BASF's "Media Thousandaire" on YouTube

You can check out my questions and see how awkward I am in front of a crowd by watching the below YouTube clip, courtesy of BASF.

If you swing by the BASF Turf Talk Blog you can see the other contestants, too.

I'm happy to report I raised $1,900 for the Wee One Foundation, and was able to get 9 out of 10 questions right (with some help from my lifelines) before missing out on the last one.

All told, BASF's event raised more than $7,000 for charity. AWESOME!

My favorite moment: when I got the typewriter question, and I told the crowd, "You know... I've never used a typewriter before." I thought the crowd was going to attack me at that point.

But it's true! Despite my gray hair, I come from the digital age! I don't understand your prehistoric tools!

Here's the video:

GIS hangover

Plus, it doesn't help that my Jayhawks got whipped by K-State.

Anyway, we're back in the editorial office at Golfdom... just trying to pick up all the pieces still. Thanks to everyone who came by and said hello, wished us well, signed up for magazines/emails/Pinehurst/Twitter/etc.

Back to the real world!

Superintendent assaulted outside Peabody Hotel

There were a lot of positive stories this week at the Golf Industry Show, but there was also one scary story that could have ended a lot worse than it did: A superintendent was assaulted outside the Peabody Hotel near the Orange County Convention Center on Tuesday night.

The Midwestern superintendent -- who requested that we not use his name -- was walking with a friend at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday night when a car pulled up next to them. Two men got out, and before the superintendent knew what was happening, he was blindsided by a punch -- either a fist or a forearm -- in his right eye. The punch wasn't enough to knock the superintendent down.

The attackers had a gun and shouted for the men to get on the ground, but they refused. The two superintendents kept walking away. Lucky for them, the attackers lost their nerve and got back in their car to drive away.

The superintendent didn't get his wallet stolen, but his glasses were broken and his nerves were rattled.

"We were lucky these guys weren't pros," the superintendent told Golfdom on Thursday afternoon at the Golf Industry Show. "We would have been popped, we would have been dead. These guys were green."

The superintendent -- who had a scuff near his right eye -- said the attacker more or less "bounced" off of him.

"This guy thought he was tough, but he wasn't," the superintendent said. "He popped me and he didn't knock me down."

The superintendent has been coming to the GCSAA's annual conference and trade show for over two decades, and said the hardest thing for him was to believe it really happened.

"It took me a while to really get over it," he said. "Anything can happen. And it happened so fast."

The superintendent said his only reaction was to get away from the two men.

"I told (my friend), I just said, 'Keep walking!' And I kept walking away. They decided not to keep after me, so I went back to get my glasses, they were all smashed on the ground."

The superintendent said he did not report the attack to the police, but he did report it to both the Peabody Hotel and his own hotel. He also did not tell anyone with the GCSAA about the attack, because he didn't want to "make a big deal" about it. He said the attack wouldn't keep him away from any future Golf Industry Shows, but mostly it made him worry about his daughter, who was also at the GIS with him.

"She went out with her friends that same night... what if these guys went after her?" he asked.

Last day at GIS

This has gone by so quickly!

Come see me at the BASF booth at 3 p.m. playing Turf Media Thousandaire!

Congrats to Chris Zugel, superintendent at Whistling Straits, for winning a $50 gift card by following me @Golfdom on Twitter!

QUICK UPDATE: Everyone has been RAVING about the amount of traffic on the trade show floor. Peter Driver from Jacobsen told me it was the most traffic they've had in five years.

The show floor is visibly small... you can see both ends of the show with no trouble, which I don't know if I've ever been able to do that before.

I've got to get back out there... thanks for keeping up with us, I'm stockpiling information, interviews, etc., I'll post when I can but for sure I'll be sharing this in the upcoming weeks.

Off to the show!

Stay classy, Golfdom!

At Roy's with the fine folks of Rain Bird!

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

How many blades of grass do you think Syngenta helps out?

Oh... THAT MANY.

More from the Syngenta booth tomorrow!

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Bumper sticker...

Would be perfect for a superintendent! At the Rain Bird booth, talking IC system and about how it reduces the amount of wire needed by a whoppimg 90%!

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Bigfoot!!!

Sighting at the Valent booth! We'll investigate more soon...

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Club Car's Visiage at GIS

Caught a presentation from Mark Langer, director of agronomy, Farmlinks GC, and Mike Read, talking about the Visiage golf fleet management system. It's GPS and cellular powered, so if your golf car gets stolen and ends up three states over, you can still find it via Google earth!

I'll have more info in a future issue of Golfdom!

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Tomorrow the real work begins

So far so good at the GIS... but tomorrow, things are going to get crazy.

