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From the TurfNet NewsDesk
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I know snow mold causes frustration for others, but we have to understand that we can learn something from it."
It also is never too late to review management practices for pink snow mold. Pink snow mold thrives in temperatures between 35 degrees and 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and isolates can grow in shade in June with temperatures as high as the upper 60s, Clarke said. The pathogen also tends to be more active in high-pH soils. He warns not over fertilize late in fall because the pathogen also thrives when late-autumn turf is lush and succulent when it should be going into dormancy. Clarke recommends two preventive applications of a tank mix of two or more fungicides three weeks apart in late fall. Although there are not resistance issues with pink snow mold like there is with dollar spot control, some of the older chemistries Not tremendous resistance issues, like with dollar spot, some to some of older chemistries like benzimidazole are not as efficacious as they once were, so rotating chemistries is a must. Tank mixing improves efficacy since different strains react differently to different chemistries, Clarke noted. "Strobilurins and DMIs together work well for us," he said. "If you put them out alone, often you don't get control. There are multiple strains, and when you put them together they seem to take care of all the strains." That should be enough until spring, when a subsequent application should be made to bridge the gap until temperatures climb. Some areas, however, including mountainous regions and the Pacific Northwest often have conditions conducive to year-round pink snow mold activity. While preventive fungicide applications in late fall and the use of covers can help prevent snow mold from appearing on putting greens, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, Clarke said. Rutgers research shows that while permeable covers can help in the fight to manage pink snow mold, two covers atop one another traps moisture and results in increased incidence of the pathogen. When Nangle went scouting for snow mold activity in advance of the field day conducted with ATI colleague Zane Raudenbush, Ph.D., and David Gardner, Ph.D. of OSU's main campus in Columbus, he found very limited activity. But when some is spotted and the potential for damage is real, he reminds superintendents that it is important to stay in front of the problem with golfers and members. "Use all methods necessary to communicate," Nangle said. "Go to the USGA. Go to your local golf association. When it's a rough winter, it's a rough winter for everybody. There is going to be some damage and you have to communicate that to your membership. Make sure everyone knows what is going on, because they'll think it is only happening to them."- Read more...
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News and people briefs
By John Reitman, in News,
Anuvia Plant Nutrients recently added Chuck Barber to its turf sales team. Barber will work with Anuvia's customer accounts and will be responsible for business development, strategic planning and relationship building to promote the company's slow-release plant nutrient products. He previously was president of global sales for Eco Agro Resources as well as national accounts sales manager for Koch Agronomic Services, developing new fertilizer business and managing existing accounts; and for Agrotain International as accounts sales manager in Eastern U.S. and Canada. He has also worked for Griffin Industries and The Scotts Co. Aqua-Aid, UT partner on Poa Day
Aqua-Aid is partnering with the University of Tennessee Turfgrass Department on its annual #PoaDay Field Day LIVE event that showcases the UT turfgrass department's statewide research into annual bluegrass control programs for golf courses, sports fields and lawns. This year, #PoaDay is scheduled for March 28. The event will be streamed via Facebook LIVE through the Aqua-Aid Facebook page beginning at 9 a.m. Viewers will have the opportunity to comment and ask questions. The event will be available for on-demand viewing via the Aqua-Aid Facebook page and Aqua-Aid website. Topics this year will include pre- and post-emergent herbicide programs for annual bluegrass control in turfgrass, the different herbicidal modes of action used for annual bluegrass control and how to optimize programs to mitigate problems associated with herbicide resistance. Atlantic Golf & Turf taps Silva for NE region
Atlantic Golf & Turf recently named David Silva as its new sales support manager. He brings extensive experience in distribution, logistics and product expertise to customers in the company's Northeast region. Silva also will be responsible for bringing a new seed blending operation on line, expanding Atlantic's capability of providing custom seed mixes to the green industry throughout the Northeast. Silva's previous experience includes being a location manager for Winfield Solutions as well as stints with Turflinks, Lesco and Lofts/Pennington throughout his 25-year career in the green industry. He will be based at the company's headquarters in Turners Falls, Massachusetts.
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From my perspective, we are in uncharted territory. Some golf courses in Michigan have been open since February 18, while in some places they are still under a foot of snow."
What is this late cold snap going to mean? At least in the South, that's a really good question. "What is going to happen? We don't have a handle on what will happen when you go warm to cold to warm," Horvath said. "If you use covers (on greens), you should do OK with hard freeze situations. "New, green tissue could slough off and die. The plant can grow new tissue from the stolon, but how many times will that happen before it hinders the plant's ability to recover? I don't think anyone knows the answer to that." Research at the University of Tennessee has shown that late fall applications of Civitas have helped turf resist stress related to cold temperatures and remain green deeper into the calendar. Many superintendents in areas typically under cover of snow in December, January and February have been in full golf mode for much of the past month. And that actually might be a bonus moving into spring, Frank said. "Everyone is so alert because of how early spring started, that if something happens they're ready for it," Frank said. "I don't know if completely out of the realm. In 2011-2012, you could have played golf all winter."
