GCSAA’s man in Florida

Ralph Dain joined Steve Randall and Jim Cummins on GCSAA’s chapter liaison field staff a little more than four months ago as the regional representative for the state of Florida. He’s a unique addition to the field staff in that his territory is state-specific and he’s a former superintendent with nearly 20 years in golf course management.

A 15-year member of GCSAA, Dain is a native of Ohio. He came to Florida in 1991 and worked on golf courses for the next 16 years, including stints at PGA National, Mayacoo Lakes Country Club and Sailfish Point Golf Club. He also was a superintendent for Gary Player’s development company in South Africa and for a management firm in the Chicago area. Before being hired by GCSAA, Dain worked a year for John Deere Golf. During most of his career he has been active in the Treasure Coast and Florida GCSA chapters.

Dain, his wife, Tennille, and their two sons, Gavin, 4, and Logan, 3, live in Gainesville. He also has three other sons from a previous marriage who live in Ohio.

GCM: With 13 chapters, including three unaffiliated with GCSAA, do you find your task in Florida a little intimidating in terms of so many places to go and so many people to see?

Dain: The nice thing is, with my background, I know a lot of guys in south Florida from my experiences down there. And when we moved to Gainesville the experience with John Deere helped me gain an appreciation for what they do up here in north Florida. It’s two different worlds. In south Florida, there have been very few economic hiccups until just recently. But anywhere north of Orlando it’s just a different environment in many ways. I think my background was part of what made me attractive to GCSAA for the job.

GCM: Do you target all the chapters, including the unaffiliated?

Dain: There are some unique dynamics with the different chapters here. Some have spun off from others. They all function differently — some really well and some not as well as you’d like. Those way out in the panhandle really feel like they’re in a different state entirely sometimes because of the geography, and we’re looking at ways to try to bring them more into the fold. There is definitely a north-south disconnect, and it’s my job to try to bring that together. I try to get around as much as I can — be a presence like we’re supposed to be.

GCM: Has your background as a superintendent been beneficial in the job?

Dain: Since I spent most of my career in Florida, I’ve dealt with all the same trials and tribulations they’re dealing with. Plus, I know most of the big players in the industry here. And while I’ve known there is a Big Brother attitude toward GCSAA, I haven’t had trouble with that because as soon as I relay my background they realize I’m really one of them and I’m working in their best interests.

GCM: What are the main issues facing Florida superintendents and chapters?

Dain: Individually, it’s budget cuts, trying to be efficient as possible while maintaining the standards expected of them. From a chapter perspective, which is where my role is, it’s helping them be more effective and get people more engaged. I’m seeing a big participation issue within the chapters. One meeting I went to had 40 people in attendance — 33 were vendors and seven were superintendents. We’re seriously looking at ways to increase participation.

GCM: By that token, do you help out with GCSAA’s big-ticket agenda item, membership?

Dain: My role is to be a liaison between the local chapters and the state chapter and the national, feeding information back and forth. But I also spend some time with facilities that don’t have members and try to find out why a superintendent or his assistants aren’t participating and relay the benefits of membership. I also go to places like Lake City Community College and talk to assistants and touch base with students to give them some early exposure to the national. So, yes, there is some recruiting involved.

GCM: What’s your reaction to the job so far?

Dain: The reception I’ve received so far is very positive. I think this job is right up my wheelhouse. This is something that is easy for me to do. I think having the perspective that I do helps me overcome what I don’t know yet about association management. I relate well to the people I’m talking to. I’ve got a lot to learn, but if I put forth the best effort I can, that will come in time.

   —Terry Ostmeyer, GCM senior staff writer

A new logo has been unveiled by the Club Managers Association of America, which emphasizes the CMAA’s core components — education, professionalism and leadership, along with the year of its founding, 1927.

Environmental marvel

No one is standing on his laurels at Marvel Golf Club in Benton, Ky.

Christopher Gray Sr., superintendent and manager at the facility and the only two-time overall winner of the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award, is at it again with the environment-friendly folks at Marvel GC.

Coming on the heels of the 2007 overall ELGA at Marvel (he first won the award at the Lost Marsh of Hammond GC in Hammond, Ind., in 2003), then being honored with Rain Bird’s 2008 overall Intelligent Use of Water Award, Gray and the golf club on the banks of Kentucky Lake have now unveiled the Affordable Golf from a Better Environment Initiative that educates golfers on the environmental benefits of golf courses and the golf course industry while lowering the green fees they pay out of pocket.

