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Their (Ryder) Cup runneth over
Leo Feser Award winner makes his point
Notable turfgrass educators honored
Mona on inaugural LPGA advisory council
GCSAA flavor in Golf Inc. mix
Hurdzan featured at 2007 NIGM
Top golfer expands talents to design
Milestone for veteran California superintendent
Syngenta pares R&D facilities
Private investor buys big piece of ValleyCrest
Toro re-shuffles the deck
Greenlight for Green Start Academy
ClubCorp under KSL Capital Partners umbrella
Better golf course access looms for disabled vets
DSA recipients to be honored in Anaheim
‘Super Cup Matches’ follow Ryder Cup example
Their (Ryder) Cup runneth over
Those who may have noticed — courtesy of American TV networks and an infatuated European media — a couple of guys dressed as the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam conspicuously standing out in the gallery at the Ryder Cup matches this past September should know the rest of the story before blaming it on too much Guinness.
True, stealing the off-course scene at The K Club in County Kildare, Ireland, was indeed a coup of sorts for two Americans in their costumed regalia — and both GCSAA members no less. But, instead of an over-pouring of Ryder Cup mania, it was a gesture of intended support in good taste for the underdog U.S. team and an equal amount of respect for the home course and its superintendent, Gerry Byrne.
“It was a way to represent the U.S. in a tactful way,” Terry McGuire, a.k.a. the Statue of Liberty, says of the appearance at the matches by himself and Uncle Sam, better known as Todd McKibben, the otherwise mild-mannered Class A superintendent at Ocean Hammock Golf Club in Palm Coast, Fla., and an 11-year member of GCSAA.
Ireland was the third ticket to the biennial matches between America and Europe for McGuire and his friends, and by far their most calculated one. In the early 1990s while working for Arnold Palmer Golf Management, McGuire made several consulting visits during the final construction stages and grow-in at The K Club. In the process, he developed a good relationship with Byrne and other club officials.
When the facility was awarded the 2006 Ryder Cup, he was more than ready.
“This was an orchestrated move to make a strong showing and/or presence because of my history with the club and friendships that I had developed over there,” says McGuire, who lives in Vero Beach, Fla., and is now the director of national operations for the golf course maintenance division of ValleyCrest.
A member of GCSAA for the past 14 years, McGuire says the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam costumes were chosen because they represent the two main icons of the patriotic spirit of America. He and McKibben were accompanied in Ireland by one of ValleyCrest’s regional superintendents, Vince Gilmartin, a 13-year GCSAA member and the Class A superintendent at Westwood Golf Club near Pittsburgh; and a buddy of the GCSAA threesome, Ted Pfister, a regional sales manager for General Motors in Vero Beach.
Gilmartin and Pfister originally were to join the fray costumed as Elvis Presley and Abe Lincoln, respectively, but the group eventually thought better of it, and the latter two served as “support and protection,” McGuire says.
As it turned out, the potection was unnecessary. Apparently giddy from their side’s lopsided victory over the U.S., the usually frenetic European fans embraced the spectacle of McGuire and company.
“It was remarkable. We were accepted for what we were trying to represent,” McGuire says. “There was no negative reaction whatsoever. We got a lot of compliments. It was a blast the way we were accepted. It was very rewarding.”
The group is already making plans for the 2008 Ryder Cup matches at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky., but they aren’t divulging what they’ve got up their sleeves just yet.
Leo Feser Award winner makes his point
A moment of empathy for a couple of colleagues who unwittingly found themselves among the unemployed kicked off a series of events that resulted in winning GCSAA’s 2006 Leo Feser Award.
Class A superintendent Charles Fultz, a 12-year member of the association, earned the honor for the best superintendent-written article in GCM in the past year for his thorough exploration of how important communications are in the industry today.
Fultz is director of golf course management at Shenvalee Golf Course, an out-of-the-way resort layout in the small town of New Market (pop. 1,700) in the shadow of the Appalachians in northwest Virginia. He’s a self-made expert on the subject of communications in the superintendent’s workplace for the good of his own welfare, but nevertheless was stunned when he learned that his piece, “The Great Communicators: How to keep those above and around you educated and informed,” was judged best of the year in GCM.
