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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    A rendering of the new short course and putting course to be built at BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens. BallenIsles CC image The one-time home of the PGA of America is growing.
    BallenIsles Country Club in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, is adding a new 10-hole short course and a putting course, both of which will be designed by golf course architect Rees Jones. 
    With holes ranging in length from 80 yards to 160 yards and a nine-hole putting course covering a combined 4 acres, the $6 million project is scheduled to open in fall 2026, according to BallenIsles.
    "We are so proud of the work Rees Jones and Bryce Swanson did with us (on the South Course) in 2019 that we could not wait for the opportunity to work with them again," Jeff Fitzherbert, BallenIsles director of golf, said. 
    "We are eager to get to work and see what the Rees Jones design team will come up this time."

    The East Course at BallenIsles Country Club, No. 14 shown here, was the site of the 1971 PGA Championship when the facility was known as PGA National Golf Club. BallenIsles photo The 54-hole BallenIsles was developed in 1964 as PGA National Golf Club by entrepreneur and philanthropist John D. MacArthur, who also is credited with developing and naming Palm Beach Gardens five years earlier in 1959. 
    The club's East and North courses, both designed by Dick Wilson and Joe Lee, opened in 1964. The East Course was the one-time home of the PGA Tour Qualifying School, and Jack Nicklaus won the 1971 PGA Championship there. 
    Rees Jones most recently renovated the Wilson/Lee-designed South Course in 2019. 
    Wilson was the architect of other notable South Florida designs like Pine Tree in Boynton Beach and the Blue Course at Trump Doral in Miami. Lee is credited with more than 100 designs worldwide, including dozens in Florida.
    When the PGA of America moved across Florida's Turnpike in 1973, its former home was renamed JDM Country Club in MacArthur's honor. It remained JDM until 1988 when the foundation bearing MacArthur's name sold the property that was renamed BallenIsles Country Club.
    The PGA of America moved its headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens in 2022 to Frisco, Texas.
  • Despite their threatening appearance, periodical cicadas are harmless, and according to some, quite delicious. Photo by John Reitman The shrieking noise spreading across golf courses in at least a dozen states can mean only one thing. No, it is not golfers screeching about green speeds. That shrill sound means another brood of periodical cicadas has emerged from the ground like something from The Walking Dead, though some might find it difficult to recognize the difference.
    Every 17 years, or 13, depending on the brood, periodical cicadas rise from the ground in overwhelming numbers to inundate lawns, golf courses and forests across their range. This spring, cicadas, or their exorcised outer shells, from Brood XIV can be found in the canopies of trees, on branches or twigs, in the grass or on fences. They can also be found on posts supporting tee signs and ball washers or just about anything above ground, such as your leg, your shoes or your dog. Although they look like something from a sci-fi flick with their bulbous red eyes, pitch black body, bright orange wings and grotesque, zombie-like appearance, cicadas are nothing more than a harmless, if not haunting, nuisance. That is, unless you consider cicada pee harmful. 
    These spooky-looking creatures have no interest in getting tangled in people's hair. Their sole purpose in life is to mate and — one way or another — die. The sound they make comes from randy males seeking amorous arthropods of the opposite sex so they can hook up and propagate the species before they die or get eaten by something higher up the food chain — like Ohio State's Dr. Dave Shetlar. 
    Looking back four years ago at the emergence of a previous brood, Shetlar, professor emeritus of entomology at Ohio State, served up a reminder — literally — that cicadas can be a food source for more than just birds.

    Cicadas arrive all at once to overwhelm potential predators and guarantee the species' survival. Photo by John Reitman Throughout his 35-year career in academia, Shetlar has provided hundreds of golf course superintendents with timely insect-management tips. Four years ago, he gave advice of a different nature when, drawing upon his skills in entomophagy (the art of cooking bugs for consumption), Shetlar told us not only are cicadas edible, but with 11 herbs and spices they can be downright tasty. And he was more than willing to put his money where his mouth is.
    His tips on preparing fettuccine a la cicada were all the rage in 2021 when a news crew from WCMH-TV in Columbus was on hand as he cooked up a skillet full of pests and pasta.
    According to the U.S. Forest Service, there are 15 broods of cicadas found across the U.S. A dozen of them are on a 17-year cycle, while the other three have a 13-year internal clock. The system of naming and distinguishing 17- and 13-year species using Roman numerals was developed in 1902 by U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist Charles Marlatt.
    Brood XIV is the nation's second largest swarm, covering parts of Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia at populations up to 1.5 million cicadas per acre, according to Gene Kritsky, Ph.D., professor emeritus of biology at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. Their mind-numbing numbers are an example of evolution at work, as they arrive all at once so as to overwhelm potential predators and guarantee the species's survival.

