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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    Type the words "golfers are . . ." into Google and a flood of unflattering modifiers auto-populate in the results. Apparently, there are people who believe that golfers are "not athletes," but feel pretty strongly that they are "pricks, douchebags, selfish and rude."
    It's hard to argue with any of that, but one description that did not pop up in the latest Google search was "golfers are . . . terrorists."
    That might change after a jury awarded nearly $5 million in damages to Erik and Athina Tenczar, who claimed they have been terrorized by hundreds of golf balls launched toward their home along Indian Pond Country Club in Kingston, 35 miles south of Boston. 
    The headline in the original story in the Boston Globe read: "Family terrorized by golf balls wins nearly $5 million from neighboring country club."
    The plaintiffs bought their home on the par-4 15th fairway in 2017 and soon realized just how bad some of the golfers at Indian Pond are at hitting fairways in regulation. During the course of four years, the plaintiffs say about 700 golf balls either crashed into their home, breaking windows, denting siding, damaging their deck and left the couple's children clad in bicycle helmets to protect themselves from incoming fire while playing outdoors.
    They filed suit after repeated calls to the golf course and police resulted in no help.
    "When it hits, it sounds like a gunshot," Athina Tenczar said. 
    "We're always on edge," said her husband.
    A jury awarded the homeowners $3.5 million in damages. Including interest, the award totals $4.9 million, or about $7,000 per golf ball. And you thought 50 bucks for a dozen Pro V1s was a ripoff!
    Whether the court's decision is upheld in appeal remains to be seen, but this is by no means the first time a golf course has been sued by those feeling like their home is being used for artillery practice. In fact, it's not even the first case in Massachusetts. 
    Here are just a few other examples of homeowners suing golf courses over the intrusion of errant shots.
    Another Massachusetts homeowner filed suit in 2005 against Middlebrook Country Club in Rehoboth, when she claimed golfers pelted her yard and house with 1,800 golf balls during a five-year span. The plaintiff in that case was awarded an undisclosed amount.
    In 2008, a court issued a restraining order that temporarily banned play on the No. 6 hole at Winged Foot in Mamaroneck, New York, which has been the site of six U.S. Open Championships and a PGA Championship. 
    Homeowners in Ventura County, California, moved out of their home and demanded a professional relocation service refund their purchase price of their home on Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo, after complaining of more than two-dozen golf balls per day landing in their yard or bouncing off their $2 million house on the seventh fairway.
    In the case of Indian Pond and the $4.9 million payout, the plaintiffs said getting the courts involved was the last thing they wanted.
    "We never wanted a lawsuit," said one-half of the couple looking to collect on $4.9 million. "Nobody wants a lawsuit."
    An appeal most assuredly awaits in what is not the first case of homeowner vs. golf course. And with juries handing out seven-figure awards, it won't be the last.
  • Winter damage on the No. 7 green at Norfolk Golf Club in Westwood, Massachusetts in late March. Photo by Chad Brown via Twitter When it comes to dishing out punishment on golf courses, diseases play no favorites.
    Winter damage caused by repeated cycles of thawing and refreezing of soaked putting greens historically is a sporadic issue on golf courses. When it shows up, it does not care whether the superintendent is a rookie on a public golf course or a seasoned veteran getting ready for a major championship. 
    The winter of 2022, specifically the month of February, provided one of those occasional periods of distress for many superintendents in the Northeast. Private and daily fee golf courses throughout the Northeast were equally affected. 
    As spring weather emerges and turf begins to green up, there is evidence that a series of freeze-thaw cycles in February have caused damage of varying degrees on Poa annua putting greens throughout parts of the Northeast.
    "When it comes to winter damage," said Steve McDonald, a golf turf consultant and owner of Turfgrass Disease Solutions, "Mother Nature does not discriminate."
    McDonald has conducted site visits to dozens of golf courses this year where winter damage has been an issue. The severity of damage has been indiscriminate.
    "I've seen damage that is only the size of a pillow to about 60 percent of the putting surface. I've seen it on all the greens (on a golf course) and on just a few," McDonald said. 
    "I can visit five or six courses a day within 30 to 40 minutes of each, and it's all different."
    Tony Girardi has spent 28 of his 33 years as a superintendent at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, Connecticut, and winter damage has been an infrequent visitor there. This year is the first time he has seen it at Rockrimmon since 2015. 
    Of this year's damage, Girardi said: "We got clobbered."
    "We had a freeze-thaw, then snow, then rain in January. That created slushy ice. That wasn't so bad," Girardi said. "Then we had temperature swings from the 20s to the 50s for the whole month of February."
    Girardi is using permeable covers to accelerate growth so he can see every place where damage has occurred.
    "We're still trying to assess damage," he said. 
    His multi-probed recovery plan includes resodding large areas, aerification and overseeding, or just letting the least-affected turf to grow out naturally.
    "In 2015, there was distinct death in areas where water pooled. We were able to identify damage right away," he said. "This year, damage was widespread and not confined to one area."
    At Fairview Country Club in Greenwich, Connecticut, Jim Pavonetti had minimal damage on three greens. He believes he was able to avoid further, more serious damage through an aggressive aerification program late last fall. That program started with an aerification procedure of three-fourths-inch holes on 2-inch spacing in November, followed by a drill-and-fill of 12-inch holes on 6-inch spacing, followed by another aerification procedure - also three-fourths inch on 2-inch spacing.

    Winter damage on the No. 7 green at Norfolk Golf Club in Westwood, Massachusetts in early April after a week or so under a cover.. Photo by Chad Brown via Twitter "With so many holes," Pavonetti said, "we did not have the surface water needed to create problems."
    Currently, there is no science to back up the validity of any preventive measures, says turfgrass consultant John Daniels, agronomist with the USGA Green Section's Northeast Region. Any success, says McDonald, is purely anecdotal.
    "The problem is this year we are seeing damage in areas where we are not accustomed to seeing damage. It's a head-scratcher," Daniels said. 
    "Damage is in varying degrees, even on the same golf course. That golf course might have damage, while others in the same town do not."