The program reduces the daily fee to $25 for 18 holes and a golf car; for seniors 55 or older the fee is $22.

The savings actually are a spinoff from the recent award-winning work done at Marvel GC — including establishing native areas, harvesting recycled water from homes within Marvel Estates, capturing rain water runoff, incorporating a spoon-feeding fertilizer program and establishing high pest threshold levels throughout the course — environmental programs that have resulted in maintenance cost savings of about $275,000 each of the last three years.

“Passing along this kind of savings to our golfers makes everyone here at Marvel very proud,” says Gray, a 10-year member of GCSAA. “Golf Courses have been wrongly labeled as poor stewards of the environment, and this initiative is our first step in proactively changing that unfair perception of golf courses and the golf industry.”

Met fetes Nantz, O’Neill

The Metropolitan GCSA honored CBS Sports commentator Jim Nantz with its John Reid Lifetime Achievement Award during its recent annual winter seminar luncheon in Rye, N.Y.

The MetGCSA also presented its highest honor, the 2008 Sherwood A. Moore Award, to Timothy T. O’Neill, CGCS at The Country Club of Darien (Conn.).

Nantz is the 19th recipient of the Reid Award, which recognizes someone who has shown a lifetime commitment to promoting the science and art of golf course management and the professional image of the superintendent.

The anchor of CBS’ golf coverage, Nantz is known for his frequent commentary and complimentary coverage of superintendents, often being quoted as calling them the “unsung heroes of the sport.”

“I am particularly impressed by those who have made golf in the Metropolitan area so special,” said Nantz, a native of New Jersey. “Here, you deal with all forces of Mother Nature, yet we are blessed with the greatest assemblage of golf courses anywhere in the nation. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the men and women who have ensured that golf in the Metropolitan area represents the best of the best.”

O’Neill, who is the only MetGCSA member other than Sherwood Moore himself to be president of both the chapter (1992-93) and GCSAA (2005), was honored for “advancing the image, status and reputation of the golf course superintendent.”

“I have seen the MetGCSA do so much for our industry,” said O’Neill, who has been a superintendent since 1981. “The MetGCSA has become a model chapter in our industry whose foundation is in its individual members. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for all of my colleagues at the MetGCSA.”

Golf course development in the U.S. in 2008 included 72 openings, the lowest number in two decades, according to the National Golf Foundation.

WTA taps Miller’s expertise

After relying on a volunteer board of directors for more than 25 years, the Wisconsin Turfgrass Association has hired an executive director — and it didn’t have to look any farther than its own backyard.

Carrying the title of executive director/ambassador of the WTA is longtime and highly accomplished superintendent Monroe Miller, who recently retired after 36 years at Blackhawk Country Club in Madison, Wis.

Miller, who was also featured in the February issue of GCM (Page 72) as a 2009 winner of GCSAA’s Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award, is expected to bring a near-lifetime of experience and dedication to the WTA and the turfgrass industry. A two-term president of the Wisconsin GCSA and a board member of the WTA, he was instrumental in promoting the building of the O.J. Noer Turfgrass Research and Education Facility and the establishment of two researchers at the University of Wisconsin.

A winner of the USGA Green Section Award in 2004, Miller a year later became the first superintendent inducted into the Wisconsin State Golf Association Hall of Fame. He also won 19 GCSAA chapter newsletter editor awards.

Miller’s role with the WTA will be to enhance the mission of the association to support turfgrass research and education at the University of Wisconsin, as well as the funding of turf management programs.

Final environmental profile survey out

The fifth of the five-survey Golf Course Environmental Profile series was launched late last month and will extend to April 5.

The fifth survey, which covers Energy Use and Environmental Practices, has been sent to both GCSAA member and non-member superintendents both via e-mail and mail. The online survey is only for superintendents with golf facilities within the 50 United States, with links provided on both the GCSAA and The Environmental Institute for Golf Web sites — www.gcsaa.org and www.eifg.org.

Survey participants will be entered into a random drawing to win one of seven $320 GCSAA gift cards that can be used toward any program or service offered by the association.

The series of surveys began in 2006 with the purpose of determining the physical features found on golf courses, the practices used by superintendents to maintain golf courses and the inputs and outputs associated with the management of golf courses. The series also will be repeated in the future.

