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He's baaaaack!
Christopher Gray marks his return to the Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards program as the first two-time Overall winner.
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Christopher Gray, superintendent at Marvel GC in Benton, Ky., is the first two-time Overall winner in the seven-year history of the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders |
Leave it to an old standby to keep the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Award on the road to sense and sensibility.
Christopher Gray, golf course management’s answer to the prodigal superintendent, capped his return to the profession at Marvel Golf Club in Benton, Ky., by showing he still has the touch when it comes to environmental stewardship in winning the 2007 National Public and Overall ELGA to become the first two-time Overall winner in the seven-year history of the program. In all, he has won four ELGAs since 2002.
Gray won the 2003 National Public and Overall titles for his work at Lost Marsh Golf Course in Hammond, Ind., then abruptly left the profession for a two-year hiatus as a technical adviser for advertising and marketing firm Epic Creative. He was back in the golf course business in late 2005 as the Class A superintendent at Marvel GC, a new facility alongside massive Kentucky Lake in the Bluegrass State’s far western reaches.
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The No. 5 green at Marvel GC, which opened in 2005. |
Gray heads a snapshot of fresh faces among the ELGA competition’s 2007 National and International winners. Todd Lawrence, CGCS at TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C., one of more than a dozen ELGA entries from the PGA Tour’s Tournament Players Club network and a Merit winner a year ago, garnered National Private honors, while the National Resort award went to an assistant superintendent, Jonathan Moulton of Old Greenwood Golf Course in Truckee, Calif.
Two international superintendents, both in Costa Rica, were deemed co-winners of the International award — Jay Miller of Four Seasons Golf Club in Liberia, Guanacaste, and Mark Dinan of Valle del Sol Golf Course in Santa Ana, San Jose.
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From top to bottom, Jay Miller, superintendent at Four Seasons GC, Guanacaste, Costa Rica; Jon Moulton (left), assistant superintendent at Old Greenwood GC, Truckee, Calif.; Mark Dinan, superintendent at Valle del Sol GC, San Jose, Costa Rica; and Todd Lawrence, CGCS at TPC Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, N.C. |
The five top winners were recognized at the recent 2008 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Orlando. Syngenta Professional Products and Rain Bird Corp., Golf Division, are the presenting partners of the awards.
The 2007 ELGA turned out to be a boon to those who participated. There were 23 entries — including 13 from the TPC superintendents — and the 18 superintendents aside from the major winners were all given Chapter or Merit awards.
National Public & Overall
Christopher Gray
Marvel Golf Club
Gray is a fitting leader of the ELGA pack. The nine-year GCSAA member is one of the association’s more passionate advocates of golf’s healthy relationship with the environment and an outspoken defender against those who believe
otherwise.
“(Golf courses) are still considered to be Darth Vader of the Evil Empire in a lot of places. If we work hard and continue to touch people about all the good things we’re doing, maybe we can change that impression, because it’s just not right,” Gray told GCM regarding his comprehensive and impressive education and outreach efforts at Marvel GC.
A rejuvenating test
A product of Palmer Course Design and built and owned by Glenn Caverly, president of Golf Course Construction Inc. out of Howell, Mich., Marvel GC opened in September 2005, and Gray came on board about a month later. The single-owner public facility in the northern half of the transition zone posed many challenges for a superintendent shaking off the cobwebs from a couple of years out of the business.
At Lost Marsh, a high-end municipal operation, Gray had a staff of 26 and a half-million-dollar-plus budget at his disposal. At Marvel, he is one of a staff of six and makes do with about $175,000.
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The transition to Marvel GC for Gray was dynamic — his last superintendent experience was at a high-end municipal course with a half-million dollar budget, while Marvel is a single-owner public facility with a budget of about $175,000. Above, the No. 7 green. |
“This is the prototypical public golf course and it’s probably not for everybody nowadays. People who are accustomed to larger facilities, private or upper-end daily fee courses, this wouldn’t be an ideal fit for them,” says Gray, who notes that he spends a bit more than half of his time out on the course “getting my hands dirty.”
“Basically, I went back to like (it was) when I started my career and had to do a lot of the work myself,” he adds. “But the one thing I’ve always loved is public golf. I personally fit in more in that setting and I enjoy the time I get to interact with the public golfer. They seem to appreciate what you do a lot more and it makes me feel a lot more appreciative of the golf course.”
Even so, Gray says there have been challenges to the environmental guidelines he has developed over the years that have been so successful.
“Because of our small budget, we have had to be a lot more creative, which is what a lot more of us ought to do — sit down and think a little differently about how things are done and use your creativity,” he says.
