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From the TurfNet NewsDesk

  • John Reitman
    Part I in an ongoing series about labor issues affecting the golf industry.   One step forward; two steps back.   That's how Scott White feels every winter when it is time to hire seasonal help at Urbana Country Club in Illinois.   Whether it's finding high school workers with some semblance of work ethic, or helping Hispanic workers successfully navigate the physical exam process, White spends a lot of time looking for temporary help. And he's not alone.   All over the country the story is the same: superintendents are struggling to find qualified seasonal help, interns and even assistants. White is trying to get creative in finding high school students to round out his seasonal staff that includes Hispanics and retirees.   "It used to be I'd hire just anyone," said White, who is in his third season at Urbana. "Now, I'm looking for kids who want to be here because it excites them. I want kids who want to be outdoors, not just kids who need a job. I'm trying to find kids who are a better fit. That's the culture I want to create here. It seems I'm working four or five times harder to find the right employees who even want to be here. Eventually, robotic mowers will be a necessity because of labor."   Three years ago, White began working with a local high school to recruit summer help. Rather than get kids excited about the prospect of working outdoors all summer, he was getting the exact opposite.   "I was getting kids who didn't even want to be outside," he said. "It was like they were being forced to do it. They were not what I needed, and they didn't want to be here anyway."   This year, White ventured out of town to Mahomet-Seymour High School about 15 miles northwest of Urbana. Located in a more rural area, Mahomet-Seymour has a horticulture program stocked with kids already leaning toward a career spent outdoors.   White is scheduled to speak there next week, but already has hired a player off the basketball team who reached out when he learned a local golf course superintendent was coming to talk about careers in golf.   He is replicating that recruiting tactic at Fisher High School 25 miles north of the Champaign-Urbana area.   "I think I can establish a nice pipeline to Mahomet and Fisher," White said. "Once I get started, through word of mouth I can get their brothers and friends and round out my crew."   Every time I placed an ad, about 30 people would respond; I would schedule interviews for about five and only one of them would show up. I was spending a lot of time for very little return." Conrad Pannkuk, assistant superintendent at Wynstone Golf Club in North Barrington, Illinois, said he and superintendent Ben McGargill are having similar challenges finding help, especially since his employer, Century Golf, started using the e-Verify system.
    This year, Pannkuk spoke to an FFA group at a recent Barrington High School job fair about the careers in turf, including golf course maintenance, sports field management and sod production.   "I spoke about what the job entails, expected salary and what the job entails," Pannkuk said. "I want to show them what career options are available to them. If I'd known about this when I was in high school, I would have been all over it."   In the past, when he worked at the Biltmore Country Club in Illinois, Pannkuk relied on Web sites like Indeed or Craigslist to find temporary help. Results were sporadic at best.   "Every time I placed an ad, about 30 people would respond; I would schedule interviews for about five and only one of them would show up," he said. "I was spending a lot of time for very little return."   Finding new ways to attract talent, he said, is more important now than ever.   "We're working with local community colleges. You have to be creative to get your name out there in as many places as possible," he said.    Making his case to local high schoolers has been a good fit for Pankkuk, and much better than relying on generic help-wanted Web sites.   "Looking for help through Craigslist and Indeed was tedious and depressing," he said.   "Going out and speaking to high school groups is fun. It's like going out and teaching, and I enjoy teaching."    
  • A bad day for a caddie at many clubs might mean schlepping two bags for five hours for a pair of notoriously chintzy tippers.   At the Retreat and Links at Silvies Valley Ranch in east-central Oregon, a bad day for a caddie might mean getting fired and ending up on the menu in the restaurant.   Silvies Valley Ranch is a 140,000-acre working ranch in Seneca, Oregon that is home to about 4,500 head of cattle and more than 2,000 American range goats. Situated in a high mountain meadow, the ranch also includes the Retreat & Links that is billed as an eco-tourism destination comprising a hotel and spa, a host of western-themed activities and four golf courses designed by Dan Hixson, including the seven-hole McVeigh's Gauntlet course, where the steep terrain makes golf cars obsolete and goats that serve as caddies a necessity.   The best part, they don't talk back or dole out bad advice.   "How did we come up with the program? We'd like to take credit for it, but the goats wanted a different career opportunity," joked Colby Marshall, vice president of livestock and guest services at Silvies Valley Ranch.   "For a goat, working as a caddie is a better career path than working in the restaurant."   A new Hixson design, McVeigh's Gauntlet will open this season, and not just any goat will do for the caddie program.   Goats are handpicked, range in age from 2-8 years, undergo training with a livestock handler and get regular veterinary checkups to ensure their health and satisfy the animal-rights community.   When Marshall says the goats work for peanuts, he means it. A specially designed pack allows the goats, which can weigh in at a beefy 150 pounds, to carry a limited number of clubs, refreshments and goat treats.   There are four goats in the program, Mike, Bruce, Peanut and Roundabout, and three more will join them this spring as McVeigh's Gauntlet preps for its official grand opening.   "There is a lot of interest in it. They start thinking about it as kids," said Marshall, the resident Henny Youngman of eastern Oregon.   Each goat will work about six hours per day, and handlers make sure they don't stray from their golfers.   Although goat is a popular menu item at Silvie's Ranch, Peanut and Roundabout and their colleagues won't really be served up as the nightly special when it's time to put them out to pasture.   Instead, they'll be eligible for adoption.   "There are none ready at this point; they're all in the prime of their careers," Marshall said. "They'll be placed as pets.    "They're going to have the good life."   Silvies Valley Ranch has been a working cattle ranch since the Craddock family homesteaded the property in 1883. After a succession of owner spanning some 60 years since the 1950s, Scott and Sandy Campbell bought the ranch about a decade ago.    The property also includes the Hankins Course, the nine-hole Chief Egan layout and the Craddock Course that was built to be fully reversible with the routing reversed each day to create a unique golf experience, said superintendent Sean Hoolehan, who thought highly enough of Silvies Valley Ranch that he recently came aboard after 21 years at Wildhorse Resort in Pendleton, Oregon.   "There is nothing clumsy about the reversible layout. It feels like you're playing two distinctly different and unique golf courses," Hoolehan said. "Nothing makes you think on course you played the day before."   Hoolehan said he was attracted by the scope of Silvies Valley Ranch property and the unique experiences it affords guests.   "The top environmental practices we use here have helped turn the ranch into a thriving operation," Hoolehan said.    "I jumped at the chance to come on board. The ranch is not the whim of a wealthy family. This is a thriving business, and it's something I wanted to be part of."
