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Match play fervor
invades Canada
The peculiarities of major team match play, Ryder and Presidents Cup style, also lend themselves to the needs of golf course setup and preparation.
Blake McMaster, course and property manager at Royal Montreal Golf Club, and many on his current maintenance staff have prepped for a couple of Canadian Opens (1997 and 2001) and collectively are no strangers to demanding conditions for a discerning event on RMGC’s highly rated Blue Course. As the oldest golf club (est. 1873) in North America, Royal Montreal is one of the sport’s more revered venues.
Even so, the Presidents Cup and its considerable trappings will be something new when it takes center stage in the historic city bisected by the St. Lawrence River just 30 miles from upper New York State — the first event of its kind ever in Canada.
“The scale is dramatically different from other golf events, even our Open,” says McMaster, a Class A superintendent who has been a member of GCSAA for 22 years. “Just the space they need and the amount of time they need ... the PGA Tour has had advance people on site for two years. The infrastructure started going up on June 1. Having a championship course is one thing; having space for the infrastructure for the needs of the media, the PGA Tour and the corporate facilities is another.”
McMaster adds that to accommodate Cup Crush, many trees adjacent to the playing areas have been removed, and the facility’s Red Course and nine-hole layout, Dixie, will provide parking for thousands of cars and space for other amenities.
McMaster, who has been at RMGC for almost 14 years, notes that September is also when many member events are held, and they will of course go on as scheduled.
“Everything has been condensed into a shorter time period. That’s one of our main challenges,” he says.
The Blue Course, a Dick Wilson design in 1959, was remodeled in 2004-05 by Rees Jones, featuring repositioned fairway bunkers, rebuilt greens and bunker surrounds, and some pond and bridge renovation. The layout will play at par 70 and 7,153 yards.
“We’ve got distance flexibility now,” McMaster says. “The key thing is that the fairway bunkers impact play.”
RMGC sports bentgrass tee through green, and of special concern will be the new L-93 greens, which are the product of an interesting strategy barely three years ago to counter the north country’s short window for growing grass.
“Because of the short season here, we had a local sod producer grow the L-93 on a USGA greens mix and then we actually sodded the greens,” McMaster says. “The greens are sensitive, and you have to be careful. It’s different management than from seed. It presents different challenges, like being able to do enough topdressing to ensure that the seams are smooth.”
The veteran superintendent chose to use narrow sod rolls because of their tendency to knit better and vibrating rollers on triplexes because they are less aggressive when starting and stopping on the fringes.
Having lost less turf last winter than usual, McMaster says he is concerned more about solving staffing issues in September than the late-season weather. The club employs several students in the summer, but they are back in school now. McMaster hopes to complement his seasonal staff of 55 with about 30 volunteers and some turf students from a college in St. Hyacinthe east of Montreal.
Mostly, he intends to fall back on his own Canadian Open experience and that of his top assistants, Greg Greer, a four-year GCSAA member; Marcio Melo and Ruben Melo, and their crews.
“We’ve got a lot of continuity. That counts for something against these challenges,” McMaster says.
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
A National Golf Foundation survey hints that slow play might be more myth than reality. NGF asked public and private course players how long it took to play 18 holes. The most common reply was four hours. More to the point, 90 percent said they play a round in 4½ hours or less.
Nevada courses don’t gamble with water
Southern Nevada golf courses are discovering the benefits of replacing thirsty grass with water-efficient landscaping. Since 2001, Las Vegas area courses have converted more than 18.5 million square feet of grass — about 425 acres — to water-smart, landscaped target-style courses, resulting in water savings of a billion gallons per year.
Eleven courses in Southern Nevada currently are in the midst of landscape conversions, including Red Rock Country Club in Las Vegas, which has converted more than a million square feet this year alone at its Arroyo and Mountain courses.
