to conservation efforts launched in drought-stricken California. State-mandated water-use restrictions went into effect June in an effort to reduce urban water use in California by 25 percent through June 2016. The Rain Bird program is an effort to help water users maintain healthy turf and landscapes while reducing outdoor water use by 25 percent or more.   The site contains information in 25 areas to keep any irrigation system operating at a high level of efficiency. Each section contains a combination of info data sheets, maintenance checklists and service information, and educational videos.  
    Available at 25ways.rainbird.com, these resources can be used anywhere and by anyone who wants to improve their irrigation efficiency.    Individual sections within the site are dedicated to maintenance audits, sprinkler height and level, database settings, weather station maintenance and pump station cycling, irrigation system audits, controlling water pressure, maximizing irrigation system performance, flow meters and the importance of regular maintenance checks.    Other subsections include information on adjusting run times, monitoring soil moisture levels, the importance of irrigating during low-light periods, how to choose the right irrigation system, the importance of not watering during windy conditions, how to create management zones and information on installing smart sensors and pumps.    Even more options include alternative water sources, reducing evaporation, aeration fountains, using drip irrigation for trees, turf selection, developing a drought-management plan, managing localized dry spot and where and when to use drip irrigation.   The site also contains information on rebate programs in California.
  • The world's best players likely won't be wearing plus-fours next June when the U.S. Open returns to Oakmont Country Club, but they wouldn't be out of place if they did.
      The removal of even more trees since the 2007 U.S. Open and 2010 U.S. Women's Open has the course looking and playing more like it did when iron industrialist Henry Fownes built a links-style course on a bluff along the Allegheny River upstream from Pittsburgh in 1903 than it has at any time in the last half century.   As the dust settles on this year's Open at Chambers Bay, Oakmont superintendent John Zimmers and his bunch are busily preparing for next June, when the pros will descend on Western Pennsylvania. And when they do, galleries at Oakmont will be able to see action on nearly every hole regardless of where they are standing. About the only barrier standing in the way of patrons will be their own height.   Sure, the fronts of some bunkers have been shaved down at the behest of the USGA's Mike Davis to funnel more balls into harm's way, but any architectural changes begin and end there. The real story for the 2016 U.S. Open is going to be open vistas and wind ? a lot of wind.   "We haven't really done anything architecturally since '07, so there are a lot of similarities," said the 44-year-old Zimmers, who has been superintendent at Oakmont since he was 28 years old. "But the views are going to be much different."   From a point east of Pennsylvania's Turnpike near the third green and fourth tee, it's possible to see virtually the entire golf course. From there, only Nos. 13 and 16, two par 3s near an irrigation pond on the north side of the property, are not within sight. It is possible to see just about the entire golf course from much of the back nine.   "You can stand on (No.) 7 and see people putting on (No.) 12," Zimmers said. "It's going to be fabulous for the gallery."   It wasn't always like that here.   During the run-up to the 2007 U.S. Open, Oakmont made headlines for an aggressive restoration plan that included the removal of some 5,000 trees across the property, a move that accomplished at least four goals: it improved turf health, improved spectator views for USGA championships, returned the course to what Fownes envisioned more than a century ago, and it opened the door to wind becoming a factor on a course already noted more than any other for its treachery.   Oakmont is a place with a history of surprises for golfers, so just when it seemed like there wasn't another tree there worth touching, Zimmers found some. He and his staff started taking down more trees immediately after the 2010 U.S. Women's Open. The project shifted into hyper mode last summer when a storm mangled a wooded area between the 11th and 12th holes.      Members noticed a difference right away, as cutting down some of the damaged trees improved views on what already had become an open golf course.   "We went in and removed some of those trees, and people were like 'Wow.' They could really see the difference," Zimmers said. "That allowed us to go in and say 'You know what? Let's finish this.' "   After clearing the area behind the 12th green, crews and contractors moved on and cleared out the hillsides along the turnpike and railroad tracks that divide the property. When all was said and done, an estimated 7,000 additional trees had come down.   Taking out trees is a controversial decision at almost any golf course. Removing some 12,000 of them at a place like Oakmont with its legacy of championship golf is not something that is done hastily.   Most of the thousands of trees responsible for converting Oakmont from a links-style course to a parkland setting had been planted during the 1960s. Like them or not, they had become part of Oakmont's personality. The idea of removing them had both fans and detractors, and thus it has been a process that has taken years to accomplish.   "You have to start small. That's why it's taken such a long time," said Zimmers, who has been removing trees in increments since he started at Oakmont in 1999. "A majority of the people thought it would be really good, because you could see a little bit more, and some people have the foresight to be able to see that. But there were others who said 'I don't know if I'd do that. You're going to hear the turnpike more; you're going to see the (turnpike) sign.'  