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I think I can honestly say this is the most valuable thing I've done in my career so far."
"When you have the ability to manipulate greens, you can do anything on a golf course," he said. "I think I can honestly say this is the most valuable thing I've done in my career so far." Peterson believes in today's tight job market that others could benefit from the same career choice that Conlon has made. "Brian taking the opportunity to come down here shows that he's really focused on developing as much as he can and is hungry to succeed," Peterson said. "Instead of sitting in the Northeast all winter not working he chose to come down here to grow and keep working. He has had the opportunity to see a different course and will pick up tons of useful tricks and tips. Some things are local to this course, but some things he will carry with him for the rest of his career. Brain has seen how we can produce incredible playing conditions in a different environment than he is used to. This will set him apart from the average Joe back home. You can't name one thing that would be a negative from the opportunity he pursued."
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Zimmers, the 2007 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year award winner, takes over for his former protege Chad Mark, CGCS. Mark, who won the TurfNet award in 2013 while at The Kirtland Country Club near Cleveland. Mark took over at Inverness last year, and recently accepted the job at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio after Paul B. Latshaw, CGCS, moved on to Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia to fill the void left after Matt Shaffer's retirement.
Whew!
He will begin his new position June 3.
At Oakmont, Zimmers, 45, oversaw course conditioning for the U.S. Open in 2007 and 2016, the U.S. Women's Open in 2010 and the 2003 U.S. Amateur.
Inverness has been the site of four U.S. Open Championships (1920, '31, '57, '79), a pair of PGA Championships (1986, '93), two U.S. Senior Open Championships (2003, '11) and the 1973 U.S. Amateur.
Next up for Inverness and Zimmers will the be the 2019 U.S. Junior Amateur and the Solheim Cup in 2021.
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A native of Yibin City in China's Sichuan province, Chenchen, or Gail as she's known by her American friends, has been Agin's second assistant at Ruby Hill since graduating from Ohio State with a master's in turfgrass management last May. During her time at Ruby Hill, she also has become an extended addition to Agin's family. The superintendent at Ruby Hill for the past 16 years, Agin spent several years early in his career in Asia. His wife, Sylvia, is from China, and the couple's knowledge of eastern culture has helped 24-year-old Gail acclimate to life in America outside the academic bubble. "(America) still is a new environment, and it's better to have friends here," said Gail, 24, who speaks English like a native. "If I have problems, I know I can talk to Steve. He understands the Chinese culture." The two first met at the 2015 Golf Industry Show in San Antonio when Gail was helping translate for another Chinese national who Agin was interviewing for an assistant's position. That candidate didn't get the job, but Agin and Gail stayed in touch when he returned to California and she went back to Columbus, Ohio. It was her professional drive and determination that caught Agin's attention. More than once, Gail expressed to colleagues, instructors and professors her goal to be the first woman from China to become a head golf course superintendent in the United States. It is a goal that Matt Williams, program coordinator at the Ohio Turfgrass Foundation Research and Education Center at Ohio State, believes is within reach. "I know that she misses her family, but realizes that the opportunity to achieve this professional goal is here in the United States," Williams said. "She was involved in all aspects of our operation, from mowing, fertilizer and pesticide applications, to irrigation repair and equipment maintenance. She has a very scientific and analytical mind. She would look at every situation as a problem that had a solution, and that it was her job to solve that problem. It didn't matter if it was fertilizer calculation or properly installing parking blocks at the facility." As a student at China's Sichuan Agricultural University, Gail came to the United States in 2012 as part of the Michigan State China Program, and earned a bachelor's degree in East Lansing two years later. Graduate school was a natural path for Gail, whose parents both are college administrators in China. "I think it's more about Chinese culture than anything," she said. "There you are always told that a higher degree means more opportunities after you graduate. My parents were always very supportive of me going to graduate school." By all accounts, Gail was a shining star at Ohio State. "Her whole focus and what she liked to talk about was golf course management," said OSU professor Karl Danneberger, Ph.D. "I think she really loves the profession." As Gail's time there was winding down, naturally she began to think about "what's next?" Like so many other superintendents, Agin has struggled to find enough help, so he thought he'd try something different. He recalled Gail was nearing graduation, so he offered her a job at Ruby Hill, the Arcis Golf property about 30 miles east of Oakland where he has been superintendent for the past 16 years. "I spent 10 years overseas, and in that time I developed an affinity for Asian culture. If I didn't have that experience, our paths probably never would have crossed," Agin said. "I was impressed by her enthusiasm for the industry. I was drawn to that. That is what we try to foster, that spark. I saw that in her." During an in-person interview in California, Agin pulled out all the stops in trying to convince Gail to leave Ohio in the rearview mirror. "I told her there is better Chinese food here than there is in Columbus," he said. "When she came out here for a visit, we swung by a Chinese grocery store. I think that sealed the deal."