Had great meetings today with both John Deere and FMC... caught up with our friends at Syngenta... met up with both Clark Throssell, Ph.D., and Dave Kopec, Ph.D. ... chatted with my old pal Nick Price... and even had a few beers with the complete Golfdom team, which is something I've only done a few times since joining the team.

Keep checking in, I plan on sharing as much info as I can tomorrow!

If you're here at the GIS, please stop by the Golfdom booth and say hi!

For now... sleepy time. TOCA breakfast in the morning. Why just you wake me so early, TOCA???

REMINDER: I'm giving away prizes tomorrow! Follow us on Twitter, we're @Golfdom!

See you at the GIS...

-Seth

Just got done interviewing Nick Price

Great interview. Nick has such a great sense of humor. I videotaped the interview so I'll share it with you just as soon as I can.

One of the questions I asked: what do you really think about greens committees? Nick laughed and said, "one of the worst things ever invented! Who wants to take advice on how to do their job from a used car salesman?"

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

The booth is rockin'!

Great job by the Golfdom team today... we went from yesterday's mess to this masterpiece! You know what this booth looks like to me? A place where you could win a free trip to Pinehurst!

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Hendren's Hyperbole! Episode 6 -- Two Gloves is Better than Some

Welcome back to Hendren’s Hyperbole! I hope everyone is enjoying the 2011 Golf Industry Show. Hopefully everyone made it to the show without too much trouble. I got stuck in Kansas City fighting the latest brutal snow storm. We are supposed to get another five or six inches tonight.

Enjoy the weather in Florida but don’t worry, I’m sure spring won’t have rolled around by the time you get back to wherever you call home. I’ll do what I can to save some snow for you.

Mark Wilson won the Waste Management Phoenix open Monday in the second playoff hole over Jason Dufner. This is the third playoff in five events this year. Normally I hate a Monday tournament finish but I had a sick kid so I got to stay home and watch what was left of the final round. There were only five holes left to be played Monday and for the most part it was a boring ending to a drug-out tournament but there was an epic meltdown on number seventeen.

Do you watch Big Break on The Golf Channel? Remember Tommy “Two Gloves” Gainey? Two Gloves participated in Big Break USA vs. Europe and The Reunion. He is the first Big Break alumnus to earn a PGA Tour card, and played on the PGA Tour in 2008. He was not very successful.

Alright, enough back ground. Let’s get on to the epic meltdown! Two Gloves was two shots back with two holes to play. Time to freak out! Number seventeen is a drivable par four with water left of the green so eagle is not out of the question. Gainey hits driver. Any guesses as to where his drive went? Left??? Good guess! It wasn’t a horrible drive; the ball actually hit a pin high hazard marker and almost got the kick of a life time. In the end, the ball was in the water. Tommy was dropping two and hitting three. His third shot was poorly hit and rolled back into the water. NOOOO! Now he’s dropping four and hitting five! When it was all said and done Tommy got a seven on number seventeen and finished in a tie for eighth place.

He lost about $250,000 when he blew up. WOW! A quarter of a million dollars because of a mental error! $250,000 would buy a lot of gloves.

I was really rooting for Tommy Two Gloves. I don’t know if I was rooting for him because I remember watching him on Big Break or because he is the only professional golfer with a worse golf swing than mine. Either way, I hope Tommy can get it together after his meltdown and be atop the leader board later this year. Just get out of your head! You’ll be alright!

At least Two Gloves made the cut. That’s more than I can say for my boy Johnny Vegas! What happened Johnny? I talk you up over the past couple of weeks and this is how you do me! You miss the cut! Come on Johnny, you’re better than that, at least I thought you were! Don’t do that to me two weeks in a row or the gloves are coming off! Both of them!

--Matt Hendren

Another great night at GIS 2011

What a great evening. Some highlights:

-- ran into my friend Julio Diaz at the GCSAA bookstore. Usually it's hard to catch up with some people, but me and Julio bumped into each other on day one this year. I profiled Julio and his maintenance facility in the January issue of GCM. Always great to see el Padrino (the Godfather).

-- awesome party hosted by John Deere at Cuba Libre. Good food, good company and hand-rolled cigars. That was pretty much a home run. Great crowd, too. Wow!

-- checked in on the skeleton of the Golfdom booth... miles to go, but we'll get it there.

-- watched my jayhawks thump on hated rival mizzou!

-- got to buy my old designer/friend Roger Billings a shot of Jack Daniels on his birthday. Learned that senior science editor Teresa Carson became a grandma again (congrats!) Also got to watch the game with my old friends from GCM. Good times, great seeing those guys.

More tomorrow, I need sleep now!

-Seth

Sent from my Samsung Epic™ 4G

Places to be: DivotPack booth

I got an email from a new company that is unveiling their new backpack divot repair system at this week's GIS. They originally had an embargo (editor-speak for "do not publish until") on this information until Wednesday, but then they emailed me and said I could post their product early on the Golfdom Daily, so I said, "let's do it." Here's the information on the product below.

They'll be at GIS in booth 154, and note that they are offering a discounted price during the show. -SJ

DivotPack – a unique, patent-pending, dry sand mixture dispenser for repairing golf course divots – will be introduced at booth 154 at this week’s Golf Industry Show in Orlando.

DivotPack is a new divot repair system that comes in the form of a lightweight, soft-sided backpack. Dispensing a fast and accurate application of sand mixture through a gravity-fed tube, the mixture is released via a handheld control valve. Designed for comfort, the DivotPack divot repair system reduces fatigue, back strain and staff injury by replacing the tedious, time consuming and backbreaking practice of filling divots by hand.



“DivotPack makes repairing the scars left behind on the golf course a nonissue,” says Jeff Johnson, superintendent, The Minikahda Club. “The process is effortless and makes filling divots a breeze. Members are bound to notice an improvement in overall playing conditions and with the time and money we save on divot repair, DivotPack pays for itself in labor savings alone.”


DivotPack offers a three-gallon, dry divot mixture tank capacity with a flip top-lid and buckle closure that makes refills quick and easy, keeping staff on the job and providing a simpler way to repair divots.



DivotPack retails for $349 but the company is offering a GIS special of $299 plus tax, shipping and handling.

 For a demo or more information about DivotPack, stop by booth #154 or visit the company web site at www.divotpack.com.

beautiful day at the GCSAA championship!

Enjoying a nice round in 75-degree weather... wish you were here!

Places to be: the Bayer booth

Here is what I've heard from the Bayer folks:

On Thursday, Feb. 10th, Bayer will launch it's first natural product and a revolutionary way to deal with nematodes... a product called NORTICA.

That morning (sorry, press only, but don't worry, we'll be there!) Billy Crow, landscape nematologist, University of Florida, will share his latest research on nematodes and observations of Nortica... then Cynthia Gigandet, insecticide marketing product manager, and Richard Rees, product development team leader, will answer questions regarding the development of Nortica's development and use.

I know you can't make it for the press-only session from Bayer, but don't worry... your pals at Golfdom have you covered! And then stop by the Bayer booth Thursday afternoon to hear some of this information for yourself!

(Have some info to share regarding your GIS booth? It's not too late to email Seth at sjones@questex.com with this info! And if you've already emailed him with this info, now is the time to double-check with him that he actually plans to RUN IT!!!)

Hello from the GCSAA tournament

Hey everyone,

We got down here to West Palm Beach unscathed. Now we're just ready to play some golf and spread the Golfdom love.

So far, I'm impressed. The GCSAA crew puts on quite the event, from what I can tell -- and I haven't even set foot on a course yet! I never got to visit a GCSAA tournament in my previous career, so this is a first for both me and my sales guy, Jason DeSarle.

The most common thing I heard today was, "So, I heard you had to buy a membership!"

Well, sure I did! I was proud to buy one! I'm happy to be a card-carrying member now. It's exciting. (Now I just want to see that subscription to GCM start rolling in!)

We'll see how the golf goes tomorrow. It's already better than expected since I'll be rocking a new pair of shades and a range finder. Look for regular updates on both Twitter and the blog.

And the best news from south Florida so far? A handle of Captain Morgan... only $20. USEFUL.

Places to be: the Golfdom booth

Hey everyone!

If you're a superintendent on the Golfdom email list, you just received an email from us. A lot of the content in that email makes me blush (these guys are way too proud of me) but some of that information is actually REALLY COOL.

In my opinion, the lead item of this thing should have read, "Stop by the Golfdom booth to win a trip to Pinehurst!" If you're a super, you have to come by and get registered. That's an all-expense paid trip to No. 2. That's AWESOME.

You can also get your favorite golf hole entered into FMC's "Hole of the Month." We need stunning golf holes for this feature, let us know if we should use a hole from your course!

We also announced the schedule of the Golfdom booth. We'll have people at our booth all day both days, so any time is a good time to stop by and get a copy of the magazine or learn more about the Golfdom Summit.

If you would like to see some of the "new guys" with Golfdom, well, we'll be there also. Here's the schedule, and the entire contents of the email that just went out, below.

Hope to see you at the GIS!