    Chad Brown, superintendent at Norfolk Golf Club in Westwood, Massachusetts, can attest to that.
    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.
    Even the installation of new drainage on the No. 7 green did not prevent damage from occurring there this year.
    "We still had ice damage," Brown said. "We had just radical changes in temperatures that did not allow surface water to penetrate."
    He placed a permeable cover over the area to promote green-up and assess the extent of the damage.
    "We covered that area from the last week of March and the first week of April," Brown said. "I considered plugging, but day by day it looked better, so I decided to let it ride. I did skip the first Proxy application in that area. I'll take any seedhead as long as we have turf."
    In his days as an assistant under Zolkowski, Brown would dig out small pockets of problem areas, install pea gravel to promote drainage and re-cover the area with the turf canopy. 
    "After seeing damage this year, in the future, whatever I decide to do on greens in winter, I'm probably going to go old school and dig a hole again," Brown said. "I have to give the water somewhere to go."
    Some years, winter damage might come in the form of desiccation on bare, exposed areas, or Poa greens encased in ice for extended periods. This year, a pattern of freeze-thaw cycles has resulted in crown hydration damage.
    "A lot of damage can be traced back to drainage limitations on the surface or underground," Daniels said. "A lot of courses in the Northeast love their Poa greens, and they are proud of them. But winter damage is one of the risks you take when you try to maintain Poa greens in this part of the country. It's been six years since we've had damage, then boom! We have damage. It might be another six years before we see this again, or we might get hit again next year."
    "There is not a hard-and-fast rule that says 'if this happens, all damage can be traced back to this.' There certainly are factors that predispose certain greens to more damage, but it's not as simple as you can just do one thing and then you're good, or fix one issue then you're good. It's much more complex and multifaceted as to what you can do.When we experience this kind of weather, really all we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope the water can move before it refreezes."
    Although there is no science to accurately predict when and where winter damage might occur, promoting overall soil health throughout the year could minimize the threat, Daniels said.
    "We have to step back and ask, how strong and healthy are your greens year-round?" Daniels said. "If greens are in a weak state in October, I would expect them to be more vulnerable to winter damage in January, and in April if they have to recover. I don't think you can push greens so hard in the summer, then just raise the height of cut going into winter and think that is going to absolve you of all your problems going forward."
  • Anyone who has managed warm-season turf on a golf course already knows how devastating nematodes can be. What they might not be aware of is the extent of the damage they can cause nationwide.
    Conservative estimates put nematode damage in warm-season turf at north of $50 million annually. Often, however, nematode damage is misdiagnosed, perhaps as a fungal disease. Other times, damage can be caused by both disease and pest. According to University of Florida nematologist Billy Crow, Ph.D., (shown at right) root damage caused by sting nematodes can create an optimal environment for fungal diseases, such as Pythium.
    Left to their own devices, nematodes can wipe out entire areas on warm-season turf on putting green, so if these microscopic worms are suspected of causing damage, then it is critical to get the diagnosis correct and put the correct curative measures in place.
    Crow says there is a science to sampling for nematodes. The country's leading voice in nematology says take about 16 samples in a back-and-forth pattern across the affected area. Doing so helps ensure randomly capturing enough nematodes.
    Taking samples from one area, Crow said, does not provide an accurate view of what is happening beneath the surface.
    "On healthy grass, because we don't know where these nematodes tend to occur because they're going to be unevenly distributed in clumps," Crow said. "We don't know where these clumps are," Crow said. "So what you're going to do is you're going to go across the area, the green, the fairway, or the tee, in more of a zig-zag pattern, and taking samples as you're going along in the zig-zag so we're getting the average nematode population density across the areas."
    Crow's nematode sampling advice was the subject of a recent video distributed by Syngenta.
    In the video, Crow also recommends not sampling areas where damage is overly obvious, i.e., areas of dead turf or bare ground.
    "We wouldn't want to take a nematode sample there because there's no grass. So nematode populations are going to be low because these nematodes have to feed on live turf, so we want to stay away from the really bad spots," he said. "I try to concentrate on areas where the grass was sick, (but) where it wasn't dead."
    The point is to provide the lab with enough accurate samples so the problem is properly diagnosed, said Crow, who has seen dried and useless samples arrive at his lab in Gainesville in everything from plastic containers to brown paper lunch sacks.
    Samples should be taken from a depth of 3 to 4 inches.
    "Greens, 3 inches, fairways and tees, down to 4 inches," he said. "In that range is going to be where most of the nematodes are."
    He recommends placing the samples, about 16 cores, in a plastic bag and getting them out of direct sunlight as soon as possible. It also is important to store them in an air-conditioned room until they are shipped - ideally within 24 hours of sampling - so they do not dry out.
    "The longer these samples are in transit," he says, "generally the lower the recovery gets."
  • The USGA is investing $1.9 million in more than 80 turfgrass research projects this year. Photo by USGA The USGA has committed nearly $2 million to help fund dozens of research projects throughout the year, marking the largest investment in turf and environmental research in the game's history.
    In the past 40 years, the USGA has invested almost $47 million in turfgrass research, including $1.9 million this year that will fund more than 80 projects. In the past decade, USGA-funded projects has resulted in practices that can help turf manages reduce water use by 20 percent and nutrient use by 40 percent, the association says.
    The USGA says its investment in golf course sustainability saves the industry as much as $1.92 billion annually. That includes $201 million from advancing irrigation and reducing water use, $530 million from advancing irrigation scheduling with soil-moisture meters and $295 million from more efficient fertilizer and pesticide use.
    "A core focus of the USGA is to ensure golf is not only thriving today, but is also growing in the next 20, 30, and 50 years. To ensure future success, we need to continually invest in efforts that can address challenges that our game will face long-term – like water scarcity, the cost of labor/resources, and the availability of land," said Mike Whan, USGA chief executive officer. "We are making significant investments in research projects that will create an even more sustainable and resource-friendly game. These advances are critically important steps to ensure that golf remains nimble and innovative in its approach to long-term sustainability – so that our kids, and their kids, inherit an even stronger game."