    When Brood X swarmed across central Ohio four years ago, Ohio State entomologist Dave Shetlar, Ph.D., cooked up a few during a Columbus newscast. Image from WCMH-TV According to Kritsky, juvenile cicadas spend their lives deep in the soil at depths of 8-12 inches and emerge from their long hibernation when soil temperatures reach 64-65 degrees. He has developed a Cicada Safari web site and mobile app for all things cicada. The free Cicada Safari app is available on the Apple App Store or Google Play.
    Brood XIV was first detected this year in late April in southern Tennessee and northern Georgia. They have since emerged throughout northern Tennessee, into Kentucky and in parts of the Cincinnati area. With a widespread range, Brood XIV soon will emerge throughout its northern range as soil temperatures rise in those locations, Kritsky said.
    After emerging from the soil, the cicadas shed their exoskeleton and the mating process begins with males wooing prospective mates with their haunting song. Females will then lay their eggs in slits they create in trees. When the eggs hatch about two months later, the nymphs drop to the ground and burrow deep into the soil where they remain for 17 years and the cycle begins anew.
    While underground, the juveniles survive for up to 17 years on plant roots and other organic matter. In their short life above ground (about a month) they consume tree sap, and a lot of it, up to 300 times their weight. It is understandable that relief comes in the way of a voluminous jet-like spray commonly known as cicada rain, according to researchers at Georgia Tech. 
    The presence of periodical cicadas were known by American Indians for centuries, but the Pilgrims were the first Europeans to recognize them in North America when what is now Brood XIV greeted them in Plymouth Colony in 1634. 
    To their credit, the Pilgrims stayed anyway.
  • John Deere is making a long-term commitment to invest across its many business segments in the next decade.
    Deere announced at its recent quarterly earnings meeting to commit $20 billion in investments companywide, including expansions at its Greeneville, Tennessee facility that manufactures turf maintenance equipment, the company said.
    The plan includes investing $100 million in Deere plants nationwide, including $15 million and 25 new jobs at the Greeneville plant for expanded zero-turn mower manufacturing, according to the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
    The Greeneville facility employs about 600 people.

    A plan by John Deere to spend about $20 billion in companywide investment projects includes expanding a remanufacturing facility in Missouri where used Deere parts and equipment are restored to like-new condition. John Deere photo Among other projects is a 120,000-square-foot expansion of Deere's remanufacturing facility in Stafford, Missouri. Remanufacturing involves taking used, worn-out products and restoring them into like-new condition.
    Other projects are construction of a new excavator factory in Kernersville, North Carolina and new assembly lines for a high-horsepower tractor in Waterloo, Iowa.
    The company employs more than 30,000 across the U.S.
  • PH Holdings, a supplier of equipment and products to the turf market, recently acquired Turf Pride USA, a manufacturer of professional turf maintenance equipment.
    Founded in 2023, PH Holdings is the Missouri-based parent of PH Outdoors and PH Turf and specializes in turf care, land management and outdoor stewardship. PH Turf offers a line of maintenance equipment for the professional and residential turf segments that includes Allett specialty mowers, Thatch-Away thatch-management equipment, Patchwork GPS guidance technology and Greentek turf conditioning equipment. PH Outdoors specializes in land and wildlife habitat management.
    With headquarters in Andalusia, Alabama, Turf Pride USA was founded by Don Cotton and manufactures parts and equipment for the turf and agriculture markets. 

