Majors heat up in July

One of the West’s golden oldies, the Broadmoor Golf Club in Colorado Springs, Colo., returns to the USGA championship spotlight for the first time in more than a decade when it hosts the U.S. Senior Open later this month.

The resort’s East Course has been the site of five previous major events and boasts an impressive list of champions, including Jack Nicklaus in the 1959 U.S. Amateur, Juli Inkster in the 1982 U.S. Women’s Amateur and Annika Sorenstam in the 1995 U.S. Women’s Open. The venue is also slated to host the 2011 Women’s Open.

The Broadmoor comprises the East, West and Mountain courses spread over 600 acres at around 6,400 feet of elevation. The East venue has undergone a number of changes since Sorenstam’s victory 13 years ago, most of them under the watch of director of golf course maintenance Fred Dickman, CGCS, who has been at the facility since 1997.

Those changes are mostly aimed at returning the 90-year-old layout to its original Donald Ross features. Following work by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1965, both the East and West courses had become a combination of Ross and RTJ nuances.

“We wanted to get the East back to more of the Donald Ross look versus the RTJ look that had kind of been evolving over the years,” says Dickman, who adds that much of the renovation has emphasized more bunkers — there were 51 for the Women’s Open and today there are 87 and counting — with Ross’ trademark shallow bottoms and grassy banks. “It’s totally changed the look of the course.”

Dickman adds that the course also has been lengthened by about 200 yards.

The East’s turf includes Poa annua greens, ryegrass fairways and rye/bluegrass roughs. The latter will feature the USGA’s favored graduated cut — a first for a Senior Open — at 2½ inches for the first 20 feet and 4 inches thereafter.

Dickman, a 21-year GCSAA member, began his career in Illinois and moved west more than 20 years ago. He was superintendent at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., before moving on to the Broadmoor. While the Senior Open is his first major championship, he has consulted or assisted in the prep for Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf events, the Champions Tour Championship and the PGA Cup at the Broadmoor in 1998.

Dickman says the biggest challenges the 50-and-over competitors will face this year will be the Poa greens, which are at their slickest in the summer, and four days of walking the high-altitude layout, which will play at par 70 and flex its muscles at 7,253 yards, including an imposing back nine of nearly 3,700 yards.

The July 31-Aug. 3 tournament dates are expected to be an added challenge to the golfers, as well as to Dickman and East Course superintendent and five-year GCSAA member Mike Sartori.

“That’s traditionally our hottest week of the year,” Dickman points out. “We’re on a preventive program for dollar spot pressure and also fairy ring and anthracnose. We wintered well ... good snow cover. It was pretty cold and it’s taken a while to come out of it — we were still having frost near the end of May.”

While the 2008 Senior Open will be noteworthy in that the event’s 3,000 volunteers will hail from all 50 states for the first time in USGA history, Dickman’s volunteer force of more than 100 will mostly come from Colorado and about 90 percent of them will be superintendents and assistants.

“It also helps that we have a staff from three courses here to draw from,” he adds.

Familiar home for British

Similarly, the British Open earlier this month, July 17-20, returns to a familiar site, Royal Birkdale, for the first time in 10 years. During that interim, course manager Chris Whittle and Stuart Ormondroyd, head of turfgrass agronomy at the Sports Turfgrass Research Institute, have overseen some significant changes in the venue, which will be hosting its ninth Open.

Besides new infrastructure and practice amenities, Royal Birkdale’s distinctive native dune system has been restored to its natural order. While the layout has been lengthened only marginally to a total 7,173 yards, it’s been strengthened by more hazards in play, new tees and the addition of 16 new fairway bunkers that serve to pinch in the landing areas. Also, new mounding and swales have been added to many of the green surrounds.

— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer

Toro equipment put to the test

Editor’s note: In May, members of the GCSAA publications staff attended a media day at The Toro Co.’s headquarters in Minneapolis. The following recounts the visit by GCM NewsWeekly editor Ken Moum of the company’s testing facility.

While The Toro Co.’s media event included some interesting presentations about the company’s products, the highlight of the day for many was the tour of Toro’s testing facility.

Toro makes everything from multigang fairway mowers that cost tens of thousands of dollars to electric leaf blowers for the homeowner, and it all has to be tested. For that, the center employs almost 50 technicians working in cells that range in size from a massive hemi-anechoic chamber to a small room with about a dozen electric leaf blowers being run to failure.

