From the desk of GCM

GCSAA staff boost golfer numbers

On Wednesday, GCM's editor-in-chief, Ed Hiscock, posted a story about the declining number of golfers in the U.S., and today GCM's associate editor, Darcy DeVictor wrote about women in golf. Well, I have good news. Some staff members at GCSAA headquarters are doing their best to counteract the trend of declining numbers and also boost the population of women golfers.

For more than 10 years, GCSAA has offered staffers golf lessons at a reduced rate. Family members can also join in the fun if they pay the full cost. Lessons are offered for beginners and more experienced players, and GCSAA's golf league swings into action in early June with tee times every other week and two low-key tournaments in July and September.

Women unite!

Because GCSAA supports myriad efforts from the golf industry and community to attract more diverse population of golfers, I take note of new programs or services that encourage a minority demographic to take up the game of golf.

Donna Hoffman is spearheading one of those efforts. She's on a mission to get more women into golf. Hoffman founded Women on Course, a program currently in 20 cities that provides a social platform for women to meet other women who have someone in common -- a love of golf. Women on Course events include golf events, happy hours, fashion shows, guest speakers, instruction and more to help attract females ranging from avid golfers to newbies to the game and introduce them to all the networking and social benefits of golf. Take a look at the Web site of the program, which is membership-based, for details on dozens of events coming up in cities across the U.S.

Golfer numbers continue decline

Golfer participation numbers continued their slight decline last year, falling 3 percent from 29.5 million in 2007 to 28.6 million in 2008, according to the National Golf Foundation 's annual golf participation study. The study defines a golfer as a person age 6 or above who plays at least one round of golf in a given year, and was conducted by Synovate, a Chicago-based market research firm.

Both the "Core" and "Occasional" golfer categories dipped. Core golfers dropped 4.5 percent, from 17.3 million to 16.6 million, while Occasional golfers dropped 1.5 percent, from 12.2 million to 12.0 million.

The good news is that 4 million golfers either tried the game for the first time (1.7 million) or came back to the game after being away for a while (2.3 million.) The bad news is that there were 4.9 million "lost golfers" -- those who played in 2007 but not last year.

Smells like golf ...

...or at least like renowned golfer Annika Sorenstam, who's come out with her own signature fragrance. Marketed by Boston-based SA Fragrances, the potion is called, not surprisingly, "Annika."

"It is an honor for me to have a fragrance that bears my name," Annika said in the product launch announcement. "Confidence is so alluring for a woman in any industry, and I want the women who wear 'Annika' to feel that."

If anyone knows what confidence smells like, it would be Annika, who before retiring from major competition in 2008 rewrote the LPGA and Ladies European Tour record books, won countless events and awards and brought unprecedented attention to women's golf.

The miscellaneous file

A cluttered in-box leads to a cluttered mind. So I'm ridding myself of some of that clutter by finally posting some tidbits I've been gathering this week:

Mowing on the high seas: One of my favorites this week was a news release from Jacobsen detailing one of the company's more recent sales to, of all things, a cruise ship. Seems the folks at Celebrity Cruise Line purchased one of Jacobsen's Eclipse 122F electric walking greens mowers for it's new ship Celebrity Solstice, which includes a 2,548 square yard natural lawn on its upper deck where guests can lawn bowl, play croquet, practice their putting or have a picnic, all while cruising the ocean blue. The photo shows the Eclipse, selected by the cruise line because of its quiet operation, at work on the Solstice.

When you go to Lowe's to get top soil...

...open the bag and smell the soil. True, you may look foolish, but you'll find out for sure whether the soil is rich in organic matter, one of the key elements of a good soil. That's the advice GCSAA staff members got over lunch today from Dave Fearis, GCSAA's director of membership. He gave a presentation about some of the agronomic practices our members do on a regular basis, covering topics like different types of grasses, topdressing, root establishment, irrigation, greens construction and more.

While it was partly intended to help some of us non-superintendent types grow and maintain our own yards, the session also gave a glimpse of understanding into the challenges that many of our members face every day on their respective courses.

Golf course maintenance on the Duece

Turf disease blog

We've got another addition to make to our list of "super" bloggers.

This one is "Turfgrass disease updates for golf courses" and has an all-star cast of contributors from around the country. Participating pathologists include Lane Tredway, Ph.D. from N.C. State, Megan Kennelly, Ph.D. from Kansas State, Jim Kerns, Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, Frank Wong, Ph.D. from the University of California – Riverside and John Kaminski, Ph.D. from Penn State. (That's Megan in the illustration. Man, how do I get an illustration of me on this blog?? Art by Jessica Machnicki, University of Connecticut.)

There will be more about this exciting new blog in the June issue of GCM. But for now, I didn't want you folks to miss out on anything before your June issue hits your mailbox, so consider this just a quick note to click on over and see what they're up to.

GCM honored by TOCA

It was a great time in the Greater Antillies for GCM last week as the magazine picked up 11 awards from the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) at a ceremony held in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico.

I had the honor of representing the GCM staff at the awards ceremony, which capped off TOCA's 20th anniversary annual meeting, and was held about an hour east of San Juan. GCM garnered five first-place commercial publication writing awards and six merit awards.

Breaking the century mark

Watch out, Oprah! Heads up, Ashton Kucher! Here comes the mighty GCM!

On Tuesday, GCM joined some rarefied air in the world of Twitter — we got our 100th follower (now all the way up to 108). Now, I realize that not everyone on Twitter can attract the overwhelming number of followers that our account attracts. But in light of the much publicized Twitter accounts of the previously mentioned superstars, I'm proud that our little golf course maintenance magazine could move into the same territory as those luminaries and ...

What's that? What do you mean we're not even close to Oprah and Ashton? They both have more than a million followers? Really? Like, a million as in a one with six zeroes behind it? As in 999,892 more followers that GCM has?

Oh.

You know what? Who cares? We're still going to celebrate, because for those of at GCM, breaking the century mark was a bit of a milestone and joins the slowly growing collection of evidence that folks in the golf course maintenance industry are indeed embracing the social media. Between this blog, Twitter, GCSAA's foray into online video with GCSAA TV, we feel we're expanding and improving on the ways we offer information to our readers. We hope you agree.