    PH Holdings, the parent company’s of PH Turf, has acquired Turf Pride USA, the maker of a line of products for the turf industry, including aeration equipment (above). Turf Pride's portfolio includes products such as lifts, finish mowers, roller mowers, stacked bearings, thatch-management equipment, bed knife and reel sharpeners, mower blades, core collectors, deep tine aeration equipment, reel racks and sweepers.
    "After 23 years of growing Turf Pride, I wanted to ensure the next chapter was in good hands," Cotton said. "PH Holdings shares our core values, work ethic, and passion for this industry. I couldn’t ask for a better team to continue the mission."
    Turf Pride's Alabama-based operations will remain in place.
  • In the business of golf, keeping up with the Joneses in South Florida comes at a cost. A very steep one.
    In the ultra-affluent South Florida climes of Martin and Palm Beach counties, one of the few areas nationwide where new course construction is setting a blistering pace, playing catch-up can be even more costly.
    With 36 holes designed by Jack Nicklaus in the 1980s, Bear Lakes Country Club is just minutes from downtown West Palm Beach and wedge shot from Interstate 95. The private club boasts a sophisticated membership and claims to have one of the lowest collective handicaps anywhere. With at least a dozen new high-end courses either recently opened or still under the shovel within an hour’s drive of Bear Lakes’ maintenance facility, the club is determined to maintain its lofty status as home to more golf courses than any county across the country. 
    To remain competitive with the other 160 courses in golf-crazy Palm Beach County, Bear Lakes is set to embark on restoration of its Links Course by Davis Love's Love Golf Design. The course was designed by Jack Nicklaus in 1987 as a traditional links design. Although Nicklaus lives in nearby North Palm Beach, Love's firm was chosen for its vision of what the next version of the Links Course will look like. Work on the project will begin next year.

    Superintendent Mike Rienzi discusses the future of Bear Lakes Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, which includes an upcoming restoration of the Links Course by Love Golf Design. Photos by John Reitman “Here at Bear Lakes, we really are a players club,” said Mike Rienzi, a superintendent of 31 years, including the past four at Bear Lakes. “I'd bet a large sum of money that if we don't have the highest concentration of single-digit handicaps in the state of Florida, we're in the top two or three.”
    The renovation will come on the heels of a recently completed practice facility, a soon-to-open sparkling new maintenance facility and a new equipment package.
    A graduate of the Rutgers turf program and a staunch LSU football fan, Rienzi's passion and excitement for what the Links Course will become are obvious.
    “It’s going to be a non-stop complete and total facelift of everything,” Rienzi said. 
    “Palm Beach County is almost like a state unto itself. Boca and South Palm Beach County are different than West Palm and Palm Beach Gardens, which are very different than Jupiter. We’re very uniquely positioned centrally. We're the closest right here to West Palm, and we’re right near the airport, so it’s a very exciting time for this club.”
    Among the projects under Love Golf Design, the professional golfer’s eponymous architectural firm based in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia, include developing a comprehensive master plan at Hazeltine National Golf Club in suburban Minneapolis and an ongoing restoration of Harbor Town in Hilton Head, South Carolina.
    The Links Course at Bear Lakes complements the Lakes Course, a 1984 Nicklaus Signature Design.
    The club’s vision for a reinvented Links Course was a true Scottish design. The Love Design team of Davis Love III, brother Mark and lead architect Scot Sherman eventually concluded creating a true Scottish-style links course in South Florida would be a tall, if not impossible, mountain to summit.
    “It's so difficult to recreate Scotland in West Palm Beach,” Rienzi said. “The grasses, the climate, it's just very difficult to do that.
    “If you think about all those clubs; Oakmont, Shinnecock, Merion, Oak Hill, they all have their fescues. We can't grow fescue, but everyone and their brother has been trying to recreate fescue in the South forever.”
    The Love group countered with a twist on links-style course they called an American links design that embraces non-links features like water that already exist on the property.

