South Florida simmer

Rob Uzar has played Hammock Creek Golf Club in Palm City, Florida, probably 50 times — an impressive feat for a Sunshine State superintendent who recently wrapped up his first year at a new tract, and who carves out plenty of time for four kids at home, a Walt Disney World annual pass, and a weekly online gathering for folks who love turf.

Of course, most of those rounds happened back when he was a high school golfer, long before the start of his turf maintenance career.

“Growing up, we would play 16-17-18 cross-country as one hole,” Uzar says during a course tour in late April. “You could tee it up one more time. I would always wait until my second shot here, because you would have to clear all those trees to make it to 18. They were a little smaller back then, but you still had to hit it over them.”

Uzar takes a different approach now on Hammock Creek, a Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II design that opened in 1996 and was renovated in 2013. He respected the course during his rounds as a South Fork High School Bulldog. But he knows the course now, and he knows what it needs. For starters, plenty of natural woods for area wildlife, like sandhill cranes, redtail hawks, blue herons, a bald eagle (maybe), osprey, owls, ibis, “billions” of rabbits, armadillos, lizards, moles, even coyotes — but, oddly enough, no gators. (Uzar has yet to spot one on the course.) Also, new range tees, a new tee box on 14, repaired cart paths, and a new loader, finally.

“I’ve been here just over a year,” says Uzar, who in his scant free time co-hosts Turf Talk on X Spaces with his friend and fellow Florida turf pro Ty Robb. “It feels like a long time. I feel like I’ve gotten a lot done since I got here.”

Uzar did land one more highlight for the course: The third annual #TurfheadsGrilling cookout.

Uzar submitted a recipe for smoked pulled pork, heavy on the spices — a half cup of brown sugar?! — for the third annual Turfheads Guide to Grilling, published in our December 2023 Turfheads Take Over issue. That simple list of ingredients and instructions earned him and the Hammock Creek maintenance team a morning and afternoon filled with burgers, brats, sides and more.

Bill Brown, the director of marketing and brand developer for #TurfheadsGrilling sponsor AQUA-AID Solutions, joined us for the event, which featured national sales manager Russ Warner behind the Nexgrill and account manager (and scratch golfer) Jimmy Clark talking strategy with Uzar. Maintenance team members filled up for lunch and had plenty of leftovers to take home. Uzar was quick to highlight the work of every member of his 15-person team, including foreman Antonio Jacinto, who started working at Hammock Creek before it was built and knows every square inch of its 140 acres, and mechanic Dave Brown, who helps the course avoid bad cuts.

Want us to visit your course for the fourth annual #TurfheadsGrilling cookout next year? All you have to do is create and submit a recipe that winds up in our next recipe guide, which will be published in our December 2024 issue. The deadline is Friday, Nov. 1 — you have plenty of time! — and everybody in the industry can participate by emailing ingredients, instructions and images of their favorite recipes to editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano at gcipriano@gie.net. Everybody who submits a recipe and corresponding photo will receive #TurfheadsGrilling swag, and those selected for the guide will receive a gift box and a chance to have us come grill for you and your team in 2025.

Maybe next year we can even grill some gator — if anyone finally finds one.

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor. He picked up some delicious mushroom burgers while shopping for this year’s cookout.

Tartan Talks 95

Telling a group that something they love, such as a golf course, might be undergoing an invasive overhaul requires tact and a willingness to field wacky suggestions. Erik Larsen demonstrated both during an open microphone session while plotting a South Florida project.

“This guy says, ‘Me and my buddy went over to this place and they had dirt cart paths, and you can play your ball right off them. Can we have those?’” Larsen recalls on the Tartan Talks podcast. “Then his buddy said, ‘I have a question for you, Mr. Architect: Do you leave the rake in the bunker or outside?’ That one had absolutely nothing to do with me.”

Larsen spent part of the hour-long podcast describing his playbook for handling the nonsensical and practical aspects of golf design work. His careers spans four decades — he worked for Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay before establishing his own firm in 2011 — and he has helped guide projects in places ranging from the mountains of Kazakhstan to flat layouts near his Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, home past the finish line.

“I try to keep it pretty simple,” Larsen says. “I’ll start with developing a program, which is let’s do an assessment of what do we have, what do we need, what do we want and how do we get there.”

And, no, he’s never designed dirt cart paths or told a superintendent where to place bunker rakes. And, yes, the podcast is simple to find on the Superintendent Radio Network page of popular distribution platforms.

