Divot Mix

Try to remember that a person may be a most indifferent golfer, and yet be a good Christian gentleman, and in some respects worthy of your esteem.  -- Horace Hutchinson, Hints on Golf

Wheelbarrow ArtWork featured at GIE+EXPO

To help create an attention-getting display at the recent Green Industry & Equipment Expo in Louisville, Ky., Project EverGreen enlisted 14 members of the green industry to turn an every day tool into a piece of art.

Using child-size wheelbarrows contributed by John Deere, the 14 firms created entries which ranged from abstract sculpture to innovative presentations of how they are working to enhance green spaces at home, work and play.

Firms represented in the display included: Bayer Environmental Science, Dow AgroSciences, Focal Point Communications, Gardner & Gardner Communications, GIE Media, Husqvarna, NuFarm Turf & Ornamental, PBI/Gordon, Phoenix Environmental Care, Swanson Russell, Syngenta Professional Products, The Catevo Group, The Davey Tree Expert Co. and TruGreen ChemLawn.

"We were very pleased with the response to our Wheelbarrows ArtWork challenge," Gardner said. "The creativity it exhibited represents an important asset for our industry as we work together in portraying the environmental, economic and lifestyle benefits which green space provides. And frankly, it helped us raise more than $10,000 for Project EverGreen initiatives."

Individual views of each of the entrants can be seen at  http://www.projectevergreen.com/newsroom/GIEwheelbarrows.html.

GCM archives now available online to GCSAA members

GCSAA members now have access to the entire archive of Golf Course Management Magazine and its predecessor publications dating back to 1933 through an agreement with Michigan State University's Turfgrass Information Center. Through this online digitized archive, which can be accessed on the GCSAA Web site, members can browse year-by-year or they can do a search by term to retrieve the PDF files from 1933.

In the past, GCSAA readers could search the GCM archive on the GCSAA Web site, which only went back to 1996. Subscribers to the TIC's Turfgrass Information File could search for GCM articles from the past, but would only see which issue the article appeared in, and then would have to physically find the article themselves.

Clifford Haka, director of Michigan State University Libraries, said the new archive changes all that. Now, after a search, GCSAA members can see a PDF of the article they are looking for. "The digitization makes a much more usable tool for any of our subscribers. It takes out the step of having to go and physically find a particular issue of GCM, assuming they even had access to that issue," he said.

The addition of the full content of GCM into the TIC was the result of cooperation and dedication of TIC and MSU staff and students, and involved more than 70,000 pages of material, 700 issues of the magazine, manually splitting nearly 30,000 PDFs, harvesting the citations for more than 10,400 turfgrass-related citations and linking more than 9,700 citations to the PDFs.

"GCM is an outstanding addition to the full-text offerings within TGIF, providing useful and relevant information for superintendents, researchers, students and others in the turfgrass industry," Haka said of the addition of GCM to the TGIF.

As part of the ongoing cooperative project of GCSAA and the Michigan State University Libraries, as new GCMs are produced, materials will be scanned and made available one month following the date of publication.

Toro utility vehicles at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

As the official provider of utility vehicles for the 2007 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The Toro Co. will join Sesame Street's Abby Cadabby; the world-famous "Supercute" Hello Kitty and the big green ogre Shrek for the annual Parade in New York City.

The Parade takes place on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 22 from 9 a.m. to noon, and will be broadcast on NBC and Telemundo.

Storr Tractor Co., a Toro distributor based in Branchburg, N.J., will provide 45 Toro Workman utility vehicles for use during the annual parade. The fleet will help guide the balloons down the 2.5 mile parade route.

"We are thrilled to support the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade," said MaryLou Des Champs, president and CEO of Storr Tractor Company. "It is special to be a part of this historic parade right in New York City."

The balloons are anchored to the utility vehicles and flown under the direction of pilots and captains, in a flight management team of twelve and hundreds of balloon handlers.

In addition to the flying balloons, Macy’s will include two Balloonicles, the Energizer Bunny and SnowBo the Hobo Snowman. The Balloonicle (a balloon and self-powered vehicle) was designed around a Toro Workman. On the day of the parade, Storr Tractor will provide 42 Toro Workman gas-powered utility vehicles and three Toro e2050 Workman electric-powered utility vehicles, along with road technicians to support the vehicle fleet.