    The Links Course at Bear Lakes in West Palm Beach, Florida, will be getting a facelift beginning next year by Love Golf Design. "My brother Mark, our lead architect Scot Sherman, and I are thrilled to be working with the team at Bear Lakes," Love Design founder Davis Love III said in a news release. "As our first course in Southeast Florida, we are excited to begin work at a club with such rich history and know that reimagining the Links course will be a unique and exciting project. With our renovation, we plan to give Bear Lakes a course that is visually appealing, fun to play for members and guests, and one of the most highly regarded in the region."
    Rienzi has been busy studying architectural features and grasses since the club decided to reinvent the Links Course, including visits with Bear Lakes GM Chris Hull and director of golf Jimmy Gascoigne to such places like the National Golf Links of America, the 1911 Charles Blair Macdonald classic in Southampton, New York.
    The management team of Hull, Rienzi and Gascoigne is as solid as the handicap index list hanging in the men’s locker room. The trio also worked together at Grand Harbor in Vero Beach before being reunited at Bear Lakes.
    “So all three of us came together. It was a very unique situation,” Rienzi said. “Immediately Chris changed the way the club was run.”
    And now they are going to change the way it looks and plays.
    Rienzi’s research has taken him to another course in Florida to look at a bunker-renovation project, picking out grass at Green Acres Turf Farms in Estill, South Carolina and a day at Love Designs home turf in Georgia before returning to Long Island.
    “I've become so immersed in Macdonald architecture,” Rienzi said. “I've absolutely become immersed in Macdonald. I feel like I know him. We’re going to hit three or four more Macdonald courses up there.”
    Love’s experience in the game is legendary. A 21-time winner on the PGA Tour, including the 1997 PGA Championship, he captained the U.S. Ryder Cup teams in 2012 and 2016, the 2022 U.S. Presidents Cup squad and was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017. Brother Mark was his longtime Tour caddie.
    “You know, those two guys have walked on just about every significant golf hole in the world,” Rienzi said.
    “I think you can probably tell by the excitement in my voice. Oh, yeah. I am so excited about this project. So excited.”
  • For nearly a decade, Audubon International has provided golf courses around the globe with an opportunity to quantify their respective impact on the environment and share their findings with golfers and non-golfers alike.
    Through a partnership with BioBoost Nest and Seed King Enterprises, Audubon International's BioBlitz program is a wildlife-, insect life and plant life-inventory competition that helps superintendents count the species that call their golf course home. Interested superintendents can click here to register for the program that runs through June 15.

    BioBlitz is an Audubon International program that helps superintendents take inventory of the plant and animal life on golf courses. Photos by John Reitman Those who register will receive a toolkit that will assist with the logistics of setting up the program and engaging golfing and non-golfing members of the community. The toolkit includes promotional materials, event instructions and resources for participants.
    In its ninth year, the program also gives participants a chance to connect with members, golfers and the public to help in the species count, share findings and spread positive PR about the environmental stewardship work of superintendents. BioBlitz also can help document rare species or others not previously observed on property.
    Some of the program's benefits are:
    Meet outreach and education certification and recertification requirements Demonstrate your property's environmental value to your community Contribute to assessments of biodiversity Observe and measure the trends and status of multiple species over time
    BioBlitz is in its 10th year of helping quantify the global environmental impact of golf courses. Audubon International is a non-profit organization that offers certification and initiatives in a wide range of areas, including the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. Its board of directors includes golf industry professionals, such as Jim Pavonetti, CGCS at Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut; David Robinson, CGCS, of Target Specialty Products; Jennifer Grant, Ph.D., entomologist at Cornell University; Henry DeLozier of GGA Partners; and Bryan Stromme of Century Golf Partners.
    BioBoost Nest provides customers with a program that utilizes beneficial bacteria for pond remediation. Seed King Enterprises is a supplier of native grass and wildflower solutions for the golf and landscape industries.
    In last year's competition, Southwinds Golf Course in Boca Raton, Florida, received the Community Engagement Award for the second straight year, while Naples (Florida) Lakes Country Club received the Biodiversity Award, with 370 species identified. The award for Best Photograph went to La Iguana Golf Course at Los Sueños Marriott Ocean & Golf Resort in Puntarenas, Costa Rica, for a photo of a three-toed sloth near a tee box.
  • Advanced Turf Solutions recently reached a partnership with Arborjet-Ecologel that will provide professional turf managers with property-wide management responsibility with a full portfolio of tree-care products.
    The agreement will bring the Arborjet-Ecologel line of tree-injection technologies into the Advanced Turf Solutions distribution network, including both plug and plug-less injection systems, trunk-injected insecticides and fungicides, plant growth regulators, and more for an integrated plant-health approach.
    "This partnership allows us to offer a wide range of tree care products to our customers," said ATS chief executive officer Scott Brame. "By joining forces with Arborjet-Ecologel, we're expanding our customers' ability to care for all aspects of the properties they treat, not just turf and ornamentals."

    Arborjet's line of products are designed to help a host of plant-health issues, including disease, water and insect pest management and soil and nutrient deficiencies.
    "As pioneers in tree care solutions, we're committed to helping ATS customers elevate the health and longevity of the landscapes they care for—with advanced equipment and proven formulations designed for real-world results," said Arborjet CEO Russ Davis.
    Founded in 2001 in Fishers, Indiana, Advanced Turf Solutions is an employee-owned green industry distributor serving professionals in the golf, lawn care and sports turf markets.
    Arborjet was launched 25 years ago, and in 2018 merged with Ecologel.
     
