Doubly dedicated

Editor’s Note: The following is an installment in a periodic series of stories in Front Nine focusing on the careers of some of GCSAA’s longest-tenured and most respected members. This month features twin brothers Norman and Robert Mucciarone, with nearly 90 years of GCSAA membership and service to New England golf course management between them.

Even now — some three decades later — David Mucciarone still marvels at just how dedicated his father and uncle were to their jobs as golf course superintendents.

David’s father, Norman, was superintendent at Woodland Golf Club in Auburndale, Mass., from 1951 to 1991. During those same 40 years, Norman’s twin brother, Robert, was the superintendent 10 miles down the road at the Dedham Country & Polo Club. Twin brothers. Eighty years of dedication to the golf course management profession.

“They were amazing,” says David, who grew up in Franklin with his father and mother, Blanch, and eight siblings, all of whom were quite close to Robert and his wife, Pauline, and their three kids. “The time that they put in was incredible. And the thing that’s even more amazing is they got it done with a lot fewer people on their staff than superintendents have today. I don’t know how they did it.”

David should know. He has a pretty good appreciation for what kind of effort the job takes since he took over for his father at Woodland GC back in 1991 after practically growing up on the course. That’s why it was even more special for David to be at the GCSA of New England’s annual meeting in January when the 82-year-old Mucciarone brothers were honored as co-recipients of the GCSANE’s Distinguished Service Award.

The award goes annually to “a superintendent who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of the golf course superintendent’s profession,” and there were plenty of people in the audience that night who thought Norman and Robert were perfect candidates.

“I never worked with them personally, but whenever you hear their name you always hear good things,” says Russ Heller, outgoing GCSANE president. “If we’re talking about contributing to the association and the profession, Norman and Robert are great selections.”

After growing up in Franklin, Mass., in the 1930s, Norman and Robert went off to school together at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts at the urging of the superintendent at Franklin Country Club, where they worked as caddies and on the grounds crew.

“We had no idea what it would turn into,” Norman remembers. “I never expected it to turn out to be a lifetime job. All I knew was that I always enjoyed working with my hands and working outside. This job had both of them, so I went for it.”

As for the long hours the job entailed, Norman says that it was simply something that “came with the territory.”

“You can’t not put the hours in and expect to have a decent golf course,” adds Norman, who has been completely retired for two years now after giving up a part-time job at nearby Brae Burn Country Club. “But it was always a nice feeling to see the result of your hard work or to hear people say nice things about your course.”

It also helped that Robert and Norman were close to each other all those years.

“We’d run things by each other, try to help each other with our own problems,” Norman says. “It was nice to have him close by. It still is, even in retirement.”

Norman still visits the course at least a few times a week to take advantage of the honorary membership the folks at Woodland GC gave him and Blanch. Robert, meanwhile, is still working a few hours each week for his son’s irrigation company.

“We aren’t the type of people to sit still,” laughs Norman. “Sometimes you go crazy with all the time on your hands. You know, you do something for 40 years you’d think you’d get sick of it. But I’ve got to admit I do miss it at times. I miss the people. I miss being there with the crew. I miss just being out on the course.”

— Gary Trask, free-lance writer

From the 2008 GCSAA survey of graduating seniors: 67 percent said they were well prepared in business image/etiquette and workplace communication; 33 percent said they were not prepared in financial management.

San Diego sets high standard

As California chokes on the dust of the ongoing drought that is crippling the country’s most populous state, leave it to a golf course to lead the way in proactive water conservation efforts.

Barona Creek Golf Club near San Diego has been widely acclaimed for its many environmental accomplishments since its creation according to Audubon Signature Sanctuary guidelines nearly 10 years ago. Its superintendent, Sandy Clark, CGCS, won the national resort GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award in 2004, and the 18-hole championship layout more recently was elevated to Audubon’s Bronze Signature status.

Barona Creek began another proactive initiative a few months ago to further enhance its noted conservation of natural resources — a turf-reduction project that when completed later this spring will have eliminated more than 10 acres of turf from irrigation and other maintenance needs. Overseeding of tees and rough will be reduced as well.

Clark, who believes the moves will cut maintenance by almost 15 percent, says the project entails eliminating some alternate tee boxes and other out-of-play turf areas and converting them to waste bunkers and natural landscaping.

