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Cyclones blow ’em away in Turf Bowl
Like most dynasties that evolve from various forms of competition, Iowa State University’s reign in GCSAA’s Collegiate Turf Bowl is no accident.
The university’s turf discipline won its sixth title in a row at the 2007 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, and for good measure, also earned the runner-up spot in the 13th annual event which challenges four-person teams to identify soils, turfgrass species, diseases, weeds and insects, as well as answer questions on such topics as mathematics, growth and development, and the business and financial management side of the superintendent’s profession.
ISU’s latest winning foursome included Adam Hebbel, Matt Klingenberg, Brad Johnson and Mark Newton. They are the products of a well-honed program that would rival those of big-time college athletic teams in terms of focus and leaving no stone unturned for the task ahead.
“They put a lot of preparation time into it. They really work hard on it,” says Nick Christians, Ph.D., professor of horticulture at Iowa State and the guiding force of the school’s Turf Bowl dominance. “An important thing we do is send the younger guys who don’t have the course work yet to the competition with the rest of them. They don’t do well, but they learn what to expect and how to study for it.”
Christians sends out an assortment of teams for two major competitions a year — the Sports Turf Managers Association’s Student Collegiate Challenge at its national conference in January (where Iowa State finished second to Tennessee) and GCSAA. In the latter’s Turf Bowl two months ago, ISU had five teams entered. There were 81 teams in the field in all, but it turned out to be a two-school race, with Purdue University taking the third, fourth and fifth places behind Iowa State’s 1-2 finish.
As important as it is, intense preparation is only part of the secret to ISU’s success. For instance, graduate students aren’t eligible to compete, but Christians utilizes those who won as undergrads as trainers for the current teams. This year’s key assistant, or trainer, was Marcus Jones.
Then there are Iowa State’s overwhelming strengths in two key areas of the competition — soils, which plays to the school’s strong emphasis on agronomics, and math, which is right up Christians’ alley. He wrote the book “Mathematics for Turfgrass Maintenance.”
There is also a lot to be said for plain old “winning breeds winning.”
“Once they start winning, they really get into it and start working hard; they start early in the school year and work a lot in the evenings on their own,” says Christians. “And there’s also a lot of luck involved. We’ve won sometimes by only a quarter of a point or a half of a point.”
They also say luck is when preparation meets opportunity.
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
GCSAA Gold Card members and accompanying spouses are eligible for complimentary daily passes to two of the PGA of America’s major tournaments this year — the Senior PGA Championship May 24-27 at Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Kiawah Island, S.C., and the PGA Championship Aug. 9-12 at Southern Hills Country Club, Tulsa, Okla.
To gain access to the events, GCSAA members need to show a current gold membership card and a photo ID at the Will Call trailer, which is located at the main admission gate.
Eye-catching learning curves
The PGA of America is in the business of teaching the game of golf — and with style, too.
For the past half dozen years, the PGA has run one of the most advanced and best groomed teaching and practicing facilities in the industry, the PGA Learning Center in Port St. Lucie, Fla. The 35-acre center adjoins the PGA Golf Club, and few others, if any, are as accommodating to golfers of all skills and needs.
Designed by golf instructors among the PGA membership, the center is state-of-the-art in both its amenities and the remarkable
condition of its bermudagrass turf. Spread over an expanse larger than many nine-hole golf courses, the well-appointed facility features the
re-creation of actual golfing scenarios. To wit:
• Two large tee areas, including 100 private practice stations and fairway target areas
• Two 18-hole putting courses on a 15,000-square-foot USGA green and a 7,000-square-foot USGA putting green
• Chipping and pitching greens for short-game scoring practice
• Eight practice bunkers featuring different design styles and different types of sand
• A three-hole teaching course and private instruction area for PGA professionals
• An on-site fitness center
• A 12,000-square-foot welcome center with computerized video swing and putting analysis
A good part of the center’s attraction is the condition of its turf, which has the reputation of being as good as many of the courses in
the area. The greens are either Champion or Tifdwarf and the rest is 419 bermuda. Everything is groomed immaculately on a daily basis.
