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USDA slaps Scotts with $500,000 fine
Under several months of pressure in federal courts for what one district court judge described as a “cavalier” attitude toward adequately assessing possible environmental impacts of genetically engineered crops, the U.S. Department of Agriculture came down hard on Scotts Miracle-Gro in late November for the company’s failure to follow regulations governing its development of glyphosate-tolerant, or Roundup Ready, creeping bentgrass.
Scotts was levied a $500,000 fine, the stiffest allowed under the Plant Protection Act of 2000, according to the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). In addition, Scotts will conduct three public workshops for other potential developers of genetically engineered plants and other interested parties. The workshops will focus on best management practices and technical guidance on the identification and prompt resolution of biotechnology compliance incidents.
APHIS said Scotts failed to follow proper equipment-cleaning procedures and to have all the required buffer zones around the genetically engineered crop to prevent mixing with traditional crops. The government agency also alleged that Scotts failed to prevent the Roundup Ready bentgrass or its offspring from persisting in the environment following a field trail in Oregon nearly five years ago. Since 2004, Scotts has been required to conduct monitoring and mitigation actions in Oregon to locate and remove the regulated genetically engineered material that was accidentally released.
“We won’t be growing (genetically altered bentgrass) in Oregon. We took all that out of production two years ago. None of that is viable right now,” Jim King, vice president of corporate communications and investor relations for Scotts, told GCM science editor Teresa Carson.
King added, however, that the company still intends to produce a Roundup Ready bentgrass available to superintendents. “We’re still aggressively seeking to develop the product and sell it to the golf course industry to provide meaningful economic and environmental benefits,” he said.
Much about the civil penalty against Scotts appears to be in the wake of a lawsuit filed a few years ago against the USDA by the Center for Food Safety and a coalition of farmers, consumers and environmentalists. In response, U.S. District Court judges twice last February rebuked APHIS for its failure to adequately conduct more thorough reviews of applications for field trials of genetically engineered crops to determine if they pose a threat to the environment. The courts noted that APHIS violated environmental regulations when it approved field tests without determining whether Scotts’ Roundup Ready bentgrass was a plant pest and could breed with native plants.
“USDA takes compliance with the biotechnology regulations very seriously,” Bruce Knight, the department’s under secretary of marketing and regulatory programs, said in a Nov. 26 news release announcing the action against Scotts. “Compliance is, and will always be, our highest priority and we will continue our rigorous oversight of regulated genetically engineered plants.”
The release also said that best management practices will be a major focus of a biotechnology quality management system developed by APHIS and scheduled for implementation this coming spring. All developers of genetically altered plants, including universities, small businesses and large companies, are encouraged to participate in the voluntary program to help establish policies and quality control practices that proactively address potential issues before they materialize.
GCSAA President Ricky D. Heine, CGCS, will be recognized as an honorary member of the PGA of America later this month at the PGA’s annual meeting in Orlando. Heine will be honored at the event’s general session on Jan. 16.
Golf course real estate fares better than most
Golf course homes seem to hold their value more than other real estate, even in the same Zip code, according to a recent market study by the Longitudes Group.
There may be many things to love about a home on the golf course — nicely trimmed grass, watching golfers of all sizes and sorts playing the game and the short walk to the clubhouse and first tee. But the more financially aware among golf course home owners probably also know this: They have been much more immune to the recent and ongoing real estate market slide than those who don’t enjoy course-side living.
The recent study by the Longitudes Group, a company that specializes in the role sports play in real estate decisions and which was hired by Golf Digest and Business Week magazines to track real estate trends in 40 of the most popular golf course destinations and vacation home markets, found that owners of golf course homes are faring much better in the homeowners market these days.
“Lot values on golf courses have a 40 percent premium over other lots in the neighborhood,” says Sara Killeen of the Longitudes Group. “Even when a market is really getting hammered, people will find a golf course home more appealing than a non-golf home. A golf home is going to out-perform a non-golf home almost every time.”
The firm produced profiles of the five strongest and weakest markets and evaluated how golf course homes appreciated compared to other “standard” properties in their respective Zip codes. Some of the findings were surprising.
