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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    GreenKeeper University is designed for "students" who, for one reason or another, are not able to enroll in a traditional university turfgrass experience. Photo by the University of Wisconsin For aspiring turf managers who do not have the time or means to attend traditional turf school, or for those who already have gone that route but just want a refresher, GreenKeeper University will be offering a series of online courses about practical turfgrass management taught by the top experts in the field. 
    The online program begins with four courses starting January 6 and continuing through March. Another four courses will begin in January 2021. 
    Students can work at their own pace and will earn a Certificate in Turfgrass Management from GreenKeeper University after completing all eight courses. Students can take one course at a time, or all four. Additional courses will be added as the program grows. Course work is graded on a pass-fail scale and must be completed by December 15 in the year it is begun.
    The revenue generated by the courses will be put back in to developing the GreenKeeper site, so your support of GreenKeeper University is really an investment in GreenKeeper App.
    GreenKeeper University was created for turfgrass professionals who might already have a job or family - or both - and are unable to make the sacrifice that a university degree demands. It also is intended for those who may already have a degree in an unrelated field but are considering a career change. GreenKeeper University is intended to help these people begin or advance their careers despite a lack of a traditional university education in turfgrass science. It is not intended as a substitute for associate's and bachelor's degrees at accredited universities.
    Although GreenKeeper University courses are taught by turfgrass specialists with many years of experience teaching accredited university courses, the courses are not affiliated with an accredited university. Still, there is a definite University of Wisconsin tie. All instructors of the four programs offered next year - Paul Koch, Ph.D., Doug Soldat, Ph.D., Jim Kerns, Ph.D., and Bill Kreuser, Ph.D., attended or worked at Wisconsin. 
    The courses are designed to be rigorous and useful to advancing the careers of turfgrass professionals and were structured to require about four hours of work per week. Students will need a laptop or desktop computer and Internet access to take a course. 
    GreenKeeper University is designed for students that want to go beyond the introductory material. For example, the Great Lakes School of Turfgrass Science spends two weeks on turfgrass fertilization and soil management (including two, two-hour lectures, a handful of readings, an activity, and two quizzes). GreenKeeper University will offer a 12-week course that focuses on turfgrass fertilization and soil management.
    Courses for 2020 are:
    > Understanding the weather and how it relates to turfgrass growth, stress and pest management - Bill Kreuser, Ph.D., University of Nebraska.
    > Integrated pest management and responsible pesticide use - Jim Kerns, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, and Paul Koch, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin.
    > Turfgrass disease identification and management - Kerns and Koch.
    > Turfgrass fertilization and soil management - Doug Soldat, Ph.D., University of Wisconsin.
    Courses planned for 2021 are:
    > Turfgrass irrigation and drainage.
    > Turfgrass weed management.
    > Turfgrass business management and communications.
    > Turfgrass insect management.
    For more information, visit the GreenKeeper University Web site.
  • It appeared that another link to Las Vegas' brief-but-colorful history was lost forever two years ago when the Wynn Golf Club closed its doors.
    Built 14 years ago on the site of the old Desert Inn course, Wynn Golf Club reopened last week after a 10-month renovation by Tom Fazio that brought the wow factor back to this course on the north end of the Vegas Strip. Fazio designed the original Wynn layout in 2005. From the start, the Wynn course was considered a temporary stop gap until a more profitable use for the land could be determined.
    "Well, certainly it's kind of good news/bad news," Fazio said of Wynn's closing in 2017 in a recent conference call celebrating the club's reopening. "I knew the news, it was originally planned to be there for a period of time; no real designation that it was going to be five years, 10 years, 15 or 20. It was just known that the golf course would be built initially and at some point, some day, and it's only obvious when you look at the location site is perfect, usually golf courses do not exist in such a perfect, expensive location. So I understood it. I knew it was going to happen someday in the future. That day showed up, and it was a disappointment obviously because the golf course was so well received and it was such a great environment and a great setting. And personally for me, some of the great memories in creating it, because I go back to in my career, my uncle was a tournament golfer in the Ben Hogan era, Sam Snead era, so all those players that played on that original golf course on that property, the old Desert Inn, I knew many of them personally. Although I was a youngster, but I knew them. So when we built the new Wynn Golf Course initially opening, I was so excited it, obviously closing something is not logical. It doesn't seem like - in your brain, it doesn't seem to work that way, but all of a sudden within a short period of time, here we are back and we're operating and it's better than ever. So it's a unique thing, that's for sure."
    The Wynn is a mix of two worlds. Lush and green with undulations and elevation changes everywhere, it stands out as a slice of the Pinehills of North Carolina on the Las Vegas Strip. But rather than blot out views of the Stratosphere and other iconic Vegas landmarks, the Wynn embraces them.
    "(T)he interesting part about the Wynn for me, most of the time we're trying to block the views of surrounding areas, we're trying to block the views of buildings and it kind of puts you in a golf total setting. In this particular case, we're in Las Vegas, we're on the Strip. We have these magnificent structures all around us and this magnificent environment of buildings and fun and excitement, there's no way to hide them or frame them out, but also you're going to get the best view you can from there," Fazio said. "But step one was grading the land. Based on the corridors, we were forced with our golf holes to be in locations, because we saved much of the vegetation that existed. In fact, there's even some vegetation from the original Desert Inn Golf Course where we kept some of the huge big trees. Now, we cut the land around it, away from it, behind it, which put these trees on higher elevations, but it gave us the opportunity for mature framing and definition. Basically, the shaping evolved to whatever view we had. We put the best shape into the frame of the golf hole and not try to manipulate the shape of the land to what was in the distant view."
    The Desert Inn opened in 1950 as one of the first five resorts in Las Vegas. Entertainers who performed there included Frank Sinatra, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin and Wayne Newton. The golf course opened two years later in 1952. The only golf course on the famed Las Vegas Strip, the course was the site of the PGA Tour Tournament of Champions from 1953 to 1966. When the Desert Inn closed in 2000, the posh Wynn Las Vegas resort went up on the site. The golf course was retained but was the constant subject of redevelopment plans. When it closed in 2017, it was supposed to be for good as a $3 billion development deal was announced for the site.