  • As a college instructor who tries to help her students better understand behavioral differences between people across cultural and generational lines, Amy Wallis, Ph.D., loves her job. After all, as a professor of practice at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she is immersed in a field that is relatively new and poorly understood.   Every December, Wallis brings her message to 25 or so golf course superintendents at the annual Syngenta Business Institute.   "We're not going to learn everything we need to know about leading everyone," Wallis told the 2017 class at the 2017 SBI. "We can't allow ourselves to fall into stereotyping and thinking there is some cookie-cutter approach to working across differences.   "I'm going to equip you with the tools and concepts to dig a little deeper."   That's just a slice of what attendees are in for at the 10th annual SBI, scheduled for Dec. 3-6 at Wake Forest.   In its 10th year, the Syngenta Business Institute is a 3 ½-day event held on the Wake Forest University campus in Winston-Salem, North Carolina is part of Syngenta's ongoing effort to grow the professional knowledge of golf course superintendents and assist them with managing their courses. Through a partnership with the Wake Forest University School of Business, the program provides graduate school-level instruction in financial management, human resource management, negotiating, managing across generations and cultural divides, impact hiring and other leadership- and professional-development skills.   Registration for the 10th-annual event is open through Aug. 14.    Applicants must complete an online application that includes writing a short essay on why they should be selected for this unique career-development program.     "Superintendents have the opportunity many times a year to learn about agronomy. But what they don't get to hear about or understand is how to work with their teams and how each person in their team can be different," said Stephanie Schwenke, turf market manager for Syngenta, "hat can be based on age. It can be based on gender. It can be based on culture, and it can be based on the way they were brought up and what they were exposed to in their lives. So i think the culture and the generations session opens everyone's eyes that everyone is not just like me. And not everybody grew up the same way I did with the same culture or the same skillset. So it's understandable that there are different motivational factors for their team if they can understand how to work with them. That has been the one piece superintendents have walked away with saying, "I wish we could get more of this.' "   David Groelle of Royal Melbourne Country Club in Long Grove, Illinois, applied for the 2017 SBI because he was eager to learn ways to improve communications with his team and help them be more effective.   "It was a rewarding and educational experience, and they're not selling anything," Groelle said.   "I've been to every type of turf event imaginable. This is so off-the-wall different.    "The biggest take home for me has been dealing with cultural and generational issues and trying to understand that better. Understanding how people from the U.S. differ from people from other cultures - I think it would help with retention, and efficiency on the golf course and how they work and what is going through their heads vs. what is going through mine. I never really thought about it that way, but when I heard it, it made sense."
  • Before administering the naturalization oath of allegiance to a recent class of new U.S. citizens, federal judge Stephanie K. Bowman reminded them never to take for granted what she was about to bestow upon them.
      "She told us that that Americans often forget how important U.S. citizenship is, and that we have to remember how great it is to be a citizen of this country," said Pat O'Brien, superintendent of Hyde Park Golf and Country Club in Cincinnati, and a U.S. citizen since January. "I agree with her.    "This country is phenomenal. It's the best place to be, and we forget sometimes how great it is. That's the moral of the story for me anyway."   A native of London, Ontario, the 47-year-old O'Brien has been living in the U.S. for most of the past 20 years. On Jan. 12, he closed the book on a 2-year naturalization process when he and 67 others took the oath in Bowman's courtroom in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.   The experience was a life-altering moment for O'Brien and his wife, Jen, and even for the couple's daughters Brynna and Maeve, who, after the ceremony, were enlisted by the League of Women Voters to distribute voter-registration cards to the group of newly minted citizens.   "My wife even had tears in her eyes," said O'Brien. "She's a tough woman. Our kids call her the ice lady."   Throughout the naturalization process that began in 2016, O'Brien has had to develop a thicker skin, as well.   "I get a lot of ribbing from Canadians," he said. "They don't like it when Canadians become U.S. citizens. They don't get it."   There was a time when O'Brien and his wife were open to moving wherever his career took him, even if it meant returning to Canada. Those days are gone.   "As we started to have kids, we realized this is the place and it didn't make sense anymore to look elsewhere," he said. "A couple of years ago, my wife told me 'I feel bad for you, because we're not moving.' That's OK. This is a great city with great schools."   He decided two years ago, when President Trump was elected on a platform that included promises of a crackdown on immigration, that it was time to start the naturalization process. Despite cable TV news claims of a loose immigration policy, O'Brien said, the process is exhaustive. So much so that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services delayed the date of his swearing-in while they checked out his travel history that includes numerous crossings of the border between the U.S. and Canada.   "I was in limbo for a couple of weeks," he said. "I really thought I had messed up, because I had forgotten to document some travel.    "There is so much scrutiny. They make sure your marriage is legitimate and not just something to get you into the country. They go through everything. The vetting is phenomenal. A lot of people are immigrating here, and immigration (services) does an incredible job."   For O'Brien, it has been a long journey to Hyde Park, a century-old Donald Ross design on Cincinnati's upper crust east side, where he has been superintendent since 2004.   
