Drs. Rick Brandenburg and Fred Yelverton helped golf course superintendents in the Carolinas, throughout the country and around the world solve their turfgrass management challenges for parts of five decades.
Naturally, it was a big deal when both retired from North Carolina State University on the same day last June 30.
The announcement of their concurrent retirement was the most-read story on TurfNet in 2024.
Click here to read the story in its entirety.
Brandenburg and Yelverton each earned his doctorate degree at NC State, then returned to work there in 1984 and 1985, respectively.
Since then, each has become a recognized leader in his respective field, Yelverton in weed science and Brandenburg in turf pathology and entomology and have logged a combined 79 years in the field in Raleigh.
"To be honest, I don't know if I can even put them into words," said Matthew Wharton, CGCS at Idle Hour Country Club in Lexington, Kentucky, who spent 17 years at Carolina Golf Club in Charlotte. "They're recognized around the world."
Both men entered the turf industry almost by chance.
Yelverton was ready to enter medical school after earning a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology from NC State, but a hunting accident in North Carolina opened the door to a series of events that led him to change his mind while recuperating in the hospital.
"After two weeks in the hospital, I decided a hospital was the last place I wanted to be," he said.
Brandenburg's journey into turf was equally unexpected.
"I had no experience in turf. My training was in field crops," Brandenburg said. "When I had the opportunity for this job, it was in forage crops, grains, peanuts and a little bit of turf. It didn't make any sense. It was a real mixed bag."
Each soon quickly became a recognized global leader in his respective field.
"Both have been pillars of the turf faculty group," said NC State professor and extension specialist, Grady Miller, Ph.D. "They have been here a long time. It's going to be a shock to the system that it's not Rick and Fred anymore."
Click on the headlines below to read each story that make up the rest of the top 10 most-read stories of 2024.
Owen oversees his final Masters
After parts of five decades overseeing conditions at the world's most famous golf course, Brad Owen called it quits at Augusta National Golf Club after the 2024 Masters.
Owen had worked at Augusta for 37 years, including the past 27 as superintendent.
His achievements and dedication to Augusta National and the Masters Tournament were acknowledged by club chairman Fred Ridley four minutes into a 40-minute pre-tournament news conference on April 10 that also recognized the contributions of Lundquist and former Masters champion Jack Burke.
No. 3: Historic Detroit Golf Club gets a makeover
There was a time when the layout at Detroit Golf Club was a model for moving surface water. For years, a system of ditches, gullies and drains that was built into the design by Donald Ross a century ago was a critically important feature of a nearly dead flat golf course with barely 5 feet of total elevation change.
Over time, thanks to things like cart paths and architectural changes in the modern era, those features became lost or partially obstructed. As a result, superintendent Sam Moynihan and his team lose a great deal of valuable time after almost every rain event.
Reintroducing those land features is an integral part of a $16 million master plan and restoration of North and South courses at Detroit Golf Club by architect Tyler Rae that is scheduled for completion in 2026.
No. 4: Emergency use suspension leads to cancellation of 60-plus-year-old herbicide
Following an emergency suspension of all uses of the herbicide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (DCPA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is initiating a voluntary cancellation of registration of the weedkiller that has been in use for more than 60 years.
First registered in 1958 for control of broadleaf weeds in ornamental turf and row crops, DCPA is the active ingredient in the herbicide Dacthal. The EPA initiated the emergency order in early August in response to years of concerns affecting both end users and others exposed to the chemical.
The EPA contends DCPA poses a threat to applicators and those exposed to it for long periods and is a particular threat to pregnant women and unborn babies.
No. 5: It's back! Velocity herbicide returns with new formulation, use directions
For more than a decade, Velocity herbicide from Nufarm was a standard for control of Poa annua and Poa trivialis in cool- and warm-season turf on golf course tees and fairways. The next iteration, Velocity PM, hit the turf market in March.
With the same active ingredient as original Velocity SG, the new formulation, Velocity Poa Management, is a low-use-rate herbicide labeled for use on creeping bentgrass, perennial ryegrass, tall fescue and dormant Bermudagrass on golf course tees and fairways.
It is a compatible tank mix partner with plant growth regulators, fertilizers and fungicides.
No. 6: After 25 years, Nagle starts own golf course design firm
After a quarter-century working side by side with Ron Forse, golf course architect Jim Nagle launched his own design firm, Nagle Design Works.
Among Nagle's work is the recent restoration of Lancaster Country Club in Pennsylvania, site of the 2024 U.S. Women's Open.
Nagle will hit the ground running with a handful of ongoing and upcoming projects on his schedule. His projects include rebuilding the back nine on Philadelphia Country Club's Spring Mill Course, and soon will begin work on a renovation of Westwood Country Club in the Cleveland area.
No. 7: Running Boone's Trace is a true family affair
When Chris and Kelly Rutherford, then of Lexington, Kentucky retired in 2014 from the family business started by Chris's father, Lee, they turned their attention to playing golf, taking an entire year off to do nothing but hit the links.
Four years later, when the course now known as Boone's Trace National Golf Club in nearby Richmond went up for sale in 2018, the Rutherford's decided to buy it.
The operation truly is a family affair. Chris does whatever is necessary, wife Kelly is general managerCameron, a graduate of the Golf Academy of America in Florida, serves as director of golf, and Kelly acts as general manager. As business owners, all do whatever needs to be done, from riding a mower for superintendent Vince Amonett, to helping in the restaurant and everything in between.
No. 8: Debby weakens as it moves ashore, heads north
Tropical Storm Debby continued to ravage the Southeast with heavy rainfall as it made its second landfall in early August. Debby came ashore about 2 a.m. on Aug. 1 near Bulls Bay, South Carolina, with winds of 50 mph. The storm was tracking northward at 10 mph with winds of 40 mph.
The storm made landfall July 29 on the west coast of Florida near Steinhatchee as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of 80 mph and moved out to sea again Tuesday east of Charleston at 5 mph with winds of 65 mph before coming ashore again Thursday.
Debby was blamed for multiple deaths, spawned a tornado that heavily damaged a school in central North Carolina. The storm left rainfall totals of a foot or more and flooding throughout parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
No. 9: 2024 fungicide guide is now available
The bible for fungicide use to control diseases in turfgrass has evolved quite a bit in the past three decades.
When Paul Vincelli, Ph.D., began his career in plant pathology at the University of Kentucky in 1990, the publication titled Chemical Control of Turfgrass Diseases, was little more than a diagnosis guide and a catalog of products available at the time. The guide quickly became much more soon after his UK colleague Bill Nesmith, Ph.D., told Vincelli that turf managers wanted to know what works best for a specific disease, not just what is available.
Eventually, Vincelli devised a rating system that graded product efficacy and the publication has become the go-to guide for diagnosing and controlling diseases in turf, and since 2017 has been administered by plant pathologists at other universities, namely Bruce Clarke, Ph.D., at Rutgers and Paul Koch, Ph.D. of the University of Wisconsin.
The guide, available as a free download through the University of Kentucky, contains information on more than two dozen common turfgrass diseases and how to control them.
No. 10: Man pleads guilty in triple murder at Georgia golf course to avoid death penalty
The man who was indicted for the 2021 murder of a Georgia golf professional and two others in a drug-deal-gone-wrong confessed to the crime to avoid the death penalty.
Bryan Rhoden was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole after pleading guilty to multiple counts of murder and kidnapping in the deaths of Pinetree Country Club golf pro Gene Siller, 46, Henry Valdez, 46, and Paul Pierson, 76, at the Kennesaw, Georgia golf course in July 2021.
Siller was found dead near Pinetree's No. 10 green, when he responded to calls about a pickup truck on the golf course. Police found Valdez, a drug supplier, and Pierson, his associate, dead in the bed of a Dodge pickup that had been abandoned on the property.