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Deere makes headlines in Anaheim with Lesco, PGA Tour deals
More than most, John Deere utilized the Golf Industry Show at Anaheim as a stage to present major company news, topped by the agriculture and turf equipment manufacturing giant’s merger agreement with Lesco, the Cleveland-based supplier of fertilizer, seed and chemicals for golf course management and lawn maintenance professionals.
Deere followed that up with an announcement that its role as the official equipment supplier to the PGA Tour has been expanded to include irrigation equipment. At the 2006 GIS in Atlanta, Deere unveiled its new irrigation division as part of its portfolio of products and services through its One Source program.
In the deal with Lesco, pending shareholder and regulatory approval, Deere will acquire Lesco for $14.50 per common share in cash, estimated at about $135 million. Under the agreement, Lesco will become part of John Deere Landscapes, a wholesale distributor of irrigation, nursery, lighting and landscape materials.
“This plan is consistent with Deere’s growth aspirations,” Nate Jones, president of Deere’s commercial and consumer division, said in a company release. “We seek business opportunities that bring new customers to John Deere and that offer new products and services to our existing customers. We have a strong commitment to serve professional landscaping and golf course customers.”
Added Gregg Breningmeyer, director of sales and marketing for One Source: “This move is evidence of John Deere’s commitment to its commercial and golf course customers and a confirmation that One Source is the right model for our business.”
The transaction is expected to about double the number of store locations for John Deere Landscapes with the addition of 332 Lesco outlets.
“We believe (the deal) enables shareholders to receive the benefit of our efforts to increase shareholder value,” said Lesco president and CEO Jeffrey Rutherford. “Lesco, a strong leader in its segment of the market, now joins with John Deere to provide a more complete set of products and services.”
Meanwhile, the expansion of Deere’s designation as the official equipment supplier to the PGA Tour was hailed as a “natural fit” for the Tour, the Tournament Players Club network and Deere brands, according to David Pillsbury, president of PGA Tour Golf Course Properties.
“It’s an affiliation our courses have benefited from on the equipment and soft goods side and we’re looking forward to adding John Deere Golf Irrigation to the mix,” Pillsbury said.
The first venue to be outfitted with Deere irrigation under the agreement will be the new TPC Scottsdale course in Arizona, which is scheduled to open in November.
Penn State’s World Campus will accept GCSAA’s certification portfolio as the equivalent of up to 18 credit hours toward the university’s new 120-credit online turfgrass science degree.
“This is a great opportunity for our members,” says Penny Mitchell, GCSAA senior manager of certification. “Many have already earned up to 30 credits toward this degree through GCSAA seminars and certification requirements. Not only is this a chance to interact with top educators from one of the nation’s most highly regarded programs in turfgrass management, but it’s a chance to fulfill a portion of GCSAA certification requirements.”
For more information, contact Mitchell at 800-472-7878 or the Penn State World Campus at 800-252-3592.
Fellowship thaws Nebraska winter
Being one of the good guys with a lot of friends is a good thing in the golf course superintendent business.
That was in bloom in early March in Nebraska when nearly 20 people in the golf course industry put their own troubles away for a day and helped out a popular colleague.
Brad Pearson, superintendent at Holdrege Country Club since 1973, like a lot of turf managers in the Plains states, was hit by two major ice storms over the holidays. After the second storm on New Year’s Eve, tons of tree debris from majestic cottonwood, maple and ash trees rained down on his front nine, built in 1917, with less damage to the more wide open, 23-year-old back nine.
Pearson, a 22-year GCSAA member, earned a measure of fame a half-dozen years ago when he was commissioned to design and sculpt a 6-foot-tall bronze statue of Old Tom Morris for GCSAA headquarters, commemorating the association’s 75th anniversary. His work was subsequently featured in the September 2001 issue of GCM.