    In the days of the PGA Tour, the course also was a Senior Tour stop from 1986 to 2001, the Desert Inn course was noted for its tight corridors. Today, the resort course commands some of the highest green fees in daily fee golf ranging from $375 to $550. Fairways are more wide open now than they were then to help push golfers through a little faster.

    Brian Hawthorne, the club's director of golf operations defended the greens fees in the larger context of the Wynn/Las Vegas experience and noted that it might even be a bargain compared with other forms of entertainment.
    "If you keep somebody from gambling for four and a half hours," Hawthorne said, "we might be saving people money."
    The course, where Jason Morgan is superintendent, is unique in that it has six par-3 holes rather than four, including one on No. 18.
    "The interesting part about the Wynn Golf Course, it's not unusual, it's not out of the ordinary per se to finish the golf round on the 18th hole with a par 3. It's been done before with some famous golf courses," Fazio said. 
    "The first time I've actually built and designed a golf course with an 18 hole par 3. You normally don't do that. Not that it's not accepted overall, but usually you have lots of other choices and opportunities. We had choices and opportunities; none was as good as the 18th hole and where it's placed. So that's the great part about golf design, there are no rules, you can go do whatever you want. 
    "Usually the one word you want to hear when a person walks up on the tee, it's a three-letter word with two Ws in it, and it's "wow." That's the word you want to hear because that says everything. It says so much about the environment, says so much about the hole, says so much about the experience, and that in itself gives the overall feeling."
    Throughout the duration of the project, which he completed with son Logan, the 74-year-old Fazio field questions about retirement. 
    "I've even had questions of people say, 'I heard you retired.' Of course, I say, 'That's competition spreading rumors,' " Fazio said. "Why would you retire from the business of designing golf courses? It's easy, it's fun, people pay you a lot of money and you work in great, exciting places for great people. Who would retire from that? Nobody. So that's a false rumor that's out there. But the only thing I retired from was going to meetings. I don't go to meetings anymore, because I don't have enough time for meetings. When you get older and there's only time for going, doing the things you want to do, so my son goes to the meetings and deals with the details."
  • Concerns around whether there were enough women and enough interest to hold a networking and career-development conference for women in turf were alleviated this year at Bayer's Women in Golf event. Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories focused on Bayer's Women in Golf event held recently at the company's facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina.
    When the folks at Bayer Environmental Science tossed around the idea of a multi-day, networking and career-development summit specifically for women, they weren't sure if there was enough interest to even get such a program off the ground. Two years and two events later, the concept appears to have limitless potential.
    With women comprising just 1-2% of all superintendents, it appeared, on the surface anyway, that those concerns were well founded. As it turned out, those concerns were completely unwarranted.
    Recently, Bayer wrapped up its second such event, this one held at its facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina. The event, which attracted 50 women from across all facets of the North American golf industry, came a year after the inaugural summit held in 2018 in Toronto.
    "That was what we were worried about, that there wasn't enough interest and there weren't enough women, frankly," Pat Morrow, senior marketing manager for Bayer ES, said as this year's conference was concluding. 
    "We were nervous."
    That a meeting like this is necessary - in 2019 - says a lot about how far the golf business, namely the turf side of the industry, has come and how far it still has to go. The good news is that women in turf finally have coalesced to form a united front. The bad news is that they have to, and kudos to Bayer for recognizing that. 
    The two-and-a-half-day networking and career-development event that attracted 50 superintendents, assistants, university professors and industry professionals included advice from industry pros on how to get ahead in this male-dominated industry that requires much more brains than brawn, tips on mindfulness and maintaining mental health and perhaps most importantly a chance for each of the attendees to realize they are not alone in their struggle to build a career in a field in which the odds often are stacked against them.
    "Things happened in this room because you got (things) done," Kelly Lynch, regional manager for Pure Seed said to her fellow attendees. "You are my superheroes. I cannot wait to see what happens next."
    Many of the topics were similar to those faced by men, such as how to promote environmental stewardship efforts of golf course superintendents and the role of the greenkeeper in growing the game.
    Others stories were more unique to women, including how to promote greenkeeping as a career option for women and war stories from the field that would curl your hair, such as boorish behavior by golfers and others that would turn your stomach, like claims of inappropriate emails from male counterparts.
    The opportunity to meet other women facing their own unique challenges and working to overcome them moved Sally Jones to the point of sharing her own story of personal tragedy and triumph.
    Jones began working at Benson Golf Club in rural west-central Minnesota as a range picker at age 15. She has been superintendent since 2003 and for the past three years has held the dual role of head greenkeeper and general manager.
    Shortly after taking on that dual role, and unable to find harmony between her life at the golf course and at home, she turned first to the bottle and later to painkillers to find help. She was unsuccessful. 
    "Spring is the busiest time in Minnesota for superintendents. I was also coaching the girls high school golf team, then my parents got sick," she said. "It was a lot coming at once.
    "I drank a lot. I found myself drinking enough to self-medicate. It wasn't casual; it was too much.
    "My husband and I decided it would be easier if we just stayed at work. It hurts we got to that point."
    Her life began to unravel, resulting in two failed suicide attempts.
    With the help of a patient board of directors and husband, she completed treatment and a successful comeback to the golf course. Jones, and so many other women in the room, left North Carolina with the comfort of knowing she now has dozens of other newfound friends, mentors and colleagues willing to offer advice or more importantly just listen.
    "The timing of this was perfect," she said. "I feel so empowered, not only by everyone who organized this, but by all of you."
    Where the event goes from this point forward has not been determined, but make no mistake it is not likely to go away any time soon.
    Plans might include a regional event next year, followed by another international summit in 2021.
    "There is a possibility it could go global," Morrow said. "We just don't know yet."
  • Career coach and consultant Susan Hite realized she couldn't be on 24 hours a day in her former career in marketing when she was pulled over for running a red light at 2 a.m. Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories focused on Bayer's Women in Golf event held recently at the company's facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina.
    Susan Hite remembers vividly the moment it struck her that she was focused too much on her job and not enough on herself.
    She had been stopped by a policeman at 2 a.m. for running a red light. The officer thought for sure she was a candidate for a DUI. Instead, he learned he pulled over a workaholic, not an alcoholic. That was some two decades ago when Hite was working in the marketing industry. Today, the principal, consultant and career coach at Hite Resources, she now helps people market themselves, not others.
