Not everyone would climb aboard a plane, fly half way around the world just to work for a few hours then head back to the airport and return home without ever checking into a hotel.
Bruce Martin, Ph.D., not only would do that, he did do that.
A plant pathologist and extension service specialist at Clemson University for more than 30 years, Martin's expertise in diagnosing, preventing, treating and diagnosing turf diseases built a following among golf course superintendents in the Carolinas, throughout the country and around the world.
A native of Conway, Arkansas, Samuel Bruce Martin died Oct. 16. He was 71.
"He was in high demand around the world because of his applied knowledge," said Martin's colleague at Clemson, weed scientist Bert McCarty, Ph.D. "He got a call from a golf course in Hawaii. They had a disease they'd never seen before, and they wanted him out there. He flew all day, spent three or four hours on the golf course, caught a red eye, and was home again the next day."
It was that kind of expert knowledge and accessibility paired with his respectful, down-home Arkansas nature that made Martin a giant in the industry with superintendents and colleagues alike. In September, Martin was inducted into the Myrtle Beach Golf Hall of Fame.
"There are guys you respect and who you want to hear talk. He was one of them," said Fred Gehrisch, CGSA at Highlands Falls Country Club in Highlands, North Carolina. "When he spoke, you shut up and listened. In fact, all the Ph.D.'s, they shut up and listened to him, too."
Martin was a 1976 graduate of Hendrix College, located in Conway, where he earned a bachelor's degree in biology. He earned master's and doctorate degrees in plant pathology from the University of Arkansas and North Carolina State University, respectively.
He had been working at a research station in Connecticut when his wife was hired at Clemson's Pee Dee Research and Education Center in Florence, South Carolina. He spent his first year in South Carolina working at Horry-Georgetown Technical College. There he established a turfgrass diagnostics lab in 1987 to help superintendents in the Myrtle Beach area.
He was the first turfgrass pathologist in the South in the sense that he not only looked at traditional diseases, but also issues we were not so sure about. And he got stuff figured out.
The next year he started his 31-year career at Clemson University, where he began work in tobacco and field crops.
He studied under Leon Lucas, Ph.D., at NC State, and credited his mentor with influencing his career in turf pathology and how he worked tirelessly to help superintendents.
"I visited a lot of golf courses with Leon," Martin once told TurfNet. "You don't realize when you're that young that what you are diagnosing makes a big difference to the superintendent, but it does. Leon helped me understand that."
Carolinas GCSA Executive Director Tim Kreger remembers Martin for being accessible to superintendents and dedicated to helping them. He recalled a visit to Martin's Clemson office at the Florence research center.
"There were boxes stacked chest high," Kreger said. "I asked what they were and he told me 'those are soil samples that I have to get done by the end of the weekend.' "
From providing diagnoses of turfgrass issues to conducting cutting-edge trials, Martin became noted for developing a host of fungicide programs to combat myriad diseases under a variety of conditions.
"He was the first turfgrass pathologist in the South in the sense that he not only looked at traditional diseases, but also issues we were not so sure about," McCarty said. "And he got stuff figured out."
When Martin delivered webcasts or spoke at events, it did not matter if superintendents were growing warm- or cool-season turf. He usually came with fungicide programs designed to help superintendents everywhere.
"What he did was give you options," Gehrisch said. "He had programs for cool-season, warm-season or a mix, because that was his clientele. He came armed to give everybody options, and that's a powerful tool."
There are guys you respect and who you want to hear talk. He was one of them. When he spoke, you shut up and listened. In fact, all the Ph.D.'s, they shut up and listened to him, too.
Martin was the first in 2001, along with Larry Stowell, Ph.D., the founder of PACE Turf, to diagnose and name Rapid Blight (Labyrinthula terrestris), a disease in cool-season turf typically caused by irrigation water that is high in salt content.
When Martin recommended fungicides to prevent or recover from disease, superintendents knew they could trust that he was providing them with solutions that would work. And those solutions typically included chemistries from a wide range of chemical companies.
"His impact will be felt for decades. He solved problems that nobody else could, like when he identified Rapid Blight," said Carolinas GCSA Executive Director Tim Kreger. "His programs are used all over the world."
Martin and McCarty, his Clemson colleague and schoolmate from their time at NC State, almost single handedly saved golf for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. When the golf course was overwhelmed with a fungal disease weeks before play in the Summer Games was to begin, officials in Brazil called Clemson.
"The course was slammed with what turned out to be Mini Ring," McCarty said. "Few people outside South Carolina knew about it and how to work on it. He and I went down there, and he knew what was going on right away. We developed a management plan and had that solved in a few weeks."
His expertise drove attendance at regional and national shows and educational events.
"Everybody wanted to hear him," Kreger said. "His seminars always sold the most seats, and that was because of the information he was sharing. And it was always updated and current."
Martin was always searching for news solutions to old problems while also searching for fixes to problems no one had yet identified.
As a turf pathologist, he took it upon himself to learn all he could about turfgrass nematodes that plagued superintendents throughout the Carolinas and elsewhere.
His impact will be felt for decades. He solved problems that nobody else could, like when he identified Rapid Blight. His programs are used all over the world.
After speaking at the Carolinas GCSA Conference and Show on nematology for a few consecutive years, he suggested the show bring University of Florida nematologist Billy Crowe, Ph.D., in to share his expertise with attendees.
"He had no ego at all," Kreger said. "He was very collaborative."
In 2005, Martin was named one of the 10 most influential people in the South Carolina golf industry by the South Carolina Golf Course Ratings Panel. His accolades include the Carolinas GCSA Distinguished Service Award, the Clemson Alumni Award for Distinguished Public Service and the GCSAA Col. John Morley Award in 2014.