    I was in limbo for a couple of weeks. I really thought I had messed up, because I had forgotten to document some travel."
     
    He's been working on golf courses since 1993, and it was a career path that happened almost by accident.    O'Brien had been working on a cousin's dairy farm in Ontario when a spot opened closer to home on the grounds crew at Westminster Trails Golf Club in his hometown.   "The superintendent asked me what I could do, and I told him I knew how to drive a tractor, you know, because I had been working on a farm," he said. "He hired me to run a mower.   "The last year I was there I was the assistant. I think there were only six of us working there. It was a different world. It was all I'd ever seen, so I didn't know any different. I enjoyed working there. Some of the best times I ever had was as a night waterman."   By that time, the golf course had become O'Brien's passion, and he realized the bachelor's degree in geography he had earned at the Western University in Ontario wasn't going to help him much. It did, however, help him find his way to State College, Pennsylvania, where he enrolled in George Hamilton's two-year turf program.   "George was very soft spoken and humble. But he was also very direct," O'Brien said. "He talked in class about real-life things, like club politics. As students, we get hung up on grass and don't know how to relate to the real stuff."   O'Brien's long-term plan to stay in the U.S. almost went off the rails after a return to Canada nearly 20 years ago. During his Penn State days, O'Brien interned at Kirtland Country Club in suburban Cleveland and was hired on as Todd Bidlespacher's assistant after graduation in 2000.He went back to Canada, but after some self-reflection, realized he belonged in the states.   He made some calls to look for work in the U.S., and that's when he connected, through Matt Shaffer, with Doug Norwell at Camargo Club, a 1927 Seth Raynor classic in Cincinnati's ritzy east side suburb of Indian Hill. But securing a work visa that allowed him back into the U.S. was a hard process, and Norwell recalls completing a lot of paperwork to guarantee O'Brien's return.   "They want to make sure you're not writing up a job description with just that person in mind," Norwell said. "The visa process seemed pretty difficult at the time, but the years have a way of making things less painful.   "It's worth the hassle for a good assistant."
  • A new name will make its way next year into the turf and ornamental market, but it's someone you already know.   This isn't a prelude to a T&O version of the TV game show Jeopardy. It's the most recent update on the merger of two of the world's largest chemical companies.   This week, DowDuPont announced the names of three separate publicly traded companies it will create in the wake of a $130 billion union between the companies that first was announced in December 2015 and was finalized last September.   Two of the entities will retain the historic names of Dow and DuPont. The new and separate companies will split off in phases next year.   The agriculture division of DowDuPont will become Corteva Agriscience, a name that is derived from a combination of Hebrew and Latin words meaning "heart" and "nature", the company said.   "This is the start of an exciting journey," James C. Collins, Jr., chief operating officer, agriculture division of DowDuPont said in a news release. "Corteva Agriscience is bringing together three businesses with deep connections and dedication to generations of farmers. Our new name acknowledges our history while looking forward to our commitment to enhancing farmer productivity as well as the health and well-being of the consumers they serve. With the most balanced portfolio of products in the industry, nearly a century of agronomic expertise and an unparalleled innovation engine, Corteva Agriscience will become a leading Agriculture company, focused on working together with the entire food system to produce a secure supply of healthy food."   Corteva Agriscience will comprise DuPont Crop Protection, DuPont Pioneer and Dow AgroSciences to create a standalone company involved in seed technologies, crop protection and digital agriculture.   The product names from each of those separate entities will not change under the Corteva badge, the company said.   Corteva's corporate headquarters will be in Wilmington, Delaware. Locations in Johnston, Iowa, and Indianapolis will serve as global business centers that will include business support functions, R&D, global supply chain and sales and marketing.   The new Dow will include what is now DowDuPont's materials science company that consists of petrochemicals, packaging polymers, polyurethanes and coating resins. Headquarters will be in Midland, Michigan, the historic home of Dow before the merger.   DowDuPont's specialty products division will become the new DuPont and will be based in Wilmington, Delaware, DuPont's former headquarters, and will include businesses such as Kevlar aramid fibers, building materials, industrial biosciences.   The spinoff of Corteva is expected to take place by June 1, 2019.  
  • Last year's Solheim Cup at Des Moines Golf and Country Club was as uplifting a story as golf has seen in a long time. Camaraderie displayed between teams, patriotism and pride in country and, as was the case in 2017, in state.   The event that pits the best women players from Europe and the United States was a special moment for Iowans both on and off the golf course. It was a professional championship the likes of which Iowans and not seen before, at least within the borders of their own state. It also was the kind of tournament that Iowa superintendents don't get a chance to even volunteer for, unless they venture outside the state.   Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS, made sure that changed in 2017, when he opened the door for Iowa superintendents to get their hands dirty preparing for the Solheim Cup, and it's one of the reasons why he was named the winner of the 2017 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta.   Professional golf, even at its highest level, is about much more than who wins. It is about helping those in need through charitable donations.   To that end, nine worthy causes will share $250,000 in charitable contributions from Des Moines Golf and Country Club, the West Des Moines country club announced last week. The money comes from profits the club made by hosting the tournament last August.    The club said its overall donations tied to the Solheim Cup totaled more than $400,000 and that it was fulfilling a promise to donate 50 percent of its profits from the event that attracted more than 120,000 spectators who watched the U.S. top Europe, 16.5-11.5.   Beneficiaries include Iowa Court Appointed Special Advocates, ISISERETTES Drill & Drum Corp, DMGCC Educational Foundation, Boys and Girls Club of Central Iowa, Children & Family Urban Movement, Children's Cancer Connection, Iowa Homeless Youth Centers, Youth Emergency Services & Shelter and the First Tee of Central Iowa.   "The success of the 2017 Solheim Cup," said DMGCC president Gregg Carlson, "was in large part due to the incredible way Iowans embraced and supported our efforts to host the prestigious golf tournament."  