    The 2022 grant recipients include more than a dozen universities and represent both short- and long-term projects. Grant applicants are chosen for meeting criteria, such as optimizing sustainable golf course management and playing conditions; protecting and conserving water resources; or identifying and developing novel plant materials.
    Projects receiving funding this year include a multi-university evaluation of drought tolerance and water use of fairway grasses; a Texas A&M study focused on site-specific reduction of fertilizer use; and turfgrass breeding programs at several universities.
    Formerly the Turfgrass Environmental Research Program, the initiative was renamed last year for Mike Davis, the former USGA executive director and CEO.
  • It often is said that it takes a village to raise a child. There are times when it also requires a large group to raise a golf course superintendent, especially in times of disaster.
    When an overnight fire on April 2-3 destroyed an auxiliary maintenance building and most everything inside it at Framingham Country Club in Massachusetts, director of golf course and grounds Pat Daly, CGCS, wondered how he and his team at the club near Boston would be able to complete all of the spring spraying applications.
    After a couple of quick phone calls, a host of people, including fellow superintendents and suppliers came forward with equipment from sprayers and utility vehicles to blowers to help Daly get through his spring spraying applications.
    "This is already a tough business, but the beauty of it is the camaraderie," said Daly, who is in his 22nd year at the club near Boston. "I can't tell you how many people have called to offer equipment - equipment distributors, chemical distributors. I've been overwhelmed by my friends in the industry who have stepped forward to help out."
    On April 3, Daly and wife Judy were supposed to take their son, Nathan, to Williamsburg, Virginia, to visit William & Mary, where he will be a freshman in the fall. Those plans changed when Daly awoke that morning and saw missed calls and messages on his phone from a club bartender, general manager and Framingham's president. Rather than head for the airport, Daly went to the golf course.
    The night before, an assistant clubhouse manager noticed flames coming from a satellite maintenance building about 9:45 p.m. A former cart barn, the building houses much of the specialized equipment that Daly does not use on a daily basis, such as sprayers, aerifiers, blowers and a tractor. The fire department was on the scene by 10 p.m. The fire finally was out by 2 a.m. Structurally, the building was a total loss as was everything in it.
    The cumulative loss is estimated at $1.2 million.
    Among the victims were, four sprayers, four aerifiers, two tractors and blowers, a verticutting unit, seeder and two tow-behind leaf vacs. An adjacent storage unit used to house chemicals and fertilizers was not damaged by the fire, but remained shuddered by fire officials until they were able to safely clear it. Their concern was that firefighting efforts might cause runoff into an adjacent stream if the doors to the unit are opened. Daly also was concerned how the intense heat from the flames might affect product efficacy. 
    "Everything I walk through, I find something else under the ashes," Daly said. "It was a gut punch."
    Daly immediately started calling equipment and chemical suppliers looking for help.
    Soon, he had assistance from many. Among those who rushed to help were Tony Girardi, superintendent at Rockrimmon Country Club in Stamford, Connecticut; Herbert Meredith of Meredith Chem-Farm Sales in Maryland; Shane Cornicelli of A-OK Turf Equipment of Coventry, Rhode Island; and Nat Binns of Turf Products Corp., an Enfield, Connecticut Toro dealer, among others, who stepped up to loan Daly blowers and sprayers and utility vehicles to help him get through his spring applications.
    "We had a new blower that was used once. And now it is under a pile of debris," Daly said. "I contacted A-OK Turf, and the first word out of Shane's mouth was 'what do you need?' I told him I needed a blower, and it was shipped. That's the industry we're in."
    Girardi and Daly have been friends since the early 1990s when they were classmates at the University of Rhode Island. When he heard about the fire, Girardi pledged anything he could do to help his friend, including sending a 200-gallon sprayer.
    "Fire is my biggest fear. If something like that happens to the maintenance building, I never want to know that feeling," Girardi said. "I am a big believer in paying it forward. I would want someone to help me if I was in that same situation."
    Chemical suppliers were on the phone with Daly by Sunday. New product is now being stored in a smaller unit, which will necessitate reorganizing the space and installing shelves so Daly can fit everything he needs into a confined area.
    "I feel like I could teach a class," Daly said. "I feel like Matt Damon in 'The Martian': I'm working the problem. I have a legal pad with me all the time. When I see something I write it down."
    Meredith's father, Howard Sr., started Chem-Ag in the 1970s to service the agriculture industry. Eventually, business expanded to include golf. Daly and Howard Sr. first met in the 1980s, so when news of the fire spread, Howard Jr. began working the phones on Daly's behalf.
    Supply chain issues that have plagued the golf industry have made it a challenge to get everything to Daly that he needs. Meredith quickly refurbished a sprayer with a new pump and new hoses to make sure Daly would get a reliable piece of equipment that is built to last.
    "He called me Sunday after the fire. I've known Pat for 25 years. I immediately searched to see if we had anything that would work for him," Meredith said. "He was dead in the water, we had to find him something. 
    "The pump I put on was the last one on my shelf, and I don't know when I'll get another one. No one can tell you how long it will be."

    After four hours, firefighters finally had the blaze under control by 2 a.m. on April 3. Fire photos courtesy of Pat Daly   Binns has known Daly since the former began working at Turf Products in 2006. He too, was quick to respond to the needs of a longtime customer and friend, sending him a Workman.
    "He's welcome to use anything he needs," Binns said. "There is a brotherhood in this industry, and when something like this happens, it's everyone to the forefront. We just happened to get lucky. The biggest need was sprayers. Howard found some of those, but Pat needed vehicles to mount them on."
    The fraternal bond that has been on display since the fire is not the only silver lining to come from the disaster at Framingham. The lost building also was used for staff meetings, leaving Daly with the feeling that as bad as things are, they could have been worse.
    "I've always had a great relationship with the fire department, police and the town. I'm thankful no firefighters or police were hurt," Daly said. "Thank God it didn't happen at 2 in the afternoon. I would have gone in and tried to grab a sprayer, or something stupid like that. I have a great crew, and they are very dedicated, and one of them probably would have done the same. They're a great crew, with young families. It always could have been worse. Thank God no one got hurt.