Gray also emphasizes the role of his boss at Marvel GC, even though Caverly would be considered by most an absentee owner.
“My relationship with Glenn is what dreams are made of and is a big part of what we’ve done,” Gray says. “He’s out building golf courses and basically leaves me in charge of running everything here.”
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Marvel GC was the first in the nation to use Transcontinental seeded bermudagrass on a full-scale basis, including tees and fairways. Above, a view of the course’s No. 5 green. |
Innovation Man
The story of Gray and Marvel Golf Club is nothing if not creative.
For many, the highlight of Gray’s operation has already been well documented — his use of a homemade, hybrid mix of recycled vegetable oil and regular diesel fuel to run a handful of turf maintenance machines. He was featured in the May 2007 issue of GCM for this use of a renewable energy source and was just on the Innovative Superintendent agenda at the Orlando conference and show extolling the virtues of the setup that has saved $3,000 in fuel costs every year, including a reduction of nearly 1,200 gallons of regular diesel.
Still, most of Gray’s colleagues would say Marvel’s source of reclaimed irrigation water is even more unique. The facility’s property entails 498 acres, which includes more than 500 home sites intertwined with the golf course. The wastewater from each home feeds Marvel GC’s 8-acre irrigation pond by way of individual aerobic sewage treatment systems. The effluent, as well as stormwater collected through street drains, travels through a system of pipes to lift station pumps that deposit it into the pond.
Gray says the wastewater system can yield about 14 million gallons of water a year and, depending on rainfall, stormwater amounts to an estimated 30 to 35 million gallons annually. The retention pond, which is 60 feet deep in places, is more than ample to provide for the course’s 83 irrigated acres, although the prolonged drought in the region forced Gray to pump water from Kentucky Lake this past summer.
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Top: Lift station pumps at Marvel GC deposit effluent water and stormwater into an 8-acre irrigation pond. Middle: Gray decided to convert 32 acres of out-of-play areas to naturalized buffers between the course and the lake. Bottomt: Wildlife populations on the property have skyrocketed. Eight bald eagles grace the course — up from two previously spotted. |
Location, location, location
Gray points out that Marvel’s place in the transition zone and unique varieties of turf have a profound effect on his IPM regimen. The course was the first in the U.S. to utilize Transcontinental seeded bermudagrass on a full-scale basis — tees and fairways — and also sports the unusual mix of Penn A1/A2 bentgrass greens. The roughs are a mix of tall fescue, bluegrass and encroaching bermuda.
“We’re able to effectively manage all those grasses because of where we are, and some of it has been surprising for me, having worked with bentgrass only all of my career in Indiana,” he says, explaining that he had heard about bermuda being inclined to attract insects during the heat of summer.
“Two and a half years ago I thought that bermuda, learning all the tricks of the trade to maintain a high-quality turf, would be my No. 1 concern. But that hasn’t been the case,” he says. “We haven’t used insecticides since I’ve been here.”
By the same token, the Kentucky summers have been a bit harsher for the bentgrass greens, forcing Gray to modify his past strategies. He employs more wetting agents, more deep-cycle syringing and more hand-watering. The use of fungicides on the greens were the only such applications on the course in the past year.
A-plus in habitat development
Wildlife and habitat are two of Gray’s favorite endeavors at Marvel GC. A year before the course was built, the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife surveyed the various wildlife populations and diversity of the site. Last summer a follow-up survey indicated that the population of all listed mammals had increased by 18 percent. Much of the credit goes to a decision by Gray to convert 32 acres of maintained out-of-play areas to naturalized areas featuring native plant species dominated by broomsedge bluestem.
The naturalized areas now serve as buffers between the course and the lake and also as prime habitat.
“I think anytime where you have an area which is highly maintained and manicured right next to an area that looks natural and has not been maintained, the striking imagery is what sets your golf course apart and what people remember when they finish playing,” Gray says, adding that the native areas also complement the course layout that was sculpted through more than 200 acres of native woodlands. “We took the next step from what had already been done before us.”
Gray is especially taken by what he calls some very special residents of the property: eight majestic bald eagles that have evolved from a pair that lingered in the woodlands through construction and are now the talk of the community.
Long reach and a firm grip
To the surprise of no one who has spent any time with Gray, his education and outreach talents are unsurpassed in the industry and are the heart and soul of his environmental successes. To be sure, he has taken stewardship criteria to a higher level. For example:
• Eight times a year Gray hosts children from Benton’s elementary schools on tours of the golf course to showcase the environmental programs. Admittedly taking an idea from Seed Field Days at Turf-Seed Inc. in Hubbard, Ore., he built a customized “Environmental Wagon” pulled by a tractor and complete with a sound system to ferry the students around the property in style. So far, nearly 500 youngsters and adults have toured Marvel.
