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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    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.
  • Syngenta enhances WeevilTrak
    Syngenta has introduced the first guarantee for control of annual bluegrass weevil, all white grub species and turf caterpillars with the WeevilTrak annual bluegrass weevil assurance program. 
    To qualify for the assurance, superintendents must be registered WeevilTrak users and apply the recommended rates of Acelepryn, Ference, Provaunt WDG or Scimitar GC insecticides as outlined in the assurance. 
    WeevilTrak features monitoring updates, digital tools and ongoing insights from researchers via the WeevilTrak blog. In addition to the assurance, Syngenta added monitoring sites at Kings Mill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia, and Cannon Golf Club in Lothian, Maryland.
    Click here for more information.

    Aquatrols taps new territory manager
    Aquatrols recently named Ian Grove as territory manager for the southeastern United States.
    A former superintendent, Grove will be responsible for overseeing business in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. 
    He joined Aquatrols after working in sales for SiteOne, Harrells and Agrium Advance Technologies.
    Click here for more information.
    Pursell names new T&O director
    Pursell Agri-Tech named Bill Abetz as director of turf and ornamentals. A 30-year green industry veteran, Abetz will oversee its nursery, greenhouse, lawn care, golf, sod and sports turf markets.
    A former assistant superintendent and nursery operations manager, Abetz has more than 20 years in chemical and fertilizer sales and product development. He has introduced multiple products and new product categories into the market.
    Click here for more information.
  • Throughout his career as a golf course superintendent, Kevin Breen never gave much thought to becoming his professional association's president. Nor was it why he got involved with the GCSAA's member board. 
    His reasons for volunteering on behalf of other superintendents were much more understated, if not selfless.
    "When I am finished not just as president, but with my service on the board, I want members to see that they have a direct responsibility in the success of that organization and that they are critically important to what the association is," said Breen, superintendent at La Rinconada Country Club in Los Gatos, California, and for the next 11 months the GCSAA president. "I want them to feel they are involved and heard and that they are important in contributing to something bigger than yourself."
    And he knows what he does extends beyond the boundaries of Lawrence, Kansas.
    "As a board, we listen to members, we listen to industry partners, we listen to suppliers and we take that input and give a strategy to the staff to execute a plan so that we are all successful, so everyone with a stake in the overall industry, not just GCSAA, is successful. We know there are a lot of facilities where there is not a GCSAA member, and what we do affects them, too."
    In a time when just about everything, including the golf industry, is in a state of flux and uncertainty, Breen, with his self-effacing and benevolent approach, is the right person at the right time for the office, says Mike Kosak, who hired Breen as his assistant many years ago at Lahontan Golf Club in Truckee, California.
    "As I did, Kevin came from humble beginnings and was the main reason I brought him on at Lahontan," Kosak said. "We spoke of GCSAA often in those early days and he wanted to make an impact in some fashion as he didn't feel the small golf courses with minimum budgets were represented in the association. He made it his mission to open up opportunities within the GCSAA for the low budget facilities around the country.  He was instrumental in starting a grass roots movement in the Sierra Nevada chapter that included all facilities from the Mom and Pop 9-holer to the big budget private facilities."
    An avid reader of books on leadership and a one-time aspiring meteorologist, Breen has made a career of progressive out-of-the-box thinking. As a superintendent in an area that is subject to some of the most unique climate challenges and is constantly under the regulatory microscope, Breen has been an agent of choice both out of choice as well as necessity. It will require someone who is both to help guide the golf industry through uncharted waters, even if he has to treat those same waters for bicarbonates first. 
    He has spent years finding solutions to irrigation challenges, including water that is both dirty and scarce.
    When asked if he would consider natural products in response to the rising cost of synthetic fertilizer, he responded: "I've been using organic products for years, and I plan on using more organics."
    For most of the next year, he is bringing that reputation for change to the role as president of the GCSAA board. 
    His two years as vice president and president of GCSAA have been, so far, defined in part by two years of a Covid-plagued annual conference and trade show that was all virtual in 2021 and in-person, but lightly attended in 2022. 
    "With the challenges GCSAA and golf in general face going forward, the timing of naming Kevin Breen President couldn't be better," Kosak said. "I know Kevin will make every effort to be inclusive of all golf facilities and open doors for those who want to advance their careers through educational programs. He's always believed in the local chapters of GCSAA as being the opportunity to open those doors; at this time I think his leadership is just what GCSAA needs."
    It is no secret that the current conference and trade show format does not fit the needs of everyone. Two years of challenges associated with Covid have provided GCSAA with an opportunity to adjust that model in future years.
    "That is actually what we are discussing at the board level," Breen said. 
    "There is no answer at this point what exactly the show will be, but there is the recognition that it needs to evolve, it needs to change. Over the next year, we need to hear what members want and what the vendors who support the show want. We need to have those conversations with them about what they need to be successful.
    "The GCSAA does not get revenue and is not successful unless vendors are successful and they get what they need out of the show, as well as our members, so it's a balancing act. Over the course of the next few months, those discussions will be going on, and it will be a partnership with everyone involved. It's going to be a lot of listening and planning with these entities and listening to one another. The show will evolve, and that change will be ongoing. I'm excited by that, by the chance to do it better than it had been done in the past. And in a new world with new changes all around us, it only makes sense the conference and show will evolve, also."Breen says his defining moment of service to fellow superintendents came when working with the association's government affairs group, in particular advocating on behalf of his colleagues on key issues like water.