For example, Myrtle Beach, S.C., is among the “up” markets the company identified, second only to the North Carolina high country. Myrtle Beach has had a series of golf course closures in the last several years, though it still sports more than 100 courses. Most of those closures were sold for land development. Nevertheless, Myrtle Beach recorded the strongest percentage growth in golf developments of all the areas surveyed, up 34 percent over the past 12 months and 126 percent over the past five years.
Other up markets the group cited were the central Oregon region, east and west of the Cascade Mountains; Park City, Utah; and Vail, Colo.
Down markets included northern Michigan; Palm Springs, Calif.; Reno, Nev.; Sarasota, Fla.; and Scottsdale, Ariz.
Florida, in particular, is suffering, mainly because the state has been on a decades-long building spree. “Overall, Florida is getting hammered ,” Killeen says. “Even if you have a golf course home. For example, Naples. Of the Zip codes we studied, home values were down 12 percent and golf homes were down 10 percent.”
The study confirms that golf course homes aren’t immune to market trends. It’s just that they are holding their value more than other homes. In areas where real estate has taken a hit, golf homes have not gotten as battered as other property in the surrounding Zip codes. Scottsdale’s overall real estate market is down 4.1 percent, while homes in the studied Scottsdale golf developments were up 1.4 percent. The same trend was noted in Reno, Palm Springs and Sarasota.
“Money is just not flowing as easily or as confidently as it was 12 and 24 months ago,” Killeen says “People in all categories are definitely feeling the credit crunch. The very high-end homes — more than $2 million — are holding their own, but people who have to carefully plan out the expense of a second home might be waiting on the sidelines to see what happens.”
— Information provided by Tim McDonald, national golf editor, Golf Publisher Syndications
Five more companies have joined GCSAA’s innovative Partner Recognition Program, including John Deere, which has pledged to invest resources at the program’s highest level, Platinum. The most recent companies pledging their investment support, all at the Silver level, include SePro, Aquatrols, Eagle One Golf Products and Cleary
Chemical Corp.
Michigan GCSA chapters merge
Culminating discussions that have spanned the past half-dozen years, four GCSAA chapters in Michigan recently merged to form the Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association (MiGCSA). The merger received 90 percent approval by the chapters’ individual members.
Comprising the Northern Michigan Turf Managers Association, the Western Michigan GCSA, the Greater Detroit GCSA and the Mid Michigan TMA, the MiGCSA joins GCSAA’s more than 100 affiliated chapters. The mission of the new chapter is to provide leadership for superintendents and other golf industry partners on the economic, environmental and recreational vitality of golf in Michigan.
The four former chapters are now districts and are expected to be influential in developing leadership, facilitating educational programs and services and maintaining a network of regional superintendents and relationships vital for information exchange.
MiGCSA’s interim president is Tim Dorner, CGCS at St. Clair Shores Country Club. The association will elect officers and directors during the Great Lakes Trade Expo this month. Executive director of the new chapter is Donn Eurich of Eurich Management Services. MiGCSA can be reached at 517-327-9207 or www.migcsa.org.
DSA honor goes to CGCS trio
Three accomplished GCSAA certified superintendents are the recipients of the association’s 2008 Distinguished Service Award. Donald Hearn, H. James Loke and Oscar Miles will be honored on Jan. 31 at the Opening Session of the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Orlando.
Hearn, president of GCSAA in 1987, was superintendent at Weston (Mass.) Golf Club for 29 years. He was a staunch advocate of increased education and professionalism in the golf course management industry. A member of GCSAA since 1970, Hearn was also a past president of the New England GCSA and active on the USGA Green Section Committee and in the Massachusetts Golf Association. Besides Weston GC, he had stints as superintendent at Lexington (Mass.) Golf Club and Vesper Country Club in Tyngsboro, Mass.
