Let’s Talk About the Weather!

As we close on the year 2019, we’ve got to reflect on the weather! I think everyone that works in the green industry would say it was a tough year weather-wise. We had over 84 days in the 90’s reported in East Tennessee while the average is usually only 34 days. It was one of the hottest Septembers on record with zero inches of rain recorded and all thirty days the high temperatures were above normal! This was followed by the hottest October since 1884 in Knoxville, with four days setting a new high temperature record. I’m sure everyone has their own story to tell about the weather this year, but I’ll say this and move on, what is normal anymore?

We started our record-breaking weather year in April by heading south to Windstone Golf Club with host superintendent Wes Gilbert. Bill Bergin was our speaker, and he discussed new trends and ideas for golf course design. One idea Bill spoke about that is gaining momentum is the elimination of tee markers on golf courses. I found this very interesting. What a labor savings not having to paint, move, and move again all the tee markers on our golf courses. Just think of the dollar savings on labor, especially for low budget golf courses where the maintenance staff may not be quite as big as it needs to be, or courses facing labor shortages which we are all seeing in the workforce these days. It was a good presentation that challenged us to think outside the box.

Then in May we headed back to Knoxville to visit longtime superintendent Paul Hood CGCS at Willow Creek. We decided as a board we would have a group of superintendents from our chapter to have a roundtable discussion about sand bunkers including all the various types of sands used, different types of liners, and some of the design philosophies to help ease maintaining sand bunkers. A big thanks to all four of the superintendents that participated: Chris Sykes, Gary Southerland, Sean VanHoose and Wells McClure. Paul, thanks for the great Ultradwarf Greens!

In June we visited The Country Club of Morristown where host superintendent Chris Lloyd introduced us to our guest speaker Anthony Cavallucci, a meteorologist with the National Weather Station in Morristown, TN. Anthony gave us some exclusive tips on how to navigate the National Weather Service website and discussed some great weather apps that we can download for our tool belt. The Country Club is always a fun course to play and, as always, in super shape!

You never know what the weather’s going to be like in July, but this year it was great and so was our turn out. Longtime superintendent Jeff Dudich at Gettysvue Country Club hosted golf and a presentation by Dr. Jim Brosnan. Dr. Brosnan gave us updates on a lot of the research pertaining to poa and weed control. It was a fantastic presentation and the golf and weather were just as good!

Since it was August and the weather is usually cooler, we thought it would be a good idea to make the trip to Crossville and visit The Bear Trace at Cumberland Mountain State Park and our host superintendent Tim Brock. The topic on hand that day was a presentation by Sean VanHoose who had recently completed construction on a state of the art “Turfgrass Center”! Sean did a great job and, again, it was another perfect weather day for golf!

ETGCSA always puts the UT Field Day on the docket for September and it never disappoints! Attendance for UT Field Day is usually high with an estimated 500–600 turfgrass and horticulture professionals eager to see the latest and greatest research coming from the University of Tennessee Turfgrass Team. For those who haven’t been before, you NEED to make the trip to Knoxville for UT Field Day. I’m already looking forward to next year!

Our season ended at the Cattails at Meadowview Golf Club in Kingsport, TN. Our gracious host, Roger Frazier, CGCS ordered us a perfect day for weather and fierce competition. Being our annual East Tennessee Scholarship and Research Tournament, we try to pull out all the stops. We had good food, good prizes, and we raised a lot of money for scholarships for our future turf professionals and money to give back to UT Turfgrass Program.

Looking ahead to 2020, we have the Tennessee Turfgrass Conference scheduled for January 6th–8th in Murfreesboro. I look forward to all the topics and speakers that will kickstart a great new year. I want to give many thanks to all our industry sponsors. We couldn’t do it without all the support! Lastly, I want to extend a great thanks to my fellow board members for the work they’ve all put into this successful year and look forward to serving as your president of the ETGCSA for 2020!

DJ Lerchen, ETGCSA President

DJ Lerchen, ETGCSA President