• Invited by the Property Owners Association, Gray serves as environmental coordinator for the homeowners around the golf course. He developed a packet that includes documents explaining his environmental philosophy. It’s a relationship that is the envy of many superintendents who often struggle with real estate developments that are more established and set in their ways. “I avoided a lot of problems because this is a newer development and I didn’t walk into a situation that already had a checkered past in dealing with the golf course vs. the homeowners,” he says. “I was able to come in and say, ‘This is what I want to do and this is why I want to do it. The more we make the golf course better, more environmentally sound, the more your property will go up in value.’ It was an opportunity to not have any bad impressions continue on.”
• Like a lot of superintendents, Gray reaches the public at-large though an advice column on home lawn maintenance he writes for the local newspaper, reaching eight counties in western Kentucky every two weeks.
• Marvel’s owner, Caverly, is a member of the board of directors of the Golf Course Builders Association of America, and the course is involved in GCBAA’s Sticks for Kids Program in which local youngsters are provided with free sets of clubs, given free lessons, as well as course environmental information, and also free play.
• In what could be an innovative breakthrough in community outreach, Gray recently formed the Marvel Foundation, a not-for-profit, 501 (c)(3) organization designed to help fund outreach activities through tax-deductible donations. “We needed something to ensure the continued success of the programs. We hope the money will make it easier to get children involved and maybe some day even provide for scholarships,” he says.
Blueprint for success
Gray has some stimulating thoughts on what it takes to win a National ELGA. A couple of his theories regarding course age and public vs. private facilities are supported by his own track record and the program’s past history.
“Marvel is like Lost Marsh in that they were both young courses when I arrived, which made it easier to develop and institute environmental programs than it would be at a course more physically established,” he says, pointing out that over the years newer developments have dominated the ELGA program.
Likewise, and even more telling, has been the success of superintendents at public venues — they’ve won the last six Overall awards.
“I find it interesting that private courses are where the money is, yet public courses are being recognized as environmentalists and have a lot less money to do it with. It’s something to think about,” says Gray, who suggests that management practices at public courses enjoy more flexibility and less resistance or scrutiny from several fronts.
Such built-in advantages at Marvel don’t make winning another Overall ELGA any less special, however.
“I’m honored by it,” Gray says. “I guess in the back of my mind I thought it would be nice to win it again ... why enter if not? But I didn’t think I would because there were a lot of good candidates out there. I wasn’t expecting it. It’s very satisfying.”
National Resort
Jonathan Moulton
Old Greenwood Golf Course
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Jonathan Moulton (left) surveys Old Greenwood GC in Truckee, Calif., with his mentor, Joel Blaker, CGCS and director of agronomy for the course’s parent company, the Tahoe Mountain Club. Photo courtesy of Tahoe Mountain Resorts |
Of all the facilities honored in this latest go-around of ELGAs, none have been more recognized than the folks at the Tahoe Mountain Resorts near Truckee, Calif. First, there’s Jon Moulton winning the National Resort award at one TMC venue, Old Greenwood. Second, there’s Mike Cornette, the Class A superintendent at the club’s most recently opened layout, The Golf Club at Gray’s Crossing, who’s listed on these pages as one of the 2007 Chapter winners. Finally, there’s Joel Blaker, CGCS, director of agronomy at TMC, who oversaw the development of the club’s three courses (Coyote Moon is the third) and put them all on the road to environmental success, first with Audubon and then ELGA.
“Joel’s certainly responsible for all that’s been done here,” says Moulton, who is also the first Class C GCSAA member to win a national environmental award. The former natural resource manager at the club, Moulton moved over to golf course work a couple of years ago and currently is being guided by Blaker in running the day-to-day operations at Old Greenwood, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design that opened in 2004.
Moulton has taken his role as Blaker’s protégé to heart. The two of them worked together to get Old Greenwood certified as one of Audubon’s prestigious Gold Signature courses (Gray’s Crossing has also earned that status), and then Moulton was basically aimed at the ELGA program.
The story of Old Greenwood can begin with its maintenance facility, which a year ago became the only one of its kind in the country to earn the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’s bronze certification. Noted were a number of practices that enhance the facility’s water efficiency, estimated to lead to a reduction of 4,130 gallons a year that in turn reduces Old Greenwood’s total water usage by about 10 percent. The LEED audit also gave Moulton’s achievements in conservation and energy savings high marks.
