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Vermeulen makes the leap to PGA Tour post
After two decades as an agronomist with the USGA Green Section, Paul Vermeulen has embarked on a significant career move as the new director of agronomy, competition, for the PGA Tour.
“I wanted a change, wanted a challenge, wanted an opportunity ... all of the above,” says the 10-year GCSAA member who will oversee the tournament agronomy for 140 golf courses that will host PGA, Champions and Nationwide tour events in 2007.
In an interview with GCM, Vermeulen talked about his new job and the opportunity to expand his working relationship with GCSAA and superintendents throughout the country. Below are some of the highlights from that interview. A full transcript of the conversation is available on GCM’s blog — From the Desk of GCM — at http://gcm.typepad.com.
GCM: Considering your background as an agronomist, including varying degrees of experience in all six Green Section regions, what value do you intend to bring to the PGA Tour’s golf course management philosophy?
Paul Vermeulen: I hope to bring all of my collective experience in different parts of the country and put the experience to work for the Tour. Being a member of the Green Section staff, I’ve developed some strong contacts, not only throughout the USGA, but throughout the research community, the golf course superintendent’s community, other associations and friendships and professional relationships.
GCM: Does being close to past controversies over USGA course conditioning and setup for its national championships, notably the U.S. Open, give you an advantageous perspective on the issue?
PV: I won’t call course conditioning an issue. To be honest, I’m not sure there is controversy between Tour players, the USGA and course setup. It’s more of a media storyline. The USGA actually has a public set of course conditioning guidelines ... There’s no mystery there anymore. It’s important to recognize the rhetoric from the reality.
GCM: It’s likely that you will be working with superintendents you’ve built relationships with in the past. Won’t that be a major plus?
PV: That would be absolutely magnificent if one of the tours would go to a course I’ve worked with in the past. The superintendents I’ve worked with the past 20 years are really more than clients to me — they’re friends. Having an opportunity to work with a friend again is something that everybody would look forward to.
GCM: How about your relationship with GCSAA? You’ve been a staunch committee member, seminar teacher and supporter of the association’s efforts to enhance the careers of superintendents. Will you be able to continue those supporting roles?
PV: I hope so. I hope to still have all of the time and opportunity to work as much as I can for GCSAA. I’m currently on the Career Development Committee and have been on and off for the past 10 years. When I get the chance, I have every reason to believe that I am going to reach out and lend a hand. I believe in GCSAA and everything it’s trying to do to bring the best and the brightest into the superintendent profession.
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
Some interesting facts regarding the value of golf course management and GCSAA members, according to a recent survey of its readers by Links magazine. The question: What is the biggest golf-related issue that will keep you from coming back to a resort? The replies: Course conditions, 53 percent; high prices, 18 percent; slow play, 13 percent; carts on paths only, 9 percent; poor service, 7 percent.
American Express cardholders got an early Christmas present last month when the USGA announced that the company would become its first-ever corporate partner. American Express cardholders will have the exclusive opportunity to purchase daily or weekly otherwise sold-out Trophy Club tickets to this summer’s U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa. Cardholders also will enjoy other golf experiences, such as exclusive access to other USGA championships and exclusive access to play U.S. Open courses, past and present, on select USGA-hosted days.
Husqvarna takes its message to the masses in the golf industry
KANSAS CITY, Kan. — The chainsaw training on Scott Cummins’ calendar was not something he was looking forward to.
One, it was going to be held here at Dub’s Dread Golf Course, where Cummins is assistant superintendent, which meant he’d be stuck with cleaning up the fallen trees — and he’d have to hustle, too, since there was a big tournament that weekend.
Second, he figured that since the chainsaw training was hosted by Husqvarna, it would simply be a thinly veiled sales pitch.
However, in hindsight, Cummins was worried over nothing.
“I wasn’t too excited going into it,” the seven-year GCSAA member says. “But I loved it ... I’m glad I did it.”
Husqvarna is making a concerted effort to bring its chainsaw training to the golf course industry. In fact, the company chose Dub’s Dread based on its proximity to GCSAA headquarters. The company met with association executives to discuss how to better make its chainsaw training product more available to golf course maintenance. Three members of the GCSAA staff also joined the class to get the firsthand experience.
“Mostly municipalities sign up for our training — city, state, federal,” David Breeden, national training specialist for Husqvarna, says. “We want to broaden our horizons because we feel there’s a need for this training in the golf course industry.”
Husqvarna puts on approximately 300 two-day classes a year. Day one of class involves lecture and demonstration, with attendees observing but not operating equipment. On day two, class members get to fell their own trees (12 dead or decaying trees were removed from Dub’s Dread, with three of those within play on the course). Each individual is scored on technique and safety. The high score for the day wins a chainsaw.
The course stresses precision. Operators are expected to know exactly where a tree will fall and how far the tree will reach. Attendees are taught to use an open-face notch and hinge system so the tree should never fall unexpectedly.
Cummins says there was no sales pitch attached to the class — it was strictly educational — and he even had a little fun, too. He walked away with a brand new pair of safety chaps for his third-place finish. And the next day, one of the trainers came back to the course to help the crew remove one of the trees that had been brought down.
“Before the class, I never knew exactly what I was doing,” Cummins says. “I’d run a chainsaw before and I thought I knew what I was doing. But I was never 100 percent sure. There was always hope involved that the tree would go where I wanted it to. This has taken out the guesswork.”
— Seth Jones, GCM senior associate editor
Two Pittsburgh-area golf courses, Willowbrook Country Club in Apollo and Westwood Golf Club in West Mifflin, recently earned Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status, bringing Pennsylvania’s total to 17 venues to earn the honor. Both layouts are managed by ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance. Vince Gilmartin, a regional superintendent for the company, led the effort for Audubon certification along with the respective course superintendents — Ed Lach, CGCS at Willowbrook and a 28-year member of GCSAA, and Mike DeLeonibus of Westwood GC, a five-year member of GCSAA. “We would like to recognize the support shown by the clubs and their members, the personal commitment demonstrated by Ed Lach and Mike DeLeonibus and the overall collective effort of everyone involved in this significant achievement,” says Gilmartin, a Class A superintendent and a member of GCSAA for 13 years.
The FBR Open in Scottsdale, Ariz., one of the liveliest and highest-attended tournaments on the PGA Tour, will put its popularity among the masses to the test in 2008 when it shares the spotlight with the Super Bowl in nearby Glendale. Held at the Tournament Players Club of Scottsdale, the FBR dates are Jan. 31-Feb. 3. The latter date is also the day of the Super Bowl. Barring a playoff or weather delay, tournament officials expect play to be completed by 4 p.m. that Sunday, about 20 minutes before kickoff some 45 miles away. FBR Open chairman Pat McGinley says he and organizers are not concerned that the tournament will be going up against the week-long hype that surrounds the Super Bowl. “We think it only enhances what we’re doing,” he says. “The Valley will be the center of the sports universe.”
Going to extremes in Central Kansas
WAMEGO, Kan. — On a brisk October day in this north-central Kansas town, superintendent Trampis Nickel unloaded seemingly endless boxes of golf goodies for the course he oversees, Wamego Country Club. From golf flags, seed and soil caddies, tee markers and aluminum cups to turf pluggers, spiked rollers and squeegees, the accessories came as the result of Wamego’s big win in Standard Golf’s Extreme Course Makeover Challenge.
It all started as a way for Standard Golf to promote its new service, SG Express. To reward its customers during the first few years of the service, and to get the word out, Standard Golf latched on to a big trend in TV pop culture — the extreme makeover, with the winner set to receive $10,000 worth of the company’s products.
SG Express began a few years ago when the golf course accessory manufacturer decided there was a better way to service its end-users, despite the fact that it sells products to them indirectly through a network of about 150 domestic distributors.
The company kept receiving phone calls from customers with issues such as stolen goods. A staff member would then redirect the customer to the nearest distributor to put in an order for new supplies.
That worked out fine, says John Kelly, Standard Golf’s director of marketing. But sometimes it would take several days for the distributor to turn the order around, plus another couple of days to ship, and the company knew it could provide better service without eliminating the middle man.
The result was SG Express, which guarantees delivery of products within 24 hours at no added cost. SG Express members could now order accessories and have them delivered to their shop within one business day. Meanwhile, the local distributor still issues the invoice, retaining the business.
As for the reward — golf course accessories valued at $10,000 — Wamego was chosen out of 20 randomly selected SG Express members. Those 20 were asked to submit some basic info on their course and an essay stating why they deserved an extreme course makeover. Second-, third- and fourth-prize winners received $1,000. Wamego was the clear winner, Kelly says, largely because of the volunteerism and generosity showcased by its members.
Randy Peterson, past president of the Wamego CC board, wrote the essay for the contest, emphasizing the low-budget club’s history of its membership contributing time, labor and money to keep the facility afloat. From digging up rocks, laying irrigation, landscaping and even building a halfway house and bathrooms, almost every element of the course has been made possible through the club’s members.
A recent project upgraded the course from nine holes to 18. That renovation alone garnered close to $250,000 worth of donations from the club membership, not including labor, but Peterson is reluctant to boast about such a remarkable case.
“In a lot of small towns, people are willing to pitch in and help their neighbors,” he says. “In this case, they’re pitching in and helping their fellow country club members.”
Editor’s note: You can read more about Wamego CC, its dedicated membership and the club’s recent expansion and renovation in the April issue of GCM.
— Darcy DeVictor, GCM associate editor
The Kapalua Resort in Lahaina, Hawaii, and the Legends Golf Club in Prior Lake, Minn., won the National Golf Course Owners Association’s top awards for 2006. Scenic Kapalua earned the Joe Jemsek Award, which recognizes the top championship-caliber layouts worldwide that have established reputations as outstanding destinations.The Legends, meanwhile, was named 2006 Course of the Year, which honors a NGCOA-member facility with exceptional quality and superior management, including contributions to the game and support of its community. The honored personnel at the two venues includes the superintendents — Rob St. Sauver, golf course maintenance director at The Legends and a nine-year member of GCSAA, and Greig Trentholme, head superintendent at Kapalua’s 36-hole facility. NGCOA also announced its 2006 Donald Rossi Award winner, Marcel Welling, CEO of BurgGolf, which owns 30 courses in the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium and Spain and has been instrumental in strengthening the European Golf Course Owners Association.
SePro unveils new research facility in North Carolina
WHITAKERS, N.C. — The SePro Corp. used to have one main claim to fame in the golf course management industry — its plant growth regulator Cutless.
But that familiar product is going to have to get used to sharing the spotlight a little following the company’s official unveiling in late October of its massive new research facility, located just outside this small North Carolina town about an hour northeast of Raleigh.
To be truthful, the facility is not new — former chemical giant Zeneca (now, following a series of corporate mergers, Syngenta) first opened the facility in the late 1980s, and SePro acquired the property in August 2004 — but as advertised, it is huge. The campus covers 410 acres, which is almost twice as big as the sparkling research facility kept by Bayer Environmental Science in nearby Clayton, N.C.
Officially dubbed the SePro Research and Technology Campus, the facility has a 7-acre tract dedicated to the company’s work in turf and ornamentals, including a full-size putting green. The additional laboratory space in Whitakers nearly doubles the company’s previous capabilities, and its location just up the road from North Carolina State has given SePro additional cooperative research opportunities.
SePro also leases a portion of the facility not being used for current research to a commercial sod-producing company, Vandemark Farms.
SePro’s primary market is in aquatics, where it is an industry leader in aquatic herbicides and plant growth regulators. That’s why the 13-acre lake, 11 acres of research ponds and mesocosms and several other small irrigation ponds in Whitakers made the property so attractive to the company. The fact that SePro President and CEO William H. Culpepper grew up in the area only added to the facility’s allure.
The grand opening celebration, which attracted plenty of local dignitaries and industry leaders like RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) President Allan James, included tours of the property, hot-air balloon rides, a North Carolina barbecue dinner and a fireworks display that lasted nearly 45 minutes and slowed traffic to a standstill on a nearby highway.
— Scott Hollister, GCM editor
Minnesota Twins recognized for stewardship efforts
Project EverGreen’s 2006 stewardship award was given to the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball for its Community Fund, which has enhanced green space for children over the past seven years.
The Fund has granted more than $1.1 million to improve 285 ball fields in the upper Midwest and southwest Florida in the United States, and in Latin America. Co-sponsoring the Twins’ Fields for Kids program in 2006 were The Toro Co. and Land O’ Lakes. “Studies show that green spaces are key to children’s emotional and physical health,” said Den Gardner, executive director of Project EverGreen. “The Fields for Kids program improves kids’ lives one ball field at a time.”
New tees all in good taste
Maybe the habit of sticking a golf tee in your mouth isn’t so nasty after all. Patent-pending Tasty Golf Tees LLC features pegs made from natural, uncoated wood that are sterilized and flavored, and are marketed as the only tees in the game that are safe to put in your mouth... before you stick them in the ground, of course.
The tees, which are available via www.GolfTees.com, come in such flavors as cherry, grape, strawberry and mega-mint and in bags of 10, 20 and 50.
The company claims the tasty tees perform like a regular tee but without the toxic lacquer or paint finish. They also are manufactured to FDA approval.
Top power equipment firm buys National Mower
Ariens Co., a producer of outdoor power equipment for consumer and commercial use, made a major move recently to enter the golf course marketplace when it acquired the assets of National Mower, a well-known manufacturer of specialty mowers designed for golf and sports turf maintenance.
“National Mower is a strong niche player that will give us access to the golf and sports turf market,” Dan Ariens, president of the Brillion, Wis.-based company said in a press release. “National has built a tremendous reputation around the world with its brand of mowers, and we look forward to growing the National brand through the current channels of distribution focused on golf and specialty turf management.”
National Mower has been run by the Kinkead family since 1919 and is headquartered in St. Paul, Minn. John Kinkead, who was chairman of National, will move on to focus his efforts on another family business, Turfco, joining his sons George and Scott.
“Ariens is positioned to carry the National brand forward and continue a legacy of innovation and entrepreneurship in the power equipment industry,” John Kinkead said.
Stan Kinkead, former president of National, will stay on with Ariens as divisional vice president of National Mower turf products. He told GCM that the deal is well timed to boost National’s marketing of its new I-Trim series of mowers, which were introduced in 2006.
“The biggest plus for us is that now we’ve got a lot more horsepower as part of Ariens,” Stan Kinkead said.
Ken Venturi, GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award winner in 1998, underwent heart surgery Dec. 1 at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “It was a five-way bypass and they did some valve repair,” said Ken Terjesen, the business manager for the 76-year-old Venturi. “The doctors were very pleased with the operation. The prognosis is good.” Venturi won 14 PGA Tour events, including the 1964 U.S. Open. He retired at age 33 and was a longtime golf analyst for CBS-TV.
USGA grows the game for thousands more
The USGA’s highly successful effort to bring golf to those who otherwise might not have the opportunity to learn the game continued with a bang recently when the association awarded 29 grants adding up to $609,070 to nonprofit organizations to support affordable and accessible golf programs and facilities around the country.
The new awards are expected to reach more than 7,500 youths and individuals with disabilities. The funds will be used for instruction, golf course and range access, equipment, transportation and facility construction. Last April, the USGA program surpassed its goal of awarding $50 million in grants “for the good of the game” during the decade of 1996-2006. It is committed to a new goal — reaching $65 million within the next three years.
Middle America slump keys participation decline
Beset by a sharp plummet in golf participation in the Midwest, rounds played in the U.S. in October were down 6.7 percent compared with the same time a year ago, according to stats compiled by the National Golf Foundation. The decline continued a late-year trend in which the nation’s rounds were up the first four months of 2006 and down the last six months of the year.
Play in the Midwest was down significantly among the 11 regions tracked by the NGF. The Upper and Lower Midwest combined have more than 5,000 facilities — amounting to almost a quarter of the total October volume — and rounds in those two regions for the month were down 26 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
The October results left the nation’s overall participation through the first 10 months of 2006 at +0.3 percent. For a comprehensive view of the latest NGF statistics, visit www.ngf.org.
Former GCSAA member killed in fan bus mishap
A former student member of GCSAA, John P. Green of Shawnee, Kan., died Nov. 18 in a traffic accident involving a bus transporting Kansas State University fans to the school’s football game with the University of Kansas in Lawrence.
Green, a sales representative for Syngenta Crop Protection, and a co-worker were taking five business clients to the game aboard the Cat Tracker, a retrofitted fan bus. According to Lawrence police and area news reports, Green was among several people riding on the top porch of the double-decker bus en route to the KU football stadium when he struck the lower portion of a 15-foot-high overpass. He died at the scene.
Green, 27, was a turf and business administration student at K-State, graduating in 2002. He held a GCSAA student membership for two years. He had worked for Syngenta since 2004.
Survivors include his wife, Samantha. The birth of the couple’s first child is expected this month.
Karen Moraghan, wife of the USGA’s director of championship agronomy Tim Moraghan, was recently elected to the board of directors of the Executive Women’s Golf Association. She is president of Hunter Public Relations/Special Events, an acknowledged expert in golf and hospitality marketing strategy and a longtime producer of national sports events, including the Payne Stewart Memorial Service at the 2000 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.
Correction: In the October 2006 issue of GCM, there is an error in “Dormant seeding: a new option for establishing bermudagrass” by Bradly Shaver; Mike Richardson, Ph.D.; John McCalla, Ph.D.; Doug Karcher, Ph.D.; and Pat Berger. On P. 94, in Figure 2, the second date from the left in the photo should be March 15, not May 15.
Golf and the juice
- While the LPGA recently announced that it will begin drug testing in 2008, the PGA Tour continues to waffle on testing, although several top players have said they favor the scrutiny and the Tour’s policy board has approved the creation of a list of banned substances.
- And then there’s Brian Mogg, one of Golf Magazine’s top 100 teachers and the head of instruction at the Golden Bear Club at Keene’s Points in Windermere, Fla., who said in the Nov. 27 issue of Sports Illustrated, “I’ve heard of one top player using performance-enhancing help. Get ahead of the issue!”