Watson Fellowships awarded

Three students are winners of the 2008 Watson Fellowship Program and will receive $5,000 postgraduate grants from GCSAA.

The winning graduate students are Gerald Miller, Jacksonville, Fla., who is working toward a doctorate degree in plant pathology at North Carolina State University; Yan Xu, Nanjing, China, who is working on a doctorate degree in turfgrass stress physiology at Rutgers University; and Joseph Young, Gardendale, Ala., who is working on a master’s degree in turfgrass pathology at Mississippi State University.

The fellowship program is funded in partnership between The Toro Co. and The Environmental Institute for Golf and is named for James R. Watson, Ph.D., a retired Toro vice president, a pioneer in turfgrass research and winner of GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award in 1995.

USGA dollars nurture golf

The USGA awarded $5.1 million in grants for the development of golf programs in 2008 as part of its ongoing “For the Good of the Game” initiative to make golf more affordable and accessible to underserved populations.

The 2008 allotment opened opportunities through golf to more than 230,000 youths and individuals with disabilities. The funding helps programs pay for such things as professional instruction, access to golf courses and practice ranges, equipment, transportation, alternative golf facilities and other essential aspects of the game.

Over the past 12 years the USGA has given $63 million to the initiative.

Also, as a founding partner of The First Tee, the USGA gave $2.1 million to 86 local chapters and The First Tee home office in 2008, bringing its total to that endeavor to more than $24 million since 1997.

GCSAA past president dies

Richard C. Blake, CGCS Retired and GCSAA president in 1971, died Jan. 23. He was 80.

A 51-year member of GCSAA, Blake was an advocate for education, certification and the environment, including responsible pesticide use, water pollution and constructive land use long before those issues gained national attention. He also championed the importance of superintendents’ involvement in federal, state and local conservation groups.

Blake served in the Marine Corps following World War II and rose to the rank of sergeant in two years. After his service, he enrolled at the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts, but after one year of school he was recalled to serve in the Korean Conflict, after which he returned to UMass. He also completed a course at Rutgers University in turf management.

Blake’s career as a superintendent included working at courses in Massachusetts, Florida and Vermont. His first job as a superintendent was at Webb Brook Golf Club in Billerica, Mass., and he was at Mount Pleasant Country Club in Boylston, Mass., when he was elected GCSAA president.

He was actively involved in the New England GCSA, serving as the group’s newsletter editor, director, vice president and president in 1970. He was active in the Boylston community as chairman of the town’s Conservation Commission, a member of the Land Development Commission and a member of the planning board.

Blake’s involvement in GCSAA on the national level began in 1966 when he was nominated from the floor at the Kansas City Annual Conference. He is believed to be the first director so elected in GCSAA history. He was re-elected to a second two-year term as director in 1968, a position he held until 1970 when he was elected vice president.

A memorial service is planned for this spring. Survivors include his wife of 55 years, Elaine Blake; six children, Debra Blake and husband David Freschi, Sandra Piccione and husband Joseph, James Blake and wife, Kathy, Linda West and husband, Steve, Brian Blake and Alan Blake; a brother, Donald Blake; 10 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be sent to the New Hampshire Veterans Home, 139 Winter St., Tilton, NH, 03276-5415.

PRP members return to the fold for 2009

GCSAA’s ground-breaking Partner Recognition Program that provides year-round exposure opportunities for the association’s industry partners based on a prescribed level of investment is as solid as ever as its second year gets under way.

All 27 members of the program recently committed to another year, led by Platinum Level partners The Toro Co. and John Deere Golf, and Gold Level partners Syngenta and Jacobsen, a Textron Co.

The nearly two-dozen members of the Silver Level include four 2009 entries — Lebanon Turf, Precise Path Robotics, Quali-Pro and R&R Products.

“The feedback from our partners regarding the first year of this program has been extremely positive,” GCSAA CEO Mark J. Woodward, CGCS, said.

“We view this program as a way for the industry to invest in GCSAA and the GCSAA member,” he added, noting that the funds are directed to programs and services that advance golf course management.

Chapter offers golf for research dollars

While funding for turfgrass research in the coming year has been curtailed by some, including the two biggest players in the golf course industry, GCSAA and USGA, the Carolinas GCSA has come up with an innovative project to boost research and at the same time benefit golf courses and golfers in the region.

The chapter will launch an online public auction of nearly 1,000 golf rounds in the Carolinas and beyond at www.Rounds4Research.com, where golfers will be able to secure tee times at some of the country’s top venues. The proceeds will benefit turfgrass research programs at Clemson University and North Carolina State University.