Many of Pearson’s fellow superintendents in the area also had badly damaged courses. Bill Irving, for instance, lost up to 30 trees at Kearney Country Club. But there was something about Pearson’s troubles that attracted others to lend a hand.
Craig Ferguson, Class A superintendent at Lochland Country Club in Hastings, drove by decimated Holdrege CC one day and decided something should be done for a guy with fewer resources than many and a friend to most.
Ferguson, a 25-year GCSAA member, contacted Irving, vice president of the Nebraska GCSA, and together they rallied the troops. On March 5, with the ground thawed out enough to loosen downed limbs — some 10 inches or more in diameter — almost 20 superintendents, assistants, technicians and vendors showed up and basically cleared the front nine in one day.
Irving says the effort was special in a couple of ways.
“The biggest thing, as several of us had talked about, Brad is probably one of the most highly thought of guys in the profession in central Nebraska,” he says. “We knew he had a lot of work to do with a very small budget. Everyone likes him and that kind of set the tone to do the work.”
Then there was the fact that most of those who helped Pearson had similar problems on their own courses.
“I was driving over there that day thinking I should be working at home, then I thought, no, this is what we gotta do,” says Bill Bieck, CGCS at Heritage Hills Golf Course in McCook.
“That was really the beauty of it,” Irving says. “Everybody had their own troubles and everybody still came together to help somebody else out. All bets were off when it came to Brad ... we’re there to help.”
Pearson, a former president of the Nebraska chapter and also once its newsletter editor, was grateful for the help. Members of Holdrege CC pitched in with a couple of cleanup sessions as well.
“It was a nice thing they did,” he says of his colleagues. “They came in on one day and did enough work to get me over the hump, for sure. I didn’t have to worry about it being done right or safely ... they knew what they were doing.”
Sean A. Hoolehan, CGCS, immediate past president of GCSAA, assisted business consultant/author Ann Marie Sabath in a couple of ways with her new book that recently hit the shelves, “One Minute Manners: Quick Solutions to the Most Awkward Situations You’ll Ever Face at Work,” which features quick solutions to more than 130 work dilemmas.
Hoolehan, superintendent at Wildhorse Resort & Casino near Pendleton, Ore., helped proof Sabath’s latest work last summer and offered a bit of a review on the book jacket. “Lots of gems to support anyone who cares to make a good impression,” the 22-year GCSAA member wrote. “A great refresher on public behavior."
Peggy Kirk Bell, a pioneer in the development of the modern golf school and one of the game’s foremost instructors, will be presented with the 2007 PGA First Lady of Golf Award May 23 during activities in conjunction with the Senior PGA Championship at the Ocean Course on Kiawah Island.
The 85-year-old Bell is a charter member of the LPGA and the owner of Pine Needles Lodge & Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., which is hosting its third U.S. Women’s Open June 28-31.
“Peggy developed the golf school concept into an industry that has extended the careers of teaching professionals and introduced golf to thousands who would otherwise not take the time to learn to play this great game,” said PGA of America President Brian Whitcomb.
Come to GIS, save a life
When Holly Masch, owner of 49er Communications, bought a booth at the 2007 Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, she hoped to increase business a little, maybe a lot.
It wasn’t a life and death decision … yet.
On the first day of the trade show, a man was walking toward the 49er Communications (www.49ercom.com) booth and eating a Snickers candy bar when he suddenly stopped. It was apparent to one of Masch’s sales representatives, Cristy Alexander, that the man was choking. Alexander approached him and asked if he was choking, and he nodded in the affirmative. She called out for help, thinking she wasn’t big enough to get her arms around the man and apply the necessary amount of force to apply the Heimlich maneuver.
But no one else “stepped up.” So Alexander took matters into her own hands.
“I gave him about three good tugs before (a bite of Snickers) came out,” Alexander says.
Suddenly, Alexander was a hero.
“I don’t like being the center of attention,” she says. “It embarrasses me. People were coming over and congratulating me, telling me I saved his life.”
