Fairway mowers coming up 18

Blue Course super talks about anticipation of US Open

Here's another video I got while at Congressional... this one is with Derek Trenchard, who is the superintendent of the Blue Course at Congressional CC. We talk about how big the crew is for the U.S. Open, the challenge of getting them all trained for the tournament, and what he'll do once the tournament is over.

Chat with Rees Jones at Congressional

I had a chance to catch up with Rees Jones on Wednesday. We chat about the changes to the course as well as his long history with the course.

Fairway mowers in formation

You know I'm a sucker for these photos! (I only took about 100 shots of this!)

The US Open trophy visits maintenance

A cool, fun moment for the entire maintenance team. I'm pretty sure everyone got a chance to take a pic with the trophy.

Check out the rough, and a team photo

I'll have more tomorrow... right now time is against me! Trying to keep superintendent hours, yet I need the late nights to get writing/uploading done as well!

Here are two photos: one is of the entire crew at Congressional (volunteers included) and the other is to show you how deep the rough is.

Tomorrow, I hope to share with you a couple video interviews... fingers crossed!

Players talk Congresional course conditions

I just talked to a few of the players about the way the course is playing the day before the first round of the U.S. Open. Here is what they had to say:

Jim Furyk

"It’s got some brown spots around the greens, you can tell the greens are relatively new and I’m sure the heat from last week put a lot of stress on them… probably need to get a little bit of water, maybe a little bit of rain would help. But the course overall looks pretty good.

I keep reading in the paper how the rough needs some rain because it’s not that thick, but I wouldn’t agree with that. I’ve hit out of it all week, if you can get a club on it you can advance it a little bit, but you’re not going to see a ton of great scores coming out of the rough."

Dustin Johnson

"The course is in great shape. I think the USGA’s done a great job setting it up – it’s tough, but it’s fair. It’s not crazy, if you just miss the fairway they give you a chance to advance the ball. They’ve done a really good job.

The greens are good, they’re rolling good. They’re new, so they react like new greens. You’re not going to see a ball spin back, it’s just not going to happen, just because they’re new. But they’ve got them about as good as they could with new greens.

I think the rough is good and thick, it’s nice. They’ve done a good job with setting it up, they’ve got a couple different cuts. If it just barely runs off the fairway you’re not going to be punished severely."

Bubba Watson

"(The course is) tough, very tough.

The rough is good. It’s fair, you can hit shots out of it, but it’s going to be tough.

People don’t understand how hard it is (to get the course up to U.S. Open conditions). And then with the weather, the weather has to cooperate and I know last week was 100-and-some degrees. There are some bad spots, but it’s because of the weather. The superintendent can only do so much, then the weather has to do the other part. Every golf course is going to have little spots, no matter how perfect it is. That’s the key, is the weather. That’ll make the course or break the course, is weather. And that’s what the superintendent fears, is weather.

(On the winning score) If the weather gets crazy, and gets hotter and hotter, the course is going to get tougher and tougher and harder and harder. You’re looking at even par to 5-over. If the weather cooperates, to somewhere between 1-under and 5-under, somewhere in there. Nothing major, though, I don’t think there’s going to be a 14-under, unless it stays soft somehow."

Quick syringing for greens at Congressional

The staff is on top of it out here at Congressional. Mike Giuffre told me he has over 150 volunteers out here, and every single one of them has been on time everyday.

There's been some buzz in the media that the greens are looking worn, but I'm not seeing it. There are a few stress areas around the collars on some greens, but I think people are trying to anticipate drama, and they're just wrong. I'll get some close-up photos this afternoon and share tomorrow.

While the greens look good, Giuffre does look worn. Unfortunately for Giuffre, he woke up ill this morning. Just a cold. But there's no time to be sick this week, so he's just toughing it out.

Quick stop at Atlanta Athletic Club

Had a great time hanging out with Ken Mangum and Kasey Kauff at AAC this morning. The course is looking great. Kasey is, to put it mildly, high on Champion bermudagrass. (Wait, that doesn't sound right... ahh, forget it!)

