From the desk of GCM

Showtime!

You may have heard of the new Monday night show "Smash!" on NBC? Well, it's got nothin' on GCSAA's "Turfgrass Talk Show," which debuted this morning at the GCSAA Education Conference to rave reviews.

The "Turfgrass Talk Show" featured pre-show entertainment as well as "Tonight Show"-style musical lead-ins and fade-outs from The Bronk Bros. Band, featuring GCSAA members John Fulling, CGCS, and Heath Bronkema. They rocked the house.

Host for the show, which ran for 90 minutes but seemed fast-paced nevertheless, was Michigan State's Thom Nikolai, Ph.D. Nikolai led four guests -- Michael Morris, CGCS at Crystal Downs CC in Michigan; Matthew Taylor, CGCS and director of golf at Royal Poinciana GC in Florida; Doug Karcher, Ph.D., from the University of Arkansas; and Rodney Tocco Jr., a doctoral student at Michigan State -- in a discussion of a topic picked by GCSAA members well in advance of the conference. Wetting agents got the good news/bad news treatment from the guests, with the superintendents offering moderate skepticism and the researchers providing data to support their use.

Pursuing products at the GIS

Day 1 at the GCSAA Golf Industry Show here in Las Vegas, and my quest is to locate as many new products as possible.

Thank you, Wiedenmann, for making my job easier.

When you plaster the word NEW in big, bold letters on your flyer, I knew I hit the jackpot (pun intended because, after all, I am in Vegas) inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. So here I was, at Booth 242, checking out Wiedenmann's new Mega Twister. Thank you to Wiedenmann territory manager Mike Smith for providing me with a quick tutorial on the product.

"It's the first ever with 20,000 CFMs. It's the most powerful of its kind in the industry," Smith tells me. "This is the first day the public gets to see it."

The Mega Twister, a leaf blower for tractors that is supposed to be ideal on golf courses, can swivel 270 degrees. And, Smith says, you hardly know it is there on the course.

"It's quiet. Whisper-quiet," he says. 

Debate this ... and that

Debates aren't only for the Mitt Romneys and Rick Santorums of the world. A debate was on display Tuesday at the GCSAA Education Conference inside the Las Vegas Hotel.

The participants? Members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. Their program, titled "Trends in Contemporary Golf Course Architecture", pitted architect versus architect on a range of subjects. Such as:

Growing the game vs. traditional golf as is. Jerry Lemons, ASGCA, says do whatever it takes to grow the game, including forward tees and bigger cups. Taking the opposite view was Damian Pascuzzo, ASGCA, who says why change the game? It's good enough as is, he believes. No gimmicks needed, he thinks. "It's much better to keep our heads buried in the sand than our golf balls," said Pascuzzo, who got plenty of laughs out of that line.

Celebrate GCSAA!, Jacobsen style

Right about now, golf professional and TV commentator Peter Jacobsen is scheduled to jump on a private jet and head to Los Angeles to film commercials tomorrow morning for Cleveland Golf.

But only a couple of hours ago here in Las Vegas, Jacobsen was all about the GCSAA.

"I'm still overwhelmed that I'm being honored by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America because its high praise," Jacobsen said just minutes before he officially was presented the 2012 Old Tom Morris Award during Celebrate GCSAA! presented in partnership with Syngenta at the Las Vegas Hotel, a key part of the annual Golf Industry Show. "I've always tried to be the best I could be on and off the golf course."

Jacobsen joined a list of familar names, including Bob Hope, President Gerald R. Ford, and Gene Sarazen who have received the honor, given annually by GCSAA to an individual who through a continuing lifetime commitment to the game of golf has helped mold the welfare of the game as exemplified by Old Tom Morris.

What made this night even more special for Jacobsen was who also had the spotlight shining on them. He is very familiar with David Phipps, recipient of the President's Award for Environmental Stewardship, and Michael Stieler, who won the GCSAA national championship tournament Sunday.

"David was on the staff at Oregon Golf Club when we started the Fred Meyer Challenge there," Jacobsen said of the annual charity event he launched in 1986, which eventually ended and was reborn in 2011 as the Umpqua Bank Challenge, events that have raised more than $13 million for charity. "I love Dave, I love the kind of guy that he is because he has the same passion for his craft as I do for mine. When I built Stone Creek (Golf Club) in Portland, there was only one guy I wanted to be our construction foreman and to help navigate us through the construction from the superintendent's side, and that was Dave Phipps."

EIFG lands $1 million gift from Melrose

GCSAA's Environmental Institute for Golf has received the largest donation in its history from the former CEO and chairman of The Toro Co.

The Kendrick B. Melorse Family Foundation has donated $1 million to GCSAA's philanthropic organization. The donation was formerly announced by Melrose during the Celebrate GCSAA! event at the 2012 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas.