Loke, a 36-year member of GCSAA, is currently superintendent at Bent Creek Country Club in Lancaster, Pa., and serves on the USGA’s Mid-Atlantic Green Section Committee and the Pennsylvania Turfgrass Council board of directors. He is a past president of both the Central Pennsylvania GCSA and the Northern Ohio GCSA. Loke is considered a pioneer in the use of fertigation and has developed a near-100 percent effective Poa annua-free management program at Bent Creek. While superintendent at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, he prepped for the 1975 PGA Championship and also hosted two Ben Hogan Tour events at Quail Hollow Resort in Painesville, Ohio.
Now retired, Miles has been a member of GCSAA for more than 45 years and is renowned as an industry expert who has mentored more than 75 interns and was a leader in soil temperature research and lightweight fairway mowing. He hosted a dozen Western Opens at Butler National Golf Club in Oak Brook, Ill., and Olympia Fields (Ill.) Country Club and also prepped for the 2000 U.S. Women’s Open at the Merit Club in Libertyville, Ill.
Organizational changes at Club Car
Phil Tralies, president and CEO of Club Car the past six years, has been named chairman and CEO of the company.
Gary Michel, an executive with Ingersoll Rand, Club Car’s parent company, will assume the newly created position of president and chief operating officer of Club Car.
Jim Bolch, president of Ingersoll Rand’s industrial technologies, says the changes will allow Tralies to focus on developing strategic business opportunities in emerging domestic and international markets, as well as continue to strengthen key customer and industry relationships.
Michel will be responsible for overseeing Club Car’s day-to-day business operations and work with Tralies in developing long-term strategy.
John Garrison, formerly president of E-Z-Go, has been promoted to president of Textron’s industrial segment. Meanwhile, Kevin Holleran, vice president of sales and marketing for E-Z-Go, is the new president of the golf car and utility vehicle unit.
Nebulous Nassau now in clear focus
One of the most famous photos in golf that seemingly never was, the notorious Lost Bet Photo showing Arnold Palmer paying off a $50 bet to Jack Nicklaus, is no longer lost. In fact, anyone who wants a copy can have one — for a price.
The shot, which actually ran in Golf Digest in November 2006, was reportedly taken in 1967 following a round by the game’s two superstars at Champions Golf Club in Houston. As you can see here, Palmer is indeed peeling off a $50 bill from his money clip and handing it to his chief rival of the era, Nicklaus.
The photo was taken by William F. Thompson, who heard the pair discussing a wager before the round. At the request of Palmer and Nicklaus, both of whom showed some displeasure that Thompson took the post-round shot, the photo was kept under wraps by the photographer, who died in 2001, and his family for more than 40 years.
“My father was an honorable man and he respected each of the men who would go on to become beloved legends of the game,” Thompson’s son, Blake, told GCM. “He agreed that day to keep it in his private personal collection until they were both out of professional golf.”
The son says rumors that the photo existed persisted for many years, and his father was offered a lot of money for the photo.
“My father never took a dime for it and it stayed in his private collection all that time,” Blake says. “I kept it safely hidden until Mr. Palmer and Mr. Nicklaus had both officially retired. I am now proud to present this wonderful photographic piece of history to the golf world.”
Blake Thompson is selling copies of various sizes for various prices, including the option of framed copies, on his Web site, www.TheLostBet.com.
Nicklaus was quoted in the Golf Digest article that ran with the photo last year, remarking that the photo was indeed very rare because, “We would usually prefer to have the other guy owe,” meaning that many bets went unpaid.
And the winners are ...
Prominent turf scientists Leah A. Brilman, Ph.D., and Peter Dernoeden, Ph.D., both received dual honors for their career-long contributions to the industry during the Crop Science Society of America’s annual meeting in New Orleans.
Brilman, director of research and technical services for Seed Research of Oregon, won the National Council of Commercial Plant Breeders Genetics and Plant Breeding Award for Industry. A turfgrass breeder and agronomist for the company, she has been active in the CSSA’s Division C-5 Turfgrass Science, the Turfgrass Breeders Association (a past president) and the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program and also is the longtime test preparer and coordinator of GCSAA’s student Turf Bowl.
Dernoeden was presented with the Fred V. Grau Turfgrass Science Award. A professor of turfgrass science at the University of Maryland, he directs research and extension programs focusing on turfgrass pathology, weed science, pest management strategies and turfgrass management. Dernoeden is an Amercian Society of Agronomy Fellow and a recipient of the Northeastern Weed Science Society’s Outstanding Researcher Award.
