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From the TurfNet NewsDesk
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More than 2,000 employees, retirees, channel and business partners, and other guests gathered at Toro headquarters in Bloomington, as the governor presented Toro chairman and chief executive officer Michael Hoffman with the proclamation. Also present was Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead. "As we celebrate our first 100 years, it is truly gratifying to be surrounded by many of those who played such a significant role in the company's success," Hoffman said. "We are honored to have such talented employees around the world and individuals who have served the company throughout our history, along with great channel and business partners, who work every day to serve our customers and help advance our efforts in the industry. And, I especially want to thank Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton and Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead for joining our centennial celebration and honoring the people of Toro." "Part of the mentality of Toro is reaching out to its customers and to the communities, and developing high-quality products while strengthening your market through innovation," said Governor Dayton. "I don't think that the founder could have imagined 100 years ago that Toro would grow to be a Fortune 1000 company, or that more importantly, you'd be a leading corporate citizen in Minnesota. Your contributions to this state have been enormous." Winstead added, "Toro is an important partner in the Bloomington community, and is a company that has endured because of its commitment to customer service and innovation. I urge all citizens to recognize and celebrate the 100th anniversary of this valued business and community partner within the city of Bloomington." Among the many events taking place, invited guests were able to see the unveiling of a new history display featuring an extensive collection of vintage products from throughout the company's first 100 years ? including the first Toro-branded piece of equipment, the legendary To-Ro power cultivator introduced in 1919. Also on display were many of the company's current products for golf courses, sports fields, parks and municipalities, construction, professional contractors, homeowners and agricultural growers. During its centennial year, the company's many locations around the world have focused on giving back in communities where employees live and work. This has included Toro's "100 Acts of Caring" initiative, planting 100 trees in each Toro community worldwide, and a Centennial Legacy Grant Program supporting nonprofits in their efforts to beautify and preserve outdoor environments, and enhance green spaces.- Read more...
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Golden moments
By John Reitman, in News,
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As many superintendents have said over the years, dogs are pretty good at golf course public relations and keeping a smile on players' faces and keep critters large or small on the run or on the wing. And once a year, TurfNet and Syngenta give superintendents and assistants an opportunity to give golf course dogs a pat on the head for a job well done.
Since 2002, the TurfNet Superintendent's Best Friend Calendar has highlighted 14 golf course dogs for their tireless contributions to golf courses across the country and around the world. If this describes your golf course dog, then nominate your canine friend for a place in the original golf course dog calendar. Nomination deadline is July 31.
A panel of judges will select the 14 dogs for the calendar, including the cover and December 2014. Images should be taken horizontally at your camera's highest resolution setting. Also, try not to center your dog in the frame, as left or right orientation often can result in a more dramatic photograph.
Each dog nominated will be included in our online photo gallery and also will receive a free gift courtesy of Syngenta.
Here are a few tips to increase the chances of your dog being selected: All dogs chosen must work or spend a significant amount of time at the golf course, photographs taken on a horizontal orientation rather than vertical work best, action photos are strongly encouraged, do not have your dog wear sunglasses or pose as if driving a motorized vehicle.
To nominate your dog, email HIGH-RESOLUTION photos to Laura Salinas and be sure to include the dog's name, age and breed; photographer's name; owner's name, phone number, email address; and the name of the golf course where the owner and dog both work. Or, click here to submit your dog through our online form.
Deadline is July 31.