More from AAC soon... like, next issue... right now, let's get to the US Open!

Hendren's Hyperbole! Episode 24 -- HACK-OFF!!!

Welcome to a special Hendren’s Hyperbole being written from #18 at Congressional!

...Alright, I am really in Kansas City just wishing I was going to be witnessing my favorite tournament of the year in person (I hate you Jones!!!). A guy can dream, can’t he?

This weekend is THE U.S. OPEN! The only thing that could make this weekend better is if Tiger was playing but as we all know…he is not, unfortunately. Actually I am not how sure unfortunate it really is. Sure, I love a good meltdown, a few swear words, and some good old fashioned club throwing... but just for one week I would like the emphasis to be on anything other than El’ Tigre.

Maybe this will be Phil’s year? How about Dustin Johnson or Rory McElroy? Probably none of the above, but I wouldn’t mind if it was any of them. Any golf tournament is next to impossible to predict a winner but the OPEN has to be the most difficult.

Speaking of predicting a winner, it is time for the Golfdom Hackoff, U.S.Open edition. To sign up just follow the directions below.

The Hackoff is going to be at http://golf.fantasysports.yahoo.com/golf just like in the past. Click on "Sign up now!" for "Tee it Up!" fantasy golf (it's the only fantasy golf game they have.) Once you create your team, click "join a group." The group ID is 17466 and the group name is The Great Golfdom Hackoff (Yes I know 'hackoff' is spelled hack-off but I was limited in spaces to enter a name and I had to have the name be The Great Golfdom Hackoff!)



You will need a password to join the group. The password is golfdom123.

If you have signed up in the past just sign in and make your picks for this weekend. If not, what are you waiting for? You could win a number of great prizes, from gift cards to U.S. Open merchandise to Rain Bird and SubAir golf gear! All you have to do is sign up for your chance to win some great prizes and go down in history as the first U.S.Open edition Hackoff Champion!

I hope to read your trash talking best on the leagues message board.

Good Luck!

Until next week!

--Matt Hendren

HACKOFF TIME!

I know Hendren will get into this more tomorrow, but just an early head's up... it's Hack-Off time!

Here's the blurb I've got going in the next Golfdom Insider email newsletter:

Participate in the Great Golfdom Hack-Off!
Once again Golfdom will be where the world of golf is… this time that place is the U.S. Open at Congressional CC. We’ll be reporting live from Congressional during the week, but in the meantime, let’s have some fun and give away some prizes! Enter your picks for the U.S. Open and you could win a number of great prizes, from gift cards to U.S. Open merchandise to Rain Bird and SubAir golf gear! Just click here for directions on how to enter the Hack-Off!

Bill Rose is back, Ceplo wins award

Ahh, computer problems! Love it! My internet went down, limiting the work I could accomplish, but just because the computer is down that doesn't mean the turf news stops!

Here are two interesting bits:

Bill Rose, Crystal Rose-Fricker and Ed Rose, principals in Rose Agri-Seed, Inc and Pure-Seed Testing, Inc., announced that after a five-year hiatus they will re-enter the professional turfgrass business.

The announcement comes after Rose Agri-Seed reached an amicable agreement that allows the company to market professional turfgrasses while continuing to provide custom seed coating and packaging services. The recent agreement will allow Rose Agri-Seed to acquire select Pure-Seed Testing turfgrass varieties and inventories, which will help realign Rose Agri-Seed’s position on the professional turfgrass market.

Rose Agri-Seed Founder Bill Rose says, “We were an industry leader for over 35 years and we are very pleased to be back marketing turfgrass!”

And from New York:

The New York Team of the Global Sports Alliance (GSA) presented its 2011 Environmental Stewardship Award to Matthew J. Ceplo (pictured, left), superintendent at Rockland Country Club in Sparkill, NY. Ceplo is the third recipient of this award, "given to an individual who exemplifies the role of environmental steward in the management of a recreational or sports venue in New York."

