For better or worse (mostly worse), 2020 was a memorable year for golf.
Defined by years of declining interest, the game enjoyed a revival in most places in 2020. Although year-end statistics won’t be known until later into January, it’s safe to say year-over-year growth in 2020 has set many records. That’s the good.
That renaissance was driven almost entirely by a global pandemic that for months literally drove a stake through the heart of many other activities and forms of entertainment. That’s the bad.
We have compiled a list of the 10 most-read stories of the year on TurfNet. Some brought good news; some, not so much. Click on the headline to read the full text of each story.
10. Jacobsen turfcare manufacturing moving exclusively to U.K.
In an attempt to further streamline operations of its turf division, Jacobsen will move all manufacturing of its turfcare products to its facility in the United Kingdom. The Ransomes/Jacobsen manufacturing center in Ipswich offers more flexibility and will lead to increased manufacturing efficiency, the company said.
9. Yale Golf Course begins long road back to former glory
First, Yale Golf Course lost its longtime superintendent, then its general manager then the course at the Ivy League school in New Haven, Connecticut, was closed in response to Covid. It was all downhill from there as conditions waned at the 100-year-old Seth Raynor classic.
8. Florida superintendent redefines low-budget success
On the surface, Monterey Yacht and Country Club in Stuart, Florida, sounds like one of South Florida's premier golf clubs that can be found in a 10-minute radius. In reality, Monterey YCC is a modest, yet well-maintained nine-holer that redefines low-budget golf. Providing players at this 55-and-older community is superintendent Matt Lean, who has rewritten what it means to do more with less.
7. Former superintendent goes all-in to help solve labor problems
Finding solutions to some of golf's most pressing issues, like those related to labor, requires a unique way of thinking. Solving golf's labor issue, says former superintendent Tyler Bloom, is the result of a formula that includes matching the right applicant with the right job at the right golf course under the right superintendent. It's a process Bloom calls workforce development, and he is willing to stake his future on it.
6. For Schwab, facilitating change in the workplace begins at home
Creating a more diverse workplace in the golf industry is not part of a plan developed by a multi-association ad-hoc committee, nor is it a result of a bullet point plan on an academic's PowerPoint presentation. At least not at Pheasant Run Golf Club in Sharon, Ontario, where superintendent Leasha Schwab has created an inclusive workplace in which everyone is held to account by how they perform their job rather than how they look while doing it.
5. Walter Montross, 66, career superintendent and Charter TurfNet Member
A legend in the Mid-Atlantic for more than 40 years, Walter Montross died on Easter Sunday at age 66. A Maryland native who graduated from the University of Maryland in 1975, Montross started under Lee Dieter, CGCS, at Washington Golf & Country Club (Arlington, VA), then went to Springfield (VA) G&CC for 11 years, and in 1990 moved to Westwood Country Club in Vienna, VA until he retired in 2011.
4. Nicklaus says Muirfield's Mark is the right man for Tour's doubleheader
When the PGA Tour returned to play in July, it did so at Jack Nicklaus's Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio where director of grounds operations Chad Mark and his team hosted two PGA Tour events in two weeks - The Workday Charity Open and The Memorial Tournament. "The back-to-back tournaments at Muirfield, if anyone was going to handle it, I think it's in the hands of the right person," Nicklaus said of Mark.
3. Superintendent in need of a transplant gets a kidney from an unlikely source
At age 10, Chase Best's kidneys functioned like those of a 50-year-old man. Today, his kidneys function at about 8 percent of normal capacity, leading to fatigue, lethargy and worse, like minimizing the body's ability to cleanse itself of impurities. His condition worsened over time, and he's been on a donor list for the past three years. Ultimately, he found a donor in his former Pony League baseball coach, Jake Yonkers. He's been undergoing dialysis since Jan. 6. Friends started a gofundme page on behalf of the family to help raise money and awareness.
2. Assistant has vision to introduce at-risk kids to careers in turf
Chris McIntyre did not have a lot growing up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. A part-time job at a golf course was an unlikely landing spot for an African American kid from the other side of the tracks. Today, McIntyre believes it is his responsibility to pay forward his good fortune and do for others what his former boss did for him.
1. For superintendent and his family, one question remains: Why?
Matt Henkel, general manager and superintendent at Prairie View Golf Club, a public forest preserve property in Byron, Illinois,, was diagnosed with brain cancer 12 years ago. After several surgeries and radiation treatments, he was cancer-free for four years until his annual check-up last fall when doctors discovered a grade 4 glioblastoma that has left the family feeling gut-punched, unsure of the future and asking "why".