From the desk of GCM

The longest golf course

Until recently, golf courses -- even the longest course in the world -- were measured in yards. The Pines Course at The International in Bolton, Mass., is almost 8,400 yards. Dub's Dread in Kansas City, Kan., was 8,204 yards when it opened but has been trimmed to 7,100. Antler Creek Golf Course in Denver is a par-72 at an altitude of 7,000 feet and measures 8,058 yards. Finally, outside of Lijiang City, China, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain Golf Club, perched in the Himalayas at 10,000 feet, extends for 8,450 yards, including a 735-yard par 5. Who would want a longer golf course?

Apparently, Australians wanted a longer, more leisurely golf experience. The brainchild of the Eyre Highway Operators Association, Nullarbor Links in southern Australia extends 848 miles (1,365 kilometers) along the Eyre Highway from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia. The 18-hole, par-72 course features a hole in each participating town or roadhouse along the highway, and players are advised to allow at least four days to play the entire course. (Something tells me that someone is going to try to play straight through in less than 24 hours. I think the folks at Guinness World Records should be hearing from them soon.)

Berndt may save turf education program

Southwest Florida's highly respected turf educator, Lee Berndt, Ph.D., may land on his feet after the ouster of him and his Golf Course Operations program at Edison State College a month ago.

Hodges University, a private college with campuses in Fort Myers and Naples, is considering taking on Berndt and his program, thanks to a chance phone call by the 23-year GCSAA member.

"After wrapping things up at Edison and some conversations with friends, I decided to call the president of Hodges out the blue," says Berndt, who has more than 30 years of experience in golf course turf management. "I told him who I was and that I wanted to bring the program over to Hodges. I said there was a need in the community for it based on the number of golf courses, the extent of turf and the local ornamental and horticulture industries."

Toro, AST resolve dispute

The Toro Co. and Advanced Sensor Technology Inc. released announcements today that they have resolved all outstanding litigation involving the companies' soil sensor technologies. The parties' patent infringement, trade secret, false advertising and other claims and counter-claims were resolved without any admission of liability or wrongdoing, nor any licensing arrangement, by either party.

Both companies will continue to compete in the field of soil sensing with their respective technologies, Toro's Turf Guard product and AST's UgMO product, and they've agreed not to disparage one another's product. Toro also has agreed to make a modification to its product's source code to address AST's patent infringement concerns. The modification does not impact Turf Guard's performance or functionality, said Philip Burkart, vice president of Toro's irrigation businesses.

"We've long said that we respect the valid intellectual property rights of others," Burkart said. "The litigation cast a cloud over wireless soil sensing technology in our industry, so we're happy the issues are resolved and that our customers can continue to purchase the Turf Guard system with complete confidence.

Walt Norley, CEO of AST, commented after the settlement that, "We are looking forward to competing with Toro and Turf Guard in a fair and open manner, and to allowing the many potential customers to make their purchasing decisions based on the quality, price and efficiency of our respective products."

No other terms of the confidential settlement were released.

Get Golf Ready exceeds goal

GCSAA is closely associated on many levels with Golf 20/20's Get Golf Ready in 5 Days program, so here's some good news from the World Golf Foundation, taken from a recent release.

Get Golf Ready in 5 Days, (the photo here is from the program's announcement last fall) has exceeded its target number of host facilities in the initial year of the program. Nearly 1,100 facilities are certified to host the program, surpassing the target goal of 700 host facilities for 2009, and more than 2,260 Get Golf Ready events have been posted online. Aimed at bringing adults into the game in a fast, fun and affordable way, Get Golf Ready, Play Golf America’s 2009 featured program, seeks to introduce the game to thousands of golfers in the first year.

Targeting adults who have limited or no experience with the game of golf, Get Golf Ready is a series of five introductory lessons offered by PGA/LPGA Professionals in a small-group environment at prices ranging from approximately $99 to $149 (varies by facility). The program provides basic skills instruction as well as information regarding the background of the game’s rules, etiquette and values. Significant on-course learning opportunities are a part of each lesson. Overall, participants gain insight into techniques regarding chipping, putting, full swing, half swing and bunker play as well as the fundamental guidelines regarding the use and maintenance of golf equipment, keeping score and navigating the course, among others. Following the completion of the five-session program, a smooth transition into other Get Golf Ready graduate outings, such as the free and low-cost programs offered by Play Golf America (PlayGolfAmerica.com), are provided.

Distinguished Service Award winner still at it

Jim Loke, CGCS, winner of GCSAA's 2008 Distinguished Service Award and superintendent at Bent Creek Country Club, Lancaster, Pa., is featured in a story in the Golf Association of Philadelphia Magazine's most recent issue. The reason? Two days ago he hosted The Open Championship at his course, one of four majors held by the Golf Association of Philly.