“It’s a challenge to keep it in good condition because there is so much usage throughout the year. It would compare to a busy 18-hole public course,” says Bud Taylor, director of golf for PGA Golf Properties in Florida.
The center, which has lights, is open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week year-round. Taylor, who is responsible for the golf operations at the center, notes that the turf maintenance is basically done on a shared basis with the PGA Golf Club, including staff, equipment and supplies. There is a maintenance foreman and some staff always on-site as well.
The maintenance of the center is overseen by the director of agronomy/head superintendent of the 54-hole PGA Golf Club and nearby PGA Country Club course. At this writing, that position had not been filled following the departure of 20-year GCSAA member Dale Miller.
The center’s two most distinct features are connected by design — its fee and its promotion of short-game learning. An all-day ticket and all the premium-quality Titleist practice balls you can hit costs a mere $20 in the prime-time winter months and $16 the rest of the year. The emphasis on the short game is hard to miss.
“As you walk into the Learning Center itself, all of the short-game areas are the first things you see,” says Taylor. “We’ve structured it
that way because all of us need to work on our short games. Charging a daily admission fee instead of charging per bucket of balls encourages people to practice their short game more. That’s why those areas are the first thing you see when you arrive and the last thing you see when you leave. We’ve found that people do use those areas more.”
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
According to research by the National Golf Foundation that was commissioned by GCSAA, golf course superintendents and golf professionals are the key figures in the game for the majority of avid golfers. Sixty-four percent of avid golfers say superintendents play a major role, while 59 percent mention golf pros. More frequent golfers (50 or more rounds a year) are the strongest supporters. Also, 96 percent of avid golfers see the USGA as a leading golf organization, while 75 percent mention the PGA of America and 40 percent mention GCSAA. More than half of frequent golfers mention GCSAA.
The average total annual water budget among GCSAA-member
golf courses is $55,000. Forty-four percent of all facilities surveyed allot
less than $20,000, while 16 percent budget $100,000 or more.
— From GCSAA’s
superintendent profile report
Chopper chrome shines for Nelson event
To no surprise, last month’s EDS Byron Nelson Championship at the TPC Four Seasons Resort near Dallas took raising money for charity to another level.
On April 25, the day before the first round of the event that perennially is a leader in PGA Tour charity dollars, a special motorcycle was unveiled on the first tee. The bike was custom-built by the Teutul family and Orange County Choppers (stars of the Discovery Channel’s “American Chopper”) and was auctioned off to support the tournament’s main charity, the Salesmanship Club Youth and Family Centers.
The Teutuls, who have built custom motorcycles for other charitable endeavors such as the New York 9/11 firefighters and the Make-A-Wish Foundation, actually built two other EDS Byron Nelson Choppers. One went to the winner of the tournament and the third was retained by EDS for use at other events.
The Nelson chopper is a custom Classic Indian motorcycle. Its unique design includes special features like elements of wood and steel to represent the irons and persimmon woods of Byron Nelson’s golf era; 11-spoke wheels that represent Nelson’s unmatched 11 consecutive tour victories in 1945; special color stitching in the leather seat; and diamond-etched engine fins.
Ramina in at Winged Foot; Greytok opts for Oregon scenery
In one of the industry’s more noted moves by a superintendent, Eric Greytok, the youngest golf course management professional to prep for two U.S. Opens, ended a six-year stint at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., recently to hook up with an ambitious new development, Remington Ranch, near golf-rich Bend, Ore.
Greytok, now 34 and a 10-year GCSAA member, was superintendent at Pebble Beach Golf Links when it hosted the U.S. Open in 2000 and turned the trick again last summer when the national championship was played out at Winged Foot. But, anxious to relocate his young family — wife, Kelly; Joe, 3; and Kendall, 18 months — more to the outskirts of the game’s maddening crowd, so to speak, he heard about Remington Ranch in central Oregon, visited the site and soon landed the job.
In late March, Greytok assumed his duties, joining designer Tom Doak in building Wicked Pony, the first of three planned courses at Remington Ranch, a residential/resort development that comprises almost 2,100 acres.
