This month on Superintendent Radio Network: December 2024

Who slows down at the end of the year? Not the good folks at Superintendent Radio Network — and not their many guests, either. We dropped nine — count ’em, NINE! — new episodes in December, including some fresh poetry and seasonally appropriate classical music. You can listen to every episode, all the way back 2011, on Apple, Spotify, our own website or wherever else you listen to podcasts.

Senior contributor Rick Woelfel opened the month with a fun conversation with Highlands Golf Club second assistant superintendent Renee Schmaltz on Wonderful Women of Golf. They talked about hockey, of course (Schmaltz does live and work in Canada, and she played the sport into college). They also talked about how to find your way in a new work — and a new agronomic — environment. “Sometimes, you don’t know how you fit in with the rest of the team,” Schmaltz said. “You’re just trying to slowly find your way in and find how you work with everybody else. Nobody likes it when you kind of come in guns a-blazing. It can rub people the wrong way.”

Publisher + editor-in-chief Guy Cipriano popped up on four episodes this month, including Disease Discussion 23 with BASF senior product manager Jeff Vannoy and BASF turf marketing manager Jan Coetzer. The episode wrapped up another season of Disease Discussion but served as more of a preview for the year ahead: New technology. A new fairway fungicide. A bold prediction or two. “There have been some changes to the non-crop agriculture space in the U.S.,” Coetzer said. “There have been some companies who have sold their divisions and there have been some acquisitions happening. BASF has emerged as one of the very few companies doing that peer research in this space. We see it as a really big responsibility that’s now racing on us. We take it very seriously. We want to hold that role of being a player that really brings brand new and andinnovative chemistries to the golf space.”

I have learned so much about all sorts of plants over the first three seasons of Talking Turf Weeds. On the latest episode, I added plenty of fungicide knowledge to my toolbox — and, thanks to Corteva Agriscience turf and ornamental field scientist Paul Marquardt, I think you will, too. Education. Rotation. Use. What to keep an eye on in 2025. “Fungi in general are closer to us as animals than really they are to plants,” Marquardt said. “And I think that superintendents and people who are using these products tend to forget that — that the fungicides themselves are managing enzyme systems that oftentimes are pretty close to some of our human systems.”

We bid farewell to a friend this month after America’s Greenkeeper Matthew Wharton stepped away after five years on the back page and six years in the magazine. Every one of his columns is a great read — he shared some of his personal favorites in his finale — and so was catching up with him on Beyond the Page. “If you’re always waiting for the right time to do something, nothing will ever get done,” he said. “And there’s the converse saying, There’s never a wrong time to the right thing.” Well said, Matthew. Also well said? Oquirrih Hills superintendent Brian J. Roth reading his Turfheads Take Over story about a runaway tractor — with some musical accompaniment.

Who doesn’t love Bandon Dunes? Alex Tessman sure does — he works there! Tessman took some time away from his day job as the equipment manager at Sheep Ranch to talk with Trent Manning on Reel Turf Techs about how he wound up on the Oregon coast, what it’s like to work in such a gorgeous spot, why headphones are a great work tool, and more. “It’s just kind of me and my four walls in here,” Tessman told Trent. “I love to have my headphones. I’m just rolling through all of my podcasts — yours included.”

When the weather starts to cool down up north, we head south — for the Carolinas GCSA Conference and Trade Show, and also for some course visits. Guy traveled to Pinehurst Resort for Green Start Academy and spent some extra time nearby at Tobacco Road. No surprise: Both wowed him. “If you like golf, or work in the golf industry, and you don’t get chills when you’re driving from Raleigh to Pinehurst,” he said, “you may want to question why you play this game or why you’re in this industry.” For more from Guy about what’s happening in and around the sandhills, check out Greens with Envy 65.

A Christmas treat! Senior contributor Lee Carr wrote new agronomically inspired lyrics to ’Twas the Night Before Christmas (but did Clement Moore actually write the old holiday classic? A conversation for a different day) and recorded it for a special episode of the podcast. Just four minutes will be enough to lift your spirits for the rest of the day, if not the whole season.

Our first season of Golf Construction Conversations concluded with Guy talking with Cog Hill Golf & Country Club director of grounds Reed Anderson. They covered the importance of bunkers at Dubsdread — one of four courses at the Chicagoland public facility — and Anderson’s advice to peers prepping for their own renovation. “Trying to stay up one step ahead of the contractors is huge,” he said. “Whenever a contractor is ready to move forward, make sure you are ready to move forward to take advantage of those good weather days.”

And the whole year wrapped up today — on the calendar and on our podcast waves — with Tartan Talks 102 and a chat with Nicklaus Design senior design associate Chad Goetz, who will soon start work at Desert Highlands in Arizona. “We’re excited to be a part of it. It’s a great club, it’s an iconic club. We want to respect what was there, modernize it a little bit and see what the future brings,” he said, adding that, “It seems like architects tend to get a lot of the credit for a project. But they are completely team projects from the start. I couldn’t do my job without all those people on the other end. It’s everybody working together for a common goal and hopefully at the end the results are great.”

Want to catch every new episode? Subscribe to Superintendent Radio Network wherever you listen to podcasts. And thanks for listening all year. Here’s to a great 2025!

Matt LaWell is Golf Course Industry’s managing editor.