The company uses the anechoic chamber to test equipment for compliance with noise control regulations and its design allows technicians to pinpoint the location of sounds from a piece of equipment as they work to reduce sound output.

Other cells feature a pair of drum dynamometers that can load the drive train of a piece of equipment or drive the wheels of the equipment. In one cell, the technicians had set up a multiblade rotary deck with its front wheels riding on a drum that reproduced the bumps a deck would see in mowing rough terrain. Its lift system was set to raise and lower the deck every minute or so, subjecting it to more abuse than it would see in a year of commercial mowing.

One test station also revealed a bit of grass-cutting trivia. There was a bin in the corner that was full of what appeared to be tennis balls, which are used to replicate the density of wet grass clippings. Technicians use them to fill the grass catchers during the tests. In another cell, they have a fixture in the floor that lets them inject a 1-inch steel bar into the deck of a rotary mower running at full power. They run the test several more times to ensure the strength and durability of decks, blades and spindles.

Even more spectacular is the thrown objects test, where technicians feed hundreds of ¼- and ½-inch steel balls into the mower housing to test how well the decks control the ejection. The cells where this is done are pock marked on all the walls, doors, shelves, etc.

From the mundane to the spectacular, the Toro test facility works 24 hours a day, seven days a week, giving the company’s equipment a thorough workout. And even when no one is around, there are web cameras that allow technicians to check on the tests remotely.

The company also unveiled a new Groundsmaster mower there with an interesting feature that will debut this year. Like many mowers of the type, the radiator is at the rear end of the mower where it will sometimes collect enough mowing debris to reduce the cooling power possibly causing the mower to overheat unless the operator stops and cleans off the radiator screen. The new mower, however, senses a rise in coolant or oil temperature, reverses the fan and blows off the debris.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2009 GCSAA Distinguished Service Award. The award is presented to those who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the golf course management profession. Individuals may be nominated by a GCSAA member, an affiliated chapter or a qualified golf association. The recipient(s) will be recognized at the 2009 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in New Orleans.

Texas superintendent reaffirms stewardship

Mark Claburn is keeping king-sized company with his latest environmental award at Tierra Verde Golf Club in Arlington, Texas.

Claburn is one of the several recent recipients of the 2008 Lone Star Land Steward awards the state’s Parks and Wildlife Department and the Sand County Foundation give out for exemplary habitat management and wildlife conservation. The list of winners includes corporate entities and several private ranches, including the famed King Ranch.

Claburn and Tierra Verde GC earned special recognition for maximizing the facility’s water-saving natural areas and native vegetation that also provide habitat for a variety of birds and other wildlife. The course uses natural fertilizers and brews its own bio-fungicide. It’s the first time a golf course has won the award.

“We are doing our part to make Texas a little bit better,” says Claburn, who won the overall GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award in 2004. “And, hopefully, by communicating that to everybody they are making their little part of Texas better, too.”

TOCA salutes innovative study, GCM

Colorado golf and GCM were big winners at the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association’s annual meeting, which took place in early May in Minneapolis.

TOCA named the allied golf associations of Colorado its Environmental Communicator of the Year for their innovative initiative to promote the positive attributes of the game through a self-funded study, “Golf in Colorado — An Independent Study of the Economic Impact and Environmental Aspects of Golf in Colorado.”

The study, which also received GCSAA’s President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship in 2006, was one of the first of its kind in the country to gather information linking water use to the economy of the state and to compare natural resource usage to other state industries. The associations involved included the Rocky Mountain GCSA, Colorado Golf Association, Colorado Women’s Golf Association, Colorado PGA Section and the state chapters of the Club Managers Association of America and the National Golf Course Owners Association.

GCM was honored at the event with six first-place awards — the most of any industry publication — and one merit award for 2007 publications in TOCA’s annual writing, design and photography contest.

First-place winners were:
•   Roger Billings, senior art/production manager, won two awards for “King of apparel” in the November issue — two or more photos to illustrate an article and two-plus page design.
•   Seth Jones, senior associate editor, won for the best general feature article, “A Shark’s tale,” in December.
•   Terry Ostmeyer, senior staff writer, won for the best product information article, “Alternative energy, part one: Taking the high road,” in March.
•   Free-lance writer John C. Fech, Ph.D., University of Nebraska educator, won for the best ornamental feature article, “Tree trouble,” in September.
•   Scott Hollister, editor, won for best headline writing, “From tee off to face off,” in March.

