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Second opinion

Does your turf have 21st century problems? Maybe its time to call a consultant for an expert diagnosis.

Terry Ostmeyer

Paul R. Latshaw has turned 40 years of experience as a superintendent into a new career as one of the most sought after turfgrass consultants in the industry. Photo by Phillip Miller

Advice is seldom free in golf course management these days. It's not necessarily cheap, either, but it might be worth it.

Consulting is on the rise in the golf course industry, with validation from superintendents and others who believe these guys know what they're talking about and are worth listening to.

"This is the age of consultants," says Stan Zontek, who has been an agronomist and consultant for the USGA's Green Section for 35 years (see related story on pg. 52). "People have a problem with their computer, they call a consultant. People have a problem with their accounting, they call a consultant. People have a problem with their golf course, they call a consultant."

"The industry is changing rapidly. It's very challenging. It's hard to see how superintendents are keeping current with all the responsibilities they have and all the new things on the market," adds Paul R. Latshaw, a 40-year GCSAA member whose greenkeeping career spanned more than three decades before he "retired" and went into consulting as a second career.

Historical perspective
Golf course consulting goes way back. University turf educators and researchers originally led the way in sound advice when asked. Superintendents have long used chapter, regional and national education seminars and conferences as an alternative to someone "coming in from the outside."

There also was an age when most consultants were company-affiliated, most notably in the irrigation industry. Two enduring examples of both also happen to be winners of GCSAA's highest honor, the Old Tom Morris Award: Joe Duich, Ph.D. (2006), and Jim Watson, Ph.D. (1995).

A teacher and renowned breeder of bentgrasses out of Penn State, Duich mentored and advised his turf graduates and others for decades. Today, the professor emeritus of turfgrass science is a spokesman and consultant for the marketer of his cultivars, Tee-2-Green Co.

Watson, now 85, is a pioneer on many consulting fronts. He has been dispensing his wisdom on behalf of The Toro Co. since 1952.

Academia and the manufacturing sector continue to play significant roles in golf course consulting, but the role has evolved into a lucrative profession in its own right for individuals like Latshaw, who are bursting with experience and knowledge, and especially for specialized interests and alliances manned by independent contractors trained in the physical analysis of turf and water.

The super sage
Latshaw, noted for having prepped for more of golf's major championships (nine) than anyone else, mentored and consulted throughout much of his long tenure as a working superintendent. When he retired in the late 1990s, he consulted as a company representative for a brief time before going out on his own.

After his wife of 41 years, Phyllis, died in 2004, Latshaw kicked it up a notch. Nowadays he visits an average of one course a week, usually by invitation.

"Most of it comes from superintendents who have worked with me at one time or another ... the family, or fraternity, as we call it," he says, although he is being sought out more and more by owners or members of high-profile venues who are considering large-scale projects.

It helps to have your reputation precede you, and Latshaw is well aware of what his experiences at the likes of Oakmont, Augusta, Congressional and Winged Foot bring to the table.

"I've always felt that I was doing things way before others were. Some of the things that are coming into vogue now I had done," he says. "So far I think I'm up with the industry. But, I can see things are growing fast, and as a consultant you've got to work hard to keep current. I keep in touch with the 'family' a lot because most of them are leaders in the field and I can learn from them."

If you ask his opinion, Latshaw will praise the positives of foliar feeding of turf and taking advantage of the new technology and new products that help turf managers meet today's demands.

"Some of the new aerifying equipment we have now, for instance, has certainly helped superintendents get out there and do the job quickly and with less disruption and get the course back in play as soon as possible," he says.

Lately, Latshaw's work has spread to Europe, and he has Asia in his sights.

"I'm at the point in my life where I want to venture," he says. "And as a consultant, I think I can be a valuable asset to superintendents with the pressures they have today."

What price advice?
Hiring a consultant is a substantial investment for a golf course operation. Turf and irrigation advisers can command anywhere from $1,000 to more than $2,000 per visit, plus expenses. If soil and water tests are required, lab costs can run from $500 to $1,000 a pop.

There is a growing notion in the golf course management business that you get what you pay for. And, in the opinion of the leader of probably the industry's largest network of turfgrass soil specialists, you also get what you need.

"So many of today's superintendents are college-educated and trained and are aware of specific issues and problems. They have a need for analytical data," says Richard Psollo, who rides herd over a dozen or more independent consultants – more than half of them former superintendents – who are both agronomic advisers and soil evaluation experts.