“This turf reduction will further reduce our water usage,” the 18-year GCSAA member says. “These water-saving innovations at Barona Creek are about more than self-preservation. They are also helping the environment and hopefully influencing the golf community at large. If we can be a model for what needs to be done, that’s OK too.”

The Barona Tribe-owned facility (resort, casino and golf course) has already earned state and national recognition for its state-of-the-art wastewater reclamation and treatment infrastructure that has allowed the entire property to save and reuse almost 100 percent of its runoff.

Clark adds that the latest initiative will offer Barona Creek golfers improved playing conditions along with improved natural surroundings.

“Being more environmentally friendly and aesthetically appealing are not mutually exclusive,” he says.

Barona Creek hosted the 2007 Nationwide Tour Championship, which is slated to return in 2010, and the latest project hasn’t been lost on PGA Tour officials.

“Barona Creek should be applauded for taking a very proactive approach in their turf-reduction plans,” said Cal Roth, the tour’s senior vice president of agronomy, in reaction to the endeavor. “Golf courses throughout the world need to look at their environmental issues and plan accordingly to ensure that their courses meet their maintenance and conditioning goals. It’s very admirable how Barona Creek has become a leader in improving both their sustainable landscape and their carbon footprint.”

In late February, about when Clark’s project was halfway toward its goal in turf reduction, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a statewide drought emergency and urged cities to cut their water use by 20 percent. He also appealed to state agencies to hurry along the regulatory approval process for such developments as desalination plants and recycled water capabilities.

Many see Schwarzenegger’s proclamation as a harbinger of mandatory rationing in view of California’s rapidly dwindling water resources for the long term and the prospect of inadequate springtime runoff from snow packs in the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains.

Legislation to extend the H-2B cap extension, which would exempt previous H-2B “returning workers” from the annual limit of 66,000 visas, has been introduced in Congress. S.B. 388 would provide a three-year extension of the cap exemption, while H.R. 1136 would provide a permanent cap exemption.

Rain Bird Corp. has partnered with the American Society of Golf Course Architects to create educational programming and other resources aimed at a better understanding of golf course water management issues by designers, their clients and the golf industry.

Nealon repeats Audubon honors

Close to 700 superintendents have earned Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status at their respective golf courses worldwide, but rare is the one who has done it twice at two different venues.

Wendell Nealon, CGCS, a 33-year GCSAA member, is one of those rare ones, just recently obtaining Audubon’s sanctuary certification at Swan Lake Golf Course, a public facility in Clarksville, Tenn. Thirteen years ago he first accomplished the feat at The Legacy of Springfield (Tenn.), where he was both general manager and superintendent.

“It’s always a total team effort … there is no ‘I’ in what we do,” says Nealon, who broke into the business in 1973 as a 20-year-old superintendent at Lake Tansi Golf Course in Crossville, Tenn.

Throughout much of his career, Nealon has been a construction and grow-in superintendent at facilities in Tennessee, Kentucky and Oklahoma, including his seven-year stint at The Legacy, where he also won three successive GCSAA Environmental Steward Awards in the public category and the Daughters of the American Revolution’s Conservation Committee Environmental Steward Award.

Nealon has been at Swan Lake since the fall of 2004, following a renovation at Twin Hills Golf & Country Club in Oklahoma City.

“As a municipal facility, we take great pride in our contributions to the community’s recreation needs while being good stewards of the land we manage,” Nealon said in an Audubon International news release. “The process of Audubon certification has not ended with this designation, but will continue for generations to follow through established programs that are ongoing. Protecting the environment for future generations is a worthy effort.”

The USGA awarded the 2012 U.S. Amateur Championship to Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village, Colo., and the 2015 U.S. Women’s Open to Lancaster (Pa.) Country Club. Michael Burke is the Class A GCSAA member at Cherry Hills CC, while Todd Bidlespacher is the Class A superintendent at Lancaster CC.

Textron continues to tweak finance business

Textron Inc. has realigned its finance management personnel, the second step in its recent shuffling of Textron Financial Corp.

Textron Financial will now report directly to Scott C. Donnelly, company president and chief operating officer. Previously, TFC reported to Ted French, who was executive vice president and chief financial officer and has left the company. French had also served as chairman and CEO of Textron Financial.

