Tweeting at the GIS

Be sure you're following us on Twitter next week while we're at the Golf Industry Show.

If you're not at the show, we'll be tweeting out all the cool sights we see, doing our best to bring you to San Diego with us.

If you will be at the show, I've got a box full of free stuff turf companies have been sending me since last year's GIS... I want to give this stuff away. It's books, gizmos, etc.

The only catch? I'll ask you what you thought about whatever it is I gave you after the fact, so I can tell our readers your opinion!

Follow us here: @Golfdom

The Andersons to unveil new iPad app at GIS

Received this from our friends at The Andersons. I think the most noteworthy part is at the end, so I've boldfaced and italicized it below.

Here's the press release, in its entirety:

The Andersons, Inc. Turf & Specialty Group’s professional business is pleased to exhibit at the Golf Industry Show February 6 – 7, 2013 at the San Diego Convention Center at booth #2438. The Andersons serves the golf industry worldwide with a product portfolio of fertilizers, amendments, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, growth regulators, and spreaders.

A non-GIS reason to attend the GIS

If you're looking for one more reason to grab that last-second ticket to San Diego for next week's Golf Industry Show, I've got one for you: The Who.

Yes, the Who. As in, Roger Daltry, Pete Townshend, Pinball Wizard, Baba O'Riley... you know, The Who!

They're playing on Tuesday night at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego. They'll be performing their album Quadrophenia in its entirety. Tickets are still available.

I'm only a radio fan of The Who, so you won't have to worry about me missing any Tuesday night VIP events (you know who you are) for the show. But if you're finding out about this for the first time and you are a Who fan, I'll except your thank you in the form of a concert T-shirt, size XL.

Teenage wasteland! 

The new look is live!

We're live!

If it hasn't hit your mailbox yet, here it is... the newly redesigned GOLFDOM. We hope you enjoy.

I've got it here on my desk, and I'm excited about the way it looks. Now that I'm holding the issue in my hands, I'm happy it's all finally come together. But I'm like many of you in that I'm rarely satisfied with the finished product, so I'm already thinking of ways we can improve on this foundation... but we've got a solid foundation for sure. We'll keep tweaking and work on perfecting what we've started.

What do you think of the way the new logo stretches off the sides of the cover? What about the new paper finish we're using for the cover? What about Starter? The golf joke? My Second Office? The redesigned 19th Hole? ...Super Science???

Leave me your comments here or shoot me an email. We would love to hear your feedback.

Bacon Bomb!

Not as delicious as it sounds!

Opinion: This GIS speakers line-up needs some Monster energy drink

One of the most yawn-inspiring press releases of the new year hit my inbox yesterday, and that was the announcement of the two keynote speakers at the GIS: Tim Rosaforte and Brandel Chamblee.

Now I know why the GCSAA was so slow to release this news… because it wasn't news. The only way an announcement should be made about Rosaforte's presence at the show is if he accidentally left his reporter's notebook in the men's room and needed help finding it.

I know I sound bitter, and I hate to gripe about the GIS because it's my old colleagues who put on the show. I know they're doing all they can to make it a success. But I heard it said out loud over cocktails at last week's STMA show in Daytona Beach, Fla., in reference to the GIS; sometimes you need to be reminded that you have to spend money to make money.

I don't know that an A-list personality sells more tickets to the show, but in my opinion it helps (especially if you promote that celebrity). The person doesn't have to be an A-list celebrity, I'll take B- or C-list in a down economy. I think of all the GIS shows I've been to, and I always appreciated when they had a Norman Schwarzkopf or even a David Feherty (Feherty is two steps up the celebrity ladder from Rosaforte, in my book) to speak. It was an added bonus to being at the show, something to get people talking.

Back on the road

This trip is off to a good start! Free upgrade to a new Camaro SS at the car rental!

Kudos to GCSAA Distinguished Service Award winners

Just a shout out to the four recipients of the 2013 Col. John Morley Distinguished Service Award. Frank Lamphier, Ken Mangum, Dennis Lyon and Roch Gaussoin, Ph.D., are this year's honorees, and they'll be acknowledged at the 2013 GCSAA Education Conference in San Diego Feb. 6. Way to go!

Sports Turf Managers Association show waves chekered flag in Daytona

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DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — A town best known for rowdy spring breakers and race cars tempoararily became sports turf managers central, as turf pros from around the country flocked to the annual STMA show.

As the Sports Turf Managers Association’s 24^th Annual Conference and Exhibition in Daytona Beach, Fla., wrapped up, the news seemed to be good. Attendee numbers appeared to be up, action on the trade show floor was good and both attendees and exhibitors seemed to be happy.

“It’s been excellent, we’ve had more pre-registrants this year than we’ve had any other year,” Kim Heck, CEO of the STMA, said. “The numbers aren’t final yet, but we expect this year’s attendance to be larger than last year’s.”

Zach Holm, head groundskeeper for the York (Pa.) Revolution, was attending his sixth STMA conference and said the show was going in the right direction.

“It seems like there’s a few more (people), but not terribly bigger, but bigger than my first year when it was in Phoenix. And there seems to be more and more students,” Holm said.