    "Anyone working at 2 a.m., that's just crazy," Hite said. "That was a turning point in my life."
    Hite was the clean-up batter, closing out the recent Bayer Women in Golf event held in September in the Raleigh, North Carolina area.
    After that fateful run in with the law, Hite immediately sought clarity in her professional life.
    "I went to my boss the next day and asked 'Where do you need me to be great? And define what that is. Where do you need me to be good? And define that. And where do you need me to be just good enough?' she said. 
    "Surprisingly, his top five were not my top five."
    To be truly successful in one's professional life and also enjoy a life outside work, Hite recommends creating a professional scorecard of where you have to be great, where you have to be good and where you can be just good enough. Knowing those things can help anyone, including a golf course superintendent, manage their time and resources more efficiently.
    "Know where you have to be great. Know where you have to be good and know where you can just be good enough," she said. "Nobody wants to be associated with just being good enough, but some things you just don't have control over so sometimes some things just have to be good enough.
    "Surrender doesn't mean giving up. It means doing the best you can with the resources you have and accepting that."
    That scorecard will include things you have to do and also should include things you want to do.
    "What do I enjoy doing that keeps me engaged? Just because something is not on a boss's list doesn't mean it can't be on mine," she said. "It has to include things I enjoy doing that keep me engaged, but maybe it can't include all of it.
    "You have to have that talk and have your boss clarify that for you. And for the people who work for you, clarify it for them."
    Hite asked attendees of the conference to fill out a survey of things that were important to them. 
    To no surprise, many of the challenges cited by female superintendents are the same as those their male colleagues voice concerns about: labor, scheduling, training, weather, effective communications, club politics and managing work-life balance.
    Where women and men differ boiled to the top immediately when Hite asked what the group would like to see in the golf industry in the future. Topping the list was training for men on how to work with women.
    Beth Guertal, Ph.D., of Auburn University sees herself and others like her in a unique position to mentor female students early in the careers.
    "I work so much in golf and my audience is pretty much the same, because almost all superintendents are male," she said. 
    "Women in this industry come from all different routes. In my role, I can mentor them from the beginning as they come through this classical route of going to turf school."
    The event wasn't just focused on the differences between men and women in the golf business. Much of what Hite discussed focused on the common challenges men and women face as superintendents and what this group of 50 can do to meet and overcome obstacles, like growing the game.
    "I think we've made some progress in helping grow the game, but I don't think there is an end-all campaign. It is an ongoing process and we have to weave that message into everything we do," said Kim Erusha, Ph.D., the recently retired USGA Green Section director. "We have to come up with other ways to talk about it. In an economic sense if we can put actual numbers to it we connect with community leaders in a business sense. Then we are talking on their level."
    The group also recognized that the game needs new blood if it is going to thrive in the future.
    "We have to change the perception of golf at the grassroots level," said Renee Geyer of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio. "It is still viewed as an elitist sport. We have to change the perception that 'it's not for me.' It is for you."
  • No doubt, someone would have recognized the void and filled it eventually, but it is difficult to imagine where the job of turfgrass maintenance might be today without the foresight of John Kinkead.
    The founder of Turfco Manufacturing nearly 60 years ago, Kinkead died Oct. 1 at age 89. 
    Kinkead had a passion for old, classic cars and old, classic republicans, and worked on the presidential campaigns of Dwight Eisenhower and Barry Goldwater.
    His passing prompted an outpouring of condolences on social media.
    Alex Stuedemann, CGCS at TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Illinois said of Kinkead on Twitter: "Truly a leader and innovator for our industry."
    While working at National Mower, which was started by his father, Kinkead founded two companies, Kinco and Turfco. The latter, the Minnesota company Kinkead founded that today includes topdressers, overseeders and blowers, started in 1961 with the first mechanized topdresser on the market - at the request of golf course superintendents.
    That same company has grown into a manufacturer of several products with 16 design patents all aimed at helping superintendents do their jobs better and faster while also improving turf quality and playability. 
    And virtually all of those innovations were developed based on superintendent feedback. For example, the company’s TriWave 60 Overseeder had floating heads that follow the contours of the ground and deposit the seed directly into the slit maximizing seed-soil contact. Its Wide Spin 1550 Topdresser delivers more seed over a larger area with increased dispersion precision.
    The company also grew to eventually include a line of products for the commercial lawn care market that also includes sprayers, spreaders, edgers, sod cutters and aerators.
    Chris Barnacle, a construction industry professional with JCB TC Harrison, said on Twitter that Kinkead and Turfco represented "a well-respected name of great products in the turf care industry . . ."
  • Nancy Dykema of Michigan State University, left, listens in as Carol Rau offers up some career advice to attendees at Bayer's Women in Golf Event.
    Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories focused on Bayer's Women in Golf event held recently at the company's facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina.
    When offering career advice to a group of women in the golf turf business, naturally, it makes sense to draw upon examples from the oil industry.
    That is the example Carol Rau, a human resources specialist with Career Advantage Golf, used when discussing career development and growth to attendees at Bayer’s inaugural North American Women in Golf event.
    “Oil companies all do the same thing. They drill, take oil from the ground and sell it. When you see commercials, do they talk about that? No. They talk about what they do for the environment. They are trying to show how they are different and why you should invest in their company instead of a different one,” Rau said. “Think of yourselves that way. When you conduct a search, give them a reason to invest in you, not another candidate.”
    The practice of influencing where and how people allocate resources is known as variant perception, and it is something that actually started in the financial industry, but now is widely used in every sector of the economy.
    "If you all make a list of your tasks, they're all going to be pretty much the same," Rau said. "There will be a few differences, but they're going to be pretty much the same. What can you put on that list to make you stand out from others?"
    Rau suggests focusing on duties that fall outside the normal pall of the job of a golf course superintendent.
    "Golfers love golf, not turf. Your job is to grow the best turf possible and make it look fabulous, but that is just a means to an end," Rau said. "The ultimate goal is to provide the best golf experience for whoever sets foot on your property. 
    "Are you someone who is truly customer focused, or do you just grow grass?"