In the meantime, Greytok’s replacement at Winged Foot is Paul Ramina, who had been the Class A superintendent at Hamilton Farm Golf Club in Gladstone, N.J., since 2002. Ramina, a member of GCSAA for 14 years, also spent four years as superintendent at Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif., home of the PGA Tour’s Nissan Open.
Gordon McKie, a 12-year golf course management veteran for Scotland’s St. Andrews Links Trust, is the new head greenkeeper at the Old Course. He replaces Euan Grant, who is involved in a new golf development in the Mull of Kintyre. In his tenure with the Trust, McKie has been head greenkeeper at both the Eden Course and the New Course.
Superintendent gives time to prep golf team
The nameplate on Jeff Gullikson’s desk only tells the half of it. CGCS at Spokane (Wash.) Country Club, he is now known, among other things, as the boys golf coach for Northwest Christian High School.
Gullikson, a 23-year member of GCSAA and the 2004 recipient of the association’s President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship, took over the program when the former coach left just a few weeks before the current season got under way.
“I’d never envisioned myself in this position,” Gullikson said in the March 29 edition of Spokane’s Spokesman Review. “But, I like teaching golf and I love being around kids, so I’m having a great time.”
Indeed, he inherited quite a legacy. Despite not having a home course, the Crusaders have won two Class 2B state championships and finished second twice since 2000. Moreover, both the NWC boys and girls teams won state crowns in 2005 and 2006. Gullikson has 14 team members this spring, including five returning varsity players from last year’s state champs.
“I think the success of the program has brought more kids out,” he said. “We’re having fun and we don’t cut and that appeals to kids. ...We have a collection of really talented players coming through the school right now.”
Two key challenges Gullikson faces beyond coaching are familiar among small schools — not much of a budget and players who also participate in other spring sports. To the financial end, he put together a workshop in April and called upon a longtime mentor and two-time Pacific Northwest Golf Association champion, Bill Meyer, to give a talk on the mental side of the game.
Bayer, post-patent firm at odds
It’s getting interesting already in the volatile post-patent arena during the first full year that generic imidacloprid products are available on the pesticide market.
Bayer CropScience LP said recently that it will vigorously defend its intellectual property rights regarding its patented use of imidacloprid on fertilizer. The statement comes on the heels of a lawsuit for a declaratory judgment filed by Etigra, a post-patent pesticide company out of Cary, N.C.
Etigra claims its method of formulating imidacloprid on fertilizer does not violate the Bayer-owned patent. The company also accuses Bayer and its subsidiaries of threatening Etigra and its potential licensees and customers with a patent-infringement suit if they license or purchase a new Etigra product called Imida E-Pro fertilizer. Imida E-Pro combines a plant fertilizer and imidacloprid.
“As we developed our imidacloprid fertilizer formulation, we found a method that not only circumvented Bayer’s patent, but also improved on it,” said Randy Canady, Etigra’s chief operating officer. “We offer a formulator-friendly formulation that is cleaner and more efficient.”
Bayer officials said they are confident that their patented uses will be upheld. The company invented the mixture of imidacloprid on fertilizer, which has been sold by Bayer Environmental Science under the brand name of Merit for more than 10 years. Bayer says the technology revolutionized insect control on lawns and golf courses while providing significant application convenience to users.
Ominous hurricane season predicted
After a relatively normal year on the tropical storm front in 2006 — despite predictions to the contrary — the experts expect a “very active” Atlantic hurricane season this year.
Forecaster William Gray, who heads the Tropical Meteorology Project at Colorado State University and has more than 40 years of experience in tropical weather research, says that global oceanic and atmospheric conditions point to the likelihood of more than 15 named storms, including five major hurricanes with sustained winds of 111 mph or more. He added that the probability of a major hurricane making landfall in the United States this year was 74 percent. The average over the last century is 52 percent.
The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to Nov. 30. In 2006, there were 10 named Atlantic storms and five hurricanes, a “near normal” season and below forecasts of a more dire nature.
