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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    When Belleair Country Club reopens in the fall after a Straka-Fry restoration, it will be as if Florida's oldest golf course took a step back in time.
    Donald Ross completed all 36 holes at Belleair in the Tampa Bay area, making it the oldest course in a state not always associated with classic era architecture. 
    "A lot of places claim to be designed by Ross, but he never visited the site. He spent a lot of time here," said Jason Straka of the Columbus, Ohio-based golf course architecture firm. 
    "They've had the greens and bunkers rebuilt every few years; the last time was in 2007. The West Course still has the bulk of the routing intact since Ross built it."
    Straka has many of the notes Ross penned when he designed Belleair and when he was brought back to Florida in 1924 to tweak his work.
    "You should see his notes," Straka said. "It wanted this to be a hard golf course."
    For Straka, the challenge has been retaining Ross's vision while also keeping the course relevant thanks to changes in maintenance practices and ball and club technology that can take the bite out of older, shorter golf courses. The East Course at Belleair measures just 6,200 yards from the back tees, while the West is stretched to a modest 6,500 yards. 
    Accomplished golfers can blow right past fairway bunkers that once were strategically placed, and maintenance practices of old meant an abundance of pinnable locations on all 36 greens.

    Designed by Donald Ross, Belleair Country Club is Florida's oldest golf course. Photo by Belleair Country Club Straka has pulled back tees where he can, tightened up some fairways and moved bunkers. Many of the bunkers at Belleair were much more severe than they are today, and many have been restored to their former hazardous selves.
    "We have these debates all the time: What period are we restoring it to? Thirty years ago? One hundred years ago?" Straka said. "We are restoring this to what it looked like in 1924. 
    "Every bunker was deeper and steeper than, and you're hesitant to do that. Then I thought, they were playing with hickory clubs and gutta percha balls then, so I think we can do it."
    Much of Straka's work takes place outside the playing area. He also is restoring naturalized areas with several wild grasses to help cut back on water use. He is planting broomsedge, salt cordgrass, dune sunflower, railroad vine and one of Ross's favorites, wiregrass.
    Among the challenges in getting the course ready for its anticipated November reopening has been supply chain issues with hardware, including pipe for irrigation, and a labor shortage in the course construction industry.
    Straka is having gravel for greens construction brought in from as far away as Ohio, and if he does not get to the Port of Tampa Bay fast enough to offload it, someone else might have claimed it first. USGA greens specs require having gravel lab tested. Recently, he lost more than 1,000 tons of gravel while waiting for lab results and someone else bought it out from underneath him. 
    "It's not just golf," he said. "Some of it is being lost to road construction."
    Labor shortages, created in part by a hot restoration economy, have shapers in high demand. Straka has had to fend off advances from other projects trying to recruit people working on the Belleair project.
    "Just the other day, we had a bunker shaper who got three calls in one day to leave in the middle of the job," Straka said. "People tell them they'll pay more than whatever they're making now if they just leave and come to them.
    "There are dozens of projects just in Florida. No one has the irrigation material. We're all getting spoon fed with a little here, a little there to keep things inching along. I've never seen construction this busy; not even in the '90s or early 2000s. I've never seen anything like it."
  • Despite billions in settlements alleging that Bayer's Roundup herbicide is the cause of thousands of cases of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a scientific group in Europe agrees with the U.S. EPA that the active ingredient in the world's most popular weedkiller is not a carcinogen.
    The controversial herbicide ingredient glyphosate does not cause cancer in humans, according to a scientific opinion published by the European Chemicals Agency.
    The agency's Committee for Risk Assessment says "the available scientific evidence did not meet the criteria to classify glyphosate for specific target organ toxicity, or as a carcinogenic, mutagenic or reprotoxic substance."
    ECHA has been denouncing claims that glyphosate causes cancer since the Roundup saga began five years ago.
    The ECHA said glyphosate can cause serious eye damage and is toxic to aquatic life.
    The committee will publish its report in August.
    ECHA's opinion will affect the EU's decision to ban or reauthorize the herbicide for use, with the European Commission expected to make a recommendation by as early as July 2023.
    Shortly after Bayer announced plans to acquire Monsanto in 2016, the company was hit with a wave of lawsuits from litigants who say they contracted non-Hodgkins lymphoma from repeated exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Since then, the company has settled nearly 100,000 cases for about $11 billion. The company also has set aside an additional $4.5 billion for future settlements.
    The company has argued it should not be responsible for paying out any additional claims, and last August asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on the matter. The Supreme Court has yet to hear the case.
  • Editor's note: This is a reprint of a story that ran in May on TurfNet.
    Imagine feeling alone in a room among thousands of other people. Everyone in the room has the same skill set and does pretty much the same thing, nonetheless a barrier segregates those on one side of the room from the other. For many of the women who have chosen greenkeeping as a career, that was an all too familiar feeling for far too long.
    For the past several years, a lot of work has taken place to knock down those barriers. A few more bricks will fall next month when a group of 30 volunteers, all women, descend on the Southern Pines, North Carolina to help David Fruchte and his team prepare for this year's U.S. Women's Open, scheduled for June 2-5 at Pine Needles Resort.
    Jennifer Torres, superintendent at Westlake Golf and Country Club in Jackson Township, New Jersey, will be among those volunteering at Pine Needles. 
    "Having been in the industry for nearly 20 years, many of those years I felt like I was alone, as many of us have felt," Torres said. "You don't typically see women in turf."
    Women account for less than 2 percent of the GCSAA's total membership, but a brighter light has been shone on their contributions to the turf industry since the 2018 Golf Industry Show in San Antonio with the advent of the Syngenta-backed Ladies Leading Turf initiative.
    That light was never shined brighter than it did a year ago when an impromptu effort by superintendent Troy Flanagan and Syngenta's Kimberly Gard to include women in the 2021 Women's Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco ballooned into a media spectacle that became as big of a story as the golf tournament.