    Carol Rau, left, of Career Advantage Golf, says it is important to set yourself apart from others during the application and interview process. The answer, for those who want to get ahead in the careers, had better be the former, Rau said to her audience at this networking and career-development conference for women in golf turf. The conference, held last month at Bayer's facilities in suburban Raleigh, North Carolina, attracted about 50 superintendents, assistants, sales professionals and academics.
    "When hiring managers are interviewing people for a job, they are deciding where to invest their resources," she said. "Give them a reason to invest in you."
    That could mean serving on industry committees, being a leader not only on the golf course, but between departments, said Rau who then did a whip around, asking attendees to share what they did in their job or could be doing that would increase their value to their operation.
    "Be the first one people call. Not just in an emergency situation, but in the context of daily operations," said Renee Geyer, in her 11th year at 54-hole Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, including the past three as a superintendent. "You don't want to work 80 hours a week, but being available and relatable shows true character. Are you someone who will be there and support others who you don't necessarily have to support? If the phone system goes out and they're trying to figure out where to dig outside, be that person who has the answers and at the same time makes you important to others."
    Pinehurst's Bob Farren, CGCS, said pretty much the same thing while leading a seminar at the 2013 Green Start Academy for assistant superintendents also sponsored by Bayer - and John Deere Golf. 
     
    "Position yourself every day, with every question from any department that comes to you as a resource person. Be the go-to person at your facility," Farren told Green Start Academy attendees six years ago. "No matter what happens, if a car runs into something in the parking lot, whatever it might be, position yourself as one of the first people they call if something needs to be done. The way to do that is to be accommodating. You typically have the most resources and people available to you at any given time. It's just a matter of redirecting resources or changing schedules to become that go-to person.
    "If they have to land a helicopter on the golf course, I want them to have to call me to figure out how we do it."
     
    That advice has worked out pretty well for Farren. 
    But it is not enough to just focus on what sets you apart, you have to upsell it to those responsible for hiring for a position, Rau said.
    "Think about your resume and interview answers," Rau said. "Elevate what you are thinking. It's about your team, your overall organization and how you are driving success. It's a bigger picture than just what you are doing in your maintenance department. It's not just you. It's bigger than you."
  • Some of the best ideas are copied from someone else, such as dog calendars or awards honoring golf course equipment managers. Another idea - this one brewing in Europe - might also warrant copying, or stealing, or whatever you want to call it. In its infancy, the project certainly merits watching.
    The challenges facing turf managers today are ever changing. New challenges, often driven by practices such as lower mowing heights, arise for which there is no solution supported by scientific data. That can be a problem in an era when research dollars no longer flow like they once did.
    The Sports Turf Research Institute and the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association have teamed to launch a demand-driven turf research program designed to provide science-based solutions for challenges facing turfgrass managers. The program is funded fully by STRI.
    Turf managers will be able to list their problems through an online portal, and a team known as the Golf Research Enterprise will prioritize a list of issues and present them for discussion at the 2020 BTME conference.
    That enterprise will develop research protocols and programs to investigate and identify solutions to the problems on that priority list, and trials will begin next year at the STRI research facility. 
    The results will be shared at field days and through social media, and trials updated periodically.
  • A gift from touring golf professionals long ago as a show of thanks to members for their benevolence, the cathedral clock inside the halls at the Inverness Club has been marking the club's history for the past century. For the next two years, it will count down to the historic club's journey back to its place among golf's elite.
    A 1918 Donald Ross design, Inverness was the site of four U.S. Open Championships and a pair of PGA Championships, the last in 1993. Through the years, the course has been tweaked a handful of times, each shifting the course farther away from what Ross had intended until finally it had lost its identity if not its historic significance.
    After a highly acclaimed restoration at the hands of architect Andrew Green and an aggressive master plan to restore Inverness to its former greatness that included this year's U.S. Junior Amateur, the comeback of what was one of Ross's most revered works is all but complete and will culminate in two years when the 2021 Solheim Cup is contested in Toledo.
    "The members love it. They've already forgotten what it looked like two years ago," said Inverness green chairman and past president Greg Kopan, a Toledo-area financial advisor. 
    "If we'd known how large of a project this was going to be before the U.S. Junior Amateur, I'm not sure we could have sold it. I don't think we could have sold it. We were pushing hard to because we knew it was the right thing to do."

    In a span of two years, superintendent John Zimmers (seated) and assistants Carlton Henry (left) and Ryan Kaczor have faced a massive restoration project and a USGA event and now turn their attention to preparing for the 2021 Solheim Cup at the Inverness Club in Toledo. Photos by John Reitman Keeping the project on track while also helping change the culture at Inverness - both on the golf course and in the clubhouse - has been superintendent John Zimmers.
    When Zimmers arrived in Toledo two years ago, he brought a lot of championship experience with him after nearly two decades at Oakmont, where he prepped for two U.S. Opens in 2007 and 2016 and a U.S. Women's Open in 2010 and oversaw perpetual changes that transformed the Pittsburgh-area classic from a tree-lined, parkland-style layout into a wide open thing of beauty that looks a lot like what Henry Fownes designed in 1903.
    "When I interviewed, I asked them if they realized how aggressive their master plan was," Zimmers said. "It started with taking grass off bunkers, putting in new drainage and sand, then moving bunkers, changing fairways, purchasing land and putting in new golf holes and taking other holes out, building new greens and moving the irrigation lake to where it is now off site, and by the way, take out a few thousand trees, and they probably wouldn't do that project today if they knew what was involved. I haven't heard any regrets, it's just that it was a very large project. And, we never closed the golf course through any of it."
    Green was recommended by Zimmers' predecessor Chad Mark, who had a short one-year stint at Inverness before taking the job at Muirfield Village, two hours away in suburban Columbus.
    Green's restoration, part of the club's master plan, included restoring some of what Ross had built, rerouting some holes and expanding the course onto recently acquired land. That allowed Green to stretch the course to more than 7,500 yards to keep it relevant for today's longer game while also working within an overall design philosophy to help restore the property to Ross's original intent.
    Changes include reworking Nos. 2, 4, 5 and 8. No. 2 is a replica of Ross's original second hole, while 4 is a recreation of the original No. 7, 5 is a replica of the original No. 13 and No. 8 is patterned after the original 6th hole.