- Describing drug testing as a constant, weekly proposition, Peter Dawson, chief executive of the Royal and Ancient Club of St. Andrews, said that the ruling organization for golf outside the U.S. wants the sport to regularly conduct testing before drug controls are instituted at the British Open. “If it becomes the norm in elite play, then we would certainly do it,” he said. “We can’t be first because we can’t conduct a policy for one week of the year.”
- Meanwhile, the results from the first-ever drug tests at a high-caliber golf event were all the sport could hope for. Twelve players — six each randomly selected from the men’s and women’s divisions — competing in the World Amateur Team Championship in late October in South Africa all tested negative for substances on the World Anti-Doping Association’s prohibited list. The event is conducted biennially by the International Golf Federation, which is run jointly by the USGA and the R&A.
Hoolehan addresses Rutgers turf grads
GCSAA President Sean A. Hoolehan, CGCS, was the keynote speaker at the 17th annual graduation and turfgrass student awards ceremony for the Rutgers Professional Golf Turf Management School on the Cook College campus.
Hoolehan, superintendent at Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton, Ore., is a 1991 graduate of Rutgers’ two-year golf turf management program. He highlighted his address with his experiences as a student and the many lessons he has learned during his rise to the GCSAA presidency.
Hoolehan, a 22-year member of GCSAA, also received one of two achievement awards presented at the ceremony, the Rutgers Turf Management School Award for Professional Excellence. The other honor, the Rutgers Turfgrass Alumni Association Achievement Award, was given to Richard Buckley of the Cook College department of plant pathology.
The event marked the graduation of nearly 70 students in the university’s two-year certification program. A total of $87,000 in scholarships also were awarded to students studying turfgrass science at the Cook College facility.
Popular Web site promotes social side of golf
MyGolfBuddy.com (MGB), a unique resource for the average amateur golfer, is one of the fastest-growing sites of its kind. Since its launch in February 2005, MGB membership has risen steadily to almost 7,000, including a jump of 4,500 since January 2006, proving the success of its novel approach.
Memberships provide a geographically enabled partner search engine and free messaging and then later a free USGA-compliant handicapping service with local USGA-sponsored golf facilities.
Unlike the ubiquitous golf-related social networking sites that have popped up in the past couple of years while trying to mimic the success of sites like MySpace, MGB has instead focused on matching golfers locally for more rounds and providing information and services specifically designed to help people play more golf and to play better golf. This approach has led to rapid expansion, widespread popularity and regular use by members, according to the company.
Soon, MyGolfBuddy.com will expand its services to the wireless world by enabling cell phone and PDA users to take advantage of its partner search and USGA handicapping capabilities.
— WorldGolf.com
Racing champ hurt in golf car mishap
NASCAR’s 2006 champion Jimmie Johnson raced relatively unscathed en route to winning the sport’s Nextel Cup, but he didn’t fare so well “horsing around” in a golf car during a celebrity tournament in Lecanto, Fla., last month.
Johnson broke his left wrist when he fell off of the top of the vehicle. According to The Associated Press, earlier accounts said Johnson had fallen out of the vehicle when the driver made a sharp turn. However, a local newspaper reporter who witnessed the incident wrote that Johnson was sprawled across the top of the golf car when his playing partner hit a berm, throwing Johnson several feet to the ground.
NASCAR’s reigning champion seems to be a bit star-crossed of late. Last year’s cup winner, Tony Stewart, broke a wrist and bruised some ribs last January when he flipped a race car in a qualifying race for the Midget Nationals.
Bayer, EIFG pick up GIS tab for five superintendents
Five superintendents recently learned that they would be attending next month’s GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, Calif., courtesy of Bayer Environmental Science and The Environmental Institute for Golf.
For the past four years, Bayer and The Institute, GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, have awarded the grants to assist superintendents with their professional development through participation in the annual conference and show. The winners receive airfare, hotel accommodations, conference full-pack registration, two educational seminars, two tickets to the President’s Celebration and $200 for expenses.
The winning superintendents are Henry Falgout, Chamberlyne Country Club, Danville, Ark.; Jeremy J. Hreben, Kings Gate Golf Club, Charlotte, Fla.; Richard L. Jensen, Crooked River Ranch (Ore.) Golf Club; Ronald W. Randall, Willow Creek Golf Club, Big Flats, N.Y.; and Kraig Stolhammer, Hibbing (Minn.) Municipal Golf Course.
Four of the five will be first-time attendees at the GIS and all but Stolhammer are GCSAA members.
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