Gray’s research team attributed last year’s somewhat calm hurricane season to an unexpected late El Niño, which, among other things, changed wind patterns in the eastern Atlantic. “We do not think that’s going to be an inhibiting factor this year,” says Phil Klotzbach, a member of the CSU team, who notes that a weak El Niño occurred in December and January, then quickly dissipated.
As part of its continuing efforts to create opportunities in people’s lives through golf, the USGA has awarded a new round of 84 grants totaling more than $1.6 million to nonprofit organizations that will reach nearly 50,000 economically disadvantaged children and individuals with disabilities. The initiative, “For the Good of the Game,” has totaled more than $55 million in grants since 1997. The 2007 grants range from $150,000 to the LPGA Foundation in Daytona Beach, Fla., to $640 to Whittier Middle School in Lorain, Ohio.
Masters-ful touch at Shell Houston Open venue
GCSAA and superintendent Roger Goettsch, CGCS, were featured in The Golf Channel’s March 29 newsletter kicking off the Shell Houston Open at the Redstone Golf Club.
The coverage centered on Goettsch’s modification of some course conditions at Redstone to match as close as possible those that confronted the field the following week at The Masters at Augusta National.
Goettsch, a member of GCSAA for 29 years, and his staff lowered the cutting height of the rough from the usual 3-4 inches to a Masters-like 11⁄2 inches, lowered the cut of the collars and green surrounds and amped up the green speeds as much as possible.
The Golf Channel sends out four (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) newsletters to more than 600,000 subscribers each week. To sign up for the e-mails and see the above feature and future coverage of GCSAA, use the following link: www.thegolfchannel.com/core.aspx?page=15700.
EIFG elects leaders, funds new research
The dynamics continue for The Environmental Institute for Golf, which elected new officers and added three members to its board of trustees during The Institute’s winter meeting held in conjunction with the Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, Calif.
The EIFG also recently announced the funding of nine new research projects, including eight in the Chapter Cooperative Research Program and one in the Michael Hurdzan Endowment Fund/Chapter Cooperative.
David Pillsbury, president of PGA Tour Golf Course Properties, is the new chairman of the EIFG board, while Bob Wood, president of Nike Golf, was elected vice chairman/treasurer. Pillsbury also represents the Tour on The Institute’s advisory board.
New three-year-term trustees are Herbert V. Kohler Jr., chairman, CEO and president of Kohler Co.; Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS, GCSAA Secretary/Treasurer and director of grounds at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J.; and Victoria Martz, vice president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and senior golf course architect and director of environmental design for Palmer Design Co.
Retiring from the board of trustees are Sean A. Hoolehan, immediate past president of GCSAA and CGCS at Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton, Ore.; Michael Hurdzan, Ph.D., Hurdzan/Fry Golf Course Design Inc.; and Ron Jackson, CEO of Meadowbrook Golf.
Total funding for the nine new research projects will be more than $157,000 over the next three years. All the projects focus on problem-solving research that yields results that can be put into practice by superintendents.
The nine projects will be profiled in the Cutting Edge section
of GCM over the next four months, beginning with this issue.
For the typical modern-day superintendent, maintenance tasks barely outweigh the leadership, personnel and business issues that the job entails. GCSAA-member superintendents say they devote 33 percent of their time to maintenance, while supervisory and human resources duties consume 32 percent and business tasks 28 percent.
— From GCSAA’s superintendent profile report
From frequent flier to ad model
It’s not at all uncommon for a golf course superintendent to appear in advertising ... after all, they are the perfect spokesperson for any turf product. But it’s far less common to see someone from the turf industry in a national ad.
So when Terry Buchen, CGCS, MG, president and consulting agronomist for Golf Agronomy International, showed up in a print ad for Southwest Airlines, people noticed.
According to Buchen, since the ad appeared in Southwest’s in-flight magazine, Spirit, and several business publications in California and on the East Coast, he’s had several friends and business acquaintances comment on it.
“It’s been fun,” Buchen said. “The whole process was enjoyable.”
Buchen is a third-generation superintendent who managed golf courses for 26 years, then started his consulting business in 1996. Since then, the 37-year member of GCSAA has been doing a lot of flying. In fact, he’s been doing so much flying on Southwest that he got to know some of the marketing people in Baltimore. (Buchen lives in Virginia.) Last fall some of them approached him about doing a print advertisement for the airline.