“I was blown away when I got the call from Sean Hoolehan (GCSAA President). I never expected to be even in the running for this award; that my article would even approach this award,” Fultz says of his work that ran in the magazine’s March 2006 issue. “I think this award is something pretty special. I’m very familiar with a lot of the names of previous winners, and I consider it a huge honor to be put in that select company.”
Surprise and modesty aside, Fultz had been a Feser Award winner in the making for a long time.
It all began when he inquired about why two of Virginia’s well-known veteran superintendents lost their jobs. He learned the reason in both instances was basically a lack of communications with their employers.
“When it came down to it, they said they wished they had been more proactive in that regard,” Fultz says. “You always wonder about what happened because none of us wants to get fired. I think most of us want to better ourselves to make sure it doesn’t happen to us.”
Fultz says he began learning the art of communication more than a dozen years ago as an assistant to Class A superintendent Jeff Thompson at Cameron Hills Golf Links in Fairfax Station, Va. (Thompson is now superintendent at Old Trail Golf Club in Crozet, Va.) The owner of Cameron Hills demanded an explanation of management practices through monthly memos or other written communications.
“That taught me that I needed to be extremely proactive with whoever I was working for,” he says. “When I got my first head superintendent’s job in 1995, I took that and ran with it. I’ve become pretty good at it, whether it be memos, oral presentations, pictures . . . whatever.”
Several of Fultz’s fellow Virginia superintendents encouraged him to approach GCSAA about doing a conference and show Innovative Superintendent presentation about communications on the job. He did just that at the 2005 show in Orlando, earning high exit reviews, and then did a longer version a year later at the Virginia Turfgrass Council Conference.
It was then that GCM editors asked Fultz to put the presentation in article form. The rest is part of the Leo Feser Award’s 32-year history.
“For a superintendent at little old New Market, Virginia, this is something,” Fultz says. “If anything, I’m very humbled by all of this.”
Actually, Fultz, Shenvalee and New Market are anything but under the radar. The facility, complete with 27 holes and a 48-room hotel, has played host to enough intrepid visitors to average more than 55,000 rounds annually. Moreover, Fultz has another article in the wings at GCM — one examining superintendents’ relationship with product distributors.
Stay tuned.
Notable turfgrass educators honored
Two of the nation’s foremost leaders in turfgrass education and management, David Kopec, Ph.D., and Don White, Ph.D., have been honored by their respective states’ top golf associations.
Kopec, who has taught golf and sports turf management, bermudagrass management and irrigation management at the University of Arizona for more than 20 years, was recently inducted into the Arizona Golf Hall of Fame in recognition of his efforts in turf and water education and research specific to the Southwest desert climate and Arizona’s nearly 400 golf courses.
White, a fixture in turfgrass science at the University of Minnesota since 1961, was inducted into the Minnesota Professional Golf Association/
Minnesota Golf Association Hall of Fame. Heading the list of White’s many contributions to state and national turfgrass research is his development of seeded varieties of annual bluegrass, Poa annua, which signaled the use of the once-despised “weed” on golf courses everywhere.
Both of the esteemed educators are members of GCSAA.
Mona on inaugural LPGA advisory council
GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE, is among those who have been selected to serve a two-year term on the LPGA’s first Commissioner’s Advisory Council. The council was formed by LPGA Commissioner Carolyn Bivens in an effort to ensure that the women’s professional golf association is utilizing creative minds from industry, academia, philanthropy and the arts.
“I am honored to be a part of the LPGA Commissioner’s Advisory Council,” said Mona, who will offer advice and insight regarding opportunities for the LPGA while providing expertise in the area of golf course management. “This is a great opportunity for the GCSAA to elevate the position of the golf course superintendent and the association and offer our assistance to Commissioner Bivens. I am pleased the LPGA sees GCSAA as a valued resource.”
GCSAA flavor in Golf Inc. mix
Golf Inc. magazine’s 2006 honors recognizing a veritable who’s who in golf are studded with industry leaders with GCSAA connections.
The publication recently announced the latest ranking of its 25 Most Powerful People in Golf, headed by Jack Nicklaus as No. 1 for the third time in a row. The list once again includes GCSAA CEO Steve Mona, CAE, who was ranked 22nd this time around.