Loke is no stranger to hosting big events. When I had the pleasure of interviewing him for a story about the DSA winners over a year ago, I heard about his adventures hosting the 1975 PGA Championship and seven World Series of Golf tournaments when he headed up maintenance operations at Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio.

Even in tough times, super salaries on the rise

In the midst of challenging economic times, it still pays to be a golf course superintendent.

The 2009 version of GCSAA's Compensation, Benefits and Operations report (we call it the "Comp and Ben" survey here at GCSAA HQ) is on the street, and it reports that the average salary for superintendents rose to $78,898, an increase of 6.9 percent over the figure from the 2007 edition of this report. Additionally, the median salary for superintendents also headed north, up 6.1 percent from the 2007 survey, which means superintendent salaries kept pace with the Bureau of Labor Statistic's Employment Cost Index, which was registered a 5.9 percent index for similar businesses in the same time frame.

GCSAA has conducted this survey every two years since 1995, and every one of those has shown an increase in the salaries of GCSAA member superintendents. Overall, superintendent salaries have shot up 60.1 percent between the first survey (when the average was $49,269) and the most recent effort.

New look, new name for Oak Tree

Today marks the grand re-opening of one of the Midwest's most notable golf courses — Oak Tree National in Edmond, Okla., just outside of Oklahoma City. The Pete Dye-designed course that has played host to a PGA Championship, a Senior PGA Championship and a U.S. Amateur is sporting a new name (they lost the "Golf Club" and replaced it with "National") and a new look, courtesy of a Dye-led renovation, when a new ownership group took charge last year.

The renovation work touched on virtually every corner of the club, but from an agronomic perspective, the most notable work involved a turfgrass swap on fairways, tees and greens surrounds from common bermudagrass to U3 bermuda (another Oklahoma standout that is playing host to this year's U.S. Amateur, Southern Hills in Tulsa, also features U3 fairways). And the man most responsible for that playing surface, as well as other aspects of the renovation work, is Class A superintendent Bret Proctor.

Prior to today's unveiling of the "new" Oak Tree, the 12-year GCSAA member gave GCM an expanded look at the work that took place at the club and how that work has changed the overall maintenance plans that he puts into place each day. Here are Proctor's comments:

LCCC book features maintenance facilities

This month's opening installment in GCM of a periodic series on golf course maintenance facilities around the country was not lost on a couple of turf industry stalwarts at north Florida's Lake City Community College.

John Piersol, who has been working with the school's Golf Course Operations and Turf Equipment Technology programs for 35 years, and Harry Smith, a retired turf equipment instructor at LCCC, recently co-authored a resource book, "Turf Maintenance Facility Design & Management," that discusses the key issues regarding golf maintenance shops.

"There are a lot innovative ideas in the industry and the importance of the maintenance facility to the overall operation is sometimes forgotten," Piersol wrote in an e-mail to me last week. "A neat, clean maintenance facility is a safe, efficient shop and that affects the attitude of the crew."

Reuse, recycle

Times are tough all over. The entire world is in a recession. In Lawrence, Kan., and in many other cities, school is about to start, and many parents will not be able to buy school supplies for their children. It would be wonderful if GCSAA were able to donate enough to buy school supplies for every needy child in Lawrence, but we are also watching our pennies closely. However, we do have something that a lot of students need -- binders!

In the past few years, GCSAA has moved away from using printed materials and the plastic binders that hold them. We still use some plastic binders in the office just because we have them, but for the most part, they have been phased out. As a result, hundreds of used plastic binders of all sizes threatened to take over our office supply room. The binders had to go, but we couldn't just toss them in the dumpster so they could sit in a landfill forever. We needed to find someone who could reuse them.

The Ballard Community Center in Lawrence organizes distribution of school supplies to local children in need, and the kind folks there said they would take everything we had. That was a good start, but some of the binders were dirty or full of paper or had clear plastic covers that been damaged or discolored. Over the past month at three different work parties, GCSAA employees have volunteered their time to sort through binders and clean them up so that they can start a new life in Lawrence schools.

Random thoughts on the British

First thought: I'm so happy for Stewart Cink! I'm bummed out his first major win had to come at Tom Watson's expense (and in the year 2009), but aren't we all?

OK, seriously. It's 10:30 p.m. and I just finished watching the British Open. I DVR'ed it... and made every effort to avoid popular media all day so as not to spoil the ending for myself. I talked to my parents this evening, and the conversation started like this: "DON'TTELLME HOWTHEBRITISHOPENENDEDIRECORDEDIT!!!

My closest spoiler moment: my regular freelance writing gig, with www.comicbookresources.com, called in a favor around lunchtime (yeah, there are breaking stories in the world of comic books, just like in the world of turf!). So I jumped on the "interwebs" for the first time all day. My iGoogle account revealed to me that Watson was "hanging in" at the British. I shouted at the iGoogle, which I usually praise, for being the one and only (slight) spoiler all day.