TurfNet RADIO

Frank speaks this week with Jim Wagner, Vice President and Design Partner with Hanse Golf Design in Malvern, PA. Having met a couple of years ago while both were working on the Rio 2016 Olympic golf course, Frank and Jim discuss the recent US Open at Chambers Bay, creativity in modern design and making a golf course FUN for its clientele (imagine that!).

Creativity in designing a course both challenges and rewards a golfer and when done properly, can minimize maintenance moving toward a sustainable approach to golf and golf turf maintenance.

This episode of The Renovation Report features Armen Suny of SunyZokol Golf Design. 

If you don't know Armen Suny, you are in for a real treat. His candid, real-world and experienced opinion is one of the most unique and sought-after opinions in the iindustry. His blog, The Anarchist's Guide to Golf Design is a place for true unfettered ideas.

Suny Zokol Golf Design, LTD. is the partnership of 25 year PGA Tour veteran Richard Zokol and Armen Suny, a former Superintendent and General Manager at Top 100 golf courses including Shadow Creek, Castle Pines GC, Cherry Hills CC. SZGD believe in nature -ased minimalist design focusing on the ground game and cost effective superior golf that is aesthetically engaging. They hand craft bunkers and design/build great golf courses on-site with a talented group of operator/shapers.

Dave Wilber will be interviewing Armen. The combination of the two will prove to be memorable!

In this episode of the Renovation Report, host Dave Wilber talks with Josh Reiger, gc superintendent at Spring Lake Golf Club and Tripp Davis of Tripp Davis & Associates (golf course architect) about the recently completed second phase of the renovation at SLGC, located one mile from the Atlantic Ocean in Spring Lake Heights, NJ.

Spring Lake is a 1911 George Thomas design that was updated by A. W. Tillinghast in 1917. Spring Lake was the last course that George Thomas designed on the East Coast and his only course in New Jersey. 

For a complete history of the club, visit here.

Watch a month of construction of the 14th green complex at Spring Lake in this time-lapse video.

Jon Kiger talks with Jeff Urquhart, golf course superintendent, and Robert McNeil, architect with The Northeast Golf Company (Saunderstown, Rhode Island), about the ongoing Master Plan restoration project at the 1891 Willie Park-designed Milton-Hoosic Club in Canton, Massachusetts.  Two fairway bunkers on hole #9 were renovated this year. Milton-Hoosic is a 9-hole private club located south of Boston.

The TurfNet Renovation Report is presented by Golf Preservations and Jacobsen.

In this episode of the TurfNet Renovation Report -- presented by Golf Preservations and Jacobsen -- host Jon Kiger talks with David Dore-Smith about the ongoing renovation started in April of this year at Copperleaf Golf Club, Bonita Springs, FL.

Copperleaf was scheduled to be renovated in 2020, but due to an overwhelming response to a membership vote in 2014 regarding the Master Plan, the renovation was accelerated to 2015.  Agronomic issues being addressed include drainage, the overall elevation of the greens, inconsistencies within the bunkers, and degrading cart path surfaces. Fairways are being regrassed to Celebration Bermudagrass.

Architect: Kip Shulties

Contractor: Landirr, Inc.

For further information on David's project, visit his blog at http://www.copperleafgcm.com/.

In this episode, we are Speaking Frankly again with Dr. Micah Woods, Chief Scientist at the Asian Turfgrass Center in Bangkok, Thailand, on increasing the precision of nutrient management programs and understanding the value of light for high performance golf turf management.

In this episode, I speak frankly with Steve McDonald, owner/operator of Turfgrass Disease Solutions, Spring City, PA. Listen to lively bante about turf conditions this spring in the Mid-Atlantic, annual bluegrass weevil on bentgrass, disease management keys looking to the summer, and also some native fescue area research and observations.

Frankly speaking this week with Dr. Norm Hummel, owner of Hummel and Co. Turfgrass and Soil Consulting, about the keys to firm putting surfaces, topdressing with fine sand over coarse sand, and how to select a soil testing lab. Expect some technical information as we explore the soil engineering principles at work under the modern putting surface.

With Earth Day 2015 behind us, we are Speaking Frankly with Mike Huck of Irrigation and Turfgrass Services of California about the latest on efficient water management, the situaion CA golf courses are facing, and how water use will change in the next five years! Expect some interesting conversation between Frank and this former USGA Agronomist and WI native Mike Huck.  Presented by DryJect, Maximus by DryJect, and True-Surface by Turfline.

In this first of fifteen planned segments this year, host Jon Kiger chats with Kevin Hicks about the recent bunker renovation and "emergency" regrassing of seven greens (just last week, due to winter damage) at the Coeur d'Alene Resort in Idaho, home of the famous floating green.