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And the state's water supply is under siege from drought, competition for access and pricing, making it a challenging time for golf courses, agriculture and private residential users statewide. Ongoing drought in the North, which supplies water to much of the rest of the state, is taking its toll statewide (the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission recently raised rates by 50 percent on all users) and threatens to supercede voluntary water-saving efforts by superintendents that have been in place for years. According to the California Department of Water Resources, 2013 was the driest year on record since California attained statehood in 1850. That lack of precipitation along with rising temperatures also has affected snow pack in the Sierra Nevada, which contributes to much of the state's water supply. The State Water Project accounts for nearly half the water supplied to the city of Los Angeles through a century-old system of pipeline and aqueducts. And much of that water comes from Sierra Nevada snow pack, which was at 30 percent of the historic average during this past winter, according to the California Department of Water Resources. According to CDWR, 22 of the state's 47 reservoirs monitored on the department's web site are operating at capacities of 50 percent or lower. Only 11 are near capacity. For example, Folsom Lake near Sacramento is operating at 46 percent of capacity. It only is that high because of relief provided by spring rains. Water levels in the reservoir dipped to as low as 19 percent of capacity in 2013 and dropped to 17 percent in early 2014, revealing an old mining community that had been submerged for 58 years. These numbers have not gone unnoticed in Sacramento where Gov. Jerry Brown, in April, signed a drought emergency declaration that, among other measures, carries a mandatory reduction in outdoor water use by private residences and urges golf courses to "limit the use of potable water for irrigation." That declaration came on the heels of a similar measure in January that included an order from Brown directing golf courses to "immediately implement water reduction plans to reduce the use of potable water for outdoor irrigation." "California is unique in a lot of ways. Agriculture made the state, but the gold rush made it grow up too quickly. ... Some, literally, are still operating on the same rules that miners gunslinged out years ago."
Many local agencies already have implemented their own water-saving restrictions, making it difficult to tell just what the governor's directive means, if anything. "You can go all over the state and to all of these crazy situations and naturally golf gets thrown into the middle of it," said Mike Huck, a former golf course superintendent and now a water conservation consultant for the golf and landscape industries. "Turf has been a bone of contention for a lot of people for a long time." Being a proactive bunch, superintendents at many of the state's 1,100 golf courses already have been operating under voluntary water-use cutbacks of up to 20 percent for as many as four years. They're worried that additional mandatory restrictions will come on top of the voluntary cutbacks already in place if the drought persists into 2015. "Government officials, they don't know what we as superintendents do," said Jim Ferrin, director of landscapes for Sun City Roseville, a 27-hole golf community near Sacramento. "We've already cut back 20 percent. Twenty percent plus another 20 percent? Golf course superintendents don't want to get measured on what they're already cutting. We want to be measured by the historical norm. With 40 percent cutbacks, you would be hurt. You'd have to think about reducing acreage." Golf courses aren't the only entities using less water nowadays, says Keller, who has served as SoCal's director of government affairs for five years. By nature, Californians are supportive of many environmental issues, and he says water utilities, state government and individual users deserve some credit for their conservation efforts. The state's population has doubled in the last half-century, and in that time, statistics show that 4 million people in Los Angeles used less water in 2010 than 2 million people used in 1970. Selling the merits of such stewardship to golfers statewide, however, has been more challenging. "I almost feel funny saying this, but we have to lower our maintenance standards," Keller said. "But conditioning gets amped up more and more. That has been the trend for years. We have to keep up with our neighbors." Although conserving water is important and necessary, water is big business in California, and scaling back use affects the bottom line for those who sell it. Some water-governing agencies are tiny, regulating water use to just a handful of users, while others are massive, like the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. LADWP provides water resources to nearly 4 million users in Los Angeles. Mandatory cutbacks of 20 percent could cost LADWP as much as $150 million. The Met, the country's largest public utility, is a consortium of 26 municipalities and water districts that bring water to a staggering 19 million residents in six Southern California counties. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a division of the U.S. Department of the Interior, manages water distribution to agricultural users in the state's fertile interior through the Central Valley Project. Water shortages there have been so severe that earlier this year the Fed completely cut off water for Central Valley farmers. "It's convoluted as to who is going to be in trouble if there are cutbacks," Huck said. "It comes down to the individual water districts and water purveyors." Many of the smaller providers still operate with an Old West mentality carved out more than 150 years ago. Some even continue to measure flow in what is known as miner's inches, a measurement of flow first employed to quantify water use in hydraulic mining during the 19th century gold rush era. Even more peculiar, a miner's inch in Northern California is the same as in Oregon and Nevada, but different than a miner's inch in Southern California. "California is unique in a lot of ways," Ferrin said. "Agriculture made the state, but the gold rush made it grow up too quickly. "Some, literally, are still operating on the same rules that miners gunslinged out years ago." That Old World way of thinking can be a problem for a state that leads the country with a population of more than 37 million (nearly twice the population of New York, the country's third most populous state), is third in geographic size spanning more than 158,000 square miles (Florida would fit into California nearly three times) and stretches nearly 800 miles north to south. "Once, I was like Chicken Little. I kept telling people, 'It's coming,' and no one believed it. Now, it's hitting us with both barrels. Now, I'm saying 'I told you so.' "
Because of its size, proximity to the Pacific and topography that includes mountains and valleys from one corner of the state to the other, California has microclimates unlike any other U.S. locale. Weather conditions can vary wildly even on the same golf course, such as Pacific Grove Golf Links on Monterey Peninsula. The original nine holes at Pacific Grove wind through a tree-lined residential neighborhood, where golfers often encounter warm, sunny conditions. The second nine jut out onto the peninsula's extreme northwestern corner on land once occupied by a U.S. Coast Guard station, and can be enveloped in fog for much of the day. Each nine can have different irrigation needs on the same day depending on the weather. Nowhere in the state have golf courses faced scrutiny like they have in the Coachella Valley region that includes Palm Springs and Palm Desert, neither of which would exist to the extent they do today without the golf industry. Still, virtually all of the 124 courses there have come under fire from local media sources and non-golfing residents whose home values are directly tied to the industry they bemoan. Ironically, residential use in the Coachella Valley is among the highest in California, according to the Desert Water Agency. According to the Coachella Valley Water District, more than 20 courses in the valley use recycled water or a mix that also includes Colorado River water. Twenty-nine courses take water directly from the Colorado and 73 others pump groundwater. The goal is to eventually get at least 50 courses in the valley on recycled water. While factions within golf have tried to tackle water issues on a regional basis, some insiders acknowledge the industry could do more to help itself. For example, there has been no grassroots effort to organize on a statewide level, and doing so could help educate state legislators and water district officials from San Diego in the south to Yreka near the Oregon border. Huck said he has been preaching for years the need for the golf business to organize statewide in the event of a water doomsday event. "California, which usually starts trends, well, we lag behind in this," Huck said. "We have no comprehensive plan for water management for golf courses. "Once, I was like Chicken Little. I kept telling people, 'It's coming,' and no one believed it. Now, it's hitting us with both barrels. Now, I'm saying 'I told you so.' "- Read more...
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Golfweek is offering Dye aficionados, or those simply interested in knowing more about to the game, a three-day symposium at Kiawah Island Resort, home to one of Dye's most renowned creations - The Ocean Course. The event will showcase the accomplishments of Pete and Alice Dye and how they influenced the game through 50 years of course design. Scheduled for Nov. 9-11 at Kiawah Island, the 2014 Golfweek Architecture Summit, Honoring Pete and Alice Dye, will include a host of featured speakers, including honorees Pete and Alice Dye, Jerry Pate of Jerry Pate Design, Ty Votaw of the PGA Tour, Bill Coore of Coore-Crenshaw Design, Tom Doak of Renaissance Golf, Jason McCoy of Greg Norman Golf Course Design, Lee Schmidt of Curley-Schmidt Golf Course Design, former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beaman and golf course architect Jan Beljan. A 2008 inductee into the World Golf Hall of Fame, and one of just a handful of architects to receive the honor, Pete Dye has designed, co-designed or redesigned hundreds of courses on five continents, among them TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida; Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head, Island, South Carolina; The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Resort in South Carolina; The Straits Course at Whistling Straits in Kohler, Wisconsin; Des Moines (Iowa) Golf and Country Club; and The Honors Course in Ooltewah, Tennessee. According to Golfweek, Dye's "distinctly modernist appropriation of classical, links-inspired, ground-game design features and geometry revolutionized the face of American golf and provided a stunning aesthetic contrast to the strictly aerial, down-the-middle approach, of postwar golf architecture. He also transformed the craft of course construction through a design/build approach in the field that he handed down to several dozen apprentices, many of whom became influential designers in their own right, among them Bill Coore, Tom Doak, Tim Liddy, Jason McCoy, Lee Schmidt and Rod Whitman." Says Golfweek: "Pete and his wife, Alice, also devoted considerable attention to forward and middle tee placement and course playability in an era when the experience of everyday golfers was virtually being overlooked. And their work has indelibly stamped the golf map with unforgettable images ? of island greens, railroad ties, lunar bunkering, madcap doglegs, and landscape features on an outrageous vertical and linear scale." Click here for more information, or to register.- Read more...
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Different strokes
By John Reitman, in News,
"Oddly enough, as it relates to turf maintenance, going green can mean going brown," said John Genovesi, CGCS at the Maidstone Club on New York's Long Island. "Trying to use the minimal amounts of resources like water and fertilizer may not give you a course that's green in color but will yield a course that plays well and puts some green back into your budget." There was a time in golf, however, when there was not a thought to going green, other than keeping courses green at all costs.
"Many people, I think, think of ?green' in the turf industry as what we should be striving for from a visual or aesthetic standpoint, and that was how it was when I entered the business some 20-plus years ago," Carter said. "Everything was mowed, fertilized, and weed controlled on almost every acre on property. While that was good for the golfer who wanted to find his ball no matter where he hit it, it was not good for the environment. "From over fertilization, to overuse of water and fuel, to water contamination from soil particle runoff, chemical and fertilizer residue, and petroleum product residue, the golf course maintenance industry did not do ourselves any favors during this time. I am glad that it has changed over the past 10 to 15 years and we, as an industry, are becoming more aware of how our actions and choices affect all aspects of the environment." One thing many in the industry can agree upon is that it is incumbent on superintendents to assume the lead in the green movement, and pass along that knowledge to others, including future greenkeepers. "I believe that ensuring we are green is a huge responsibility, especially when managing a historic site like Oakmont Country Club," Zimmers said. "I believe that this role also includes teaching and training upcoming professionals in the turf industry. It is also my role to manage their safety, teach them that gravity of environmental responsibility, and teach them the financial aspect of proper environmental management." That does not happen overnight. Instead, said Maidstone's Genovesi, it involves changing the way people think and reinforcing it daily. "As manager of our grounds department," he said, "I believe my greatest role does not revolve around a specific maintenance task but rather in establishing a culture among our staff that emphasizes environmental awareness as a guiding principle when we set out to accomplish our daily tasks."
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Fox Meadow Country Club near Medina and Fore Golf Management which oversees the property have been named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the widow of an assistant superintendent killed in an on-course accident last year.
According to Montville Township Police records, Michael Krebs, 33, died July 10, 2013 when he was electrocuted while working in a trench on a damaged irrigation pipe near the club's No. 5 hole.
His widow, Megan Krebs, filed a lawsuit June 13 in Medina County Common Pleas Court that claims her husband's death was preventable and that he had "no experience with excavation equipment or repair of irrigation lines, was given no safety training to this type of work, was given no electrical testing equipment to determine if there was electrical power to the excavation site and he was required to work in close proximity to electrical lines without any safety precautions." Krebs was a father of three.
The suit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, claiming that "the defendants' actions or inactions constituted willful, wanton, intentional, deliberate and malicious conduct and a conscious, reckless or flagrant disregard" for Krebs' safety.
Krebs had been operating a backhoe on July 10 when he climbed off the machine and stepped into a 9-foot hole to repair a ruptured irrigation line, according to police records. Co-workers later found his body, police said, in the water-filled trench entangled in electrical wires.
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