My bottom 5 of 2012

Here's a rundown of my 5 lowlights of 2012...

My top 5 of 2012

Eagle One Golf acquires Fore-Par

Breaking news here... Eagle One Golf Products (Anaheim, Calif.) is set to announce today that they have acquired Fore-Par (Buena Park, Calif.) Readers might remember back in June, Eagle One Golf was acquired by Canadian company Golf Supply Warehouse.

With the acquisition, Eagle One Golf now says that they are the "largest distributors of golf course and golf range equipment, supplies and accessories in the world." 


Here is a statement from the company:

Eagle One Golf of Anaheim, Calif., is pleased to announce that it has completed the acquisition of Fore-Par of Buena Park, Calif.

Fore-Par has served the U.S. golf industry for more than 48 years. It has a tremendously well developed business in the golf course and golf range equipment, accessories and supplies product segments. Fore-Par also has an established manufacturing capability in golf flags, tee markers, as well as golf course signage, in addition to distributing a broad line of other golf course equipment and supplies from leading manufacturers such as Par-Aide and Standard Golf. Paul Cherrie, President of Eagle One Golf added, “We’re very pleased to have the opportunity to combine the Eagle One Golf and Fore-Par businesses. This will allow us to increase the depth and breadth of our product offerings to better serve our customers.”

The combined Eagle One Golf & Fore-Par businesses will operate out of the Eagle One Golf Head Office in Anaheim. Longer term, the plan is to exit the current Fore-Par distribution facilities in Buena Park, Jacksonville, Fla., and Phoenix, and merge them into existing Eagle One Golf distribution facilities in Anaheim and North Charleston, S.C.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About Eagle One Golf

Founded in 1992, Eagle One Golf, and its parent company, Golf Supply House (founded in 1960) are now the largest distributors of golf course and golf range equipment, supplies and accessories in the world.

Talking 2013 with Rees Jones

Golfdom TV visits with Curtis Tyrrell, CGCS

Sharp Park case dismissed

This comes via email from the Southern California Golf Association's director of governmental affairs, Craig Kessler. He brings good news on the battle to keep Sharp Park open:

Case dismissed!

Those of you who have been reading these reports for the last two years know that the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Sierra Club, after failing to secure the closure of San Francisco’s Sharp Park Municipal Golf Course through the political process, filed a lawsuit in Federal District Court under the Endangered Species Act alleging that operations at the 80-year old Alister MacKenzie designed golf course was killing the rare frogs and snakes that ironically only colonized the property due to the dredging that accompanied the construction of the golf course in the 1920’s.

Judge Illston dismissed all counts of the lawsuit on December 7, citing an October 2 opinion of the United States Wildlife Service that found that golf at Sharp Park is “not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of the California red-legged frog or San Francisco garter snake.”  Last summer the same Federal Judge issued some rather terse comments about the illogic of the plaintiff’s substantive claims when ruling against their prayer for injunctive relief pending resolution of the merits of their claims.

Lunch with Rees

Funny story from the Golfdom Summit...

I made a few new friends at "Eleven," the rooftop bar at the Reunion Resort. These guys were on vacation from Pennsylvania, and thought it was pretty cool that we were hosting our event at the Reunion Resort.

They thought it was even cooler that Rees Jones was giving our keynote speech.

So the next day, I get a phone call from one of the guys. "Seth, it's Roy, from Pennsylvania," he says. "Not sure if you remember from last night, but if the offer's still good, we would like to come see Rees give his talk at your event."

Pinehurst's Bob Farren gets pelted with paper during an exercise in negative feedback at Syngenta Business Institute

Back from the 2012 Golfdom Summit

Wow, that was a blur! But we had a great meeting. Lots of great stories were told, lots of new connections were made... it was exactly what we wanted it to be.

The travel doesn't settle down for us. Senior editor Beth Geraci has already boarded another flight and arrives in Winston-Salem, N.C., for the Syngenta Business Institute, any minute now. She'll have a few updates here and there from that event.

Right now I'm behind on email, voice mail, snail mail... so I'll be back with a better update later, that's what I'm trying to say!

It's been a great time here at Reunion Resort so far. Things got off to a fun start yesterday with golf on the Arnold Palmer course, which was in great shape, I might add. The weather and the company could not have been better. We've got an exceptional group of superintendents here again this year! Here a couple shots of golf yesterday and last night's festivities.

Golfdom Summit Day 2 off to a good start

Seth and Anthony Williams, CGCS, held a captive audience this morning over breakfast. Good crowd! Looking forward to the rest of the day.

Golfdom Summit boardroom presentations

We are into the meetings! Golf is up next, can't wait to lose some golf balls...

Our host super

That's me and our host superintendent for the Golfdom Summit, Tray Maltby. Tray has been super-excited about hosting this event and I have to say he has also been super helpful. Looking forward to seeing what the courses look like, we're going to have a great time here at the Reunion Resort in Orlando!

Waverley CC visit

I'm back from a fun week in Portland!