COURSE NEWS

Jerry Pate Design will lead a restoration of the Pete Dye-designed Teeth of the Dog in La Romana, Dominican Republic. The project will start in January 2025 and features the addition of three inches of sand to fairways, regrassing playing surfaces with Pure Dynasty Paspalum, restoring greens surrounding edges, and reshaping and expanding greenside bunkers. … Beau Welling is as busy as ever. Welling started work with senior designer Scott Benson on a par-72 layout at the Travis Club, a planned community in Austin, Texas, that will debut in late 2025. He also unveiled The Clutch, a walking-focused 12-hole, par-3 course hugged by the Gulf of Mexico at South Seas on Captiva Island, Florida. … Trey Kemp and John Colligan are teaming up again, this time to guide the renovation at Crown Colony Country Club in Lufkin, Texas. The duo is focusing on greens, tees, bunkers, drainage, bridges and tree trimming at the 46-year-old Bruce Devlin and Robert Von Hagge design. Sanders Golf Course Construction will work with them on the project. Superintendent Clayton Creel is preparing his team for an October reopening date. … Alex Hay, who runs the Canadian office of the London-based Lobb + Partners design firm, is heading a project at University Golf Club in Vancouver, British Columbia. The sixth hole will become a par 3 and the seventh, currently a par 3, will become a par 4. Work will be split between this year and 2025. … Boyne Golf in northern Michigan recently opened four more holes echoing classic Donald Ross designs. All part of the Donald Ross Memorial at The Highlands, the holes were renovated to replicate No. 4 at Plainfield Country Club, No. 15 at Seminole, No. 11 at Aronimink and No. 10 at Pinehurst No. 2. … The Fort Club in Ninety Six, South Carolina, reopened after an extensive renovation on its back nine. Colton Craig and Tom Coyne guided the architectural work on the George Cobb design, superintendent John Franklin led the agronomic efforts and Landscapes Unlimited was the builder. … Elsewhere in South Carolina, Fripp Island Golf & Beach Resort is planning a renovation of its Ocean Point course, contracting with Dye Designs Groups to oversee the project, which will include the conversion of more than 200,000 square feet of grass to sand-based waste areas. Cynthia Dye will lead work on the course, which was also designed by Cobb. … Princeville Makai Golf Club in Hawaii is in the midst of a three-month, $3 million course refinement project that will include bunker renovations, cart path upgrades and agronomic enhancements aimed to address drainage and turf health on the Robert Trent Jones Jr. design. … Atlas Turf Arabia provided harvested sod and sprigs to the Diriyah Gate Development Authority’s new golf project, which features the first internationally recognized championship course in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The course will be Platinum TE paspalum. … Bobby Jones Links is now managing Green Oaks Country Club, a Ross design in Verona, Pennsylvania. … Escalante Golf added the 550-acre Wilderness Club in Montana, its first property in the Big Sky State and its 23rd overall in the United States.

INDUSTRY BUZZ

A combined $1 million commitment from the USGA and donors will fund the Greenkeeper Apprenticeship Program through 2029. Currently based out of Sandhills Community College near Pinehurst, North Carolina, the program is designed to provide classroom education and paid on-course maintenance work at partner golf courses for as many as 200 apprentices. … The GCSAA Foundation research endowments is funding two new research projects through 2026: “Nematode Resistance Management on Golf Course Turf” by Dr. William T. Crow of the University of Florida, and “Implementation of a Continuous Soil Surfactant Program and Implications for Preemergence Herbicide Persistence on Golf Courses” by Dr. Becky Bowling of the University of Tennessee and Dr. Travis W. Gannon of NC State University. … The Andersons acquired the assets and business of Reed & Perrine Sales. … Envu’s Resilia root health solution is now available for purchase in Hawaii. … Harrell’s launched Azo Root, a plant health and root development enhancer for agricultural and horticultural applications. … Heritage Links, the construction, renovation and management division of Lexicon, acquired Environmental Solutions. … John Deere launched its Operations Center PRO Golf, part of its PRO suite remote management system. … SiteOne Landscape Supply recently added FMC’s Durentis fungicide to its offerings. … Sand and aggregates supplier Turf Materials is the new exclusive distributor of LifeSoil’s COMAND specialty soil amendment in 15 states, including much of the Midwest and the South. … Werk-Brau is partnering with Valley Tool Manufacturing in a deal designed to expand distribution of mulchers, mowers and landscape rakes.

PEOPLE NEWS

Tim Hubbard returned to Landscapes Unlimited as vice president after 16 years working throughout the industry. Hubbard previously worked at the company from 1993 to 2008. … Longtime golf course superintendent Mark O’Mell recently moved from Piñon Hills Golf Course in Farmington, New Mexico, to Audubon International, where he is the director of Signature Sanctuary Certification. … Matthew Crowther, Sean Lehr and Chris Quinlan all joined PBI-Gordon as sales representatives. … Superintendents Bryce Gibson, Dustin Plemons and Patrick Van Vleck won GCSAA Grassroots Ambassador Leadership Awards. Gibson is at Interlachen Country Club in Winter Park, Florida; Plemons is at Cleveland Heights Golf Course in Lakeland, Florida; and Van Vleck is at Unicorn Golf Course in Stoneham, Massachusetts. … Six new graduates completed the EXCEL Leadership Program, a three-year mentorship and networking opportunity: Aaron Cabanaw of Inver Wood Golf Course in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota; Charles Cecil of Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia; Ethan Howard of Pole Creek Golf Club in Winter Park, Colorado; Miranda Robinson of Victoria Golf Club in Victoria, British Columbia; Madison Rudsinski of Paradise Valley Country Club in Paradise Valley, Arizona; and Kal Zaranec of Circling Raven Golf Club in Worley, Idaho.