Two other Vegas course are making similar moves. Spanish Trail Golf and Country Club is undergoing a major overhaul of the entire course, including turf removal, reshaping and improving ponds and moving irrigation lines, according to superintendent Jon Valentine, CGCS. Bill Rohret, CGCS at Angel Park Golf Club, is in the midst of a 70-acre conversion scheduled for completion in 2008. So far, players are giving the changes rave reviews.
“We don’t hear any more complaints about balls being lost in the rough,” Rohret says.
Along with landscape conversions, golf courses are taking other measures to save water. Most facilities have on-site weather stations linked to their irrigations systems by computers that enable them to base their irrigation schedules on daily weather conditions. These systems also monitor evapotranspiration, the amount of moisture given off by grasses and plants, so water is applied only as needed.
Current drought restrictions subject local golf courses to water budgets, restricting them to 6.3 acre-feet of water per acre. (An acre-foot equals about 326,000 gallons.)
“Golf courses are the most judicious business about the way they use water,” says Valentine. “We don’t just set a timer and walk away. Water conservation is one of the biggest parts of what we do every day.”
— Information provided by PR Newswire
America plays golf
Any doubts about the momentum of the PGA of America’s lead grow-the-game initiative, Play Golf America, can be cast aside once again as the program continues to post increases in participation by PGA professionals, facilities and consumers.
The Play Golf America Web site, www.PlayGolfAmerica.com, had a 35 percent increase in traffic in the first six months of this year over all of 2006, including further increases in unique visitors, 440,000; facilities posting events, 1,990; total posted events, 7,800; registered participants, 8,600; and registered Play Golf America facilities, 7,300.
Also, the 10th annual PGA Free Lesson Month featured almost 6,700 PGA and LPGA professionals giving free lessons at 5,400 facilities.
Herbert L. Henkel, chairman, president and CEO of Ingersoll-Rand, is the latest addition to The Environmental Institute for Golf’s Advisory Council. A former executive officer at Textron, Henkel has been with Ingersoll-Rand since 1999. One of Ingersoll-Rand’s key companies is Club Car, a longtime supporter of EIFG’s silent auction, endowment campaign and a Platinum Tee Club-level donor.
Pro-am winners
Celebrating its 10th year, the 2007 John Deere Golf & Turf One Source Superintendent Pro-Am saw the winning team develop industry relationships, along with a best-ball score of 53 to take this year’s trophy. Held during the week of the John Deere Classic at TPC Deere Run in East Moline, Ill., the Pro-Am hosted 112 players, including the winners: Grover Alexander, superintendent, Hudson Hills GC, Ossining, N.Y.; Darrick Prock, Class A superintendent, Superstition Mountain G&CC, Phoenix; Jeff Overton, PGA Tour professional; Mike Koppen, product marketing manager, John Deere One Source; and John Alexander, northeast regional manager, Billy Casper Golf. John Deere is the official golf course equipment, irrigation and One Source supplier to the PGA Tour.
Fruits of labor thrive
at Broken Sound
The importance of immigrant labor to countless golf operations in the United States is featured in this issue of GCM (Labor pains). The following is an example of how the give-and-take between a superintendent, Joe Hubbard, CGCS, and his right-hand man at Broken Sound Club in Boca Raton, Fla., Dieumerite Etiene, a native of Haiti, has been mutually beneficial.
Hubbard, director of golf course maintenance at Broken Sound, likes to say hard work is the American way and counts for a lot in his mind. Etiene says he was chasing an American dream himself when he and his family emigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago. Both seem to have found what they’re looking for at the burgeoning 36-hole club on the glittering coast of south Florida.
A product of the transient life of an Air Force family, Hubbard came up through golf course management the hard way, but on his own terms. At last count, he’s had 17 stops in his career, yet has been a steady and staunch member and supporter of GCSAA for almost two dozen years and has been certified for nearly 20 of those years.
In 2004, Hubbard landed at Broken Sound Club, which has had several superintendents through the years, a fact that didn’t fly under his radar.