Rockland Country Club is a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary and Ceplo is also working with other Rockland County, NY golf facilities to earn this certification as well. Ceplo and his staff have built more than 50 bird boxes for purple martins, osprey, wood duck, bluebirds and bats. He has guided several other environmental projects at Rockland, including the conversion of more than 15 acres of out-of-play rough to wildflowers and tall grass areas and the construction of a strategically located wetland that has enhanced many elements of the environment. In addition, he has involved local Boy and Girls Scout groups to assist with some of the planting projects, including increased shoreline vegetation to establish buffer areas and protect surface water.

"Through his progressive management of the golf course, Matt has distinguished himself as a leader. He points the way to the future of the game by maintaining the social and economic integrity of the golf course while resolutely defending environmental quality," said GSA New York Team Captain Kevin Trotta. "His many years of involvement and promotion of Audubon International's Cooperative Sanctuary Program and his pursuit of sustainable practices have earned him the respect of his industry and the respect of GSA New York."

2011 Intelligent Use of Water Film Competition Accepting Entries

Feel strongly about water conservation issues? Now's your chance to put your passion -- and creativity -- to good use. Create a short film about responsible water conservation for a shot at $6,000 and a trip to the awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Sept. 20).

Films should range from 1 to 10 minutes in length. Submissions are accepted until Aug. 1. For contest rules, a look at past winners and more information, visit http://www.iuowfilm.com.

Hendren's Hyperbole! Episode 23 -- Sissifying America?!?

Welcome back to Hendren’s Hyperbole. I hope you all had a great weekend and your week is off to a good start. How about Jones playing golf at Sunflower Hills, which is essentially in my back yard, and not even throwing an invite my way! I see how you are Jones. I am not going to lie, it hurts a little. I know he didn’t invite me because he is tired of getting beat like a Grand Canyon mule but it’s still bush league, bush league I tell you!

Anyway….

I think you will all get a kick out of this. There was an article I read on how golf is the cause of the extinction of tough guys. Apparently there is a book; Tough Guys Always Play From The Tips: A Unisex Guide to Golf, Tough Guys and the Neutered Weenie Fraternity Created By Such an Insane Game, written by James Pomerantz, which delves into why golf is the cause of tough guys going extinct.

I have not read the book, nor will I, because it is a ridiculous take and I don’t want to give any of my hard-earned money to the idiot, I mean author, who decided it was his place to blame golf for all of societies short comings. Short comings in his eyes anyways.

Don’t take my word, decide for yourself. Here are a few excerpts from the book..

“The popularity of golf and the decline of the American Tough Guy certainly have a direct connection,” Pomerantz said. “If they don’t, then can someone please explain plaid pants to anyone with an IQ above concrete? Think about this. While alcohol is forbidden on the field of play in baseball, football and other manly sports, it’s not only available, but encouraged in golf. In contrast, try downing a cold one while coaching your kid’s Little League team. Also, on the exertion scale of physical effort, golf falls in just a hair short of playing poker or sleeping. Finally, football and baseball have complex rules and umpires to prevent cheating of any kind. Meanwhile, on the golf course, players are perfectly content to skip a stroke, take a mulligan, move a lie, concede an easy putt and kick a ball out of the tall grass when no one is looking. In summary, golf is an exertion-free game for alcoholic blowhards.”



Pomerantz points out that golf is a game that rank amateurs can play at a professional level from time to time.
 
“Where else can an overweight, middle-aged, half-in-the-bag Fox News addict hit a shot better than Tiger Woods?” he added. “Put Tiger Woods on a 150 yard par 3 with Skippy the Accountant, and let them each hit a bucket of balls toward the green. I guarantee Skippy gets a shot closer to the pin than Tiger at least once, if not more, during the challenge. Now, take Skippy and tell him to chase Michael Vick out of the pocket a few times. Just have a defibrillator and an EMS team standing by.”