  • A new interactive tool gives professional turf managers a weapon to quantify the environmental impact of the properties they manage.
    Designed for professionals in the turf, tree, lawn care and landscape industries, the Clean Air Calculator from Project Evergreen was developed using research conducted at Ohio State, the University of Guelph and the U.S. Forest Service. It allows users to measure their property's ability to positively impact the immediate environment by contributing to cleaner air through carbon sequestration and offsetting vehicle emissions in a measurable way that can be communicated with others.
    Users can map an area using the interactive tool to track the benefits of turf, trees and shrubs. Once a property is mapped, the tool calculates cubic yards of clean air produced per year, pounds of sequestered carbon dioxide and how many miles of combustible engine exhaust are offset.

    A new clean air calculator helps users quantify the environmental benefits of the properties they maintain. Photo by John Reitman The tool can store multiple maps for those who manage more than a single property.
    The calculator is based in part on research conducted in 2010 at Ohio State that showed trees, shrubs and turf are able to sequester carbon at rates of 7.5-13 pounds, 0.15-0.5 pounds and 246-307 pounds per year, respectively.
    A 2022 sustainability study by researchers at the University of Guelph concluded that "a carbon calculator can be used as a tool to help educate homeowners, contractors and businesses to make informed decisions about how their maintenance practices influence the carbon sequestration potential of urban plant systems."
    The U.S. Forest Service cites more than two dozen research projects and publications touting the carbon-sequestering abilities of trees and forests and their positive environmental contributions.
  • The makers of an enzyme system for thatch management that has been in limited production since it was first developed recently launched the product into its first full year of production.
    The product now known as Thatch Zyme is a sprayable laccase enzyme-based thatch-management system that was initially developed by researchers at the University of Georgia and now marketed for sale by Colorado Springs-based ZymeCo.
    Excess thatch can lead to slow water and nutrient uptake in turfgrass and contribute to issues such as soil water repellency and soft, spongy greens. 
    According to early studies at the University of Georgia, the reduction in thatch layer thickness by laccase treatments was similar to reductions achieved by cultural management. Thatch control was maximized, researchers wrote in published research, through a program of laccase (Thatch Zyme), cultural practices and a wetting agent.

    Samples taken from a Maryland golf course indicate an 18 percent reduction in thatch in the treated area (left) compared with the control. Thatch Zyme is one of several products for the turf and agriculture markets offered by ZymeCo.
    During trials conducted in 2021-23 at nine golf courses in Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, Vermont and Wyoming, laccase helped decrease thatch buildup by an average of 15 percent across all sites, and by more than 26 percent at sites in Jackson Hole.
    In a 2023 field study on golf turf in Colorado, biweekly treatments resulted in a 14 percent reduction in thatch during the golf season and increased root growth of 2 percent in a separate greenhouse study.
    A similar trial on 20-year-old bentgrass/Poa annua greens in Maryland, resulted in improved rooting and a reduction in thatch buildup of nearly 19 percent.
  • Envu recently released its Tarvecta fungicide as a preventive to manage many common soilborne diseases that affect finely cut turf.
    With the active ingredients fluoxastrobin and flutriafol, Tarvecta is a combination product that is labeled for control of many diseases, including fairy ring, summer patch, brown ring patch, take-all patch, leaf spot, anthracnose, snow mold and more on golf courses, athletic fields, sod farms and commercial lawns.
    Fluoxastrobin, a strobilurin fungicide, is taken up by the plant, while flutriafol, a DMI chemistry, moves through the xylem to internally control new fungal growth and form a protective barrier. The result is a fast-acting, disease-control solution for stressed and weakened turf.