“In the interview, I asked who stood watch over the courses when they didn’t have a superintendent or an assistant,” he says. “They said Etiene always handled that. I also noticed who the crew went to all the time for direction. It was Etiene.”
Etiene came to the club in 1987 as a landscape worker and soon was irrigation technician, learning the intricacies of the job as he went. When Hubbard came along 17 years later, his first move was to make Etiene a top assistant. Self-taught and fluent in English, Spanish and Creole French, Etiene was an immediate boost for the new superintendent, who had a staff that included 35 Haitians and Hispanics, all legally documented, but few who spoke English. Etiene tore down that language barrier in quick fashion.
“That’s a tremendous help for us,” Hubbard says. “Some of the other departments here at the club borrow him to help out, too, with staff communications.” (The clubhouse includes several H-2B workers.)
Communications are critical at Broken Sound. Its acclaimed Old Course, headed by course superintendent Phil Peterson, a three-year GCSAA member, hosts the Allianz Championship on the Champions Tour. The club has close to 100,000 rounds played on its two layouts annually.
Three months ago, Hubbard promoted Etiene to course superintendent at the Club Course, Broken Sound’s busiest venue with 65,000 rounds a year.
“Etiene has no turf management or technical background, but in all these years he has become good at recognizing problems. He’s learned well on the job and has a good eye for detail. The golf course is the best classroom in the world,” says Hubbard, who learned a lot on the job himself before getting his turf degree more than a decade after breaking into the profession.
“It’s been trial by fire,” he adds regarding Etiene’s rise to course superintendent. “We were short in a lot of key positions at the time and were also under Phase III drought restrictions here, plus we had some major construction projects going on when he started. I’d say he’s come through pretty good.”
Says Etiene, “I had no idea what I was getting into when I came here, but I learned by watching how other people did things and I was always watching the turf when I was the irrigation technician.”
In recent years, he’s also been able to occasionally complement on-the-job schooling by attending area and regional seminars. Hubbard, meanwhile, has begun guiding him through the steps and paperwork for GCSAA membership.
“I’m looking forward to getting into this work a lot deeper after being promoted,” Etiene says. “I want to get more involved in all parts of the golf course. I hope one day to bring a lot of changes to the golf industry.”
Hubbard has no doubts.
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer
Peanuts appear to be the new entry into the biodiesel fuel market. A new variety of peanut called Georganic currently being tested isn’t up to commercial edible standards, but it is high in oil content and has low production input costs, requiring only one herbicide application and no fungicides.
Three members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects with a combined 107 years of service have been named ASGCA Fellows — Dick Phelps, David Rainville and Roger Rulewich.
Ehrler adds MG to accomplishments
Bob Ehrler, CGCS, director of golf and athletic field maintenance for the town of Huntington, N.Y., recently became the 45th recipient of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association’s coveted Master Greenkeeper designation.
Ehrler, a golf and sports turf specialist who started two companies, Environmental Turfgrass Consulting and Organic Golf Maintenance and Design, is also a Certified Turfgrass Professional and a Certified Golf Irrigation Auditor. A seven-year member of GCSAA, he has taught in the turf management program at Rutgers University.
Ehrler, who has directed the renovations of several golf courses in his career and has built numerous athletic fields, currently oversees the maintenance operations of two golf courses and several athletic fields in Huntington.
Passing noted
Ernie Amsler, director of agronomy at Angus Glen Golf Club in Markham, Ontario, Canada, died July 24, just two days before the club’s South Course hosted the 2007 Canadian Open.
The 66-year-old Amsler had been at Angus Glen since 1991, having directed the evolution of the 36-hole facility from a former cattle farm. He was a member of the Ontario Golf Superintendents Association and the Canadian Golf Superintendents Association. He was a former superintendent at Windmills Golf Club and Mandarin Golf & Country Club.
Doug Taylor, Class A superintendent at Angus Glen GC, is a 10-year member of GCSAA.
