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FRONT 9 |
Awtrey: What price par?
Builder heads EIFG Board of Trustees
ASGCA golfers go back in time
Newsline's GCSAA This Week makes successful debut
Met writers honor Alonzi foursome
Green extends beyond Arizona fairways
Wetlands initiative gets aggressive
Farmlinks leaves PTI nest
Micro Flo under Arysta LifeScience's wing
Study gives new meaning to 19th hole
Letters to the editor
Correction
Passing noted . . .
People in the news . . .
Awtrey: What price par?
Protecting par at all costs at a major golf championship is costing
the golf course industry too much, says former PGA of America CEO Jim Awtrey.
Awtrey made that comment among other candid notions upon accepting the American Society of Golf Course Architects’ top honor, the Donald Ross Award, during the organization’s annual meeting at Pinehurst in late March.
Awtrey began his involvement with the PGA in 1972, eventually rising through the association to the position of CEO, which he held for 12 years before his retirement in 2005.
The award recognized his career-long promotion of golf and his contributions to the golf course designing profession, especially his prominent role in the selection of architecturally significant courses to host the PGA Championship.
“You’ve got to look at the past to be able to understand where you are today and to have a glimpse of the future,” Awtrey said at the award ceremony. “I always considered my job as looking to the future.”
Remarking that “the muzzle is off,” he noted technological advances, for better or worse, have played a key role throughout the industry — design, construction and instruction, from
the bulldozer to the ball to the club to the athlete to agronomic improvements.
“Through the agronomic changes that have been made, we’ve moved to an era of perfect. Well, perfect in today’s tournament golf is up, down and back — the rough is up, the greens are down and the tees are back,” Awtrey said in reference to the fine line the game’s leadership walks regarding fairness in the major championships.
“There is a concept that par must be protected. I believe par is the enemy of the modern majors, and it might be the albatross of modern architecture,” he said, pointing out that in recent years the PGA began going to old traditional layouts such as Winged Foot, Baltusrol, Medinah and Hazeltine to stage its Championship because of the pressure to present longer and tougher challenges.
Further, Awtrey said that instead of changing the great old venues to accommodate the concept of up, down and back, why not instead change par — lower it, say, from 72 to 70 and leave the layout as it is.
“The media today judge the golf course based on red numbers (under par),” he said. “Well, if you want less red, it would be simpler to adjust par than it would to do some of the things we’ve been doing.”
Awtrey said architects face a difficult challenge today in developing championship courses. They’ve got to be long enough and tough enough for the best players in the world and they’ve got to have the longevity to span 20 years to test the next generation of players. He added that a big reason golf is such a special game is its difficulty and the enjoyment people have responding to that.
“We design ’em, we build ’em and we operate ’em,” he said. “The other side is the game. We teach, we coach ... in the end, we’re all part of an industry that has the ultimate challenge of making the game fun.”
That the ASGCA gave out its 31st Donald Ross Award at Pinehurst was fitting — some of the famed designer’s most notable work is among the resort’s eight courses. The event also kicked off the 60th year of the society, of which Ross was one of 14 founders.
Also honored at the meeting was one of the ASGCA’s past presidents, Ed Seay, a longtime partner and president of Palmer Course Design. Seay received the Distinguished Service Award for his dramatic and positive impact on the architects profession.
Greg Muirhead of the Rees Jones design firm in Montclair, N.J., was elected 2006-07 president of the Society. Muirhead has been on Jones’ staff since 1984 and has been a member of the ASGCA for 17 years.
Other officers on the executive committee elected included Steve Forrest, vice president; Bruce Charlton, treasurer; and Doug Carrick, secretary. Tom Marzolf, the immediate past president, remains on the committee.
Members of the 2006-07 ASGCA board of governors include Marzolf, Muirhead, Forrest, David Whelchel, Mike Benkusky, Cary Bickler, Les Furber, Charlton, Steve Smyers, Carrick, Garrett Gill, Vicki Martz and Robin Nelson.