Psollo and his colleagues are members of the Brookside Society of Professional Consultants. He and more than 150 other consultants with expertise in the agriculture and municipal environmental sectors own a piece of Brookside Laboratories, a worldwide leader in analyzing soil and water.

The Brookside connection
Psollo, who runs REP Consulting Inc. out of Hartville, Ohio, with his son Eric, has been in the business more than 40 years. He has maintained a working connection with Brookside Labs, which was established in 1951 and is headquartered in New Knoxville, Ohio.

Since the early 1970s, the elder Psollo has played a key role in Brookside's success. He was an ag consultant back then and almost by accident did an analytical job at a golf course. That seemed like such a good idea for both himself and the lab's business, he began calling on golf courses all over the region, learning about golf course turf and management from his clients as he went. He even took an occasional construction job with a rising golf course architect named Pete Dye to learn literally from the ground up. When the workload became too much, he started convincing a few clients to make the switch from superintendent to consultant.

"It was easier for me to train a superintendent that I had worked with for four or five years about the chemistry and physical characteristics of soil," he says.

Psollo's recruits work the golf course industry only, each servicing his own burgeoning client list, in regions across the country. Today that numbers almost 4,000 courses – including 63 of the sport's top 100 venues – and accounts for 30 percent of Brookside's business volume.

The experience factor
For more than three decades Psollo and his gang of golf course consultants have diligently cultivated the strength of their vocation – they've been there and done that.

"That's why you hire consultants," Psollo notes wryly. "You won't go too far wrong, because we've all made enough mistakes that we know which ones not to make again. You can get soil tests done anywhere for a price. What consultants are selling is their experience."

An early disciple of what Psollo and Brookside Labs could do for turfgrass was Latshaw. Their relationship, which continues today, began when Latshaw was an up-and-coming assistant at Shaker Heights Country Club in Cleveland. Over the years both learned from each other, and later on Latshaw often would evaluate a facility's personnel and equipment and Psollo would do the analytical work – a virtual consulting tag team. Psollo's gang also includes ex-superintendent and 45-year GCSAA member Tom Burrows, who has been in the fold since '89 and, though retired, still works with his son Mark to serve more than 700 clients in Florida.

The material man
Another company that features agronomic consulting and physical evaluation laboratory services is Turf Diagnostics & Design in Linwood, Kan., a six-person operation that has an ambitious turfgrass/sports field/landscape portfolio that includes consulting and/or testing at more than 1,000 golf courses since it was founded in 1991.

Sam Ferro, who has been with the company for eight years and is currently president and technical manager, says TD&D's specialty in golf is materials evaluation and selection, and quality-control testing for greens and bunker construction or renovation.

"A very big part of our process is supporting the superintendent with testing and providing another point of view as consultants," Ferro says, adding that the firm also does some fairway plating or capping work and advises on the correct soils for good drainage.

Currently about half of TD&D's golf projects are new construction, while the rest is split between renovations and ongoing diagnostic evaluations. The consulting/testing work is indeed multifaceted.

Ferro points out, for example, that in greens construction the company conducts soil sampling and subsurface testing while helping define the right materials to meet project specifications and develop the proper root zone. Bunker work is similar, including advice on the correct sand selection, which should be compatible with both playability and maintenance.

"Bunkers have become an increasing issue, both new and renovation," he says. "The desires are similar to greens. People want high-end bunkers nowadays just like they want high-end greens."

Ferro notes that, as a smaller company, TD&D has become adept at helping superintendents build and maintain a high-quality turf system and develop management programs to fit a client's project specs and budget. The firm has settled into a successful niche in the downside of golf development's boom years, 1999-2001.

"We've been fortunate to have many loyal customers, have good relations with many architects and builders and have done a lot of renovation work," he says. "Our business is still very good."

The big player
Both Brookside Labs and TD&D are accredited through the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), a professional membership society that grades labs in many areas, such as biological and chemical, construction materials, environment, geotechnical and mechanical.

The crux is that A2LA accreditation also earns the blessing of the USGA, most notably for the testing and analyses of materials involved in building greens according to its time-honored recommendations.