Both Brilman and Dernoeden were also elected CSSA Fellows during the awards ceremonies for their professional achievements and meritorious service.
Michigan golf course leaders recently won plaudits from the National Golf Course Owners Association.
The popular golf destination in southwest Michigan, Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort, won the association’s 2008 Player Development Award for its extensive junior golf program that includes three weeks of instruction and a program-ending tournament. Gull Lake also gives its junior golf participants a card that allows them and a family member or friend to play at a reduced rate on weekdays.
Kate Moore, executive director of the Michigan Golf Course Owners Association, is the recipient of NGCOA’s Champion Award, which recognizes a member whose work has benefited fellow owners and operators. Moore led a successful lobbying effort to thwart the state’s plans to assess a 6 percent sales tax on Michigan courses.
NGCOA also gave its Paul Porter Award posthumously to Raymon Finch Jr. for his high level of commitment, service and leadership. Finch, who died last February, built and owned golf courses in Florida and South Carolina. He was instrumental in assisting NGCOA against the Internal Revenue Service regarding an owner’s right to depreciate greens, tees and bunkers. Finch was a founder of the Florida Golf Council and also helped establish south Florida’s Hook-A-Kid on Golf program and Executive Women’s Golf Association chapter.
Everglades continues support; Ginn joins AC
The Everglades GCSA recently continued its longtime support of GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, The Environmental Institute for Golf, by donating $5,000 toward research and education to enhance golf’s relationship with the environment and pledging to match that amount in 2008.
The commitment elevated the Florida chapter to the Governor’s Club level in the Cumulative Giving Program, which recognizes organizations that have contributed between $50,000 and $99,999 to The Institute since 1987.
In other news from The Institute, Bobby Ginn III, chairman and CEO of Ginn Resorts, has become the 25th member of The Institute’s Advisory Council.
Working with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and other environmental agencies and groups, Ginn Resorts has set aside thousands of acres on its properties for wildlife sanctuaries, wetlands, uplands and natural-vegetation buffers.
New blood on GCBAA board
The Golf Course Builders Association of America has added a half-dozen new members and re-elected five others to its board of directors.
Newly elected members include Greg Bartold, Niebur Golf; Ron Freund, Genesis Golf Builders Inc.; Doug Long, Heritage Links; Steve Sakurai, Rain Bird Corp.; Dennis Wagner, Kilpatrick Co.; and David Zipps, Caterpillar.
Re-elected to the board were Klaus Ahlers, Leemco Inc.; Kurt Huseman, Landscapes Unlimited; Mick Jones, The Toro Co.; John McDonald II, McDonald & Sons; and Scott Pate, Seaside Golf
Development.
Also, EarthShaping News, GCBAA’s official quarterly publication, is now available to anyone. Free subscriptions are available at www.gcbaa.org/publications.php.
American Golf sheds 42 golf properties
CNL Income Properties and Evergreen Alliance Golf Limited have bid to purchase 42 American Golf Corp. properties between them.
CNL, a Florida estate investment trust looking to expand its golf course holdings, has offered to buy 28 courses from American Golf for $301 million. The courses would be managed by Evergreen Alliance. The deal is part of a combined transaction in which Evergreen Alliance would acquire another 14 American Golf properties that are either third-party leases or lease takeovers.
A 5 percent increase in rounds played at U.S. golf facilities in October pushed the year-to-date performance into positive territory (0.3 percent). The upper and lower Midwest regions led the October push with 19.1 and 18.1 percent increases, respectively.
Tree professionals address pest problem
Arborists, foresters, tree care professionals, state Extension agents and university researchers from throughout the Midwest and the Appalachians wrapped up a four-part series with the Invasive Pest Field Day training session in November at Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, Pa.