    Of the hundreds of courses with which Ross's name is associated, Inverness was among his favorites and he wrote of it often. 
    "I really respect Ross's work," Green told TurfNet last year. "In all my time doing this, and that's about 20 years, you hear numerous things about the courses he did. Did he really do this or that, or was it just a whistlestop tour and they just call it a Ross course? 
     
    "The places like Inverness where you know he was on the ground and spent time, he did a marvelous job. He was a genius at fitting holes into the ground he had and being creative to build good golf holes. He had a great eye for utilizing the ground. Each piece of ground was utilized in unique ways, and there was a tremendous amount of variety in his designs.
     
    "All the old guys were good. They didn't need a bulldozer to bail them out."
     
    In more than 20 years of providing championship conditions at the highest level, even Zimmers said he's never quite faced an aggressive schedule like that encountered at Inverness that included the U.S. Junior Amateur just two years after contractor McDonald and Sons broke ground.
    McDonald also had been hired by Mark, who is a Zimmers protege. Zimmers had worked with the contractor exclusively for years at Oakmont, and that relationship, along with assistants Ryan Kaczor and Carlton Henry, helped keep the project on track. The end result has been extremely satisfying for Zimmers, especially given the time constraints.
    "I don't think there's any question about that. This junior am might be my biggest accomplishment in my professional career," he said. "I'm not going to lie. We didn't have enough time, the grass wasn't mature enough. We didn't have the right equipment, and we didn't have the right staff. Not that there was anything wrong with the staff, we just didn't have enough trained staff. But we worked hard it. We had our ups and downs, and it's something I'm not going to forget. It's not easy doing championships in the middle of July when it's a heat index of 100 degrees.
    "The big thing was having two assistants who helped educate the members on what we were doing. The second thing was having McDonald and Sons here. When you work with somebody every day, and I worked with them for the last 20 years, you know they have your back. When you have a relationship like that, they make us look good, and it was up to us bring what they did to life, and I think we've done that."
    Held every other year, the Solheim Cup is headed to Toledo in two years. This year's event, won by Team Europe, was played Sept. 13-15 at Gleneagles in Scotland. With the countdown to the next Solheim Cup already begun, there is no rest for Zimmers and his team. LPGA staff have been on site in Toledo for months and preliminary plans for the location of infrastructure already were on Zimmers' desk before the Junior Am was completed. 

    Donald Ross utilized the natural contours of the land when designing Inverness a century ago. "I haven't even put my Junior Am folder away, and I already have my first Solheim Cup folder," he said. 
    Although much of the set up will be at the discretion of the Team USA captain, one change already has been made. 
    Nos. 9 and 18, the latter being the club's signature hole, will be flipped for the Solheim Cup. The 18th green is where Bob Tway holed out for birdie on the 72nd hole in a rain-plagued 1986 PGA Championship to beat Greg Norman in a Monday finish. In 1920, 43-year-old Englishman Ted Ray placed his putter on the ground there to relight his pipe before sinking a birdie putt on the final day to beat Jack Burke by one stroke and become the oldest U.S. Open champion in history - a mark that stood until Ray Floyd won in 1986 at Shinnecock Hills.
    "Everyone will want to see them play 18, and there is a good chance that many of the matches won't get to the 18th hole. So, if they never show up to 18 it will be disappointing," Zimmers said. "I understand it. Being a traditionalist, I don't like it, but it is the right thing to do. I want to see them play that hole."
    Inverness has a longstanding tradition with major championship golf. The U.S. Open was contested there in 1920, 1931, 1957 and 1979. The club also was site of the PGA Championship in 1986 and again in 1993. 
    In golf's early days, touring professionals traditionally were prohibited from using a club's facilities. That all changed in 1920 at the U.S. Open in Toledo when Inverness opened its dressing room doors to the players. As a show of thanks, the tour pros, headed by Walter Hagen, gifted the club with a cathedral clock that still keeps time in the clubhouse today.
    While the club maintains a tie to major championship golf, the city of Toledo has an equally impressive legacy with women's golf. The town has hosted an LPGA event since 1984. Marathon Petroleum, the title sponsor of the LPGA event, also has signed on to back the Solheim Cup.
    And if the opportunity to host a U.S. Open or PGA Championship would ever present itself, Inverness now has the golf course to pull it off thanks to Green, Zimmers and a patient and dedicated membership willing to make it all happen.
    "The club has always wanted to be there," Kopan said. "We needed to make some improvements and move forward. The moment we made the decision to move forward, the goal was always to do events of national prominence. We want to do bigger and bigger tournaments. We want to continue to do national events, and in the case of the Solheim Cup, international events. Certainly, we would like to see a major back in Toledo. I think Toledo would support it, and now we have the golf course to do it."
  • Kim Erusha, Ph.D., of the USGA Green Section said effective communication is key for success in the turf industry. Photos by John Reitman  
    Editor's note: This is the first in a series of stories focused on Bayer's Women in Golf event held recently at the company's facilities in Clayton and Cary, North Carolina.
    Looking back on nearly three decades of experience in the golf turf industry, Kim Erusha, Ph.D., says some of the best leadership advice she ever received stems from an analogy about basketball.
    "We all grew up playing basketball in my family, and my dad always told us to just shoot the ball," Erusha said. "He said they only count the points, not the misses.
    "In life, it's easy to be indecisive because you never know if you are going to make the right decision. Just make a decision. Just shoot the ball."
    Erusha, whose long career with the USGA which includes the past 10 years as managing director of the Green Section, comes to a close at the end of the month as part of a restructuring in New Jersey, recently was at the Bayer Environmental Science facility in Clayton, North Carolina, where she talked to a group of 50 other women about industry trends and challenges specific to them.
    The group included superintendents, assistants, representatives from academia and sales.
    Erusha, who holds a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Iowa State, and master's and doctoral degrees in agronomy from the University of Nebraska, said she is more comfortable talking about agronomy than she is discussing career advice.
    She offered the crowd career advice tips, shared her biggest pet peeves and examples of the best advice she ever received - like "just shoot the ball."
