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End of the line for Etheridge
Perseverance is the name of the game in golf course management, and few superintendents have played the game as well as Elton Etheridge, who retired in December.
Etheridge spent all of his 37 years in the business at the same course, Southampton Golf Club on Long Island, the last 34 years as head superintendent at the 82-year-old Seth Raynor-designed layout. He leaves an enduring footprint on the profession not just because of his long tenure, but also for blazing a trail few others have followed as an African-American superintendent.
In a conversation with GCM, Etheridge, a native and lifelong resident of Southampton and a 30-year member of GCSAA, reflected on his unique career.
GCM: The first thing even most of your peers would ask, in this age of peripatetic superintendents and demanding ownership, is how did you manage to last almost 40 years at the same course?
EE: Well, I had a lot of help. I was fortunate that we were all on the same page most of the time. And, I really enjoyed working there ... it’s only five miles from home and the pay was good. I just kept going and going and going.
GCM: When you succeeded your old school chum (and 35-year GCSAA member) Robert Williams at Southampton GC, you went on to serve 10 club presidents and nearly a dozen green committee chairmen, as well as face the agendas of countless others. What was your secret?
EE: What you’ve really got to have is a real good green chairman who understands golf, understands the situation with the golf course and will stand up for you. Then you’ll survive. The big thing always was green speeds. Golfers are always concerned with that. You can get in a lot of trouble over green speeds.
GCM: Long Island is known for its discerning, knowledgeable golfers. Was the so-called “Augusta Syndrome” an issue with playing conditions?
EE: My syndrome was Shinnecock Hills (site of three U.S. Opens), which is right next door. Southampton’s sixth hole and Shinnecock’s 13th run right together, and National (Golf Links of America) is right there too. That made it tough.
GCM: You’ve been quoted as saying you hope your legacy is that you’ve proved a minority can handle the job of superintendent as well as any race. Has the lack of other blacks in the profession been discouraging to you?
EE: It’s disappointing, yes. A lot of blacks and other minorities work on golf courses, but they don’t seem to move on up. Maybe they get passed over. It’s a tough field to get into, but I think anyone can if they want to bad enough and then will work hard enough to stay in the profession.
GCM: You and your wife of almost 50 years, Florence, have three daughters and six grandchildren. You’re also going to consult for the new Southampton superintendent, James Choinski, a 10-year GCSAA member. What else does the future hold?
EE: We hope to travel some for a while. I imagine we’ll be busier with the grandkids and I’ll be consulting at the course. I’ll have to keep busy doing something... you just can’t stop working.
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
Golf Environment Europe recently established a fund to address issues of environmental sustainability. The fund will enable GEE to support and report on environmental achievements within European golf and also help it work in partnership with other golf and environmental organizations, government agencies and sponsors.
Joe O’Brien, CAE, an executive with The First Tee Program and a former chief operating officer for GCSAA, continues to recover nicely from double bypass heart surgery Dec. 18 in St. Augustine, Fla. O’Brien is the senior director of outcome and education for The First Tee’s network operations.
Clock will be ticking more in 2007
In what is expected to be good for the business of golf, daylight-saving time will be extended a month beginning this year, running March 11 to Nov. 4 in 2007 (“Daylight-saving time expanding in 2007,” Government Watch, Dec. 2006 GCM). The change, which tacks three weeks on the front end of DST and a week on the back side, is being hailed by golf interests mainly because it should mean more play in the evenings.
But is what’s good for the golfer in this case good for golf course management? To find out, GCM contacted three veteran superintendents at above-average-busy facilities in distinctly different regions of the country. Their reactions were typically low key, with one particular common note — they’d rather answer the question a year from now.
Perhaps a sequel will be in order.
Clay Dubose, CGCS, superintendent/general manager at Tradition Golf Club in Myrtle Beach, S.C., an 18-hole semi-private venue that hosted 55,700 rounds in 2006:
“Our busiest time of the year is predominately from mid-February through the second or third week of May. A lot of that time we can have some pretty significant frost delays,” the 14-year GCSAA member says. “In the past, some of our afternoon play wouldn’t be able to finish because of a delay. So, I’m hoping that another hour of daylight will allow them to finish.”
A possible negative, Dubose adds, is that darkness in a later time frame and golf extending into shorter days in the fall could affect maintenance work and scheduling.
