 |
|
Nearly 700 attendees representing 37 different nations and five continents provided feedback recently to John Deere during its annual feedback event, which took place at St. Leon-Rot Golf Club in Germany. The 10-day event consisted of sessions in which customers experience new products and technology on the golf course, including equipment and irrigation systems. Once complete, the customers gave feedback directly to an on-site engineering team from John Deere through discussions and by filling out survey questions. Attendees also received a tour of John Deere’s Mannheim manufacturing facility. Germany was selected as host of the event to reflect the company’s global commitment to the golf and turf industries, the company says.
ProLink Holdings Corp. has filed a patent infringement suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona against GPS Industries Inc., Uplink and other parties. In a written statement from ProLink, the company says it believes that the parties have violated and continue to violate U.S. Patent No. 6,525,690, “Golf Course Yardage and Information System With Zone Detection.” The patent controls the ability to place advertising on a GPS system on a golf course, the company says. ProLink Holdings maintains that the parties are in violation of two additional patents, adding that it seeks injunctive relief as well as monetary damages. Lawrence D. Bain, chief executive officer of ProLink Solutions, says: “We have spent a substantial amount of time and money developing the intellectual property underlying the ProLink Solutions GPS System,” and “… We intend to aggressively pursue those parties that are infringing on the technology we have worked hard to develop…”
Landscape irrigation manufacturer Weathermatic has acquired Ecologic, developer of the RainBrain line of rain and rain/freeze sensors. Ecologic’s manufacturing operations will move into Weathermatic’s Dallas production facility, the company says. Ecologic’s founder, Dave Klever, will oversee the transition. Mike Mason, president of Weathermatic, says the acquisition will strengthen the Weathermatic line of water conservation products, including the SmartLine series of weather-based controllers, SmartWire two-wire decoder systems, low-volume irrigation and Ecologic’s full line of weather sensors. Weathermatic also recently acquired Salco, a manufacturer of low-volume irrigation equipment.
Through a partnership with Golf Course Information Systems, Turfline Inc. is offering its customers a discounted membership to the group with a purchase. GCIS offers tools that allow superintendents to manage their greens by recording maintenance activities, generating charts, tracking and measuring mechanical inputs used on greens and quantifying the changes in green speed and member satisfaction, the company says. With a purchase of Turfline’s upgrade kits for a Vibe V, or a new Vibe V roller, Turfline customers will receive a 50 percent discount on membership to GCIS.
To help superintendents understand the modes of action in common turf insecticides and how insects develop resistance to them, DuPont Professional Products’ global product development manager Chuck Silcox, Ph.D., and Patricia Vittum, Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts, will present a comprehensive seminar at the GCSAA Education Conference later this month in Orlando. The half-day seminar at 8 a.m. on Jan. 29, will include strategies for minimizing the likelihood of resistance development.
The American Society of Irrigation Consultants recently awarded James Watson, Ph.D., its 2007 Roy Williams Memorial Award, and Joe DePiano its Sam Tobey Lifetime Achievement award at its annual conference. Watson, an agronomist who joined The Toro Co. in 1952, has conducted and promoted turfgrass and irrigation research for more than 50 years. He has written more than 400 articles on turfgrass cultural practices and water conservation. DePiano, managing partner with the JPH Group in Aptos, Calif., was recognized for his work in the irrigation industry, including working in management capacities for various irrigation manufacturers and distributors and starting his own business more than 20 years ago.
The Synthetic Turf Council says synthetic turf is growing in popularity, and it wants to spread the word. To do that, it’s launched a public outreach and education campaign to educate the community with answers to its most frequently asked questions. Information is geared in a variety of ways toward athletic directors, parks and recreation departments, architects, landscapers, environmental groups and more. Key components of the campaign include enriched Web site content, educational materials and position papers on key industry topics and participation in speaking engagements.
At the Carolinas GCSA’s annual conference and trade show held last fall, Mitchell Wilkerson, CGCS, director of golf and grounds at Moss Creek Plantation in Bluffton, S.C., was elected president of the association. Paul Jett, CGCS at Pinehurst No. 2, is vice president. Dyrck Fanning of The Bayonet at Puppy Creek in Lumberton, N.C., won the group’s golf championship with a three-under par round of 69. Show officials announced a record total of 222 exhibitors at the show, a record 428 booths and 2,178 seats sold across three full-day and 23 half-day seminars.