    To be successful, it is important for folks to find something they are passionate about and to fuel that passion every day. It also is critical to differentiate yourself from others.
    For Erusha, that has meant being a technically sound scientist.
    "Your goal should be to be as technically sound as possible in the role you are in," she said. "That is how you are going to be able to move around in this industry.
    "You never know when an amazing opportunity can come your way in the industry. I never thought when I graduated from Iowa State as a horticulture major that I would be a leader in the golf industry years later, so you never know what those opportunities are that will come your way."
    Following that line of thought helped Erusha grow throughout her 28-year career with the USGA, where she started as a technical writer and then progressed to director of education and eventually as the head person in charge of the Green Section.
    Finding and nurturing your passion, Erusha said, is all about bringing a little extra to your position for your employer.
    "You have to identify your own perspective of what you bring to the industry," she said. "You have to answer that question of what added value you are bringing to an organization and how you move the organization forward."

    Renee Geyer, right, of Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio and Morgan Creighton of Glencoe Golf and Country Club in Calgary go through an exercise at Bayer's Women in Golf conference. Photos by John Reitman For many of the women at this conference, part of their responsibility now is to be a mentor for other women in the business.
    Among those in attendance was Renee Geyer, who has worked at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio for 11 years, including the past three as superintendent.
    "This has made me feel totally empowered," Geyer said. "I've met a whole new family here, who I can now go to with anything, and who can come to me."
    Much of Erusha's advice centered around ethics and "staying focused on your own moral compass," she said.
    That includes owning mistakes, correcting them and moving on, putting the interests of the team (i.e., crew and employer) ahead of self interests, and building credibility with subordinates and members by saying what you mean and meaning what you say.
    "Don't lose focus on your own moral compass. When you lose it, it is hard to gain it back," Erusha said. "Following your moral compass is how you build trust with others."
    Early in her career, before she began working with the USGA, Erusha spent two years driving a truck for a lawncare service provider. That time helped her hone many of the skills needed to be successful throughout her career.
    "I loved that job," she said. "It taught me a lot about horticulture communications. I worked with a team and also independently. It was a great way to learn a lot of things about customer service, efficiency and planning."
    The rest of her career was spent with the USGA, which earlier this year announced that several changes to the Green Section's structure would be coming throughout the year. At least a dozen employees, including agronomists, support staff and researchers have left since spring, including Erusha who accepted an early retirement buyout that goes into effect in October. 
    "I'm looking for that next opportunity," she said. "I have a lot to offer the golf industry, and I'm excited to see what that next opportunity is."
  • Jackie Gleason, left, and Bob Hope at Inverrary. Below, Gleason with two-time Inverrary Classic winner Jack Nicklaus, who won the event in 1977 and 1978. The forerunner of the Honda Classic once was one of the most highly regarded, highest-paying gigs on the PGA Tour schedule.
    Jackie Gleason did not bring the PGA Tour to South Florida, but he certainly brought it to prominence. From 1972 to 1984, the Tour made a stop at Inverrary Country Club, Gleason's South Florida home in Lauderhill in western Broward County. The tournament, which became the Honda Classic in 1984, had several iterations, including the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic (1972, 1974-80), Jackie Gleason Inverrary-National Airlines Classic (1973), American Motors Inverrary Classic and eventually the Honda Inverrary Classic. In the tournament's early days, Gleason was known to subsidize the winnings out of his own pocket to boost the prominence of the event.
    Home to a pair of Robert Trent Jones, Sr.-designed courses, historic Inverrary will close its doors forever next spring, according to its owners.
    Inverrary's East Course was the site of several professional championships, including the Inverrary Classic, the 1976 Tournament Players Championship and several LPGA events.
    Winners of the PGA Tour event at Inverrary include Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Larry Nelson, Johnny Miller, Tom Weiskopf, Tom Kite and Hale Irwin. 
    News of the closing, scheduled for June 1, 2020, came via a Sept. 20 email from Victorville West Limited Partnership, which has owned Inverrary since 2006. Owners cited an overbuilt South Florida market and years of financial setbacks as driving factors behind the decision.
    Gleason, who produced a TV variety show in the 1960s from Miami Beach, lived in a 14-room estate at Inverrary. The entertainer's third wife, Marilyn continued to live on the golf course after Gleason died in 1987 until she passed away earlier this year.
  • Growing the game of golf does not just happen in the clubhouse, practice range or on the first tee. It also occurs at the grassroots level - literally.
    On Sept. 11, Estes Park (Colorado) Golf Course superintendent John Feeney hosted a group of 80 students from Estes Park Elementary for a field day event designed to raise awareness about the environmental stewardship efforts of golf course superintendents and generate potential interest in turf management as a potential future career opportunity.
    "The main reason for us was public outreach," Feeney said. "We try to get the message out about the environmental benefits of golf courses and turfgrass. We feel like we are helping to grow the game of golf. It's amazing how few kids this age have actually stepped foot on a golf course."
    The event was a hit with the students and teachers alike, all of whom enjoyed being outside and taking advantage of an opportunity to commune with nature.
    "The kids and the teachers loved it," Feeney said. "They were outside the classroom and ate hot dogs. Doesn't get much better. We received 80 handmade thank you cards a few days later."
    The field day comprised five stations: 
    > soils, where kids were able to use soil sieves to separate soil and watch water percolate through different materials;
    > math on the golf course, in which explained the use of simple algebra on a daily basis;
    > composting, where kids learned how the Estes Park staff converts elk feces and pine needles to usable compost;
    > cool tools, such as cut cutters, greens rollers and walk mowers;
    > putting contest, including obstacles on the practice green, courtesy of Estes Park head pro Mark Miller.
    "Hopefully we can influence some students to find new inspiration in their school work and possibly influence them to pursue a career in golf," Feeney said.
    Feeney first had the idea for a field day after learning about the First Green program at this year's Golf Industry Show in San Diego, which pairs golf courses with local schools for science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities.
    The field day not only educates students on environmental stewardship and careers in golf, it also can help dispel commonly held misconceptions about what it takes to manage a golf course.