In the final analysis, the culture of golf is in direct conflict with the culture of men, and that’s why Pomerantz thinks it is one of the key factors that is sissifying America.
 
“You know, mothers tell their sons to study hard, get a good education, make the right friends and be nice to people,” he said. “Well, that’s like asking the Dalai Lama to work at Haliburton. Life is about confrontation and confidence, perseverance and integrity. Golf is about drinking, cheating and competition with as little effort as humanly possible. After all, how has golf, a seemingly candy-ass, pull your dress down, non-contact, don't make a sound sport become the most popular amateur sport in America for men of ALL ages?”

This whole thing is ridiculous! What do you think? Shoot me a comment and let me know. But, I guess it is fairly entertaining.

The U.S. Open is only two short weeks away and we will be having another Golfdom Pick’em Challenge, U.S. Open edition. Check back to the Golfdom Daily for more information coming soon!

--Matt Hendren

Golf at Sunflower Hills

Had a great time playing Sunflower Hills in Bonner Springs, Kan., yesterday. Superintendent Mike Yadrich has the course looking good.

One of the many mistakes I made (along with this tee shot into the bunker, above), was when I was lining up my putt on 15... I was trying to concentrate, trying to visualize the ball dropping into the hole... and then I was distracted by the sound of a low-flying jet going over.

Rather than stopping to take a look, I stayed in my stance and missed the put on the high side. I stomped over to tap it in. As I did this, I looked over and saw 5 fighter jets, in formation and low, zipping across the sky into the distance.

The Kansas Speedway is only a few miles from Sunflower Hills. They must have been doing a fly-over for the race that was about to start. So I had my own chance at seeing the fly-over from the golf course, but I was too caught up in my own lousy score to look up and see the jets! Sheesh!

Dr. Wong Gets the Girl

If you're signed up for Golfdom's e-newsletters (and why wouldn't you be?), then you got this morning's "Chip Shots" about Frank Wong.

Not your typical turf story... this one is actually a love story. How about that?

Dr. Wong Gets the Girl

Leaving UC Riverside behind and accepting a job with Bayer in Washington, D.C., Frank Wong gets to be with his bride.

By Seth Jones


It was an easy decision, Frank Wong, Ph.D., laughs, because it involved a woman.


“It was a no-brainer,” he giggles. “You get the job that you wanted, in the place that you wanted, and you get the girl too. It’s an absolute slam-dunk.”


Wong, who previously was a specialist of plant pathology at the University of California-Riverside, accepted a job that moves him across the country to Washington, D.C. He’s now a technical service specialist for Bayer’s Environmental Health division. Most important to him, he’s closer to his wife of two years, Dr. Caroline Ridley, whom he married in October of 2009. Ridley moved to D.C. after she was awarded a fellowship to work as a scientist for the EPA.


“We have a little bit of that James Carville/Mary Matalin thing going on,” Wong says. “She works for the EPA, I work in crop protection for a chemical company.”


For Bayer, Wong will be doing a lot of what he was already doing as an extension specialist at Riverside – meeting with superintendents and growers and discussing what’s best for their turf and crops.


“(Bayer) would like me to focus on providing support for the industry,” Wong says. “From D.C. to Boston to Chicago. Where disease pressure on cool season turf is the highest – lot of brown patch, lot of dollar spot. It all comes down to enhancing customer service and support. Just talking to sales guys, supers, letting them know the best fit for the Bayer product line.”


If Wong has any regrets, it’s that he left behind an area that he feels lacks the support it needs. The University of California’s turf programs have never been like a Rutgers, an N.C. State or a Penn State, Wong says.


“I’m glad the industry has (Dr.) Jim Baird there to work with. There’s still turf research and extension going on at UC Riverside,” Wong says. “I just talked to Bruce Williams, who just accepted the executive directorship of the California Turfgrass and Landscape Foundation, which is being established to help support research and education in California… and I just really encouraged him to get the industry together and lean on the university to get (my former) position filled as soon as possible.”