Among the courses on offer are Pinehurst No. 2, Harbour Town Golf Links, Long Cove Club, Cape Fear Country Club and Yeamans Hall Club. Interested bidders can visit Rounds4Research.com to peruse the full list of available facilities, as well as detailed information concerning the auction.

The auction, which runs April 19 to May 6, is also timed to coincide with two of the main events on the annual Carolinas golf calendar — the PGA Tour’s Verizon Heritage of Harbour Town in Hilton Head, S.C., and the Wachovia Championship at Quail Hollow Golf Club in Charlotte, N.C.

“These universities perform world-class research that underpins the health and the future of the golf industry in our region, which carries an annual economic benefit upward of $5 billion,” says the creator of the online auction, Tim Kreger, the Carolinas GCSA’s programs director. “Like so much else in today’s economic climate, these programs are struggling for funding. Rounds4Research.com gives the ultimate beneficiary of that research — the golfer — the chance to benefit golf and their game at the same time.”

Textron quitting golf lending

Textron Financial Corp. recently announced that it will discontinue new golf course mortgage loans and will soon get out of the golf mortgage financing business altogether.

Golf Inc. magazine quoted Textron officials citing “unprecedented and turbulent changes in the global financial markets,” adding that the company would continue to serve existing golf course loans until those loans are fulfilled or a new lender is secured.

GCM also confirmed that Textron Financial officials said that future golf lending will be limited to financing of customer purchases of Textron-manufactured products, including Jacobsen turf equipment, as well as E-Z-Go golf cars, Cushman products, Bell helicopters and Cessna aircraft.

The announcement followed a release back in December when 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.

EPA agrees to continued use of MSMA

The MAA Research Task Force — a group of basic producers of MSMA — and the Environmental Protection Agency struck an agreement in January that permits the continued use of MSMA.

In August 2006, the EPA issued a decision to make inorganic arsenicals ineligible for re-registration. GCSAA has worked closely with the task force to preserve MSMA use through extensive staff and member involvement in grassroots campaigns, direct contact with EPA regulatory officials, information-gathering and input from members, chapters and turfgrass scientists and also by providing EPA with usage and economic data and guidance on proposed mitigation measures.

MSMA sales for use on golf courses (except in Florida) will continue until Dec. 31, 2012, with use of existing stocks permitted until Dec. 31, 2013. The allowed golf course uses (except Florida) include:

• One broadcast application on newly constructed courses.

• Applications on existing courses will be limited to spot treatment (100 sq. ft. per spot), not to exceed 25 percent of the total course in one year.

Golf course uses of MSMA in Florida will cease by the end of 2010. The product will be labeled for sale in Florida through Dec. 31, 2009, with use of existing stocks permitted until Dec. 21, 2010.

A full copy of the statement on the agreement from the task force is available online. For questions or more information, please contact Carrie Riordan, GCSAA managing director of member programs, at criordan@gcsaa.org.

GCSAA launches TV production

GCSAA has added a major feature to its communications offerings, an online video service known as GCSAA TV, which is expected to be the largest and most comprehensive source of golf course management video.

GCSAA TV (www.gcsaa.tv) went live during the recent Golf Industry Show in New Orleans. It’s the result of a partnership between GCSAA and Wisconsin-based EPIC Creative to produce professional video content designed to educate, enlighten and entertain.

“We see GCSAA TV as another means to communicate with a variety of key audiences,” says GCSAA CEO Mark Woodward, CGCS. “Golf is a visual sport, and the opportunity to provide online video will allow us to tell our story more effectively. While it will be a tool to communicate with member golf course superintendents, we also see the content having value for golfers, golf facility employees, government officials at all levels, the environmental community and a host of others.”

Besides extensive daily coverage, GCSAA TV will produce a weekly feature that focuses on contemporary issues facing superintendents as EPIC production teams traverse the country in search of stories. The service will also take viewers behind the scenes at major golf tournaments, feature university research, offer environmental tips, provide inside looks into some of America’s most innovative golf operations and produce special programs about GCSAA, its history and the work it does for its members.

Down the road, there are plans for additional technology that will allow for GCSAA member-produced video, as well as companion pieces from GCM and live chat sessions.

