From the desk of GCM

Lessons in life (and turf) for future turf managers

Editor's note: The following is an update on last week's Future Turf Managers event, hosted annually by Jacobsen in Charlotte, N.C., from Jacobsen's Adam Slick, public relations and communications manager.

Quail Hollow Club super Chris Deariso talks to Future Turf Managers attendees

Last week Jacobsen hosted over twenty college seniors from top turfgrass programs around the world as part of its annual Future Turf Managers event.

The annual event gives students a unique opportunity to experience professional turfgrass management at the highest level. During the three-day event, students visit with top superintendents and sports field managers, hear leading-edge presentations from top universities and get an insider’s look at Jacobsen’s turf maintenance equipment.

Attendees must be recommended by directors or professors at turfgrass programs. Students were selected from over twenty colleges and universities, including Penn State University, Texas A&M University, Mississippi State University, Iowa State University and North Dakota State University. The group also included an international student from Myerscough College in Lancashire, England.

Assistants: Green Start Academy wants you

The application process is open for the eighth annual Green Start Academy.

The program, co-sponsored by John Deere Golf and Environmental Science, a division of Bayer Crop Science LP, is strictly for assistant superintendents. Fifty of them will be selected to receive an expense-paid trip to this year's event, which is scheduled Oct. 2-4 at the Bayer Development and Training Center in Clayton, N.C., and John Deere's Turf Care factory in Fuquay-Varina, N.C.

Green Start Academy provides assistant superintendents the opportunity to network with their peers, receive best practices from industry leaders and gain insights into trending topics and key issues that they can use upon their return to their home courses.

To be considered, assistant superintendents from the U.S. or Canada must complete an application. As part of the process, applicants must submit a resume and complete two short-answer questions. The application deadline is June 28.

A panel of industry experts will score the applicants based on their experience and essays before selecting the 50 assistant superintendents. Panel members are GCSAA Class A superintendent Chris Condon, Tetherow Resort and Golf Club, Bend, Ore.; Bob Farren, CGCS, Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst, N.C.; GCSAA President Patrick R. Finlen, CGCS, director of golf, The Olympic Club, San Francisco, Calif.; Ken Mangum, CGCS, director of golf course and grounds, Atlanta Athletic Club, Johns Creek, Ga.; and Bryan Stromme, regional director of agronomy-Midwest, Billy Casper Golf.

Those applicants who are chosen will be notified by mid-August. For more information and to apply, visit www.backedbybayer.com/green-start-academy.

Naming rights: Coming to a golf course near you?

What's next ... Chick-fil-A Shinnecock Hills?

It seems selling the naming rights for professional sports venues is more in vogue than ever. Take, for example, the new football stadium the San Francisco 49ers are building. This month, jeans icon Levi Strauss came to terms on a $220 million naming rights agreement with the 49ers to put its name on the new stadium that is scheduled to open in 2014.

Oh, there are numerous other examples. Lucas Oil Field is home to the Indianapolis Colts. Energy Solutions Arena houses basketball's Utah Jazz. Hockey's Pittsburgh Penguins drop the puck at Consol Energy Center. Baseball's New York Mets do their thing at Citi Field.

In golf, well, naming rights for golf courses is pretty much uncharted territory. Oh, it has happened; AT&T Oaks Course and AT&T Canyons Course, TPC courses in San Antonio, are examples. Golf, though, hasn't pursued corporate name tags for courses in the manner that many NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB teams have chosen to do. 

Could golf courses move in that direction in the future? At least one city is giving it a closer look. 

GCSAA to fund two new research projects

GCSAA has announced it is funding two new research projects for 2013, one on drought and traffic stress, and the other on anthracnose disease control.

The projects, along with four that are in progress, give GCSAA six ongoing studies, each funded through a grant from the Environmental Institute for Golf (EIFG). The new studies were funded based on recommendations by the GCSAA Research Committee and approved by the association's board of directors.

"The feedback from members and chapters is that research is a valuable benefit of their membership," GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans said. "Research is the foundation of our programming, from our education, to communications, to advocacy. We are thankful for those who support the EIFG so we can deliver the research to our members and the industry."