    "This can be a difficult job, but the people are outstanding, and sometimes, we need to focus more on that. That might be better for all of us."
  • Photos by University of Missouri For those confounded by weeds rearing their ugly heads on the golf course this spring, a digital resource from the University of Missouri makes identifying weeds and developing a management plan easier than ever.
    Missouri's Weed ID Guide provides information on more than 450 species of broadleaf and grassy weeds. The guide includes descriptions on each plant’s life cycle and growth characteristics, as well as identifiable features, such as leaf structure, and descriptions of stems and flower and fruit, and other characteristics. 
    Multiple photographic images of each plant also help with identification.
    Users also can cross reference their search by grassy or broad-leaf weed type, common name or Latin name for 461 weed species.
    The site also includes a searchable database that references scientific research by weed species, year and specific herbicide used.
  • Garia is a manufacturer of golf cars and light utility vehicles based in Denmark. Club Car has reached a deal to acquire Garia, a Danish company that makes electric vehicles for the golf industry and other markets.
    Founded in 2005, Garia is a leader in Europe in the luxury golf car market, and launched a utility vehicle line in 2015. The company also serves the municipal, hospital, university, parks, industrial, hotel and resort, zoo, amusement park, forestry and agriculture, postal and package-delivery and food-delivery markets.
    The acquisition also includes Melex, a Polish company Garia acquired last fall that specializes in lightweight utility vehicles.
     
    Club Car is a division of Platinum Equity, which acquired the company from Ingersoll-Rand a year ago.
    Club Car officials say Garia and Melex’s utility products fill a market that Club Car does not occupy.
    The deal is expected to close in the second quarter. Terms were not released.
  • Learning the art of negotiating is just one of the sessions taught at the Syngenta Business Institute. File photo by John Reitman Applications are being accepted for this year's Syngenta Business Institute, which is back as an in-person event after being conducted online for two years.
    The three-day professional-development program is scheduled for Dec. 6-9 at the Graylyn International Conference Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
    Offered in cooperation with the Wake Forest University School of Business, SBI features educational courses designed to teach superintendents critical industry skills and offers plenty of networking opportinities. Upon completion, participants will earn 1.5 GCSAA Education Points. Topics to be covered during this year’s program include: work/life balance, negotiating, personnel management, leading across cultures and generations.
    Attendees must be employed as a superintendent, director of agronomy or at an equivalent level at a U.S. golf course.
    To apply, visit GreenCastOnline.com/SBI. Deadline to apply is Aug. 22. Applicants selected for the program will be notified by Syngenta in October. 
  • Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California. Photo by John Reitman With water-use restrictions for golf looming once again in the nation's largest state, the time for developing a plan to conserve is before such rules become mandatory, not after. 
    "The time to plan for this is now," said Craig Kessler, director of public affairs for the Southern California Golf Association. "Get the message, and let's start doing it before it is mandatory. Document what you are doing and be a good corporate and environmental citizen and life will go better for us." 
    When it comes to conserving water on golf courses, there is no one-size-fits-all model. Winter months historically are California's rainy season, so when fall storms last fall drenched much of the state, it is understandable if the drought-weary were anxiously awaiting what should have been a wet first three months of 2022 for even more relief.
    Rather than more precipitation falling across a state mired in a three-year drought, January, February and March have been the driest first three months of the year since weather records have been kept. 
    In response, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order asking all Californians to voluntarily reduce water consumption and the State Water Resources Control Board to adopt emergency conservation measures among the state's urban water districts. The difference between current restrictions compared with the 20 percent minimum mandated by former governor Jerry Brown in 2015, is the former accounts for differences in microclimates and water supplies across the state.
    "The greatest lesson we learned from the last drought is to be cognizant of the fact that everything should be dictated by local water supply, which is radically different in California," Kessler said.
    "I still think we're going to see mandatory restrictions, but we won't see mandatory restrictions like what we saw before. I believe it will be much more nuanced, and not like the numbers that were assigned before. This will be a looser structure that will allow local jurisdictions to define things that work there."
    Justin Mandon has been superintendent at the Alister MacKenzie-designed Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, for nine years. On the western slope of the Santa Cruz Mountains about 2 miles from the northern end of Monterey Bay, Pasatiempo is one of those locations that could potentially benefit from locally derived restrictions if cutbacks extend to golf again this year. 
    The area receives significantly more rain than courses on the Monterey Peninsula 50 miles to the south.
    "If you look across to Pebble Beach and Cypress Point, they get 30 to 40 percent of the rain we get," Mandon said. "And if you go over the Santa Cruz Mountains to San Jose, they get 50 percent of what we get. When the rain hits the mountains, it just stalls."
    So far, the voluntary cutbacks do not include golf, and also excludes schools, sports fields and cemeteries, but many expect use restrictions to be expanded if drought conditions that have dominated California for much of the last 22 years persist through the summer. Because further cutbacks appear to be imminent, Kessler, California's resident expert on the relationship between golf and water, says now is the time to develop a savings plan.
    "It always does (include golf) in one way or the other," Kessler said.
    "This is a clue to get out front. If you are proactive and get out front before they make you (reduce water use), it will always go better for you."
    Proponents of the governor's current approach see the merit in leaving conservation up to the state's 421 individual water districts to manage the flow in their own jurisdictions based on local need and supply.
    "This is a serious drought that requires serious action," said Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, a non-profit association that represents 27 urban water districts that serve 27 million water users. "We learned a lot from the last drought. In addition to the increased drought planning requirements and responsible preparation that were put in place, the governor is wisely focusing on local shortage contingency plans with today's executive order. Urban water agencies throughout the state have water-shortage contingency plans that can be activated right away to ensure conservation and other actions consistent with their region's unique circumstances.
    "Managing through this drought requires each and every Californian to reduce their water usage. The governor's order today recognizes the diversity of California communities and their water supply conditions. Ordering agencies to exercise their specific plans strikes that important balance of statewide needs and local action."

    The U.S. Navy's Admiral Baker Golf Course in San Diego. Photo by Southern California Golf Association Detractors of the plan who remember the across-the-board mandates of 2015 say the current plan does not go far enough.