Alexander offered the man a seat in the booth, where he slowly regained his composure. Once he was back to speaking, Alexander did what she really came to the Golf Industry Show for — she started selling him on the 49er Communications products.
“He took our card,” she laughed. “I think he was just being polite.”
Saving a life aside, Masch said her first GIS was very good for her company, and that the booth saw a lot of traffic. The company has most of its business in the San Francisco Bay area.
“We’re heavy into public safety,” she says. Understatement of the year.
— Seth Jones, GCM senior associate editor
Institute advisory council adds muscle
GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, The Environmental
Institute for Golf, has kicked it up a couple of notches in 2007 by adding some heavyweight muscle to its already formidable
advisory council.
The council, designed to enhance The Institute’s fundraising capabilities, grabbed considerable attention at the Golf Industry Show in Anaheim when it was announced that its three newest members were PGA Tour stars Vijay Singh and Sergio Garcia and renowned golf course architect Pete Dye.
The high-profile threesome is involved with Greg Norman, World Golf Hall of Famer, CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises and chairman of the advisory council, in the creation of four golf courses at Jumeirah Golf Estates in Dubai, the most dynamic of the Persian Gulf’s United Arab Emirates. The huge residential development is a subsidiary of Dubai World, whose chairman, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, has also agreed to serve another three-year term on The Institute’s guiding panel.
The courses are being built to ultra-high environmental standards. The first two layouts, Fire and Earth, were the work of Norman and are slated to open within a year. The third, Water, was designed by Singh and will open in 2009. With the fitting nickname of El Niño, Garcia is collaborating with Dye and Norman on the fourth course, Wind, which also will open sometime in 2009.
A portion of the design fees of Singh, Garcia and Dye have been donated to The Institute. Officials of GCSAA and The Institute hope the presence of two current golf stars and a famous architect will turn up the volume on the organization’s fundraising.
“It’s extremely important. We’re still a fairly new organization,” GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE, said in a news conference announcing the new council members. Added Bill Kubly, CEO of Landscapes Unlimited, past chairman of the Institute’s Board of Trustees and now a member of the advisory council: “We’re hoping this will open the floodgates for others like them. They can push our programs forward.”
Mona noted the council provides guidance to fundraising, outreach, research and strategic planning and that The Institute would spend about $1.4 million in various programs this year. Kubly pointed out that since the first of the year, a dozen people have joined the council, committing to a three-year term and a donation of $100,000.
“Real, substantive work is being done,” Kubly said. “People are embracing this. They believe they really can make a difference.”
Three other recent additions to the advisory council are Rafael Martinez, president of Republic Capital Corp. and publisher and CEO of The Green Magazine; Bill Jones III, chairman and CEO of Sea Island Co., whose Sea Island Resorts is ranked No. 1 among Golf Digest’s 75 Best Golf Resort; and John Foster, president of West Coast Turf, a world-leading supplier of turfgrass and custom-grown sod.
Golf course survey launches third phase.
One of The Institute’s continuing programs that potentially touches superintendents worldwide is the Golf Course Environmental Profile Project that currently is in its third phase — a survey on nutrient use. GCSAA members received the survey links via e-mail in mid-March. Their responses are due April 27.
The multi-year project evaluating environmental performance on golf courses is being conducted by The Institute in partnership with The Toro Foundation, which donated $50,000 recently to support the third phase. GCSAA members receive .25 service points for completing the survey.
Golf rounds played in the U.S. last year inched up 0.8 percent (501 million rounds) over 2005, continuing a relatively flat trend since a precipitous decline of more than 15 million rounds in 2002, according to the National Golf Foundation.
Leisure time may be precious to most golf course management professionals, but few of them stray far from the game in their time off. Playing golf is easily the favorite pastime of 85 percent of GCSAA superintendents. The second most favorite leisure activity? Seventy percent said dining out.
