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About this blog

TurfNet founder Peter McCormick weighs in on topics relevant and not...

Entries in this blog

Life

Perfectly imperfect: Old stone steps and a succession of dogs...

There are two sets of stone steps at my home in Vermont. One, leading up to the front door, was freshly hewn at a local quarry when we built fifteen years ago. The other, old and trodden, was rescued from an old church about to be torn down. The new steps are all crisp edges and smooth surfaces, appropriate for a formal front entrance, a testament to craftsmanship and quality of manufacture. They are beautiful but at the same time somehow sterile. The old steps are across the drive and lead
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick in Life

4
Presentations

Rutgers Winter School 2022: Observations, Anecdotes and Life Lessons Learned

I had the pleasure of speaking to the 2022 graduating class of the Rutgers Golf Turf Professional Management School back in March. I somewhat invited myself, I guess, since Robert Moinichen, class president, had contacted me over the winter in search of a speaker and asked who the most recent Superintendent of the Year was. Well, we don't do Superintendent of the Year anymore, I had to tell him, but if you're really stuck I'd be happy to do it myself. As a Rutgers alumnus with deep roots in
business

Finding (and Creating) Happiness, Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace...

Occasionally one finds glimmers of light and hope amidst a train wreck, including the one cast upon us by Covid, the ongoing political circlejerks here and in many other countries, and now the  strongarm antics of the madman across the water (no offense to Elton John) in Russia. A somewhat convoluted happenstance when researching our weekly Turf Blog & Social Aggregator a few months ago led me to contact Stuart Butler, senior greenkeeper at Royal St. Georges Golf Club in southeastern En
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick in business

0
business

The Gatorade Ice Dump and the Pivot of 2021...

One of my favorite metaphors in life is "adjustment of the rudder", making small but continual changes to keep one on course to reach a desired destination or goal rather than miss wide of the mark. Normally — and I hesitate to use that word as it’s rapidly becoming meaningless — small tweaks in a good management plan have usually been sufficient. But there are occasions when a hard pull on the tiller — a pivot in today's business-speak — is required to avoid impending disaster, particularly whe
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick in business

6

Finally, discovering a "Bucket Item"...

A favorite conversational topic of mine among my graying peers is whether or not they have a Bucket List, and if so, what's on it.  I ask because I'm interested in them (the person), but also because I don't have one (Bucket List), and wonder if I might be missing something. How can one not have a Bucket List?  I touched on this in a post about a year ago, but in review, I have already checked off the major bullet points that would populate most lists: I've been happily married to m
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

10

It’s 2020. Who am I? Who are you? Who are we?

I tend to like even numbers for whatever reason, and look ahead more optimistically at even-numbered years than odd. But this one, 2020, has thrown that out the window. Man, did I ever get this one wrong. We seem to hit new lows almost every day. The silver lining of the recent coronavirus "pause" in our daily routines has been for me more opportunity to step back, observe, reflect and think about where I — and we — fit in the new jigsaw puzzle that is life from 2020 onward. Coronaviru
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

5

Racism in Golf Turf Management

Racism in the golf turf industry? Say what? Yagottabekiddinme. Of course I jest. There is no racism in golf turf. That’s because, for all intents and purposes, there is only one race in golf turf management. In salaried positions (superintendents and assistants, and we might as well include suppliers, academics and the media as well), we are 99% white... and 99% male. Those figures are my guesstimates, but if these things are tracked somewhere — and what isn’t — I doubt I'd be more tha
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

9

Lessons from Dave...