The magazine also picked up one merit award, as free-lance writer Peter Bronski was recognized for his environmental stewardship article, “Playing the numbers game,” in February.

Also in Minneapolis, Ed Hiscock, GCM’s editor-in-chief, was elected to a second one-year term as president of the association.

TOCA is composed of editors, writers, publishers, photographers, public relations/advertising practitioners, industry association leaders and others involved in green industry communications.

Each year, TOCA members attend an annual meeting featuring professional improvement seminars, field tours and networking opportunities. The association also provides a scholarship program for aspiring green industry communicators as well as its writing, design and photography and environmental communications award program.

A recent study by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration showed that long-standing environmental laws are responsible for a decrease in overall contaminant levels in the coastal waters of the U.S. However, the report added that there are elevated levels of metals and organic contaminants along urban and industrial coastlines.

Swedish study says golfers live longer

The life expectancy among golfers is five years longer on average than that for other people of the same sex, age and socioeconomic status, according to a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports.

The study was based on data from 300,000 Swedish golfers. It said the death rate for golfers was 40 percent lower than for non-golfers. In addition, the research indicated that the death rate among golfers was greater for those in the so-called blue-collar professions than those in the white-collar professions. Also, the study noted that the lowest mortality rate among golfers was found in those players with the lowest handicaps.

“A round of golf means being outside for four or five hours, walking at a fast pace for about four miles, something which is known to be good for health,” said Anders Ahlbom, a scientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “People play golf into old age and there are also positive social and psychological aspects to the game that can be of help.”

Michigan State University’s Turfgrass Information File, which includes access to more than 125,000 items (including GCM, 1933-present), is now open to all GCSAA superintendent members. Class A members have already had access to TGIF.

The cost of public golf

According to the National Golf Foundation, the average 18-hole green fee, including golf car, at public courses in the U.S. this year is about $50. The survey indicates that the cost is actually lower at most municipal courses as opposed to public daily-fee facilities that generally charge more on average.

The NGF also reports that the cost to play newer courses is higher than older ones because of the rising costs to build a course. The nation’s 4,500 nine-hole facilities continue to be a bargain, with average green fees of $29, including golf car.

ASGCA adds eight new members

Recently elected regular members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects were Paul Albanese, principal, Albanese & Lutzke Golf Course Architecture, Plymouth, Mich.; Rick Baril, senior partner, von Hagge, Smelek and Baril Golf Course Architects, Spring, Texas; Grant Haserot, lead designer, Schmidt-Curley Design, Scottsdale, Ariz.; Greg Martin, president, Martin Design Partnership Ltd., Batavia, Ill.; Scot Sherman, senior design associate, Bobby Weed Design, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.; Mike Smelek, senior partner, von Hagge, Smelek and Baril Golf Course Architects; Brit Stenson, director of design, IMG Golf Course Design, Cleveland, and Jason Straka, golf course architect, Hurdzan/Fry Golf Course Design, Columbus, Ohio.

Marked increase in assistants at GIS

GCSAA’s efforts to encourage assistant superintendents to attend the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show are dramatically picking up steam.

Figures from the 2008 conference and show in Orlando show that there were 850 assistant superintendent attendees, more than 100 above the 2007 event in Anaheim, Calif. Also, Orlando was the site of the first-ever assistant superintendent education session, which was attended by more than 200 assistants.

Of the assistants attending the Orlando show, 539 were from cool-season states. In fact, of the top five states represented by assistants, four of them were in cool-season regions. The fifth state was the host state, Florida, which had the most assistant superintendent attendees, 98; followed by New York, 53; Illinois, 49; Pennsylvania, 43; Minnesota, 40 and California, 38. Canada had 50 attendees, including 32 from Ontario.

New setback for H-2B exemption

The battle to save the extension of the returning H-2B worker exemption appears to be lost at least until this fall.

The cause’s latest attempt in the U.S. Congress, Senate bill (Sen. Barbara) Mikulski H-2B Fix, which was attached to the War Funding Bill, was moments from victory in late May when a last-second and rare procedural motion was sustained and effectively stripped the H-2B fix out of the final version of the War Funding measure.