  • The USGA's Bible for building putting greens is hardly a static document.   In fact, since it was first published in 1960, the USGA Recommendations for a Method of Putting Green Construction is a dynamic script that has been amended five times, including its most recent update in 2015.   "The purpose of the revisions process is to go through all the research that is being done and see if any new techniques or materials need to be included in the Recommendations to make them more reliable," said Adam Moeller, director of USGA Green Section Education. "We also want to make sure that the Recommendations are still an industry standard that can work anywhere in the world.   "The bulk of the Recommendations are the same. This is the fifth set of revisions, and the least amount of revisions since the recommendations came out in 1960."   Key changes in the latest set of revisions, Moeller said, are about selecting gravel, perimeter drains, clean-up ports, clarifying rootzone mixtures and new information on amendments used in a rootzone mix.   Green Section director Kim Erusha, Ph.D., Darin Bevard Green Section director of championship agronomy, and Mike Kenna, the group's director of research, ran point on the project that has been in the works for nearly two years.   Staffing changes and the retirement of former research director Jim Moore slowed the process. The revised document was written by turf and soils consultant and 2017 USGA Green Section Award winner Norm Hummel, Ph.D. Hummel also authored the revised document after changes in 1993 and 2004.    Other changes occured in 1973 and 1989.   The section on drainage includes advice on adding perimeter drains at any low point along the perimeter wall, and no longer just at the terminal point. The drainage section also now recommends installing clean-up ports on high and low side of putting green drainage lines, so cameras can be used to inspect the area.   "A lot of people were already doing this in the field," Moeller said. "We thought it was time to include it in the Recommendations."   Pertaining to gravel, the USGA now says research indicates there is evidence that placing low-pH rootzone mixtures over high-pH gravel materials such as limestone and dolomite contributes to the formation of iron-oxide layers at the rootzone and gravel interface. These layers have been shown to impede drainage from the rootzone mixture to the gravel layer. If given the option, selecting a neutral-pH gravel is recommended.   "This iron-oxide layer is almost cemented together," Moeller said. "It can be a quarter-inch to a half-inch thick. Certainly research and work in the field indicate there is a concern this can impede water drainage into the gravel and the drainage below."   Finally, the new version of the Recommendations provide tips on selecting amendments for the rootzone mix.   The Recommendations also includes the supplemental guide entitled Building the USGA Putting Green Tips for Success. This document, Moeller said, goes through all the steps outlined in the Recommendations and does so in more depth.   "There is no set time frame to update the Recommendations," Moeller said. "If something needs to be done sooner than in that 10-year mark, we can certainly do that. It's not like the Rules of Golf that change every four years, and I think that is a testament to the science that backs the construction method."    
  • Perception is not always reality.   The aisles were more narrow than usual at this year's Golf Industry Show, often giving the illusion that the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio was more crowded than ever. By the afternoon of the second day, even funneling traffic into a single-file walkway wouldn't have been able to mask the fact that a lot of people clean forgot the Alamo this year.  
    Attendance at this year's show was 11,700. That's 1,900 fewer attendees than last year's show in Orlando, 900 fewer than San Diego in 2016 1,189 below the five-year average attendance of 12,889. It's even down 700 from the last time the show ambled on into San Antonio in 2015.   The number of vendors exhibiting at the show has been hovering in the mid-500s for years, and this show, with 531 exhibitors, was no exception. That mark is down from last year's total of 569 in Orlando. It's down 19 from 2016 in San Diego and down an even 20 from the 2015 show in - San Antonio.   After a brief rebound in 2016 and 2017, when vendors rented out 250,000 square feet of convention center real estate in back-to-back years, booth space rental also was down this year, to 184,900 square feet. That's the least since 2015 (182,000) in San Antonio and well off the five-year average of 210,280 square feet.   None of this should be a shock. The game has been on a steady pace of losing players and rounds for more than a decade, and it's not unrealistic to expect the challenges associated with those losses to trickle down to the turf side of the business.   If there was a bright spot in a show marked by steady decline, it's that 5,600 education seats were filled this year, compared with 5,800 last year in Orlando.  