And that's just one of the key roles in golf course consulting played by the game's powerful governing body. Most prominent is the USGA's Turf Advisory Service, which provides the industry with arguably its most comprehensive agronomic consulting service – 17 experts in eight regions across the country who make more than 2,000 visits covering as many as 1,700 golf courses a year.

Since 1953, the service, known as the Green Section, has been on a mission to help superintendents and other course officials produce the best turfgrass possible according to individual budget capabilities. Jim Snow, national director of the Green Section, says that mission is accomplished through a wealth of experience and information imparted impartially.
Counting himself, Snow says the association has 23 agronomists, with only two of them having less than 10 years' tenure with the organization. Not only is that experience, it's also commitment.

"Word gets out from superintendent to superintendent, but our consultants' visibility has also increased dramatically over the years," says Snow, who also is an 11-year member of GCSAA. "Last year our agronomists were at 360 meetings, seminars and conferences of one kind or another. They also visit so many courses in their somewhat confined regions that there isn't much they haven't seen as well as know what's going on currently."

The Green wave
Snow, who marked his 30th anniversary with the Green Section last month, was a regional agronomist for 14 years before becoming national director. He says a lot has changed over time, but the consultants' involvement continues to be basically region-oriented. Those in the Southwest will be more versed in water issues, for instance, while disease control will be of high priority for those in the Mid-Atlantic.
The Green Section's expertise doesn't come without a price, although its consulting fees aren't as high as frequently perceived. The irony is that the Section, which doesn't charge its clients for travel expenses or return or casual visits, covers less than 40 percent of its costs. USGA picks up the rest, which amounts to several million dollars annually.

"The bottom line ... it costs a lot to have a consulting organization like ours – full-time people with benefits, secretaries, cost of travel and all that. But the USGA considers the turf service to be very important," Snow says.

Another perception is that the Green Section agronomy has centered on an unyielding philosophy regarding greens construction since the USGA guidelines came into vogue in the 1960s. Snow says that sometimes-controversial issue has cooled considerably on both sides.

"It's a good method," he says. "It's not that you can't do it a different way, but all the research – even in the last 15 years – shows pretty clearly that it's still a great way to build a green. But, as an issue, we don't really bother with it any more. It's a dead issue as far as most of us are concerned."

Snow notes, in fact, that bunker construction, make-up and maintenance, along with greens speed, spark more debate among course owners and officials these days.

"I think that's why superintendents like to have us come," Snow says, echoing a point stressed by those interviewed for this article – that a vital part of their job is to provide support and confirmation of a superintendent's performance when dealing with employers and ownership. "We bring the perspective that we see things time after time, day after day, month after month, year after year. We explain why things are the way they are, and they seem to accept it better."

Turf to surf
Golf course consulting services extend to the irrigation industry, where the adviser is almost always also the designer.

The irrigation consultant's work appears to be never-ending. Few golf courses are being built today without irrigation.

Also, the usual lifespan of a golf course irrigation system is 15 to 20 years, or shorter if changes are dictated by coverage demands or water-supply or water-quality issues.

Renovations almost always mean replacement of the irrigation system, and thus are the business leaders for most consultant/designers. Finally, new construction or renovation/replacement, it doesn't matter – the cost of a system runs in the $1.5 million-to-$2 million range.

"It's a huge business requiring a lot of expertise in this day and age," says Norman Bartlett, executive director of the American Society of Irrigation Consultants (ASIC), which was founded in 1970 and has a little more than 100 members.

Most of those in the ASIC are independent contractors serving the golf, landscape and public green space sectors. In golf, their clients are generally course architects and developers.

Much of the expertise Bartlett speaks of comes from background experience. Many irrigation consultants emigrated from the distribution business. Others are also landscape architects. Much of the consulting work is in landscaping, large developments, commons and public grounds.

However, several irrigation consultants are former superintendents or other ex-turf industry professionals and have latched on to golf.

The Barrett blueprint
Take Jim Barrett, for example. He's been a full-time golf course irrigation consultant since 1985 – basically a one-man operation at James Barrett Associates Inc. in Roseland, N.J. But he was doing the work even earlier when he was a design associate for 13 years for famed golf course architect Robert Trent Jones and did a lot of in-house irrigation planning. It was an invaluable track record when he went out on his own.

