FORE YOUR INFORMATION M a y / Ju n e 2 0 2 1
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P R E S I D E N T ’ S M E S S AG E Every year summer seems to come quicker than the previous year and in no time, it is 100+ degrees outside. When the summer heat comes it puts your agronomy program to the test. Is your fertility and fungicide program the best you can achieve with your budget? Water management is key during the summer months, hopefully you were able to complete an irrigation audit and annual pump station Scott McCullough maintenance to keep your irrigation in excellent condition. There is also one very important thing that is part of the overall maintenance program and that is having a great crew. Our vendors who support the SNGCSA are able to assist with your irrigation audits, pump station maintenance or repair, and all of your fertility and fungicide needs. Remember to support those that support us. Having a solid maintenance staff is huge for a successful golf season, and every summer I am reminded of how loyal the staff I have is. I was told by my regional agronomist when I met him years ago to pay your staff as much as you can afford to. Recently I was reminded of this when I lost my mechanic. He was a solid employee and knowing how hard it is to find a good mechanic I was reminded of this, but at the end of the day, I’m glad this em-
BY
SCOTT MCCULLOUGH
ployee was able to move on to a better position. I also don’t want to leave out the fact that a strong Assistant Superintendent and Irrigation Tech as part of your team makes everything possible. Starting in June I began to plan the agenda for the Turf Tech Workshop which we hold every January. I reach out to vendors for topic ideas. One of the reasons I created the Turf Tech is to show appreciation to our crews by providing them good education and providing opportunities to them.. I continue to be reminded why I put this event together every year when I see the great attendance we have at this event. By the time the next newsletter is published I hope to have an agenda together, so look for that. Lastly stay strong and before you know it fall will come and you can take a breath and relax. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at the Scholarship and Research Tournament at Northridge Country Club on July 26th.
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2021 SNGCSA BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT Scott McCullough The Ridge Golf Course VICE PRESIDENT John Farley Teal Bend Golf Course
Dave Bermudez Del Rio G. & C.C.
SECRETARY/TREASURER Tracy Shanahan Peach Tree Country Club
PAST PRESIDENT Bill Hamilton, CGCS Lake Wildwood Association
DIRECTORS Jeremy Payne Muhammad Ali Keith Hill, CGCS Cameron Park C.C. Bing Maloney G.C. Hidden Valley C.C. Affiliate Representatives Ryan Nichols, Nufarm Mark Stutsman Simplot Partners
Sam Samuelson, CGCS Wildhawk G.C.
Michael Cunniff Clear Creek GC
Association Managers Irene Cline and Kimberly Milne 3273 Richert Ave. Clovis, CA 559-298-6262
FORE YOUR INFORMATION Published by the Sierra Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association EDITOR Jeremy Payne OFFICE SNGCSA 3273 Richert Ave., Clovis, CA 93619 559-298-6262 Fax# 559-298-6957 sngcsaa@aol.com
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2021
M E E T I N G DA T E S
July 26, 2021 Scholarship & Research Tournament North Ridge Country Club Hosted by Larry Johnson, CGCS
August 9, 2021 Tri Chapter Meeting Del Rio Golf & Country Club Hosted by David Bermudez
September 20, 2021 President’s Cup Tournament Bailey Creek G.C. Hosted by Craig McDonald
November 2021 Annual Election Meeting & Tournament Location being confirmed
December 2, 2021 Annual Holiday Event Teal Bend Golf Course Hosted by John Farley
2022 January 4, 2022 Turf Tech Workshop The Ridge G.C. Hosted by Scott McCullough
Feb. 5-10 , 2022 GIS Conference San Diego February 9, 2022 California Room USS Midway
Fore Your Information
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V E N D O R D E M O D AY 2021 W O O D B R I D G E C .C . In May we held our first Vendor Demo Day at Woodbridge C.C. With the support of several vendors we were able to provide an excellent opportunity for our members to come out and enjoy a hands on opportunity to test and learn about new products and equipment. We want to thank all of those that participated and we are looking forward to doing this again next year.
Above is Pete Reece for Reece Spray Service Inc.. Pete brought out his very impressive unit that is he uses and shared video of its function. We also want to welcome Pete as a new member of the association. Stan Adam from Wilbur Ellis came out to support the event and provided some information on products. He also handed out some nice logo items.