Recently UC Riverside had halted operations of its turf diagnostics lab as a result of, among other things, insufficient funding.


“I don’t want to make it seem like I was running away from a problem at the university, but, man… when your primary job is to do science and education, and you find yourself 90 percent of the time worrying about budgets, manpower issues, and how to make sure you have enough paper towels in the lab? It really distracts away from the stuff you want to do,” Wong says. “I think this will be a welcome change to work on the part of the job I really love.”


And of course, there’s his true love, the lovely Dr. Ridley. Once this job at Bayer became available, Wong hit the door pretty quickly, he admits. But that’s what happens when personal lives are involved.


“I think it caught some people by surprise,” Wong says. “When an organization wants you to start right away, and for personal reasons, you want to be with your wife right away – I was out the door pretty quick.”


It’s obvious that Dr. Wong is a man in love – with a new job, a new city, and most of all with being reunited with his wife. It’s almost like the couple gets a second honeymoon.


But how will things go when the two are once again under the same roof?


“Man, I’m still just trying to figure out why she married me in the first place,” Wong laughs.


Details, Frank. You got the girl.

Tragic story out of Illinois

A sad story about Willie Werling, a longtime employee at Annbriar Golf Course, dying in a mowing accident.

Thoughts and prayers go out to all his family, friends and co-workers.

Frank Wong talks about the difficulty of being at a state university

I interviewed Frank Wong, Ph.D., recently about his move from UC Riverside to Bayer.

Here's a good soundbite from our interview regarding the troubles turf schools are facing these days:

"The current conditions with state turf programs does not look good. Most of the schools out there that do agricultural research, the land grant institutions, have always had a significant amount of state and federal funding to support the programs. And that’s the only way you can do it. Now, (dang it), everyone is broke. There’s just the revenue from taxes -- things like that aren’t footing the bill anymore. Federal funding to schools have basically flatlined in the last ten years… all of the inputs have basically flatlined while your costs are going up. Overall it’s getting harder and harder for university programs to do what they want to do."

Look for more from Wong soon!

Hendren's Hyperbole! Episode 22 -- Memorial Day Edition

Welcome back to Hendren’s Hyperbole! I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. I had a great weekend even though I couldn’t get out and play a round. I just enjoyed spending time with my family. Hopefully you not only had a great three-day weekend at the lake, but you also had a chance to wave a flag and remember what the holiday stands for... I know we did at the Hendren house.

I can’t believe this is the 22nd episode of Hendren's Hyperbole! I figured Jones would send me packing after the 2nd. I guess I could still get canned... especially if someone doesn’t start leaving some comments!

There was lots of golf on the tube this past weekend. Tom Watson rallied to win the senior PGA championship. At the age of 61 that’s pretty incredible. Keegan Bradley earned his first PGA Tour victory at the HP Byron Nelson Championship over Ryan Palmer and Luke Donald won the BMW PGA Championship beating Lee Westwood in a playoff. Donald’s victory moves him to 2nd in the Fed-Ex Cup standings. He only trails Bubba Watson by 29 points for the top spot. Over all this last weekend was a great weekend to log endless hours watching golf.

Well, because this is a short week due to the holiday my post is going to be rather short. Check back in next week and I will fill you all in on why golf is the main cause for tough guys going extinct.

Until next week…!

-- Matt Hendren

Happy Memorial Day!

Here's a nice tribute to an old-time super who passed away recently, Harold Peck, who was the superintendent at Battle Creek CC from 1947 to 1988. Published in the Battle Creek (Mich.) Enquirer.

According to the article, he was a charter member of the GCSAA... but that doesn't sound entirely accurate, as I don't think he was old enough to have been able to have accomplished that... it also says he was a founder of the Michigan State turfgrass program... but it also states correctly that facts blur over the years, especially when someone accomplishes a lot of things in their lifetime.

Regardless, an interesting article about a person who was obviously a hard-working superintendent, dedicated to his craft. Cheers, Harold Peck, and to all those friends who aren't with us anymore...