At the end of the day, everyone has embraced this. They realize that the turnpike is part of who we are here, and the railroad tracks are part of who we are."   Oakmont is well known for its tough-to-please members who like showing the USGA and the pros a thing or two every time they pass through Pittsburgh. They fancy lightning fast greens that can break your heart and conditions that can break your spirit. Whether it's for the U.S. Open or a member-guest, the higher the score, the more golfers here like it. The tree-removal project has been a hit with them, not only because of the views, but because the wind makes a grueling experience even more challenging.   "The wind is more of a factor now than it's ever been," Zimmers said. "The members like it because it makes the course harder, and it dries the course out faster, making it play faster."   Although the course arguably is more open than it has been in generations, it has been pinched in a bit, too.   Since he arrived 16 years ago, Zimmers has been gradually converting managed turf to non-irrigated naturalized areas. To date, he has converted about 80 acres to a mix of Chewings, hard and sheep fescues.   "People say 'hey, you need to let those areas go natural.' Natural areas, if you don't take care of them, turn into weeds," Zimmers said. "By converting to fescue from fine-cut turf, we still have fewer inputs, less maintenance and it looks fantastic."   At Oakmont, difficult conditions have always been about the greens, those famous Oakmont Poa greens.   The strain of Poa found at Oakmont is believed to grow only in Western Pennsylvania. Attempts to propagate it elsewhere have failed through the years. Each year, it takes a pounding from Mother Nature. And each year, it comes back as strong as ever to deliver a blow to golfers as subtle as a punch to the head.   "Keeping those greens going is our biggest challenge," Zimmers said. "People always say 'just seed it.' But we don't have anything to seed it with. You can put bentgrass down. That's fine as a filler, but it won't last long. It can't take a beating like our Western Pennsylvania Poa."   It can't deliver one like it either.
  • Harrell's acquires West Coast's Turfmaker
      Harrell's recently expanded its West Coast footprint with the acquisition of Turfmaker Inc.   A landscape supply company based in Chula Vista, California, Turfmaker serves golf courses, sports fields, sod farms, nurseries, schools and other commercial customers from San Diego to Los Angeles to the Coachella Valley.   Harrell's has been serving the horticulture market in California and the Pacific Northwest with Polyon controlled-release fertilizer, liquid nutritionals, soil wetting agents, and other agronomic products for nearly two years.   The acquisition brings a trio of seasoned sales representatives onto the Harrell's sales force of more than 110 people in the golf, horticulture, turf and landscape and specialty ag markets. Nick Spardy, George Peterson, and Bruce Wheeler will continue to serve Turfmaker customers in the area. Their combined 80 years of experience backed by the Harrell's operations and business teams generates a new level of quality and customer support to Turfmaker customers.        Deere reaffirms commitment to PGA Tour
      John Deere will continue as a title sponsor of professional golf through 2023 as a result of a seven-year extension by Deere and Co., the PGA Tour and the John Deere Classic. The agreement includes sponsorship of the John Deere Classic and multiple designations for John Deere in the Tour's Official Marketing Partner program.   According to James Field, president of Deere's Worldwide Agriculture and Turf Division, hundreds of community organizations have benefited from millions of dollars in contributions made through the John Deere Classic and the tournament has had substantial economic impact on the Quad City community where it is held.   Since the tournament began in 1971, more than $62 million has been raised for community and charitable organizations, including more than $6.3 million for 471 organizations in 2014.    John Deere became title sponsor of the tournament in 1998. As a result of the agreement, John Deere will celebrate 25 years as a PGA Tour title sponsor in 2022.     Deere retains its designation as Official Golf Course Equipment Supplier to the PGA Tour, Official Golf Course Equipment Supplier of the TPC Network, Official Landscape Product Supplier of the PGA Tour, and Official Golf Course Equipment Leasing Company. John Deere equipment is used at all Tour-owned TPC facilities. A recent study by Deere estimated the impact of the John Deere Classic is approximately $54 million annually to the Quad City area economy. This estimate includes money spent on travel, food, and lodging by visitors, the purchase of goods and services to support the tournament, and other purchasing that would not be needed if the tournament did not exist.    Steiner says it's never too early to think about snow removal
      Steiner, a maker of heavy-duty articulating tractors and attachments, has added a dual-stage snow blower to its winter attachment lineup.   Together with Steiner's 440 tractor, the SB648 professional snow blower is designed to blast through winter's toughest snow conditions. Built with cast iron and heavy-gauge steel, the snow blower is equipped with an 18-inch, four-blade impeller, sawtooth auger and 237-degree chute rotation for more snow-clearing performance.   The SB648's 48-inch-wide path moves snow up to 27 inches in depth, making it a solid choice for larger areas, like driveways, parking lots and wide walkways.    Other features include optional 52-inch extension wings, 10-gauge and 12-gauge steel construction, heavy-duty skid shoes and a cast iron gearbox.  