At left Steve Showers and Matt Graves. At right below is Ryan Nichols, Nufarm, with Stockton Golf & C.C. superintendent Harjindar Toor
Top Dressing • Fertilizer • Gypsum
Peter Reece Jr. (209) 602-8475
preecejr@gmail.com
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V E N D O R D E M O D A Y 2021 W O O D B R I D G E C .C . It was great to have Dean Kinney from Sierra Pacific Turf Supply. BelKorp and Turf Star provided equipment displays and demos for the attendees. Pictured below is Belkorp representative Matt Graves and Craig Waters with Steve Showers from Brookside C.C.. Also pictured is Greg Brodd, who is the factory representative from Turfco.
Below From Delta Bluegrass, Steve Abella, and Katie Piazza-Lesley. “Thank You” to Delta Bluegrass for hosting our lunch for the event.
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F RO M
THE
Southwest Region
Jeff Jensen
FIELD
Jeff Jensen,
GCSAA Field Staff,
GCSAA recently launched its revised app “GCSAA Now” in the Apple Store as well as on Google Play. GCSAA Now gives you GCSAA news and information in the palm of your hands. Download documents, interact with fellow members, update your membership info and more. Some of the new features include: • Login once, and you are in. Simple and easy to access! • Relevant, up to date GCSAA news and content. Includes an RSS Feed to GCSAA news and a direct link to GCSAA’s Twitter account. Stay up to date on government relations and public policy, GCSAA programs, special events and much more. • Interact with other members through the discussions and private messaging features. • Find other members in your geographic proximity with the Near Me feature. • Keep track of national and local GCSAA happenings with the Events feature. Includes an up-to-date calendar of chapter events and functions. The My Schedule feature allows you to add GCSAA related functions you want to attend to your app scheduler or phone calendar.
Have easy access to membership documents and other information in the resources section. COVID-19 assistance, First Green, education, certification and disaster resources are all available on the app. Even submit your GCSAA points! To make the most of your experience, if you previously used the GCSAA Mobile app, delete that before downloading the new version. Once you have downloaded the app, just use your current GCSAA login and password to access it. The apps are available free of charge. If you need assistance with your login and password credentials, simply call our Members Services Department at 800-472-7878 and they can assist you on the spot.
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S P E C I A L THANK YOU TO OUR DEMO DAY SPONSORS Reece Spray Services
Wilbur Ellis Co.
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Tri Chapter Event Del Rio Country Club Dave Bermudez, Host Superintendent The 2021 Tri Chapter Tournament will be held on August 9, 2021 at the beautiful Del Rio Country Club in Modesto. Superintendent Dave Bermudez will host the three Northern California chapters, which include the Sierra Nevada GCSA, GCSA of Central California, and the Northern California GCSA. The original 18 holes were designed in 1946 by William P. Bell, whose early works included BelAir Country Club and Riviera Country Club. As he stood at the foot of the great Valley Oak, Billy Bell stated, "This is a great site for a golf course." The sandy soil and gentle rolling terrain allowed him to create yet another classic. It was that year that Billy Bell hired Cliff Wagoner as Del Rio’s first employee to help build the course. Cliff would go on to be the legend we came to know many years later. By late 1946 there were 18 “push up greens”, irrigation, and nearly 2000 trees planted on the first 18 holes of this historic course. The course opened the first 18 holes in 1947. Additions continued with additions of a club house, tennis facility, pool, and in 1990 adjacent land was purchased to build an additional nine holes on the rivers edge. Architect Robert Muir Graves whose work includes Sea Ranch and Black Butte designed the River Nine. After many years of negotiations with government officials and environmentalists over the plight of the valley elderberry long-horned beetle, this 150 acre combination of riparian habitat and golf course was constructed in 1996. In 1998 architect John Harbottle, who has overseen reconstruction efforts at Los Angeles Country Club and Stanford Golf Course designed and supervised reconstruction of all tees, greens and bunkers on William Bell's 18-hole layout. Dave came to Del Rio in 2008. He immediately put his mark on the course by improving playing conditions and making numerous capital improvement. In 2018 Dave was given the go-ahead on a course renovation project which initially involved converting the fairways to hybrid Bermuda. This quickly grew to additional projects which included re-turfing greens, collars, approaches, and tees with the latest and newest bentgrass. It also included
adding four new tees to the golf course, as well as adding over 1800 tons of sand to the bunkers. Dave completed tree pruning and removal, repaired and added concrete cart path extensions, improved drainage on the course, and installed bronze yardage plates to tees and fairways. He also did tee leveling, built a new maintenance facility and helped manage a club house expansion and landscaping project. Del Rio’s philosophy as been to exceed the expectations of other membership with respect to value, quality and service by clearly enhancing and maintaining Del Rio Country Club’s status as the premier country club in the Central Valley. Dave was tasked with this challenge and exceeded expectations. He is proud to be able to share this with the members of our three chapters. The last time we were at Del Rio C.C. was 2014 again for the Tri Chapter event. That meeting was dedicated to honoring Del Rio’s past superintendent Cliff Wagoner, CGCS. Dave became a Board Member in 2011 and has been handing the reigns of the Scholarship & Research fundraising tournament since that time. He has developed this event into one of the most successful events our chapter has ever had. The chapter honored Dave as the Distinguished Member of the Year in 2015 and as the Turf Grass Manager of the Year award in 2020. In addition Dave was featured on GCSAA TV along with his bird dog Timmy in December 2019. Superdogs! at Del Rio Golf & Country Club Dave introduced us to Timmy, the bird dog that the course won at the Golf Industry Show. Timmy helps keep the geese and other animals off the course. At our event on August 9th our meeting speakers will include Dave Bermudez and Jeff Jensen. Dave will be sharing his experiences through the renovations and Jeff ’s topic will be “Water & Labor: Critical Issues facing golf in California”. Jeff will include information on hiring practices, employee retention, benefits, best practices, etc. and then of course the water talk will be based on what is going on in the next few months. We will apply for PDI education points for those attending. This should prove to be a great event and we hope that you will plan on attending. Don’t miss this opportunity to experience the history and the changes that have taken place at this beautiful facility.