The philosophies of IPM and Best Management Practices are emphasized in a customized Natural Resource Management Plan aimed at the peculiarities of turf management at the high altitude of the Lake Tahoe region. Wildlife and habitat have evolved since construction of the course when four primary preserve areas constituting nearly 450 acres were designated to become buffers, habitat and wildlife corridors.
Audubon’s Gold Signature criteria stress education and outreach, and Moulton’s successor as TMC’s natural resource manager develops and implements many such programs. Signage along a hiking trail that encircles the property and a weekly walking club keeps the public informed on a variety of environmental practices at Old Greenwood. An ecologist who specializes in the Sierra environment is brought in to host bird-watching events, while Moulton is working with the Sierra Nevada Community College to offer educational opportunities at the course to individuals studying natural resources or sciences.
National Private
Todd Lawrence, CGCS
TPC Wakefield Plantation
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TPC Wakefield Plantation is a 200-acre Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary with 20 acres of native grasses and woodlands. Photo courtesy of TPC Wakefield Plantation |
A veteran TPC superintendent, Todd Lawrence runs a comprehensive water management plan at Wakefield Plantation, an eight-year-old Hale Irwin design in Raleigh, N.C., that also is a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. Lawrence, a 16-year GCSAA member who has been at the facility since its inception, irrigates the 7,257-yard layout on an as-needed basis, including hand-watering the greens as a basic regimen. The course property comprises 200 acres, with 150 of that maintained and 125 of that irrigated. Lawrence conducts water tests twice a year, and in 2008 began a program in which the water that enters and exits the course will be tested to compare quality.
In addition to recycling programs and composting, the facility has a separate enclosed area for mixing and loading chemicals. The area also has a collection drain that catches rinsate that is pumped through a filter and into one of four collection tanks. Lawrence has set up an equipment maintenance program that uses a computer to determine when maintenance is needed according to a machine’s hours. The program not only extends the life of the equipment, but also saves fuel, oil and labor.
Lawrence’s IPM practices feature scouting by a trained staff and, thus, minimal pesticide inputs. Mowing heights are maintained at levels that reduce both turf stress and chemical applications yet provide high-quality playing conditions. Wakefield Plantation’s staff is also trained to understand how management strategies affect wildlife species and habitat by tracking and relaying information. Wildlife on the property enjoys 20 acres of native grasses and woodlands.
Lawrence promotes the course’s environmental achievements to the membership and conducts various tours for local students. The facility also features a Resource Advisory Group that meets once a year to help plan environmental projects and educational outings. The group includes two members of the maintenance staff, a clubhouse staff member, a regional agronomist and an educator from nearby North Carolina State University.
International Co-Winner
Jay Miller
Four Seasons Golf Club
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Working with the University of Costa Rica, Jay Miller has reduced freshwater consumption at Four Seasons GC without negatively affecting the environment. Photo courtesy of Four Seasons GC |
Jay Miller, an 11-year GCSAA member, manages water conservation in a unique way at Four Seasons, which is perched on a rocky peninsula along Costa Rica’s northern Pacific coastline. The course has three ponds, two containing 30 percent salt water and one 100 percent fresh water. Miller irrigates 100 acres of paspalum turf with a fresh/salt mix, the result of two years of testing and working with the University of Costa Rica to obtain the proper permits. The bottom line has been a significant reduction in freshwater consumption without negative effects to the environment.
Water management at Four Seasons is also challenged by a large amount of runoff during the rainy season that produces from 2 to 10 inches a day. Course design slows the runoff to increase infiltration and protect sensitive areas from erosion. Trees and vegetative buffer areas surrounding the course also maintain soil water and preserve the integrity of the outlying beaches.
Miller, who has 20 years of experience in golf course management and construction, has attained Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary certification at Four Seasons, which was built by Arnold Palmer Design in 2003, and he is active in helping other courses in Costa Rica join the Audubon program.
His predilection for environmental innovation includes an idea he picked up from local sugar cane farmers — homemade maybug traps (a trash can, light bulb and soapy water) to combat the area’s chronic grub problem without using chemicals.
One of the Four Seasons operation’s more intriguing recycling/conservation programs involves food waste from the resort’s cafeteria that feeds 800 course, clubhouse and hotel employees a day. The waste is given to local pig farmers for feed. Then, in turn, when the pigs are sold the hotel buys the meat to complete the circle of sustainability.
Miller’s outreach program includes educational tours for hotel guests, as well as resort employees. The superintendent also is a member of the local Blue Flag Committee. A Blue Flag is given annually to the country’s cleanest beaches, an award Miller himself has earned.