  • Former Toro CEO Ken Melrose has established a legacy of service to the golf industry and beyond. That legacy was rewarded recently when Melrose was named the recipient of the Golf Course Builders Association of America Don A. Rossi Award.   The GCBAA's highest honor, the Rossi award recognizes individuals "who have made significant contributions to the game of golf and its growth and who have inspired others by example." It is named for Don A. Rossi, who served as executive director of the National Golf Foundation from 1970 to 1983, was instrumental in forming the National Golf Course Owners Association and served as executive director of the GCBAA from 1984 to 1990.    It was awarded at the recent Golf Industry Show in San Antonio.   Melrose joined The Toro Co. in 1970 as director of marketing for the Consumer Products Division. Three years later, he was appointed President of Game Time, Inc., then a Toro subsidiary located in Litchfield, Michigan. Almost immediately, he was on the fast track to success.   A native of Orlando, Florida, Melrose graduated with honors from Princeton University in 1962, where he majored in mathematics and electrical engineering and was a varsity letterman in track for three years. He also earned a master's degree from MIT and an MBA from the University of Chicago.   By 1976, he was named vice president of the company's Outdoor Power Equipment Group, promoted to executive vice president in July 1980, named president in February of 1981, Chief Executive Officer in December 1983, and chairman of the board in December of 1987. On March 15, 2005, he stepped down as CEO but remained as executive chairman for Toro's board of directors. He retired as chairman and from Toro in 2006.   Under his leadership, Toro became a golf industry monolith through product development and innovation, customer support and service and philanthropy. Melrose helped establish The Toro Foundation that supports community and industry causes around the world.    "By honoring me with the Rossi award, the GCBAA is really recognizing the importance of superintendents to the golf industry," Melrose said. "In the face of ever-changing technology, volatile weather and increasingly demanding golfers, Superintendents are the unsung hero of the game of golf; they ensure that golf always puts its best foot forward.  I am thrilled to accept this award on behalf of our superintendents."   Following his retirement from Toro, Melrose formed Leading by Serving, LLC, whose mission is to advance the principles of servant leadership in organizations. He also remains an active supportive of the golf industry and its future growth. In 2012, he established The Melrose Leadership Academy with the Environmental Institute for Golf to help support the professional development of GCSAA member superintendents providing scholarships to attend the Golf Industry Show.   His legacy of service is long and enduring.   "My parents raised me to understand the importance of giving back to the community especially to those in need," Melrose said. "It is a privilege to give back to the golf industry that has given so much to me."   In 1995, he authored Making the grass greener on your side : a CEO's journey to leading by serving. Published by Berrett-Koehler with a foreward by the late self-help guru Stephen R. Covey, the book details a history of Toro and the role of the company and its leader to serve others.
  • In the world of turf seed, you'd think grass grows on trees.
      Hardly. At least not the cool-season varieties hailing from the Pacific Northwest.   We caught up with Jacklin Seed's Chris Claypool at the Golf Industry Show, who shed some light on seed history, quality and shortages.   "There are so many choices now. It's almost confusing to the end user," said Claypool, general manager for Jacklin Seed by Simplot. "There are some elite Kentucky bluegrass varieties, but those elite varieties don't have prolific seed yield.   "People don't ask much for a specific variety. They just want seed."   One of the biggest factors affecting Kentucky bluegrass varieties, Claypool said, is the absence of field burning.   Torching fields after the annual harvest helped control weeds and pests before the next growing season, and thus minimized the need for chemical pesticide applications.   "It shocks the plant into survival mode to reproduce," Claypool said.    "It cleaned up the fields, farmers saved money and they didn't have to till, spray and replant the field. There were some bluegrass fields in the Willamette Valley that hadn't been sprayed in 20 years."   Field burning also caused concerns about air quality, and it is a practice that has been largely banned on grass fields since 2009.    The effects of that ban are finally starting to trickle down, Claypool said.   "Today, we are realizing the cost of not burning," Claypool said. "Quality is eroding and getting a little worse every year. The impact of not being able to burn every year and clean up those fields, we're now paying the price. The fields are getting dirtier and dirtier every year."   That's unfortunate, says Claypool, in an era when so many turf varieties can help end users like golf course superintendents save money by choosing grasses that can stand up to stressors like drought, heat, cold and wear.   Combine an increasingly weakened field with naturally occurring factors like weather, and the result can be long-term decline in quality and yield.   Complicating matters even further is that, unlike with food crops, growers cannot insure a turf crop against loss. And that is leading some growers in the Willamette Valley to choose crops that make more economic sense.   "That makes it like a high-risk crop," Claypool said. "People are coming out of school with business degrees and realize they can make more money growing something else.   "Just in Oregon, thousands of acres have gone out to blueberries, hazelnut orchards and wineries. When you lose them, they're gone for 40-plus years. You don't get those fields back."   Cultivating Kentucky bluegrass became a viable commercial option in the late 1940s when golf course superintendent Joe Valentine discovered a patch of turf outperforming the common Kentucky bluegrass at Merion Golf Club near Philadelphia. The new grass was named Merion and is the forerunner to many of today's commercial varieties.   "The quality, possibly, will never get better in the future of grass seed," Claypool said. "The future of zero weed, no Poa annua, no noxious weeds in fields is going to be more and more difficult. Either prices will go up as growers have to apply more chemicals, or we'll have to live with what is harvested."
  • If you missed this week's TurfNet University Webinar on soils management by Gregg Munshaw, Ph.D. of the University of Kentucky, but still want to hear it, you're in luck. Watching playbacks of past TurfNet University Webinars is free and available on-demand to everyone.    TurfNet has been producing webinars since 2008, and for most of that time Grigg has been on board as a sponsor, supporting online education for golf course superintendents. Near as we can tell, that's longer than anyone else in the golf turf business. We're on our third or fourth user platform since then, so some recordings have been lost over time.    Still, we have an ever-growing library of 171 total recordings on a variety of agronomic and career-development topics, including Getting the most from your PGR program by Doug Soldat, Ph.D., of the University of Wisconsin that was recorded June 23, 2011, to a webinar by Dara Park, Ph.D., of Clemson entitled Assessing water and soil reports for salinity and sodium issues that was pre-recorded in October 2012 because she was expecting a baby about the time of the live broadcast.   Click here to see the entire lineup. Members simply have to be logged into their account to see what is available. Non-members can get access to all the recordings seminars by registering for a free guest account.   Click here to see our live webinar lineup.  