The Golf Course Builders Association of America’s 2008 Don A. Rossi Award will be presented posthumously to Marvin H. Ferguson, Ph.D. The award is given annually by the GCBAA to honor individuals who’ve made significant contributions to the game of golf and its growth and who have inspired others by example. Ferguson (1918-1985) is recognized for a career in agronomy that included deciding which of hundreds of grass selections should be saved for development by the USDA, which led to the introduction of Merion bluegrass and U-3 bermudagrass. He served with the USGA Green Section as a research agronomist, a director of its Mid-Continent Region and as a national research coordinator. Ferguson taught and conducted turfgrass research at his alma mater, Texas A&M, where he began to develop the layered method of putting green construction, which is now a USGA specification. He also worked in course design and construction. The award will be received by Ferguson’s grandson, Ed Hodnett, at the GCBAA’s awards dinner Feb. 1 in Orlando.
Bryan Wood, owner of Commercial Turf and Tractor, has joined up with Marinus Reincke, owner of Learsome, Holland-based Maredo BV, to form Maredo Commercial LLC. The newly developed company will manufacture greensmower attachments such as seeders, aerifiers, smoothers, dethatchers and other products, it says. The units can fit greensmowers from John Deere, The Toro Co., Jacobsen and its own Maredo power unit. Wood is responsible for marketing and distribution in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, while Reincke will work internationally. The company says it plans on moving manufacturing operations soon to the company’s North American warehouse in Chillicothe, Mo.
Advanced Drainage Systems Inc. opened a $12 million manufacturing facility in Logan Township, N.J., with a grand opening ceremony last fall. A producer of high-density polyethylene pipe, the Ohio-based company also announced at the opening a public-private partnership to create a $600,000 athletic facility for special needs children in southern New Jersey. The company will be the lead private sector contributor to the project, with a pledge of $100,000 in cash. The project is set to become part of the nationwide “Miracle League” network of facilities for special needs children. ADS operates 37 facilities in the U.S. and employs 3,600 people nationwide.
The Toro Co. continued its annual Thanksgiving ritual of serving as the official provider of utility vehicles for the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Storr Tractor Co., a Toro distributor in Branchburg, N.J., supplied the event with 45 Toro Workman utility vehicles for the annual parade. The fleet of vehicles helped guide balloons portraying such characters as Sesame Street’s Abby Cadabby, Hello Kitty and Shrek down the 2.5-mile parade route in New York City. Anchored by Toro utility vehicles, the balloons are flown under the direction of a group of 12 pilots and captains in a flight management team and hundreds of balloon handlers. Storr Tractor has provided its Toro vehicles for the parade for five years.
Joseph Troll, Ph.D. and professor emeritus of plant and soil sciences at the University of Massachusetts, is the recipient of the 2007 John Reid Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the Metropolitan GCSA. Twenty years into his retirement, Troll still is an active supporter of the superintendent profession and turfgrass research. UMass recently completed its Center for Turfgrass Research, which bears Troll’s name. Over the course of his career as an instructor, Troll taught more than 1,100 students, conducted numerous research projects, published scientific journal papers and served as an advisor and contributor to turfgrass magazines.
The inaugural WaterSmart Innovations Conference and Exposition, expected to be the world’s largest urban water-efficiency and conservation conference by show officials, attracted approximately 1,000 attendees and 125 exhibitors to Las Vegas last fall. Hosted by the Southern Nevada Water Authority in partnership with the EPA’s WaterSense program, the event provided professional sessions, workshops, technical tours of water recycling and treatment plants and an exhibition featuring water-saving technologies and programs used around the world.
The Eastern Shore Association of Golf Course Superintendents has donated $11,000 to the Maryland Turfgrass Council on behalf of the University of Maryland’s Turfgrass Research Center. The money, which was raised at the group’s annual golf tournament and fundraiser, will go toward turfgrass research intended to benefit the industry in the Mid-Atlantic region. The association also donated an additional $11,000 to the Believe in Tomorrow Children’s Foundation, bringing the total amount the group has given to the charity to $61,000.
Ontario, Canada-based TTG Custom Signage has announced a partnership with multiple regional golf associations across North America that will benefit young golfers. The Golf Association of Ontario, British Columbia Golf Association, Washington State Golf Association, and many others, will receive $5 per purchase of the company’s granite yardage markers to go toward their junior golf development programs. Additionally, the company is providing the courses of participating associations wholesale pricing on its granite signage, including the golf association’s logo on the markers. All golf associations’ junior golf programs will receive the benefit from sales of its granite markers, says Joe Korman, owner of the company.
Longtime turfgrass educator and researcher Leon Lucas, Ph.D., is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Carolinas GCSA. Recognizing outstanding achievement and contribution in the service of superintendents and the golf industry in the Carolinas, the award was given during the group’s annual conference and trade show in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in November. Lucas, a 40-year veteran in the golf course turf science field, taught more than 15,000 turf and landscape professionals, many of whom went on to become superintendents in the Carolinas. He also has worked as an agronomist for the Carolinas Golf Association since 1998. An author of more than 300 articles for university publications, journals and professional magazines, Lucas co-authored the textbook, “Introduction to Plant Diseases,” and conducted research on golf greens that led to seven U.S. and international patents for fungicide combinations to improve disease control and quality.