    Tarvecta is a combination product that has the active ingredients fluoxastrobin and flutriafol. Envu photo "Diseases can establish quickly when turfgrass is stressed during peak playing times," said James Hempfling, Ph.D., of the Envu Green Solutions Team. "Whether managing a sports field or a golf course, disease damage disrupts turfgrass playability. That's why preventive practices are crucial. Tarvecta can be applied proactively ahead of stressful periods to protect against infection or curatively to ensure rapid recovery."
    A good tank mix partner, Tarvecta also is labeled for control of spring dead spot and take-all root rot in warm-season turf.
    Envu (short for Environmental Science U.S.) was established in 2022 out of the acquisition of Bayer Environmental Science by London-based private equity firm Cinven, and is a provider of chemical solutions for the professional turf market.
  • When a scheduling error for this year's National Golf Day in Washington, D.C., prevented attendees from helping spruce up the National Mall for the event service project, two other locations in need of plenty of TLC proved to be more than adequate replacements.
    A group of about 200 superintendents will be among those helping put a shine on the Armed Forces Retirement Home Golf Course and East Potomac Golf Course May 2 at the conclusion of National Golf Day, an annual event hosted by the American Golf Industry Coalition that allows golf industry stakeholders to spread the word to legislators in the nation's capital about the benefits of golf.
    About 150 of the 200 or so superintendents in attendance will work for about 3 hours at the Armed Forces Retirement Home course, with the other 50 taking on East Potomac.
    The project is a cooperative effort that includes GCSAA and several vendor partners, including Genesis Turfgrass of York, Pennsylvania, which is supplying sand, and Finch Turf, an equipment dealer with a half-dozen outlets in the Mid-Atlantic that is supplying a variety of 13 mowers for the Armed Forces Retirement project, said Jon Lobenstine, director of agronomy for Montgomery County's nine-course operation in Maryland and part of the association's National Golf Day planning committee. Toro is lending equipment for the East Potomac project.
    The course at the Armed Forces Retirement Home does not have a superintendent and relies on a handful of resident volunteers who are not trained agronomists.
    "They have no superintendent, no assistant, no equipment manager, no ability to spray. They mow almost everything with a zero-turn," Lobenstine said. "Cups are changed once a year, and there are dandelions on the greens."

    The National Golf Day service project will include sprucing up the volunteer-managed golf course at the Armed Forces Retirement Home. Jon Lobenstine photo There are more than 200 residents at the home, but fewer than 20 play golf, said Lobenstine.
    The project will include mowing everywhere, seeding, topdressing, spraying, some tree work and cleaning up flower beds, said Ryan Kraushofer, CGCS at Westminster National Golf Course in Manchester, Maryland.
    "This has been on our radar for a few years," Kraushofer said of the Armed Forces Retirement course. "It's been great to meet the retired vets who maintain the property. We're excited to see some superintendents come in and spruce the place up."
    The superintendent contingent will meet with legislators and their surrogates all day Thursday before making their way to the golf courses first thing Friday morning.
    As part of the project and to thank the Armed Forces Retirement Home volunteer greenkeepers for their service, the GCSAA contingent will make the group honorary association members.
    "I think they will be excited about that," Lobenstine said.
    National Golf Day is an annual event hosted by the American Golf Industry Coalition, a group of the game’s leading associations. During the three-day event, coalition members, including superintendent members of GCSAA, have the chance to meet with lawmakers and their staff members to discuss the game's economic and environmental benefits.
  • It is the nature of golf course superintendents to seek control in the day-to-day goings-on of the job. Variables like height of cut and application of water, fertilizers and pesticides are part of every superintendent's management plan, but bunker maintenance can be a different animal. Edges erode and washouts can occur with regularity.
    A stabilization product that its developer says can be incorporated into existing stocks of sand to help prevent erosion, washouts and other bunker-related headaches is now available in the U.S.
    Loksand from Loksand Global is a soil amendment comprising interlocking, crimped polypropylene fibers that become intertwined during mixing to bind and stabilize soil and sand profiles for use in hard-to-control areas like steep-faced bunkers and bunker edges. It was developed in Australia by former superintendent Danny Potter, founder of Centaur Asia-Pacific, an Aussie-based distributor of solutions for turf managers.
    During construction of the Miakka (sic) Golf Club, a 2024 Dana Fry-Jason Straka design in Myakka City, Florida, Loksand was used to established the club's steep-faced bunkers that were patterened after those found on Australian sandbelt designs.
    "There is only so much you can do with sand," said Loksand's Wayne Branthwaite, a former superintendent in Loksand's newly opened Jupiter, Florida office. "When you get the fiber in there, you have a malleable product you can work with."
    While providing stability to help keep bunker sand in place, the Loksand fibers also help create pore spaces that promote movement of oxygen and water.
    "You'd think it would prevent drainage, but it's the opposite," said Branthwaite. "It increases pore spacing and the ability to hold oxygen and reduces erosion."