  • Handing out the Clean Corporate Citizen title isn't a task that the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality takes lightly. After all, fewer than 150 businesses throughout the state have earned the designation. But it's a moniker that can be well worth the wait for any entity that earns it.
      One of the most recent to earn the title is the University of Michigan Golf Course.   Built by Alister MacKenzie in 1931, the course sits on the southern edge of the 3,000-plus acre campus and directly across the street from 100,000-seat Michigan Stadium. It is ranked No. 11 on Golfweek's list of Best Campus Golf Courses. It's one of just two courses statewide to earn the title, the other being the university's Radrick Farms course, which earned C3 status in 2014.   According to the DEQ, the honor is reserved for "regulated establishments that have demonstrated environmental stewardship and a strong environmental ethic through their operations in Michigan."   "Gaining C3 certification at the U-M Blue Course is a result of the hard work and commitment to environmental stewardship of Scott Rockov, superintendent, and his entire team," said Corbin Todd, director of the University of Michigan Golf Courses in a news release.      C3 is a voluntary program that recognizes environmental stewardship at Michigan facilities. Candidates demonstrate active pollution prevention initiatives, a consistent record of compliance with state and federal environmental requirements, and must have a facility-specific Environmental Management System (EMS). The UM Golf Course EMS was initiated with help from e-par USA.   Each EMS must meet the following criteria for a corporate entity to be eligible for the C3 program: identification of environmental impacts, self-initiated compliance audits, public communication, environmental training for employees, a clear statement on the company's commitment to environmental excellence and continual improvement.   "The e-par EMS set us up for success to achieve the C3 certification," Rockov said in a release. "Environmental stewardship at the golf course extends from the commitment of Michigan Athletics and the entire University of Michigan to protecting our natural resources for generations to come."   According to the DEQ, admittance into the Clean Corporate Citizen program is much more than just a title. Those who earn the designation based on their performance in environmental management, pollution prevention and environmental compliance, are eligible for benefits including expedited permit reviews and fewer monitoring and reporting requirements. The goal of the voluntary program is to raise corporate awareness for environmental issues and rewarding participants in the program to help promote participation.   Other corporate entities to earn the C3 status include automotive parts and assembly plants, chemical plants, federal installations, metal finishing, nature gas industry, paper production, power utilities, printing and research and development.
  • For many superintendents in California, recent government-mandated water-use restrictions present a new set of challenges. For others who have made a habit of conserving water in recent years, like Justin Mandon at Pasatiempo Golf Club, reducing consumption by exponential amounts has become the rule, not the exception.
