From the desk of GCM

Maddern to leave San Diego post

Word came late yesterday that 2003 GCSAA President Jon D. Maddern, CGCS, will leave the City of San Diego and his job as deputy director/golf operations manager of the Balboa Park, Mission Bay and Torrey Pines golf complexes in mid March.

In a communication to friends and colleagues in the industry, Maddern (seen here on the far right with other former GCSAA Board of Directors members at this month's conference and show in San Diego), said, "After much consideration and thorough consideration of my family, personal and professional future" he will become the superintendent at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls in Salem, S.C. His last day at the San Diego job will be March 12.

Maddern said the move would allow him and his wife, Beverly, to be closer to family and offer him "the great opportunity to return to my passion, that of preparing a golf course for play."

Snow at Amen Corner

I'm certainly no expert on the meteorological history of Augusta, Ga., so I can't begin to tell you when the last time it snowed in that area. I can't tell you how much snow they get a year, if they get any snow at all. But I can tell you this: a snow-covered Amen Corner a little more than six weeks before the playing of the 2010 Masters was not part of the plans at August National.

You may have already seen these photos in one format or another — I'm making absolutely no claim to exclusivity here; they've been making the e-mail rounds and have appeared on several other golf blogs over the course of the last few days — but I certainly think they're noteworthy for our little blog, if for no other reason than they give a completely different look at and perspective on one of the most photographed golf courses in the world.

And before we move on to the photos, a disclaimer: I have no idea where they originated from. I received this in an e-mail that was a forward of a forward of another forward that had originally been forwarded from a forward ... well, you get the idea. I just found them way interesting. I hope you do too.

GCM @ GIS -- the Jake booth

If you have a question about the GIS -- what we saw, who was there, why something happened -- ask us. Odds are, we were there covering it.

I say this with great confidence. We had the largest crew there of any industry publication, and thanks to Hollister's scheduling, we were spread throughout the San Diego Convention Center as efficiently as possible.

In fact, this became a point of consternation with one rival mag, and it gave me a good laugh. I was dropping in at the John Deere booth to say hello when I inadvertently (honest, it was an accident) interrupted a meeting between Deere's people and this rival publication. But Deere's folks got up to say hello anyway. I tried to excuse myself quickly, telling them I'd come back at a better time -- I didn't want to step on any toes. That's when our rival (a friend of mine who took my bad timing well) shouted out, "What is the deal?!? You GCM guys are EVERYWHERE!"

Of course, I like that thought. It reminded me of the Matrix movies. I borrowed a line from that film -- "We are everywhere... we're like a virus!"

Anyway, one of the many places we were able to get to (or, if you're our rival, invade) was the Jacobsen booth to see their new Eclipse 322. Actually, we got to test drive it, too.

GCM editor attacked by Chicken

These are the perils of being in the turf industry, I suppose...

Three more Super Bloggers

In the aftermath of the Golf Industry Show, we have three more blogs we think you'll enjoy... please check out:

iaTurf -- This is a blog put together by the fine folks at Iowa State University. Pretty active blog with several contributors. I mentioned this blog here a month or so ago, but forgot to add the link to the "Super Bloggers" column on the right side of the page -- that is remedied now. Marcus Jones shot me an email and said the mention they got here on the GCM blog gave them a nice bump in hits, so that's a win-win... Click over there to check out a great "Office Space" reference and to let them know about your best equipment modification.

Skokie CC Golf Course Management -- This blog, by Skokie CGCS Donald Cross, a 32-year Class A GCSAA member, has been in action for 11 months now... my hat is off to Donald, he's posting a lot of good blogs for his membership. I got sucked in reading about the mysterious footprints on a green, his assistant getting promoted to head super at a nearby club, and the 'why we aerate' talk. And lots of photos, too. Check it out.

Northmoor CC Golf Course Operations -- This blog is in its infancy -- it actually is a product from a 2010 GIS seminar. Former GCSAA President Tommy Witt, CGCS, attended a class at GIS about blogging and presto! A new blog is born. Tommy is off to a good start -- two posts last week about the snow and ice currently on the course.

As always, you can find a list of golf course maintenance blogs here at the GCM blog -- just check out the "Super Bloggers" column on the right. And if you have a blog you'd like us to know about, just drop us a line.