Other Most Powerful selections with GCSAA ties include Dana Garmany, chairman and CEO of Troon Golf and a member of the advisory council of GCSAA’s philanthropic organization, The Environmental Institute for Golf, ranked No. 2; professional golf star Greg Norman, chairman and CEO of Great White Shark Enterprises, chairman of The Institute’s advisory council and also an Institute trustee, No. 6; Henry DeLozier, vice president of Pulte Homes, president of the National Golf Course Owners Association and a member of GCSAA’s Strategic Communications Committee as well as the Industry Advisory Council and the Facility Task Force, No. 10; Bill Kubly, founder and CEO of Landscapes Unlimited and chairman of The Institute’s board of trustees, No. 13; and Bob Wood, CEO of Nike Golf and an Institute trustee, No. 19.
Nicklaus, GCSAA’s Old Tom Morris Award winner in 2005, is the second person to be ranked No. 1 by Golf Inc. three times in a row. Tiger Woods was the first. Woods is fifth on the current list. Two other OTMA winners ranked are PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem (2001) and golf legend Arnold Palmer (1983) at No. 7 and No. 20, respectively.
Nicklaus was recognized in late September at the annual Golf Inc. conference at Amelia Island Plantation in Florida. Also honored at that event were the publication’s 20 Most Admired Operators — individuals who have demonstrated consistent quality in golf course management while setting the pace in the industry in quality, customer service and profitability. Among the Most Admired is Mark Woodward, CGCS, the 2004 GCSAA president and currently golf operations manager for the city of San Diego.
Hurdzan featured at 2007 NIGM
Michael J. Hurdzan, one of America’s foremost golf course designers and a leading authority on environmental issues in the golf course industry, will give the keynote address on Jan. 18 at the National Institute of Golf Management at the Oglebay Resort and Conference
Center in Wheeling, W.Va.
Hurdzan, a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects and a past chairman of the board of trustees of GCSAA’s Environmental Institute for Golf, will speak on the subject of growing the game.
The NIGM, founded by the National Golf Foundation, was established for golf facility owners, managers and other key personnel to enhance and develop excellence in golf industry leaders. GCSAA has had the lead role in developing the comprehensive curriculum for the NIGM the past two years.
Top golfer expands talents to design
The mercurial career of Tiger Woods has taken the next big step with the announcement in November that he will give golf course design a whirl. Tiger Woods Design (www.tigerwoodsdesign.com) will specialize in a global approach to bringing diverse venues to players of all skill levels.
“My goal is to provide a unique collection of amazing courses all over the world that represent what I love about golf,” Woods said in a news release announcing the creation of his design firm. “I’m very excited to announce the formation of this company and get to work on finding the right projects for my first few courses.”
Woods said the key to the company’s vision is his desire to apply his first-hand knowledge and personal experience of having played on nearly every continent to golf course design — providing a traditional American design to Europe, for example, or a links course to America or an Australian sand belt design to China. He added that he has tapped into the knowledge of others in the design field, including a number of prominent golf course architects.
“Friends like Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio have been a tremendous help by sharing their support and advice on this new venture,” Woods said. “I hope I can bring as much to this industry as they have over the years.”
Milestone for veteran California superintendent
When Lou Tonelli began working at the Lake Merced Golf Club in 1965, the Ford Mustang was just coming off the assembly line and Lyndon B. Johnson was president of the United States.
Today, the 26-year GCSAA member still calls the venerable Daly City, Calif., course home and has become an icon of sorts among the club’s membership. “Lou is the consummate professional,” said Lake Merced GC’s president, Doug Morgan, after Tonelli recently celebrated another anniversary at the club. “He is an expert at managing all aspects of his work including the staff, technology, the budget and his relationships with members and the board of directors.”
Just the third superintendent at Lake Merced since it first opened in 1922, Tonelli’s tenure at Lake Merced has covered a total of 41 years, 30 of them spent as the head superintendent. During that time he has worked with 16 different boards of directors, eight general managers and three golf professionals and has also shepherded the course through a full-scale renovation at the hands of renowned golf architect Rees Jones in 1996.
For Tonelli, the grass has never been greener on the other side of the fence. He flirted with an opening at the famed Olympic Club in the mid-’80s, but a board-approved new irrigation system kept him at Lake Merced.