— From GCSAA’s superintendent profile report
Recycling efforts power a trip to GIS
The next time you begin to wring your hands over the cost of attending the annual GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show, think about the story of Terry Stratton and the maintenance team at Little River Inn Golf and Tennis Resort on the Northern California coast.
Stratton has felt the pain of a budget that couldn’t possibly be stretched far enough to take himself and his small staff to show each year. They tried hitting a few regional shows, but as the 24-year GCSAA member says, “they had really shrunk in size over the last few years, and we walked away pretty disappointed.”
And because Little River Inn’s somewhat remote location about two-and-a-half hours north of San Francisco puts a limit on the number of sales people that make their way to the course and the exposure the staff gets to new products, Stratton had set his sights on taking his team to the 2007 national conference and show in Anaheim.
“I really wanted our equipment manager and the other guys to get a chance to see what was out there, to see things that they normally only get to see in brochures and trade magazines,” says Stratton, a Class A member of the association who won a chapter honor in the 2007 Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards program. “The question was how do we raise money to pay for it, because our budget had already been set for the year.”
The answer, it turns out, was one that countless little league teams and school districts have employed for years -- the folks at Little River Inn went recycling.
The team — Stratton, greenskeeper Scott Cail, equipment manager Ron Levy and irrigation tech Darrel Lowe — began by collecting empty bottles and cans from around the golf course and the surrounding resort area, which sometimes netted as much as $50 a week. They broadened their horizons to include things like copper piping that was left over following a renovation to the kitchen at the on-site hotel and the brass sprinkler heads that piled up when the nine-hole facility upgraded its irrigation system to plastic heads.
The results of the effort were impressive -- they raised almost $1,300 in bottles and cans alone and another $700 from the copper, brass and other scrap metals they recycled. Coupled with a small amount that had already been budgeted for Stratton to attend the show, the total was enough to send all four men to the 2007 event in Anaheim this past February.
Although they didn’t walk away from their experience with any shiny new equipment — no room in the budget for that, either — they did walk away with something maybe even better for a team that’s obviously accustom to being innovative.
“When you’re at a small-budget course, you’re really looking at a lot of stuff that you can’t have,” Stratton says. “But sometimes you get ideas that, frankly, you can steal, make your own and maybe modify a piece of equipment you already have to do the job of a piece of equipment that you just can’t afford.”
— Scott Hollister, GCM editor
Chinese premier gets tough on golf development
Despite the fact that the country holds a number of high-caliber tournaments each year that feature some of the world’s top players, including Tiger Woods, China is likely to remain one of the last great wastelands of the sport if Premier Wen Jiabao has anything to say about it.
Wen said a little but a lot about golf in his country recently in a speech otherwise devoted to education and health care reform. In his brief mention of golf, the leader of the communist nation said the government will begin enforcing a ban on golf course development on agricultural land, noting that such development wastes land that should be kept for growing crops.
A few months ago, China’s most prominent education center, Peking University, abandoned plans to build a practice green on campus after widespread criticism. The university and other Chinese schools have promoted golf lessons for business students to prepare them for a commercial world where deals are often made on the golf course.
Wen’s argument is that a country of nearly 1.5 billion people needs its land to feed its populace. Further, China has only 300,000 golfers who play at least once a week. By comparison, the United States has about 27 million golfers in an overall population of 300 million.
Colbert Hills Golf Course in Manhattan, Kan., recently won an appeal with the Kansas Board of Tax Appeals concerning its property taxes that means the local county government is going to have to pay a rebate of almost $145,000 — and that’s probably just for starters. The board upheld a protest by the Kansas State University-affiliated golf facility that county valuations for the 2003 and 2004 tax years were too high. The property had been taxed on the basis of a $5.5 million assessment, and Colbert Hills paid under protest, saying the property was worth $2.2 million. The golf course also protested the 2005 and 2006 tax years in which the country appraised the land at $3.9 million. No ruling on 2005 has been made, but the county expects the state board will find that figure too high as well.