“They proposed the ad because they have a lot of customers who are golfers and they wanted to do something that would appeal directly to them,” Buchen said, adding that the copy for the ad would focus on how Southwest’s service has helped him run his company.
Buchen agreed to do the ad, and the company flew him and his wife to Austin, Texas, for a shoot. Once there, Buchen said, they outfitted him in some new clothes, including a golf shirt from Neiman Marcus.
The photo shoot took four hours, during which Buchen posed with a golf club and a variety of maintenance tools.
“The photo shoot was fun. There were a surprising number of people in the studio and they all worked to get the shots they wanted. In fact, there was one person whose only job was to straighten out my shirt and pants between each photo,” he said.
“I also got some free airplane tickets on SWA and I got to keep all of the nice clothes,” Buchen added.
— Ken Moum, GCSAA NewsWeekly editor
Venerable Pine Valley still heads Top 100
Pine Valley Golf Club, hidden by the forests of southern New Jersey and ultra-exclusivity, remains atop Golf Digest’s biennial listing of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses.
The magazine released its 2007 rankings — the package includes America’s 100 Greatest Public Courses and the best courses in each state — in its May issue. The package also can be accessed at www.golfdigest.com/100greatest.
In the biggest news among the top 100, Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, N.Y., took over the No. 2 spot from Augusta National, which dropped to No. 3. The others in the top 10, in order, are Cypress Point Club, Oakmont Country Club, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Merion Golf Club, Winged Foot Golf Club (West), Seminole Golf Club and Crystal Downs Country Club.
The Golf Digest rankings are the industry’s oldest, having debuted in 1966, and are based on the extensive play and judgment of thousands of courses by the magazine’s course evaluation panel of more than 800 men and women golfers.
GCSAA earns new laurels in BoardRoom
The BoardRoom magazine recently named GCSAA its 2006 association of the year. GCSAA also won the honor in 2004.
The magazine’s ninth-annual Excellence in Achievement Awards are featured this month in its May/June 2007 issue. The BoardRoom notes that GCSAA’s selection for 2006 was largely for its leading role in integrating the Club Managers Association of America into the Golf Industry Show. CMAA debuted as a presenting partner with GCSAA and the National Golf Course Owners Association in the 2007 GIS at Anaheim, Calif., in February.
“It’s an honor to be selected as the association of the year for a second time,” GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE, said in a GCSAA release. “The Golf Industry Show is more than a combination of various trade shows. It’s a collaborative effort of all partners and supporting organizations to provide a valuable resource to the industry. The whole is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.”
The Excellence in Achievement Awards are also featured at www.boardroommagazine.com.
Birdies & bees: Golf can enhance pollinator conservation
The National Academy of Sciences has released a report on the declining status of pollinators in North America. The study noted that golf courses can play a key role in restoring and conserving pollinator habitat.
Pollinators such as butterflies, bees, beetles, flies and hummingbirds move pollen from flower to flower, resulting in successful seed set and fruit production for more than 70 percent of flowering plants. Humans rely on these plants for food, and wildlife rely on them for food and habitat.
Pollinator conservation is well-suited to golf courses because the habitat — flowers and nesting sites — can be small and scattered in patches across a layout, supporting healthy and diverse pollinator populations. More extensive golf properties also offer great opportunities in out-of-play areas. For the best habitat benefit, flowers should bloom throughout the growing season.
“As superintendents, we can create and maintain habitat with little effort,” says David Phipps, CGCS at Stone Creek Golf Course in Oregon City, Ore., and president of the Oregon Golf Course Superintendents Association. “All we have to know is how to recognize these little critters and what their habitat looks like. When you get down on their level, you can surely see their beauty and the remarkable world in which they live.”
The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, based in Portland, Ore., offers information and practical advice about pollinator conservation on golf courses. Xerces’ pollinator program director, Matt Shepherd, can be reached at 503-323-6639 or at mdshepherd@xerces.org. The society’s Web site is
www.xerces.org.
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