“However, we run lights on all the equipment and we’re pretty much started when it’s dark anyway,” he says. “As for the shorter days later on, we’ll just probably move the starting tee times up. Other than some quirks here and there, I don’t foresee any problems. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Kenneth Lapp, Class A, golf course maintenance director at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, Ill., a four-course complex that has up to 140,000 rounds annually:
“In the spring, I don’t see too much affecting maintenance practices. Everything is slow getting started then, including the golfers. Stretching out play in the fall might affect some projects and aerification, things like that,” says Lapp, a 43-year GCSAA member whose Dubsdread Course will host the BMW Championship in September, one of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup playoff events.
“A lot depends on how the players react to the change, really,” he adds. “It definitely will increase the length of the season. It’ll be interesting to see how it turns out.”
Gary K. Carls, CGCS, golf operations supervisor for the city of Sunnyvale, Calif., which includes an 18-hole course and nine-hole layout that have 150,000 rounds between them annually:
“In our case, I don’t think it will affect how we do anything. Basically, we have lights on all our mowers and we start at 4:50 a.m. year-round,” says Carls, a 25-year member of the association. “Golfers tend to show up here when it’s daylight and leave when it’s dark. It’s not like we’re going to have more than we already have. What the time on the clock says really doesn’t matter.”
Carls sees the possibility of more play later in the day — in the past the action has dwindled after 2 p.m.
“It might pick up a little because people can play an hour later,” he says. “Right now, if they can’t play 18 holes, then they’re not here. This change might actually benefit our nine-hole course that caters to later play. They may get some after-work play they haven’t normally had.”
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
Soilless sod, a product developed by Mississippi State University, may be the next great thing in the golf course industry. The patented technology features sod that never touches dirt until it is put into place on a course, lawn or sports field. It’s greenhouse-grown from sprigs using degradable cotton-fiber mats and nutrient-enriched water. The Phillips Jennings Turf Farm in Soperton, Ga., a leading exporter of warm-season turfgrass, has acquired the commercialization rights of the soilless sod.
The golf industry outlook has gotten a little rosier, the National Golf Foundation says. In its second annual National Survey of Golf Business Executives, the NGF reports that 28 percent believe things have improved, up from 22 percent a year ago. By the same token, those who say things are worse dropped from 34 percent in 2005 to 28 percent in 2006. Those in a neutral position remained at 44 percent.
According to GCSAA’s latest survey of graduating student members, 71 percent said they felt they were well prepared in equipment and maintenance, followed by workplace communications at 67 percent. Twelve percent said the area in which they were least prepared was financial management, followed by personnel management at 8 percent.
PGA of America’s grow-the-game initiative, Play Golf America, hit an all-time high in participation in 2006 with 6,725 facilities serving as host sites for programs. More than 556,000 participants took part in group lessons and total participants numbered 4.9 million.
Like father, like son?
Editor’s note: The following story first appeared as a GCM Web exclusive in conjunction with the December issue of the magazine.
He has an invitation for a swing analysis at David Leadbetter’s golf school. Nick Price gets regular updates on his progress. He can play equally well left-handed or right-handed (try that!). And he is only 7 years old.
At first glance, you wouldn’t expect Jake Viera to smack the ball off the tee 200 yards or to play par golf from 120 yards in. But the 4-foot-4, 60-pound second-grader has been playing this kind of golf since... well, since he was a kid.
Jake loves golf. He lives it. It’s also no surprise that his father, Ray Viera, has a little something to do with the golf business. Ray is superintendent at The Members Club at Four Streams in Beallsville, Md.
A 5-handicapper himself, Ray says, “When Jake was real small — say, 3 years old — it was really unbelievable to watch people see him play. If they are marginal golfers, they are blown away. He carries the ball over water, has great bunker shots. He’s got a lot of talent and they recognize that.”
For the last two years, Jake has out-distanced his competition in the U.S. Kids Maryland Championship and gone on to finish 20th in the Kids World Golf Championship for 6-year-olds in 2005 and 50th among 7-year-olds at Mid-Pines Golf Club in Pinehurst this past summer.
Ray and his wife, Nancy, say they have never pushed their son to play golf.
“As soon as he could, he naturally started hitting things with the little club — plastic balls, things on the floor and so forth,” says Ray, a 14-year GCSAA member.
