Peter McCormick

Joining Frank for this episode of Frankly Speaking is Chris Zugel, CGCS, golf course superintendent of the Straits course at Whistling Straits in Kohler, WI. Chris relates his experience working both for the Kohler Company and at a famous resort course that has hosted many championship events, including the 2004, 2010 and 2015 PGA Championships and the 2007 U.S. Senior Open. It is also the future site of the 2020 Ryder Cup. The Pete Dye-designed Straits course is stretched along two miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, shares 500 acres of rough with the Irish Course at Whistling Straits, and has over 1000 bunkers on the Straits course alone. Spend some time with Frank and Chris to get a glimpse of managing a high end golf course facility in a challenging location.

In this first episode of Hector's Shop Talk Radio, join Hector and a special guest -- his wife Reese -- as they look back on the beginnings of Hector's Shop and their travels and experiences since. Get to know Hector (and Reese, who is usually behind the scenes) a little better!

The student volunteers from Horry-Georgetown Technical College near Myrtle Beach were planning to arrive in Atlanta this week for the PGA Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. Hurricane Florence had other ideas. With Florence descending quickly on the Carolina coast, the HGTC students made a mad dash for East Lake... who gladly accommodated them a week earlier than expected. Videography by Jon Kiger.

Small golf course maintenance company for sale, Hudson Valley, NY Established 2005, specializes in serving 9-hole courses; providing daily on site course maintenance management to complete maintenance including supplying a fleet of equipment. Equipment assets total over $150K including truck, trailers, tractors, excavators, aeration equipment , sprayers, trucksters and mowers. Have serviced ten accounts over the years; currently serving three. Owner retiring.

Kevin suggests giving back to your community, through donations of used, obsolete, or excess products to your local community garden. Products and materials typically welcomed include wood chips, compost, hoses, fencing, wire, etc. Presented by Tanto Irrigation.

Drs. Bryan Unruh, Billy Crow, Adam Dale and Jason Ferrell give a behind-the-scenes glimpse and explanation of what the UF Evidence-Based Turf Management workshops are all about. Videography by John Reitman.

In this episode of Rockbottum Radio, live from Rockbottum Country Club, an emergency occurs when Sheriff Sanders is spotted playing the back nine, naked. Wait, everyone on the back nine is throwing their clothes off and rolling on the ground or jumping in the pool! Must be those mushroom cheeseburgers at the turn. But Momma has gone to the store to get more. Willy talks with Brutus, Ludell’s dog who specializes in goose control, about maybe taking care of the chickens too. Augusta TV conditions at Rockbottum? Not on a "dirt greens and crabgrass fairways" budget, Momma advises. And in Storytime, "A Dark Family Secret Revealed". Randy revisits Mystery Valley Golf Course in Redan, GA, where Dad worked as superintendent but the golf pro thought he was in charge... Presented by VinylGuard Golf.

Hector mods his G.Gun foot-operated grease gun from Lock N Lube with a dolly, magnetic parts tray and a bicycle seat. Presented by Foley United.

In this episode of Frankly Speaking, Frank chats with Dr. Cale Bigelow of Purdue University about rootzones, including the latest research and thinking on... maintaining optimal soil moisture on new greens, older greens, California greens the value of vacuum extraction devices (likeon new versus older greens… vacuum extraction vs oxygenating via reverse operation; regional differences surface fans, and soil biology. Presented by DryJect and Civitas.

In this episode of The Ladder, host John Reitman chats with Pete Bachman, superintendent at San Jose Country Club for the past two years. Pete describes his experiences managing a golf course in Silicon Valley, gathering experience at Pebble Beach and Winged Foot, what he learned (and didn't learn) at Penn State, and the value of a month in Mexico. Presented by STEC Equipment.

In this episode of On Course, Kevin Ross shows us how to use a simple protractor (remember those?) to fine-tune the accuracy of your irrigation central control system. Presented by Tanto Irrigation.

Parker - Congratulations on a great internship experience and a big "well done" on writing your blog, from all of us at TurfNet. You are absolutely correct in that it's the people that you meet and work with that you will remember over the years much more so than whatever job it was at the time. Make a point of keeping in touch with those whom you particularly valued. An old friend of mine once told me, "If you don't work at relationships, they soon go away." Best of luck finishing up at Horry Georgetown and in your career after that. You will do well.

In this episode of Frankly Speaking, Frank chats with professor Dale Bremer of Kansas State University. A native of Nebraska, Bremer grew up on a farm with an interest in meteorology and wound up with an undergraduate degree in agronomy (emphasis in tallgrass prairie rather than turf) and later a PhD in Micrometeorology. A "non-turf guy", Bremer's expertise is in micrometeorology related to turfgrass ecosystems including water conservation, turfgrass environmental stress, and exchanges of greenhouse gases between turfgrass and the atmosphere... including off-gassing of nitrous oxide from a nitrogen fertilizer application. How concerned should the turfgrass industry be with the loss of nitrogen to the atmosphere via nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas that traps heat and destroys ozone? What can turf managers do to mitigate or minimize this? Hint: Polymer coating can reduce nitrous oxide release by 20%, compared to straight urea. Can fertilizing rates be reduced on lawns, amenity turf, and fairway turf (we're not talking putting greens here)? How can irrigation be managed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Does spectral imaging have a present or future role in turf management? All this and more in this fascinating chat between Drs. Rossi and Bremer, presented by DryJect and Civitas.

The recent launch of the new Umount blower system for utility vehicles is the culmination of almost seven years of brainstorming, strategizing, prototyping, testing and reworking for Kris Shumaker. As yet another superintendent-designed solution to what was a nagging problem with no commercially available answer, it represents a better way for Shumaker, superintendent for the past 15 years at The Mines Golf Course in Grand Rapids, Michigan. "This is a very heavily wooded course with lots of cart paths and many tee boxes that back onto native areas," Shumaker explained, "so maneuverability of the large tow-behind blowers was a problem. There's nowhere to turn around on many of our tee boxes, so my options for blowing off divots were either unloading and reloading a walk blower or trying to find a front-mounted blower for a utility vehicle." Therein lay the rub for Shumaker, who found the power of most walk blowers insufficient for the amount of leaves he had to move at some times of the year. He also didn't want to jerry rig a homemade bracket or platform that took up space and was cumbersome to hook up and remove. "Grand Rapids is a manufacturing city, and some of my employees were retired from manufacturing jobs so there was a strong engineering and fabricating mindset among the crew," Shumaker said. "I started playing around with a hydraulically powered unit, then an electric/battery system, but the cost and complexity was too much. I found the regular four-cycle gasoline engine to be the most efficient and affordable." As a self-described "greenskeeper" for more than 30 years, Shumaker realized the limitations of his engineering skills so he brought on a mechanical engineer as a partner. The end result is a lightweight PVC blower housing with a bronze, lock-tight tapered mounting system, an integral 7hp Kohler cast iron gas engine, remote-operated directional chute and storage stand/dolly. Once the mounting system is bolted onto the utility vehicle, the blower is installed and removed with no tools or pins for a solid, rattle-free connection. The unit has no wheels and is mounted inches from the axle so as to disrupt as little as possible the balance and ride of the vehicle. The nozzle is positioned within the operator’s line of vision to eliminate guesswork, improve productivity and reduce operator training. The patented nozzle system employs electrical 200-degree swiveling, up/down settings and a ratcheting tip adjuster. The flexible nozzle can bend or break away utilizing a magnetic system upon impact. The engine is recoil start. Why not remote electric? "I started out thinking and designing that way," said Shumaker, "but that required a battery, battery box, starter, larger control box and wiring harness. All told it added about 20 pounds to the weight and would have added several hundred dollars to the cost, so we went with the simpler solution for the time being. It's really not a big deal to get off the vehicle and pull start it." Shumaker said it would be no problem to offer a remote start option if there is sufficient demand. The unit is priced at $3,495, with free shipping during the introductory period. Umount currently has distribution agreements with JW Turf in Illinois and Wisconsin and Podolinsky Equipment in Ontario, and will be setting up additional distributors. Contact information: www.umountblowers.com | info@umountblowers.com | tel 616-648-4528 | @UmountB

That will remain one of my favorite all-time memories and amusing stories. Miss both of you. Hopefully you can make it back up here some day (and us vice versa).