— Terry Ostmeyer
Builder heads EIFG Board of Trustees
Bill Kubly, owner and CEO of Landscapes Unlimited, was elected as the new chairman of the board of trustees for The Environmental Institute for Golf recently, while David Pillsbury, chief operating officer of the PGA Tour golf course properties, was elected vice chairman/treasurer.
The board also added four new members: Mark Kizziar, president of Superstition Mountain Properties; Rafael N. Martinez, publisher and CEO of The Green Magazine; David S. Downing II, GCSAA secretary/treasurer and CGCS at Rivers Edge Golf Club in Shallotte, N.C.; and Ken Melrose, recently retired chairman and CEO of The Toro Co. Melrose, who stepped down at Toro in March after 36 years with the company, also has been named to The Institute’s Advisory Council.
Retiring from the board of trustees were Harry Cavanagh, Tom Chisholm and GCSAA Immediate Past President Timothy T. O’Neil, CGCS. Michael Hurdzan remains as immediate past chairman. Others on the board include GCSAA Vice President Ricky D. Heine, CGCS; GCSAA President Sean A. Hoolehan, CGCS; Ron E. Jackson, Meadowbrook Golf president and CEO; GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE; Greg Norman, CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises; James T. Snow, national director of the USGA Green Section; Roger Twibell, ESPN/ABC broadcaster; and Bob Wood, president of Nike Golf.
ASGCA golfers go back in time
One of the highlights of the ASGCA annual meeting was a unique golf outing at Pinehurst’s No. 4 course in which the participants, dressed in period plus-four knickers and accessories, played with hickory-shafted clubs and reproduction gutta percha balls. In the midst of the fun was the idea to send a message with a different style of golf regarding the game’s nagging equipment controversy.
The architects have long been leading advocates that technological advances in playing equipment have created dire consequences for golf courses — past, present and future — and the way the game is now played in general.
“The angle here is our commitment to the equipment issue,” confirmed Forrest Richardson, who runs his own design firm in Phoenix. The back-in-time equipment and clothing was provided by the Old Hickory Golf Co. out of Portsmouth, Ohio, which promotes and organizes similar events around the country. The clubs and balls stressed a slower, smoother, more controlled swing as opposed to the “grip-it-and-rip-it” attitude that the forgiving and explosive modern equipment encourages.
The old implements produced, at best, drives barely more than 220 yards, unpredictable iron shots and balls reluctant to spin on the greens. The clubs sometimes break, too, to spice play. Dick Phelps of Phelps Golf Design in Evergreen, Colo., was in a foursome that had two drivers snap in four holes. “They didn’t tell us what happens when you run out of clubs,” he said.
For most of the participants, it was all in fun, but they hoped they still made a point.
“I thought it was a blast,” Bruce Charlton, president and chief design officer for Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects in Palo Alto, Calif., said at a reception following the golf outing. He then pointed to a television showing the final moments of the Players Championship and added, “I’d like to see those guys play the game that way.”
— T.O.
Newsline’s GCSAA This Week makes successful debut
GCSAA members have a new source for essential association news and information — Newsline’s GCSAA This Week.
This weekly e-mail debuted in April to overwhelmingly positive response and replaces the Newsline publication that had been polybagged and mailed monthly with GCM.
Newsline’s GCSAA This Week is a one-stop shop for GCSAA members, and condenses most of GCSAA’s e-mail communications into this once-a-week, easy-to-click-through newsletter. It will include information on education notices, essential deadlines and other items that will help members get the most out of their membership in the association.
Look for Newsline’s GCSAA This Week in your e-mail in-box every Tuesday.
Met writers honor Alonzi foursome
The Alonzis of golf course management fame in the greater New York City area will receive a large measure of validation next month when the Metropolitan Golf Writers Association honors them with its annual Family of the Year Award.
The award will recognize brothers Joseph and Robert U. Alonzi, both CGCS, and their respective sons, Chris and Robert B. All are superintendents in the same immediate area of southern Westchester County and have a combined 84 years of GCSAA membership. They are the first course maintenance professionals to receive the award in the association’s 43-year history.
“It’s quite an honor,” says Joe Alonzi, superintendent at Westchester Country Club in Rye. “It caught us off guard. My brother and I are proud of our sons and we’re pretty excited about this award.”