  • Susan Coldiron was bracing for an emotional evening as she entered the Quarry Golf Club clubhouse Tuesday for the TurfNet Beer & Pretzels Gala, where the first Jerry Coldiron Positivity Awards were to be announced. Little did she expect to shed tears of joy.
    Flashback: Josh Webber, now course manager at Portmore Golf Park in North Devon, England, needed housing for six months while interning at Boca West Country Club in Florida. Jerry and Susan offered their home in nearby Boca Raton. That was ten years ago.
    Fast forward to two weeks ago. Webber and his father Colin were attending the Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) Golf and Environment dinner at BTME in Harrogate, England. Jon Kiger was there as well, as part of the 18 person TurfNet delegation to BTME. Serendipity strikes again.

    The 160 people at the dinner selected seats at assigned tables. Kiger sat between Michael Wells, the CEO of Carnoustie Golf Links, and Josh Webber.
    When Jon introduced himself as being from TurfNet, Josh asked, "How well did you know Jerry Coldiron?"
    "Really well," Kiger replied, taken aback. "How do you know Jerry?"
    Josh proceeded to explain how he had come to live at the Coldiron home while interning at Boca West, getting a little choked up at the memories.
    Meeting with Josh and his dad the next morning for coffee, Jon raised the subject of Josh perhaps flying over to San Antonio for Beer & Pretzels to surprise Susan.
    "I told them that if Josh could get there, we would pick up his hotel room and get him into the show," Kiger said.
    Boom.
    Josh met Susan soon after she walked through the door at Beer & Pretzels, and the ensuing hug and tears seemed to last for minutes.

    Later in the evening, Josh gave an enthusiastic summary of his experience at "Casa de Coldiron", as Jerry used to refer to their home, and what the Coldiron family meant to him.

    More on the Jerry Coldiron Positivity Awards here.
  • Jorge Croda, CGCS, and Rick Tegtmeier, CGCS MG, come from two vastly different worlds. 
      Tegtmeier grew up in the Norman Rockwell-esque Midwest, while Croda left his native Mexico to make a better life for himself and his family.   Due to a first-time tie in the judges' scoring, both were named 2017 TurfNet Superintendent of the Year in a presentation in the Syngenta booth at GIS. 2017 was the tenth year of award sponsorship by Syngenta.   Though their stories are forever intertwined, the circumstances that brought Croda and Tegtmeier together couldn't be more different.   Tegtmeier, director of grounds at Des Moines Golf and Country Club in Iowa, was recognized not just for staging a virtually flawless venue for the 2017 Solheim Cup. He also won acclaim for the four years of hard work and preparation leading up to the event and, most importantly, how he used the event to help others, including fellow superintendents throughout Iowa and colleagues around the country who had once worked for or with Tegtmeier.   Croda, superintendent at Southern Oaks Golf Club in Burleson, Texas, has a reputation that is more grass-roots.   He has been applauded by Southern Oaks members for the manner in which he revived their course. Once an "eyesore" and an "embarrassment" as well as a threat to home values, according to some of the members there, the course now is rated by some among the best courses in the Fort Worth area.   "Jorge Croda is exceptional in possessing all of the talents required. Recently, I marveled at the quality of product he creates as I 'secret shopped' 20 golf courses in the Dallas metroplex. His facility was clearly the finest," wrote industrial strategist and marketing guru J.J. Keegan.   But it wasn't always that way.    "The change from where it was then to where it is today speaks to Mr. Croda's dedication and passion in forming a team that was committed to excellence based on fulfilling the vision of a new owner."    Croda and Tegtmeier were chosen from a field of finalists that also included Mark Hoban of Rivermont Golf Club in Johns Creek, Georgia, Chris Ortmeier of the Champions Club in Houston and Josh Pope of the Old White Course at The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.   Croda and Tegtmeier each receive a trip for two on the annual TurfNet golf trip to Ireland, courtesy of Syngenta.   Croda began rebuilding distressed golf courses in his native Mexico, and through a management company he started has had a hand in about 20 improvement projects south of the border.   Renovating golf courses represents only a slice of what Croda gives back to the community. And, it is among the least significant of his accomplishments. His passion for helping others symbolize what service is all about.   Like everything he touches, Croda's goal is to make it better, whether it is playing conditions on a golf course or the lifeskills of his employees who him produce those conditions.   "My job is to try to make people better," Croda said.    The consummate ambassador for golf, Croda speaks at chapter, state, national and international events; lobbies elected officials on behalf of the golf industry; and is active on his North Texas chapter board - all in an effort to promote the superintendent profession to those in and outside the golf industry.    Even that doesn't compare to what he does for members of his team, junior golfers and his neighbors in the Fort Worth area.   A certified First Tee coach, Croda is passionate about working to grow the game and instilling in young golfers the values the on which the game is built.   "We can make good choices, or we can make bad choices," he said. "I want to help them make good choices."     Among the jobs Croda is most passionate is that of mentor to members of his team. He provides for them computer classes, training in English language and more.   "I am trying to bring more opportunities to them," he said. "They're in the United States; they need to be able to speak English.    "My goal is to train people to be able to leave for better jobs elsewhere if they choose."   Like Croda, Tegtmeier was singled out because of how his actions affected others.   When it was revealed that Des Moines Golf and Country Club had received the 2017 Solheim Cup, the club already was hip deep in developing a master plan and working toward a four-year-long renovation of the 36-hole DMGCC under the direction of architects Pete Dye and Tim Liddy.    Tegtmeier immediately saw the Solheim Cup as an opportunity to fill a gap for other Iowa superintendents.    Iowa is home to an annual Champions Tour's Principal Charity Classic, but otherwise is without a major professional franchise or event.    Tegtmeier wanted to prove to the world that Iowa superintendents were more than capable of producing a venue that rivaled anything in professional championship golf, so he opened the door for volunteers to any Iowa greenkeeper who wanted to help him prove his point. He also extended that invitation to former colleagues now scattered around the country.   In all, 87 volunteers, all with ties to Tegtmeier, showed up to work. The flawless conditions, large crowds and patriotism turned the Solheim Cup into an experience that almost was surreal.   "I wanted to use this as a stepping stone to show what other superintendents in Iowa could do," Tegtmeier said. "I told them if they wanted to work a major event this was their chance.   "They stepped up."   Their work resulted in more than two-dozen nominations on Tegtmeier's behalf, including one from Team USA Solheim Cup captain Juli Inkster.   Two other nominations - one from 2006 Masters champion and Iowa native Zach Johnson and one from Iowa secretary of agriculture Bill Northey - supported Tegtmeier for the award because of what his work did for the people of Iowa as a source of pride for their home and as an economic driver for the local economy.   "Rick's exceptional management has allowed the Des Moines Golf and Country Club and the state of Iowa to gain international attention as they hosted the Solheim Cup," Northey wrote in his nomination. "This put Des Moines on the map and provided other great economic benefits to Des Moines and the state."    