    An editorial in the San Jose Mercury News on March 30 read: "As California's devastating drought worsens, Gov. Gavin Newsom's leadership has run dry. . . . (W)ith no signs that this historic drought is relenting, Newsom on Monday again refused to impose mandatory water restrictions on urban users. Instead, our spineless governor ordered the state's 420 water agencies, which serve 90% of California residents, to tighten their water conservation rules, allowing each provider to set its own plan. . . . No statewide water reduction goal. No set of simple rules for Californians to follow. No equal sacrifice for the benefit of all. No leadership from the top."
    Pasatiempo received plenty of rain last fall, but it has been pretty dry there since. Through a deal with nearby Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz trades its potable water for recycled water from its neighbor. The deal gives Scotts Valley the drinking water it needs and provides an outlet for disposing of its reclaimed water. A wastewater treatment plant on site at Pasatiempo provides Mandon with plenty of water to irrigate the golf course.
    It has been so dry so far in 2022 Mandon is considering firing up the treatment plant early.
    "This is our rainy season, so you don't want to be irrigating right now. If you are irrigating this time of year, then you are extremely dry," Mandon said. "Typically, I would not consider turning on the wastewater treatment plant until May, sometimes not until June. At this rate, I might be turning it on in a couple of weeks."
    Mandon was superintendent through the 2014-16 drought. For superintendents who have been through drought before, the experience will help them prepare members if cutbacks return.
    "The good thing about the drought is that if you've gone through it before then it is easier to communicate going forward," Mandon said. "When you know the impact it will have on the operation, it is easier to get ahead of it. It makes it easier to communicate to stakeholders."
    As a longtime superintendent in California, Austin Daniells is no stranger to drought, either. A regional superintendent for U.S. Navy golf courses in California, Daniells was the superintendent at the Navy's Monterey Pines course when then-Gov. Brown mandated blanket water cuts seven years ago. He said he is in constant conservancy mode, making it easy for him to pivot if and when mandated restrictions are implemented.
    "Monterey is on a well, so it always felt like we were in restrictions," said Daniells, who also is superintendent at Admiral Baker Golf Course, a 36-hole Navy facility in San Diego. "We knew the well would not produce as much water by the end of the summer and we had to manage it."
    In constant water-saving mode, Daniells maximized coverage at Monterey Pines through a program that included finding the right wetting agents for use on cool-season grass in an area with a 12-month golf season, dialing in nutrition and adjusting and moving irrigation heads.
    "We always paid attention to weather in the summer, and we knew when we had to back off, or when we could push it," he said. "As far as restrictions, I dove into wetting agents more in the last five to 10 years than I ever have before. You have to find one that works for your property. I found some that work for me. When you have to cut back during a drought, the golf course might not be what you want to put out there, but by managing irrigation and using wetting agents, you're not losing turf when you have to cut back."
    Newsom dialed up voluntary cutbacks last year in hopes it would result in water savings of 15 percent. The ask resulted in use reductions of about 6.2 percent. But that does not tell all of the story, said Kessler. Water use in California is down 16 percent from the last drought that lasted from 2014 to 2016. 
    "That's 6.2 percent off of 16 percent," he said. "You put those two together, and we are using substantially less water than we did eight to 10 years ago."
    The length of California's drought depends on who you ask. With nearly the entire state in some stage of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, some say the current dry period is in its third year. However, many climatologists believe the past three years are part of a longer megadrought that began 22 years ago.
    While a history of drought provides an opportunity to communicate with golfers about how cutting back water use might affect playing conditions, Daniells said golfers historically have been pretty understanding.
    "We're already behind the 8 ball every year anyway," he said. "When we cut back, if we focus down the middle, I don't know if it really affects the golfer. As a superintendent, I want the property to look the best it can year-round, we all do. At the same time, if we focus down the middle, we can make down the middle look as good as we can in the heat of the summer and still provide a quality product."
  • Companies throughout the turf industry came together to help fund construction of an athletic field and research putting green at the University of Georgia Griffin campus. Photo by University of Georgia Turfgrass is big business in Georgia. It covers 1.8 million acres across Georgia, making it one of the largest agricultural commodities in the state. The industry also employs more than 100,000 people and has a maintenance value of $1.56 billion.
    Scientists at the University of Georgia have played a key role in supporting and promoting the state's turfgrass industry through research, education and extension work. In a show of support, several companies throughout the turf industry have come together to fund construction of a research putting green and soccer field at the university's Griffin campus. Both were constructed with turf varieties developed at the UGA campus in Tifton.
    "The need was being sensed by the industries for new and updated equipment and infrastructure," said Alfredo Martinez-Espinoza, UGA cooperative extension plant pathologist. "With the high quality of work UGA turfgrass faculty have done with them over the years, the companies viewed UGA-Griffin as a prime partner for these projects."
    Bayer Environmental Science funded construction of a 9,600-square-foot TifEagle green built to USGA specifications and will be used for research and educational purposes. 
    The 22,000-square-foot sports-field research and education area built as a soccer field with primary funding by Sports Turf Co., and was sprigged with Tifway Bermudagrass, which is the same turf used in the university's football stadium.
    The field will allow faculty and students to perform research, education and extension. It will also be available for play to the local community.
    Other companies that came together on the project, that began in 2020, include Green Tee Golf Inc., NG Turf and Pike Creek Turf.
  • Municipal Saddle Rock Golf Course in Aurora, Colorado. The benefits of golf courses are many. They provide wildlife habitat, recreational opportunities, improve air quality, filter ground water, positively influence real estate value and generally are an aesthetic improvement to any community. They also are low-hanging fruit when subjects like chemical bans and water use come up, a trend that illustrates the need for public relations work on behalf of the golf industry.
    With growth in the golf industry trending negative for most of the last 16 years, it is unclear how many, if any, are interested in building a golf course in the Denver suburb of Aurora. But if the city's mayor has his way, that option could soon be off the table.
    An ordinance proposed by Aurora mayor Mike Coffman would eliminate planting new grass in public areas and would limit the amount of grass allowed in residential lawns in new home communities. The ordinance, if passed by the city council, also would prohibit construction of any new golf courses within the city limits. 