Uplift from Down Under
Bonita Springs (Fla.) Elementary is benefiting from the expertise of golf course superintendent Hal Akins, CGCS, and also from a cutting-edge new bermudagrass variety from Australia.
Akins, director of golf course operations at Bonita Bay West, is overseeing the establishment of the grass, Celebration, on the school’s athletic field, which was decimated by neglect. Celebration bermudagrass has rarely been used in this country. It’s touted to be highly tolerant to cold temperatures, drought and wear.
Akins, a 12-year member of GCSAA who has given nature tours to the school’s students in the past, says he plans to assist in the field’s maintenance from now on.
“I can hardly do that (install the new grass) and then let it go to hell again,” he says. “I’ll go over occasionally and make sure it’s OK.”
Plane crash kills two, damages golf course
A new municipal golf course that had been scheduled to open in early August, The Crossings in Carlsbad, Calif., was damaged in a deadly airplane crash July 5. Both the pilot and a passenger in the plane were killed.
The facility’s practice putting green, a nearby bunker, surrounding turf and a transmission tower were all severely damaged or contaminated by aircraft fuel when the plane came down. Also, a maintenance crew member who was on a mower narrowly escaped when he saw the plummeting plane just in time to jump from the mower, which was destroyed in the crash. The worker was sprayed by fuel, but back on the job the next day, according to The Crossings’ superintendent, Chris Latham.
Golfers show off their patriotism
The USGA and the PGA of America joined in supporting the first Patriot Golf Day on Sept. 1 — a day when golfers at participating courses each donated a dollar to the Fallen Heroes Foundation and Wonderful Warriors Inc., two organizations that award educational scholarships and counseling to families who have had a parent wounded or killed in action in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Patriot Golf Day is the brainchild of Dan Rooney, a member of both the USGA and the PGA who served two tours of duty in Iraq as an F-16 fighter pilot. The native Oklahoman is also a former professional tour player who now is an owner of Grand Haven (Mich.) Golf Club.
Change is par for the course
The golf course industry’s reputation for having a peripatetic nature was backed up by some recent statistics from the National Golf Foundation.
In keeping up with nearly 16,000 golf courses in its database, NGF has found that change — people, places and names — is most often the rule. More than 100,000 changes are made annually to the database, including facility names and addresses and, more telling, the movement of people.
Of the estimated 50,400 key personnel at golf facilities, NGF reports that about 9,800 — 19 percent — change jobs each year.
Correction
In the April issue of GCM, the superintendent of Kinderlou Forest GC in Valdosta, Ga., host of the Nationwide Tour’s South Georgia Classic, was misidentified. Steven Singley, a seven-year Superintendent Member of GCSAA, is superintendent. GCM regrets the error.
Back in time
John Ausen, CGCS, longtime superintendent at Hyperion Field Club in Johnston, Iowa, turned back the clock in a big way on July 18 when he made a hole-in-one on the 195-yard fourth hole at Jewell G&CC. The occasion was the Iowa Turfgrass Field Day Classic Golf Tournament, and Ausen was swinging a hickory-shafted cleek or driving iron of yesteryear. Ausen, a member of GCSAA for 31 years, is shown with Randy Jensen, the current National Hickory Golf Champion, who has also won similar titles in Canada and Great Britain.
Colorado HOF honors superintendent
Steve Sarro, superintendent at Vail (Colo.) Golf Club, who was the inspiration behind a 2006 goodwill trip by fellow superintendents and others to help colleagues in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, received the Golf Person of the Year award from the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame during its annual induction ceremonies on Sept. 4.
Sarro says he got the idea when he saw an episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” on TV and wanted to do more than raise money for Katrina relief. He thought superintendents could join forces and use their expertise to help out New Orleans-area golf courses. The 10-year GCSAA member got the ball rolling and before he knew it, 27 volunteers and several industry suppliers from Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and Oklahoma were on board.