    Loksand is a system of crimped fibers that interlock to help stabilize bunker sand. Loksand Global photo Loksand also allows users to amend poor quality turf in heavily trafficked areas, such as fairway cart path entry and exit points, walkways and green exits.
    The suggested mix rate is 3 kg (6.6 pounds) per ton, according to the company.
    "We're still establishing the limits of what it can do," Potter said. 
    "What’s more, Loksand can be mixed using whatever soils and sands you have on site. No need for any expensive import of particular sand mixes.
    "It's the crimp in the fiber that makes the difference. The crimp is what zigzags through the soil/sand particles and holds them all together. By adding the fibers, we're able to safely build bunkers with steeper angles of repose, in more dramatic shapes, without collapsing. The addition of Loksand also provides those faces better, more stable and predictable drainage and percolation, which invariably leads to better root structures — which ultimately stabilizes these steep areas that much better, over time."
    The Loksand technology was used during a 2023 renovation at Singapore Island Country Club by architect Graham Marsh. Erosion damage to the bunkers under reconstruction was a constant problem during the rainy season. Every time Marsh returned to check on construction progress, many had invariably eroded and collapsed. Loksand solved those issues, Marsh said.
    "I could tell immediately that this stuff was holding," Marsh said. "The bunker face was accepting it and the sand was staying in place. After several days of heavy rains — and nowhere in the world does it rain like Singapore — it remained in place."
  • The Syngenta Business Institute has been helping superintendents become stronger leaders for almost two decades.
    The application period for this year's Syngenta Business Institute is now open. Scheduled for Dec. 2-5 at the Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, SBI is a four-day program conducted by the Wake Forest University Executive Education department that provides superintendents with graduate-level business instruction in the following areas:
    Leadership/decision-making Work/life balance Negotiations Leading across cultures and generations The deadline for applying for this educational and networking event is Aug. 11.

    This year's Syngenta Business Institute is scheduled for Dec. 2-5 at the Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. "We're proud to offer this valuable opportunity to superintendents for the 17th year," said Stephanie Schwenke, turf market manager for Syngenta. "We recognize the increasing demands they face including business management, labor shortages and the need to uphold turf quality. The insights provided by the professors from Wake Forest University are remarkably valuable for helping them navigate these challenges. Participants leave the program equipped with fresh strategies to elevate their golf course management."
    Class size is limited and applicants must be a current GreenTrust 365 participant and employed in the U.S. as a golf course superintendent, director of agronomy or similar position.
    Click here to apply. Superintendents can also contact their Syngenta territory manager for more information. To be considered, candidates must fill out an application that includes a short essay on why they should be chosen to attend.
    "I would tell anybody to do it," said 2024 SBI attendee Cody Sander, superintendent at Wilmington (Delaware) Country Club. "I've done several professional-development experiences before, and this is by far the best one that I've been a part of. It really shows that Syngenta is committed to bettering us and that they put the financial side separately. It also shows their commitment to creating better superintendents and getting back to us as the end user."
    Applications must be submitted online by midnight Pacific time on Aug. 11. Selected participants will be notified in October. 
  • After spending parts of the past six decades on a golf course, Sam MacKenzie, CGCS, only had to look at his under-utilized bass boat to make a decision about his future.
    "It's been catching more dust than fish," said MacKenzie. "I want to change that trajectory." 
    Director of Grounds at Olympia Fields Country Club in suburban Chicago for the past 19 years, MacKenzie, 64, will retire in 2026. It is a decision MacKenzie has been pondering for some time. 
    "At the end of 2023, we were having my review with the executive committee, and the club president asked 'What are your plans, what do you want to do?'He didn't want me to quit or anything like that. He wanted to know what I'm thinking," MacKenzie said. "I said 'My contract ends in December 2025, and I'll turn 65 that month. And at that time I'll have been here just about 20 years. There's a lot of symmetry in that."
    A 1983 Michigan State graduate, MacKenzie's first job in golf was in 1979 at McComb Country Club in Illinois, and his first head superintendent position was at Delaware Country Club in Muncie, Indiana. After seven years in Muncie, he moved on to Broadmoor Country Club in Indianapolis, where he spent 10 years before taking his current position at Olympia Fields in 2006.
    The club has extended his contract for an additional year, through December 2026, while MacKenzie helps South Course superintendent Francisco Velasquez prepare to take over as director of grounds.
    Another Michigan State graduate, Velasquez has been at Olympia Fields for most of the past decade.
    "He started here as an intern and has worked his way up," MacKenzie said. "He's going to be dynamite."