Textron’s senior vice president and its corporate controller since 1995, Richard Yates, has been named acting CFO. Meanwhile, Warren R. Lyons, a veteran in the financial services industry, including a 14-year stint with Textron, is the new president and CEO of Textron Financial. He replaces Jay Carter, who was president and CFO of TFC and is retiring after 19 years with the company.

The new management changes come on the heels of Textron announcing that TFC would discontinue new golf course mortgage loans and will soon get out of the golf mortgage business altogether. In December, the Textron board of directors approved a revised plan to sell or liquidate nearly $8 billion of Textron Financial’s $11.4 billion loan portfolio.

Officials, citing troubled times in global financial markets, added that Textron would continue to serve existing golf course loans until those loans are fulfilled or a new lender is secured.

Textron Financial officials also confirmed that its future golf lending would be limited to financing customer purchases of Textron-manufactured products, including Jacobsen turf equipment, as well as E-Z-Go golf cars and Cushman utility vehicles.

GCSAA’s newest student chapter has been formed at Faulkner State Community College in Gulf Shores, Ala.

Book about Old Tom Morris
wins prestigious Wind Award

Calling the work one of the most impressive books ever written about one of the game’s most influential figures, the USGA gave “Tom Morris of St. Andrews: The Colossus of Golf, 1821-1908” its 2008 Herbert Warren Wind Book Award.

Written by David Malcolm and Peter E. Crabtree, the book was published last June. It provides an in-depth look at Old Tom Morris and the influence he had on golf and the popularization of the game throughout the world. Morris, besides being a legendary greenkeeper at St. Andrews, was a four-time British Open champion and a renowned golf course architect and clubmaker.

He also is the namesake of GCSAA’s highest honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, given annually since 1983 to recognize a continuing lifetime commitment to golf in the manner and style exemplified by Morris.

The book includes an unprecedented source of original photos, artwork and primary documents from Morris’ life, the town of St. Andrews and the development of golf in the 19th century.

“Every 10 or 15 years, a book comes along that is truly a seminal contribution to the history of the game,” said Rand Jerris, director of the USGA Museum and Arnold Palmer Center of Golf History. “This is one of those books.”

A long-time resident of St. Andrews, Malcolm knew descendants of the Morris family and spent many years investigating Old Tom and his influence on the Old Course and golf. Crabtree, a founder of the British Golf Collectors Society, is a lifelong historian of the game and has been collecting golf artifacts for several years, particularly those associated with St. Andrews and Morris.

For the past 22 years, the Herbert Warren Wind Book Award has honored outstanding contributions to golf literature that broaden the public’s interest in, and knowledge of, the game of golf. Wind, who died in 2005, was a writer for the New Yorker and Sports Illustrated and is best known for coining the phrase “Amen Corner” at Augusta National Golf Club.

Copies of “Tom Morris of St. Andrews” can be ordered at www.rhodmcewan.com/tom_morris/index.htm.

Renewals, donations boost EIFG

Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, founder and honorary president of Club de Golf Valderrama, continues his longtime support of The Environmental Institute for Golf with a $10,000 donation.

“Jaime has been such a good friend to The Institute and this contribution is greatly appreciated,” said World Golf Hall of Fame member Greg Norman, Institute trustee and chairman of its Advisory Council. “We are so grateful for his continued support.”

Ortiz-Patiño received GCSAA’s highest honor, the Old Tom Morris Award, in 1999, and he has served terms on The Institute’s board of trustees, its Advisory Council, and chaired the “Investing in the Beauty of Golf” endowment campaign. Ortiz-Patiño and Club de Golf Valderrama are recognized at the Champions Club level of The Institute’s cumulative giving program for donors who have contributed between $250,000 and $499,999 since 1987.

“I have always believed strongly in the work of The Environmental Institute for Golf,” Ortiz-Patiño said. “The results coming out from GCSAA’s Golf Course Environmental Profile are tremendously helpful, and I enjoyed another productive trip to the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in New Orleans as well.”

In other news from The Institute:

• Greg Norman, Harrell’s Fertilizer CEO Jack Harrell Jr. and PGA of America CEO Joe Steranka all recently retained their seats on The Environmental Institute for Golf’s Advisory Council. Norman also will continue his role as chairman of the council.