"I have a profound respect for golf course superintendents and their role in the game of golf," Melrose said. "For golf courses to be successful, they need highly competent superintendents. Golf course management has become an increasingly more difficult profession, so to be able to provide resources to enhance superintendents' professional development has been very important to me. Together the GCSAA and the EIFG are the best organizations to deliver the education and training that will not only benefit the professional, but their facilities and the game."

The complete release announcing the Melrose donation is posted below:

Two-for-one deal for GIS attendees in 2013

Attendees of the 2013 Golf Industry Show in San Diego will have complimentary access to two general educational sessions and the Club Business Expo offered by the Club Managers Association of America on approximately the same dates. 

The agreement is reciprocal as CMAA event registrants will have access to the Golf Industry Show and its general education sessions on a complimentary basis.

The scheduling rotation for the Golf Industry Show (presented by GCSAA and the National Golf Course Owners Association) and the CMAA World Conference and Club Business Exposition has both in San Diego in 2013. The GCSAA and NGCOA education conferences will be Feb. 4-8 and the Golf Industry Show will be Feb. 6-7. The CMAA World Conference will run Feb. 7-11 and the Club Business Expo will be Feb. 8-9. Both trade shows will be at the San Diego Convention Center.

“With both events in San Diego at essentially the same time, it only made sense to all parties that there should be access to both groups of attendees,” GCSAA CEO Rhett Evans and NGCOA CEO Mike Hughes said in a joint statement.

The Golf Industry Show is presented by GCSAA and the NGCOA, along with participating partners the American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA), the Golf Course Builders Association of America (GCBAA), the United States Golf Association (USGA), the National Golf Foundation (NGF), the International Golf Course Equipment Managers Association (IGCEMA), and supporting partner the Society of Golf Appraisers (SGA).

A coming storm for golf course management?

For some golf course management professionals, terms like "water quality regulations" and "nutrient management plans" simply aren't considerations in their day-to-day professional lives.

But for others, those matters have become an increasingly crucial parts of their jobs, and, like it or not, they have been forced to become deeply involved in the political wranglings that often surround hot-button regulatory issues like water quality. From the Chesapeake Bay to the Pacific Northwest, those superintendents, agronomists and lobbyists are sounding a cautionary notice to the rest of the industry, a notice that was the focus of Keeping Your Facility Above Water: How Water Quality Regulations May Affect The Golf Business, an educational session that capped the first day of activities at the GCSAA Education Conference Monday in Las Vegas.

"If you're not already feeling some of the pressures from nutrient management issues at your golf facility," said GCSAA director of environmental programs Greg Lyman in his opening comments, "then you certainly will in the future."

European accent

One of GCSAA's most enduring traditions is for one superintendent to mentor a newcomer (or dozen) to the profession. GCSAA's 1981 President Mel Lucas, CGCS Retired, has taken this to the international level, mentoring more than 20 European greenkeepers through the process of completing the UMass Winter Turf School.

One of these proteges, Vanja Drasler of Slovenia, is here in Las Vegas to attend the 2012 GIS and make the connections that will help her get her course in championship shape to host this summer's International European Ladies Amateur Championship. This is actually Vanja's second GIS. Following last year's event in Orlando, she made her way into internships at FarmLinks in Alabama and at the Olympic Club in San Francisco.

"I like to help international greenkeepers who have the enthusiasm and the desire for this profession," Lucas says. "Vanja, for one, has shown a tremendous drive."

Help wanted: architects

Bob Wilbur has a piece of advice for any fellow golf course superintendent who is reluctant to bring an architect on board for a project.

It sounds like something from Nike.

Just do it.

When it was time to consider a renovation/restoration at Wilbur's course, Army Navy Country Club in Arlington, Va., he never imagined doing it alone.

"It (bringing in an architect) was a set of fresh eyes. I looked at the golf course since 1979," Wilbur says.

During today's presentation at the GCSAA Education Conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center titled "Innovative Superintendents: Save Time, Money and Stress ... Call Your Architect", golf course architect Kipp Schulties says architects are more than willing to take the stress off superintendents.

"Any issue, any problem, when you bring an architect on board, give it to him," says Schulties, of Kipp Schulties Golf Design, Inc. "Share every possible issue you have with the architect. The worst thing your membership can say is no."

Postcards from Palm Springs, Las Vegas

In addition to the in-depth reporting from this year's GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show in Las Vegas that we kicked off yesterday, we're also going to let you in on all of the event's sights through photo albums that you can access on the right side of this page.

As you can see, we have seperate photo albums for both the GCSAA National Championship and Golf Classic, as well as conference and show. The golf tournament photo album features a full selection of images from that event, while the conference and show album currently has photos taken during some of Monday's educational sessions and seminars. We'll continue to update that photo album periodically throughout the week.

And if you're onsite in Las Vegas this week, make sure to stop by the Networking Pavillion near the registration desk in the main lobby of the Las Vegas Convention Center. In addition to a monitor streaming constantly updated Tweets related to GIS, there will be another monitor in that area streaming even more images from the week via Flickr that is being updated by GCSAA staff.