    "The pivotal moment for me in board service was in government advocacy and our priority issues agenda and how we arrive at those," he said.
    "What I hear about most from our members is the loss of our resources, be they chemicals, fertilizers and especially water in the West. That's the big one, that and manpower."
    For the past eight years, Breen has attended National Golf Day in Washington, where he plays an active role in the lobbying process by meeting with Congressional and Senate aides about key issues affecting the golf industry.
    "The first few years, it's like 'OK, you're here representing golf. That's nice, we'll see you maybe never again. Then you come back the next year, and the next year and the next year.
    "It takes time to develop credibility and build relationships necessary to effect change and influence lawmakers to see why this is a concern to us, and the fact that we have been persistent, they now can see what we are asking for is reasonableness."
  • Overnight there is a new and unfamiliar name in the golf turf and ornamental industry.
    Cinven, a private equity firm based in London with offices in seven countries, has reached an agreement to acquire the professional business segment of Bayer's Environmental Science for $2.6 billion. Founded in 1977, Cinven acquires U.S. and European corporations in the following market segments: business services, technology, media and telecommunications, financial services, industrials, healthcare and consumer products.
    The company announced in February 2021 its intent to divest the professional arm of its Environmental Science business, a division of Bayer Crop Science.
    Environmental Science Professional is focused on environmental solutions to control pests, diseases and weeds in non-agricultural areas such as vector control, professional pest management, vegetation management, forestry and turf and ornamentals. In 2021, the business had approximately 800 employees supporting operations and sales in more than 100 countries. It is headquartered in Cary, North Carolina.
    The decision to divest Bayer Environmental Science includes its professional turf and ornamental business, but does not include the segment's agricultural or commercial units, which are among its most profitable divisions. 
    "This divestment represents a very attractive purchase price and allows us to focus on our core agricultural business and the successful implementation of our Crop Science Division growth strategy," said Rodrigo Santos, president of Bayer's Crop Science division. 
    A spokesperson for Bayer said last year that the sale is not related to the company's ongoing challenges associated with settling thousands of lawsuits that blame glyphosate, the active ingredient in Bayer's Roundup herbicide, for causing cancer. 
    Bayer acquired Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, in 2018. Shortly after the acquisition, Bayer began answering charges filed by litigants that Roundup was responsible for causing their non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Since then, the company has spent almost $15 billion to settle current and future cases and recently has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and stop the bleeding.
    The company announced last summer that it plans to halt sales of Roundup in the consumer market in 2023.
  • Peggy Kirk Bell was a charter member of the LPGA Tour and dedicated her career to advancing women's golf. She was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2019. Photo by USGA The element of surprise is gone from this year's U.S. Women's Open volunteer experience.
    When a team of 30 volunteers arrive in June for this year's Open at Pine Needles Resort in North Carolina, it will be difficult to replicate the wow factor that took the golf world by storm a year ago at the Olympic Club in San Francisco. Some things are more important than wow, so what will take place at the resort facility in Southern Pines will be no less significant.
    Again, it will provide an opportunity for some of the best the industry has to offer to network and learn from each other while promoting the job of greenkeeping to others who might never have considered it. And they will do it at a place with a long history of contributing to women's golf.
    This year will be the fourth Women's Open for Pine Needles, the resort facility in the North Carolina sandhills region that holds a significant place in the history of women's golf. Pine Needles was the longtime home of the late Peggy Kirk Bell, an LPGA legend and member of seven golf-related halls of fame, who, with her husband, Warren, bought the property in 1954. She lived there until her death in 2016 at age 95, and her family still owns the property today. This year's event will be a fitting tribute to someone who has dedicated her life to growing the game and advancing women's golf.
    David Fruchte has been golf course superintendent at Pine Needles since 1990 and has overseen preparations for all three Women's Open events held there (1996, 2001, 2007). 
    "Mrs. Bell was a direct influence to getting the Women's Open to Pine Needles," Fruchte said. "It was a pretty quick deal. When she wants the Open, she gets it."
    Bell was an accomplished player and instructor, and she also was an owner with a keen eye for agronomics and the contributions of golf course superintendents.
    "Mrs. Bell was great to work for," Fruchte said. "She was my biggest cheerleader."
    Like last year at Olympic, this year's volunteer group will include 30 women who are golf course superintendents, assistants and mechanics. Others come from the world of academia and industry vendors. The group will include 15 who worked last year's Open and 15 newcomers.
    Among those new to the experience this year is Renee Geyer, superintendent at Canterwood Golf and Country Club in Gig Harbor, Washington. Before she accepted the job at Canterwood last autumn, Geyer was golf course superintendent at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. The site of several professional events, Firestone was home to the PGA Tour's WGC Bridgestone Invitational until 2018, and since then has been home to the Senior Players Championship.
    "I have never had the chance to participate in a USGA event. I have had many years of experience with hosting PGA Tour events, but never gotten the opportunity to be involved with a USGA tournament," Geyer said. "I hope it will bring me to see process and procedure through yet another lens of high-quality turf maintenance."