I've been meaning to post this all weekend, just now getting to it. One of the highlights of my trip was getting to stay the night at the luxurious Waverely CC in Portland. Special thanks to superintendent Brian Koffler for the hospitality!

Also a big thank you to David Phipps, Linda Whitworth, and all the people involved with the Oregon GCSA.

I'll have a full report on my trip to Oregon coming soon. Right now... sleep.

And now a word from our sponsors!

New Oregon State turf prof announced

David Phipps just announced that Alec Kowaleski will take the position at Oregon State that was left vacant when Rob Golembiewski left the school. Kowaleski currently at Abraham Baldwin. Starts at OSU in January.

At the 2012 NW Golf and the Enviro mtg

Kevin Fletcher from eParUSA is now presenting. Full roster of speakers today, I'm going last. "if you're not first your last!"

Recalling Reed Funk and Hurricane Sandy

We called Rutgers professor William Meyer, Ph.D., recently about the passing of his colleague and mentor, Dr. Reed Funk. Meyer returned the call a couple days after Hurricane Sandy hit, so he had a lot to say about that, as well as ample praise for Funk.

"Everything I learned about breeding I learned from him—and from doing it," Meyer said. "He worked on me for five years to get me to apply for a job at Rutgers. I cooperated with him from there."

Meyer sent us one of his favorite photos of Funk, this one of him collecting centipede grasses in a cemetery in Cherry Hill, N.J. in 1996. 

To honor Funk's life and legacy, Meyer said, Rutgers is holding a memorial symposium for Funk on Jan. 11. "It's an all-day affair," Meyer said, "and everything is oriented toward him." Funk's former students will present at the symposium, including Chris Carson, Al Turgeon, David Kopek and others.

But the conversation also turned to Hurricane Sandy, which had hit New Jersey two days before we spoke with Meyer, who lives just six miles from the ocean. He described the storm this way:

"It just blew and blew and blew. It was blowing at 90 miles an hour, and the sound of that is amazing. It’s like a train blowing through. I’m telling you, I was scared. It was blowing that hard. It was amazing. 

"No trees snapped off but there are a thousand tree limbs in our yard. It was amazing. I just can’t tell you how frightening it was. And then, of course, everybody in New Jersey along the coast, those poor people. They got so much damage. Their houses are gone. They lost everything. 

"I’m six miles up the hill from the ocean. Down the hill, all the boats ended up on the parking lot. Being up on the hill, that made the wind even worse. It was crazy. You know, the weirdest thing now is you can't t buy gas. The lines are 300 cars long. I got two-thirds of a tank of gas left in my car. I’m hoping things calm down soon."

--BG

The moral of this story: Don't ask a kid doctor adult questions

Aleve is my No. 1 choice when I've had too many of these!

As I nurse a level-2 hangover today, I'm reminded of a recent visit to the doctor's office for my 1-year-old.

Boyd's doctor always closes our appointments with, "Any questions?" Being me, I ask questions.

On this day I asked a question for myself. Hey, I'm there at the doctor's office, chatting with an expert, might as well see if I can learn something, right?

"Yeah, doctor, I'm curious for myself... after a night of hard drinking, is it OK to take Aleve? Or is that bad for my kidneys?"

She looked at me and said, "It's fine..." and then went on into some detail that I may or may not have understood.

But then she gave me a disapproving look and said, "But... how old are you? Maybe instead of taking Aleve you should just grow up."

Wow. Thanks, Doc!

Are you smarter than a robot?

By Curt Harler

Pretty soon a robot will replace your first assistant’s insights and your local chemical salesperson’s advice on weeds. Make that a fleet of robots!

Angela Ribeiro and Pablo Gonzalez-de-Santos, at the Center for Automation and Robotics (CSIC-UPM) spoke about the promising future for robot fleets used for weed control during the International Annual Meetings of the American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA). The meetings was held in Cincinnati on Oct. 21-24.

Frits K. Van Evert and a team from the Wageningen University and Research Centre in the Netherlands will talk about real-time detection and control of weeds. Closer to home, David Hearn of Towson University, near Baltimore, is working on the use of computational shape analysis and identification keys to identify plants from digital images.David Jacobs, University of Maryland, teamed with researchers from Columbia University and the Smithsonian Institution towards similar ends with a free app called Leafsnap. In its first iteration, it IDs trees but other plants – including pesky weeds — should follow quickly.

While some of the initial robot-based weed identification and control work is being done in field crops, the research should port nicely to turfgrass. The symposium will feature engineers and biologists who are working in the cutting edge field of sensor development and automation for real-time plant identification. The technology boom is revolutionizing management aspects of both crop and non-crop systems, including advanced target recognition and application systems.

Superintendents will soon have a plant identification monitor sitting next to their soil moisture and nutrient monitors in their utility vehicle. Both on golf courses and in natural areas, managers and conservationists will be able to identify invasive and other important plant species using identification technology that is also equipped with communication and environmental monitoring devices.

Now, if only we can get those robots to bring donuts for the rest of the grounds staff, we just might be good with that!