Ditka!

Ditka versus dollar spot?

DITKA!

Ditka versus broadleaf weeds?

DITKA!

OK, there's my turf version of the Mike Ditka Saturday Night Live skit.

As you know, Ditka was the guest of BASF at their GIS booth last week. Ditka signed autographs, took photos, answered questions and hammed it up for the crowd. Ditka was so amiable that he showed up early just to chat with the BASF staff working the show in San Diego. Tom Hill, BASF communications manager, told me that eventually they decided they better just start the autograph line, because Ditka's hang-time turned into a giant mob of fans wanting to get some of Ditka's time.

BASF set it up so that a line snaked through the booth. Once you got up to Da Coach, you sat for a photo, a quick autograph and a handshake. Afterwards, Ditka answered questions from the crowd as well as a few that were submitted online. If you had your photo taken with Ditka, click over here  to get your copy of your photo.

Global Turf globally happy with GIS

Won't take up much of your time with this one, but I do want to pass along something from one of the exhibitors at last week's Golf Industry Show.

Spent some time at the booth of Global Turf Equipment, the world's largest seller and exporter of pre-owned golf course maintenance equipment, so after I got back to Lawrence, I was curious how the show went for the company.

According to company president Jim Sartain, "Our booth was a hive of activity at the GIS. It's an ideal venue to spread the word about Global Turf's budgetary benefits to golf facilities large and small, private and public. At a time when all operators are scrutinizing expenditures, our pre-owned, 'like new' inventory of mowers, topdressers and spreaders, turf vaccumes, blowers, utility vehicles and more was well received."

Another satisfied exhibitor, it seems. Let us know about your experience in San Diego. 

A closer look at your ELGA winners

I don't know if I'd put it in the "dirty little secret" category or not, but it's certainly one of the realities that we face in producing GCM each month -- we ask folks for WAY more photos to include in stories than we can actually use in those stories.

Take this month's lead story on the winners of the GCSAA/Golf Digest Environmental Leaders in Golf Awards. All four of the top winners provided us with boatloads of great photos of themselves, their facilities (like this course shot from public winner Jim Brown, CGCS, at Newport Dunes GC in Port Aransas, Texas), the wildlife they see there (like the alligator from international winner Brett Morris and the eagle from private winner Roger Stewart, CGCS, at TPC Twin Cities) and some of the environmental efforts they had undertaken on those courses. But aside from the feature on overall winner Terry Stratton of Little River (Calif.) Inn Golf and Tennis Resort, which included five or six photos, the other three winners were relegated, because of space constraints, to a photo of themselves and a photo of their course in their story.

New USGA prez talks golf and the environment

Lost a little amid the hubbub of last week’s GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in San Diego was the fact that one of GIS’ supporting partners, the USGA, had their own annual meeting just a week earlier in Pinehurst, N.C.

At those meetings, Jim Hyler officially took the reins as the USGA’s 61st president. And in his first official remarks as president, Hyler went down a road few other USGA presidents have traveled in such depth before. He talked about golf and the environment.

The timing of these comments was certainly appropriate, considering that at virtually the same time, GCSAA and it’s philanthropic arm, The Environmental Institute for Golf, were announcing their plans to launch an initiative that would develop a sustainable approach to golf course management, plans that have wide industry backing. You can read more about Golf’s Drive Toward Sustainability here.

Playing chicken

We're back home in Lawrence, and we've hit the ground running.

Sure, a blizzard caused a 50-car pileup not more than 25 miles from our office, but we're still happy to be home. San Diego weather? A distant memory.

Anyway, we have notebooks and notebooks full of great information from the Golf Industry Show. For now, though, we're going to merge slowly, as we put the finishing touches on the March issue of GCM. In the next few days though, just from me, you can expect stories about the GCBAA's "Sticks for Kids," Coach Mike Ditka answering some questions, some of the best products I saw at the GIS... and the best part of the Children's Museum in San Diego. So keep checking in with us -- we consider this a daily blog, and we're always happy to have a day of 1,000 hits over 100 hits... any day.

In the meantime, here's me hanging with the world famous San Diego Chicken. He's a reader.