• Morgan Gregory, president of Glen Arbor Golf Club in Bedford, N.Y., and William Boycott, president of Agrium Advanced Technologies, have both joined the Advisory Council.

• One of GCSAA’s chapter donors to The Institute, the GCSA of New Jersey, has added $10,500 to the Robert Trent Jones Endowment Fund. The proceeds were generated from the chapter selling various sponsorship packages at PGA Tour event The Barclays at Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., and also from the 19th annual RTJ Invitational at Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson, N.J.

• In honor of its founder, Aquatrols Corp. donated $10,000 to the Aquatrols Robert A. Moore Endowment Fund. The endowment recognizes Moore’s and Aquatrols’ commitment to optimizing the turf-growing environment through more effective use of water and other resources.

• Former PGA Tour star Jerry Pate, a former chairman of The GCSAA Foundation, the EIFG’s predecessor, has donated $5,000 to The Institute on behalf of his company, Jerry Pate Turf and Irrigation. The gift elevated Pate to Platinum Tee Club and Executive Club levels.

R&R Products Inc., a family-owned manufacturer of replacement parts for the turf equipment industry, has joined GCSAA’s Partner Recognition Program at the Silver Level.

USGA expands Web conferences

The USGA will continue to offer presentations by its agronomists to turfgrass students at universities and other programs across the country via Web conferencing.

The USGA Green Section uses Microsoft Live Meeting for the online sessions by its Turfgrass and Environmental Research Committee, along with continuing staff education and presentations to turfgrass classes. The number of speakers and topics has been expanded for 2009.

For more information and technical details about the online program, contact the Green Section’s Jim Moore at 254-848-2202 or jmoore@usga.org.

Rufty inaugural Bayer Chair

Bayer Environmental Science’s first Chair of Sustainable Development has been awarded to Tom Rufty, Ph.D., director of the Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education and professor of environmental plant physiology at North Carolina State University.

The new Chair of Sustainable Development, a $1 million endowment through Bayer CropScience’s business operations unit, Environmental Science, is intended to further the long-standing relationship between Bayer, headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C., and NC State.

CMAA features financial management ABCs

A collaboration between the Club Managers Association of America and Hospitality Financial and Technical Professionals has resulted in the development of “Understanding Club Finances,” a 340-page manual written by leaders in the club finance field.

The manual features information and tools required to assist managers in understanding all financial aspects of a club through real-life examples from the club and hospitality industries.

GreenCare adds scholarship program

Project EverGreen has expanded its GreenCare for Troops program to include Buck It Up for Military Families, an effort designed to raise $1 each from green industry consumers across the nation to fund college scholarships for students of military families and continue its GreenCare for Troops work.

GreenCare for Troops is a national program run by Project EverGreen that provides free lawn and landscape care for military families whose major breadwinner is serving in the armed forces. Currently more than 7,000 families have signed up for the program.

Partnering with Project EverGreen in the Buck It Up effort is the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association. Consumers can donate a dollar to Buck It Up online at www.projectevergreen.com or www.toca.org. The campaign began in mid-March and will be highlighted on May 16, U.S. Armed Forces Day.

Canadian superintendents on edge of pesticide ban

Superintendents in America are carefully watching a new government regulation confronting their Canadian counterparts in the province of Ontario.

In the latest chapter of a long-running saga, the provincial government in Ontario fulfilled the promise of its Cosmetic Pesticides Ban Act last month by announcing a sweeping ban of 85 cosmetic-use chemicals — a total of 250 individual products — that included the herbicide 2,4-D. The bans are expected to become effective on April 22 — Earth Day — and are a finalization of the original act, which was passed by the provincial government in June of last year.

Golf courses in Ontario, along with agriculture, forestry and public health and safety uses, are conditionally exempt from the ban, but they must adhere to a set of extensive conditions in order to continue using pesticides in the future. Golf courses must be accredited for integrated pest management by an approved accreditation body — the province’s Ministry of the Environment is in the process of posting a list of such “approved accreditation bodies” on its Web site — and prepare an annual report on how they minimize pesticide use, make that report accessible to the public and also hold a public meeting in which they must present that report.

The golf industry’s allied associations in Ontario have been working closely on this issue with the government for some time in an effort to develop golf-specific requirements. They have worked with the government to demonstrate that superintendents and the golf industry are responsible in developing measures to properly manage the use of chemicals.