Seems like I'm stuck in a pattern here of writing about people who we've recently lost. A month ago Walter Montross, then Ken Melrose, and now Dave Heegard. The hits just keep coming. If you're among the hundreds (if not thousands) of turf guys who swung through Farmlinks during the Pursell days in the early 2000s, no doubt you met Dave Heegard. I had been to Sylacauga twice, once prior to the golf course and lodge being built, and of course the second after.  The latter visit was when I me
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

6

For Ken Melrose, Personal Wealth Was Seed and Fertilizer

I was saddened yesterday to hear of the passing of Ken Melrose, past president/CEO/chairman ("executive emeritus", if there were such a thing) of the Toro Company. I write this not as a factual obituary (I'll leave that to John Reitman), eulogy or even memorial, as I did not know him beyond several casual handshakes back in the late '80s/early '90s when I was in the peripheral Toro family. It's mostly a recollection of observations made as I watched him from afar. Ken Melrose did well for h
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

0

The Hard Reset of 2020

Looking back a couple of months to BCV (Before Coronavirus), the thought that 200 million Americans and more around the world would be hitting the pause button and staying at home for a month or more would have been ludicrous. Absurd. No way. Fast forward and here we are.  I’m sure I am not the only one who wakes up from another restless sleep to hope that this is just a bad dream. Of course, it is not. The horrors of this pandemic are yet to be felt by most of us. Thankfully we work i
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

1

Keep calm and stay connected...

So here we are. Uncharted waters. The stuff of sci-fi novels and B-grade terror flicks in the here and now. The novel coronavirus of 2020 has redefined “rate of change” in our lives, upending the oft-tenuous sense of balance we enjoyed BCV. Before Coronavirus. Yesterday, last week and last month. The Dow at 29,000, sports on TV, handshakes and hugs the norm, the paper products aisle fully stocked. (I can understand shortages of Purell but the toilet paper hoarding thing has me stumped; afte
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

7

A special place in hell...

I really don't want to write this, but there is a rage welling up inside me that begs release. For me, writing is cathartic — like having a therapist at my fingertips — so here we go. With senior citizenship upon me, I have dedicated the past year or two to personal wellness, finding and sharing joy, and shunning stress and negativity whenever possible. The latter is the most challenging of the three, but integral to the first two. I've found the key (if you can't simply avoid them) is to m
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

9

The underbelly of Toro's Ventrac acquisition...

I heard yesterday about Toro's impending purchase of Venture Products just like most everyone did, via social media. Venture Products manufactures the increasingly popular and versatile Ventrac line of all-terrain prime movers and attachments. My initial knee-jerk reaction was, "Perfect! Score one for Toro..." and of course for the Steiner family, owners of Venture Products. Toro will be a good steward of the brand, "Toro-ize" it to their standards, develop new attachments and take the line
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

4

Under siege: Carve some for yourself...

Holidays are all about traditions, so it's appropriate that I sit here this Thanksgiving morning contemplating and writing. It's what I do, for some reason, like splitting wood on New Year's Day. (Reading this after Thanksgiving? You may want to skip to here.) This is an odd Thanksgiving for us, with no bird destined for the oven, no casseroles or side dishes in the making. Daughter A is rotating off with Hubby's family (at her chagrin, I'm sure), but a tradeoff for Christmas. My mothe
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

3

Intention and low trajectory implementation...

I called a friend/summer neighbor yesterday to reconnect as the long Vermont winter has turned the corner and is inching toward spring. Brian and I email occasionally but hearing the voice (and in his case, the laughter) is good tonic and well worth the effort. The words of my late friend Gordon Witteveen loom large with me: "If you don't work at relationships they soon go away." So I try to pick up the phone when the odds are good that the recipient will be relatively available. Sunday afternoo
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

1

Early morning inspiration...

I am fortunate to be able to spend a few months each year on a small island in the lower Bay of Fundy in eastern Canada. (Some would say I'm "lucky", but luck has nothing to do with it.) Our home is almost at the northern tip of this 9 mile x 3 mile island, which narrows down to a 50 yard-wide peninsula topped by the Head Harbour Lightstation, a scenic lighthouse with 270 degree views of the surrounding bays. The lighthouse is a popular destination for tourists, lighthouse aficionados (of w
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

3

An open letter to Dave Wilber...

Good blog post last week, Dave. Resonated with a lot of people (over 18,000 as I write this), and I'm sure it was therapeutic for you. Dave, we need to talk. As we get older we look back on our lives and tend to remember the defining moments: the first girlfriend, first car, first garage band, sports triumphs (and losses), graduations, jobs, marriage and divorce, kids, dogs, grandkids, granddogs, and yes -- the death of friends and loved ones. You get the picture. In many ways our
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

2

My Day... You Can't Make This Sh*t Up

Couldn't resist sharing my Forum post... Gotta tell you about my day so far (it's only noon now)... Woke up at 3:00AM as is about the norm these days, squirmed for an hour then got up at 4:00 to peruse the "news" (as it were) and surf some online guitar lessons. Made my pot of coffee but must not have pushed the pot all the way back in to open up the no-drip thingy. So the coffee and grounds backed up all over the counter and down into the innards of the coffee pot (a problem wit
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

0

A Slap-Me-Upside-the-Head WTF Moment

Here's a holiday chuckle for you: It's no secret that I really, really don't like to travel.  I don't mind being elsewhere (although home is always the best place), I just don't like the process of getting there and back.  And every trip, it seems, has a story.  This one has a Real Slap-Me-Upside-the-Head WTF Moment in it. I'm not one of those who fixate on frequent flyer miles, affinity programs and all that.  The LAST thing I want is a free ticket anywhere, although on second thought
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

5

Lucky or fortunate? It's a matter of intention...

Reading Paul MacCormack's recent blog post about the concept of intention got me thinking... as good blog posts do. In this case, it prompted me to think of the popular concepts of luck and good fortune, and how each may or may not be related to intention. I come from a long line of wordsmiths (writers, editors, a photojournalist, newspaper people, even a dictionary editor) who instilled in me a love of language and its various nuances. My maternal grandmother, an author of children's first
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

2

Career: Know when to stay the course, and when to change it...

This is a career case study of two individuals in very different circumstances but with one thing in common: they know what they want out of life and career. Those of you who have hung around TurfNet for any length of time either know or know of John Colo.  Passionate golf course superintendent, long-time TurfNet member who organized and orchestrated the around-the-world "Where's TurfNet" banner campaign a few years back, twin brother of a golf course superintendent (Jim, at Naples National
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

0

Enjoy the high points, 'cause sh*t can happen at any time

Father of the Bride is undoubtedly the best gig to have on wedding day: all pride and no pressure. August 1 of this year was one of the two proudest days of my life, as I walked Daughter A down the aisle at Old North Church (of "one if by land, two if by sea" fame) in Boston.  The other proudest day was when I did the same with Daughter B in Vermont, back in October, 2013. Prouder than my own wedding... births of the girls... graduations... starting TurfNet*? Yes. I'll explain in a bit.
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

2

Gus, the golf course dog...

Here's one from the TurfNet Archives, a reflection I wrote back in December of 1997 during the era when I still pretended to be a golfer... before the "four hours of frustration and embarrassment" got the best of me and I parked my sticks forever. Memory tells me it was after a trip to Alabama to visit with David Pursell and family to view the early plans for what would become Farmlinks. I can't recall the name of the golf course we played that day, but reading this again reminded me that aside
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

1

Producer or consumer? What's your +/- rating?

My parents used to drill into my siblings and me, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything." I've taken that a step further lately with the adage, "If I don't have something meaningful to say, don't say anything." -- hence my hiatus from the Cheap Seats blog of late.  But I'm back. I was reading a book over the Easter weekend entitled When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Not my usual reading fare (I lean toward murder mysteries, legal and police procedurals), but w
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

4

Welcome rejection - or - My day in court...

I don't get inspired by life events too much anymore to pick up the pen and scribe a column for the "Cheap Seats" but I can't let my Monday past go without comment.  It was a day (morning, actually) of irritation, resignation, conflicting feelings, awe, pride and wonderment.  It was my day in court. The story starts about six weeks ago when I received an envelope in the mail from the United States District Court, District of Vermont, with JUROR SUMMONS showing through the window. Ah, shit,
Peter McCormick

Peter McCormick

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