    "I thought it would be a good idea to have as many women as possible on the volunteer crew for the Women's Open," Olympic director of golf maintenance Troy Flanagan told TurfNet after the 2021 tournament. "What I wasn't prepared for was the impact it would have."
    This year will be the fourth Women's Open held at Pine Needles, which for a time was owned by late LPGA legend Peggy Kirk Bell. In his 30th year at Pine Needles, Fruchte has been superintendent for the previous three Open Championship (1996, 2001, 2007). The field of volunteers coming to help him will include 15 who worked the tournament last year, and 15 newcomers.

    A volunteer at last year's U.S. Women's Open syringes a green at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Photo by the Olympic Club via Twitter "Some are new, some participated last year," Fruchte said. "We wanted to give as many people as possible a chance to be part of this experience."
    Sally Jones, GM and superintendent at Benson Golf Club in Minnesota, got so much out of last year's Open volunteer experience that she is going to North Carolina this year for more.
    "Any time I am able to get the women together," Jones said, "it builds my self esteem more, and it gives me a sense of wanting to do better professionally."
    After years of feeling like she was on an island, Torres credits a mentor for convincing her to get more involved at an industry level. Since then, she has been steadily immersing herself in networking opportunities and events that highlight the work of other women in the industry. As part of that, she is eagerly anticipating her first Open experience.
    "Early in my career, I wasn't one to get involved with my local chapter and get out and meet people," Torres said. "I would attend some meetings, but often would be the only female in the room. Then a mentor, Cece Peabody, who was our executive director for the GCSANJ at the time, encouraged me to take on a position as a grassroots ambassador for GCSAA. From that conversation, I realized we women needed to be more visible in the industry.
    "After attending the 2018 GIS in San Antonio and finally seeing a room filled with others like me, did I no longer feel alone. We made connections and bonds that will last a lifetime. Now that we have become more visible, I also feel more included with the other 16,000 members. It's nice to attend events and have the guys come over and talk to you and they know who we are. They don't ask who we are with anymore, as if to imply we must be the wife of another superintendent. Over the past few years I have seen a change in a positive way. Diversity and inclusion doesn't  seem like a far off dream, but a reality that is happening right before our eyes. Events like the 2022 U.S. Women's Open at Pine Needle will once again help spotlight that movement and help us encourage others like us to join the turf industry family."
    Renee Geyer, superintendent at Canterwood Golf and Country Club in Gig Harbor, Washington, has been an active participant in many of the events promoting women in the turf industry during the past several years, but this year's Open will be her first, and she believes helping provide conditions worthy of a USGA event will help solidify the place of women in this business.
    "There also is a sense of camaraderie and belonging that one feels while working with other female turf professionals," Geyer said. "There are so few of us, and when we can get together to all work toward a common goal it provides validation and confirmation that we did choose the right career path and that we are not alone."
  • Superintendent Jason Hayes is using a metal detector to help tell the story of Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club in Virginia Beach. Among his finds so far have been old spark plugs, pieces of vintage maintenance equipment and several spent shotgun shells. Photos courtesy of Jason Hayes Jason Hayes is no archaeologist, but his findings nonetheless are helping tell the story of Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club in Virginia Beach.
    In his 20th season at Cavalier, Hayes was named head superintendent last year when longtime GCS Mark Hill retired in 2021 after more than 40 years on the job.
    Throughout his time at Cavalier, a 1928 Charles Banks design, Hayes has held a keen interest in the club's history. 
    During the offseason, he took a metal detector onto a small area of the golf course and found a trove of disparate pieces of equipment, some of which predates construction of the golf course.
    Among his findings were old sickle bar blades, spent shotgun shells and spark plugs from a 1920s era Ford tractor. Given the supply chain issues that continue to delay parts and equipment deliveries at golf courses throughout the country, Hayes joked that future work with the metal detector might lead to more useful discoveries.
    "That's just the tip of the iceberg," Hayes said. "I haven't found any old coins yet, but maybe I'll find a buried tractor."
    Cavalier's self-appointed historian, Hayes has been heading up efforts to unearth more facts about the club's past. Aerial photography from the 1930s reveals a small building near the 10th hole. Subsequent photography shows that structure, which Hayes believes was the original maintenance facility, was gone by the late 1950s. Hayes figured that was as good a place as any to start searching for insight into the club's past.
    "I found horse-drawn plow blades, gears, bar blades, all from the '20s," he said. "I'm pretty sure it is from the construction of the golf course."

    Among the non-metallic finds at Cavalier Golf and Yacht Club have been scores of vintage golf balls. Joe Andrew, Cavalier's general manager, has placed a renewed emphasis on Cavalier's history, and Hayes, who already appreciates history, was only too happy to step forward.
    A Yale University graduate, Banks was an English teacher before he met Seth Raynor. He ducked school after teaching for 15 years and took up golf course architecture with Raynor and Charles Blair Macdonald. When Raynor died in 1926, Banks completed some of Raynor's unfinished work. Cavalier was one of his first original designs.
    Banks was commissioned by Richard Teller Crane II, the first U.S. diplomat to Czechoslovakia and heir to the Crane plumbing fixtures fortune, to build a private golf course on farmland in Virginia Beach in 1926. The golf course was acquired by the adjacent Cavalier Hotel when Crane died in 1938 during a hunting trip. Since then, the club has been the site of many professional high level amateur events. Doug Ford won the last of three PGA Tour events played there in 1953, '54 and '55. According to the club, Walter Hagen was an honorary chairman and the club's touring pro in the '50s. As the country braced for an attack on the East Coast from Germany during World War II, the club's 15th fairway was the site of an anti-aircraft battery during the early 1940s.
    The design of the club's Bermuda-style clubhouse has been a mystery, at least it was until a study of the club's past revealed that the building is a replica of home on the island of Bermuda once owned by Crane's cousin. The building's interior was designed by Dorothy Draper, who also designed the the Greenbrier Resort clubhouse in West Virginia, Hayes said.
    "Studying the club's history has been like peeling an onion," Hayes said. "Every time I peel some back, it reveals a lot more information."