    Jessican Lenihan, formerly an assistant superintendent in Idaho and now a sod farm manager in Colorado, was on hand last year at the Olympic Club and will be at Pine Needles in June. The message she and many other women want to send is loud and clear.
    "Hey, we can do this, too!" Lenihan said.
    There also is a message she and others want to send to young women watching in person and on TV.
    "The biggest thing with getting more women into this industry is having them be aware that this is even a career option and being on the main stage during a major is one of the best ways to get that done," she said. "When I was in high school, I didn't have a clue this was even something I could do until I got a job on a golf course by chance working with the flowers. Come to find out I liked to cut the grass more."
    The opportunity for so many women in a male-dominated industry to gather for networking, education and just prove to doubters what they are capable of doing was a breath-of-fresh-air story that stole headlines in the trades and traditional media throughout much of 2021.
    This year's tournament experience, although no longer new, will be just as significant.
    A native of Findlay, Ohio, Peggy Kirk Bell was an accomplished amateur player. She won three Ohio Women's Amateur titles and went on to play collegiate golf at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida. In 1949, she claimed her only major win at the Titleholders Championship at Augusta Country Club, which butts up to its more famous neighbor in Georgia. She was a member of the 1950 U.S. Curtis Cup team, a charter member of the LPGA and a 2019 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame. 
    When the Bells bought Pine Needles, they saved it from financial distress and renovated the property. An accomplished golf instructor, Bell brought the game to countless women, children and men through her Golfari (golf safari) program at Pine Needles.
    "The history at Pine Needle is beyond that of a fairy tale," said Jennifer Torres, superintendent at Westlake Golf and Country Club in Yardley, Pennsylvania and an Open volunteer for this year. 
    "Peggy Kirk Bell was a powerful woman that brought success to Pine Needle. Her passion for Womens' golf brought numerous championship events to the resort."
  • Since 1995, the first Friday of March has been recognized as National Employee Appreciation Day. 
    TurfNet recognizes the accomplishment of golf course employees throughout the year. The Rising Stars of Turf recognizes superintendents in the early stages of their careers, assistants, equipment technicians, interns, students and sports turf managers. All Stars of Turf recognizes established superintendents, equipment technicians, career assistants, salespeople, architects, consultants or educators who have distinguished themselves over time. Presenting sponsors for Rising Stars of Turf are EarthWorks and DryJect; the All Stars of Turf program is presented by Foley Co. and Air2G2 by Foley.
    If you know someone who should be recognized for either program, let us know through Twitter @turfnet, but be sure and check your spelling and punctuation. March 4 also is National Grammar Day.
    Recipients will be announced monthly and featured on TurfNet.com and social media.
  • The wheel, the fork, coffee, the dishwasher, the toilet, Edison's lightbulb, landing on the moon, the Declaration of Independence, digital music and buying crypto currency are among the revolutionary ideas dismissed by Seinfeld co-creator Larry David in a series of commercials borne out of this year's Super Bowl.
    Turn back the clock to 2016, and chances are David would have added Bayer's opportunity to acquire Monsanto, the maker of the herbicide Roundup, to the list of things he would have poo-pooed.
    Facing thousands of lawsuits filed by those claiming the weedkiller Roundup is responsible for causing cancer, Bayer has spent billions in settlements. Recently, the company has said 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. Last year, Bayer filed a petition with SCOTUS appealing a lower court decision in Hardeman v Monsanto. The company claims federal preemption prevents Bayer from complying with some states' laws asking for cancer warnings on product labeling.
    In more recent news, disruption to supply of at least one undisclosed ingredient to Roundup has forced Bayer to limit production of the weedkiller it plans to pull from the consumer market next year.
    According to Reuters, Bayer told its industrial customers on Feb. 11 of disruptions to supply and production, and declared force majeure, which relieves the company from contractual obligations. The slowdown of production, according to published reports, will last about three months. 
    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. 
    In December, the Supreme Court asked for input from the Solicitor General's office in response to Bayer's request for the court to overturn Hardeman.
  • Steve Ott has been the equipment manager at Elcona Country Club for 44 years. Like so many other golf course operations throughout the country, Elcona Country Club in Indiana has not been immune to the labor crunch that grips the industry. 
    One job superintendent Ryan Cummings has not had to worry about was that of equipment manager. Not until recently, anyway.
    Steve Ott, equipment manager at Elcona CC in Bristol, Indiana, is retiring this year after 44 years on the job.
    "We just all get along here. It's like a family," Ott said. "And everybody here works great together."
    Ott, 69, arrived at Elcona in 1978. Then, Grease was No. 1 at the box office, Night Fever by the BeeGees was near the top of the Billboard Top 100 list, the average cost of a gallon of gas was 63 cents and a home $54,000. In that time, Ott has worked under five different superintendents, including current greenkeeper Ryan Cummings.
    "When I started here nine years ago, there were six employees here with over 25 years of experience," Cummings said. "It's just a family atmosphere in the shop. I try to improve on that and keep that culture going."
    He will stay on for several weeks before riding off into retirement as Elcona's first new equipment manager in nearly a half-century learns his way around the operation.
    Ott's plans for retirement include traveling with wife Barbara and spending time with his grandchildren.
    "Hanging out with the grandkids, that's what I usually do," Ott said. "How many do I have? Let's see, nine, I believe."
    Ott is a self-trained mechanic who learned his way around engines as a kid while helping his dad, who worked at a local northern Indiana paper mill and liked tinkering with cars. Before he arrived at Elcona, Ott worked in a gas station and owned one for a while.
    He got his start in golf during high school raking bunkers and mowing fairways at a handful of golf courses around the Elkhart area, which is the RV capital of America. He took those skills to Elcona after getting out of the gasoline business.
    "I raked sticks my first day. There had just been a big storm come through," Ott said. "I just worked my way up from there."
    Throughout his time at Elcona, Ott has been more than an equipment manager. He also works every day on the golf course when he is not busy in the shop repairing something. His day might also include mowing fairways and roughs and serving as irrigation tech or whatever else Cummings needs.
    "He has a wide range of experience at all sorts of jobs out there," Cummings said. "There is not a job on the golf course he has not done or could not figure out in 10 minutes."
    Spending time out on the golf course on a regular basis helps Ott when he is working in the shop, as well.
    "He takes a lot of pride in the product we produce," Cummings said. 
    "Being out on the golf course two or three days a week, he has a good eye on what he has to adjust so it works better out in the field."
    Still, it is Ott's skill as an equipment manager that has made him so valuable for so long, especially when it comes to fabricating tools to help Cummings and his team do their jobs more efficiently.
    When Cummings needed a way to transport pumps efficiently and easily throughout the golf course to drain water from bunkers into sump pits, Ott transformed old, unused walk mow trailers into pump trailers, with a hook to roll up hoses.
    "I told him what I needed, and within four hours he had one made," Cummings said, "It's nothing fancy, but it does the job we need it to do. He's probably made 30 things that make our job on the golf course easier every day."
  • Jeremy Dobson with Holly Neidel, the former general manager at The Patriot Golf Club. Hardworking, honest and candid to a fault were just a few of the ways those who knew Jeremy Dobson will remember him.
    The grow-in superintendent at The Patriot Golf Club in Owasso, Oklahoma, Dobson died Feb. 21 when the recreational vehicle in which he was a passenger crashed in Jacksonville, Florida. Dobson and a group of friends from his hometown of Arkansas City, Kansas, were returning from the Daytona 500 when the crash occurred. He was 48.
    "I loved him like a brother," said Russ Myers, superintendent at Southern Hills in Tulsa where Dobson was an assistant for 12 years before growing-in The Patriot course in 2010. "He was a grinder. He worked hard and liked to have fun. He had a lot of friends, but he never had to go to them; they came to him. He never lost a friend."
    Other superintendents throughout the industry thought just as highly of Dobson, Myers said.
    "He was hugely respected by his colleagues and was unbelievably talented," he said. "He was a nice guy, but he was no shrinking violet. He had a way of telling you he disagreed with you without offending you. He knew what he wanted.
    "From the first scratch of the shovel in the ground he was so dedicated to The Patriot. He was as honest and loyal as the day is long."
    A native of Arkansas City, Dobson was a graduate of the Kansas State University turf program. He started as an intern at Southern Hills in 1997 and was hired into a full-time role the following year. There, he prepped under the likes of Bob Randquist, John Szklinski and Myers before moving on to build The Patriot.
    Four others in the RV at the time of the crash suffered non-life-threatening injuries, according to published reports. Also on the trip, but on a flight home at the time was Los Angeles Country Club director of golf courses and grounds Chris Wilson, who has been friends with Dobson since the two were in the fourth grade back in Kansas.
    "I don't know if I am going to be able to get through this (conversation)," Wilson said.
    "He could always make the worst situation better, and he made challenging times great. That's just who he was. He had such a positive impact on everyone he came in contact with."
    Wilson and Dobson got their start in golf in high school when both worked at Arkansas City Country Club. And it was Dobson who recruited his lifelong friend to Southern Hills in 1998. 
    Wilson later went with Myers to Los Angeles Country Club as an assistant and was named head superintendent in 2016 when his boss returned to Southern Hills. He credits his lifelong friend with helping him forge his career path.
    "He always worked hard and grinded it out," Wilson said. "You could just trust him as soon as you met him. He looked you in the eye, had a firm handshake and was easy to talk to. There was no bull****. He doesn't sugar coat anything."
    Myers' relationship with Dobson transitioned from one of superintendent and assistant to one of trusted colleague.
    "When I came to Southern Hills at the end of 2006, I inherited Chris Wilson and Jeremy Dobson and a third assistant, Roy Bradshaw, who is now our equipment manager. Chris and Jeremy were already good friends, and they were very good," Myers said. "It was apparent to me on Day 1 that I wasn't going to have to change much here. They were incredible people. They did not have to prove themselves to me, I had to prove myself to them. 
    "In 2007, we held the PGA Championship here, and over the next couple of years, the relationships we developed were lifelong bonds. It was a fraternity in a way. Now, every time I question something, or I'm worried if I'm missing something, Jeremy was always my first call. I trusted his judgment."
    Said Wilson: "He was the best bentgrass grower I've ever seen. Bar none. He knew how to manage water and nutrients with seeing tests. He just had an eye for it."
    Myers and Tim Moraghan of Aspire Golf have a long history. Through his relationship with Myers, Moraghan had gotten to know Dobson and eyed him for more than one potential career change opportunity.
    "I always try to match the personality of the superintendent with the personality of the club so everyone benefits," Moraghan said. "He produced a great product, but that's not what matters now. This is someone in the prime of life and the prime of his career who is gone for whatever reason. When something like this happens, it's sad. Right now, I don't care about grass, or selfies, or hiring practices. It's just turf, and today that is insignificant."
  • Proposed legislation in the U.S. Senate could result in canceling registration of several pesticides, some of which are used on golf courses.
    Senate Bill 3283, known as the Protect America's Children from Toxic Pesticides Act was introduced last November by Sen. Cory Booker,  N.J. The bill, which appears to still be in front of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, according to the Congressional Record.
    According to the author of the proposed legislation, the EPA "regularly fails to incorporate updated scientific understanding to protect human health and the environment from the harmful effects of pesticide products, as envisioned by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act, resulting in the use of billions of pounds of pesticides every year that were approved based on outdated science."
    If passed, SB 3283 would update the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972, known as FIFRA, by canceling U.S. Environmental Protection Agency registration of neonicotinoids, organophosphate insecticides and the herbicide paraquat.
    Proponents of the bill call it historic and overdue. Its critics call it a waste of time that would override work put in by the EPA.
    The bill has the agriculture industry squarely in its crosshairs, and other industries, such as golf, could be affected if it ever becomes law. An earlier version of the bill, that one authored by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., in 2020, but died in committee without receiving a vote.
  • In today's world of greenkeeping, a host of stimuli make evidence of lengthy careers harder to find. Increased golfer demand, a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately mentality and the murky waters of club politics, along with a shrinking supply of golf courses over the past decade-and-a-half combine to make staying at one location for any length of time increasingly less likely and send many into careers in support roles such as vendor sales and even drive others out of the business entirely.
    Although plain old hard work always is the foundation on which a solid career is built, it is not always enough. Success also requires an arsenal of soft skills when dealing with golfers and committees, a trusted network of colleagues and mentors as well as a little bit of luck.
    After 40 years as a head superintendent, including the last 22 at Westwood Country Club in Rocky River, Ohio, Dave Webner (right) knows a little bit about what it takes to succeed as a greenkeeper. He also knows about paying his good fortune forward for the benefit of others, including his two current assistants, Scott Pike and Eric Nordmeyer.
    "It is important to have guys you can call, sometimes just to joke with and help make you feel better, sometimes just to blow off steam and sometimes to ask for help," Webner said. "You have people you work with or for, and you take things that are positive, and there are some things you don't use and you develop what works for you."
    When Webner's own career began more than four decades ago, he learned the ropes from two other superintendents with long careers. After attending Penn State's two-year turf program run then by Joe Duich, Ph.D. he worked as an assistant at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio, under both Bill Burdick and Terry Bonar. His time at Penn State and later Canterbury helped launch a career that has spanned more than four decades.
    "Duich would pitch a piece of chalk to different guys in the class and say 'draw a grass plant,' " Webner said. "Some of the drawings were elaborate, some were a stick figure of a grass plant, but none of them were right. Then he'd say 'You want to grow grass, but you can't even draw what a grass plant looks like.' You had to start from scratch."
    Webner's early years and subsequently his introduction to golf are a slice of Americana. The son of a man so true he was nicknamed "Honest" Rod, Webner grew up in Orrville, Ohio, the home of two iconic brands that prove sweet and sour can mutually coexist - Smucker's jelly and former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight.
    During the 1975-76 college basketball season, Knight's Indiana Hoosiers were on their way to finishing the season undefeated and eventually went on to win the national championship. That group is still the last Division I team to finish the season without a loss. In 1976 back in Orrville, Webner learned of an opportunity that proved to be just as historic and life-changing - for him, anyway.
    While running a neighborhood grocery store in his hometown, Webner took a part-time job as the night waterman at another Orrville institution, Riceland Golf Course, a 100-year-old  mom-and-pop daily fee that remains a deal even today with walking rates of $18 and $30 with a cart.
    It was at Riceland, which lacks the resources of eastern Ohio layouts like Sharon or Firestone, where Webner got his first taste of what really is involved in keeping turf alive through challenging conditions.
    Fast forward to his last days at Penn State in 1981, and Webner had his choice of jobs, including offers from Frank Dobie at Sharon Golf Club and Burdick at Canterbury. He chose the latter and soon was working under Bonar when Burdick was promoted to oversee not only Canterbury, but also nearby Shaker Heights.
    That no-nonsense approach embraced by Duich, Burdick and Bonar helped forge the skills Webner would need in the real world.
    "Dave had a lot of positive qualities," Bonar said. "He was easy to talk to, and very open-minded about learning new things and different ways of doing things."
    During his 40 years as a superintendent, that include a short stint at Delaware Country Club in Muncie Indiana, and 13 years at Lake Forest Country Club in Hudson, Ohio, Webner has, like any superintendent, navigated good times and bad. He's asked colleagues for help and been there for them, too.
    "David is one smart guy and a great superintendent," said Kevin Ross, a former superintendent and turfgrass consultant who was Webner's classmate at Penn State. "Always love having conversations with him, because they are at a different level."
    The beneficiary of the experience of mentors and colleagues, Webner also is a benefactor, sharing his knowledge with others to help them out of a jam, or to further their own careers.

    Westwood Country Club. Photos provided by Scott Pike A graduate of Ohio State's four-year program, Scott Pike already was the assistant at Westwood when Webner was hired in 2000. The two had met previously at OTF events, but Pike recalls being a bit nervous when his employer was hiring his new boss.
    "I had started here as the assistant in 1999, and Dave was hired in March or April of 2000," Pike said. 
    "The club told me they wanted to go in a different direction and were not going to promote me. I had heard stories of how some superintendents like to bring in their own people, so I told them if they hire someone to please tell that person the job comes with an assistant already in place. I wanted to make sure whoever was interviewing knew my story and my background."
    It did not take long for both parties to realize each could complement the other.
    "We were driving the course one day when he first got here, and I was able to see right away how he does things," Pike said. "He has high standards and an eye for detail. 
    "He asked my opinions, and I think he wanted to see where I was coming from. He picked my brain, but I think a lot of that was to see what I knew and didn't know. Still, he valued my opinion, and that meant a lot to me."
    That relationship has been enough to keep Pike, 50, around as an assistant for more than two decades.
    "He cares about the people he works with," Pike said. "He never says I work for him. He always says we work together. It's a we thing, not an I thing, and that is a big part of what has kept me here as long as I've been here."
    Although he credits his mother and Honest Rod for much of that outlook, Webner says he learned a great deal about accountability on the job from Burdick and Bonar during his time at Canterbury.
    "They always talked about how the only thing you have is your credibility. If you screw up, stand up and admit it," Webner said. "It will haunt you if you try to cover it up."
    Bonar taught not just how to be a superintendent, but what it truly means to manage a staff.
    "He taught me that you need to know where everyone is on course all the time, that you should be able to drive across the course and tell if someone is out of place," Webner said. "And if someone is out of place you have to know why."
    Bonar laughed when he was reminded of that advice.
    "I wrote a paper on that. It was a damn good paper," Bonar said.
    "You know what section everyone is on, and you know how long it takes to mow greens, or fairways, or rake bunkers. At Canterbury, we had two hours between when we started and when play began, so you knew where everyone was supposed to be in relation to play. If you looked at your watch and saw someone was behind, 'no, no, no, that's not right.' It was just about being efficient."
    When things on the golf course went south, which they are prone to do on occasion, those early lessons, especially remaining humble, have proven invaluable.
    "You have to always be truthful and own your mistakes," Bonar said. "You have a responsibility, a responsibility to your membership to take care of their golf course. That comes above everything."
  • What better honoree for a new scholarship to help students pursue a degree in turfgrass studies than someone known as Dr. Dirt?
    A new scholarship to help undergraduate students in the University of Connecticut turf program is named in honor of the late William Dest, Ph.D. A former UConn student, researcher and professor, Dest died last spring at age 91.
    The William and Anne Dest Scholarship will provide between $1,200 to $1,500 to one student each year.
    Dest was nearly 40 years old, was a Korean War veteran and already was working as a golf course superintendent at Wethersfield Country Club when he showed up at UConn as an undergraduate in 1967. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in plant science, he earned a master’s in agronomy and  was named as a research associate. He eventually earned a doctorate in 1980 at Rutgers.
    During his career, Dest's research centered around turfgrass fertilizer programs, putting green speeds and improving conditions on athletic field.
    Recipients of the Dest award will be chosen by faculty members in UConn's' Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture.
  • Everyone knew attendance would be down at this year's GCSAA Conference and Trade Show. The question "How much would it be down?"
    Now we know.
    A total of about 6,500 people attended this year's show in San Diego. That figure is down 45 percent from the last two live shows, 2020 in Orlando (12,000) and 2019 in San Diego (11,900). 
    Understandably, there were fewer vendors on hand this year, with more than 300 exhibitors showing their wares this year, which is down significantly from 2019 in San Diego (510) and 2020 in Orlando (500-plus), according to GCSAA data.
    Education is the big draw at the GCSAA show, and this year, 3,700 seminar seats were filled. That number is down from the past two live shows where about 5,400 seats were sold both years.
    For those who were unable to attend this year's in-person show, the GCSAA is holding a two-day virtual education event scheduled for Feb. 23-24.
    Next year's show is scheduled for Feb. 4-9 in Orlando.
  • Crews install flooring for a concert given by the performer formerly known as Kanye West. Photos by Scott Lupold As the sports field manager at one of the nation's most iconic stadiums, Scott Lupold is no stranger to big events, but he is in the middle of an experience few have faced before.
    Lupold, in his fifth season as the turf manager at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, is fresh off hosting a concert and car race and is now on the clock as he and his team shift their focus to installing a new field in advance of the next big sporting event. Think of it as going from no grass to a member-guest in five days.
    Adjacent to the University of Southern California and steps away from downtown Los Angeles, the 100-year-old LA Coliseum has a peerless history. The first Super Bowl was held there in 1967, and it is where the Miami Dolphins capped the only undefeated season in NFL history in Super Bowl VII in 1973.
    The stadium has been the home of USC football since it opened in 1923, and the LA Rams, Chargers and Raiders also played home games there. The NFL's Pro Bowl was played there from 1950 to 1971, and the Dodgers played there for three years after moving west from Brooklyn in 1958, including the 1959 World Series. A burning torch atop the iconic peristyle plaza and Olympic rings on the facade serve as a reminder that the stadium was the site of the 1932 games.
    When one team or another is not playing there, the stadium is a popular concert venue and many movies and commercials were shot there.
    Lupold, however, has never had an experience like the one that recently took place at the stadium in recent weeks.
    The grass at the Coliseum, which by the way was built for less than $1 million in 1923, has been undercover for more than eight weeks. Immediately after a concert by the artist formerly known as Kanye on Dec. 9, NASCAR moved in to begin preparations for this year's Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, an exhibition race that helped kick off the stock car racing season. Although the race, formerly held in Daytona Beach, and its unique format helped NASCAR reach out to new audiences, it represented unique challenges for Lupold.

    Work begins transforming the LA Coliseum field into a racetrack. After NASCAR, which spent more than $1 million to build a temporary asphalt track it already has begun to remove, clears out of the Coliseum by Feb. 19, Lupold will begin regrassing the field with with 85,000 square feet of Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass through West Coast Turf's Palm Desert facility.
    "The grass is toast," said Lupold. "The concert and the race were scheduled around the idea of this being resodded. That gave NASCAR a head start on getting everything ready."
    Once NASCAR packs up and leaves by Feb. 19, Lupold will have five days to till and laser grade the surface, roll out sod and get ready for the stadium's newest client, the LA Giltinis professional rugby team that is scheduled to practice at the Coliseum on Feb. 25 and host a game the following day.
    When that team hits the field, they will be playing on a new turf cultivar that will make its debut at the Coliseum.
    After experimenting with several varieties of Bermudagrass in recent years, such as Bandera, Tifway 419 and TifSport, Lupold settled this year on Tahoma 31 after testing it last season on USC's nearby practice field.
    "What I was impressed with were the number of individual plants," Lupold said. "So many other varieties push stolons, this pushes leaf more than stolons. It likes to leaf and stay vertical."
    That makes it much easier to manage, and it also will help improve playability during the upcoming USC season under new head coach Lincoln Riley. 

    Asphalt goes down on what used to be a football field. "I run grooming reels on it and verticut some, and it never gets out of control," he said. 
    "Because there are so many more plants, when players cut and take out turf, we won't lose as much turf because it is not all connected."
    Long before he could think about resodding, Lupold was more concerned about what was going on under the surface as crews came on site to get the Coliseum for a concert and then a car race.
    Truckloads of dirt were brought as a base beneath the floor installed for the concert. Afterward, the dirt was left and NASCAR trucked in even more, raising the surface of the field a minimum of a foot-and-a-half and up to 4 feet in the banked turns and on top of that installed an asphalt track. Layers of plastic, a fibrous cover and plywood between the dirt and areas of artificial turf along the sidelines and warning track to prevent the synthetic surface from being contaminated by unwanted organic matter.
    "They'd just dump it, dump it, dump it, dump it, push it around and go get more," Lupold said. 
    "My concerns were contamination, and protecting the irrigation system and the drainage tiles under the weight of all that dirt and all the cars. It was a lot of dirt."
    When Lupold gets the field back from NASCAR on Feb. 19, he and his team will remove the existing surface matter the old-fashioned way - with sod cutters - and eventually will roll out Tahoma sod grown to 1.25 inches. Where the mowing height goes from there - other than down - is unclear for now thanks to a schedule that includes football, rugby, international soccer games and probably a few more events that are not yet on the schedule. There also is a concert on the books for September that will require once again removing the old field and installing a new one.
    "That's the million-dollar question. We don't know yet," Lupold said. "There is a ton of leaf blade at three-eighths. I'd like to live between three-eighths and seven-sixteenths. That is in our wheelhouse, but by the end of football season, you're in survival mode and you go where the grass takes you.
    "It's always busy here, and there is not much down time to cultivate the field into the ideal playing surface. We are looking for more of a maintenance than we are selling out to a playing surface."
    For now, anyway.
  • Our late friend Jerry Coldiron, CGCS, once described golf course management as an "often lonely and sometimes cruel business." Superintendents are challenged every day to be at the top of their game and often have few places or people to turn to for support when things go south. As we all know, it's not a matter of if one will lose grass, it's a matter of when. As we also know, it's more often NOT about grass.
    The TurfNet Forum has a long history of being a private, safe harbor for those seeking help, guidance or just a sympathetic ear when encountering the pitfalls of turf management or simply the potholes in the road of life. Some of those challenges — including job loss and depression — made it into the pages of our newsletter back in the day for exposure to a broader audience.
    Recognition of mental health and physical wellness have emerged from the shadows on many fronts in the golf turf industry, led in part by our own Paul MacCormack's Mindful Superintendent blog and conference presentations. Kyle Callahan at the Thornblade Club in South Carolina has organized a weight loss challenge through Twitter and a recent private Zoom call on mental health among turf managers.
    TurfNet will continue to lead the charge with our new Me Maintenance series. We have a lineup of superintendents and other industry folks who have agreed to share their struggles and solutions for managing alcoholism and substance abuse, depression, anxiety, weight control, dietary, mental health care, therapy and medication, job loss and personal grief from the loss of loved ones (including our dogs)... and how any or all of these intersect with the pressures of the profession.
    The series will be hosted by Peter McCormick, founder of TurfNet. "I have hung my own challenges — including being fired twice and life-long struggles with depression and alcohol — out there over the years and have more stories to tell," he said. "It is heartening to see people willing to step forward and discuss their own personal situations for the benefit of others who may be experiencing the same. We will kick it off next week with a superintendent who has successfully hit the personal wellness reset button after experiencing the depths of alcohol and substance abuse."
    Presenting sponsor of Me Maintenance is Ocean Organics.
  • With three PGA Tour events in three weeks, the Super Bowl and the former Golf Industry Show, who knew one of the most exciting things to happen in California in a month would be an exhibition car race? And who knew it could provide a learning moment for other sports, including golf?
    In searching for a way to infuse interest and energy into a sport where both have been on the wane, NASCAR did not just tiptoe down the steps into the shallow end of the pool when it held a stock car race inside the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 6, it did a cannonball off the high dive that ended with a glorious splash.
    The Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum, which showcased NASCAR drivers navigating 150 laps around a short quarter-mile track stuffed into a football stadium and leaned on live entertainment during a mid-race break, was a daring and aggressive attempt to gain traction by introducing the sport to new and under-represented audiences - namely minorities and those under 30. 
    Although this is no endorsement of concerts at PGA Tour events, cramming a race into a football stadium with live entertainment illustrates an attempt by the sport to expand its customer base by infusing its core business with something new and different. It is a lesson some sports, including golf, have learned from in one way or another. And if the numbers are any indication, it could be a valuable lesson.
    Since enjoying record popularity in 2005, NASCAR's appeal has been on a steady slide followed by an upward tick in 2021.
    Sound familiar?
    The LA Coliseum is not the first NASCAR facility to bring an event like a concert to the track. 
    Declining attendance during the past 17 years resulted in reactions like lowering seating capacity, a practice NASCAR called “right-sizing.” On an individual track level, some facilities implemented a value-added experience, such as a pre-race concert, and those are the tracks that saw better attendance through bleak times.
    That was the case at the Coliseum.
    The Busch Light Clash is an exhibition race that historically has been held at Daytona International Speedway where it preceded the season-opening Daytona 500. It was moved this year to the Coliseum in LA in an attempt to drive interest in the nation's second-largest metropolitan area.
    NASCAR officials were so sure their experiment would be a success they were willing to spend more than $1 million on building an asphalt track for one race only to begin tearing it out the day after the event.

    About 50,000 people attended a NASCAR exhibition race at the Los Angeles Coliseum that included a mid-race break and concert. Photo provided by Scott Lupold Attendance was about 50,000 and 4.3 million more watched the race from home. That is way up from last year's event at Daytona that drew 20,000 in attendance and  Those statistics dwarf last year's numbers that included 20,000 in-person viewers and 1.7 watching on TV.
    The publication Autoweek called the event "spectacular," and retired driver Tony Stewart, who was in the broadcast booth said "NASCAR didn't just open the door, they kicked it down. This is how you promote an event."
    The event illustrates an attempt by an entire sport to expand its customer base by combining entertainment with its core business. 
    Although concerts do not necessarily have a place in golf - other than the night before The Masters - the game's stakeholders have to be concerned about adding value for the 21 million who plunk down their hard-earned money to carry the industry.
    Owners and operators, at daily fee operations, have tried a variety of things to attract new blood to the course with varying degrees of success, such as social events, loose restrictions on music and attire, fringe activities such as FootGolf and alternatives to 18- or 9-hole rounds.
    Another such example has been the advent of golf entertainment facilities like Topgolf. Such facilities are gaining in popularity because they offer a unique experience that includes much more than just golf. A decade ago, there were 10 Topgolf facilities nationwide. Today, more than 25 million people per year patronize 68 Topgolf locations open nationwide with eight more on the way. The question has been whether participation at such facilities translate into play on the golf course. We might learn the answer to that soon enough with a new facility set to open soon in Los Angeles that is part of a complex that includes the Lakes Course at El Segundo, a municipal layout in Los Angeles County.
    From 2005 to 2019, rounds played dropped from 518 million to 432 million, and the number of people playing the game dropped by 10 million since 2002. 
    During the past two years, the golf business has been successful at regaining some of the players and all of the rounds it lost during a decade-and-a-half of industry decline. More than 20 million golfers played a record 518 million rounds in 2021. Since Covid, about 900,000 newcomers took up the game in 2020.
    That growth has been attributed mostly to people seeking an outlet for recreation in a post-pandemic economy. Although there are plenty of newcomers to the game, baby boomers are still playing most of the rounds. With that in mind, operators must continue to find ways through added value to appeal to new audiences and retain those who come through the door for the first time or risk squandering all those new players and increased play , because as NASCAR has shown, sometimes the main event alone is not enough.

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