Editor's notebook

Career push

How’s this for an industry experiment?

Take 50 assistant superintendents either fatigued from long summers or preparing for the peak season. Send them to North Carolina and place them among highly trained peers. Arrange opportunities to interact with superintendents holding the desired jobs they seek.

Green Start Academy, a 2½-day training program sponsored by Bayer and John Deere, concluded last month with a group of rejuvenated assistants returning to work. “This is some of the best networking out there, being around guys who completely understand what each other is going through,” TPC Scottsdale assistant superintendent Josh Minson says.

Zach Anderson, the assistant superintendent at Seven Bridges at Springtree Golf Club in Sunrise, Fla., applied to GSA seven times before finally receiving a long-awaited trip to the Research Triangle. Anderson started working on golf courses as a teenager, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees and left a job as the superintendent at a nine-hole country club in his native Illinois to work with different grasses in Florida. GSA placed Anderson alongside other like-minded grinders, a hearty breed of determined assistant superintendents looking to advance their careers. The training program also included tours of Bayer and John Deere facilities and group discussions led by presenters such as Pinehurst’s Bob Farren and Oak Hill Country Club’s Jeff Corcoran.

“In addition to strengthening my labor management, budgeting, professional relationship and resume/interviewing preparedness, the bottom line is that when you get around such a pool of talented and proven golf course professionals it invigorates your passion to want to be the best again,” Anderson says. “Being out of college and in the daily grind for over 10 years, my passion to go above and beyond to advance my career fizzled out a bit. Green Start gave me the spark I needed get back in the game, and I’m forever grateful for that.”

The fortitude of assistants isn’t going unnoticed. “Something like this tells me the dedication they have for what they do and the passion they have for what they are doing,” Farren says. “They see a future in it. It’s an employable position. That’s one of the things I stress to longtime assistants. You’re employed and it’s a good job. I hear a lot fewer people complaining about their jobs today than five or six years ago.”
 

In it for the long haul

It’s fall and that means Pat Jones and the rest of our team are bouncing around the country stopping in to say hello to readers and suppliers. A couple of weeks ago, Pat popped into the Jacobsen headquarters in Charlotte to catch up with their team, including the head honcho David Withers. Check out excerpts from the interview at
bit.ly/1w6ISZK.
 

Winter worries?

A repeat of last winter's extreme cold and snow across most of the U.S., east of the Rockies seems unlikely, according to NOAA's U.S. Winter Outlook.

A similar weather pattern is unlikely this year, NOAA predicts, although it does favor below-average temperatures in the south-central and southeastern states.

The outlook for winter favors above-average precipitation across the southern tier, from the southern half of California, across the Southwest, south-central and Gulf Coast states, Florida, and along the eastern seaboard to Maine. However, NOAA cautions that while drought may improve in some portions of the U.S. this winter, California's record-setting drought will likely persist or intensify in large parts of the state. For a complete breakdown of NOAA's Winter Outlook report, enter 1.usa.gov/1lxvhI0 into your browser.
 

From the Feed

We heard about it. We saw pictures of it. We asked superintendents whether they were hearing and seeing the same thing. They quickly responded. Dollar spot made its pestering fall appearance in multiple regions. Those who experienced it weren’t alone. Dollar spot, after all, is the No. 1 fall disease challenge, according to our recently conducted fall prep research.

Brad Rozzelle @turfmanpa
Our experience..need to control or it will slowly chew the turf up, fester through winter, then pop up in the same spots in spring.

David Brandenburg @Trapking9
Fall dollar spot is the gift that keeps on giving. Lots of it hanging out on fairways.

Michael Frasher @FrasherMichael
DS and this little beauty. PSM

Ross Dominique @r_dominique_14
An annoying amount on approaches. Sprayed them and fairways same time, and none in the fairways.

Christopher D. Navin @Chris_turfgrass
Had a big outbreak in md 10 days ago. Nights were high 40s. Sprayed curative tees, fwys, grns. Growth slowing = slow recovery.

Tim Gravert @SuperTimG132
I hadn’t sprayed in a month… started to see a little bit on tees and fwys sprayed today because of warmer temps coming!!

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