    There are a dozen golf operations in Aurora, including five municipal operations, and 250 located throughout the state, according to the Colorado Golf Association.
    Neither number is likely to grow much, if at all, anytime soon.
    Much of Colorado has been in some stage of drought since 2000. Today, 100 percent of the state is under drought conditions, ranging from abnormally dry to extreme drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. 
    According to Colorado State University, cool-season grasses can require 1 inch to 2.5 inches of water per week, depending on the time of year. Aurora receives an average of 16 inches of rain per year, according to the National Weather Service. Aurora water officials say outdoor irrigation comprises 50 percent of the city's water use. 
    With a population of 370,000, Aurora is the largest suburb in the Denver area and is Colorado's third-largest city.
    Besides prohibiting the construction of new golf courses, the proposed ordinance would prohibit grass in medians and common spaces and in front and side lawns in new home construction.
  • Rivermont Golf Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, has participated in two studies that examine how turf managers might one day be able to use nanobubble-infused water to reduce inputs on golf courses. In the photo above, researchers install sensors during the first research project. Photo by the University of Georgia Good things come in small packages. Really, really small packages. Water infused with tiny bubbles could hold a key to growing healthier turf and reducing inputs.
    A study by researchers at the University of Georgia is examining the effects of nanobubble-ozone technology on soil health and turfgrass systems.
    The study, which is led by UGA soil microbiologist Mussie Habteselassie, Ph.D., will study the effects of nanobubble-infused irrigation water on root aeration and soil health. Nanobubbles, according to researchers, are 2,500 times smaller than a grain of salt. They are so small that the technology used to infuse the bubbles into water can squeeze 61 million nanobubbles into a single milliliter of water.
    Funded by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the three-year study began in October and will look at factors such as water use, shoot growth and root growth, and will take place in a greenhouse and in a laboratory at the university's research facility in Griffin, as well as in the field at Rivermont Golf Club in Johns Creek, Georgia. The research team says the study will "track changes in activity, abundance and composition of beneficial soil microorganisms that play an important role in organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling."
    Although they are small, nanobubbles are mighty, according to researchers who say they can change surface tension and can improve soil health by increasing microbial activity beneath the surface. The results the researchers hope to prove are that the nanobubbles can lead to healthier soil and turf while also allowing turfgrass managers to use less water. Previous research has shown that nanobubbles smaller than viral particles stay suspended in solution unlike larger carbon dioxide bubbles, like those found in soft drinks, thus allowing oxygen to subside throughout the soil profile. Several other studies have shown that use of nanotechnology can result in water savings of as much as 20 percent.
    "What this potentially means is that, when you irrigate a field with nanobubbles, you increase the oxygen level in the root area of the turfgrass," Habteselassie said in a UGA news release. "More oxygen at the roots means better root development, increased water use efficiency, and also an increase in microbial activity. When you have increased microbial activity, there is better decomposition of organic matter and that releases nutrients and makes them more available to the plant."
    Rivermont Golf Club superintendent Mark Hoban has a long history of developing protocols to minimize inputs at the golf course in Atlanta's northern suburbs. He told TurfNet that he hopes the research will prove that the bubble-infused water can result in reduced reliance on pesticides, fertilizers and water.
    "We started trial work in our greenhouse three weeks ago, and we are starting on the golf course this week," Hoban said. 
    "Hopefully, in six to nine months we'll begin seeing some good data."
    The research is an extension of previous work at UGA that was funded by the Georgia Golf Environmental Foundation. The new study utilizes newer technology by Rapid Water Technologies, which manufactures a nanobubble generator that removes and prevents the buildup of biofilm in commercial and industrial water use. Other nanobubble research in turfgrass has been conducted at the University of Arkansas and Clemson University.
    Previous research in Australia has shown that turf irrigated with nanobubble-infused water requires less water, wetting agents and fungicide, Hoban said.
    Results of a similar study conducted in China on rice were published last year. That study showed that nanobubble-infused water resulted in improved nutrient uptake and plant growth. 
    According to the UGA researchers, when nanobubbles burst they release H2O3 which they believe can kill microbial cells and eventually control pathogens that cause diseases such as dollar spot and leaf spot.
    "This is where the sustainability aspect comes in," Habteselassie said. "If we can show that this works in turfgrass, it can lead to reduced use of chemicals and fungicides because the radicals released by the nanobubbles are controlling pathogens."
  • The golf course at Stoneybrook West, a gated residential community in Central Florida, closed in 2018. Not much has happened there since. Photo by Spectrum News Imagine being a homeowner in a golf community with no golf course.
    That is a reality for residents of Stoneybrook West, a 1,200-home gated community in Winter Garden, Florida. The Drew Rogers-designed golf course that opened in 2000 was the magnet that attracted homebuyers to the development in suburban Orlando during golf's boom. Fast forward to a recession that led to golf's bust, and the course that has struggled financially throughout most of its existence closed without warning in December 2018, setting off a period of uncertainty for homeowners that continues today. 
    After three years of strife, the homeowners association eventually bought the golf course last October, but it still has not reopened, and its future remains in doubt.
    More than 2,100 golf courses have closed since 2016, so it is no surprise when another one closes its doors. Although data on shuttered municipal, military, daily fee and private club facilities are easily tracked, gated residential golf courses are another animal. Many closed golf courses eventually are repurposed for residential and commercial real estate, and in some cases are converted for agricultural use. It is not so easy, however, to build apartments or retail outlets behind a guard gate where homeowners call many of the shots.
    "I don't think there is any one answer," said Larry Hirsh, owner of Golf Property Analysts, a golf course appraiser in the Philadelphia area. "The bottom line, for the most part, is either they go fallow and become a mess, or they continue to operate as a golf course."
    Hirsh recently recorded a podcast on the importance of conducting due diligence to identify the status of a golf facility economically, culturally, politically and from a facilities perspective, where its stakeholders want it to be and how to get there.
    In the case of a semi-private course joined at the hip with more than 1,000 single family homes, the answer is simple.