Despite those conditions, environmental groups in Canada continue to push for golf to be removed from the exempt category.

Meanwhile, GCSAA’s government relations staff will monitor the situation in Ontario and assess possible ramifications for U.S. golf courses and superintendents.

Marriott takes Audubon certification international

During 2008, two dozen Marriott Golf-managed properties in North America and the Caribbean earned Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status, and the company has now turned its attention to its global properties, requiring 23 golf facilities at 17 international properties to gain certification this year.

The global effort is part of Marriott International’s worldwide commitment to environmental consciousness.

“We are committed to promoting the game of golf in an eco-friendly way, and working with Audubon allows us to do that while also maintaining the integrity of our premier courses,” says Robert Waller, CGCS, Marriott Golf’s senior director of grounds and a 13-year GCSAA member. Marriott Golf manages 60 golf courses at 44 locations in 13 countries, offering more than 1,000 holes of championship golf, while Marriot International owns more than 3,100 properties in 66 countries and territories.

Passing noted

William B. Gilbert, Ph.D., founder of North Carolina State University’s turfgrass program, died Dec. 24, 2008. He was 87.

A Kentucky native, Gilbert, who earned his doctorate at NC State, began the university’s turf program in 1961. He is noted primarily for his discovery and release of an improved selection of St. Augustinegrass called Raleigh. Also, his research with the North Carolina State Department of Transportation led to the use of adapted, low-maintenance plant species along roadways in the state, significantly reducing mowing and maintenance costs.

Gilbert won the Distinguished Service Awards of both the Turfgrass Council of North Carolina (1979) — of which he was a charter member — and the Carolinas GCSA (1994). He spent 30 years in teaching and research at NC State, retiring in 1986. Recently, the road leading to the university’s Lake Wheeler Turfgrass Field Laboratory was named Dr. Bill Gilbert Way.

Survivors include his wife of 60 years, Geraldine Maupin Gilbert, Raleigh, N.C.; a daughter, Anne Gilbert Bogart, Eugene, Ore.; and a brother, Edgar A. Gilbert, Berea, Ky.

He was preceded in death by a son, William Walker Gilbert; a brother, Joseph C. Gilbert; and three sisters, Lucille Gilbert Sharpton, Gladys Gilbert McCray and Elizabeth D. Gilbert.

Georgia college beefs up golf management program
A story in the Americus Times Recorder features Georgia Southwestern University’s preparations to earn the PGA’s accreditation to house a Professional Golf Management program, including an increase in the maintenance budget for the school’s Griffin Bell Golf & Conference Center and hiring GCSAA member Gina Williams as superintendent.

Finger Lakes GCSA points to Fitzwater
The Corning Star Gazette reports on Dennis Fitzwater, GCSAA Class A superintendent at Corning (N.Y.) Country Club, being named the 2009 Superintendent of the Year by the Finger Lakes Association of Golf Course Superintendents.

Royal Melbourne needs quick turnaround
An article in WA Today tells about The Royal Melbourne Golf Club, host of the 2011 President’s Cup, seeking a new golf course superintendent after the resignation of long-serving superintendent and GCSAA member Jim Porter.

Cost savings at Atlanta AC
Bloomberg News explores the recession’s effect on the game of golf, featuring Ken Mangum, CGCS, director of golf course and grounds at Atlanta Athletic Club in Duluth, Ga., who has started mowing fairways vertically instead of the more decorative crisscross to save about 100 gallons of fuel a month.

Municipal superintendent backed by golfers
The Asheville Citizen-Times reports on 21 city jobs on the chopping block, including Robbie Brake’s position as GCSAA Class A superintendent of Buncombe County Golf Course, Asheville, N.C. Golfers who attended a city council meeting said laying off Brake and raising fees would mean the course would deteriorate and would bring in less money.

Danny Fielder, CGCS, is diving into the world of city government after his recent appointment to a four-year term on the Riverbank, Calif., city council. A 15-year member of GCSAA who works as a regional superintendent for ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance, Fielder was appointed to the seat following a city hall shakeup in Riverbank. The city’s recently elected mayor took a job in another city and his position was filled from within the current sitting members of the city council. That, in turn, created a vacancy on the council that Fielder is now filling.