The final installment in the series, hosted by Bayer Environmental Science and Arborjet, included informative lectures and hands-on demonstrations by local experts on the management of the emerald ash borer and the hemlock woolly adelgid — insects that have been ravaging ash and hemlock trees, respectively, throughout the regions. Topics included information on pest biology, management in natural settings, survey updates and current quarantine and compliance agreement information, the efficacy of insecticide treatments and building a tree care business on insect management.
The two targeted pests have no natural enemies in this country. Soil drenching or injections of Bayer’s Merit insecticide have proven to be effective treatments.
The Pennsylvania field day was preceded by similar events in West Bloomfield, Mich.; Asheville, N.C.; and St. Charles, Ill.
Deere clarifies position on biofuels
Because of a variety of standards emerging in the diesel engine industry, John Deere recently issued an official clarification of its position on the use of biodiesel fuel in Deere diesel engines.
The company says that while 5 percent (B5) blends are preferred, biodiesel concentrations up to a B20 blend in petroleum diesel can be used in John Deere engines through Tier 3/Stage III A models, including non-emissions-certified engines. Deere adds that biodiesel blends up to B20 can be used only if the biodiesel (B100) meets ASTM D6751 (U.S.), EN 14214 (EU) or an equivalent specification.
The company also strongly recommends that biodiesel users purchase blends from a BQ-9000 Certified Marketer and to source from a BQ-9000 Accredited Producer as certified by the National Biodiesel Board. A list of certified marketers and producers can be found at www.bq-9000.org.
Brian Brown, manager of worldwide marketing support at John Deere Power Systems, notes that Deere-approved fuel conditions containing detergent/dispersant additives such as the company’s Premium Biodiesel Fuel Conditioner, are not only recommended when using lower biodiesel blends, but are required when using B20 blends.
“We recognize the importance of biofuels to our customers and to the environment. The use of biofuels in John Deere diesel engines is the right thing to do from a long-term economic and environmental standpoint,” says Brown, adding that the company simply wants all potential biodiesel users to be informed about the advantages as well as the cautions of using the fuels.
Inverness Club in Toledo, Ohio, site of four U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships, will host the 2011 U.S. Senior Open, July 28-31. The club also is noted for having Byron Nelson as its head professional from 1940 to 1944.
In the news
Water woes loom for south Florida courses
An article in Golf Business, the National Golf Course Owners Associations’ official publication, discusses the likelihood of the South Florida Water Management District imposing water restrictions this spring, or even year-round, matching those of last spring when the agency cut some courses’ water allotments by as much as 45 percent. It features Matt Taylor, GCSAA Class A superintendent at Royal Poinciana Golf Club in Naples, Fla., and GCSAA board member Bob Randquist, CGCS, director of golf course and grounds at Boca Rio Golf Club in Boca Raton, Fla.
Return to the future
The Myrtle Beach (S.C.) Sun News writes about golf courses in the Carolinas moving away from bentgrass greens and back to bermudagrass because of the latter’s heat tolerance. The story features Clay DuBose, CGCS and general manager of the Tradition Club in Pawleys Island, S.C., and president of the Palmetto GCSA, and GCSAA educator Pat O’Brien, USGA Southeast Region agronomy director.
Superintendent responds to readers
A letter to the editor in the Salisbury (Md.) Daily Times from Mike Salvio, CGCS at GlenRiddle Golf Club’s Man O’ War Course in Berlin, Md., was written in response to a comment titled “Toxic Violence” in the Nov. 4 Grapevine section of the newspaper, a sampling of comments and observations on a variety of timely topics submitted by readers, which complained about the phosphorus and nitrogen runoff from overuse on golf courses.
Fired superintendent questions reason
The Toronto Sun reports on the saga at Scarboro Golf & Country Club in Ontario, Canada, where course officials are denying that they relieved superintendent Keith Rasmus, GCSAA Class A member, of his duties because he requested paternity leave, but he thinks otherwise.
Marine base course promotes the game
Information about Awase Meadows Golf Course at U.S. Marine Base Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan, providing free Discover Golf classes every Tuesday through Thursday as part of the club’s effort to increase interest in the sport, featuring Rich Erland, GCSAA Class A superintendent.
Green Hunters fit right in
A former superintendent and a veteran human resources management professional combined their talents about six months ago in an attempt to fill mid- to high-level employment needs in the golf course maintenance sector.