Since the average tenure for superintendents at one course is five to seven years, Tonelli’s longevity is intriguing and provokes questions from other superintendents. “How do you do it?” they ask. “How do you last at a private club for so many years?” they want to know.
Tonelli has plenty of secrets to his success on those fronts, but one of his best has to do with interactions with new board members at Lake Merced. When a new member is elected to the board, Tonelli invites them for a sit-down meeting to discuss their views and to help educate them about course maintenance.
— Craig Zellers,
free-lance writer
Syngenta pares R&D facilities
Syngenta recently closed four biological research and development sites in the United States, eliminating the jobs of 50 researchers. The company is also eliminating 300 jobs in the United Kingdom, but is not closing any research stations there.
The affected research stations are located at Hudson, N.Y.; Champaign, Ill.; Leland, Miss.; and Visalia, Calif. According to a company release, the decision was made to reduce fixed assets while increasing flexibility in Syngenta’s $800 million annual commitment to agriculture research and development. The company intends to maintain a strong presence in the four affected U.S. regions by creating territories and shifting personnel to cover the former facilities’ geographies.
The facilities closed in the U.S. all focused exclusively on research for agricultural products. Syngenta’s turf and ornamental research facility in Vero Beach, Fla., was not affected by these moves.
Private investor buys big piece of ValleyCrest
ValleyCrest Companies, one of the country’s largest integrated landscape service providers and a rising force in golf course maintenance partnerships, has sold a majority ownership interest to the private investment firm MSD Capital. Members of the ValleyCrest management team, including the founding Sperber family, retained significant equity ownership and will continue to lead the business.
Toro re-shuffles the deck
The Toro Co. recently made several changes in its corporate leadership intended to strengthen the company’s organization and position it for long-term growth and profitability.
The changes include the promotion of Dennis Himan to group vice president with responsibilities for commercial equipment, irrigation, international, landscape contractor business, corporate accounts and Toro-owned MTI Distributing; the move of Bill Brown to vice president of consumer business and landscape contractor business; and Philip Burkart, vice president of irrigation business, has taken on the added responsibilities of micro-irrigation for North and South America and golf and residential/commercial irrigation.
In other moves to bolster Toro’s focus on customers and distributors, Tom Swain is the new president of MTI Distributing in Minnesota; Michael Happe has been promoted to managing director of commercial business; Darren Redetzke has been promoted to managing director of international; and Mike Anderson has been promoted to managing director of distributor development.
Green light for Green Start Academy
CLAYTON, N.C. — To the uninitiated, this sleepy little burg just southeast of Raleigh might seem like an odd place for the golf course management industry to plant a flag in the name of the future of the profession.
But as we said, that’s to the uninitiated. The initiated know that this area is home to a pair of industry titans — Bayer Environmental Science has a 281-acre research facility in Clayton and corporate offices in Raleigh’s famed Research Triangle, while John Deere also has administrative offices in Raleigh and a huge manufacturing facility in nearby Fuquay, N.C.
That’s why it actually makes perfect sense that the two companies came together in late September to host the first-ever Green Start Academy, a two-day education and networking event hosted at Bayer’s research facility designed to give assistant superintendents from around the country a leg-up on taking their careers to the next level.
“This was a great event, and we all were impressed with the assistants we met over the last few days,” David Ravel, a regional sales manager with Bayer, says. “We’ve made a commitment to continue Green Start and because of the great response, we will strive to provide even more information on pertinent topics applicable to their daily jobs.”
“We consider the first Green Start Academy a great success,” said Matt Armbrister, the brand communication manager for John Deere One Source and a former GCSAA employee. “We look forward to continuing the event in the years to come and reaching out to these future leaders of our industry.”
At the Green Start Academy, participants came from all over the United States and Canada, and from courses as renowned as Torrey Pines, Oakmont and Shinnecock Hills. The 49 participants were selected from more than 100 applicants based upon a 500-word essay they were required to submit that was judged by a panel of head superintendents and industry experts.
Topics covered during the event included water management and conservation, communicating with the media, disease and formulations, herbicides and insecticides, and aerating, verticutting and topdressing. Participants also got a full tour of Bayer’s facilities in Clayton, as well as John Deere’s manufacturing plant in Fuquay.