International Co-Winner
Mark Dinan
Valle del Sol Golf Course
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Top: Costa Rica’s Valle del Sol GC was built on the site of a former sugar cane plantation. Photos courtesy of Valle del Sol GC Bottom: Superintendent Mark Dinan and his staff host field trips for local schools and conduct bird walks throughout the Valle del Sol course. |
With stints early in his career at the likes of Castle Pines in Colorado and Augusta National, Mark Dinan went to Costa Rica in 1997 to direct the grow-in at Valle del Sol and stayed on as course superintendent.
The 10-year GCSAA member addressed Valle del Sol’s water issues in recent years by using effluent water from neighboring homes and hopes to wean the course off of well water altogether as further residential development increases the flow of reclaimed water. Even so, the course, built on a former sugar cane plantation, is subject to hard and fast conditions as the region’s six-month dry season challenges the resiliency of the layout’s soil and bermudagrass, which otherwise flourishes during the May-to-November rainy period.
Dinan’s recycling effort began with the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program and has progressed to the point that he has also earned local Blue Flag certification. Wildlife thrives at the facility, which had 15 bodies of water and creeks and includes several tree island habitats. Buffer zones and naturalized areas round out the 370-acre property in Costa Rica’s central valley.
With the assistance of the Costa Rican bird watchers club, Dinan and his staff conduct bird walks throughout the course and also host field trips for the local schools, emphasizing habitat and the importance of maintaining it for the wildlife.
One unique service Dinan and his staff provide is a haven for the area’s prolific snake population. Early on, workers’ reaction was to kill the snakes. Dinan had a specialist come in to help staff learn to identify snake species and has handlers remove reptiles from populated areas and move them to safer habitats on the golf course.
2007 GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards
NATIONAL WINNERS
National Public & Overall
Christopher S. Gray Sr.
Marvel Golf Club
Benton, Ky.
Quad State Turfgrass Association
National Private
Todd Lawrence, CGCS
TPC Wakefield Plantation
Raleigh, N.C.
Carolinas GCSA
National Resort
Jonathan W. Moulton
Old Greenwood Golf Course
Truckee, Calif.
Sierra Nevada GCSA
International (tie)
Mark J. Dinan
Valle del Sol Golf Course
Santa Ana, San Jose, Costa Rica
Jay M. Miller
Four Seasons Resort
Liberia, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
CHAPTER WINNERS
Public
Robb R. Arnold
TPC Louisiana
Avondale, La.
Louisiana-Mississippi GCSA
D. Cord Ozment, CGCS
Callippe Preserve Golf Course
Pleasanton, Calif.
GCSA of Northern California
David C. Phipps
Stone Creek Golf Club
Oregon City, Ore.
Oregon GCSA
Private
Michael W. Cornette
Golf Club at Gray’s Crossing
Truckee, Calif.
Sierra Nevada GCSA
Thomas M. DeGrandi
TPC River Highlands
Cromwell, Conn.
Connecticut GCSA
Michael Powers, CGCS
TPC Twin Cities
Blaine, Minn.
Minnesota GCSA
Roger A. Stewart Jr., CGCS
TPC Jasna Polana
Princeton, N.J.
GCSA of New Jersey
Resort
Pam S. Brown
Keystone Ranch Golf Course
Keystone, Colo.
Rocky Mountain GCSA
Fred W. Klauk Jr.
TPC Sawgrass
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.
North Florida GCSA
MERIT WINNERS
Public
Paul F. Grogan, CGCS
TPC Deere Run
East Moline, Ill.
Iowa GCSA
Jason M. Kubel
TPC Tampa Bay
Tampa Bay, Fla.
Florida West Coast GCSA
Timothy P. Powers, CGCS
Crystal Springs Golf Course
Burlingame, Calif.
GCSA of Northern California
Private
Michael D. Crawford, CGCS
TPC Sugarloaf
Duluth, Ga.
Georgia GCSA
David R. Dettmer, CGCS
TPC Piper Glen
Charlotte, N.C.
Carolinas GCSA
Dale L. Hahn, CGCS
TPC Summerlin
Las Vegas
Southern Nevada GCSA
John M. Kulka
TPC Michigan
Dearborn, Mich.
Greater Detroit GCSA
Charles B. Robertson IV, CGCS
TPC Craig Ranch
McKinney, Texas
North Texas GCSA
Russell C. Vandehey, CGCS
Oregon Golf Club
West Linn, Ore.
Oregon GCSA
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