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N O R T H R I D G E C O U N T RY C L U B 2021 SCHOLARSHIP & RESEARCH TOURNAMENT This is a reminder that if you still need to register for the upcoming Scholarship & Research Tournament you still have time. The event will be held at North Ridge Country Club . North Ridge Country Club, is one of Sacramento’s Premier Championship Golf Courses. The Club is well maintained by our long time member and past President, Larry Johnson, CGCS. The last time we were at North Ridge C.C. was 2012. We have a great event planned with lots of fun games on the course. We have had a tremendous response to donate to our annual auction and hopefully you have been looking over the information that has been going out weekly. Don’t miss out on these great deals that our vendors have been gracious enough to donate. Joe Ballmer of Syngenta has once again sponsored our Tee Prizes
this year. We have lots of great raffle prizes that will be offered that include donations of rounds of golf from Del Rio Country Club, Sun City Roseville, The Ridge G.C., Peach Tree Golf & C.C., Wildwings G.C. Bing Maloney, Turlock C.C. Bartley Cavanaugh,and Spring Creek Golf & C.C.. We also have the famous Oakland A’s Tickets that are so graciously donated by West Coast Turf. We are still looking for additional donations so please step up and send us an email if you can donate a round. If you have questions or are interested in a sponsorship opportunity please contact Irene Cline or Kimberly Milne at 559298-6262. You can register online or also by calling the office.
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REMEMBER WHEN Back in 2005
2005 Sam Samuelson,CGCS and Mark Woodward,CGCS 2005 GrassRoots Tournament
2005 Frank Putnam and Joel Blaker, CGCS nominated as Member of the year.
2005
Steve Burne and Mike Farmen
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Association Programs It seems that the common thread for all of our members is the ability to hire and keep good employees. We have lost almost all higher education programs on the West Coast but these programs are still available to our members and their employees through online sources. That is the key reason our chapter started the “Personal Development Program” several years ago. This program was the brainchild of then Association President Jeremy Payne. The purpose of the Sierra Nevada Golf Course Superintendents Association’s Personal & Professional Development Program (PDP) is to assist in furthering the careers and improving the mental and physical health and life satisfaction of our association members. The PDP is a benefit available to all members in good standing with the association, who find and can demonstrate a financial need for assistance in reaching a goal that would improve their life or career. As an association of busy, hardworking professionals, we understand that finding either the time or money to put toward life-improving activities outside of work can be extremely challenging. This program aims to assist in lessening the financial burden of taking part in activities such that our members can find their way toward leading a happier and more productive work and home life. It can also assist with continuing education when your club’s budget doesn’t allow for these types of expenses. This is one reason that you should consider another program we offer and that is a Facility Membership. This membership allows you to provide a membership in the SNGCSA for up to four members of your staff for one annual membership fee. This not only saves you money in the budget but enables you to offer benefits to your members such as the PDP and access to valuable information provided through our chapter and the California GCSA who provides the Government Relations and News Updates to all members of the six California Chapters. For more information on these and many additional benefits contact Kim Milne or Irene Cline at the association office (559) 298-6262 or email sngcsaa@aol.com.
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Welcome New Members Pete Reece Reece Spray Services Inc Affiliate Member Chris Strutz Helena Affiliate Members
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