Adds Nancy, a non-golfer: “We’re not obsessed with (Jake’s golf). We’re more concerned with whether he has a good time and has learned from the experience.”
Steve Bosdosh, a Golf Digest Top 100 Teacher and head of the golf academy at Four Streams, teaches Jake. And Ray takes him out on the course or the practice range three days a week for a couple of hours.
“He loves the competition,” Ray says. “He’s into wanting to win. He likes to get his position and know where it’s at. He knows each stroke is valuable. We’ve worked on him to not get upset by a bad shot or a poor round.”
“The thing that made me the proudest,” Nancy Viera says, “is that (at Mid-Pines) he never wanted to quit even though he was having a very bad day for him. He never threw a club, he wasn’t crying. There were kids that were doing all of that. He knew he wasn’t in the top 10 or 20, but it didn’t matter.”
Jake’s not so sure about his future, but he does have thoughts on some things. His favorite club? “My pitching wedge,” he says, “because I chip real good and I’ve chipped it right into the hole about five times.”
His favorite golf course? “Four Streams.”
Of course. Something else his dad can be proud of.
— Mark Leslie, free-lance writer
This just in from the American Chemical Society’s press reports —
the first systematic study of inhalation risk for 15 pesticides typically used on golf courses in the northeastern United States shows no serious human health threat. The research was conducted by Cornell University’s Douglas A. Haith, Ph.D., and Rebecca R. Murphy, Ph.D. Both, however, noted that a complete risk assessment of the pesticides would have to include ingestion and skin contact, which their study did not consider.Also, the scientists said the pesticides could pose significant health risks at other locations around the country where golfers may be exposed to higher concentrations because of warmer temperatures and lower wind speeds. For more information on the study, see the Feb. 1 issue of the ACS journal, Environmental Science & Technology. You can also contact Haith at
607-255-2802.
GCM supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation
Since September 2002, every issue of GCM has ended with the Reflections page, a parting shot to superintendents from a celebrity, PGA Tour pro or sports star. Samuel L. Jackson, Yogi Berra, Tiger Woods and Charles Barkley are just a few of the faces to have graced the page.
The January Reflections featured Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France champion and cancer survivor. Among other things, Armstrong said of the superintendent, “I certainly appreciate the beauty of not just the game, but the beauty of the land and the beauty of the space. ...You go to those places and you realize the design, how beautiful it is, and the level of care (superintendents) put into it. It is special.”
To return the favor, the GCM staff set up its own grassroots fund-raising page for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. GCM is hopeful that fans of Reflections and friends of GCM and GCSAA will consider making a tax deductible donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation in support of cancer research.
“When writing about Lance Armstrong, you have to write about his charity work,” Seth Jones, GCM senior associate editor, says. “It dawned on me that instead of just writing about it, we could get involved with the charity. It was a pleasure working with Armstrong on this story, but it’s been a greater pleasure to help support his worthy cause.”
To read the Reflections article in its entirety, check the January issue or visit www.gcsaa.org/GCM/2007/jan/reflect.asp. To read more about GCM’s interaction with Armstrong, visit the magazine’s blog at http://gcm.typepad.com.
Toad finds haven at mountain course
This issue of GCM features award-winning superintendents noted for their environmental stewardship, including enhancing the existence of endangered wildlife species. Not to be outdone are a couple of GCSAA members at Pole Creek Golf Course in Colorado’s north-central Rockies.
About a half-dozen years ago, Greg Horstman, an independent wildlife biologist who lives in nearby Fraser, began creating habitat for the threatened Southern Rocky Mountain Boreal Toad in four ponds at Pole Creek, a 27-hole facility north of the Winter Park ski area. It’s no wonder the toad is on the state’s endangered list — its survival depends on a diet of very small bugs, not in great abundance in the mountains, and making it through six months of hibernation at harsh high altitude.
But Horstman’s project at Pole Creek has had encouraging results, notably of late. The toad is reproducing in the ideal habitat around the golf property.
When the project began in 2001, Larry Burks, a 19-year GCSAA member, was the Class A superintendent at Pole Creek. He’s now general manager, and seven-year GCSAA member Craig Cahalane is superintendent. Both point out that the pond work has caused no maintenance problems.
“We don’t fertilize near them and we don’t string trim in the surrounding vegetation, and that’s about it,” Cahalane told
GCSAA’s NewsWeekly, adding that supporting the toad has been good public relations for Pole Creek.
“A lot of people in this area know about the work that’s been done and I think it’s given them a good impression of the course,” he said. “We’re doing our part for the environment.”
‘Dr. Joe’ wins USGA Green Section Award
A renowned turfgrass scientist who has emphasized the cure as well as the diagnosis during a 38-year career, Joe Vargas Jr., will receive the USGA Green Section Award this month during the Section’s education conference in Anaheim, Calif.
Vargas’ achievements on behalf of golf course superintendents are many, but three stand out.
He lifted much of the stigma that annual bluegrass (Poa annua) was a bad grass by discovering that it didn’t die from high summer temperatures, but from two diseases common to the grass and suggested management techniques that have made it common on many courses. He also was the first in the early 1980s to recognize the tiny organism that caused Toronto C-15 creeping bentgrass decline and also developed plant protectant chemical timing models to help control the principal diseases for putting greens, such as anthracnose and summer patch.
Besides his research, Vargas, 64 and commonly known as “Dr. Joe” within the industry, has been professor of plant pathology at Michigan State University for nearly four decades. He has published more than 300 articles on turfgrass diseases and related subjects and has delivered more than 1,000 presentations at turfgrass conferences around the world.
The Gerald R. Ford Foundation has established a Memorial Fund for the former president, who died Dec. 26. The fund will benefit the Ford Library and Museum in its role to educate Americans about the unique history and significant events of the Ford presidency.
Ford was a recipient of GCSAA’s highest honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, in 1985. He was the fourth OTMA winner to die in 2006, following Sherwood Moore, CGCS, 1990; Patty Berg, 1986; and Byron Nelson, 1994.
To make a donation to the Ford Memorial Fund, contact the Foundation at 616-254-0396.
Carolina superintendent, Georgia GCSA earn GCSAA government relations honor
Doug Lowe, CGCS, golf course maintenance director at Greensboro (N.C.) Country Club and the Georgia Golf Course Superintendents Association are the winners of GCSAA’s 2007 Excellence in Government Relations Awards.
The awards, which recognize state and local grassroots advocacy, will be presented this month at the Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, Calif.
Lowe, a 20-year member of GCSAA, played an integral role in efforts to give superintendents a voice in guiding water-use legislation in North Carolina.
The Georgia GCSA worked with state water authorities to develop a Best Management Practices for Water Conservation Program. The chapter also created the Georgia Golf Environmental Foundation, whose mission is to blend the business of golf with the responsibility of environmental stewardship.
Case studies of the EGRA recipients are available in the Awards section under the Resources tab of GCSAA Online.
EIFG case studies on the EDGE
The Environmental Institute for Golf, GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, has added a new monthly feature to its Web site this year that promotes case studies from EDGE, The Institute’s online environmental resource.
The feature, “Green Links, Highlights from EDGE,” is hosted by David Phipps, Class A superintendent at Stone Creek Golf Course in Oregon City, Ore., and a seven-year member of GCSAA. Besides writing a column each month, Phipps will have a guest columnist, as well.
Phipps’ guest in January was 29-year GCSAA member Peter Lund, CGCS at Rhode Island Country Club in Barrington, R.I. Lund, one of the winners of the 2005 President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship, comments on an ecological restoration project at RICC.
This month Phipps is featuring Stephen Kealy, CGCS at Glendale Country Club in Bellevue, Wash., who reveals his personal experiences with The First Green of Washington Program.
In March, the guest columnist will be Jim Horne of the U.S. Environmental Agency’s office of wastewater management who will explore the development and implementation of an Environmental Management System at a municipal golf course in Charlottesville, Va.
Twenty-eight-year GCSAA member Alan Nielsen, CGCS at Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Wash., presents a unique story in April — the club’s Audubon committee built and maintains a bird house with a camera installed as a fun way to promote wildlife awareness.
To see these features and others scheduled during the year, go to www.eifg.org, scroll down on Programs & Progress and click on Green Links.
Syngenta agrees to settlement with EPA
Syngenta Seeds Inc. of Golden Valley, Minn., will pay a $1.5 million penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for selling and distributing seed corn that contained an unregistered genetically engineered pesticide called Bt10.