Joe’s son Chris recently became superintendent at Elmwood Country Club in White Plains, coming over from Woodbridge Country Club in Connecticut. Robert U. is at Fenway Golf Club in Scarsdale and his son Robert B. is at St. Andrew’s Golf Club in Hastings-on-Hudson. In all, they manage 99 holes within about a 10-mile radius.
The Alonzis will be honored on June 6 at the 55th edition of the Metropolitan Golf Writers’ prestigious awards dinner, the largest and longest-running event of its kind in the nation. It comes at a busy time for Joe Alonzi, especially. The dinner is on Tuesday night of the week Westchester CC is host to the PGA Tour’s Barclays Classic. It’s also the week before the U.S. Open five miles away at Winged Foot Golf Club, where he’ll be among the volunteer superintendents.
“I’ll probably be real tired the next morning, but I think I can handle it,” he says.
The results of an economic and environmental report for 2004 were recently released by the Arizona Golf Industry Association, an impact study similar to the award-winning one done by the allied golf associations of Colorado for the year 2002.
Green extends beyond Arizona fairways
Highlights of the Arizona report included:
- The state’s golf industry has an economic impact of more than $3.4 billion annually.
- Historic golf development in Arizona has a recurring economic impact of $2 billion through enhanced property values that are taxed annually.
- About 93,500 Arizona households are located in golf communities.
- The golf industry employs 19,481 Arizonans who earn $291 million in wages and benefits.
- Taxes generated directly from the Arizona golf industry total almost $76.7 million annually.
- Golf courses account for 2 percent of Arizona’s annual water consumption.
- Turfgrass on Arizona golf courses produces enough oxygen each year to support 2,143,082 people, helping to improve air quality.
Wetlands initiative gets aggressive
The EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have sharpened their focus on ensuring the restoration and preservation of wetlands nationwide. The agencies recently proposed
a new rule, which is being published for public comment, that recommends improved
science and results-oriented
standards to increase the
quality and effectiveness of
wetlands conservation practices under the Clean Water Act.
In a joint release, Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of Army Civil Works, said the proposal emphasizes a watershed approach for improving wetlands conservation. The main points of the proposed rule include responding to recommendations of the National Research Council to improve the success of wetlands restoration and replacement projects; setting clear science-based and results-oriented standards nationwide while allowing for regional variances; increasing and expanding public participation; encouraging watershed-based decisions; and affirming the
“wetlands mitigation sequence” that requires proposed projects to fully avoid or minimize potential wetlands impacts.
The rule stresses accountability and flexibility in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of wetlands replacement projects. Also, the proposal would establish
a more level playing field to
ensure that all forms of wetlands conservation satisfy the same high environmental standards.
FarmLinks leaves PTI nest
Pursell Technologies Inc. has spun off its FarmLinks program into a separate, independent entity to better position it as one of the most innovative and comprehensive facilities in the golf course industry.
The new business, FarmLinks LLC, will continue under the ownership of David Pursell, CEO of PTI, a leading developer and manufacturer of controlled-release fertilizers and pesticides. Veteran PTI employee Erle Fairly is president of FarmLinks, and Brent Fuhrman, a former executive with McGriff, Seibels and Williams in Birmingham, Ala., is the new company’s chief operating officer.
FarmLinks, originally created in 1999, consists of Pursell Farms, a 3,500-acre array of lakes, streams, forests, mountains, wetlands and wildlife near Sylacauga, Ala.; the FarmLinks Golf Club, a three-year-old 7,400-yard championship layout; an agronomic program that utilizes the property as a living laboratory and research facility where golf products are tested, demonstrated and evaluated; and the unique Experience at FarmLinks, a relationship marketing concept that annually brings more than 1,000 turf and horticulture professionals to Pursell Farms and the golf course for several days of education, relaxation and recreation.
“Given the huge success of FarmLinks, including the golf course and The Experience at FarmLinks, the decision to separate it from PTI was a natural one,” says Pursell, whose family has been in the turf-care business since 1904. “We have big plans for FarmLinks LLC, and as a separate company we believe we can propel our unique vision and strong relationships to greater heights. This is an exciting time.”