Joe Schmo is one of us

I just got off the phone with Joe Schmo. Or, as he is known to his friends and colleagues in our industry, Chase Rogan.

Chase, an agronomist from Pittsburgh, is the star of the new Spike TV series Joe Schmo: The Full Bounty. If you're not familiar with the concept of the show, it's a fake reality show. I know, aren't all reality shows fake? But this one, all of the competitors on the show are actors playing a role… except for the "Joe" who doesn't know that the other competitors are actors and that the whole thing is a sham. On this new season, which airs on Tuesdays on Spike, Chase is the Joe.

It makes for pretty funny TV, actually.

Rogan owns Pure Turf Consulting in Pittsburgh. He's got an M.S. from Penn State and is working on a few research projects right now, including one on snow mold.

So is Chase looking to change careers, and become a professional bounty hunter, which is the grand prize of the show?

"No," he laughs. "I was in it to win the $100,000."

So… did he win the money?

New issue out the door/STMA here we come

WHEW!

What will the new mag look like? Wait and see!

Finally, I can take a deep breath.

We just got done with a big issue of Golfdom... it was double the size and double the importance, because it was the first issue of our big redesign. 

I hope everyone likes it. It should be in your hands by the end of next week. Look twice, because you won't recognize it at first. It's not your, uhm, older brother's Golfdom.

I have the new cover here on my computer right now, and it looks so cool... I could unleash it all on you right now, but I think I'll keep it stashed away for a few more days, allowing for maximum impact when it hits your mailbox.

A tip of the hat is due to Pete Seltzer, North Coast Media's vice president of graphic design. He led the charge on this project, and it just about killed him! Ha! Seriously, Pete is in stable condition in Cleveland right now, but he really did put in the hours on this endeavor, and it shows. Thank you Pete.

Another big shout-out to Carrie Parkhill Wallace, who has been working on this redesign with us for a long time now. She is the regular designer on Golfdom and she does a great job, she's like a combo designer/editor and we couldn't have done this redesign without her.

And I would be remiss not to mention all the hours senior editor Elizabeth Geraci put in on this issue. It's not everyday a journalist gets to take part in a big redesign like this, and she recognized this and jumped into the project with great gusto. Thank you Elizabeth!

And thanks to all the contributors... the writers, photographers, the interns, the people at the post office, truck drivers, the people who make One A Day men's multivitamin... thank you Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka for inspiration... thank you to the Beastie Boys for being on the jukebox and adding energy to the office... thank you to Bigfoot just for keeping it real... and a big thank you to all of you out there who CARE!!! You, the music makers, the dreamers of dreams, the people who keep grass green and lies tight. Our readers? Bad-asses, every one of 'em.

BASF forms Specialty Products Department

News from BASF this morning. The company is taking their turf, pest and vegetation management segments and merging them into one group known as the Specialty Products Department. Jan Buberl will be the director of this group. Brian Lish and Dan Carrothers, meanwhile, take new titles and roles.

The press release is below. We have a conference call scheduled for later today, so there may be an update later:

 

BASF announced it will take its distinct businesses within the U.S. non-crop markets and merge them into one. The primary businesses known as Pest Control Solutions and Professional Turf & Ornamentals (T&O), and secondary businesses including Professional Vegetation Management and Market Business Development, will now collectively be known to the marketplace as the BASF Specialty Products Department (SPD). Each respective market will continue to be served, but BASF will do so as one business unit led by Jan Buberl, Director of Specialty Products.

“Having these businesses come together as one strengthens BASF and its commitment to the specialty markets, and the acquisition of Becker Underwood underscores a continued commitment and investment to grow,” said Nevin McDougall, Senior Vice President, North America, BASF Crop Protection. “The new SPD unit will be built to last for the long term, while meeting the needs of customers in these markets.”

Zombies at GIS???

I know after a hard night at the GIS, some people walk around the GIS tradeshow floor like they're zombies. But at this year's GIS, thanks to FMC, there will be "real" zombies there. BRAINS!!!

Here's the note I got from FMC:

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Come to Booth #1338 to learn about “Zombie Weeds” and the Sulfentrazone Effect during the 2013 Golf Industry Show! Get your picture taken with real life zombies while you test your Weed IQ. Participants may also receive a big Dismiss - #1 Sedge Control foam finger and/or a Weed ID poster. You won’t want to miss this encounter with weeds – the living and the undead. 

So, last year FMC did a NCAA tournament style "Weed Madness" bracket... this year they're having zombies? FMC, are you somehow inside my brain taking ideas for booth promotions that would totally entertain me? What's next? Alternative rock bands of the '90s? Comic books of the '60s? A Star Wars theme (maybe the Mos Eisley Cantina)?

And while we're talking zombies on the Golfdom blog (again), here's the preview for World War Z. The book was incredible, but the movie... there's no way they can make the movie like the book, so we'll see how it turns out...

New survey!

We have a new survey out... it's a fun one, and will only take a few minutes.

Here's the link:
 https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=iGbz57CTPY8dm9aXkX3Saw_3d_3d

We will discuss the results in an upcoming issue.

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!