    Transplanting a large oak tree from out of play to the middle of a fairway was one of the more challenging projects during Sam MacKenzie's career at Olympia Fields Country Club. The 2008 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year award winner, MacKenzie points to a list of accomplishments that includes major tournaments for all of the game's major associations - including two BMW Championship events - and hopes his career speaks for itself.
    "Tournaments are tough," he said. "We've done tournaments with the USGA, the LPGA, the PGA of America and the PGA Tour, and they've all gone off without a hiccup."
    One of the more interesting and challenging projects of his career came last year when a large oak tree was transplanted from an out-of-play location to the 11th fairway of the South Course to replace one of similar size that had come down during a storm. It took a tree-moving firm from Texas four days to complete the project.
    While much has changed throughout the duration of his career in the way golf courses are managed, MacKenzie said two things stand out to him.
    "Number 1 is how we water the golf course and number 2 is how we fertilize it," he said. "In improper doses and in the wrong combination, they can be detrimental to turf health. The turf can thrive with much less than we once thought."
    After his retirement is official, MacKenzie and wife Sally plan to relocate to Lake Wales, Florida, where there is no shortage of lakes to launch his boat.
    "I've been blessed," he said. "A guy my age doesn't always get to go out the way he wants to."
  • DryJect recently added two new franchisees to better serve customers nationwide.
    Atlanta Turf will now serve DryJect customers in northern Georgia. Ryan Turf will represent the company to turf managers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
    "When a territory is divided, it gives our franchisees the opportunity to better serve their customers, and that’s the most important aspect of our business model," said DryJect president John Paddock.

    DryJect uses water and vacuum to create holes in the soil while simultaneously filling them with sand or a soil amendment. Hatboro, Pennsylvania-based DryJect is a solutions-based company that uses a high-speed, water-based injection system to create aeration holes through the root zone to fracture the soil. Vacuum technology simultaneously fills holes to the surface with sand or a soil amendment, leaving the surface smooth and playable. 
    For more information about DryJect services in northern Georgia, contact Nicholas Alvey at 419-509-5939, or by email at atlantaturfllc@gmail.com. For additional information about services offered by DryJect in the San Francisco Bay area, call Bill Ryan at 408-656-2121, or email him at billdryject@gmail.com.
  • Aquatrols names new marketing manager
    The Aquatrols Co., recently named Megan Svec as its new marketing manager.
    Svec's experience includes content creation, event planning, market analysis, digital marketing and partnership coordination. She has worked in several industries including government, commercial real estate and construction management. Most recently, she worked for Infinite Blue, a business software company that was acquired last year by Everbridge. Her experience with Infinite Blue focused on events, social media, email campaigns and webinars.
    Part of Lamberti, a chemical manufacturer with headquarters in Italy, Aquatrols is Paulsboro, New Jersey-based company that has been providing soil surfactant and wetting agent innovation for the turfgrass and horticulture industries for more than 70 years.
     
    PBI adds to leadership team
    PBI-Gordon recently named Gilbert Bourk and Eric Bur to the company's executive leadership team.
    Bur (near right) was named vice president and chief financial officer for PBI and its subsidiaries, and as such oversees all aspects of the financial planning, accounting and IT functions for PBI. He joined PBI in 2019 as the senior director of finance.
    Bourk (far right) has been named vice president and general counsel for PBI and its subsidiaries, PBI-Gordon Corp., Pegasus Laboratories and Pet-Ag Inc. Bourk joined PBI in 2019 as the senior director of the PBI legal department.
    Based in Shawnee, Kansas, employee-owned PBI-Gordon develops, manufactures and markets products to the professional turf and ornamental industry as well as the companion animal health industry through its three subsidiaries.
     
    Envu expands management unit
    Envu named three new members to its sales management team.
    Pat Quinlan, Jay Long and Zak Peterson (left to right below) collectively have more than 50 years of combined experience in the lawn, golf and sports turf industries.

      Quinlan will manage Envu's efforts in northern New Jersey and eastern New York. Quinlan has more than 20 years of experience as a superintendent, including the past eight years at Fairmount Country Club in Chatham Township, New Jersey.
    Long will support Envu customers in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Prior to joining Envu, Long served as the superintendent of golf for the Mercer County (New Jersey) Park Commission where he oversaw the agronomic and operational management of five 18-hole golf courses. A native of Staten Island, NY, he has been a golf course superintendent for almost 30 years.
    Peterson will serve customers in Illinois and Indiana. Prior to joining Envu, Peterson served as the Midwest regional sales manager for Arborjet/Ecologel over a 13-state area. He also served as the grounds manager for the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.

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