"I told her there is better Chinese food here than there is in Columbus," he said. "When she came out here for a visit, we swung by a Chinese grocery store. I think that sealed the deal."
All kidding aside, hiring a female assistant - let alone one from the other side of the planet - is not something Agin took lightly. When Gail moved from Ohio to the West Coast, her parents came from China to make the cross-country trip with her - by car. "I don't know if it was translated perfectly for them, but I assured them that I would keep an eye on her," Agin said. "She is their only child. "I promised them that I would keep an eye on her. "When you meet parents of someone in your charge, you want to reassure them that everything is going to be and that we will take care of her." Obviously close to her parents, Gail talks with her parents by phone just about every day and visits China for several weeks each year. And when she goes Agin holds his breath until she returns, hoping that the pull to move home does not win out over her goal to revolutionize the golf turf management world. After all, Gail isn't just an employee. She's now part of Agin's family. "It's been a journey, striking a relationship and finding some commonality," Agin said. "I was an ex-pat in China, she is an ex-pat here. To me this is a little deeper than just hiring a college graduate from out of state."- Read more...
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In the long term, we want the property to be more than a golf course. It has to be a community resource, an academy to help the under-employed and under-served communities."
The idea of combining tasks, and thus offering more hours (and more money) to the same group, Hsieh said, was the idea of Thomas Bastis, CGCS. Superintendent at The California Golf Club of San Francisco, Bastis is not only Hsieh's friend, but also has been his agronomic mentor and consultant for most of the past decade. "They go from pouring a manhattan, to taking green fees and get you on your way, to cutting cups and mowing fairways before their shift starts," Hsieh said. "They love the course, and they are who I want here on this land because they are trying to make this experience the best it can be for our customers." Three years ago, Hsieh realized he had to do something different if he was going to keep Gleneagles open. The course, which has to be self sufficient since it is not funded by the city, had entered into a death spiral of declining play, revenue and conditions. Without golfers coming in the door, there was no money to invest in the golf course. Without investments in improved playing conditions, golfers weren't coming back. It was a scene that has been played out on hundreds of courses nationwide in the past decade. That's when Hsieh and a local trade union reached an agreement to provide laborers for the golf course from the city's at risk community. Gleneagles receives low-cost help in six-week blocks a few times a year, and those workers receive union-backed apprenticeship training and a support network that helps them on the road to full-time employment when they "graduate" from Gleneagles. It's a win-win-win situation for Hsieh, who receives the help he needs, workers who have hope where before there was none and the community that has its golf course back. "In the long term, we want the property to be more than a golf course," he said. "It has to be a community resource, an academy to help the under-employed and under-served communities." The community wants Gleneagles to survive. Hsieh already offers FootGolf on the property and recently, he fielded inquiries about carving a disc golf course out of the property. Hsieh had his doubts. He told the disc golf crowd, which typically plays for free in public parks, that they'd have to pay a fee at Gleneagles to help offset the cost of labor at this revenue-starved facility. Hsieh established an Indiego.com crowd-funding account anyway to gauge whether there was any real interest. He set a goal of $10,000 to help cover the cost of buying baskets and other equipment and clearing land for the routing. To his surprise, that goal was reached in three hours. "These are the kinds of things small golf courses that don't have big bucks have to do to get creative and survive," he said. "We will have it bookended: We'll have the least expensive round of golf and the most expensive disc golf round in San Francisco."
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The bottom line, with 140 years of weather data, we have no clue how to predict weather patterns."