The group made the trek to New Orleans during spring break of 2006 and worked on four different golf courses for a week.
Essay winners glean scholarships
GCSAA awarded college scholarships to the top winners of its student essay contest. The stipends will be paid out of the Robert Trent Jones Endowment Fund by The Environmental Institute for Golf, the association’s philanthropic organization.
The winners were, first place, Aaron Johnsen, Woodbury, Minn., graduate student at the University of Minnesota, $2,000 for his essay, “An Exploration of Velvet Bentgrass Use on Golf Greens;” second, David Moody, Cumberland, Maine, a graduate student at Penn State University, $1,500 for his paper, “Soil Water Repellency and Localized Dry Spot: Causes and Management Strategies;” and third, Lindsey Hoffman, North Attleboro, Mass., a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, $1,000 for her essay, “Diagnoses and Management of Salt-Affected Turfgrass Sites.”
The contest is open to GCSAA members who are undergraduate and graduate students pursuing degrees in turfgrass science, agronomy or a field related to golf course management.
The LPGA recently acquired its official developmental circuit, the Duramed Futures Tour. The acquisition puts women’s professional golf in the U.S. under one umbrella. The LPGA has 35 tournaments worldwide, and the Duramed Futures Tour, which has been in operation for 27 years, conducts 19 events in 14 states.
In the news
Course ecosystem meets unlikely foe
A story in the Oklahoma City Journal Record tells about Heritage Hills GC in Claremore, Okla., where a mussel infestation in its irrigation pond clogged irrigation lines, featuring Dan Robinson, Class A superintendent.
A superintendent’s hats
On Course, the official publication of the Midwest Association of Golf Course Superintendents, includes an article written by GCSAA affiliate member Doug Myslinski, ASGCA, from Jacobson Golf Course Design Inc., about the many hats a superintendent must wear during a golf course renovation project or construction of a new course. It features Dan Dinelli, CGCS at North Shore Country Club in Glenview, Ill., and Matt Kregel, superintendent at The Club at Strawberry Creek in Kenosha, Wis.
Two for the money
The Green Section Record tells about the ingenuity of Jason Sanderson, Class A superintendent at Cherokee Country Club in Knoxville, Tenn., who converted a fairway mower to cut grass and also serve as a blower for dispersing clippings all in one job to save time and labor while lessening interference with golfers. The article, written by GCSAA affiliate member Chris Hartwiger, senior agronomist for the Green Section’s Southeast Region, also features former Cherokee superintendent Chris Sykes, now Class A superintendent at Orange Lake Resort & Country Club in Orlando.
TPC Scottsdale replaces salty sod
TPC Scottsdale, host of the PGA Tour’s FBR Open, re-sodded about 30 acres of the Stadium Course where the bermudagrass had all but disappeared from areas on the tees, fairways and green surrounds because of high salinity in the soil. The East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune chronicles the turf troubles, featuring Jeff Plotts, Class A superintendent.
Environmental twist to 2010 Ryder Cup
Expect the 2010 Ryder Cup at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, to be the greenest ever. Ryder Cup Europe, Ryder Cup Wales and the resort have all committed to a plan aimed at making the matches one of golf’s most environmentally sustainable events.
The partners’ environmental action plan includes the likelihood that the matches will be the first international golf event to participate in the European Commission’s Eco Management and Audit Scheme, which Richard Hills, Ryder Cup director, said would “help us better identify, avoid and mitigate the event’s environmental impacts.”
Among other things, the initiative would address the continued preservation of archeological sites of interest within the Celtic Manor Resort grounds.
Designing dollars
Apparently a famous big-name golf course architect is worth his or her weight in gold.
Golf Digest and Business Week magazines recently co-commissioned a study of the work of several noted designers — Pete Dye, Robert Trent Jones Jr., Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, to name a few — and their ability to drive real estate values.
The bottom line was that, on average, the top architects’ signature developments produce a 28 percent higher appreciation rate than others in a local area. Dye’s developments alone, over a five-year period, appreciated at a 60 percent rate over the rest of the areas.