“I remain stunned and angry that a small number of elected officials who seem to care neither for the American workers we employ nor the American communities we serve have been able to frustrate the ambition of the overwhelming majority of Congress that supports the H-2B program,” said Hank Lavery, president of Save Small Business, the chief lobbying organization supporting the exemption extension that was not renewed by Congress several months ago.

Esoda 2008 Garske stipend winner

The 2008 Joseph S. Garske Collegiate Grant from GCSAA has been awarded to Jackson Esoda of Marietta, Ga. The $2,500 grant is in honor of Par Aide Co. founder Joseph Garske and is funded by The Environmental Institute for Golf.

The program assists children of GCSAA members in funding their education at an accredited college or trade school. Jackson Esoda is the son of Mark Esoda, CGCS at Atlanta Country Club in Marietta and a member of GCSAA for 22 years. Jackson will enroll in the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta and plans to study industrial and systems engineering.

Also, the 2007 Garske grant winner, Ben Anders, the son of James Anders, an assistant superintendent at Buncombe County Golf Course in Waverville, N.C., has renewed his scholarship. The grant is renewable for a second year with proof of enrollment and a grade point average of 2.0 or higher.

Synthetic turf passes muster

Recent tests have confirmed that the levels of lead chromate in synthetic turf are well below those that would cause harm to children and athletes who play on the surfaces.

The tests were conducted by the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services in early June. Lead chromate is used in many synthetic turf fields to extend the life of its colorfastness.

In the fields tested, the amount of lead chromate contained in the synthetic fibers ranged from 2.5 percent to 11 percent. Even at the latter level, toxicologists said a 50-pound child would have to ingest more than 100 pounds of the turf to be at risk.

Environmental designer joins EIFG panel

Steven Fisher, chairman and CEO of Plaza Construction Corp., is the newest member of The Environmental Institute for Golf’s Advisory Council. Plaza Construction has also pledged a $100,000 donation to The Institute.

Fisher, a noted philanthropist and an industry leader in environmental design, is also the chairman of Terra Mark Development Co. and a partner in Fisher Brothers, the parent company of Plaza Construction.

Joseph Clarizio, the Class A superintendent at Arrowhead Golf Club in Molalla, Ore., since 1993, was named superintendent of the year by the Oregon GCSA. Clarizio, a 14-year GCSAA member, also owns the course restaurant, the Farmstead Inn.

Famed golf course architect Pete Dye, GCSAA’s 2003 Old Tom Morris Award winner, will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in November. Dye was selected in the Lifetime Achievement category.

In the news

Former superintendent drowns
The Beaver County Times & Allegheny Times Online News reports on the death of Paul Dunn, a former superintendent and GCSAA member, who died May 30 from an apparent accidental drowning while working in a pond at Treesdale Golf Course & Country Club, Adams Township, Pa. Dunn, 42, was the owner and operator of Geese Police of Western Pennsylvania, a company that provides the service of chasing geese from overpopulated locales such as golf courses and public parks.

A brave new world
The National Golf Course Owners Association’s official magazine, Golf Business, reports on how turf maintenance will require greater innovation in the future, featuring GCSAA members Marsh Benson, Class A golf course maintenance director at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club; Kevin Crowe, Class A regional golf course superintendent with SubAir Systems/Turfbreeze Fans; Michael Hurdzan, Ph.D., former Environmental Institute for Golf Chairman, 1997 GCSAA President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship recipient, golf course architect and principal of Hurdzan/Fry Golf Course Design; and Dana Lonn, director of the Center for Advanced Turf Technologies at The Toro Co.

Maine Golf Hall of Fame remembers superintendents
An article in the Bangor Daily News reports on two golf course superintendents, brothers James and Robert Browne, to be inducted posthumously into the Maine Golf Hall of Fame Sept. 12.

Water conservation plan in Las Vegas
A video by Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC, Channel 7, tells about the Southern Nevada Water Authority paying Las Vegas residents and businesses to replace turfgrass with desert landscaping in response to drought and the shrinking Colorado River, featuring Bill Rohret, CGCS at Angel Park Golf Course in Las Vegas.

Tips for a more nature-friendly golf course
A column in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal by Carol Lee, executive director of the South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, about the number of ways golf courses can be beneficial to the public and to wildlife, featuring Eric Johnson, GCSAA Class A superintendent at The Rawls Golf Course in Lubbock, Texas.