    What is underground outside on the golf course is as telling as the club's infrastructure.
    Besides discarded pieces of maintenance equipment, among Hayes' findings during his initial work with a metal detector were several spent shotgun shells. 
    Cavalier's resort and club has a history of trap shooting, however, the clubhouse is a long way from the old maintenance facility where Hayes uncovered the shells. Scouring old editions of the Virginian-Pilot newspaper might hold some clues.
    "I found some articles from the '30s that said crows were a major problem here. They were such a problem they were taking balls off the fairways," Hayes said, as a crow called out in the background from a nearby tree. "I don't know, maybe they were shooting crows. I know they were still a problem when I started here 20 years ago."
    Hayes has taken the role of club historian to an extreme. When combing over his findings, he listens to music that would have been popular when the club was founded a century ago. He already is awaiting the next offseason so he can expand his search over a wider area. 
    "I love my job. Other than the Army, this is all I've ever done," he said. "You think about how busy your job is, then you find something on the golf course and you think about the demands on us today and what they had to go through in the '30s just to keep crabgrass out. It opens your mind to what it was like then."
  • Cobb County Sheriff's deputies investigate the scene on the 10th green at Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Georgia, after the bodies of three people, including club pro Gene Siller, were found on July 3, 2021. Remember the bizarre story of a triple homicide that occurred nearly a year ago at a golf course just north of Atlanta?
    Almost 11 months after Pinetree Country Club pro Gene Siller, 46, and two others were found dead at the golf course in Kennesaw, Georgia, a Cobb County grand jury finally indicted three suspects in connection with the incident.
    Bryan Rhoden, Justin Pruitt and Taylor Cameron were named in the 18-count indictment in the shooting deaths of Siller, Paul Pierson and Henry Valdez last July 3.
    Siller was found dead near the No. 10 green at Pinetree, when he responded to calls about a pickup truck on the golf course. Police later found Pierson and Valdez slain in the bed of a Dodge pickup. 
    Investigators say Rhoden and Pruitt abducted Pierson, 76, of Topeka, Kansas, and Valdez, 46, of Anaheim, California, in Jonesboro, Georgia, bound them with duct tape and zip ties then drove them to the golf course 40 miles away before shooting them.  Valdez and Pierson had no apparent connection to the club, and sheriff's officials say Siller, who was called to investigate when a truck appeared on the golf course, simply was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

    A makeshift memorial on the 10th green at Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Georgia, where three people, including the club pro, were slain last July. Rhoden is charged with malice murder, felony murder, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during commission of a felony and tampering with evidence. Police say he hid a gun at the golf course that he used to murder the three men. Pruitt has been charged with felony murder and kidnapping with bodily injury, while Taylor is charged with criminal attempt to commit tampering with evidence after she drove to the crime scene to pick up the gun, according to the sheriff’s office.
    Rhoden was arrested last July 8. Pruitt has been in jail in Columbia, South Carolina, since last September on charges of trafficking cocaine.
    Club members told sheriff’s investigators that they saw the truck near the 10th green, then heard shouting followed by several gunshots as Siller fell to the ground and one of the suspects disappeared into nearby woods.
    Rhoden has a history of violent crime, according to police. He was arrested in 2016 and charged with assault, attempted murder and possessing a firearm on campus when he was involved in a drug deal gone bad at Georgia State University, where he was a student at the time, police said.
    Pinetree, a Chick Adams design, opened in 1962. Georgia native Larry Nelson was an assistant pro there before embarking on a Hall of Fame PGA Tour career.
  • Researchers at Oklahoma State University have developed two new Bermudagrasses, including one scientists say will be the best-available winter option for use on golf course putting greens.
    OKC1876 and OKC3920 are crosses between common Bermudagrass and African Bermudagrass and will be commercially available within two to four years. Once available, they will represent ninth and 10th turf bermudagrass varieties to be released for commercial use by Oklahoma State turfgrass breeders since 1991.
    According to Oklahoma State turf breeder Yanqi Wu, Ph.D., the two new varieties have unique genetic identities due to being crossbred from two different types of Bermudagrass families.
    With dark green color, high turf density and fine texture, OKC1876 exhibits high visual quality, improved drought and wear tolerance, excellent fall color, reduced seedhead production and widespread adaptability.
    Turfgrass quality under drought stress data from the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program shows that OKC1876 was comparable to TifTuf, researchers say.
    "It is recommended for use on golf courses, lawns and other areas where high quality turfgrass is needed and good management can be practiced in the southern states," Wu said.
    OKC3920, developed for use on putting greens, shows best-in-class freeze tolerance, and it demonstrates high turfgrass quality comparable to ultradwarf cultivars.
    The cultivar also shows good establishment characteristics, fine texture, early spring green up, dark green color and ball roll distance similar to that of an ultradwarf Bermudagrass. OKC3920 was tested at 19 locations in 15 states.
    Because they have three sets of chromosomes instead of two or four sets, OKC3920 and OKC1876 reproduce vegetatively, or asexually. In the turfgrass industry, that's a good thing.
    "Sod producers can grow Bermudagrass quickly and at relatively low cost, but they can grow OKC3920 even faster due to its reproductive capabilities," Wu said.
     
    OKC3920 has improved cold hardiness and disease and pest resistance compared to top varieties. Its genetic color and leaf texture were comparable to TifEagle, Tifdwarf and Mini Verde. Turf density is comparable to many ultradwarf Bermudas.
    "This grass is a scientific breakthrough because in the industry right now, concerning putting green Bermudagrasses, we only have ultradwarf types, and ultradwarfs do not have cold hardiness. OKC3920 has proven resistant to winterkill," Wu said. "That is why this grass stands out so strongly. Winter hardiness has traditionally been a signature of our OSU turfgrass development program."
    Traditionally, Oklahoma State Bermudagrass releases have shown improved cold hardiness with each new variety. However, the focus of breeding behind OKC1876 was for improved drought resistance and fall color retention.
    Other researchers involved in the development of these new turfgrass varieties include Dennis Martin, Justin Quetone Moss, Charles Fontanier and Nathan Walker.
  • Anyone who has doubted the effectiveness of government advocacy need only look to California and the industry's defense of public golf for validation.
    A measure that threatened the future of municipal golf in the country's most populous state died, at least for the remainder of the year, on May 19 when Assembly Bill 1910 was held in the California Assembly Appropriations Committee Suspense File, where it was held in committee  and was not brought up for a vote. Advocacy for public golf by the Southern California Golf Association and the USGA are in part responsible for the failure of the proposed legislation.
    AB 1910, known by advocates of the game as the Public Golf Endangerment Act, passed through the Assembly's Local Government Committee and was referred to the Appropriations Committee, pending changes, on April 27. The Appropriations Committee sent the proposed legislation to the Suspense File, where it is subject to further review by the committee. The committee did not vote on the proposed legislation, meaning it is finished at least for the rest of 2022.
    "Bills have to get a successful floor vote in their committee of origin by next Friday to move on to the Senate," said Craig Kessler, director of government affairs for the Southern California Golf Association. "Since there are no more Suspense hearings in Appropriations before next Friday, it gets held up and dies for 2022. (Suspense File) is where bad bills go to die."
    The bill proposed providing public relief in the way of developer subsidies and grants to local agencies to redevelop California's municipal golf courses into low-incoming housing and green space. To be eligible for public assistance in converting a golf course, a project must meet several criteria under AB 1910 in its current form. At least 25 percent of all new dwelling units must be affordable to, and occupied by, lower-income households; at least 15 percent of the development must be publicly accessible open space (a golf course is not considered public space under AB 1910); no more than one-third of the square footage of the development, excluding the portion reserved for open space, is dedicated to nonresidential uses, such as parking.
    Assembly Bill 1910 was first introduced in 2021 as AB 672 by assembly member Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens in Los Angeles County. It appeared dead in January after it passed through two California Assembly committee hearings on Jan. 12, but failed Jan. 20 to get the necessary support in the Appropriations Committee.

    Roosevelt Golf Course is one of the many municipal golf courses run by the City of Los Angeles. It was brought up again to the Housing and Community Development committee on March 23, where it passed by a 6-2 vote. An early April vote by the Local Government Committee was postponed by the bill's author when it did not have the support necessary to get through the committee. It passed with a 5-2 vote in the Local Government Committee on April 27.
    The SCGA sees the death of the proposed legislation as a win for the future of the game. There are 960 golf courses in California, about 20 percent of which are publicly owned.
    "There are a lot of positive attributes to public golf," Kessler said.
    "If you don't have anywhere to do those things, then how do you do it? What happens to that pipeline of growth in the game?"
    Garcia, the bill’s author, is running for the U.S. House of Representatives in November, so this might be the last gasp for such a bill for quite a while.
    "I'm not sure how much of an appetite any of her successors will have for this," Kessler said.
    "No one in California wants to be on against housing. The lack of housing in California is real, and it is a crushing problem. But this was a bad bill."
    The SCGA and USGA both ran PR campaigns advocating for the benefits of public golf and calling for golfers to lobby their local representatives.
    "The SCGA and the whole alphabet soup of golf's leadership organizations may have made solid public policy arguments to counter the bill," the SCGA said in a news release, "but without the support of rank-and-file golfers, those arguments would have carried far less weight."
    The battle, even for public golf, is fighting against perception.
    "The industry, instead of focusing on municipal golf, which is the meat and potatoes we all grew up on, instead we focus on Augusta," Kessler said. "We love Augusta, but that doesn't define golf. We've let that define golf, and that leads people to think it's elite and aloof, when it is the opposite.
    "I think what finally happened is legislators in California found out that golf is not the soft target they thought it was."
  • Mob experts have speculated on the identify of a body found May 1 in a barrel in the receding waters of Lake Mead. Photo by ABC News What happens in Vegas might stay in Vegas, but what (or who) is buried at the bottom of Lake Mead might come back to haunt you.
    According to a story in the Daily Mail, two mafia experts who have authored books on organized crime in Las Vegas, believe they know the identification of the person found in a barrel in the receding waters of Lake Mead. Clad in what police say is 1970s fashion from Kmart, the unidentified person was shot in the head, stuffed in a barrel and sent to what once was the bottom of Lake Mead more than 40 years ago. Boaters on the lake found the body in the rusted and decomposing barrel on May 1. It was the first of two such discoveries in the shrinking lake.
    Granted, there is a slim golf connection to the Lake Mead story. The Colorado River that created the lake nearly a century ago, is a water source for many desert golf courses hundreds of miles away. We figured a follow-up was warranted since the original story has been read more than 600 times.
    According to Geoff Schumacher, vice president of a Las Vegas-based mob museum and author of Sun, Sin & Suburbia: The History of Modern Las Vegas, and Jeff Burbank, author of Las Vegas Babylon: True Tales of Glitter, Glamour and Greed, the man in the barrel probably is Jay Vandermark, William Crespo or Johnny Pappas, all of whom had ties to organized crime in Las Vegas. All three men were associated with Argent Corp., which owned several hotel and casino operations in Las Vegas as a front for the mob.
    Vandermark ran the slot machine operation for the mafia at the old Stardust Resort and Casino. He fled the city in 1976 after Nevada Game Control Board raided the Stardust and uncovered a skimming ring Vandermark ran in the casino that netted $7 million for the mob. It is believed that he was murdered by the mob after it was discovered he kept an additional $3 million in ill-gotten gains for himself.
    Crespo was arrested at the Las Vegas airport in 1982 while trying to smuggle $400,000 in cocaine into the country. He eventually became a government informant to avoid a prison sentence, and disappeared in 1983 after his testimony before a grand jury led to the indictments of 10 people associated with the Vegas mafia. His timeline, however, makes it unlikely that he is the person who was in the barrel, the authors said.

    Mafia historians say the murder of a victim found in a barrel in Lake Mead fits the M.O. of former Vegas mobster Tony Spilotro (center in handcuffs). Photo by Las Vegas Review-Journal The most likely candidate sentenced by the mob to sleep with the fishes was Pappas. He managed the Echo Bay Resort on Lake Mead, which was financed by Argent through the mob-controlled Teamsters Central States Pension fund.
    Schumacher and Burbank also say the gangland-style hit that included a .22 caliber slug to the head fits a pattern that was the M.O. of Tony Spilotro, who ran the mob in Vegas for the Chicago Outfit. Spilotro, who himself was murdered by the Chicago mob in 1986, was the real-life inspiration for Joe Pesci's role of Nicky Santoro in "Casino."
    Authorities believe the barrel was dumped between the mid-1970s to early '80s in what then was more than 100 feet of water, hundreds of yards from shore. Lake levels have dropped nearly 200 feet since then and are expected to drop by an additional 30-plus feet in the next two years. It was the first of two such discoveries, the second coming May 7, when visitors to the Lake Mead National Recreation Area found human skeletal remains. Las Vegas Police and the Clark County Coroner are investigating both incidents and have yet to positively ID either find.
    Police also believe there will be more reminders of the ties between Las Vegas and the mob as lake levels continue to drop.
    "It's going to be a very difficult case," Las Vegas Metro police homicide Lt. Ray Spencer told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas. "I would say there is a very good chance as the water level drops that we are going to find additional human remains."
  • Happy birthday to LESCO. The company that changed the way that golf course superintendents shopped for a generation, turns 60 this year.
    LESCO was founded in 1962 by Cleveland entrepreneurs Robert Burkhardt and James Fitzgibbon as the Lakeshore Equipment and Supply Co. With just five employees, the founders recruited ex-greenkeepers who possessed two critical things to help ensure the company's success: understanding of the turf business and credibility with fellow superintendents.
    For those too young to remember, or those so old you've forgotten, in 1976 the company launched its store on wheels campaign in which the all-too-familiar LESCO truck, stocked with fertilizer and pesticides and various accessories brought shopping to the maintenance shop door. From a pair of gloves to a shovel to a cache of fertilizer, the familiar LESCO truck carried just about anything a golf course superintendent would need in a pinch.
    "LESCO changed the golf industry because we developed the Store on Wheels, it would visit individual golf courses on a weekly or bi-weekly basis," said Erich Slider, director of SiteOne's golf division. "We made product recommendations based on data and we also consulted with superintendents as well as brought the product to them."
    By 1980, the company relocated to the Cleveland suburbs in Rocky River, and five years later opened its first Service Center, a 5,000-square foot drive through retail outlet, in Cape Coral, Florida, near Fort Lauderdale. That was the same year the company received its first patent for the Jet Action Spreader Deflector attachment for rotary push spreaders. Another decade later, at least half the golf courses across the country said they were using LESCO products.
    John Deere Landscapes acquired the company in 2007, which became Site One Landscape Supply in 2015
    As technology and the way superintendents conduct business changes, LESCO has changed, too. The company launched an e-commerce site in 2018, allowing customers to order online and have products delivered to the work site. It also launched a new line of advanced agronomic products in 2019, including carbon-based products and enhanced- efficiency fertilizers.   
    "LESCO is a company that started in 1962, and over the course of 60 years has built different fertilizers and chemistries whether they be herbicides, insecticides, fungicides with one thing in mind and one thing only - to think about the quality and end user and how that product is going to be accepted in the market place for the performance and things the customers are looking to do," said Gary Sorensen, agronomic sales manager at SiteOne. "And that is to ultimately have a high quality turf grass."
  • Boaters on Lake Mead recently discovered human remains inside this barrel that was exposed by receding water levels. Police say the victim was dumped in the lake between the mid-1970s to the early '80s. Photo by KVVU-TV In what is becoming a real-life crime drama playing out before our eyes, the receding water level in the country's largest reservoir that also is a major irrigation source for dozens of desert golf courses, is providing a glimpse into the dark side of the history of Las Vegas. That peek behind the curtain no doubt is making aging mobsters nervous and is leading many of the tens of millions of people who rely on the Colorado River for drinking water to reach out to the Culligan Man.
    On two occasions in May, historically low levels in Lake Mead have uncovered the once-hidden remains of at least two people. The latest discovery was made less than a week after boaters reported the remains of a person police say likely was murdered 40-50 years ago. Investigations into both cases are ongoing by Las Vegas Police and the Clark County Coroner's Office, and both have all the makings of a Hollywood mob flick.
    On May 7, the National Park Service was alerted by a Lake Mead Recreation Area visitor who discovered human skeletal remains in the western section of the lake about 30 miles east of Las Vegas. 
    A similar discovery was made May 1 when a partially decomposed body was discovered in a barrel exposed by receding water levels. Las Vegas PD homicide detectives said evidence indicates that the victim had been shot before being stuffed into the barrel and subsequently sent to what then was the bottom of the lake. Based on still-intact pieces of what must be disco-era clothing and footwear, police say the crime occurred somewhere between the mid-1970s to the early '80s.
    Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is an attorney whose former client list includes Sin City mobsters like Anthony Spilotro who ran the infamous Hole in the Wall Gang in Las Vegas for the Chicago mob in the 1970s and '80s before being beaten to death by members of the Outfit in the basement of a suburban Chicago home in 1986, proving there is no honor among thieves. Spilotro also was the inspiration for the character Nicky Santoro, played by Joe Pesci, in the 1995 film "Casino." Goodman told CBS News that many of his living former clients are growing increasingly uneasy about what receding water levels in the lake might eventually expose.
    "There's no telling what we'll find in Lake Mead," Goodman told CBS. "It's not a bad place to dump a body."
    Lake Mead was formed in 1936 with the opening of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River along the Nevada-Arizona border. The past 20 years in the West have been defined by severe drought, putting more strain than ever on the country's largest reservoir that provides drinking water to 40 million people in parts of six states and irrigation water to many golf courses, including dozens in California's Coachella Valley. To that end, water levels in Lake Mead have been on a steady decline. The lake level has dropped 170 feet since 1983, and is expected to drop another 34 feet in the next two years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Water levels today are about half of what they were in 2000, marking the lowest volume of water in Lake Mead since 1937, the year after Hoover Dam opened, leaving intakes valves exposed and many scientists believing there is no hope it can ever be refilled.
    That's the bad news, but this story also has a silver lining. 
    Although the low levels in Lake Mead symbolize water shortages throughout the region, these recent discoveries might help the Las Vegas PD solve some cold missing-persons cases, some of which might date to the Ford Administration, or even earlier.
    Police indeed are looking back some 40 years at missing persons cases and said they believe even more bodies will be discovered as water levels in the lake continue to fall.
    Las Vegas PD and the Clark County Coroner said the identification of the victims will be released if and when they are available.
    Geoff Schumacher, vice president of the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, which is housed in the old Las Vegas Post Office Building, said he too believes more bodies will be found in the shrinking lake.
    "I think a lot of these individuals will likely have been drowning victims," Schumacher told CBS News. "But a barrel has a signature of a mob hit. Stuffing a body in a barrel. Sometimes they would dump it in the water."
  • LebanonTurf, a provider of plant nutrition products for the golf and landscaping industries, has launched Country Club IV line of greens grade fertilizers with "Increased Visibility" that make applications easier to see for end users.
    In response to requests from golf course superintendents to make putting greens fertilizer easier to see during application, LebanonTurf has developed these new products that result in an easy-to-see granule utilizing its Composite Technology manufacturing process.
    LebanonTurf's patented Composite Technology fertilizer manufacturing process fuses forms of nitrogen with phosphorus, potassium and other micronutrients to create a homogeneous granule with improved particle dispersion and integrity, along with a higher measurable amount of nitrogen activity.
    "We believe these new products will dramatically help the superintendent make accurate and effective fertilizer applications on their high-quality putting greens," said Christopher S. Gray, Sr. brand manager of professional fertilizers for LebanonTurf.
    Initially, the Country Club IV products will be available in the following formulations: 18-3-18, 18-9-18, 17-0-17 and 0-0-25. Additional product development is currently planned for launch in the fall.  
    "We feel," Gray said, "that our expanded portfolio of high-performing, greens grade products, both these new Country Club IV products and our incredibly popular Country Club MD products, offers today's superintendent a wide range of real-world benefits that fit into any putting green nutrient program."
  • When it comes to building a crew, superintendents are learning that beggars no longer can be choosers.
    With a few exceptions, superintendents have found out the hard way that people no longer embrace the long hours and hard work required to manage a golf course like they once did. And of those who do, there are more than a few who fail to respect the clock. Tardiness, once a fireable offense, has to be tolerated to a degree.
    In a perfect world, Chad Brown, superintendent at Norfolk Golf Club in Westwood, Massachusetts, would carry at least a dozen people on his staff throughout the golf season, about 75 percent of which would be seasonal, part-time help. Times are anything but perfect.
    Brown has been on the job at Norfolk for less than two months, but knows the course inside-out. A former assistant at Norfolk, Brown left in 2019 to accept his first head superintendent position and returned when his former mentor, Jon Zolkowski, resigned earlier this year.
    Like everyone, he is running a little short on seasonal staff this year, a trend that is all but guaranteed to continue at least until the school year in Westwood ends . . .  June 22. Locals still in high school and college are limited to weekend work. 
    "Everyone is having issues," Brown said. "We are no exception to that. Our weekend staff goes above and beyond, but they're still in school. Fortunately, we've had enough staff come back from last year."
    "We are 20 minutes south of Boston. What we tend to see are kids back home from school who live within a few miles. They know us because they've driven by us 100 times."
    You know the business has changed when a superintendent sheds light on the fact that a teenager might be the oldest person on the staff, full-time employees not withstanding.
    As it stands, Brown values work ethic and character much more than experience, or even interest, in golf. 
    "We had three people return from last year, and two are just weekend help, which I'll take," Brown said. "I'll take some new hires. I'll hire friends of good employees. If you have friends with a good work ethic, we're always hiring. That seems to have worked out well. The good employees we have get the program, and they understand what we need. They don't ever recommend anyone they don't feel is up to the job. We do have some bumps, because in the end these are kids.
    "We deal with the same issues everyone else does: attendance, tardiness. It still takes work to get to the point where we're all on the same page."

      In hopes of improving his recruiting success, Brown plans to cross-train his staff. He figures doing so can help maximize efficiency and prevent the staff from getting bored and perhaps leaving for another golf course or leaving the industry altogether.
    "Training is different for every employee, because they come in with a different level of knowledge of the game," Brown said. "They learn the layout the first week and get comfortable on the property. Then they move on to odd jobs, raking bunkers. It's about exposure to the golf course and learning attention to detail. They have to learn that every job is important, because we are judged by our members and guests on our worst attributes. If our greens are great, but the bunkers are poorly maintained, that is what we are going to be judged on that day."
    The golf course is unable to match the local fast food industry, which pays new hires a few dollars more than Massachusetts' $14.25 minimum wage. What he cannot offer in pay, Brown tries to make up for in scheduling.
    "We recognize with prospective employees that we can't compete with the restaurant down the street. When they have zero experience we can't justify spending $18 an hour, but we promise everyone I hire to give them raises not based on longevity, but on the skills they learn," Brown said. "Dunkin' Donuts and McDonald's do offer more, but we offer a consistent schedule with available overtime. Our goal is to get employees to $16 an hour by the end of their first summer. They offer $3 or $4 an hour more, but you'll never get more than 30 hours, and you might be opening one day and closing the next. We're here from 6 (a.m.) to 2 (p.ml.) daily, and weekends we are here from 6 to 9 for a quick mow-and-go, and we go home. . I feel like we provide a fun and rewarding environment, and financially we put employees in a better position."
  • An apprenticeship program in New York is focused on helping solve a labor shortage in the state's turfgrass industry. Photo from NYSTA Golf course superintendents and sports turf managers throughout New York struggling to find help soon will have a new labor source to tap to quench pipeline to tap to alleviate their labor woes.
    The New York State Turfgrass Association is finalizing a statewide registered apprenticeship program for the turfgrass industry. The program will help NYSTA employer partners find and secure talent for specialized skilled positions in an industry starved for trained and educated professionals by creating a career pathway for job seekers throughout New York on golf courses, sports facilities, athletic fields, lawn/landscape and other turf-oriented businesses.
    The program provides a template to help employers provide state-approved training for an existing employee or a newly recruited worker, said Dom Morales, the retired SUNY Delhi instructor who is helping organize the project for NYSTA.
    The New York State Department of Labor is in the final stages of approving the template. Once approved, the program will offer 4,000 hours of structured, on-the-job training and additional instruction through a host of cooperating partners.
    The concept has been in the works since 2018. Once approved, the program will offer training, education and certification for groundskeeper - golf course, groundskeeper - sports turf and turf equipment technician.
    "Programs like this have been discussed before," Morales said. "This program is the first time something like this has been done on a statewide basis."
    Tyler Bloom Consulting helped develop core competencies for the training program and will help market the concept to employers throughout New York. So far, six employers have signed on to either train an existing employee or use the apprenticeship to attract new help.
    "I saw this as a way to make an impact in the turf industry and solve a problem," Bloom said. 
    "This is not just one faction of the turf industry. This is multiple factions coming together to solve a really big problem."
    Once the program is up and running, it will do so on a one-year probationary period.
    "There are a lot of checks and balances," Morales said.
    "It is currently in the hands of the Department of Labor, and it should be approved by late May, or early June."
    There is an increasing number of high school students across the state who at least express a passing interest in careers in agriculture and horticulture. As many as 140 high schools in New York have a Future Farmers of America chapter or some other type of agriculture education program. 
    Morales and Bloom are going to Syracuse May 12-14 for the state's FFA conference that is expected to attract more than 2,000 high school students interested in some sort of agricultural career.
    "Ag-ed has exploded here," Morales said. 
    "The apprenticeship program also would be ideal for a veteran, or someone looking for a career change. This is where the rubber meets the road."
  • Brandt partners with Florida GCSA
    A new system modeled on the PGA Tour FedEx Cup will help send a group of Florida superintendents to the GCSAA National Golf Championship. Under a three-year partnership with Brandt Consolidated, the new points-race system will provide an annual trophy for the overall winner plus travel, entry fees and uniforms for a total of 10 Florida GCSA members (two teams) to represent the state in the team event at GCSAA championship.
    Golfers will earn points based on their performance in the Everglades GCSA Poa Annua Golf Classic, the Florida GCSA Steven Wright Memorial Golf Tournament, the North Florida GCSA Fall Classic, the Central Florida Crowfoot Open and the inaugural Florida GCSA Benevolent Fund Tournament.
    The event will be known as the "Florida GCSA Race to Orlando presented by Brandt." The highest points earner will get to keep the BRANDT Cup for one year as well as a trophy they keep permanently.
    "We are very excited to help ensure that superintendent golfers who qualify will actually get to go the national," Brandt turf and ornamental territory manager, Chris Cartin, says. "It gets more and more expensive to attend the national show each year and not every superintendent or their facility has the resources to meet those costs. We’re looking to help guys have that chance to participate, show their skills and proudly represent their state."
    The partnership will also ensure the Florida GCSA has the best chance to build on its record at the national golf championship. During the past 20 years, Florida has produced the winner of the individual championship nine times and the winners of the team event eight times.
    FMC gives back to golf
    FMC gave back more than $26,000 to 49 local GCSAA chapters through its "Give B ack to Local GCSAA Chapters" program. Since the program’s inception, FMC has donated more than $106,000 directly back to local chapters to fund education, programming and research.
    This year's rewards-check recipients represent GCSAA chapters from all across the country that were winners in FMC’s booth contest at the GCSAA Conference and Trade Show in February in San Diego that was tied to the launch of Serata fungicide.
    Purchases of Fame SC, Rayora, Kalida, and Serata fungicides through August will generate additional rewards for GCSAA local chapters.
    PBI-Gordon names new sales, marketing managers
    PBI-Gordon, a manufacturer of herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, growth regulators and other products, recently named Geoff Smith the company’s new sales team as national key account manager, and Lyndsie Balstad as product manager for the marketing team.
    As national key account manager, Smith is responsible for overseeing all sales initiatives. Most recently, he was formulator sales territory manager for Gowan USA and also worked for The Scotts Co.
    As product manager with the PBI-Gordon marketing team, Balstad will focus on the herbicide portfolio by supporting product life cycle management and driving innovation to bring new products to the market. 
    Before joining PBI-Gordon, Balstad was with Corteva, where she has extensive experience in the agricultural market. 
  • There is a lot of competition for use of public golf courses in California. Photo by John Reitman Don't look now, but the California legislature's assault on public golf that appeared dead earlier this year is gathering momentum.
    The state assembly Local Government Committee voted 5-2 (with one abstention) on April 27 in favor of Assembly Bill 1910, which would provide funding to help convert publicly owned golf courses to a mix of high-density housing and open space. There are a few steps remaining before the bill would become law. The proposed legislation now moves on to the Appropriations Committee for a vote. If approved, the measure would next have to pass the full assembly before it could be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom to be signed into law.
    The push to repurpose public golf courses in housing-starved California appeared over in January.
    Known as the Public Golf Endangerment Act, Assembly Bill 1910 was first introduced in 2021 as AB 672 by assembly member Cristina Garcia of Bell Gardens in Los Angeles County. It appeared dead in January after it passed through two California Assembly committee hearings on Jan. 12, but failed Jan. 20 to get the necessary support in the Appropriations Committee.
    It was brought up again to the Housing and Community Development committee on March 23, where it passed by a 6-2 vote. An early April vote by the Local Government Committee was postponed by the bill's author when it did not have the support necessary to get through the committee.
    The bill proposes providing public relief in the way of developer subsidies and grants to local agencies to redevelop California's municipal golf courses into low-incoming housing and green space. To be eligible for public assistance in converting a golf course, a project must meet several criteria under AB 1910 in its current form. At least 25 percent of all new dwelling units must be affordable to, and occupied by, lower-income households; at least 15 percent of the development must be publicly accessible open space (a golf course is not considered public space under AB 1910); no more than one-third of the square footage of the development, excluding the portion reserved for open space, is dedicated to nonresidential uses, such as parking.
    Through every stage, AB 1910 is the subject of constant tweaks and rewrites, and it might be fine-tuned yet again before its next vote. Other criteria, which are not so clear cut, include: the subject golf property must be deemed underutilized; must be in a community that rises to a certain level of population density; and must be in a community deemed park poor. Three terms that have not yet been fully defined, nor has it been determined who will define them are underutilized, population density and park poor.
    The Southern California Golf Association released a statement addressing the issue shortly after the vote.
    "What do 'underutilized,' 'population density,' and 'park poor' mean in concrete terms? What are the metrics of each? How are they to be objectively measured?”
     
    "Who or what will serve as the final arbiter of whether real meat can be put on the bones of these three vague admonitions? That's not entirely clear. Will golf be invited to provide input on how real meat can be put on those slender bones?
     
    "Lots of questions. No real answers yet."
    Garcia introduced the bill last year eyeing the repurposing of some public golf courses as a way to solve a housing shortage crisis in California. Simply put, lawmakers say, there is not enough affordable housing for many of California's 39 million residents, and converting golf courses into a mix of affordable housing while retaining some of the property as greenspace, could help solve that.
    The Southern California Golf Association and the USGA both have actively opposed the bill and lobbied the public about the merits of municipal golf in the country's most populous state.
    There are 921 golf courses located throughout California, about 200 of which are publicly owned. Although municipal golf comprises only about 22 percent of California's golf supply, it hosts about 45 percent of all play statewide, according to the Southern California Golf Association.
    No date has yet been set for a vote by the Appropriations Committee.
  • It is no secret that staffing issues are among the chief concerns currently facing golf course superintendents. Those staffing challenges are not limited to assistant superintendents, interns or seasonal crew, but often include mechanics, as well.
    In an effort to alleviate some of the void created by a lack of qualified applicants, East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, is implementing an equipment manager apprenticeship program that golf course superintendent Charles Aubrey hopes will help the club fill its own needs in the near term, while also eventually providing long-range benefits to colleagues throughout the industry.
    Ideally, the program (which admittedly is in its infancy) will provide a paid entry level position plus housing while that person learns the trade for a period of two to three years under the direction of East Lake equipment manager Chris Lewis. Upon completion of the program, that newly trained technician will be pushed out of the nest into the world to fly on his (or her) own, and the cycle will begin anew.
    "We will put that person on a continuing education path to become a successful equipment manager," said Aubrey, who has worked at East Lake with director of agronomy Ralph Kepple for seven years. "In two or three years, they will be ready to be an equipment manager, and they'll be able to choose where they want to go."
    Even East Lake, the site of the PGA Tour Championship and the historic home course to Bobby Jones, is not immune to staffing challenges, said Aubrey.
    "Everyone is having difficulty filling positions. Period," Aubrey said. "That's not just entry level, or assistant superintendents. The last few years, when clubs around Atlanta have been trying to find a head equipment technician, no one is qualified, or no one is interested. I know places in Atlanta that have been looking for a head equipment tech for six months, and can't find anyone."
    Housing is provided at a nearby apartment complex in a three-bed, two-bath unit shared with two of East Lake's assistants in training.
    Lewis currently has an assistant mechanic working with him, but more help is needed throughout much of the year, especially in the run-up to the Tour Championship.

    East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta, the historic home course to Bobby Jones and the permanent site of the PGA Tour Championship since 2004, is starting an equipment technician apprenticeship program to help fill a need at the club and eventually help pump qualified mechanics into the field. Photo by East Lake Golf Club "We walk-mow everything, and we are running three fairway units a week, and we might have anywhere from seven to 20 cutting units a day that need to be checked in," Aubrey said. "Chris does all the budgeting, then you might have a unit with a flat tire, a backpack blower might not be working, sprayers need servicing. There is a constant line of equipment that needs to be checked out and checked in every day.
    "Chris and his assistant stay on top of things. They do a phenomenal job. But there is a never-ending queue of maintenance needs, and Chris needs an extra hand to do that.
    "We're going to get someone in here and train and educate them, and we're going to help them move along, and then we're going to start over. We want to get mechanics in here and trained and out into the industry, because God knows we need them."
    Although he is anxious to get the program off the ground in its inaugural year, Aubrey said working at East Lake is not for everyone.
    "You have to have the right work ethic to be successful. And you have to just put your head down and do the job with the right attitude. That is what we value," he said. "If someone has to stay late, who is going to do it? If you're showing initiative and doing the extra things and want to learn something else, let's introduce that person to other aspects of the industry. This isn't just a job. We want to educate them."
    A graduate of the Michigan State turfgrass program, Aubrey said he is not worried about training someone and losing them, even if they leave East Lake and land at another Atlanta-area club. In fact it is quite the opposite. Aubrey not only believes East Lake already has a well-earned reputation as an efficient training ground for up-and-coming professionals in the turf industry, he feels an obligation to educate people and send qualified professionals out into the workplace. To that end, the goal of the program is to eventually pump qualified equipment technicians into the field to help other golf operations, not just East Lake.
    "Everyone is hard-up try to find someone," he said. "We want to build a program to mold people and provide them with what they need to be successful, and this program will give them the skills to do that.
    "High turnover is part of what this industry is. All we can do is teach people as much as we can while they are here. And when they leave here, we hope they tell others 'if you get a chance to go to East Lake, you can't turn it down, because you will learn so much.' If we can do that, it will help our business 10-fold while also giving back to the industry."

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