TurfNet RADIO

The Assistant Situation conversation continues with "three old bald guys", Kevin Ross, Rick Tegtmeier and (almost bald) Peter McCormick. Both career superintendents and industry veterans, Kevin and Rick discuss points made in previous roundtables and add their own from their experience climbing the career ladder and managing staffs and budgets.

Big welcome to our newest sponsor, Frost Inc. Spray Technology Products!.

Each year the University of Wisconsin-Madison Turfgrass Pathology Program and the Turfgrass Diagnostic Lab evaluate over 100 snow mold control products at multiple locations throughout the Northern Great Lakes Region. The man behind that research is Kurt Hockemeyer, the Director of the Diagnostic Lab. He sat down with Frank for a conversation about predicting, controlling and recovering from the variety of snow molds that afflict golf turf systems. You’ll be surprised to hear his take on not treating at all, use of pigments, and asks, “do we really need three active ingredients?”

Peter McCormick goes 1:1 with Jordan Kitchen, golf course superintendent at Hamilton Golf & Country Club in Ancaster, Ontario.

The second in a series of roundtable discussions on "the Assistant Situation": a dearth of applicants for open assistant superintendent positions, a lack of upward mobility for existing assistants, and a life/work/compensation imbalance within the industry.

In this episode of Renovation Report, Brad Klein talks with Larry Hirsh of Golf Property Analysts of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, about the current economics of the golf business. Hirsh, who entered the business of golf course real estate to fill a void, discusses the golf course as a real estate investment, club politics and how every club can benefit from analyzing its current position from facility, cultural, economic and market perspectives.

Presented by Golf Preservations, The Andersons, and Capillary Bunkers.

In response to a furor of sorts on Twitter after comments made by Steve Cook, CGCS MG, of Medinah Country Club, were posted, we decided to host a series of roundtable discussions to dig further into the topic. This is the full version of the discussion.

In response to a furor of sorts on Twitter after comments made by Steve Cook, CGCS MG, of Medinah Country Club, were posted, we decided to host a series of roundtable discussions to dig further into the topic. This is the condensed version of the discussion.

In response to a furor of sorts on Twitter after comments made by Steve Cook, CGCS MG, of Medinah Country Club, were posted, we decided to host a series of roundtable discussions to dig further into the topic.

Frank speaks with long-time colleague and professor at the UW-Madison, Doug Soldat. Doug and Frank have a 15-year history of chatting about all sorts of plant and soil science topics from early days at Cornell, GCSAA Seminars, regional webinars, aas well as previous episodes of this fine podcast.

Doug and Frank take up some “organic matters” of the soil concerning nutrient and water management, and the soon-to-be-released USGA standards for organic matter testing. Lively conversation ensues discussing “chasing fake numbers”, establishing meaningful comparisons to expected water use rates, and why managing growth and organic matter will directly improve playability. Consider this another installment of “what Doug and Frank think this year”.

To say Nate McKinniss is on the career fast track would be an understatement of almost immeasurable proportions.

McKinniss, 27, is the golf course superintendent at Muirfield Village Golf Club in Dublin, Ohio, where Job 1 is keeping the course what he called “Golden Bear ready.” That's a nod to Jack Nicklaus, who designed the course, has a home there and is the host of its biggest event, the PGA Tour’s Memorial Tournament. McKinniss has worked at the club in suburban Columbus since he graduated from The Ohio State University's four-year turfgrass management program in 2017.

He was promoted into the position of golf course superintendent by Muirfield director of grounds Chad Mark late in 2020.

“I started in 2017 here as an intern, and you talk about how fast things get moving, and usually how it’s been taking a longer amount of time for people, it goes to show that the program that you Chad has getting people on the fast track to that next step, and the people that were in that position before me, four people within four years, have gone on to become superintendents, I think that says a lot about Chad and the program that’s here developing guys,” McKinniss said.

McKinniss accepted a job offer from Mark in 2017 when the latter was superintendent at Inverness Club in Toledo. Between the time the offer was made and graduation day in Columbus, Mark moved on to his dream job, managing Jack Nicklaus’ Muirfield.

As a student at Ohio State, McKinniss once voiced a career goal of buying a popular daily fee course in his hometown of Findlay, Ohio. Since graduation, his focus has shifted to preparing for one of the PGA Tour’s premier events and making sure the course is ready every day for its most famous member.

“It’s all about being Golden Bear ready.”