People news
Steve Okula, CGCS, MG, has become the 47th recipient of the Master Greenkeeper certificate recognized by the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Okula is superintendent of Golf de Joyenval in Chambourcy, France.
Genevieve Burke is the new vice president of marketing for KemperSports. Burke will direct marketing strategies for the company’s golf properties and develop its corporate marketing strategy. She has more than 16 years of marketing experience in consumer packaged goods and retail industries.
The winners of Rain Bird’s 2007 Intelligent Use of Water film competition have been announced. Out of six finalists, the panel of judges awarded Sergio Cannella and Shalini Kantayya with the Judges Award and the Audience Choice Award, respectively, for their films “Carpa Diem” and “A Drop of Life.” The contest invited amateur and experienced filmmakers to submit films that encourage awareness of the need for intelligent water use. Cannella won $6,000 for his film, while Kantayya received a $3,000 award.
Ron Modugno is the new western regional sales manager for Lasco Fittings Inc. A 15-year veteran in the industry with experience in plastic pipe fittings and valves, Modugno will manage and direct sales and marketing for the company’s products in the western U.S., western Canada and western Mexico. The company also hired Sherman Dobbs as its new north Texas sales direct representative. A veteran in sales and marketing, Dobbs will cover northern and western Texas.
Cleary Chemical has added Robert Hunter and Bill Johnson to its sales staff. Hunter will cover California, Utah and Arizona. Hunter has worked in horticulture in California for more than 13 years and holds a California Pest Control Advisor’s license. Johnson’s territory includes northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. He previously worked for Olds Seed Solutions and started his career as a superintendent.
Ewing announces John King as its new golf sales representative serving New Mexico and western Texas. King, a Class A GCSAA member, has worked as a superintendent at several courses, including the Championship Course at the University of New Mexico, four municipal courses in Albuquerque and Santa Fe CC.
Ben J. Thompson is the new industrial sales manager for Agrotain International LLC. Thompson will manage existing industrial accounts for the company and seek out new opportunities for the company’s Stabilized Nitrogen Technology.
Geoponics LLC, manufacturer of environmentally safe chemicals and bio-stimulants for the turf, soil and aquatic industries, has added Jennifer M. Seevers and Kenneth Daniels to its sales and marketing department. Seevers previously worked as a sales rep for Vereens Turf Products. Daniels has worked in graphic design and Web site development.
Vijay Choppakatla, Ph.D., is the new director of research for BioSafe Systems LLC. As head of the company’s research lab, Choppakatla will manage ongoing trials to examine the efficacy and use of chemistries on various diseases that affect the agriculture industry. BioSafe Systems LLC manufactures disease control solutions such as ZeroTol broad-spectrum algaecide/fungicide, OxiDate broad-spectrum bactericide/fungicide and GreenClean granular algaecide.
Golf briefs
Sun International has opened new greens at the 28-hole Zimbali CC in southern Africa. The par-72 championship course, designed by former South African PGA and British Open champion Tom Weiskopf, sits on the terrain of KwaZulu-Natal’s North Coast, with holes winding through coastal forest. The company also announces the rebuilding of the 100-year-old Livingstone’s Royal G&CC near Victoria Falls near Zambia and Zimbabwe. The club has opened the first nine holes, a pro shop and a clubhouse, while another nine holes, tennis courts, gym and heated swimming pool are under way.
Two 18-hole courses in north central Ohio were recently offered at a public auction. Whetstone GC in Caledonia (pictured) and Pine Lakes GC in Mount Gilead were auctioned by Ben Higgins Auctioneers, according to the courses’ owner, Strategic Golf Alliance Inc.
Finishing touches have been made on The Golf Club at Devils Tower in Hulett, Wyo., a Phelps-Atkinson-designed, par-72, 18-hole championship course in the Black Hills with the Devils Tower as a backdrop. Big game hunting such as elk, deer and antelope, hiking trails and natural parks are additional amenities available with equity memberships of the club. The club is near other national landmarks Mount Rushmore and Deadwood, and also offers access to winter sports venues for snowmobiling, cross-country skiing and downhill skiing.
The American Society of Landscape Architects has awarded its General Design Honor Award to Design Workshop for its design of the Glacier Club golf course in Durango, Colo. The award recognizes the golf course’s green design, engaging golfer experience, innovative stormwater management, use of native plants and existing rock formations and the use of natural topography as an asset rather than a drawback.
RECENT issues
 |
 |
December |
November |