While the federal government concluded that there are no human health or environmental concerns with Bt10 corn, it is still illegal to distribute any pesticide not registered under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
The company, a part of the broader Syngenta family of companies, discovered the unintended release of an unlimited amount of the unregistered corn and immediately reported it to the EPA more than two years ago. The government agencies inspected the disclosure and confirmed the distribution on more than 1,000 occasions between 2002 and 2004.
Besides the penalty settlement, Syngenta Seeds also destroyed all the affected seed.
New muscle for turfgrass research
A new organization, the National Turfgrass Federation, was formed recently and will be a key entity in securing funding for turfgrass research within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Agriculture Research Service.
Among the NTF board members on hand for its inaugural meeting in Washington, D.C., was GCSAA’s director of research, Clark Throssell, Ph.D. The board also met with Congressional staff, USDA officials and the secretary of agriculture, Mike Johanns.
The mission of the new organization is to identify and aid in generating resources and implementation of research through the industry-sponsored National Turfgrass Research Initiative to gain federal funding for turfgrass research.
The NTF also will provide educational information to congressional staff and administration officials regarding the value and scope of the turfgrass industry and its importance to Americans.
Turfgrass industry leaders in Washington for the inaugural meeting of the National Turfgrass Federation included, from left, Brian Horgan, Ph.D., University of Minnesota; Clark Throssell, Ph.D., GCSAA; Bernd Leinauer, Ph.D., New Mexico State University; Mike Kenna, Ph.D., USGA; Warren Bell, Biograss Sod; Tom Delaney, Professional Landcare Network; Kirk Hunter, Turfgrass Producers International; and Kevin Morris, National Turfgrass Evaluation Program.
Clarification
In “Testing, testing, testing,” a story by Sam Ferro that appeared in the November 2006 issue of GCM, a pair of author acknowledgments were inadvertently omitted. Ferro credited Paul Vermeulen (director of agronomy, competition, for the PGA Tour who was formerly a Green Section agronomist with the USGA) and Duane Otto (with Turf Diagnostics & Design) with providing significant assistance in the writing of the story.
Action hot at superintendent’s weather site
It’s no surprise that a golf course superintendent is interested in the weather — few things have more effect on their work. But Jerry Shields, superintendent at Island Springs Golf Resort on St. Joseph Island near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, has taken that interest to another level.
Shields, a five-year member of GCSAA, has created a Web site, http://sooweather.com, that provides what some say is the best weather forecast in the region. And that attracted the attention of the local media.
“I love the fact that weather is part science, part instinct and part nature. There is nothing predictable about it,” the 36-year-old told the Sault Star.
Although he’s been doing weather forecasts for 20 years, Shields’ site is only a year old and has quickly grown from several hundred hits a day to more than 10,000 a day. His experience and knowledge has earned him a reputation for delivering more accurate forecasts for the region than other, more official, sources. He says his interest in the weather began seriously back in 1985 when was working as an irrigation technician at Spring Lakes Golf Club in Stouffville, Ontario.
“I wanted to know what was going to happen at the course so our irrigation would be timely and efficient,” Shields said, adding that since he became a superintendent the forecasts have been even more useful.
“I need to know exactly what’s going to happen on my property. Not just for irrigation, but for chemical and fertilizer applications. I work out the microclimate and get a forecast for our area,” he said. “I’m lucky because the weather and my job as superintendent cross over; they complement each other. That definitely gives me an advantage in several ways. For instance, up here timing of fall chemical applications is critical, so knowing what the weather is going to do is critical.”
Shields’ Web site isn’t an income producer yet, but he said he’s had people asking him for help with everything from wedding plans to concrete pours. Even local snow plow operators and other golf course superintendents are looking for his advice.
— Information provided by GCSAA NewsWeekly
Pillsbury joins advisory council
David Pillsbury, president of PGA Tour Golf Course Properties, is the newest member of The Environmental Institute for Golf Advisory Council. He was selected as the 14th member of the group that provides guidance to The Institute’s board of trustees in the areas of outreach, fundraising and strategic planning.
Pillsbury will serve on the advisory council through 2009. He currently is vice-chairman/treasurer on the board of trustees and will take over as chairman after The Institute’s annual meeting this month.
“We are tremendously pleased that the PGA Tour will continue its seat on the advisory council and that David will be its representative,” said Greg Norman, chairman of the advisory council, CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame. “He will provide great leadership to The Institute’s board of trustees this year and will be a vital asset on the advisory council as well.”
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