EPA seeks building, environmental talents
The Environmental Protection Agency is involved in a couple of green industry initiatives with a competitive flavor.
One is a Web-based competition that calls on the nation’s architects and builders to create designs that facilitate material reuse and waste minimization. The “Lifecycle Building Challenge” is co-sponsored by the EPA, the American Institute of Architects, West Coast Green and the Building Materials Reuse Association.
Students, educators and environmental advocates, along with architects, reuse experts, engineers, builders and product designers are invited to apply. Lifecycle designs are sought in three categories: Building (an entire building), Component (a single building assembly or connector) and Service (a policy, tool or practice).
For more information and the entry procedures, go to
www.lifecyclebuilding.org.
The EPA is also seeking nominations for its Achievement in Environmental Justice award that recognizes organizations that undertake environmental justice initiatives to impact their communities. Nominees must have reached a significant accomplishment within the past five years and meet six criteria: innovation, corporate responsibility, public involvement, partnerships, integration and sustainability.
For more details, go to www.epa.gov.
USGA cites book on the cradle of golf
“Where Golf is Great: The Finest Courses of Scotland and Ireland,” by James W. Finegan, received the USGA’s 2006 Herbert Warren Wind Book Award.
The book reviews the rich tradition of golf in Scotland and Ireland as Finegan, a noted golf writer, describes more than 150 courses in the two countries, from the famous, like St. Andrews, Gleneagles and Royal County Down, to the unheralded but charming, such as Bora in Scotland and Carlow in Ireland.
“My book on the courses in Scotland and Ireland was actually inspired by two of Wind’s most memorable New Yorker pieces, “North to the Links of Dornoch” in 1964 and “The Greens of Ireland” in 1967. It is safe to say I will forever be in his debt,” says Finegan, who has visited the two countries more than 40 times.
Accompanied by photographs by Laurence Lambrecht, “Where Golf is Great” includes course histories and facts, as well as suggestions for the best places to stay and dine after a day on the links.
Now retired and living in Villanova, Pa., Finegan also has served for 20 years on Golf Magazine’s panel that annually selects the top 100 courses in the world.
Grass...
Grass is the Forgiveness of Nature — Her constant benediction. Fields trampled with battle, saturated with blood, torn with the ruts of cannon, grow green again and the carnage is forgotten.
... Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal. Beleaguered by the sullen hosts of winter, it withdraws into the impregnable fortress of its subterranean vitality, and emerges upon the first solicitation of Spring.
... Sown by winds, by wandering birds, propagated by the subtle horticulture of the elements, grass softens the rude outline of the world. Its tenacious fibers hold the earth in place and prevent soluble components from washing into the wasting sea. It invades the solitude of deserts, climbs the inaccessible slopes and forbidding pinnacles of mountains, modifies climates and determines the history, character and destiny of nations.
... Unobtrusive and patient, it has immortal vigor and aggression. Banished from the thoroughfare and the field, it bides its time to return when vigilance is relaxed or the dynasty has perished to the throne from which it has been expelled but which it never abdicates.
... Grass bears no blazonry or bloom to charm the senses with fragrance or splendor, but its homely hue is more enchanting than the lily or the rose. It yields no fruit in earth or air, and yet should its harvest fail for a single year, famine would depopulate the world.
— A poem by John James Ingalls (1833-1900) and submitted by Paul Morin, Sioux City, Iowa.
GCSAA’s high-powered philanthropic organization, The Environmental Institute for Golf, has fittingly struck a deal with Swing Juice, an energy drink developed by an avid golfer, Jon Mason, CEO of Sports Energy Distribution LLC. In a three-year commitment, Swing Juice will donate a portion of sales revenues to The Institute’s environmental programs. The energy drink features a specific blend of ingredients to help with an athlete’s focus, stamina and energy prior to and during competition. It has no sodium and less caffeine and less sugar than most similar drinks. For more information about Swing Juice, check out www.swingjuice.com.