Bayer, NC State join forces
In conjunction with the Green Start Academy, the company announced a recent partnership with NC State to create a plant health lab, dedicating a laboratory in Clayton to study methods of evaluating and measuring plant health.
As part of this agreement, NC State has assigned Danesha Carley, Ph.D., a post-doctorate turfgrass researcher, to work fulltime out of the Clayton facility.
The lab in Clayton will include equipment that will measure photosynthesis and root biomass, as well as devices that will assist in the visual evaluation of plant health. In addition, areas of the four-hole golf course on the Clayton facility will be designated specifically for turf quality evaluation.
— Scott Hollister, GCM editor
ClubCorp under KSL Capital Partners umbrella
ClubCorp Inc. has sold its portfolio of nearly 170 clubs and resorts to KSL Capital Partners. In the meantime, the company, a world leader in golf, private club and resort facilities, also sold its premier property, North Carolina’s historic Pinehurst Resort, to the family of ClubCorp founder Robert Dedman.
The two transactions total about $1.8 billion. KSL Capital Partners is a private equity firm that invests in travel and leisure businesses.
ClubCorp CEO John Beckert said the deal provides the expertise and capital that will enable ClubCorp to expand and create new business opportunities.
Better golf course access looms for disabled vets
President Bush in October signed into law a defense bill that includes provisions to make golf more accessible to disabled American veterans by providing them with adaptive golf cars, among other things.
The bill directs the secretary of defense to conduct a study regarding access by disabled persons to military golf courses. Results of the study are to be reported back to Congress early this spring.
DSA recipients to be honored in Anaheim
Stanley E. Metsker, CGCS, retired golf course superintendent from Colorado Springs, Colo., and William A. Meyer, Ph.D., professor and director of the Turfgrass Breeding Project at Rutgers University’s Cook College, have been selected as recipients of GCSAA’s 2007 Distinguished Service Award.
They will be acknowledged on Feb. 22 at the Opening Session of the GCSAA Education Conference in Anaheim, Calif. The Opening Session is presented in partnership with Bayer Environmental Science.
“Bill and Stan are most deserving of the Distinguished Service Award,” said GCSAA President Sean A. Hoolehan, CGCS. “They have made outstanding and significant contributions to the advancement of the golf course superintendent profession as well as to the game of golf.”
Metsker initiated and guided the development of the Rocky Mountain GCSA’s certification program, which in turn provided the foundation for GCSA’s certification program. A member of GCSAA for 46 years, he was involved in the development of numerous turfgrass management programs at Colorado community colleges.
In addition to developing and editing The Reporter, the RMGCSA’s newsletter, Metsker published an autobiography in 1996, “On the course: The life and times of a golf course superintendent.” He was inducted into the Colorado Golf Hall of Fame in 1999.
For more than 30 years, Meyer has served as a turfgrass breeder and administrator in the development of improved turfgrass cultivars. A nine-year member of GCSAA, he has spoken at turfgrass conferences throughout the country and he has presented his research to superintendents at more than 150 educational conferences around the world.
After developing one of the turfgrass industry’s most successful privately funded breeding programs as vice president of research for Turf Seed and president of Pure Seed Testing in Hubbard, Ore., Meyer joined the faculty at Rutgers in the plant biology and pathology department in the mid-1990s and now directs one of the world’s largest turfgrass breeding programs there.
— Information provided by Bill Newton,
GCSAA manager of media/public relations
‘Super Cup Matches’ follow Ryder Cup example
GCSAA officials in Ireland to attend the Ryder Cup matches in September met up with members of the GCSA of Ireland for a day of goodwill and match-play contests of their own. And unfortunately for the Americans, the results mirrored the professional players squaring off at The K Club, with the Irish team securing a 3½-1½ victory.
Representing GCSAA were CEO Steve Mona, CAE; President Sean A. Hoolehan, CGCS; Vice President Ricky D. Heine, CGCS; Secretary/Treasurer David S. Downing, CGCS; and Immediate Past President Tim O’Neill, CGCS. Top photo: O’Neill (far left) and Mona (far right) walk down a fairway with their counterparts from the GCSA of Ireland (left to right), Joe Bedford and Damian McLaverty. Side photo: Following the matches, the two groups exchanged organizational flags.
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