    "If the HOAs are smart, they will buy them and run them as a golf course, even if they lose money," he said. "They have to protect their property values."
    Stoneybrook West has been on a long road to that goal, but with the golf course closed for more than three years, its comeback remains in a state of limbo.
    Kitson and Partners, a real estate development firm from West Palm Beach, owned the course from 2007 to 2010. K&P sold the property to Stoneybrook West LLC, then a newly formed real estate firm with headquarters 220 miles south of Orlando in Fort Lauderdale, for $2.4 million in 2010. The real estate start-up never was able to get the course reopened, and sold it for just $416,000 in March 2019 to Orlando Legends Golf LLC. That transaction came four months after the golf course closed. 
    Stoneybrook was not being maintained as a golf course after closing, and soon was carpeted in weeds, according to homeowners. An examination of tax appraiser records showed that residential property values had dropped by as much as 11 percent in 2019 - the year the course closed.
    Property values in Stoneybrook West recovered somewhat over the next two years, and appreciated by 5.6 percent, while homes throughout the rest of Winter Garden rose in value by an average of 11 percent during the same time frame.
    The property eventually was sold at auction in April 2021. The City of Winter Garden entered a bid of $2.85 million, well short of the high bid of $3 million. A judge approved the city's bid, saying it was in the best interest of the community for the city to own the property.
    Six months later, the city sold the course in October 2021 to the Stoneybrook HOA. There is no sale price listed on the property appraiser's web site, but published reports put the sale price at $2 million. Every homeowner in the community will come through an extra , which will come through a tax assessment on each homeowner of $85 per year for 20 years. 
    Golf was riding a high 20 years ago when the Stoneybrook development opened in Winter Garden, and homebuyers saw an investment opportunity in one of the country's hottest golf markets.
    When the recession of 2008 hit, the golf industry already had been in decline for two years, and no sector of the market was hit harder than new residential golf communities. Opened in 2000, Stoneybrook West, the golf course, did not yet have the chops to survive the recession. It has been sold four times during the height of the golf industry's decline, according to the Orange County Property Appraiser. Each new owner was hailed by homeowners as a savior as other golf courses around Orlando, throughout Florida and across the country were closing at an alarming clip. So far, each successive owner has failed.
    When the city and the HOA reached a deal on the sale of the golf course, the homeowners association voted 745-47 to lease the operation to KemperSports, according to published reports. That deal inexplicably fell through, and the HOA declined to comment on the status of any future plans for the course. A receptionist did say a company has been hired to maintain the property as a golf course.
    "As appraisers, we operate in this realm of highest and best use. And you have a property there that really only has one highest and best use, and that is to be continually operated as a golf course," Hirsh said. "What HOAs don't understand is that the golf course is the life blood for their home values. 
    Hirsh said Stoneybrook's plight is not uncommon when real estate golf courses struggle, or worse fail.
    "Then you have conflict within the community where 25 percent are golfers and the rest of them don't play golf and don't want to pay for a golf course. They all want to move in there because it is a manicured back yard, but they don't want to pay for it."
  • Doctoral students enrolled at the University of Tennessee and Penn State University will be able to further their education and their research as the latest recipients of The Musser International Turfgrass Foundation Award for the Excellence.
    Devon Carroll, right, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Tennessee. She earned a bachelor's degree in turfgrass science and a master's in agronomy at Penn State and a master's in agricultural leadership, education and communications from Tennessee.
    She wrote her dissertation on the life cycle of the Poa annua and plans to pursue a career in herbicide development.
    Travis Russell, right, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in turfgrass science from the University of Arkansas and is pursuing a doctorate degree in turfgrass pathology from Penn State. There, his work will focus on turfgrass diseases and their control. His research spans different aspects of turfgrass science, such as cultural management, weed science and pathology.
    Russell's research has focused on Pythium patch in annual bluegrass. He plans to begin a career as a technical service representative for Bayer Canada.
    The foundation presents the Award of Excellence and a financial gift to doctoral candidates who have demonstrated overall excellence throughout their doctoral program. This year's recipients each receive $40,000 to put toward their research and education.
    Named for the late H. Burton Musser, professor emeritus of agronomy at Penn State, The Musser International Turfgrass Foundation was organized to promote turfgrass as a profession, recognize the contributions of its namesake and promote learning at all levels in the turfgrass industry.
  • A satirical social media account by a fictitious, yet funny, greenkeeper hints that rising fuel costs have become so high that the budget-busting prices might cut into his ability to mow greens this year at his make-believe "golfing course."
    Although the account represents a parody of life as a golf course superintendent, some of the views of the imaginary Miguel Vega are all too real.
    A total of 518 million rounds were played in 2021. That matches the number of rounds played in 2000, which then were the most ever. Although there has been record play on golf courses nationwide during the past 24 months, the rising cost of goods and services definitely are cutting into profits.
    Just ask Steven Scott, owner of Persimmon Hills Golf Course in Sharon, Tennessee. A distributor spent about $100 in gas to make the nearly 600-mile round trip from Chattanooga to Sharon. This year, the same distributor spent about $250 to make the same delivery run.
    "There is a huge trickle down from fuel costs," Scott said. "The cost for vendors to get product to you is going way up.
    "I know somewhere down the line, it's going to catch up to me, and I'm going to be paying that $250."
    Rounds played at Persimmon Hills were up more than 50 percent in 2021 compared with pre-pandemic numbers in 2019, Scott said. Although revenue is up, profits have not gone up at the same rate. 
    "Before Covid, golf wasn't going gangbusters around here. We knew how to hold stuff together with duct tape and baling wire, and that's how we operated," Scott said. "Last year, there was more golf played than any other year in history, so revenue was up, but with inflation, it's almost a wash. We haven't changed a whole lot from how we were operating pre-Covid."
    Each year, Scott relies on suppliers and distributors when creating a budget. Vendor partners are trusted allies in helping forecast prices for the following fiscal year. That has not been so easy for the past two years, and probably will not get easier any time soon.