Hale Irwin, a three-time winner of the U.S. Open and the all-time victories leader on the Champions Tour, will speak at the University of Colorado’s commencement on May 11. He is a 1967 graduate of CU.
Irwin, who won 20 times in all on the PGA Tour, has gone on to chalk up 45 titles and nearly $24 million in earnings on the Champions Tour.
Jacobsen opens classroom doors in Charlotte facility
After nearly a six-year hiatus, Jacobsen is bringing back its popular Future Turf Managers Seminar, complete with a new training center at the company’s Charlotte, N.C., headquarters. The program, which originated in the early 1970s and was discontinued in 2001 when Jacobsen moved its headquarters and had no available training labs, will bring together 30 graduating turf management seniors to the Charlotte facility located, appropriately enough, on Quality Drive.
GCSAA, LPGA reach landmark agreement
In a move to strengthen the consistency of course conditions on the LPGA Tour, GCSAA and the LPGA have reached an agreement that will provide the professional women’s golf tour with a GCSAA agronomist who will consult on the course set-up for LPGA events. The agreement was announced during the LPGA Safeway Championship in Phoenix in late March.
The agronomist will be a GCSAA employee who will work closely with LPGA officials on issues relating to general course set-up guidelines, and will work with individual host facilities to provide conditions according to those guidelines. In exchange, the LPGA will provide opportunities to strengthen the brand of GCSAA and position its members as key to the economic vitality of the golf facility and a golfer’s enjoyment of the game.
This position will be similar to those with the PGA Tour and USGA, who employ agronomists to ensure consistency in course set-up for their events. Those agronomists are not GCSAA employees, although they are GCSAA members.
A search firm and GCSAA’s Employment Referral Service will be used to identify a candidate, a process that is expected to begin in mid April.
Check upcoming issues of GCM for more details about this agreement.
USDA chastised in biotech turfgrass saga
Roundup-ready creeping bentgrass suffered its most serious setback to date recently when a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Agriculture failed to adequately peruse an application by Scotts Miracle-Gro and Monsanto to plant experimental plots of the genetically engineered turfgrass the companies hope to market to the golf course industry.
The court also ordered the USDA not to process any new field trials of biotech crops without first considering the environmental consequences. The ruling reflects a similar one last year in Hawaii in which the USDA was criticized for violating environmental protection laws in allowing companies to plant biopharming crops, which are used to make vaccines and medicines.
The cruxes for the Roundup-ready creeping bentgrass case are studies from a few years ago that reportedly showed pollen from trials near Madras, Ore., drifting as much as 13 miles, allowing the genetically modified variety to mix with conventional seed fields in the area.
The biotech grass seed was harvested three years ago and stored by Scotts and Monsanto while they continue to wait on governmental approval for its commercial release. The federal court ruling doesn’t change what the judge, Henry H. Kennedy Jr., called “arbitrary and capricious agency action.” But counsel for the Center for Food Safety, which filed the suit, hopes that agriculture officials will change their practices.
Michigan honors former GCSAA president
Ted Woehrle of Troy, Mich., president of GCSAA in 1977 and the association’s first standing board member to host one of golf’s major championships, will be inducted into the Michigan Golf Hall of Fame on May 20.
Woehrle, who retired in 2003, has been a member of GCSAA for 50 years. He had a 24-year stint at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., which was the site of the PGA Championship in 1972, the year he was elected to the GCSAA board of directors. He oversaw 10 major events in all in a 47-year career that also included tenures at Chicago’s Beverly Country Club, Point O Woods Country Club in Benton Harbor, Mich., and Orchards Golf Club in Washington, Mich.
The Michigan Golf Foundation especially cited Woehrle’s role in the growth of his profession — more than 50 of his former assistants have gone on to become head superintendents.
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