-Seth

Stop by the Golfdom booth to meet our new editor-in-chief, Seth Jones, as well as two of our new contributing editors, Clark Throssell, Ph.D., and Anthony Williams, CGCS, CGM. We're excited about all three! Seth is a 13-year veteran of the turf magazine business, having put in all of his time previously at GCM. Clark Throssell is the former director of research for the GCSAA, as well as the former director of Purdue University's turf program. Anthony Williams is the director of grounds at Stone Mountain (Ga.) Golf Club and the first two-time national winner of the Golf Digest/GCSAA Environmental Leaders in Golf Award, as well as one of Golf Inc.'s "20 most admired golf operators." Each will be at the booth during the following hours to meet and talk to Golfdom's subscribers and show attendees:

Wednesday and Thursday Hours 1-2 p.m. -- Clark Throssell 2-3 p.m. -- Seth Jones 3-4 p.m. -- Anthony Williams

While you are at our booth you can submit your name for consideration on two exciting opportunities for you and your course:

First you can submit your name for consideration to be invited to the Golfdom Summit Nov. 12th - 14th 2011 at Pinehurst Resort, Pinehurst Village, NC. The Golfdom Summit is an invitation-only forum bringing together superintendents, suppliers, and dealers of products used for maintenance, construction, design and operation of golf courses. Through education, conceptualization, and networking this summit will offer strategic level insights into what leaders should be doing to help them prepare their business to overcome any obstacles that may lie ahead. All superintendents invited will receive a fully hosted package including airfare, deluxe hotel accommodations, and access to networking events, as well as a round of golf on Course #2 at Pinehurst!

Drop by the booth and submit your name for consideration and one lucky superintendent from the show will be selected to receive an invitation to the Summit. The selection will be announced at 2:30 p.m. on Thursday at the Golfdom booth.

While at the Golfdom booth you will also have the opportunity to submit your course for consideration to be featured in the Golfdom Hole of the Month feature which appears regularly in Golfdom magazine. Hole of the Month - sponsored by FMC - is a spread feature offering a scenic shot of the selected hole with information about the hole layout, playability, and maintenance challenges faced by the course superintendent. Submit your course for consideration to be featured in Golfdom magazine!

Please click here for more info.

Hendren's Hyperbole! Episode 5 -- Punch 'em in the face!

Welcome back to another riveting addition of Hendren’s Hyperbole! I hope everyone had a great weekend. How was my weekend? Thanks for asking! I watched a little golf, hung out with the family and attended my first and probably last live MMA fight with Golfdom’s Editor-in-Chief Seth Jones.

MMA, what a joke. Let’s talk golf, a real sport that does not involve two knuckleheads rolling around on the ground playing grab-ass in tight shorts, Tap Out gear, or morons, ERRRR fans, yelling “Punch 'em in the face!”

Congratulations to Bubba Watson, winner of the Farmers Insurance Open. He won with a score of -16. Phil Mickelson milked the crowd for all it was worth on the 72nd hole by having his caddie tend the pin for his 72-yard approach shot to force a playoff. Mickelson's shot was pretty close but in the end Watson was able to grab his second win on tour.

I think the real story at the Farmers was Johnny Vegas. I love this kid! His mind is sharp and his will is outstanding! He was very close to grabbing his second win in as many weeks. The last player to accomplish that feat was David Duval in 1997; he actually won his first three events.

I can’t wait to see what Vegas can do over the next few years. The sky is the limit for this kid -- let's start up the hype machine right now. Well, as long as he doesn’t start hanging out with Anthony Kim in his off-time, I think he'll make a big splash. Talk about a fantasy sleeper! Just remember you heard it here first!

How about Tiger’s pedestrian performance? He tied for 44th place. Everyone is off the Tiger bandwagon. How many times is this guy going to revamp his swing? How many swing coaches is he going to fire? How long are they going to keep following him on the course even though he is 15 shots off the lead?

Ratings were up 54% on Sunday’s final round on CBS. That just proves my point that Tiger's fans have left in droves. Tiger wasn’t anywhere to be found and the ratings were still great! I think everyone tuned in to watch my boy Johnny Vegas!

It did make my weekend to watch Tiger hit bad shot after bad shot, slam his club on the ground and drop f-bomb after f-bomb. He must have got that after-shot routine from Seth. If you're playing with him this weekend at the GCSAA tournament, I feel sorry for you. Just prepare yourself for this behavior, it's better if you know about it going in.

I think Tiger needs to go back to Vegas and let off a little steam as only Tiger can. It couldn’t hurt, right?

Matt Hendren is a superintendent for the city of Kansas City, Kan., and is currently preparing to work an overnight shift to deal with snow removal.