  • The TurfNet Beer & Pretzels Gala was a favorite event in Jerry Coldiron's year, so it was the perfect venue to announce the first four Jerry Coldiron Positivity Awards Tuesday night at the Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio. Jerry's wife Susan and son Jake presented the first awards.
    Named for the late career superintendent turned Caribbean sales pro and long-time friend of TurfNet, the Coldiron Positivity Awards are cash stipends from the Jerry Coldiron Embrace Life! Fund and TurfNet to recognize individuals within the golf turf industry who live lives of positivity, caring, sharing and compassion for others... or who are experiencing personal hardship due to illness, natural events or job loss... or who do something special for the natural world (a special thing to Jerry). 
    More about Jerry here.
    The four recipients announced Tuesday are:
    Marcos "Mike" Morales of the Buccaneer Golf Club in St. Croix, US Virgin Islands John and Peggy Colo, Jupiter Hills Golf Club, Tequesta, Florida Adam and Erin Engle, Lake Shore Yacht and Golf Club, Cicero, NY John and Nick Paquette, Indian Hills Country Club, Northport, NY When Hurricane Maria devastated much of the Caribbean in late September, several members of Mike Morales's staff at the Buccaneer lost their homes. Mike found one living under a tree but with his uniform washed and drying on a branch so he wouldn't miss work the next day. Morales launched a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for his staff members, and Jerry Coldiron picked up on it and promoted it on Twitter. Morales was a customer-turned-friend of Jerry's, who covered the Caribbean for Hector Turf, the Toro/Club Car distributor in Deerfield Beach, Florida.
    Mike and his wife and daughter were on hand at Beer & Pretzels to receive his $2500 check from Susan and Jake Coldiron.

    John Colo is another long-time TurfNet member who many will remember for organizing the globe-trotting "Where's TurfNet" banner program back in 2009/10, for which he was recognized at B&P 2011 as TurfNet Member of the Year 2010 (our only such award).

    Superintendent at the Country Club of York, PA, at the time, Colo ultimately lost his job there. Two days after getting the pink slip at CCY, Colo's wife Peggy was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. With two young sons, John utilized his time off to care for Peggy and their two sons, Robert and Kevin. Long story short, John spent the next several years pursuing his next superintendent job while doing whatever he could to support his family... and keeping a positive attitude the entire time. After a year at a club in his hometown in Ohio, he landed the superintendent position at the Hills Course of Jupiter Hills Club.
    Peggy's health issues persist, but she and John both maintain a positive attitude and serve as role models for Robert and Kevin. All now live in Florida.
    John's identical twin brother Jim, superintendent at Naples National Golf Club, was on hand for the award.  More on the Colo brothers here.
    Adam and Erin Engle lost their 7-year old son Griffin to a rare pediatric brain cancer in 2014. Although devastated by their loss, the Engles formed Griffin's Guardians, a recognized nonprofit 501©(3) organization that provides support and financial assistance to children battling cancer in central New York. In the three years since its inception, Griffin's Guardians has raised over $500,000 to fund cancer research... but also to comfort children and the families of those going through the same battle that Griffin did.
    Griffin's Guardians is now Erin Engle's full-time volunteer job. They have involved the entire Syracuse-area community in it's fund-raising efforts.
    Adam and Erin's daughter Grace created Grace's Sibling Sunshine to make crafts and raise money through school group involvement because the siblings of cancer patients "are going through a hard time, too."
    Adam has played for a dozen years on Team TurfNet in the annual Golf Course Hockey Challenge tournament for superintendents, assistants and suppliers, held in Niagara Falls, Ontario each January.


     
    John Reitman profiled the Engles last year here. Both Adam and Erin were on hand to accept the $2500 check from Susan and Jake Coldiron.
    John Paquette has been a long-time friend of TurfNet and member since our first year in 1994. He and his wife Roxanne's (only) son Nick is a talented basketball player who contracted chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in late April, 2017. John started a thread in the TurfNet Forum (members can follow it here) the following week to seek any help or guidance the TurfNet community could offer. The response was astounding, to all.