"The connections I made while I was working for Mr. Jones were hugely important when I first started as an independent contractor," says Barrett, who for many years was one of only a couple of irrigation consultants east of the Mississippi. "The best advertising for most of us in this business is word of mouth. Of course, it didn't hurt that I had previously worked at a number of prestigious golf courses."

When the irrigation industry eventually moved steadily east, away from its California roots, Barrett embraced the movement. He steadily became a leader in his calling while building a client base that includes some of the top golf course designers and developers in the business.

Barrett, who has also been a member of GCSAA for 15 years, says irrigation consultants are confronted by some formidable challenges today. One is dealing with water availability and quality. Another is the increasing demand for efficiency and precision in irrigation to minimize waste.

"We've got to give the superintendents the information and the tools they need to create uniform playing conditions with system designs that feature shorter radius heads, closer spacing and individual head control," he says.

The Christiansen chronicles
Take Erik Christiansen, for another example. He's a superintendent-turned-irrigation consultant and one of the more outspoken members of his second profession. He began EC Design Group out of West Des Moines, Iowa, in 1993 and has turned it into a successful irrigation design and management resource company.

Not only was Christiansen, a 10-year GCSAA member, superintendent at Willow Creek Golf Course in West Des Moines for six years, he has also worked in the irrigation construction and supply businesses. His strength is being able to communicate all facets of a project to a client.

"It's important that I've had the opportunity to grow grass for a living," he says. "I've also been a contractor and I've been involved in distribution. If you take all three of those things, I think it really helps mold the way I view the service that I provide from all aspects."

Christiansen agrees that today's challenges include high expectations for playing conditions, which have forced agronomic program changes such as better irrigation systems and better control of them, but he's even more adamant that he and other consultants must keep up with the industry's learning curve.

"Irrigation is very specialized, and there are a lot of ongoing technical changes amid the competition between the main manufacturers," he says. "You really have to work to stay on top of things to make sure you utilize the right products that are in the best interest of the application and the client. Plus, the old irrigation designs don't cut it. We've got to produce better systems, aim for a 25- to-30-year lifespan and pipe infrastructure that lasts 40 years."

He adds that as water becomes an even more precious commodity on golf courses, consultants are going to have to come up with new and better ideas in design and system control.

"We are paying more attention to what water does to the golf course," Christiansen says. "If you apply water inappropriately, it has a direct adverse effect on the playing conditions, and golfers, owners and club members are becoming educated to that."

Christiansen points out that he spends a great deal of his time in presentations to green committees, board members and citizens' groups explaining a project, helping the superintendent sell his or her needs and just plain asking what stakeholders really want.

"We're educators," he says. "Once you explain ... educate them ... they're usually fine with it. As a consultant, you formulate and design and budget a system according to their criteria."

The commercial caveat
Any lingering skepticism among superintendents regarding golf course consultants is generally fueled by concerns that the advice is influenced by product manufacturers for financial consideration. Indeed, a lot of consulting continues to be done by company representatives.

The consultants featured in this article are all self-described independent professionals and all have thoughts on the issue of product bias.

"We have a code of ethics that states we will not be involved in the marketing of a particular product," notes Psollo, who is a shareholder in Brookside Laboratories. "We concentrate on analyzing and discussing the basicagronomics."

Adds Ferro, whose company deals daily with the materials and products used in greens and bunker construction, "We have to remain independent. We let the tests and results speak for themselves. We work with a lot of suppliers in the industry, but we also work hard at not being biased."

Bartlett admits that many irrigation consultants today are still affiliated with manufacturers, a scenario that goes back to the beginning of irrigation consulting. After all, an irrigation system is what it is.

"It's a challenge to stay apart from that (the product)," he says. "The key is to select the best product for the specific application or because of the availability of service and distribution support."

The line blurs further when listening to the independent consultants themselves, although both Christiansen and Barrett are quick to note that barely more than a quarter of the cost of a complete irrigation system project is attributed to the product itself.

"My clients pay me for my opinion," says Christiansen. "So if I have a particular product or a product application that I feel is superior to the rest, I think it is my duty to mention that. If the client has a particular product they want to use, I want to know that and we'll definitely design around that."

"It's very important to have knowledge of the local support in an area," says Barrett. "One company may be vastly superior to another in terms of local support. Actually, it's rare when you have more than one major manufacturer well-represented in the same area. That's pretty good grounds, in my opinion, for making a product decision."

Terry Ostmeyer is the senior staff writer for GCM.

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