    According to the Capital Group, a Los Angeles-based financial services firm, the economy historically lags throughout midterm election years and then rallies after voters cast their ballots in November. Mix in the tail end of a worldwide health crisis, inflation, record-high gasoline prices and a war in Europe that combined threaten to launch another recession, and suddenly predicting prices for products produced in a global economy becomes much more of a challenge.
    In December, Chris Gray of Lebanon Turf wrote about how supply shortages of urea caused a spike in fertilizer prices. Some products doubled in price, while others jumped by more than 200 percent, compared with 2021. The fertilizer market took another body blow in March with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia, the world's leading producer of urea, is No. 2 globally in potash exports. Belarus, the neighboring Russian puppet state, is the third-leading exporter of potash. The volatility of the area will continue to cause limited availability of both urea and potash for the foreseeable future, Gray wrote. Throw in economic instability and forecasting price increases of anything has become much more difficult. 

    Valley Country Club in Aurora, Colorado. "Even when prices went up, it was never much," Scott said. "It might be $2 or $3 more a bag for fertilizer or herbicide, or a couple more dollars a gallon for something else, but it was never what it is now. They were always able to forecast price increases then, but now, things just keep happening," Scott said. "Even before Russia and Ukraine, there was inflation, and it's a midterm year, so the stock market is going bonkers. There are just a lot of factors (vendors) are unable to predict.
    "Right now, it's hard to pin down what it's going to be from one week to the next." 
    Even the cost of PVC rose steadily throughout 2021 until it spiked in September by nearly 30 percent, then dropped by 20 percent in October. Since January 2021, the price of polymers used to manufacture PVC are up by 21 percent, according to Investing.com. That increase eventually is handed down to the customers, making irrigation projects more expensive, too.
    "Luckily, we're set on everything we need for the year through our EOP program," Scott said. "If we have a breakthrough and there's something we need that I don't have on the shelf, then we just have to bite the bullet and do it."
    Western Tennessee and the Silicon Valley are worlds apart, but there are some things that Persimmon Hills and La Rinconada Country Club in Los Altos, California, share, such as the rising cost of just about everything used on a golf course.
    La Rinconada superintendent Kevin Breen has been using some organic nutrition products for years. The price of organics has lagged behind that of synthetics, prompting him to use more of them this year and last.
    "It's disruption that often gets us to change," Breen said. "And that is what we are going through right now."
    At Valley Country Club in Aurora, Colorado, superintendent Zach Bauer is about halfway through a fiscal year that began Oct. 1. A great deal of planning and constant communication with members have helped him through increased costs for everything, including an anticipated jump in labor expenditures.
    "I did my due diligence last year. I went to distributors during the golf season last year and asked where they thought prices would be going," Bauer said. "I must have talked to eight sales reps to make sure I could get as much into my budget as possible."
    For example, he was able to raise his fertilizer budget by 37 percent, compared with the 2020-21 fiscal year.
    "I got in on early buying, and I'm paying 40 percent more than (2020-21), so I'm 3 percent over budget," he said. "Because I did my due diligence, I'm a lot closer than if I'd just said 'OK, about 20 percent more will do it.' 
    "I have not bought fertilizer for fall yet. I usually do two slow-release apps, one in the spring and one in the summer. This year, maybe i stretch the one in summer to get me more into fall."

    Persimmon Hills Golf Course in Sharon, Tennessee. Seed prices, too, are still up. That is, when Bauer can find it.
    "I usually use 100 to 120 bags of perennial ryegrass for divot repair and slit seeding," he said. "This year, I just bought every bit I could find."
    Then there is the supply chain glut, that compared to inflation and fuel, seems like old news by now. He probably will see this year's golf season come and go before a skid steer that has been on order since last August arrives at Valley CC.
    "I might not see it until August this year," he said. "It is what it is."
    Throughout every challenge, Bauer has been sure to keep his members, board and administration in the loop.
    "A lot of our members are contractors or in construction, so when I talk to them about this, they get it," he said. "Where I did have to go in depth was about seed, they did not understand how there could be a shortage of seed."
    To make sure he finishes the year at or under budget, Bauer has limited spending throughout the winter.
    "We know we're going to be spending more on labor this year," Bauer said. "With inflation, everyone is demanding more money. I've had it in the back of my head for the past four months that we're not spending anything over winter. We're saving it all for those six or seven months out of the year when membership doesn't want any excuses. I've told our members, our board and our CFO that we are going to be under budget over the winter, but we'll make up for that in summer.
    "I got a game plan together," he said. "I've been telling my board and green committee, 'hey, a dollar isn't going as far as it used to, and we're going to have to pay more. I know they are thinking 'Zach, we know, we know from the last time you told us.' I'm just making sure they understand what is happening, why it is happening and where we are headed. I'm probably over-communicating."
    That is better than getting caught by surprise - like Miggy.
  • Much has been made of the drought in California in recent years. After all, it is difficult to ignore 39 million people and about 700 golf courses. But the drought across the West is hardly limited to California. All or part of several states across the western part of the Lower 48 have been struggling with arid conditions, and some have felt that thirst for water much longer than California.
    Much of Colorado has been mired in drought for more than 20 years, and the state is ready to take measures to help users save water.
    A bill under consideration by the state legislature would pay homeowners and others to replace non-native grasses with more water-friendly native plants or xeriscapes. 
    House Bill 1151 would offer a portion of a $4 million pool to replace non-native grasses in residential lawns, schools, governments and businesses. Introduced Feb. 4, the bill was referred to the House Committee on Agriculture, Livestock and Water and then the Committee on Appropriations on Feb. 28. The proposed legislation is sponsored by representatives Marc Catlin and Dylan Roberts, and senators Jeff Bridges and Cleave Simpson.
    At least 19 Colorado communities already have a cash-for-grass program. The proposed state program, if it becomes legislation, would provide matching funds in those communities. The program does not apply to golf courses - yet.
    A similar program launched in California's Coachella Valley in 2012, ran out of funds in 2015. Another in the Las Vegas Valley pays up to $3 per square foot up to 10,000 square feet and $1.50 per foot after that. That program has taken more than 200 million square feet out of irrigation.
    According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, parts of Colorado have been in severe or extreme drought almost consistently since 2000.

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