The complete study results were published in the May 28 issue of Business Week and the July issue of Golf Digest.
Legacy awards to 20 students
GCSAA has awarded 20 $1,500 college scholarships as part of its Legacy Awards program supported by Syngenta Professional Products and funded by The Environmental Institute for Golf.
To be eligible, applicants must be a child or grandchild of a GCSAA member. The 2007 winners are:
College
Molly Elmer, University of Arizona
Father: Jeffrey M. Elmer, CGCS, Oakwood Country Club, Lee’s Summit, Mo.
Major: classics/anthropology
Patrick McIntyre, University of California, Santa Barbara
Father: Daniel E. McIntyre, CGCS, Creekside Golf Course, Oakdale, Calif.
Major: business/economics
Casey Wright, Baylor University
Father: Steven M. Wright, CGCS, Boca West Country Club, Boca Raton, Fla.
Major: architecture
Katelin Flynn, University of Colorado at Boulder
Father: Dennis M. Flynn, CGCS, retired, Katonah, N.Y.
Major: studio art (concentration in photography)
Jaron Andrews, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
Father: Marvin R. Andrews, CGCS, Golf Enviro Systems Inc., Albuquerque, N.M.
Major: geology (chemistry minor)
Brianne Smith, Cornell University
Father: Jeffrey A. Smith, assistant superintendent, Springbrook Golf Course, Woodridge, Ill.
Major: biological and environmental engineering
Bethany Brisco, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
Father: Curt A. Brisco, Class A superintendent, Fox Prairie Golf Course, Alexandria, Ind.
Major: mechanical engineering
Jordan Vickers, Case Western Reserve University
Father: Brian D. Vickers, Class A superintendent, Pine Hills Golf Club, Valley City, Ohio
Major: economics/mathematics
High School
Devon Barrett, Michigan State University
Father: James David Barrett, Class A superintendent, Whiteford Valley Golf Course, Ottawa Lake, Mich.
Major: pre-medicine
Stephen Kruzick, Rice University
Father: George Kruzick, CGCS, City of Fort Worth Golf Division, Fort Worth, Texas
Major: electrical engineering
Benjamin Anders, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Father: James T. Anders, assistant superintendent, Buncombe County Golf Course, Weaverville, N.C.
Major: business, emphasis in pre-dental
Hallie Mosblack, University of South Carolina
Father: Daniel T. Mosblack, CGCS, Janesville Country Club, Janesville, Wis.
Major: biological sciences
Justin O’Neill, Brown University
Father: GCSAA past president Timothy T. O’Neill, CGCS, Country Club of Darien, Fairfield, Conn.
Major: undecided
Christie Meda, College of Charleston
Father: David A. Meda, Class A superintendent, Arrowhead Country Club, Myrtle Beach, S.C.
Major: education
Katharyn Heselwood, University of Montana-Missoula
Father: Jon V. Heselwood, Class A superintendent, Buffalo Hills Golf Club, Kalispell, Mont.
Major: English/library science
Rose Orr, Albertson College of Idaho
Father: Kevin S. Orr, superintendent, Quail Hollow Golf Club, Middleton, Idaho
Major: pre-medicine or pre-law
Pamela Erickson, Iowa State University
Father: David S. Erickson, Class A superintendent, Eagle Valley Golf Course, Lake Elmo, Minn.
Major: civil engineering
Ashley Mueller, Purdue University
Father: Steven M. Mueller, Class A superintendent, Pine Valley Country Club, Huntertown, Ind.
Major: pharmacy
Nicholas Hess, University of Texas
Father: Alan D. Hess, CGCS, Augusta Pines Golf Club, Humble, Texas
Major: business
Christen Kerins, University of Central Florida
Father: Richard T. Kerins, CGCS, Tam O’Shanter Golf Course, Hermitage, Pa.
Major: business/communications
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