Iowa tornado blows debris into Wisconsin
A report on the Eau Claire, Wis., NBC affiliate features Cameron White, GCSAA Class A superintendent at Prairie du Chien (Wis.) Country Club, who found debris on his golf course from Parkersburg, Iowa, including personal items and photographs scattered by a tornado that hit Northern Iowa May 25.

The 2007 Golf Industry Show in Anaheim, Calif., was ranked 82nd among the 200 largest annual trade shows in the U.S., according to Tradeshow Week.

Editor’s note: The following is the first in a periodic series of stories in Front 9 that will focus on the careers of some of GCSAA’s longest-tenured and most well-respected members. This month looks at the career of Chicago-area superintendent Paul Voykin.

‘There’ll never be another Paul Voykin.’

That’s been the frequent refrain lately at Briarwood Country Club in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Ill. The 77-year-old superintendent will retire at the end of this golf season and he has indeed been one of a kind during his remarkable run of almost 48 years at BCC.

Voykin learned his craft as an apprentice greenkeeper in the western provinces of his native Canada, came to Briarwood in 1961 and became a legend in his own time in Chicagoland golf circles over the next half century. Along the way, he married a Canadian beauty queen, became a U.S. citizen, authored a couple of best-selling lawn and garden books and was a pioneer in the now-popular movement to naturalize golf courses.

At one time, Voykin and his brothers — Paul, Peter, Rodney and Andy — were all superintendents in the Chicago area. All have passed on but Paul.

The fact that the 52-year GCSAA member has managed to remain at the same private club for nearly 50 years in a highly competitive golf atmosphere is a rarity in itself. In typical fashion, Voykin doesn’t consider it such a big deal; he’s just honoring the task he chose.

“The secret is to have ‘spring fever’ every day you go to work. I’ve always been enthused to do my job — every day is different and I never get tired of doing that,” he says, adding that honesty, a good sense of humor and persistence don’t hurt, either.

“Also, a love of the outdoors,” Voykin continues. “I was born in a sod house near Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. That’s about as close to the sod as a greenkeeper can have as a background.”

A couple of key figures at BCC can embellish their superintendent’s longevity.

“It’s a combination of who and what Paul is and the culture of our club,” says Sheldon Solow, former greens chairman and president of Briarwood and currently an associate greens chairman. “We are a club that embraces our employees. If they do a good job, we reward them in many ways. Many of our key employees have been with us for more than 20 years. They become a part of the fabric of the club.

“Yet, that doesn’t explain how Paul has lasted 48 years,” adds Solow. “It starts with the fact that Paul is very, very good at what he does. He hasn’t had the technical education that most superintendents have nowadays, but he knows how to take care of a golf course, how to grow grass ... he has a sense of what’s going on.”

Adds Jeff Wagner, Briarwood’s present greens chairman: “It’s testament to what Paul is — very loyal. I think it’s a lifestyle choice, managing one course. It’s like a family. He’s been challenged and rewarded and he’s chose to stay.”

Wagner says he has been most impressed by a single fact — two-thirds of Briarwood’s greens are originals, 87 years old, and continue to be in perfect shape.

Voykin and his wife, Donna, were divorced in 1974, yet remain the best of friends, doting on their five children and six grandchildren. Paul has never remarried.

Voykin won GCM’s Leo Feser Award in 1981 with a version of his “over-conditioning is over-spending” mantra that was the underpinning of his efforts for more than three decades to influence the planting of native grasses and wildflowers in non-play areas.

Voykin was president of the Midwest Association of GCS in 1972. A few years ago he was named Superintendent of the Year by SuperNews magazine.

He has had an impact on those who work for him, as well. His top assistant, Moe Sanchez, who is 60 and has been with him for almost 44 years, has helped Voykin groom 28-year-old Justin VanLanduit for the job the past five months after wooing him away from The Ivanhoe Club.

“Moe’s the most loyal person I’ve ever met. And he’s my best friend,” Voykin says simply.

Make no doubt, Voykin treasures friendship above most all else. Upon retirement, he’s not going anywhere except to play golf with a lot of longtime comrades. Briarwood, you see, has a membership waiting for him, plus he’ll be a consultant on the course.

“I’ve always said the very next person you meet might become your best friend. It’s worked for me,” he says.

— Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer