(Editorial) Part of the future

FarmLinks isn’t new – OK, it’s relatively new – but the equipment and technologies used there are innovative. They represent the future of golf course maintenance.

John Walsh

The folks at Pursell Technologies, the company that runs FarmLinks, call a tour of the facility “The Experience at FarmLinks.” The relaxed trip to the remote town of Sylacauga, Ala., is permeated with Southern hospitality. The tour involves golf on a Hurdzan/Fry-designed, links-style course and plenty of interaction with about a dozen superintendents, as well as distributors and suppliers at times. Presentations focus on state-of-the-art technology that will change the way superintendents maintain golf courses.

Forty weeks a year twice a week, Pursell Technologies hosts the three-day experience for superintendents. David Pursell, president of Pursell Technologies, says that since the research facility opened in 2003, about 3,000 superintendents have traveled there to learn about emerging equipment and technologies.

Those new products, which some superintendents might even be using now, help make their jobs easier and help them become more efficient and effective. They include: controlled-release granular pesticides, robotic fairway mowers, electric walk-behind greens mowers, electric triplex fairway mowers, GPS systems that track fleets of mowers, seashore paspalum and zoysiagrass varieties, subsurface soil monitoring and the latest advancements in irrigation technology to name a few.

Getting to FarmLinks seems easy. There’s no charge to superintendents to go. Their local distributor pays for the travel to Birmingham, and Pursell picks up everything else. Usually, superintendents are invited by a Polyon or Toro distributor. Occasionally, Pursell will invite some superintendents itself and arrange the trip but prefers when a local distributor is involved.

But superintendents are only half the experience. Even though they’re eager to learn about future products and are in charge of buying them, suppliers are the ones who make FarmLinks a truly novel and educational experience for attendees.

Suppliers have proprietary information about what equipment or technology they’re working on within their research and development teams. Some suppliers might be hesitant to show their hand per se, however, there’s a way to inform FarmLinks and superintendents what they’re working on without unveiling too much. It would be in the best interest of suppliers, superintendents and the industry for them to do that to see if their products or technologies could be used at the facility.

The interaction between suppliers and superintendents at FarmLinks is different than say the Golf Industry Show. Although there are fewer products at FarmLinks, superintendents can see how a supplier’s product is used in the field in a real-life setting instead of just being showcased in a trade show booth.

There are many suppliers that aren’t represented at FarmLinks. Granted, some might not be able to take part in the program because of exclusive contracts, but suppliers, big and small, should find out what it takes to be a part of the FarmLinks operation. If a product of theirs is used at the facility, it would be a coup and a marketing advantage for them.

Pursell Technologies isn’t going to single-handedly pick these innovative products either. It’s smart about the process and has put together an advisory panel of eight superintendents who will help select the products they think are innovative enough to be used at FarmLinks in the future.

There’s a need for superintendents and suppliers to get together more often to talk about golf course maintenance problems and solutions, which is good for both groups. For suppliers, it’s an opportunity to hear first-hand from superintendents throughout the country. And for superintendents, it’s a chance to receive product and practice input from sources other than the ones they usually use.

So here’s to the superintendents who travel to FarmLinks and provide input to help shape the products they’ll use in the future. And here’s to those suppliers who will be creative and innovative enough to be part of the FarmLinks experience. It will improve their business, assist superintendents with their jobs and help make the industry more fun and exciting. Besides, what supplier doesn’t want to be part of the Epcot Center of the golf course maintenance world? GCN