For years, California was mired in what has been called one of the worst droughts in the state's history. Nowadays, the drought seems like a distant memory. Reservoirs around the state are full or nearly full, and most currently are holding much more than the historic average, according to California's Department of Water Resources. One in particular, the dam at Lake Oroville, recently has been in the news for because of a failing spillway that has sent millions of gallons of water down the Feather River and is a reminder of just how wet it is in California. Weather forecasts this year and last have gotten it mostly wrong regarding the rain in California, meaning meteorologists probably wouldn't have earned many gongless days under the old Todd Hunter model. "Last winter, they predicted rain with warm Pacific waters in an El Nino pattern, and we had a dry year," Kessler said. "This year, it was supposed to be the opposite. But we've had, in essence, straight-shot warm, tropical water that we were supposed to get under the El Nino, but that we're getting in a La Nina. The bottom line, with 140 years of weather data, we have no clue how to predict weather patterns." The snowpack in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada, which provides much of the state's drinking water through the State Water Project, is at 173 percent of average and has replenished more than one-third of the state's snow-water deficit, according to the information from the California Department of Water Resources. Even Southern California, which derives much of its potable supply from the above-mentioned State Water Project as well the now full Colorado River basin, has been getting rain. Rainfall totals since October are up by 75 percent in Los Angeles and 60 percent in Palm Springs. So, what is a golf course superintendent to do? Conduct business as if the drought were still in effect, say two of the state's leading experts on golf course irrigation matters, th
Short term, this is a God send of relief. . . . In the long term, nothing really changes. Golf has a powerful incentive to continue to reduce its water footprint."
Although the drought officially is over for much of the state, efforts to conserve water and find additional ways to cut back are as important as ever, because while impoundments holding surface water are full, underground aquifers are not. Even if California has several more rainy winters, it will take years, if ever, to replenish the state's groundwater supplies. Californians believing their days of using less water are over, are fooling themselves. "Short term, this is a God send of relief," Kessler said. "If we get into a drought again, and we will, water for recreation is one of the first things that goes. We get some consideration over parks, but not much. In the long term, nothing really changes. Golf has a powerful incentive to continue to reduce its water footprint." Ali Harivandi, Ph.D., tells a similar message. The former University of California extension specialist and arguably the country's leading expert on reclaimed water, Harivandi still tells superintendents they should be managing water as if they are in the throes of drought. "I caution everyone, especially in golf and turf in general, to continue what they have been doing, because it is confined business, and it cannot survive without good water. (Superintendents) should continue their efforts to reduce water use; continue and actually be more aggressive," Harivandi said. "I've been in this business for close to 40 years, and it's like a broken record: We have five or six years of major drought, and everybody and their cousins become environmentalists. Turf is the first prime material that becomes the villain, and golf is an easy target. Then as soon as the rain comes, everyone forgets about it." Gary Ingram, CGCS, at Metropolitan Golf Links in Oakland is taking that message to heart. With a sizeable portion of its irrigation water coming from groundwater aquifers, Metropolitan Golf Links had it better than most during the drought. Still, that didn't stop Ingram from cutting back his water use when he wasn't required to do so. He turned off water to 20 acres that previously were irrigated, including out-of-play areas and the driving range, simply by shutting off the tap and making modifications to sprinkler heads. Reducing irrigated acreage has been part of Ingram's turf management philosophy since he became a superintendent in the 1970s. "We mandated ourselves to do what is right," Ingram said. "We reduced consumption because it was the right thing to do."
I caution everyone, especially in golf and turf in general, to continue what they have been doing, because it is confined business, and it cannot survive without good water."
As president of the California GCSA, Ingram is positioned to make a difference moving forward. It's an opportunity he is not taking lightly. He is working with other superintendents throughout California, university professors and members of the California Alliance for Golf in establishing a state BMP template that colleagues from the Oregon stateline to the Mexico border can use to help save even more water in the future. With the recent release at the Golf Industry Show of the GCSAA-led BMP template that was completed by scientists at the University of Florida, the California contingent plans to use that national BMP to help draft their own plan. Water will be just one part of that template, but it will be an important one nonetheless. "What is important is that we look at the golf industry as part of the community," Ingram said. "And we have to look at water as a commodity that is important to the community. We have to do what's right. That means not only being aware of how much water we use, but where it goes, as well." Whatever Ingram and the rest of the BMP task force come up with in regards to water use, Harivandi says the goal should be an ambitious one because of the threat of future drought and the state's groundwater crisis. He recommends golf courses further reduce the amount of irrigated land over the next several years, and he's pointing to an ambitious NASA project as proof that just about anything is possible. "If golf courses want to stay viable, every golf course superintendent, owner and manager should be thinking about how they can reduce the amount of irrigated land by 50 percent by 2025. It's not impossible. If they're talking about putting someone on Mars by 2023, then I think we can do this," Harivandi said. "It's not reducing water use by 50 percent; it's reducing the amount of land that is watered by 50 percent." Such a plan would yield much more than just savings in the monthly water bill, says Harivandi. "They will not only reduce their water footprint, but will also reduce inputs (including) fertilizers, pesticides, mowing, aerating, labor etc," he said. "That means significant reductions in maintenance costs. The price of water is also steadily increasing everywhere."
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