Today, their company, Green Hunters Recruiting and Consulting LLC based out of Naples, Fla., is gaining momentum, albeit in a much wider parameter than the intended golf course industry. And that’s not a bad thing.
“We’ve really worked into serving the green industry holistically,” says Garth McMullen, vice president of Green Hunters, who has been in “talent acquisition” for more than 15 years. “We have a number of national agreements signed with some of the leading land management and commercial landscaping companies, among others.”
McMullen believes the golf course end of their business will pick up soon as facilities begin their springtime hiring.
“We didn’t get started in this until June. Our expectations are that golf will really come on in a couple of months since so much of it is seasonal,” he says. “We’ve been out there pitching our service and making site visits.”
What Green Hunters does is seek job talent for the upper-level management positions and usually at the behest of a client, although McMullen says they are constantly “talent scouting” to compile a database for when an employer has a need. For many segments of the green industry, that could mean sales reps and account managers; for golf, it could be an assistant superintendent or a mechanic or a specific staff member, as well as personnel for management firms.
“There aren’t a whole lot of people who do what we do in the golf course maintenance side of the business,” McMullen says. “From a superintendent’s standpoint, we aim toward finding the right fit for the right course at the right time.”
McMullen’s partner and president of the company is Tony Joanow, a GCSAA Class A superintendent for nearly 20 years (most recently at Bay Colony Golf Club in Naples), who is lending considerable experience in the horticulture and agronomic industries to the innovative venture. They also employ a contract recruiter. The company’s Web site is www.greenhuntersrc.com.
With the H-2B returning-worker exemption still stagnating in Congress as of early December and adjournment looming, one might figure that the current state of seasonal employment at most golf courses and the green industry in general would be a key opening for Green Hunters. But, both McMullen and Joanow are firm in steering their efforts away from immigration labor and basic seasonal workers.
Through word of mouth and phone and e-mail outreach, they seek out clients in need and then tap into the domestic ranks for the right fit. In many ways, Green Hunters is indeed similar to the well-known “head hunters” that roam the higher level employment scene.
“We prefer to call it ‘recruitment process outsourcers,’” McMullen says with a bit of chuckle. “But, seriously, we’ve got to be careful in the golf course business. We draw a fine line there. Within the industry there’s a code of ethics — you don’t go searching unless there is a position open; you don’t cherry pick from facilities you have relationships with.”
So far, it’s been a learning process for Green Hunters, and the results seem to be encouraging.
“We went in with the expectation that there would be a turn in the industry where they would need a service like ours,” McMullen says. “It’s all about education because no one out there is doing what we’re doing. Every day breeds new opportunities. ... One thing we’ve found is that the synergy within the talent in the golf course industry kind of transcends into the green industry. A former superintendent, for instance, could be a great branch manager.”
— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff write
Bayer, Nufarm agree to terms in suit
Bayer CropScience and Nufarm Americas Inc. reached a settlement early in December in a lawsuit filed by Bayer for infringement on its patent for the pesticide imidacloprid on fertilizer.
Under terms of the settlement, Nufarm, a subsidiary of Nufarm Limited, an Australian manufacturer, supplier and marketer of crop protection products, acknowledged that Bayer’s patent is valid and enforceable. Nufarm and its business partners have been granted freedom to operate under the patented technology for imidacloprid on fertilizer, including the ability to commercialize products incorporating the patented technology. Both parties have withdrawn all claims and counterclaims in the matter.
Bayer maintains that its patent, which incorporates a mixture of imidacloprid on fertilizer, has been a breakthrough insect control on lawns and golf courses while providing significant application convenience to users.
Meanwhile, in a separate matter, Bayer has stated that it will continue its legal action against Etigra LLC, claiming Etigra’s infringement on the same Bayer patent for imidacloprid on fertilizer.
“You see kids specialize in golf. I think that is idiotic. To play all the sports is great ... Golf to me was just another sport until I was about 19.”
— Jack Nicklaus, on his concern for parents who steer their children to play golf and focus on few, if any, other sports.
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