      Mandon is in his third season as superintendent at Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, and for the past two, he has been operating under city-mandated Stage 3 restrictions that have meant the amount of water available to the course has been cut by 50 percent.   When restrictions of 50 percent were announced by the City of Santa Cruz in spring 2014, developing a strategy for maintaining playability while conforming to these cutbacks became top priority not only for Mandon, but the rest of the club's management team as well.   About 30 acres of irrigated turf already had been replaced by native grasses during a 2009 restoration, so there wasn't a lot of area on the perimeter that could be converted out of managed turf. And a new irrigation system that went in the ground during that project meant water already was being distributed at peak efficiency.   Finding a way to be in compliance while not compromising the integrity of this 1929 Alister MacKenzie design required a team effort that included general manager Scott Hoyt and head golf professional Ken Woods. They proved invaluable to the process because they viewed the course from a player's perspective and provided the ability to approach membership as a united front.   "Ken has a better ideas of where shots are going to land throughout the course, and so does Scott," Mandon said. "Me, I'm just trying to save water."   The plan eventually included turning off water to the practice range as well as the first 30 to 40 yards in front of each forward tee.   "Working on this together was the only way we could do it. We all recognized that," Mandon said. "We had some heated and deep conversations on the golf course. We got it all out of our systems before going to the board. From those disagreements came a plan, and we're all taking responsibility for it. We went to the board as a team and told them what we were going to do. They were very supportive of our decision."   Mandated restrictions statewide stem from an April 1 directive by Gov. Jerry Brown, who ordered the state's 400-plus urban water districts to cut use statewide by 25 percent through June 2016. His order was implemented by the California Water Resources Control Board, which directed each of the state's 411 urban water providers to reduce usage by 8 percent to 36 percent (based on 2013 usage data). How much each district was required to save was based on location and prior consumption. Each district has been granted a wide berth as to how it meets its specific reduction quota.   The Marin Municipal Water District north of San Francisco is required to curb its water consumption by 20 percent.   Meadow Club director of grounds David Sexton and superintendent Sean Tully have been stingy in how they distribute water for years, so members at the course in Fairfax, a 1927 MacKenzie design and his first in the United States, likely won't notice much of a difference moving forward.   "We've been looking for ways to conserve water since David first got here more than 30 years ago," Tully said. "It has only gotten easier with all of the tools we have available today - irrigation system upgrades, wetting agents, and moisture meters have been integral in our water use reductions.   "We are part of the community, and we're already good stewards of the environment and we're going to continue to do that. We are part of the solution, not part of the problem."   To that end, Tully takes soil-moisture readings three days a week and uses the data to map areas on greens that are too dry, or too wet.  
    We are part of the community, and we're already good stewards of the environment and we're going to continue to do that. We are part of the solution, not part of the problem."
      His pump station sends him text messages four times per day telling him how much water is being used and when. If water use increases, he knows right away, like in 2014 when he adopted new hose nozzles for hand-watering in hopes of cutting water use even more. Instead, he noticed he was using more water, not less, so he went back to using the old nozzles.   "If you're not paying attention, the numbers can get out of whack real fast," Tully said.    This year, he's been removing heads throughout the course and drying down areas to reduce water use even more.    Using less water has a trickle down effect that means additional savings elsewhere. Less water means less disease pressure, fewer pesticide and fertilizer apps and mowing less frequently.   "We are drier, firmer and faster. That means we're spraying less," he said. "I've gotten away from spraying preventively. With the climate here, I can get away with that. Not everyone can."   Native grasses that Tully thought had been squeezed out through the years gradually have taken advantage of the arid conditions and have begun to reclaim areas where they once thrived.   "We had a lot of non-native grasses that had overgrown the perennial stuff in our naturalized areas. We thought we'd lost the perennial grasses," he said. "Now, the non-native grasses are gone and the perennials are coming back gangbusters.   "We still have some non-native grasses, they're just not as prolific. It's a work in progress."     About 30 miles east of Oakland in Pleasanton, Steve Agin began reducing water use at Ruby Hill Golf Club long before the governor told him he had to, and long before the Zone 7 water district implemented mandatory reductions of 24 percent.   When the state asked for voluntary cutbacks last year, Agin curbed usage by 23 percent by reducing irrigation in the club's 14-acre practice range and in the roughs. That made compliance with this year's mandatory cuts much more palatable. This year, he's met his requirement by continuing to dry down the roughs and reducing irrigation on the practice range by 80 percent. There, he waters targets only, which he says is more cost effective than applying colorants every four to five weeks. His plan has been embraced by the club's administration, including director of golf Nigel Rouse, a native of Manchester, England, who says the new look makes him homesick.   "He liked the look and the playability," Agin said. "He said it reminded him of England."   Even homeowners in the Ruby Hill community, who also were ordered to cut water use, came to Agin seeking advice on how to maintain some semblance of a lawn without incurring fines or surcharges for exceeding their quota.   "We have to do this while trying to retain members and attract new ones," Agin said. "It's tough.   "Homeowners have embraced it more than I thought they would, and that has helped us get over the hump. It makes it easier to handle when you have that support."   The City of Santa Cruz has been a pioneer in how to use less water.   Directed by the Water Resources Control Board to cut its use by 8 percent, the city is requiring its customers to be far more judicious in their water use. Unlike other water districts that are using 2013 as a benchmark for determining cutbacks, Santa Cruz is basing its reductions on real-time data. Mandon says that provides him with much more accurate information when determining how much water he can use. It also requires much more detailed reporting on his part.   The city receives an average of nearly 32 inches of rain per year, so there is no shortage of water, compared with nearby cities like San Jose that receive half that amount. For Santa Cruz, much of which is on the western slope of a mountain, the challenge has been catching and keeping rainfall for a city growing at a steady clip of nearly 4 percent per year.   "Santa Cruz has just gotten bigger and bigger. Water is pumped from the San Lorenzo River into just one reservoir," Mandon said. "We've had almost 30 inches of rain in the past year. It's about not having enough storage capacity, not about enough water."   Each April 15, the city announces what restrictions, if any, it will enact to get through the summer. Those restrictions go into effect May 1 and remain in place through at least Nov. 1. The baseline on which those restrictions are established is the result of a complex formula that determines how many gallons of water are needed daily to irrigate an area based on acreage, a landscape (turf) coefficient, daily ET and precipitation. That number, theoretically, can change daily. And although it means Mandon is able to irrigate off real-time data and real-time needs, it also means he has to monitor his use daily to avoid real-time penalties.   "It's great that it's based on current conditions, but the hard part is the work involved," Mandon said. "We can't wait for six weeks and get a bill and see where we are then. You're fined $66,000 for every million gallons you're over budget.   "I put all our data into an Excel document and compare it to meter readings. By season's end last year, we were within 1 to 1.5 percent."   Navigating through restrictions requires walking a fine line between golfer expectations and the negative PR golf receives from outside the industry. There already are many detractors of the game who believe the game symbolizes a waste of water resources. The drought has brought out more of them. For facilities in California, success might be reserved for those who can educate people on both sides of the issue.   "It's frustrating for superintendents and golfers," Mandon said. "We have to change their perception of what a golf course should look like."   This is part of a multi-part series on golf and water in California.
  • For superintendents who have to grow grass in tough-to-grow places, Profile Products has released its ProGanics Biotic Soil Media.
      Designed as a topsoil alternative, ProGanics accelerates the development of depleted soils and substrates containing low amounts of organic matter, low nutrients levels and limited biological activity. With abundant levels of organic matter and soil-building components, ProGanics is formulated to modify soil chemistry and initiate growth.   ProGanics is a combination of thermally refined bark and wood fibers with a proprietary blend of biopolymers, biochar, seaweed extract, humic acid, endomycorrhizae and other beneficial constituents that work together to improve growing conditions in the soil profile.   ProGanics also is designed to optimize water retention.   It is ideal for use on steep slopes where topsoil placement might not be practical. It provides a nearly erosion free surface when used with Profile's ProMatrix and Flexterra products.   The product Web site contains information on case studies, product brochures (in English and Spanish), datasheets, application guides, tools to calculate how much product is needed and a savings calculator.
  • NovaSource, a business unit of Tessenderlo Kerley Inc. (TKI), is voluntarily recalling all of its turf fungicide formulation product marketed under the brand names of ArmorTech ALT 70 by United Turf Alliance, LLC (UTA) and Viceroy 70DF by United Phosphorus Inc. (UPI).
      On June 17, TKI recalled 2013 production batches of the turf fungicide formulation with batch codes that begin with the number 6 (e.g., 6101701). The manufacturer found evidence of contamination from the herbicide sulfometuron methyl in the turf fungicide formulation following laboratory investigation and testing.   The updated recall now includes all products of any batch number of either brand in the marketplace.   "We have reason to believe that the problem goes beyond the 6-series production batches, and out of an abundance of caution are recalling all turf product in the market," said David Cassidy, TKI group vice president. "We are working diligently with a team of experts to provide on-site turf management suggestions for mitigating turf injury, and internally we are examining all production practices to identify and resolve the problem."   As with the original recall, TKI asks that ALT 70 and Viceroy 70DF users take the following steps immediately: do not use or apply ALT 70 or Viceroy 70DF; return product to the point of sale or to the product distributors for full credit, including reimbursement of costs associated with the return.   ALT 70 and Viceroy are post-patent systemic fungicides manufactured by NovaSource TKI. Each contains the active ingredient O-ethyl phosphonate (aluminum tris) and is labeled for control of anthracnose, Pythium and Phytophthora. Sales of both products were stopped June 5 after reports of damaged turf began to pop up on multiple golf courses throughout the Northeast.   For more information about the recall and tips on improving turfgrass recovery, visit alt70info.com.

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