    John, Roxanne and Nick's attitude during the summer of chemo and other treatments was WE GOT THIS! Long story short: Nick finished the treatment, returned to SUNY New Paltz in late August and is back on the basketball court. Read about Nick's journey here.

    The story gets better. Less than a month ago, Nick learned that University of Texas Longhorns guard and NBA prospect Andrew Jones had been diagnosed with leukemia, and wrote Jones an open letter via Yahoo Sports. After many local news networks around the country picked up the story, Nick was contacted by ESPN, who visited the New Paltz campus on January 27 to shoot a yet-to-be-aired segment on Nick at the college Athletic Center. Read about that here.

    "While losing a great friend -- one of my best friends, personally -- is devastating, good can always arise out of that," said Peter McCormick, TurfNet founder and organizer of the Coldiron fund and awards. "Jerry was an amazingly positive person, a real cheerleader among men. We are happy to continue that legacy through these awards, and hope to keep shining Jerry's light well into the future."
  • It's never a good thing to be compared to the Titanic regardless of the context.   Nevertheless, that was one of the messages Jim Koppenhaver of Pellucid Corp. and Edgehill Consulting's Stuart Lindsay latched onto during their annual state of the golf industry presentation at the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando.   The comparison between golf and a sinking ship actually was made by Stewart Darling, the non-executive director of Scottish Golf, that country's governing body of golf, during its recent Future of Golf in Scotland conference.    Koppenhaver and Lindsay just recognized the uncanny accuracy of the analogy.   The number of golfers, rounds played and golf courses in the market all were down in the past year in this country, echoing an all-too-familiar trend in place for more than a decade.   According to the Koppenhaver-Lindsay report, U.S. rounds played in 2017 slipped to 447.4 million, down 13.4 million from 460.8 million rounds in 2016 and erasing the gains of 2.7 million rounds from 2015 to 2016. Last year's figures also are down 12 million rounds from the 10-year historic average and a staggering 71 million rounds from the game's high-water mark of 518.4 million rounds played in 2000.   Leading up to the drop in rounds played is a slow leak in the number of golfers. The number of players in the market dropped by 150,000 in 2016 to about 21 million, the latest figures available.   Men comprise the largest single demographic, with 15.4 million players, and their numbers increased up by a modest 1.6 percent in 2016. Women, on the other hand, make up just 26 percent of the golf market. And although they are an audience many golf course operators are trying to court, they left the game in 2016 at a rate of 6.6 percent, more than offsetting any gains made by men.   Equally disturbing is that juniors and those age 18-34 also are dropping out. In 2016, the number of juniors playing golf dropped by 9 percent, while those aged 18-34 were down by 4.5 percent.   Baby boomers, particularly male baby boomers, continue to carry the game on their collective backs, a trend that eventually will reverse for a generation in decline. Millennials overtook baby boomers as the country's largest generation in 2015. As the baby boomer generation's numbers continue to decline, they will be surpassed by Generation X in about another decade, according to the Pew Research Center.   Fewer golfers and fewer rounds played have had a predictable outcome.    Before 2006, one had to revert back 60 years to the Truman Administration to find a year in which more golf courses closed than had opened. Since 2006, golf course closings have outpaced openings for each of the past 12 years. I  
    We can discuss who gets to sit at the Captain's Table or who gets the best deck chair; but at the end of the day, we're all on the Titanic."
     
    Last year, 25 new courses were built and 175 established ones closed for a net loss of 150. Since 2006, there has been a net loss of 1,298 golf courses as the market self-corrects to supply-demand equilibrium.   But is supply really the problem, or is it demand - or lack of it?   In the early 1960s, there were 5,600 golf courses nationwide, and that number swelled to nearly 8,500 by 1970. In those days, there were only about 900 golfers per course. Today, there are about 13,500 golf courses with 1,300 players per course.   The report wasn't all bad news.   For the first time in 2017, the NGF last year began measuring data collected from off-course golf-related activities including Topgolf, Flying Tee and indoor simulators.   In a survey of Topgolf participants show, 29 percent of golfers say that playing Topgolf leads them to play more traditional golf. The survey also shows that 23 percent of golfers follow the game more closely as a result of playing Topgolf. Finally, 53 percent of non-golfers surveyed said that playing Topgolf has positively influenced their intentions of playing golf.   It remains to be seen whether this new data reflect a potentially larger golfer database and an avenue to grow participation, or if it is as hopeless as a stowaway on the Titanic.  
  • The annual Golf Industry Show is the largest single provider of education for golf course superintendents and is a virtual clearing house for all that is new in the way of equipment, chemicals, fertilizers and other products for the turf industry. It also happens to be the best opportunity for professional networking for turf managers.
      Keeping up with all that takes place throughout the week is more than a challenge. You can stay up to date with everything that's happening at this year's Golf Industry Show in San Antonio by visiting the TurfNet GIS 2018 Blog. Well, almost everything.   We'll keep you posted on new product launches, the most innovative gadgets, promotions and giveaways from the tradeshow floor; news from in and around the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center; and fun stuff and other happenings from around town throughout the week.   From the inaugural Jerry Coldiron Positivity Awards, named in honor of the late longtime friend to TurfNet, that will be named Feb. 6 at the annual Beer & Pretzels Gala, to the winner of the 18th annual TurfNet Superintendent of the Year Award, presented by Syngenta, who will be named Feb. 8 at the Syngenta booth (#16065), and (almost) everything in between, you'll find it on the TurfNet GIS blog.    Whether you're unable to attend this year's show, or just looking for a way tool to help you stay connected with what's happening, TurfNet has you covered.

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