“We see the opportunity to partner with GCSAA as a means to mesh the leaders in content with our production services to benefit the golf industry,” says Jim Becker, EPIC president. “We will travel to every corner of the nation to provide resources that will assist the golf course management profession. There are a multitude of challenges that these talented individuals face, and it is our goal to help deliver an answer to them.”

Lake City adds business degree

Florida’s Lake City Community College now has the option of adding a bachelor’s degree in business to its golf course operations program.

LCCC announced recently that its associate of science degree in golf course operations articulates to a bachelor of applied science in business administration through Saint Leo University, which has branch campuses throughout the state of Florida.

Lake City’s internationally recognized golf course operations program includes such prerequisites as 500 hours of golf maintenance work and a term in LCCC’s turf equipment technology program. Now students have the option of two more years to add the degree in business administration.

Syngenta giving at $1 million

The many donations by Syngenta to GCSAA and its philanthropic organization, The Environmental Institute for Golf, has reached the $1 million Victory Club level of The Institute’s cumulative donor program.

A Gold Level partner in GCSAA’s Partner Recognition Program, Syngenta funds the association’s Legacy Awards and also is a presenting partner for the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards.

A world leader in providing pest management solutions to the turf industry, the company also sponsors the Opening Reception, Certification Luncheon and the International Resource Center during the GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show.

ASGCA Rossi Award to Dodson

Ron Dodson, president of Audubon International and a well-known advocate of sustainable development in golf, is the 2009 recipient of the American Society of Golf Course Architects’ Donald Ross Award.

Dodson, credited with creating the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program, will receive the award May 3 during the ASGCA’s annual meeting in Seattle.

 “With the continued and increasing emphasis on environmental stewardship that surrounds golf development, it was time for ASGCA to again choose a longtime leader in the movement for our highest honor,” said ASGCA President Bruce Charlton. “Ron joins Michael Hurdzan, ASGCA, who won the award in 2007, as a reasoned, expert voice in the environmental realm. I’ll be personally honored to present this award to Ron in light of all he’s done to educate the world about how golf complements a healthy ecosystem.”

Sticks for Kids gains strong foothold

The Golf Course Builders Association of America’s popular Sticks for Kids Program will reach new levels of success this year, expanding to 407 sites in all 50 states, including five military bases, and also in China.

Sticks for Kids, designed to provide fundamental golf instruction to children ages 6 to 15, has also formed partnerships with Project EverGreen and Auduon International to provide participants with information to help them become stewards of the environment.

Agrium Advanced Technologies, a major manufacturer of slow- and controlled-release fertilizers, has made a three-year, $150,000 commitment to The Environmental Institute for Golf and its grant to GCSAA’s e-Learning Webcast Series, as well as other EIFG programs.

Superintendents in the news

Economic crisis touches previously secure professions
The Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World recounts a collection of stories nationwide of people who have recently lost their jobs for the first time, featuring GCSAA Superintendent Member Josh Tanner, former superintendent at Primm Valley Golf Club in Las Vegas, who was let go in December, two months shy of the birth of his third child.

Golfers see red over fast greens
A column by Lorne Rubenstein in the Toronto Globe & Mail from the National Senior-Junior at the Dye Preserve Course and the Southern International four-ball at Jonathan’s Landing’s Old Trail Course in Juno Beach, Fla., about the conversation many of the country’s best amateurs have been having about the “absurdity” of super-fast green speeds and the associated costs of maintaining them, provoked by an article in the Metropolitan Golf Association’s magazine written by Rick Spear, GCSAA Superintendent Member at Piping Rock Golf Course in Locust Valley, N.Y.

Behold the power of the course cat
A column in the Quad-City Times tells about Brad Peterson, GCSAA Superintendent Member at Palmer Hills Golf Course in Bettendorf, Iowa, and the maintenance facility’s cat, Black Jack.

New twist to recycled water
The North Jersey Record & Herald reports on researchers studying whether the contaminated wastewater that runs through old landfills could one day be treated and recycled to successfully irrigate golf courses or other athletic fields built on top of the landfills, featuring data from the GCSAA Golf Course Environmental Profile.

Maintenance cost dilemma
Golf Inc. in the critical issues forum of its January issue recaps a presentation by John Crowder, GCSAA member and director of business development for ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance, about the changing role of the superintendent in controlling costs.

Mark Woodward, CGCS and GCSAA CEO, will give the keynote address during the National Institute of Golf Management, March 22-27, and also will serve as an instructor for its Academy of Higher Learning.