    "This is a great opportunity to get those messages out. It allows us to show how superintendents are more responsible with water usage and fertilizer/chemical applications than most of the parents at home," Feeney said."The soils lab can show how turfgrass acts as a filter, keeping contaminants out of groundwater and creeks and streams. Perhaps a student will explain to dad why he shouldn't wash the car in the driveway, or broadcast fertilizer all over the sidewalk."
    Feeney held his first field day in April, and plans to continue hosting at least one event per year.
    "I think golf course superintendents need to continue to take larger roles in growing the game of golf. It's important to get young people interested in our profession."
  • John Deere has issued a recall on its XUV835 Gator utility vehicles sold from 2017-2019.
    According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the plastic sheathing on the throttle cable can melt due to improper routing, causing the throttle to stick. This could result in the operator not being able to stop the vehicle, posing a crash hazard. John Deere has received reports of nine incidents. No injuries have been reported.
    The recall affects more than 20,000 vehicles sold in the U.S. and Canada sold from November 2017 through July of this year. The recalled utility vehicles were sold in green and yellow, olive drab and camouflage and have side-by-side seating for two or three people, depending on the seat option.
    Customers should stop using the recalled vehicles immediately and contact an authorized John Deere dealer for a free inspection and repair of improperly routed throttle cables. John Deere also is contacting all known purchasers directly.
    Customers can contact John Deere at 800-537-8233 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (eastern) Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, or online at www.deere.com and click on "Recalls" on the drop-down menu under "Parts & Service" for more information. 

  • Walter Woods, left, with golf course architect and turf consultant Eddie Connaughton during a recent TurfNet trip to the BIGGA Turf Management Exhibition. Walter Woods was a key figure in modernizing the greenkeeper profession and training in Scotland and throughout Europe.
    The former greenkeeper at St. Andrews Links for 21 years until he retired in 1995, Woods died Sept. 18 following a long illness. He was 84.
    A native of Clackmannanshire, Scotland, Woods got his start at a local nine-hole facility, Tillicoultry Golf Club. According to BIGGA, he was the golf professional and greenkeeper at Alloa Golf Club before eventually moving on to St. Andrews in 1974 where he remained until his retirement 21 years later when he became a consultant to the PGA European Tour.
    He was the host superintendent for four Open Championships, a feat of major championship success largely unheard of anywhere in the world not named Augusta, including two won by Jack Nicklaus. 
    When the Open came through St. Andrews, Woods was known to have played practice rounds with Nicklaus. Later in life, he cited Nicklaus’s Open wins in 1970 and 1978 among his favorite golf memories.
    Brian Stiehler, superintendent at Highlands Country Club in Highlands, North Carolina, worked for Woods’ protege Eddie Adams at St. Andrews in 1999, and was fortunate enough to meet the legendary greenkeeper and forge a lasting relationship with him.
    "Walter was a kind man and drew the respect of all who knew him," said Stiehler, who is pictured with Woods in the photo above right. "He was admired by the entire team on the Old Course and an icon in the town of St.Andrews. Walter mentored a large number of greenkeepers, and this is a huge loss to the industry as a whole. He will always be remembered as a great man and innovator."
    Woods was a leader in the formation of BIGGA and its support program that provides members the opportunity to volunteer at The Open and other championships in Europe. He also is considered a pioneer in modern British greenkeeping. Architect Tom Doak has said he credits Woods for much of what he knows about turf maintenance and deeply influenced his design philosophy.
    Woods is a recipient of the Order of the British Medal award given by the crown for meritorious service, and was the winner of the 2002 Old Tom Morris Award.
    Survivors include wife Caroline, sons James and Walter, daughter Caroline, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
  • The first step toward recovery is recognizing there is a problem.
    Not even four years into being a superintendent at Charbonneau Golf Course in Wilsonville, Oregon, Danny Vandecoevering was struggling to find what just about all golf course superintendents seek - that almost-mythical balance between life at home and at work.
    Unable to find that yin and yang, Vandecoevering left the business for a sales position with Wilbur-Ellis, a California-based supplier of products to the agriculture and turf industries.
    "Any long-term career success is going to come back to one's ability to have a healthy work-life balance. I struggled finding that on the golf course," said Vandecoevering, who still lives in Wilsonville. "I emphasize 'I' I struggled leaving the course at the course, and in reality, I struggled leaving the course at all, but that comes back to my ability to choose to manage that in a healthy way. Ultimately, I wasn't in an environment where I was going to be a good husband and father. I can't emphasize enough, that was a function of my personality and the organization I was a part of. That's not to say that every superintendent job is like that."
    An Oregon State graduate, Vandecoevering, 30, started working on a golf course in high school and was an assistant at Snoqualmie Ridge in Washington where he worked for friend and mentor Ryan Gordon. Those two first met in 2009 when Gordon was the assistant at Snoqualmie and Vendecoevering, then a student at Oregon State, volunteered for the Boeing Classic, a Champions Tour event in the Seattle area.
    He quickly developed into a leader and coach and showed an eye for detail work. A natural leader, he also has a self-professed love for the physical labor side of the job.
    "I find it so much harder to sit still nowadays," he said.
    Once he became the head man, responsibilities changed and so did accountability. Eventually, he realized his most important job was at home with  wife, Marie, and 3-month-old son, Troy.
    There had to be another way to earn a living and still stay connected to the industry he loved.
    "It can be really tough to not head back to the course on a Saturday afternoon when it's hot out, or you get a call that there's an irrigation break," he said. "I feel like we talk about work/life balance in the industry as if it's easy to just let there be dead turf on the golf course. 
    "I'm glad I don't have to be stuck in between that rock and that hard place while we raise our son."
    As much as he knew he had to make a career change, Vandecoevering said pulling the trigger wasn't so easy. His wife offered support, but tried hard not to influence his decision. 
    "I have the most supportive wife in the world," he said. "I was fortunate enough to have been approached by Wilbur-Ellis with the opportunity. It took me a couple of months to really come around to the idea. I would talk about pros and cons with my wife often, but she maintained a poker face. The day I told her I was ready to commit to the change she broke and told me how relieved she was to see me get out of my current situation. All that said, I would have made the decision much earlier if I had known she felt that way all along."
    Vandecoevering admits sales is not a cookie-cutter profession and might not be for everyone looking to make a change in the golf business.