Micro Flo under Arysta LifeScience’s wing
Arysta LifeScience North America Corp. recently agreed to acquire the major assets of Micro Flo Co., a subsidiary of BASF Corp. Micro Flo, headquartered in Memphis, Tenn., with a formulation plant in Sparks, Ga., is a leading manufacturer and distributor of off-patent crop-protection chemicals, including fungicides, pesticides and plant growth regulators.
Under the agreement, Arysta LifeScience will acquire Micro Flo’s commercial business, including the development laboratory in Sparks, while BASF will retain ownership and operation of the Sparks formulation production facility. Long-term, the agreement will ensure continuity for the supply of Micro Flo products sourced from BASF.
Study gives new meaning to 19th hole
To no surprise, the National Golf Foundation reports that golf courses have gotten longer — an average of 571 yards, in fact — over the last half-dozen decades. That’s the equivalent of an additional par-5 hole per course and doesn’t count renovations to lengthen older courses. So what’s the ultimate course? According to the NGF database and the “Guinness Book of World Records,” it’s the Pines Course at the International Golf Club in Bolton, Mass. — all 8,325 yards of it.
Golf course etiquette: Where has it gone?
Jack Nicklaus once said, “Golf teaches us how to behave.” I’ve begun to wonder whether he was actually referring to the game of golf and the appropriate etiquette that goes with the game.
I’m sure that every superintendent has been frustrated at least once (a day) by the lack of appropriate golf course etiquette being observed on the courses under their care. Proper etiquette can cover a variety of topics, including the safety of golfers, pace of play and maintaining the quality of the golf course. Of course, the first two are extremely important during the play of the game; however, to golf course superintendents the latter becomes the primary focus of every hour of every day.
Superintendents are very passionate about their job and extremely dedicated to the courses entrusted to their care. We put in long hours, go above and beyond the call of duty and, in general, take care of the property as if we owned the course ourselves. That leads me to the question about course etiquette: Where has it gone and do golfers really know how to behave?
I am not sure if I have the answer, but I have noticed that we are having to do more to try to combat the problem than anything else we do in our business. It seems that no matter where you go to play, be it a private high-end facility or a public daily-fee course, you see measures being taken to control the issues infringing upon the course. Traffic barriers like cross-timbers, railroad ties, rope and stakes, along with course signage, are placed throughout the course. Attractive? No, not at all. Helpful? They can be, but only when golfers abide by the rules.
New golfers are often taught the proper etiquette or specific rules of the golf game when they
are first learning the game. “Be kind to the course” is one of the mottoes they should all learn.
This would apply to such issues as keeping carts away from greens and hazards, filling divots, repairing ball marks on the green and raking bunkers. Course maintenance is probably one of the most abused aspects of the game, yet it is one of the most important elements of practicing good etiquette. Many times, I believe today’s golfer feels that they pay to play and that the maintenance staff is there to fix their problems. I may be wrong about this attitude, but then, why is there all the signage, barriers and newsletter articles addressing these issues? It’s a common problem throughout the country and often a topic of conversation among superintendents.
In addition, laziness is another culprit. We often see that someone is too lazy to walk around to the other side of a bunker to get a rake. Instead, they try to level off the sand with their foot or just don’t do anything at all. Another shortcoming in etiquette for many players is repairing ball marks. Everyone is capable of making a ball mark, beginner to professional. Then why can’t they take the 10 seconds to reach down and properly fix the mark? There’s also the great debate as to whether rakes should be left in or out of the bunkers. Personally, I don’t mind where the rakes are placed just so long as golfers rake the bunkers properly when they exit.
We realize that all golfers don’t go about playing the game in the same way and follow the understood etiquette of the game. Some are proactive and will consistently follow the rules, fix their divots, rake the bunkers and keep the carts on the paths where appropriate. Then there are those who are reactive and only follow the rules when someone points them out or when they are playing with someone who is observing proper etiquette.
Technology and course conditioning have changed, but the same principle still exists for the golfer to go out and enjoy the game, both for leisure or competition. The game becomes less fun when you go out and find less-than-desirable conditions because another player has not taken the game seriously and followed good course etiquette. Maybe the golfers of tomorrow will appreciate what they have and rekindle the spirit of the game.
Regardless of the type of golfer, we as superintendents remain passionate about the maintenance of our courses. I don’t have answers to whether golfers know how to behave, but I do know we have to continue to be creative and inventive to keep reminding (subtly or not so subtly) them the best way to behave on each of our courses. In the end, we all want good golf course conditions for our pleasure and enjoyment.
Richard Pavlasek, CGCS
Brookhaven Country Club, Dallas
Breaking the code
I would like to comment on the SuperTips article that was printed in the February GCM entitled “Decoders vs. wire.”
I believe the title as well as some of the comments referenced are misleading. A person reading the piece would probably believe that a decoder system is wireless and that a satellite system has no wireless capabilities. Both assumptions are inaccurate.
Decoder systems indeed have wire. There is a decoder cable that runs from the central computer interface to every decoder on the golf course. Except for block systems or single row systems, decoder systems also have zone wires which run from the decoders to the individual sprinkler heads.
True, the zone wire runs are shorter with a decoder layout, but they are by no means wireless systems.
Both decoder systems and field satellite (hard-wired) systems can be equipped with radio capabilities that allow a superintendent to operate the sprinklers using a hand-held radio or
hand-held PC.
Kirk H. Pogge
Division Manager, Irrigation Sales
Grassland Equipment & Irrigation Corp.
Latham, N.Y.
Correction
A news brief on greens management assistance in South Dakota in the Front Nine section of the March GCM contained some errors. The Golf Club at Red Rock is located in Rapid City, S.D., not Grand Rapids. Also, the correct name of the South Dakota State University turf professor and researcher instrumental in the program is Leo Schleicher, Ph.D.
Passing noted
GCM has learned of the Dec. 2, 2005, passing of a former 20-year GCSAA member, James W. Young of Lakewood, Colo. He was 66. He was a longtime superintendent in Colorado, including a tenure at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver when he prepped for the 1978 U.S. Open. Young also had stints at two other prestigious venues in the Denver metro area, Columbine Country Club and Fox Hollow Golf Course. He also was an accomplished golfer, beginning as a teen-ager in his native Utah. He was on the All-Navy team and won the San Diego County Amateur while in the service. He was discharged in 1969 after three tours in Vietnam. In 1986, Young was a member of the Rocky Mountain GCSA team that won the chapter title at the GCSAA Championships.
People in the news . . .
Veteran superintendent Tom Christy was promoted to vice president of construction and agronomy by OB Sports Golf Management earlier this spring. Christy, a 25-year GCSAA member, will oversee the maintenance programs at the 23 venues OB Sports manages in the United States and Mexico, as well as the company’s construction division. Christy has been with OB Sports since 1998 after several years as a leader in golf course management in the Northwest. He won one of GCSAA’s inaugural Environmental Steward Awards in 1993 while at Riverside Golf & Country Club in Portland, Ore., and was the Oregon GCSA’s Superintendent of the Year in ’95.
Michael J. Hoffman, who has been with The Toro Co. for nearly 30 years, was recently elected chairman of the company’s board of directors. Hoffman succeeds Ken Melrose, who had been chairman since 1987 and retired in March.
Washington State University will honor Extension educator Roy Goss, Ph.D., in July during its annual field day. Goss was instrumental in establishing the university’s Extension and turfgrass research programs in the late 1950s and was executive director of the Northwest Turfgrass Association for many years. Goss and his wife, Marcie, also established the Roy L. Goss Turfgrass Endowment Scholarship at the school. During the event this summer, WSU will officially rename its primary turfgrass farm the Goss Research Farm.
The USGA has given its 2005 International Book Award to “When War Played Through: Golf During World War II” by John Strege. The work chronicles the impact of the war on the golf community. Strege’s accounts include how the golf establishment supported the war effort, exhibition matches, golfers who served in combat, fund-raising events such as the Hale America National Open and golf in Prisoner-of-War camps where some American POWs even built their own makeshift courses.
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