    "The sales role can take you to your limits," he said. "But for my skill set, it seems so much more manageable."
    Still, the profession has its rewards, and Vandecoevering called upon some previous experiences with sales reps when making his decision and deciding what his place in the golf industry would truly be if he no longer were a superintendent. Ultimately, helping other superintendents achieve their goals made him feel pretty good about his new career choice.
    "I worked with some really talented reps who weren't salesmen; they were truly my agronomic advisors," he said. "I respected them as much as any superintendent, and their example showed me that applying yourself in a sales role could not only be rewarding, but provide an opportunity for me to have a positive impact on the industry at-large."
    A former employer once told him: " 'Why do all golf course superintendent's think that the whole turf thing is all they can do? You manage staff, you manage budgets, you manage incredibly high expectations, you have to coordinate maintenance for massive events, you have to know hydraulics and electricity' That's so true," he said. "The one thing that makes any superintendent successful is an unrelenting dedication to learning new things and adapting to change. If you've done that successfully as a golf course superintendent, then you're going to do well in whatever you do next."
  • Feral hogs are a problem on golf courses throughout the South, including in Florida (above) and Texas (below right). Everything is bigger in Texas - even hazards on golf courses.
    A team of three trappers and dogs recently caught and removed a 400-pound feral hog at Gateway Hills Golf Course at Lackland Air Force Base just outside San Antonio.
    Wyatt Walton of Lone Star Trapping hunts feral hogs for a living. He has trapped more than 3,000 of them in the past three years, and said the 411-pound porker seized on Sept. 12 is the largest he has ever caught. According to Texas A&M, hogs in Texas, and there are a lot of them, typically run in the 200-300-pound range. Walton’s recent catch required the help of three dogs, one hunting dog to track the beast and two specially trained animals to grab it and hold it down until the trapper arrived to kill and dispose of it.
    The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says hogs of various species were introduced into the state nearly 300 years ago by European explorers and likely escaped into the wild during the Texas Revolution in 1835-36. Since then, they’ve crossbred with one another at an alarming rate.
    A model of evolution, feral hogs are able to reproduce as early as 6 months of age and can go through two reproductive cycles per year with as many as 12 piglets in each litter.
    According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture there were more than 5 million feral hogs in 39 states across the country with more than 1.5 million roaming the Texas countryside - five years ago. They’ll eat plants and animal matter - and each other if need be to survive. 
    According to a story on CNBC, hogs cause more than $2 billion in damage to crops and property per year while they root for food. According to estimates, hogs are responsible for about $400 million in damage per year in Texas, where it is legal to hunt them without a license.
  • After 15 years as a superintendent, Neil Mayberry sought a change of scenery so he could spend more time with his family, including son Tanner. Some people just have a knack for being in the right place at the right time.
    As the sun set on 2017, Neil Mayberry was ready for a career change after 15 years as a superintendent. He even went back to school to earn an MBA to help facilitate the change. No sooner had he earned his graduate degree from Sam Houston State when a senior agronomic position opened with Yara Turf and Ornamental, a Norwegian company looking to expand into the golf turf fertility market.
    It seemed Mayberry, 40, was destined to be a golf course superintendent. A second-generation greenkeeper, he first started working on a golf course at around age 10, picking range balls at the coastal Mississippi course where his father, James, was superintendent. Soon after graduating from Mississippi State with a degree in turf management in 2002, he was named superintendent at New Orleans Country Club, where he remained until January 2018.
    Mayberry left a lasting mark on the New Orleans golf scene where he ushered the club through renovations, expansions and natural disasters, namely Hurricane Katrina, which left its mark forever on the Crescent City in 2005.
    It seemed to be a match made in heaven, except for one thing. With two children at home, Mayberry, understandably, wanted to be around the house more. He'd heard too many stories from fellow superintendents who missed out on their children growing up, and he did not want to be the next one to share that story.
    "You know how it is on a golf course," Mayberry said. "Sometimes you're not home in the evening until after dark. You feel like you're married to the golf course. I wanted to get away from weekend work. I wanted to be there for my kids, to watch their games and help coach their teams."
    Mayberry began work toward an MBA at Sam Houston State, with the thought of becoming a general manager or supporting superintendents through a job with an industry manufacturer or supplier. While the exact path of his future was unclear, one thing he knew for sure was that he wanted to spend more time at home with his family.
    "A lot of people in this business have told me that their biggest regret is not spending more time with their kids," he said. "With kids at home, I knew if I didn't take action I would have missed out on a lot. Getting an MBA got me where I needed to be."
    He started his position with Yara in January 2018 as crop manager for the company's T&O division.
    Reaching that end point was not easy.
    Long days at the golf course followed by even longer nights slumped over a computer working to better his life and tested Mayberry's resolve, and, at times, the patience of his wife, Shannon.
    "That was the biggest challenge. I'd get home late from the golf course and be up until midnight or 1 a.m. doing school work," he said. "My wife would ask me, 'What are you going to do with it?'
    "I thought I wanted to be a GM, but they work on weekends, too, so being a GM was out. This job was exactly what I was looking for."
    Besides achieving the goal of more time at home with his family, Mayberry's experience with Yara, has helped him become a better agronomist.
    "It's nice being able to help people all over North America," he said. "What has really been positive has been seeing different ways of doing things. That really makes you think outside the box. If I had known when I was a superintendent what I know now, I would have been really dangerous. That's a good thing, and a bad thing."
    Mayberry's story at NOCC wasn't the typical "superintendent gets burned out (or fired) and moves on" saga that has become so common.
    When he told the club he was leaving, he was asked to help find his successor. The search committee eventually settled on Will Guererri, Mayberry's assistant.
    "Leaving a job where they take care of you, and I mean really take good care of you, was hard," he said. 
    "I needed something different."
    He still misses those special times at the golf course, but has never looked back on his decision to change lanes in his career.
    "The No. 1 thing I miss is being around the guys," he said. "I also loved the early mornings when you are the only one on the golf course, and late in the afternoon when the sun casts long shadows on the golf course."
    Still, he has never looked back on his decision to get out of the profession.
    "What this job with Yara has given me is priceless. I can't describe it," he said. "Kids grow up so fast. You blink and they're gone. I'm where I need to be."

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